𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐍 𝐅𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐇, 𝐭𝐰𝐝

𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐁𝐀𝐋𝐒

Morning eventually came back around, another endless day of torture in your worst nightmare but the suffering didn't matter if you had someone beside you to get to the other end. And in Elicia's case, she had Charlie and he was that someone.

The sound of movement startled the teenager awake, her attempt at being on watch last night had obviously failed but she knew Abraham was also on watch so his chance to slice her up into pieces of meat had clearly never crossed his mind.

She didn't trust Abraham fully, he didn't prove himself to be safe around Elicia and Charlie after aiming his gun at the both of them and thinking they were a threat to a fully grown man who's reason to still be alive today had small holes in his obvious lie but everyone else had believed him with no further question on the matter.

Sasha and Bob were packing away their sleeping bags so Ellie had followed along, taking it that they were going to leave for Terminus some time soon.

"Arls, c'mon start packing, we're leaving soon." The girl gently shook Charlie awake, his body rolling over from his stomach to his back and pulling his fists up to his eyes to rub the eye boogers from the corner of them. The boy had always been a morning person for as long as Elicia had known him, herself despising the thought of even having to sit up at the sight of dawn but either way she made it through the day.

Growing up, Elicia had found it a struggle to fall asleep at night and so her father sometimes spent the night with her, either taking her out on a midnight ice cream run or staying inside and playing a game with her. The man found it difficult to constantly keep staying up at night and then running a gym session the next morning for eighth graders but he didn't want to see his daughter upset so he put aside his own needs and made the young girl his first priority.

Packing up their camp, the group started moving out, once again continuing their journey to Terminus. Charlie had ran off to walk by Eugene's side as he ranted off about some astrological facts that they both knew, feeding into each others ego about how much they both knew.

Maggie had invited Elicia to walk alongside her and Glenn as she told the girl about her father's farm and her little sister, Beth. The woman clearly had a lot of love for all of her family, especially Glenn.

"This one time, my mama was baking an apple pie because it was my daddy's favourite and Beth was so young at the time that she didn't realise it was for after dinner so she helped herself and my daddy came back inside to nothin' but crumbs in the casing." Maggie shook her head laughing, recalling a memory she held so close to her heart.

It had made Ellie envy the woman slightly, she didn't get to enjoy delicacies such as apple pie or a homemade cheesecake because her mother had been sick for a while and her father's cooking skills were extremely limited, the two mostly eating waffles at any chance they got.

"Hey Glenn." Elicia moved to stand beside him, looking up at the man, "I'm sorry for what i said yesterday, i was just panicking because of everything."

"Don't worry about it, you had every right to be feeling how you were in that situation and i understand, i should've thought about the safety of everyone rather than just finding my wife." Glenn gave the girl a small smile telling her everything was okay, the man clearly brushing off what had happened the day before as he wasn't bothered by it no longer.

Noon was beginning to approach as the group of ten followed the endless rail tracks but the sight of a brick building with the letters of 'Terminus' being spelt on each window came into sight and they all were equally relieved that they had somewhere permanent to stay hopefully.

Not a single rotter was in sight, the area being cleared of the dead and also people. Had this place been abandoned?

The chain that was used to lock the front gate, was wrapped around the metal bars but not locked, inviting whoever was at the gates straight into the courtyard and building. Watered plants lay in flower beds, sprouting both herbs, fruit and vegetables.