Future Ghosts • TWD

15. Respect.

For most of the ride, Rosie kept her focus on the games of connect the dots she'd been playing in the activity book given to her by Guillermo. So she didn't even notice that Daryl was following the RV into Atlanta, specifically to the place she'd been held "hostage" at.

The nursing home.

Rosie finally looked up and out the window when she felt the truck roll to a stop. She furrowed her eyebrows, recognizing the surroundings. "What're we doin' here?" she asked.

"Don' know. Jus' followin' Rick," Daryl replied, grabbing his crossbow. "We're prob'ly stayin' here for the night. Bring your bag." Rosie nodded and packed away her crayons and book before slinging the backpack over her shoulders and climbing out of the truck.

Rosie followed Daryl to the rest of the group. She couldn't help but notice that Jacqui wasn't there.

"I bet they're barely hanging on," Andrea said, coming out of the RV in front of Dale. "What makes you think they'll take in strangers?"

"With all the guns we gave 'em, they'll prob'ly throw us a party," Daryl answered, leading the group forward with Rick by his side. "Good call. For once."

"They're real nice," Rosie added, nodding along with what Daryl said.

"I thought they kidnapped you," Carl said from next to his mom.

"They did," was all Rosie said, providing no other explanation.

The group walked through the same way Rick, Daryl, Glenn, and T-Dog went when they were getting Rosie back. It was eerily silent. And nobody was there.

"Where are the lookouts?" Glenn asked.

They turned a corner and were faced with a walker chowing down on a dead body. Not just one walker, but several. Rosie swung her backpack off of one shoulder, grabbing her gun from the bag before putting it back on properly. With her encounter outside of the CDC, she wasn't taking any chances. She only hoped that they wouldn't take the gun away from her.

The walkers stood up on their feet, growling at the group. Rosie looked up at Daryl and saw that he had his gun up, so she held hers up too, after flipping the safety off. She looked towards Rick for some sort of command, unsure of whether or not it was ok to fire the gun in the city.

"To hell with the noise," Rick said, readying a gun of his own.

Rick fired off the first shot and every person with a gun followed. Rosie only managed to shoot down two of them, because by the time she got them both in the head, the men had killed all the others. Once the walkers were dead, the group followed Rick into the building.

The building was dark and unlike it was before. Things were knocked over and everything was quiet. The old people Rosie had been coloring with just the other day were now dead on the ground. Sophia started crying at the sight of them.

"Put a sock in it!" Daryl hissed from in front of Rosie, making her jump, even though she wasn't even the one he was talking to.

"You leave her alone!" Carol whispered, holding Sophia protectively. Rosie resisted the urge to roll her eyes. You'd think they would've gotten used to the dead by now, but no.

"Either shut her up or I will!" Daryl spat.

Lori pointed a scolding finger at him. "Back the hell off! I mean now!" she demanded. And surprisingly, Daryl listened. Lori looked to her husband. "Are we staying or going?"

"We don't have the fuel," Rick reminded them.

"We hunker down for the night. Ok, Rick, you, me, Daryl, we're gonna sweep the building, make sure we're alone," Shane planned out.