Waking (The Walking Dead)

4| Grief

4| Grief

Claire's hand clasps over her mouth immediately to stop herself from screaming. Xavier slowly sinks to his knees, his eyes unable to look away from the bloody mess in front of him. Claire doesn't know what to do. She doesn't want to run off, not without Xavier. She needs to stay strong for him.

Ignoring the need to throw up, Claire lowers down next to Xavier and puts her open wide hand over his back and turns to look at his face.

Expecting him to be crying, Claire's surprised to see him with dry eyes and a completely blank expression on his face.

Claire decides that he needs to get away from here. She stands up straight and uses her hands to pull Xavier up as well. He stumble a bit, his hands trembling as he grabs onto Claire's hoodie to keep balance. Claire carefully leads him out of the room, making sure to shut the door.

The others, Buck, Harrison and Jason, all give Xavier sympathetic looks, but Xavier can't keep his eyes off the floor in front of him. Claire's hand doesn't leave his back.

"Let's get out of here." Buck announces and everyone begins following him to the front door which they came in from. Buck pulls open the wooden door, but immediately slams it shut again when he is met with a pack of walkers right at the door.

The group all give each other looks of worry. Their eyes scan the shop, looking for another way out. There isn't one to be seen.

Finally, Xavier who had seemed dead in the moment, speaks. "We have an emergency exit in the storage room. It's covered up with stacks of boxes."

"Lead the way, kid." Buck says and steps out of the way so Xavier can go.

Claire looks at Xavier. He looks awfully pale. Claire gives him one last rub on the back before moving her hand. Xavier takes the lead, guiding the group through the shop, where a metal door is. He tries to open the door, but it won't open. Jason shoves him out of the way and tries for himself, but the handle won't even budge.

"It's locked. Why the fuck would it be locked?" Jason asks angrily.

"Why the fuck do you think? So no one steals anything from there." Xavier talks back, just as angry. It seems like Xavier has returned to himself.

Jason points at Xavier. "This is all your fault. We came here for no reason at all-"

"Jason," Harrison warns and Jason shuts his mouth immediately. Everyone wondered how Harrison could make Jason shut up like that. Jason definitely didn't look like the type of person who took shit from anyone.

"There must be a key somewhere." Claire says, more to herself than anyone else. Claire rushes back to the front of the shop, and checks behind the counter. She pulls out things from the drawer such as staplers, paperwork, and pens but she can't find a key.

Claire listens and can hear the sound of the door breaking down. Claire carefully steps towards the window and hesitantly pulls the curtain away. She screams as she catches sight of the walker right up against the window. It opens it's mouth and licks at the window, leaving smudges of red. Claire drops the curtain so that it covers the view again.

She turns around quickly and jumps in fright when she sees the others standing there. They had heard her scream and came rushing down.

"There are hundreds out there now." She pants, frightened.

Buck turns to Xavier. "Do you know where a key is kept?" He asks him gently, knowing that Xavier was not in a good condition mentally.

Xavier frowns, thinking to himself. "I-I don't know. Maybe in my parents bedroom, but there's no way I'm going back in there." Xavier says and Buck nods understandingly.