damnation → the walking dead ⁴

[ 029 ] my brother, my responsibility.

— CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE.
my brother, my responsibility.

"WHY CAN'T I REMEMBER?" She asks the boy that stands beside her. "Why can't I remember?"

He crouches in front of her. His head tilts to the side. She gasps for air.

His hands reaches out for her.

A single whisper comes from her lips as she takes Carl Grimes's hand. "My mercy prevails over my wrath."

odessa grimes, three days before the battle against the saviors.

"Hey!" Rick calls out as he and Odessa jog to catch up with Carl. "Hey, what does that mean?"

Odessa slows to a walk as she joins Carl's side. Rick comes to a walk at Carl's other side. He looks to his son.

"What I said," Carl starts. "You hope the guy makes it. That's not enough. If you give a shit—"

"Carl," Rick says sternly. Odessa can't help but roll her eyes. Odessa and Carl have fought in wars, they've both killed people. Odessa's helped blow up a building for Christ's sake. And all Rick cares about is if they cuss.

"If you care, you do something. You don't just hope. It takes more than that. That's what I meant," Carl tells him. "There's gonna be something after the fight's over."

"Not for everyone," Odessa says quietly.

"Okay, yeah, but... what about for you?" Carl then looks to Rick, "and you?"

"I get what I want." Odessa tells her baby brother. "I get my revenge. For Glenn, Abraham, Cole, Denise. All of them."

Carl shakes his head. "It can't just be about revenge, Des. It just... it can't. There's more to you than just revenge. You're both gonna live."

Odessa sucks in a breath at his words. It can't  just be about revenge.

"Why are we doing this? Why are we fighting them? So it isn't how like they want it, with everyone working for them, everyone living for them? We're figuring so he's all of us working together for something more than just killing people." Carl tells the two.

"Well, you think we're gonna be out there, pickin' strawberries with Negan?" Rick questions his son.

"If that's what it takes. It's more than just hope. What, are we just gonna kill all of them?" Carl argues. "Finding some way forward, that's harder. That's something more. Dad, that's how it's gotta be."

Rick looks up at the sky above him and wonders to himself how his son, his beautiful boy, has become the man that he is? The best of them all, the most selfless, the most human of them all. 

His humanity is what makes Carl Grimes the best of everyone. It's what makes him the most pure, the best of the best.

odessa grimes, alexandria.

When Daryl and the others return, Odessa is furious. Anger practically radiates off the girl. Daryl grimaces when he sees the girl storming up to him.