❛ I created the sound of madness; wrote the book on pain. Somehow I'm still here, to explain. ❜

SEASON 3, EPISODE 1
seed

━━━━━━ day 300.

SEVEN MONTHS AND the routine became clockwork. First, find a house a half day's drive from the last one they squatted in, clear the place with Rick at the front with the gun. Then, T-Dog and his piece of Metal, Daryl and his crossbow, Bianca and her sledgehammer, and Carl bringing up the rear with his gun. Next, Glenn and Maggie cleared the exterior of the house, checking the backyard and any sheds for lingering walkers.

⠀⠀⠀It'd take twenty minutes if it was a good day. However, some days, there was much more to handle, especially if the exhaustion from the last one hadn't passed.

⠀⠀⠀The one they'd come across most recently was made for a good day. The house was big with an upstairs, but it seemed only the previous homeowners were left inside. Easy to take down since there were so few of them. Daryl also came across an owl, shot dead and plucking its feathers to eat.

⠀⠀⠀When Rick was confident the house was clear, he whistled the others inside who carried their bedding and clothing. With the door still open, Bianca took the opportunity to drag out the dead walker from the hallway and dragged it down the steps. Carl had shot one too further inside the house, but thankfully it was behind closed doors. This one reeked already, and she was tired of smelling walker corpses.

⠀⠀⠀Rick stayed at the door, waiting for Bianca to finish lugging the walker down the stairs. Each time its head hit against a step, blood-streaked down, and a loud thud made her flinch slightly. Finally, with it far enough away and distraction enough if any stragglers were trying to get to the front door, she stood back up, dusting her hands on her pants, and went back inside. Rick nodded at her as she passed then closed the door behind her.

⠀⠀⠀The past few months had been tiresome and draining for all of them. They had all stayed together, grown with one another. They truly considered each other a family after all they'd gone through. Bianca could remember that night when half this group sat together around the dinner table with Jenner at the CDC. They drank wine, laughed together, told stories, and looked like people not just surviving together for the first time. Bianca could see them becoming her family even with the freshness of her real family's death. She had seen this, where they had come from, and how close they'd gotten.

⠀⠀⠀However, just because Bianca saw them as family did not mean their moods were as high and lifted as the night drunk on wine. They were weary with the destruction of the farm, their friend's death, and the question of whether Andrea made it out alive. Other factors were filtering between those worries, and Bianca hadn't been able to dispose of hers.

⠀⠀⠀Bianca felt she was a shell of her past self as she looked around at her people and remembered what she used to be like. Whenever she caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror or still water, she looked pale despite being in the sun for days on end. Her hair would begin to mat if they went days without a river to wash. And her eyes... she hardly recognized the hollow gaze, black and dead as they stared back at her.

⠀⠀⠀After Sophia's death, Bianca felt all of her hope vanish. What kept her moving, believing that Cal was still out there, alive, seemed to go down the drain. She had put so much of herself into him, and yet the likelihood of him surviving months and months and months were gone. Or, if Cal was like her, he might be with another group, long gone or just out of reach.

⠀⠀⠀They had all noticed how unlike Bianca was as the months dragged on, but how could they question her change of state when they were all the same. They had all lost a little bit of hope the day the farm was destroyed.

⠀⠀⠀Bianca didn't talk as much, focused on fixing the cars when they broke down or going on runs with Glenn or Maggie, and somehow, her anger lessened. She no longer had angry outbursts, possibly due to the fact Shane was no longer around to antagonize her, and only did it seem to spark when fighting walkers.

⠀⠀⠀Bianca was brought out of her reverie as a stale piece of bread was held in front of her. She stared at it and only took it when Glenn shook his hand to bring back her attention. She accepted the food, her stomach grumbling, and she bit into the bread with a crunch.

⠀⠀⠀Carl walked into the living room. His eyebrows furrowed with focus as he was intently set on whatever task he had given himself. He sat down in the circle, putting his gun beside him, and rummaged through his bag. Finally, he pulled out a can of food in front of him.

⠀⠀⠀Dog food.

⠀⠀⠀It had really come to this. Struggling to survive, killing walkers at every turn, and losing more and more of themselves each day. Now, to top it off, they were eating dog food.

⠀⠀⠀Carl pulled out a can opener, unperturbed by their, and opened the can. Rick had been in a similar thoughtful state as Bianca before, but the sound of cutting metal alerted him. He turned sharply toward his son and hardly took time to think before walking across the room and picking up the can. He stared at the image on the front, turned away, and tossed it into another room.

