Condemned. Sequel to 'Don't Look Back'

Chapter 25

Rayne's pov

After Carl and I had begun to work out our problems, we went outside to see the carnage. There were dead bodies everywhere, blood flowed down the streets like small rivers.

"Seven." I said, looking around at all the bodies.

"Seven what?" Carl asked.

"I killed seven people today. That's eleven people all together." Eleven people would've been considered a serial killer in normal days, but now, it's normal.

"Hey, you did what you had to do." Carl said, trying to comfort me.

"Eleven people Carl. Over half of them in one day. That's insane." I said, starting to freak out a little bit. I felt like I was going to throw up thinking about everyone I've killed.

"You need to sit down." Carl said and led me to the back porch of one of the houses. I took deep breaths to try and calm myself.

"When will the others be back?" I asked, he shrugged.

"I don't know."

"What are we going to do with all the bodies?" I asked.

"Bury us, burn them." He said and I nodded.

"We thought this place was safe. But, it's not." I said, and leaned on my knees.

"We just have to be ready."

"Ready for what? Another massacre?"

"Ready to defend ourselves. Rayne, look at me." He said and I looked over at him.

"You're losing yourself. This isn't you."

"Who am I then?"

"You're a fighter, you don't just give up like you are right now. You have to be strong for those around you, or everything crumbles."

"But, it's just, look around you, Carl. Look how many people died."

"They had to die, you understand that."

"They had to die, I know."

"Don't lose yourself, Rayne. I see the look in your eye, you're exhausted and covered in blood, you're disappointed and scared. But, we can't have you just check out right now. People need you."

He rubbed my back and I leaned into him. I looked down at my hands and saw the blood.

"You don't know what I did today."

"What did you do?" He quietly asked.

"I scratched a guy's eyeball out." I showed him the blood on my hand and I could hear the sharp intake of his breath.

"I scare you, don't I?"

"No, you don't scare me. I know you do what you have to. You would never hurt me, or anyone else in the group."

"Now, let's get you back home, you need to relax and compose yourself." He said and helped me up.

He closed the door behind us and he said,

"Go upstairs and take a shower, I'll leave clean clothes outside the door." I nodded my head, not really fully paying attention to what was happening. My mind kept going back to death. I felt numb to everything. I hadn't moved because I was preoccupied with my own thoughts.

"Come on." Carl led me up the stairs and into the bathroom.

"You can handle yourself from here." He closed the door behind himself, and I looked in the mirror.

There stood a girl who looked like she had been through hell and back. She was covered in dirt and blood, her eyes no longer shining with their usual vibrant blue.

I held the sink's edge and whispered to myself,

"Get yourself together."

I turned the water on and stripped. I shut the door behind me and began running my hands through my tangled hair. I watched as the dirt and blood washed down the drain, and it felt like this physical cleaning was helping my mental cleanliness too.

I felt myself coming to work through my problems, telling myself I had to kill those people.

I shut the water off and stepped out, wrapping a towel around myself. I grabbed my clothes from the hallway and put them on. Carl had chosen dark wash jeans and a blue and white baseball tshirt, which, I think is his.

I put everything on and went downstairs, feeling better about everything. He smiled at me, and I returned the gesture.

"Feel better?" He asked me and I nodded.

"Yeah. Is this your shirt?" I asked and he nodded.

"It is."

"I love it." I said and he got up.

"Ready to go out and help everyone?"

"Yeah." I followed him out of the house and shut the door.

"Where's Judith?" I asked, not seeing her anywhere.

"Carol has her."

In the streets people were piling bodies up, mostly the invaders, Alexandrians were taken elsewhere.

Michonne and a couple others had arrived back from the mission, and were hellbent on getting to Maggie. I saw Deanna up on the watch ledge and I nudged Carl.

"Should we go up there?" Carl nodded and we went up the ladder to meet with Deanna.

"How did this happen?" She whispered.

"Weakness." I said and she looked to me.

"What all happened? I was outside the wall."

"People died." I said, giving her the short answer.

"Michonne says Glenn and Nicholas didn't set off their distraction, we don't know where they're at."

"They'll be fine. They always are." Carl said.

"Open the gate!" Someone yelled from the main road. I shielded my eyes from the sun and squinted, seeing a herd of walkers.

"Shit." I said, watching as they stretched as far as the eye could see.

"Someone open the gate!" Rick came into view, sprinting from the herd. Michonne opened the gate for him and Rick stumbled in. Carl was the first one down the ladder, followed by Deanna and I.

I heard the slam of walkers on the other side of the wall, and I cringed, just being able to hear how many there were.

People from all around ran up and some looked at the walls and if they would hold.

"Get more support beams over here." Someone ordered and a team of five left the main gathering.

Rick got up and told us to wait here for him, so we did, and not ten minutes later he was walking back towards us.

"There's enough of them to surround us twenty deep. This wall here, it'll hold, but can you?" I saw the shifts of all the Alexandrians.

"Now, the others, they'll be back. Daryl, Sasha, Abraham, they have vehicles, and will drive them away like they did the other half."

"I was out there with Daryl, and, and we fell into a trap set by these people. I lost my pack, they must've followed the trail back here." Aaron admitted, everyone was silent.

Deanna walked away from the group, and everyone else was left with their own thoughts.