Memory of Devotion- Book 2

8

CHAPTER EIGHT || AFTER.

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"we'll find them.." Sam reassured as the pair sat round a small campfire they'd made as Darkness consumed them. hours had passed since they escaped the prison since Alex abandoned her family, and lost Glenn... she couldn't stop thinking about them. where were they? were they even alive? her heart hadn't stopped pounding since they left. what was she supposed to do? They'd searched, they'd done laps around the prison yet no one was to be found, Not Glenn, Not rick, Not carl.  no one. 

Alex picked at her nails as she stayed Silent, her thoughts eating away at her brain. She needed to find them. She was terrified, maybe that was even an understatement. What happened with Eli, Spending all those weeks alone. she refused to be alone again. but now she almost was, it was happening all over again. yet this time, she was with Sam.

"I know.." She sighed trying to stay positive.. she put Glenn on that bus. Rick was Rick. he'd refuse to go down without a fight. she tried to listen to Glenn, she could hear his voice in her mind remaining her to keep trying, don't lose faith yet. but maybe her faith was lost many years ago. 

she was losing faith one person at a time, maybe she lost it as a child when her mother passed, maybe she lost it when she was in the military watching people she cared about die right in front of her and there was nothing she could do to stop it, or maybe it was lost when Eli died, or when she had to cut open her aunt... it was hard not to lose faith when the world kept chipping away at your heart.

"try get some sleep, we'll head off in the morning... try find survivors." Sam offered, Alex shook her head knowing she wouldn't get any sleep, what if there weren't any survivors? Her mind raced thinking about everything that had happened.. the hope she'd thought she got back was gone, snuffed out like a match.

"you sleep I'll keep the first watch" Sam sighed as he laid on the cold floor of the forest, Alex leant against a tree her eyes glued to the flames of the fire. instead of drowning, this time she felt like she was burning as if she was being burnt alive. fighting to put out a raging fire with no water. a fire that burnt her mind, scarred her skin and melted her heart. 

that's what it felt like, having everything you loved ripped away in seconds. her lungs were breathing in the thick toxic clouds of smoke making it hard to breathe, and she couldn't stop it. she had to let it burn because she couldn't stop thinking, she could picture them so clearly. rick. carl. Judith. glenn. hershel. 

"Alex, everything's gonna work out" Sam assured looking up at the sky. his eyes flickering between the stars, as he thought back to being in Woodbury, how being at the prison had changed him, how training with Alex had changed him. Silence lingered between the pair as Alex stared at the fire, admiring the flames from the fire as she felt flames engulfing her heart.

"I need to find him Sam" She sighed, she knew if something happened on that bus... She knew Glenn wasn't well enough to be out here alone. he hadn't had enough time to recover, and that scared her, the thought of him out there... alone. like she had been, yet he was still sick.

"and you will...." he sighed, a could of grief hanging over the pair as they tried to stay positive, silence lingered again as Alex tried to actually believe what he was saying before he spoke again.

"Did I ever tell you how I ended up in Woodbury?" She shook her head as her eyes shifted from the fire to the freckled boy laying on the floor she realised she barely knew a thing about his past except for the fact he tried to leave Woodbury but the governor wouldn't let him.

"Well, I was on the road, me and my sister. charlie..." He chuckled remembering his Little sister, the pain lingered in his chest because he was the big brother and he was sorry he wasn't better... he should've been, if he could he'd go back and love her the way he should've

"our parents had a thing for gender-neutral names" He smiled looking up at the stars knowing Charlie was looking down at him... A small smile couldn't help but try and edge its way onto Alex's face as she heard the love Sam has for his sister through his voice and the smile that tugged at his lips as he thought about his family.

"We crossed paths with the Governor's men on the way back from some 'mission' they took us back promising sanctuary... we had to speak to him when he heard Charlie was a firefighter, and I was in ROTC before he jumped at the chance to turn us into soldiers," Sam explained his heart aching as he reminisced, he hadn't spoken about her once, not since he lost her... he had no one to tell, but now he did. 

"me and Charlie aren't stupid. we figured out what he was doing... I tried convincing Charlie to leave, but she wouldn't listen. She always said even though I'm older, she was smarter. She wanted to keep us safe.. and Woodbury was. Until the Governor found out what I thought and that I was planning on leaving" Alex listened closely to his story, as he revealed a part of him she'd never seen...

"Then Charlie disappeared. I couldn't find her, for days I looked. no one bothered to help me. she was just gone. until I saw her as a walker, the night he made Daryl and his brother fight.. she was one of the... she was a walker" His voice wavered as he came to the end of his story, wiping a tear from his eye. Alex stared at the boy she'd been training for months, having had no idea what had happened to him. his story reminding her, you have no idea what someone's been through, even if you think you know them you'll never know what plagues their minds. 

"the point is she wanted us to stay, she wanted us to be safe. she didn't just want us to survive she wanted us to Live. and no matter where I go or what happens to me. I know she's with me. I can hear her voice, I can hear her laugh at me whenever you beat my ass.." Sam chuckled his sister's laughs filling his ears a smile etched onto his face at the thought.

"we'll find Glenn, We'll find Rick. and Carl and Judith. we'll find them because they're fighters.. and they're not scared of just surviving for a while" Just surviving, maybe that had been what Alex had been doing her whole life, the only time she felt like she was living was when she was with Glenn and she wasn't sure she'd ever feel that again. 

**

The next morning Sam and Alex Continued making their way through the forest trying to find any indication of their friends and family. The dread in Alex's stomach grew with every passing second as she grasped her gun tightly in her hand, she desperately hoped to see Glenn walk out from behind a tree, hear Carl's laugh, hear Judith's cry. She needed something. she needed some indicator they were alive. 

Her heart ached for Glenn, She needed him. She needed him Alive. Her mind bounced between the 'what ifs'. where was Rick the last time she'd seen him.. she'd left Carl with Daryl.. surely they were okay. Glenn was safe on the bus... she couldn't remember the details, everything had blurred into one big mess of memories, just as it had when she was in Afghanistan. 

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AN: I AM SO EXCITED for the next half of this book!!! also we are learning more about Sam, one of my first OC's

the end of the prison era!! I'm so sad it's one of my favourite eras, but there are some very exciting things happening new characters and new love which I'm so excited for you guys to see 🫶