The Walking Dead: Danielle Grimes

41.

Danielle's POV

"Has anyone seen Bob?" Sasha questions. Come to think of it, I've haven't seen him since he left this morning. "We'll go look." Rick and Tyree leave with Sasha.

Literally not half and hour later they return with Sasha storming inside the church walking straight to Gabriel. "Stop. What are you doing?" Gabriel looks confused as he looks at her, same as all of us.

Stop what?

"What are you doing? This is all connected. You show up here, we're being watched. And now three of us are gone." She repeats. Wait, three of us? I look around not seeing Daryl or Carol. Where the hell did they go? And why did he leave without telling me?

"I-I don't..." Gabriel stutters. "I don't have anything to do with this." Sasha brings out a knife and Gabriel jumps back. Everyone stands up and takes a step forward. Liam grabs my hand from beside me.

"Who's out there?" She asks. Gabriel holds his hands up. "I don't have anything to do with-"
She cuts him off. "Where are our people?"

"Please. I don't-"

"Where are our people?!" She yells. "I don't have anything to do with this." He says calmly. Sasha steps back as Rick takes her place. "Why'd you bring us here?" He asks.

Um Rick, weren't you the one who told him to bring us here?

"P-please I-I-I..."

"You working with someone?" Rick questions. "I'm alone." Gabriel replies. "I'm alone. I was always alone."

"What about the woman in the food bank, Gabriel? What did you do to her? 'You'll burn for this'. That was for you. Why? What are you gonna burn for?" He grabs him by his shirt and shoves him. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

Gabriel pushes Rick away. "I locked the doors at night. I always lock the doors at night. I always locked the doors at night. I always..." he repeats. "They started coming. My congregation. Atlanta was bombed the night before and they were scared. They were- they were looking for a safe place. A place were they felt safe."

Tears form in his eyes. "And it was so early. It was so early.....and the doors were still locked. You see.....it was my choice. But there were so many of them and they were tryna pry the shutters and banging the sides. Screaming at me. And so, the dead came for them. Women, children.....entire family's calling my name as they were torn apart. Begging me for mercy...begging for me mercy.....damning me to hell, I buried their bones. I buried it all.....the lord sent you here to finally to punish me." He falls to his knees as he looks up at Rick. "I'm dammed. I was dammed before. I always lock the doors. I always lock the doors......" He finally breaks down.

No one has a chance to say anything as a whistle sounds out from outside the church. I move away from Liam and peek out the window as everyone watches me.

It's too dark to see anything but I see something laying on the grass. "There's something or someone laying outside on the grass." Before anyone can stop her, Sasha rushes to get outside making the rest of us follow her. As I step outside, I see it's Bob laying on the grass.

And he's missing a leg.

"Help me!" Sasha cries to us. Tara and Rosita rush over to help her get him in, laying him on the floor of the church. We're all confused as to where the hells he's been the last few hours, until Rick asks him. "Where have you been?"

"I was in a graveyard. Somebody dragged me out." He starts, groaning in pain. "I woke up outside this place. Looked like a.....school. It was that guy.....Gareth. And five other ones. They were eating my leg right in front of me. Like it's was nothin'. All proud. Like they had it all figured out."

Sick bastards.

"Did they have Daryl and Carol?" Rick asks. "Gareth said they drove off." Daryl did what? Everyone looks at me as I turn away. He left. I knew Carol wanted to leave, she always has. But Daryl leaving too? It feels like the prison all over again and I don't know whether to be angry or confused.

Bobs groans bringing my attention back to him. "He's in pain. Do we have anything?" Sasha asks. "I think there's some pill packets in the first aid kit." Rosita tells her. "Save 'em." Bob grunts. "No." Sasha shakes her head.

"Really." Bob tries sitting up and pulls down the corner of his shirt revealing a bite. "It happened at the food bank." Sasha's eyes fill with tears. "It's okay." She whispers as she helps him lie back down.

"There's a sofa in my office. I know it's not much but......" Gabriel offers. "Thank you." Sasha replies softly. "I got him." Tyrese whispers as he lifts Bob of the ground taking him to the office, Sasha following.

"Mom, you okay?" Liam whispers and I just nod, even though I'm not okay. "Does he have a fever?" Rick asks Sasha as she comes back out. "He's just warm." She replies softly.

"Jim lasted almost two days before we left him." Glenn reasons. "Time for a reality check. We need to leave for DC. Right now." Abraham calls loudly. "Daryl and Carol are coming back, okay. I'm not leaving without my husband." I growl out.

"I respect that, Little Knives. But there's a clear threat here to Eugene. I need to extract his ass before things get any uglier. So, if y'all won't come, good luck to ya. We'll go our separate ways." Abraham tells us as he and Rosita head to the door.

"You leaving on foot?" Rick asks and Abraham stops and turns around. "We fixed that damn bus ourselves." He growls. "There's a lot more of us." Rick argues as he storms over to him. "You wanna keep it that way, you should come." Abraham tells him.

"Carol helped save your life. We saved your life!" Rick shoots back. "I am tryna save yours! Save everyone's!" Abraham yells. "We are not going anywhere without our people." Rick hisses. "Your people took off." Abraham argues.

Jesus Abraham. Rub salt on the wound, why don't ya?

"They're coming back." I argue. "To what?! Picked over bones?!" He shouts. Rick tries grabbing his arm but Abraham swatts it away. "Abraham!" Rosita warns. "Hey! Hey, stop! Now!" Glenn yells getting between them both, he turns to Abraham. "Do you really think your gonna be any safer leaving right now? In the middle of the night."

"Yeah." Abraham nods. "What about tomorrow?" Glenn asks. "We need each other for this. We need each other to get to DC. We can through all of it together."

"I have an idea." Tara speaks up. "If you stay just one more day and help, I'll go with you to DC, no matter what. Okay?" Abraham thinks for a minute. "Glenn and Maggie too."

"No way." I step forward. "Good luck then. I'm not interested in breaking up what you have here. Rosita grab your gear." Abraham tells her. "Abraham..." He cuts her off. "Now. Eugene, let's go." Eugene doesn't move from his seat. "Eugene, move it."

"I don't want to." Eugene mutters.

"Now!"

"Okay." He mumbles, getting up and walks to the door. "You ain't taking that bus." Rick tells him again. "Try and stop me." Abraham says daringly and Rick stares at him with a look that could kill.

After a short silence, Rick begins to make his way over to Abraham again making Glenn run between them. "Wait! Wait, wait, wait, wait. Hey. Hey. Hey!" He pushes rick back turning to Abraham. "You stay. You stay and help us and we will go with you."

"No." Rick tells him. "It's not your call. You stay. Help us." Glenn says. Abraham thinks for a moment before nodding. "Half a day. Come high noon we're taillights. No waiting for the other damn show to drop." He says. "And we will leave with you." Maggie assures him.

Great. I'm losing my two best friends.

"Twelve hours. And then we go." Rick let's out a sigh as Abraham walks away.

What a great day.

Not.