Sneaky

Chapter 9

I've never liked goodbye's.

They never feel like goodbye to me. It's more, see ya later, and I don't mind viewing funerals this way. It makes it easier...for me, at least. To believe I'll see 'em again at the end of my own line.

"Ey, let's go"

I looked at Daryl and nodded, jumping on the bed of the truck we'd just finished loading with the bodies of our people, while he got in the cabin and started it up.

The truck pulled out and I spotted for Daryl as he drove backwards up the hill; directing him away from boulders and trees until we reached the mass graves at the top where Rick and Shane were digging.

I put my hand up for Daryl to stop and he parked, shutting the engine off. I jumped off the bed, letting my knees absorb the impact. The truck door slammed and Daryl came up next to me, as I walked over to Rick and Shane.

"I still think it's a mistake not burnin' these bodies. It's what we said we'd do, right? Burn 'em all. Wasn't that the idea."

I don't remember anyone saying that

"At first" Rick tossed a shovel-full of dirt onto the amassing mound above the graves they were digging.

"The Chinaman gets all emotional" Korean. "Says it's not the thing to do, we just follow him along?" Daryl glanced at me, but honestly I'm not completely on board with either side of this argument.

I know why everyone wants to bury them— I know why Glenn was the one to insist upon it, but I also know that burying bodies nowadays just isn't worth it.

It depletes what little resources we have. Spends energy we might need, time we don't know we have.

This is gonna turn into a fight, isn't it?

A flicker at the corner of my vision had my eyes snapping over in an instant, hand already on my knife but I relaxed when it turned out to just be the others coming up from the camp for the funerals.

"These people need to know who the Hell's in charge here, what the rules are."

"There are no rules."

"Well that's a problem." I looked to Lori as she chimed in.

"We haven't had one minute to hold onto anything of our old selves. We need time to mourn, and we need to bury our dead. It's what people do."

I glanced at my boots before looking at Daryl. His sour expression never ceases to amaze me. It's always different, but I've never seen guilt there before.

Even if it's only a twinge.

At least I'm not the only one who feels like they just got scolded.

-

"I can do it. I can do it." Andrea stood in the grave dug for Amy.

Dale tried to help her move her sister's body into the grave again and again but every time he tried she said, "I can do it!"

Andrea wouldn't let anyone help, not Dale, not Rick, Lori, Shane, me...no one.

I never understood why people liked to be put in boxes and covered in 300-600 lbs of dirt.

Nowadays burning is taboo for some reason but in the olden days, it was a sign of honor and respect to be burned instead of buried. King's, knights, and nobles were burned.

Burning was literally a funeral fit for a king.

Lori's barely keeping it together. But I may have underestimated the women in this group. Andrea most of all.