𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

The sound of chirping birds had always been a comfort to her, the innocent song of the creatures reminding her there is still good in this world. But not today. Not at this moment. Today they reminded her that life remains after the dead, even on the unbearably hot summer day, some life still remained after others.

She had learned long ago that karma does not exist, the universe picks at random who stays and who goes no matter the quality of their life. She was heavily reminded of that fact when looking at the cold face of the boy below her as he lay stiff on the road, a bite to the shoulder and a stab to the head, the latter reluctantly at the fault of herself.

The bird's song became louder and louder in her ears, shouting the lyrics of hopes death and the departure of all good. Tears ran from her eyes, clearing small streaks of dirt from her face as the drops fell onto the boy's torso. She knew it was dangerous to be on the side of the road like this, out in the open for anyone or anything to rid her from this insufferable existence but her heart could not move from the pale boy that her head hovered over.

Right behind her a cluster of daisies grew from the overgrown bush, their clean white surface mocking the raggedy clothes that clung to her tired and hungry body. Gathering herself for only a moment, she convinced her still legs to walk towards the flowers and pluck them from the ground with her shaky hands.

Fighting the sobs that dared to escape her throat, she bundled up the flowers and dropped to her knees once again next to the cold body, not exactly caring if she broke her bones on the hard concrete. Picking up the boy's cold hand, she lay them on his torso with the bunch of flowers gently weighed down by his palms. She knew she could not bury him due to lack of tools but this was the best she could do. Less than he deserved but all that she could give.

"I'm sorry" escaped her quivering lips before a sharp wince slid from her throat. She covered her mouth quickly so as not to attract unwanted attention. She leaned over hesitantly and placed an unstable kiss on his forehead, her unruly hair falling over her face as she did. As her head was leaned over and her view obstructed by her untamed locks, the crunch of leaves behind her alerted her heart to start beating faster. She stayed still so as not to let the intruders know she was aware of them.

No growls....people.

As far as she understood it was a group, she may have been small and frail but never underestimated the power of her survival skills.

In one swift move, she removed the knife from her sheath and turned around standing towards the group. Instantly everyone's weapons went up, unfortunately for her most of theirs seemed to be firearms.

Shit

she thought, she was holding up a dull knife to a group of about fifteen people with guns. She almost laughed a little in the moment at how monumentally the odds were stacked against her. Frantically she spun her head to look at the group all spread out in the tree line, as her feet stayed grounded on the crumbling edge of the road. The silence clung to the air for a moment, she expected them to immediately shoot her or threaten her for everything in her bag; but the time allowed for her eyes to connect to the man in front of everyone. His grey beard was slightly stained with blood and had a suspicious scowl pointed directly at her. She let out a breath of defeat. This must have been the end, she couldn't take these people alone. Even if he was still here.

"Listen" her voice cracked, breaking the tense silence. "If you're going to kill me..... can I just have five more minutes with him" her voice was shaky no matter how much she wanted to appear strong. Her free hand pointed to the boy lying on the road with fresh daisies in his hands. She couldn't help the teardrops running down her face at the thought of her so desperately wanting to cling to him forever even in moments of danger. Blinking hard, she cleared her vision and found that the disapproving scowl the bearded man once wore was replaced with a softened look. Almost as if he felt sorry for her.

"Were not going to kill you." The man said in a deep southern accent as he began to signal to someone besides him. A woman with short grey hair and remnants of blood smeared on her face. "Just put your weapon down"

For a moment she hesitated, the words of lost ones ringing in her ears. Never let your guard down. Your weapon is your lifeline. Don't let them take it. However the words meant nothing to her in that moment, they never helped any of them in the end so what's the difference in this situation. Slowly she placed her knife on the ground, making sure to keep eye contact the whole time just in case one of them decides to shoot her in the head. As soon as she was up again with no knife, almost the entire group lowered their guns except the man with the beard. The woman with the short hair hastily walked up to her and patted her down whilst everyone kept a lookout.

"I have a can of corn and a half-eaten packet of chips, so the effort's not worth much considering the number of people you have" she let out defeatedly thinking they were robbing her since they didn't make the effort to kill her.

"We're not robbing you," the woman said as she finished patting the girl down, assured she wasn't concealing any more weapons. She was tired and hungry and at the loss of all hope so the idea of dragging out some prolonged torture no matter the outcome was simply too much.

"Then what the hell do you want from me" she let out a sob, backing up a little as her heel hit the leg of the unmoving boy on the road. The group all looked at each other with sympathy, some of them bowing their heads not able to bear witness to the girl's sorrow.

"We want to know what you're doing out here," a woman with shoulder-length brown hair and a strong southern accent asked her with soft eyes. The girl's heart broke at the question, reminding her of all she had just lost.

