GAME OF SURVIVAL ³ ━━━ the walking dead

31 | wrath

- no obligation at all, but I was listening to music whilst writing and feel it really enhances the reading experience, so i'm going to put a '*' at a certain point through the chapter and recommend that you put on 'Ghosts' by Banners when you see it.

31; WRATH
(season nine, episode fifteen)

[TRIGGER WARNING;
excessive gore]

TRAGEDY WAS PREDACIOUS. It lurked in the minuscule cracks in the earth's surface, shrinking itself down to a mere grain, but despite its missable and near-dead state; it was always watching. Watching and waiting.

Slowly but surely, day by day, humanity would begin to heal. It was a cycle - the devolution of mankind always warped into the transformation from wasteland to hospitable planet - and it had been since the beginning of time. See, tragedy didn't mean to be cruel, it was as much a victim to its own ultimate fate as the world was. It swelled each time forgiveness was shown, each time love was professed, when weapons were laid down, truces declared, unification formed and then it burst into parasitic pathogens that sucked the joy out of every living thing and propelled them back into that god-awful wasteland with nary a cushion to break their fall.

Freya Grimes had witnessed it time and time again and she was of the opinion that it had been stalking her since the world fell. From the outskirts of Atlanta city, to the Greene family farm, the prison in Georgia, Grady Memorial, Alexandria, Hilltop and now The Kingdom - it had always surfaced, reared its great ugly head and stole something dear from her.

Other than death and the shattering of her heart, there was only one common factor amongst those gut-wrenching events; each day had started out with glorious sunshine.

In the woods, DJ, Ozzy and Alex - new allies of Ezekiel's who called themselves 'The Highway Men' - were leading the group comprised of members from all four communities to a wreckage they'd discovered on their patrol.

Overturned wagons, unattached reins, scattered trading goods and most worryingly of all - approximately zero living beings. The horses were gone and so there were riders.

Cupping a hand over her brow to shield her eyes from the glazing globe in the sky, Freya couldn't shake the feeling that tragedy was nearby again, hiding behind a tree, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce and take.

Magna's verbal confirmation only fed the niggling voice of doom in Freya's mind. Between her fingers, she held a coin-shaped piece of wicker with an 'H' engraved on its surface; Hilltop's emblem. "This is from Hilltop."

Freya's airway closed in on itself by an inch or two, just enough to make her feel the strain. Admittedly, she hadn't been a huge fan of the community in recent years, but that didn't mean she wished harm upon the residents. It still housed several people she cared deeply for.