A Hard Lesson to Learn

Chapter 30

The sun sunk behind the trees not long after the search party left to look for Rosita and Eugene. Kali left Rick's house with her backpack over her shoulder. She packed it with a small ration of food, a couple of bottles of water, some bandages in case she did happen to find Eugene and Rosita and they were hurt, and she had a knife just in case. Her pistol was strapped to her side thanks to the holster that Carl let her use. Unlike his father, Carl was open to Kali helping or maybe he just didn't want a babysitter, but either way, Kali was happy he agreed.

She made her way through the community to the gate. Shawn, an old member of the sanctuary, was on guard duty at the gate. "So, you are going out there without Rick's permission," the man said from the platform at the top of the wall.

"Last time I checked, Rick wasn't my father so I can do what I want," she sassed back looking up at him. "Can you please open this so I can go?"

"Why should I?"

Kali rolled her eyes. "I don't know if you know this or not, but Rosita tried to kill me one time."

"So, you want revenge," the man asked cutting her off.

"What? No. I want to help them look for her. Everything's changed now. I want to help look for Eugene and Rosita. So, if you'd please open the damn gate, I'll be on my way."

Shawn was quiet for a moment clearly thinking about what he should do. If he let her out, Rick would be furious with him, but if he didn't, he would have to deal with an angry Kali. His mind flashed back to the time at the sanctuary when a savior had broken one of Negan and Kali's golden rules and people started to fear her more than Negan for a while. Without a word, he opened the gate just enough for her to walk through.

"Thank you," she yelled as she walked out of the gate and down the road towards the unknown.

--

She walked for a couple of hours turning in various directions trying to cover all the areas where she suspected Rosita and Eugene were. First, she searched a shopping center and found nothing. There was no sign of the pair.

She knew that they were supposed to be trying to strengthen the radio signal at a nearby radio tower. Kali ventured back into the woods. She knew that there was an abandoned barn another couple miles out so that would be the next location she'd search.

Kali knew that if they made it to the barn then they would be safe. It would be easy to get away for walkers because there was a flight of stairs to separate themselves from the walkers.

The woods were quiet as she walked. There were no lingering walkers which was surprising to Kali. There were usually a couple of stragglers around, but tonight there were none. The moon above was providing her enough light to see ahead of her, but not that far. She had a flashlight, but she did not want to use it unless it was necessary.

She wasn't that far away from the barn when she saw something move in front of her stopping her in her tracks. Kali hid behind a nearby tree. Peaking back around, she saw that the thing in front of her was actually a person. A couple of people actually. They weren't staggering or groaning so that made her believe that this was actual people. "How much farther is the barn," she heard a man say.

"It's not far from here."

Kali leaned her head back against the bark of the tree closing her eyes. Of course, Rick's group had made their way to the barn. She knew that she would be in deep trouble if she got caught. She stayed pressed against the tree waiting for the group to leave then she'd turn back towards Alexandria. Kali heard the group's footsteps going farther away.

Kali pushed off the tree and looked back at where the group. When she turned back heading towards Alexandria, she was met with a crossbow in her face.