A Place Just For Us (Rick Grimes)

Chapter One: Lost and Found

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❝ No other sadness in the world would do ❞

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My hands were empty, bound together. Where I once held my pride and confidence, I now narrowly carried the anxiety for my faith. I'd been disarmed for the very first time. I had fought and resisted, but I had lost almost as easily as every time I'd won. So, all I could do was follow up the directions that I was given, walk whichever way they wanted me to, and give myself time to estimate my chances of escaping. Two men against one. If one of them lost focus, I knew I could make it.

Once every few steps I felt a gun poke my back. I knew well enough that this was my only warning. But perhaps, one chance was all I needed. In spite of that, I followed up their instructions. I couldn't afford to lose my one and only chance by being impatient.

They muttered something to each other, and as much as I tried to make sense of things, I couldn't hear them. The weather was bad; wind rushed through my hair, the rope was damaging my wrists, I'd sprained my ankle when I attempted to escape them. Surely, but slowly, like I never had before, I started to lose all faith. What did I have left anyway?

Then, after we made it out of a wooded area, we reached fences and walls. It was unlike something I'd ever seen before. There were even three cars, one bigger vehicle hidden behind some trees. People were turning heads from a safe distance. Part of me hoped I would get to stay here, have my own safe place for the first time, but I knew that was unlikely. I didn't work well with people, and fairly, I had always been fine on my own. Besides, I had lost too much to hope for something like this.

I was consumed with curiosity. I had never seen a place like this before. We stood in a vast courtyard surrounded by fences and walls built out of everything and anything. An odd dilapidated wooden building stood hidden behind the trees, something like a cottage. Another corner held gardens. The sky overhead was cloudless and blue. 

In due course, I was pushed down to my knees. My breathing was heavy and I tried to keep my resentment and anger under control as much as I could. As I looked around, I knew there was no way I could escape this place in broad daylight.

It didn't take long for the residents to become aware of my arrival. I was surprised to notice there didn't seem to be more of them. A small group surrounded me, and ultimately, the ones who'd caught me seemed to be in charge. They spoke secretly to one another. I continued to struggle to hear them, until someone squat down in front of me and blurted out three words right into my face. It was the one with the uniform.

"Now, lets talk."

I glared at him through strands of hair. I never bothered to look around to the people that were watching me in pure curiosity. During the whole of it, his blue eyes stared at me, urging me to speak, and his words only became louder as he repeated them. How easy did he think this was going to be?

My mouth remained closed. A stubborn expression rested on my face. I watched him reach for his gun, yanking it out of his belt, looking at me with a frown on his face. It rested in the palm of his right hand, and he looked down at it, warning me, before looking up to meet my eyes again. "If you think silence's going to help you, then you're wrong."

I realised his accent irked me already. The chuckle at the end of his sentence told me he wasn't expecting anything useful from me— which could be resulting in my death, or my release. What did I have to lose? Were did I go from here? The two questions that remained unanswered in the back of my mind.