"I..... We were headed to a sanctuary. Terminus. We saw the signs and thought it was our safest bet. Until..." she stumbled on her words at the thought of what had happened, noticing a younger boy come out from the tree line with a baby clinging to his chest. She bit back a sob at the sight of such an innocent thing. "I'm sure they would take you in too," she said pointing at the small child and the boy who seemed to look about her age. Her head scanned frantically across the group of people as they all dejectedly looked at each other, letting their guards down.

"Terminus is gone, it's not safe," the man with the beard said as he lowered his gun, seemingly letting himself be more comforting to the crying girl. Her heart broke at those words. Of course, in a moment of hope for something good and safe, it was all torn away from her so cruelly. The whole group mourned the loss of belief with her as they too had just been stripped of the promise of safety. The man looked at her sunken face and then looked to the still boy on the side of the road, he dropped his head with his hands on his hips and hesitated before speaking again.

"How many walkers have you killed?" He asked so casually as if he were asking for a name.

"Walkers?" She questioned with scrunched eyebrows.

"The dead ones" the boy with the baby spoke up, catching eye contact with the girl for a moment before nervously looking away.

"I don't exactly keep a tally" she responded turning back to the bearded man, his stoic face said he was not playing around. "Enough to survive" she replied with a gulp.

"How many people have you killed?" the question rang out in her ears, the memory splitting through her head like lava. Her skin remembered the feeling of clammy hands holding her down whilst they tried to take everything from her people.

"Two" her voice shook and her head dropped to her leather boots, focusing on the soles that were slowly peeling off rather than the insufferable remembering.

"Why?" The question clung to the air desperately. These days that was the only question that mattered and the only question that had the simplest answer. Survival.

"They tied to kill me." She spat out, now getting frustrated at the disturbance of her peace. "We done playing twenty questions?" She said with sass as she turned around and picked up her bag from the ground, avoiding looking at the body that lay next to it. When she turned back she found a woman with long dark dreadlocks holding out her knife for her, handle first.

"What's your name?" She asked softly, maternal instinct lacing her tone and unknowingly calming the girl down. She looked at the knife suspiciously and slowly took it from the woman's hand with a sniffle.

"Matilda" the name sounded so uncomfortable coming from her lips, she was only called that when she was in trouble with her parents. The woman smiled slightly and looked over at the cold body on the ground.

"And what's his?" The woman asked quietly. Matilda felt the stares of all eyes on her as new tears threatened to leak from her eyes. Feeling the lump in her throat build and her lip start to shake she looked away to the face of the boy.

"Teddy," she said shakily, the name slipping from her lips with such sorrow it felt like a stab to the heart. It almost felt heavy as the sight of the smiling boy flashed across her mind and weighed on her shoulders. The tears fell from her eyes as she looked back to the group with sullen faces. The woman looked to the body, examining the bite on the shoulder and the single stab wound to his head and sighed mournfully.

"Who's Teddy to you?" She asked pointing between her and the body. Matilda froze, not knowing if she could get the words out of her mouth. Biting her lip and scrunching her face she held back from screaming and dropping to her knees.

"All I had," she said so quietly it was almost a whisper, her words slicing through the air making every heart in the surrounding people drop as they were cruelly reminded of all the people they too lost. "I couldn't bury him or move him somewhere nicer so... this is the best I could do" she wiped away the escaped tears and focused on the daisies softly blowing in the gust of wind that passed. The woman looked back at the bearded man who refused to meet her eyes and then back to Matilda.

"There's a small clearing about two minutes back that way" she pointed further up the road in the direction Matilda was originally headed. "Got flowers in it and everything, I think we could move him there"

"Michone-" the bearded man quickly interrupted, reluctant to the idea.

"We already cleared that way. We have the manpower" the boy with the baby and the sheriff's hat interrupted. "We can help, Dad." The boy finished, challenging his father with the act of kindness, something that made Matilda soften.

"We gotta put more distance between us and Terminus" the father replied, his hands on his hip and his fingers pressed to the bridge of his nose as he contemplated his options. Silence engulfed the rest of the group for a few seconds as they all silently looked around at each other.

"It's only a couple of minutes, we can spare that for some sympathy" an Asian man who was glued to the brunette from earlier spoke up as he walked towards the leader.

"You seriously don't have to" Matilda piped up from her separated spot, feeling quite awkward creating such tension in the group. The Asian man looked at the bearded one once more and they silently nodded to each other.

"Abraham, come help Glenn and I carry him," he said as he walked over to Matilda and placed a hand on the girl's boney shoulder. He looked around to the rest of the group and then bent his knee so he was at eye level with her. "I'm Rick. We're gonna help you" he let out with his raspy voice. She was shocked at the grand amount of kindness they showed, never in a world full of such violence would she expect a group of strangers to help her give Teddy a proper send-off. "Abraham, Glenn, Maggie, Carol, Eugene, Tara, Rosita, Bob, Sasha, Tyreese, Michone, Daryl, Carl and Judith" he pointed to everyone in the group as Glenn and Abraham lifted Teddy's body carefully, the bunch of flowers she had picked falling off of his limp body. She nodded to everyone in the group as they got their weapons ready again to walk back in the direction they came. Rick took off his jacket and carefully placed it over Teddy's face, looking back that the distraught girl as he supported the body.

