"𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘥."
It was a chant Madalyn Taylor told herself every day. Every day since the world ended. She didn't believe it most times, but if she said it enough times it had to come true at some point. Right?
"𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦."
...
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MADALYN
Losing people never got easier. Every time Madalyn lost someone, she felt a hollowness in her chest. The world lost its color. Every single step was difficult. All she wanted was to lie down and stay there until she felt some semblance of reprieve from her grief.
Unfortunately, Madalyn never got to do that. Stopping meant dying now. She couldn't do what she wanted to do because she now had a two-year-old girl to look after. She knew Judith wasn't her responsibility. She knew that once they got to the Hilltop and Rick got back that he would take his daughter. But Carl asked Madalyn to look after his baby sister, and she'd be damned if she didn't listen to him.
However long she needed to, Madalyn Dixon would take care of Judith Grimes.
Madalyn's feet practically dragged across the forest floor. They had to have been walking for hours at this point. The sun was up and had been for a while. It took a long time to get to Hilltop in vehicles which just meant it would take far too long to get there on foot. Judith was asleep in Madalyn's arms, her little head tucked into the crook of Madalyn's neck.
Tobin had offered to take Judith, but Madalyn adamantly refused. It wasn't that she didn't trust Tobin because she did. But she had to keep Judith safe until Carl came back.
Because he was coming back. He had to be. There was no possible way that he was... He was just back at Alexandria with Rick and Michonne, preparing to leave for the Hilltop.
If only that were the case.
~*~*~*~
NICK
In the three years it had been since everything started, Nick had seen and been a part of countless groups of people. Yet none of them were as tough as the Alexandrians. None of them had the resilience that these people did.
