01; STRANGERS AND SCARS (season nine, episodes five and six)
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A MACHETE WHIPPED through the air, old and rustedbut still efficient. Two rotted heads rolled across the forest floor, jaws still snapping and snarling despite the loss of body.
"Hey, watch out!" Brodie Grimes called out, wiping her blood-stained blade on her pants.
Judith grimaced and dodged the decapitated heads, allowing them to thump against the tree behind her. "You can't catch anything with that now, you know? Eugene says-"
"Contamination, I know." Brodie rolled her eyes. "I'm not killing animals anyway. It's cruel. They have families."
"But you eat meat," Judith stated, brows knitting into a frown. "I've seen you."
"But, I don't catch it." Brodie jabbed a finger at Judith. "So, it's different."
"I don't think it is."
"It is, and I'm older, so I'm right."
It was Judith's turn to roll her eyes. "It's just three years."
"A thousand and ninety-five days," Brodie countered with a teasing grin. "I got Eugene to tell me. I figured it's important information."
Judith traced her fingers across the hilt of her Colt Python- It originally belonged to Rick, and then it was Freya's for a while, but she gave it to Judith for her ninth birthday a few months ago. "Do you know how far Hilltop is? 'Cause you're so much older."
Brodie sighed softly and held her machete up to her face, peering at her reflection on the blade's surface. The diagonal scar that ran from her cheekbone to her top lip was still the most noticeable feature about her, even after five years. She didn't typically dwell on it, mostly because Freya and Trudi constantly told her that it only made her more beautiful- that was a lie, a huge one but they both had scars of their own, so Brodie never berated herself to them out of fear it would cause offence.
"Do you?" Judith tapped her arm, brown eyes of curiosity burning into Brodie's blue ones.
Brodie slung her spare arm around Judith's shoulder and steered her in the opposite direction, careful to dodge the Walker heads that Freya would without a doubt lecture her for not finishing off. "J, we're not supposed to talk about Hilltop."
"Or Jocelyn or Daryl or Leo." Judith kicked the dirt in frustration. "I hate it."
"I know, but they did bad stuff," Brodie reminded her. "Freya's not just being mean."
"Sometimes it feels like it."
Brodie didn't respond to that. In all honesty, she didn't have much to say. Whilst she didn't know the full story of each incident, she knew enough to know that Freya had every reason to retaliate the way she did. Judith was just. . . like Carl, which felt strange to say because Brodie never knew Carl but Freya talked about him so often that sometimes Brodie got sad that he was dead even though she never met him. Once or twice, she'd put her hand against his handprint, wondering if he could feel it.