"Let's go, Matilda," he said softly with a kind smile.

"Tilly" she spoke up hesitantly as they started moving forward. "My friends call me Tilly" she finished looking down at her feet.

The walk to the field was filled with silence, Rick had Tilly walk close to the front with Michone and Carl, partly because he didn't want to take chances and partly because he didn't think the girl should have to watch the boy's body be carried by strangers. Her head was stuck staring at her feet the entire time so she didn't even register their arrival at the clearing.

Michone gently placed a hand on Tilly's shoulder and she solemnly lifted her head. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the blaring sun creeping through the cracks of the trees, not so much sun that it was blinding but just enough that the streams seemed to be gracefully dancing with the moving leaves. Patches of flowers illuminated by the beams on the forest floor, Tilly almost burst into tears again as such an idyllic sight. She only wished Teddy was able to see it.

The men carrying Teddy moved him to the centre of the small clearing as Daryl and Maggie moved to keep watch of the space. Rick moved his jacket off of Teddy and once again placed his hands on his torso, his head perfectly placed so a beam of sunlight illuminated his face. Tilly thought to herself how almost angelic he looked despite the pools of blood soaking his skin and his clothes.

As she walked forward and the men walked behind her, she was gently stopped by a warm calloused hand. Turning to the source of the hand she met the piercing blue eyes of the boy Rick introduced as Carl. Tilly's eyebrow scrunched in question of why on earth this boy would stop her from seeing her brother. Her question was quickly answered as carl lifted his other hand to reveal the bunch of daisies that previously lay on her lost companions chest, of which she thought were left scattered on the concrete road.

A gentle sigh escaped her lips as she reached for the flowers, her hand gently brushing against the boy's as he made sure every single flower made it to her palm. Her heart skipped a beat as he once again connected their gazes and a sympathetic smile etched itself on the side of his lips. Her vision blurred as a single tear lined her eyes, this simple act of kindness from the boy breaking the walls she attempted to keep up.

"Thank you," she whispered as she blinked and a single tear dripped down her face. Slowly moving towards the body she knelt down and felt the glaring sun on her back, heating up her bare shoulders. She slipped the bunch of flowers under his hands and lay her palm on his sleeping heart, letting the tears free fall once again.

"I'm so sorry Teddy" she let out with a struggle, looking at his peacefully quiet face. "I should have been there, maybe I could have changed it" she finally let her cry ring out, knowing she had the protection now.

"I'm sorry we didn't get to find your Mom and Dad" she apologised through strained sobs. "They would be so proud... you did everything right. If you find them let me know" she finished as she kissed his forehead once more, this time lingering over his body and holding his still face one more time.

She stood up and turned around to face the group, most of them turning away to give her some peace but others with tears brimming their eyes at the pathetic display. Reaching into her backpack, she intended to get a bottle of water but her sore fingertips were met with the soft brush of fabric. Pulling it out her eyes connected with the large flannel Teddy had taken off days before because of the hot Georgia heat. Her breath hitched and lifted the flannel, still sensing him as if he were right in front of her cracking some stupid joke.

She dumped her bag on the ground and flipped the flannel to slip it over her body, rolling up the sleeves as they were much too long for her. Her hand clutched the buttons of the shirt as she raised her head to Rick who had moved towards the girl. She reached into her bag and pulled out the previously mentioned can of corn and handed it to him.

"What's this?" He asked, not taking the food but merely looking at it questionably.

"It's a can of corn" she replied obviously, tilting her head.

"I mean what are you doing giving it to us?" He emphasised.

"Thought it'd be of better use with you guys" she looked around, moving her arm forward a little more indicating for rick to take the can.

"You're leaving? b-by yourself?" He asked shocked with his hands once again on his hips and his body bent to meet her gaze. Tilly looked around at everyone with confusion painted on her face.

"Didn't know I was invited to stay." She stated quite plainly, simply thinking that the act of kindness was a one-time thing in the hope of something in exchange without the guilt of just taking it. Rick took her shoulder in his hand and smiled slightly.

"You're one of us now. You stay with us" he said strongly as if they had known each other for a lifetime. Tilly looked around at the group of people who had just helped her in an immeasurable way she could never explain and decided then and there that she would stick with them till the end.

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

yay! first chapter of my new fic💕 not sure how well this will do considering most of the people who read my books are harry potter fans but i love twd so thought i'd give it a shot.

sorry if you were excited to see ross lynch as teddy 😀 rip

anyway i've been reading a few twd fics recently and they're all in my twd reading list so check 'em out.

i also don't use american english spelling so sorry if that throws u off a little. i'll try my best to make it accurate😩