━ CHAPTER FOUR,
cough drops to wake the death.

ITS THE middle of the night. There's the sound of crunching and stepping on grass before reaching the double fence. Shining a flashlight in the many walkers standing outside of them but most importantly, the flashlight shining on the one with the name tag.

A mouse is reached up from the tail, moving into the hole in the fences, the walker moving forward, growling and taking a bite. Footsteps walking away and flashlight lowered.

ITS DAWN AND Cassandra is awakened by her father. "Hey, Kiddo." He spoke softly. The girl rubbed her eyes, adjusting her eyes to the light that shined through those windows. She waved at him ( more like the wall ) with her eyes still shut.

"C'mon, get dressed. Meet me outside, I have a surprise for you." He chuckled at how she seemed to open her eyes at those words and begun to stretch. "Okay, just give me a second." Cass spoke, her voice a bit scratchy.

     "Alright" He muttered.

After a few minutes of just laying in bed and stuck in a blanket burrito, she decided to get out of bed. Cass for dressed in a pair of jeans, a long sleeve dark blue shirt and her boots. She brushed through her hair and made her way outside to meet her dad.

She comes across Carol making some food and Birdie runs over to the woman, sitting by her feet and waiting if anything will come her way. Cass chuckles and waves once she catches Carol's attention. The girl walked down into the large yard, meeting her dad in the middle who was setting something up.

With a confused expression, she calls out. "Dad?" He looks over, a smile taking to ear to ear, practically trotting over, waving his hand, "Cover your eyes." She gave him a look before he motioned her to just do it, Cass almost had the urge to roll her eyes before putting her hands over her eyes. She heard some shuffling and crunches of grass as he walked back and forth.

     As he stepped a couple feet away from his daughter, "Okay, open your eyes."

Cass moved her hands from her eyes to reveal her dad holding a bow and arrow in his arms, presenting it to his daughter. She gasped, "Oh my god!" She walked forward, taking it into her hands carefully, "Where did you find this?!"

Roman snickers, "I went on a run earlier and I found it. Thought of you." Cass stops admiring it, smiling up at her father before it begun to slightly fade. "Wait. I don't know how to—" Roman interrupted, "I'll teach you." Cassandra shrieks.

"I set up a smiley face on this tree as your target, okay? Put your bow," Cass got lined up and followed directions, "Good. Now, aim for the middle, okay? Back straight. Focus, needle in water." Cass moved her focus to her dad, giving him a 'what!' look. Roman chuckled but motioned for her to get back into it.

Cass imagined the target being a needle in water, whatever that means but none the less, she breathed in and out nice and slow and narrowed her eyes. Then, shoot.

Cass in fact did not hit the target. Instead, it had flew right past Ricks head, going down and landing into the dirt by his crops. She made a guilty face as Rick looked to where the arrow had came from, sighing when he saw Cassandra shrugging innocently before calling out, "Sorry!"

"You know, we'll just say the next one is practice." Roman teased. Cass looked up at him with this look saying 'really' before laughing it off.

THE FATHER AND DAUGHTER ended up getting out of the field after Cass had almost shot someone else in the head, it was her idea to put the bow and arrow down and try again another day. Cass was now learning some cooking tricks from Carol and Roman sitting at the table with his wife telling all about the adventures of the day he already had.

"Have you ever learned how to cook?" Carol asked the young girl. "Uh, no. Not anything without a microwave." Cass chuckled, her cheeks turning red from a tiny bit of embarrassment.

"Not to worry, we can change that."

Cass smiled at the woman, Carol has become someone she can look up to. You can see that she's been through some battles and made it through the storm, Cass just hopes she will be able to do that. Carol begins to explain and show her a few things and Cassandra listening intently.

That was when the young Peletier walked over, "Hey, guys." The two looked over and smiled at Salem, "Hi," Cassandra opened her arms and the two teenagers shared a welcoming hug.

Salem was Carol's daughter. Cassandra had seen her the first day she arrived and the amount of time Cass had hung around Carol, it was bound for the two to meet. Salem is one of the few around here that the Hastings siblings could call a friend.

However, Cassandra believed her twin, Drew had a crush on Salem. Which she believed was a big deal for her brother.

The girl always denies it, claiming that they only talked once. Cassandra could tell the lies straight away because Salem always scratches her nose when she lies.

Speaking of it, Drew then strolls over and makes a beeline for Salem. His sister and Salem looked at him as he smiled, seeming flustered. He opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted.

Out of the blue, gunshots were heard from inside one of the cell blocks and everyone tenses up, looking towards the prison, inside their head about who's gonna come out or if more will be heard. Mica, Lizzie and Birdie running behind, protecting them, runs out yelling for help. Birdie runs to her, Cass puts her hands on either side of her dog's face, "Good girl." Carol and Salem run to the girls, making sure they're okay. Roman had already stood up from his seat, telling his wife to stay here with the kids who had run over to her now.

Cass pulls out her gun, letting out an un-noticed sigh. Glenn comes running out, "Walkers in D!" Cassandra looked over and saw that her brother had taken out his gun, she hit his shoulder lightly to get his attention, "No. Stay with mom." Drew looked down at her, his shoulders slumping, and didn't say anything as Cass walked away.

Drew could only wonder how the roles got reversed. She was the younger twin after all.

