HEART FOR BRAINS • the walking dead

021: get out

Everyone sat around the cafeteria early next morning, awaiting the groups arrival. Axel ate some breakfast as he waited, no one bothered by his presence any longer. Rio didn't want to eat so he had gone with Hershel into the next room.

He sat upon the table, his feet kicked against the benches. The first aid kit was thrown out on the table besides him and Rio handed over whatever Hershel needed. The door clanged shut after Carl as he walked through.

"Are you okay?" Rio asked.

"Yeah." Carl replied, standing besides him.

Hershel was just finishing stitching up a man's leg as the boy entered the room. Everyone looked over to him as no one was really speaking, there was just a stark silence and the faint echoes of conversations in the room next door.

"You can take those stitches out yourself in a day or two." Hershel told the boy as he cleared up his mess.

"Thanks." He replied gratefully. "It's uh, Pretty nice having medical training."

"It'll only get you so far." The older man sighed, referring to his injury. The boy swung his now stitched up leg off of the table.

"You were bit?" Tyreese asked Hershel tentatively.

The older man nodded back at him just as Beth could be heard opening the door. She held Judith in her arms. The teen walked past everyone, ignoring the lack of conversation and over to where the baby formula was stored.

"How old is the baby?" Sasha asked, standing up to see the girl.

"Barely a week."

"To be honest we never thought we'd see another baby." She responded walking over to Beth and Judith, she placed a light hand upon Beth's arm. "Beautiful."

"Thanks." She whispered in response, turning to flash her a warm smile.

"How are you feeling?" Sasha asked and Beth's head snapped back around confusedly.

"She's not mine." She replied bluntly.

"Where's the mother?" Sasha questioned, turning to face Hershel, she then looked at the boys. Their silence must've been enough answer because soon she sat back down. "I'm sorry."

"Man, you people have been through the mill."

"Haven't we all?" Hershel simply replied before getting up, following out after Beth on his crutches.

"It's only getting worse out there." The other man explained. "Dead are everywhere."

"It's only making the living, less like the living." Tyreese sighed as Axel placed a bowl of food in front of him.

"You're the only decent folks we've come across." Sasha complimented.

"You've been out there all this time?" Hershel asked, stopping to talk again.

"Our neighbour Jerry, he was one of those survivalist nuts. Everybody on the block thought he was crazy." Tyreese let out a small chuckle. "Always preparing for the end of the world."

"Who knew?"

"Jerry knew." He said. "He had a bunker under his shed in the backyard. Sasha and I stayed there until we ran out of supplies. Allan and Ben were the first people we ran into when we finally crawled up out of that hole around Jacksonville. Used to be a bunch of us. Twenty five at one point." Tyreese sighed like he couldn't believe it.

"Our camp was overrun six, seven weeks ago." Sasha guessed.

"And... and Donna. She, uh..." Tyreese trailed off, he looked over to the dead body on the floor a few feet away.