"𝐜𝐨𝐰𝐛𝐨𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐦𝐞„

two, herbs and weeds

A WRETCHED SCREAM WAS still audible from the next room over, and that got people talking fast. At dinner, after Carl and Jane had loaded up their plates with whatever vegetable the chefs had mashed up today, it was all people were on about. The two kids had known about what had happened since earlier that morning, when Rick had explained it to them.

Their new friends from Woodbury seemed intimidated and shocked by the news, but the Atlanta group weren't too phased. The bodies had been killed - stabbed probably - then burned. Apparently, according to the rumours floating around the dining room, the hallways were covered in blood and body parts were found in different rooms. The kids knew that wasn't true, but still wondered anyways. Jane felt terrible for Tyreese, who's girlfriend had been one of the charred ones - her once tan skin burned to a crisp black.

But, loss was just a part of everything now.

No one was very scared that there was a serial killer amongst them, or even perhaps a real threat. Everyone had caught on that there was a sickness going around - and Rick had calmed the innocents before any panicked had begun to arise. Carl knew he knew something, but failed to tell the girl seated in-front of him.

The two of them tried to stay silent about it during dinner, hammering into their mashed up nonsense to avoid speaking. Though, within ten minutes, their unspoken rule had been broken.

"Who do you think did it?" Carl asked, almost shameful he was indulging in the controversy.

"I don't know. My mom told me they were sick, and that she thought it was right. So, that's what I'm believing." She said, shrugging her shoulders in a haphazard manner.

"She said that?"

NOT ONE OF THE new civilians had moved on from the incident quickly, forcing Rick to go into an investigation about it. He liked it - not the fact that it had happened, or that people were dead - but the policing. He didn't quite realise how much he yearned for his old job, and somehow, for a few days, it had found its way back to him.

There was another thing he didn't like, though. Something he knew. This knowledge was placed upon him, for whatever reason - maybe because he knew the ins and outs of her so well, and yet he had seen her face when the bodies were discovered. She was good at lying, but not so good to him. But maybe, she never was - not to Rick personally. She knew he'd find out soon enough, it was just what he chose to do with this knowing. This churning, critical argument inside him could not let him rest, not today.

As Rick sat stiff and disorganised, Jane dragged her feet along the floors, and spun her fingers across the walls. She passed countless cells - filled with families, friends, elders. She watched as this place turned from a prison to a sanctuary. Each one of the cells had once belonged to a convicted criminal - some killers, some thief's, and few innocent. Now, the walls promised them all something: life.

When they had really settled in here, which took time - Jane vowed that she might take so many free breaths there would be no oxygen left. Only for one simple reason: she felt alive once again. Not dead, or even remotely buried in black ink like the days in the past. Alive. Alive and breathing and okay.

As she approached the empty passageway ahead that connected the two blocks, she continued on throughout, looking at the pictures Glenn had taken that were strung up on the wall. She smiled at some, and sharply exhaled at others. There were some beautiful captures of Maggie, as expected. Some cute ones of Glenn, being smiley with the people. One of Rick and Carl that had been taken completely candid. Each photo had a crackle of texture, but a luminescent glow to combat it.