Future Ghosts • TWD

59. Father.

"Mister," Rosie said. Of course, she knew Abraham's name, but some people liked to be called mister anyway, so she decided to call him mister first, just in case. She didn't want to be rude.

Abraham looked back at the small girl. "What?" he asked.

"Were you in the army?" Rosie asked him. He really looked like someone who would be in the army. He sounded like one, too. He said klicks instead of kilometers, and he used swear words in a funny way. Plus, he walked like a guy who would be in the military.

"Yes," Abraham replied. He looked away and kept walking, thinking the conversation was over. But Rosie quickened her pace in order to be walking next to him rather than behind him, because the conversation was not over.

"Were you called sergeant?" Rosie asked him, her eyebrows raised a little.

"Yes, I sure as shit was," Abraham said, sounding somewhat proud of himself.

"Did ya know I was gonna be in the army?" Rosie asked him. Abraham didn't say anything. "I was gonna be in the MLB first, but then my daddy told me girls can't be in the MLB, so then I was gonna be a paleontologist, but then my daddy told me that takes too much college and college costs too much money, so then I just decided I'd be in the army."

"Interesting," Abraham said. He didn't seem very interested, though. He was too busy watching Michonne take out a walker. So, Rosie decided to talk to the woman with pigtails in her hair.

"Hey, Miss," Rosie said. The woman glanced at her, confused looking. She wasn't sure if Rosie was talking to her or someone else. But when she saw Rosie looking right at her, she knew that she was, in fact, talking to her. "What's your name?" Rosie asked.

"Rosita," the woman replied.

"My name's kinda close to yours. Mine's Rosie," Rosie told her. But before Rosita could provide any sort of response, Rosie was pulled away by the back of her shirt. Looking behind her, Rosie could see that it was Daryl who was pulling her. She furrowed her eyebrows. "What?" she asked.

"Quit botherin' them," Daryl told her. Rosie wanted to roll her eyes, but she knew Daryl didn't like it when she did that, so she didn't. "You wanna talk to someone, go talk to that boy," Daryl said. Rosie watched as he nodded his head towards where Ian was walking, behind Tyreese.

"Why?" she asked.

"'Cause he's your friend," Daryl said.

"He ain't my friend. He's annoyin'."

"He's dyin' to talk to ya," Daryl told her. Rosie just crossed her arms, not making any move to go and talk to Ian. "You don't wanna talk to him, fine. I don't give a shit. Just don't go botherin' people who don't wanna talk. They ain't in the mood for that." After that, Daryl expected her to go off and either talk to Ian or Carl, but she didn't. She stayed walking quietly by his side. And they all went on like that for a long time.

•

They walked and walked until the sun went down and the stars came out. Rosie was laying on the ground, near the dying embers of the fire. She looked up at the stars, trying and failing to fall asleep. She had to pee really bad, and Maggie was usually the one she'd go to, because she wasn't allowed to go off on her own. But Maggie was already fast asleep and Rosie did not want to wake her up. Rosie sat up and looked around to see who was still awake, but from the looks of it, everyone was asleep. She huffed and stood up, contemplating whether or not to just go on her own. But then she remembered that Carol and Daryl were awake, on watch.

Carefully and quietly, Rosie stepped around the sleeping bodies and went off to where she knew Carol and Daryl would be. And, just as she expected, there they were, sitting on a log next to each other. The two of them obviously heard her coming, because their heads turned to her quickly. They calmed down right when they saw that it was her, though.