"What about C?!" Rick yells. Sasha, Daryl, Apollo and Tyreese came outside right after, "Clear. We locked the gates to the tombs. Hershel's on guard." As they come down the steps, Cassandra meets them at the bottom, arm reaching out for Apollo, his hand moving down from her forearm to her hand, which was noticed by Delilah from afar. "You, okay?" She asked, Cass only got a nod back, he had looked at her, seemingly asking the same thing ( also receiving a nod in return ) before they follow everyone into the Cell blocks.

Even from down the hall, you can hear the screams. By the time they ran inside they already saw Theo there, helping some of the others who weren't bit and running from the walkers, and Theo was busy taking the walkers roaming out. Cassandra stood at the entrance; mouth gaped. Everyone ran past her, her father staying close but helping others.

A girl ran towards her, giving her a side hug, seeking protection. Cass looked down at her, "Are you bit?" She asked. The little girl shook her head, tears present on her face, "My mommy." She pointed forward and Cass looks, seeing a woman who's clearly a walker, coming towards them.

Cass leaned down to the girl's level, "Go with Carol." She showed the little girl the woman standing behind her, she nodded and let the woman take her away. Once, she was out of sight, Cass raised her gun, shooting the girl's dead mother down.

Cass stared, almost ashamed. Another one was coming towards her though, grabbing the cloth of her sleeve, Cass used the blunt end of her gun for the walker to let go and hit the ground. Before Cass could shoot it in the brain, Theo comes from the side, doing it for her. Cassandra was stunned, breathing heavily but nodded out of gratitude.

It was over after that. "Are we clear down here?" Rick shouted, "We're safe?" "Yeah, Yeah."

"Up here!" Someone yelled. Cassandra followed Daryl up the stairs, keeping the grip on her gun as she walked up the steps, ready for anything. A frown appearing on her face as she passed the woman dead by the steps and continuing to walk past.

Glenn checked a room, ripping the sheet back to look inside before a walker scared and grabbed him. "Get down!" Daryl yelled before shooting the arrow in the walkers head. Cassandra walked over, holding out her hand for Glenn to grab and lifted him off the ground. "You, okay?" He nodded as he caught his breath, "Thanks."

Rick opened up the sheet revealing the walker. Cassandra adverted her eyes when she saw who the face belonged to, "Oh, it's Patrick." She heard Daryl voice.

Daryl leans and looks over the railing, seeing all the now dead people who had turned, "That's all of 'em." Cassandra bit her lip, shaking her head, giving Glenn a pat on the shoulder and leaving. The blonde girl walked down the steps, meeting her dad and Apollo down at the bottom. "All of them?" Roman asked. Cass nodded, opening her arms and giving them a hug.

By time they let go, most of the people and kids that were left alive and scarred as they walked out of the cell, Cass walking over to check on them as well. She saw Hershel looking at a bloody cut before stumbling back as the little girl from before runs over to her, giving her another hug. "Hey," Cass says softly, giving her a supporting hand on her back, "It's okay. You okay?" She moved the girl away from her before leaning down.

The girl could only master a nod at the moment, rubbing her eyes and wiping the tears away. "Where's your dad?" Cassandra asked. She pointed; he was sitting next to Hershel. Cass gave the girl another hug, "Come on, let me take you back to your dad and Dr. Hershel."

CASSANDRA STOOD NEXT to Bob as they examined one of the bodies who had turned, blood all over his face. She didn't want to be here, she'd rather be with her family but she felt like she needed to. She needed to understand.

The doctor and Hershel walk in, moving past the two. Rick leans down, "No bites. No wounds," He looks at everyone, "I think he just died."

"Horribly, too." The doctor speaks up, "Pleurisy aspiration." Cassandra scrunched her face, in confusion of what that was. "Choked to death on his own blood." Hershel spoke almost if he read the blondes mind, "Caused those trails down his face."

"I've seen them before," Cass looks at Rick as he pauses for a moment, "On a walker outside the fences." Cass put her head down, thinking. "I saw them on Patrick, too."

"They're from the internal lung pressure building up, like if you shake a soda can and pop the top." The doctor leaning down with Rick states. Cass almost wanted to smile at that, she would do that on her after school gas station trips and if it spilt crazy, she'd chase Apollo and her brother with it.

"It's a sickness from the walkers?" Bob speaks up for the first time, Cass points to him as if she was wondering as well. "No, these things happened before they were around. Could be pneumococcal. Most likely an agressive flu strain." He explained.

"Sounds horrible... looks horrible." Cass spoke, looking down at the blood faced boy.

"Someone locked him in just in time." Hershel said. Cass could only nod to herself as in agreement.

"No, man. Charlie used to sleepwalk. Locked himself in. Hell, he was just eating barbecue yesterday. How could somebody die in a day just from a cold?" Daryl talked. "I had a sick pig. It died quick. Saw a sick boar in the woods."

Cass gulped the lump in her throat, the situation beginning to feel real. "Pigs and birds. That's how these things spread in the past. We need to do something about those hogs." Hershel said to everyone. "Maybe we got lucky. Maybe these two cases are it." The doctor tried. Tried to be optimistic and Cass almost believed him.

"Havent seen anybody be lucky in a long time."

Cass looked at Bob, "Bugs like to run through close quarters. Doesn't get any closer than this."

"All of us in here, we've all been exposed." Hershel points out. Rick stands up to his feet, Cass biting her bottom lip as she backs up out of the room, looking down the railing once again, glancing at the young Peletier letting out a small cough in the corner.

"As long as it's not my brother." Cass whispers.

( word count: 1999 )

authors note.
this chapter was supposed to be
longer but i decided to cut it short so i
can finally update.
& more foreshadowing 🤭🤭

thank you for 500+ reads, it's amazing 🫶