Future Ghosts • TWD

72. I Don't Know, I Don't Know, I Don't Know.

"Rosie? What are you doing out here? Are you ok?"

Rosie's running came to an abrupt stop, and her shoes skidded in the dirt and leaves on the forest floor. Her heart was beating fast, and her breathing was heavy. She shouldn't have stopped. She should have just continued on running, because now they were going to drag her back to Alexandria and she'd be in even more trouble. But how could she not stop upon hearing Glenn's voice?

"Hey, what are you running from?" Glenn asked, his hand gently grabbing onto Rosie's upper arm. "Did something happen back home? Is everyone ok?" he asked. God, Rosie hated that. Back home. That wasn't their home. They only just got there! It wasn't their home.

"Who's this kid?" a different voice appeared out of nowhere. Rosie looked to her right and saw a man standing there with a big gun in his hand. He had brown hair and was wearing a gray button-down shirt over top a black t-shirt. To the first man's left, a man Rosie recognized was standing there. It was Nicholas- the one who pointed her out to Deanna. Standing behind Glenn, Noah and Tara were both there, their eyebrows pinched together with worry.

"Nothin's wrong at Alexandria. I just gotta..." Rosie trailed off, still catching her breath.

"Why were you running?" Tara asked, a confused look on her face. To avoid answering the question and admitting what she had done, Rosie tried running off, but Glenn's once gentle grip on her arm only tightened when she tried to run.

Glenn sighed and crouched down in front of Rosie. "Rosie, what happened? Someone mad at you?" he guessed. He knew Rosie better than any of the others who were out there. Tara and Noah had only known Rosie for a little over a month, maybe two. They couldn't really be sure. The other two men didn't know Rosie at all. But Glenn had known Rosie for around two years at this point. The look on her face made it easy to tell that she was anxious, nervous, maybe even scared, but not of walkers.

At first, Rosie didn't answer. She didn't want to. But the silence was painful, and Glenn wasn't just gonna let her run off into the woods. "They're gonna be," Rosie muttered out.

"Who is?" Tara asked.

"Everyone," Rosie answered, looking down at her boots shamefully.

"What'd you do?" Glenn asked, hoping to be able to tell her that it wasn't a big deal and no one would be mad. But Rosie didn't say anything at all, she only kicked her right foot into the side of her left foot. Glenn sighed again and stood back up, moving his hand down from Rosie's arm to her hand. He turned to Nicholas and the man Rosie didn't know. "We have to take her back," he said.

"No," the man Rosie didn't know said quickly, shaking his head.

"Aiden, she can't-" Tara began to argue.

"No. We came all the way out here. We're not going back now. This'll be quick," the man- Aiden- said. Rosie didn't want to go back, obviously, so she actually loved the idea of postponing it. She nodded her head along to Aiden's words. "We'll bring her back after. Come on," Aiden said, and began walking. After rolling his eyes, Glenn followed along with the rest of the group, Rosie by his side.

"Managed to snag one of the deadheads that took our group down. Strung it up there," Nicholas said as they walked into a small clearing.

"What? Why?" Glenn asked. Rosie could feel the muscles in his hand tense for a moment, and she got the sense that Glenn didn't like these guys at all. So, Rosie decided she didn't like them either- she already hated Nicholas, after all.

"Now we have a little pregame ritual. Get our heads on straight," Nicholas said. Rosie almost scoffed, but she thought she better keep quiet, considering everyone was already going to be mad once they got back to Alexandria and found out what she did.