⠀⠀⠀Rick didn't believe they had fallen that far yet.

⠀⠀⠀However, they were hungry and had nothing but stale bread to eat, and the owl Daryl was de-feathering.

⠀⠀⠀Their time in the house didn't last much longer as T-Dog alerted the group to the window as a small herd headed their way. They packed their things with ease and ran from the house, hopping into the cars to find somewhere else to sleep for the night.

RICK AND DARYL had found a prison not far from where the caravan was parked. They led the others to the fence and stared from behind the brush for a moment. The prison was looming, gray walls intimidating and a yard the size of ten backyards from door to fence. It looked dreary and suffocating, but for their small group, it was like a lavish mansion had fallen into their laps. However, the yard was infested with walkers as they roamed in circles, growling loud enough for them to hear.

⠀⠀⠀Pulling them out of their reverie, Rick stood and went to the gate. He'd explain the plan to them as they stared with big moon eyes at the prison. Rick cut the gate open with wire cutters while they circled Lori, her stomach as big as a planet with her baby near due. One walker got up close and personal, but Glenn and Maggie stepped away from the circle to get rid of it while Bianca and T-Dog closed their gap. Unfortunately, the walker was dead just as Rick finished cutting the wire, opening the fence for them to enter.

⠀⠀⠀Daryl walked through first to hold the other side of the fence open for them. Lori went in first, then Carl, Beth, Hershel, Glenn, and Maggie.

⠀⠀⠀"Hurry! Hurry!" Rick exclaimed, waving frantically at T-Dog and Bianca, who stayed on watch. They followed Rick's instruction, rushing inside, then Rick fell in behind them. Glenn consumed the space in front of the hole and tied the fence back shut.

⠀⠀⠀As Glenn tied off the wire, a walker bounced against the fence, making him jump, but they were safe with it closed. They moved down the front entrance made up of fences on either side, initially meant to keep the prisoners from escaping when visitors came in. Thankfully, it kept them between the walkers on either side with no immediate danger tailing them.

⠀⠀⠀Rick led them to a gate, unlocked for them, and pulled it open. Inside there stood a small square of fencing, a tower to their left, and a narrow shot to the front of the prison ahead of them. Rick took a second to look over the walkers that had noticed them, clinging to the fence in hopes to phase through. Bianca noticed his face a little brighter than it had been, hope glowing behind his eyes and sparking his skin that hadn't been there since the farm fell.

⠀⠀⠀"It's perfect," Rick told them, a slight smile tugging at his cheeks. "If we can shut that gate, prevent more from filling the yard, we can pick off these walkers. We'll take the field by tonight."

⠀⠀⠀"So, how do we shut the gate?" Hershel asked him curiously.

⠀⠀⠀"I'll do it," Glenn volunteered. "You guys cover me."

⠀⠀⠀"No, it's a suicide run," Maggie protested, shaking her head.

⠀⠀⠀Glenn turned to her and argued, "I'm the fastest."

⠀⠀⠀"No. You, Maggie, and Beth draw as many as you can over there," Rick ordered Glenn, pointing toward the fence sitting diagonally from the gate. "Pop them through the fence. Daryl, go to the other tower," he continued, then walked over to Carol and spoke in a kind, soft voice. "Carol, you've become a pretty good shot. Take your time. We don't have a lot of ammo to waste. Hershel, you and Carl take this tower. And, Bianca, I want you to stay down here with Lori keep her safe. And, if something happens to me, you gotta get that fence locked, alright?"

⠀⠀⠀Bianca raised an eyebrow, nervous as she glanced at Glenn, and asked, "I thought Glenn was the fastest?"

⠀⠀⠀Bianca had gotten familiar with the fact that sometimes she'd need to protect someone. Even if her own fears caused her to think that she would be the one who ended up killing them. She'd been okay but being put in the position to protect Lori, and her unborn child was a weight she hadn't wanted to bear. Flashes of her mom on the couch, gut opened wide came behind her eyes but were pulled away as Rick's hand rested reassuringly on her shoulder.

⠀⠀⠀"Glenn's fast, but you're smart. You can't get the carabiners. Figure something out, alright? I know you can," Rick said to her, his voice the same kind of soft as he had given Carol, and his eyes, full of hope once again, stared back into her dark dead ones without fear.

⠀⠀⠀Rick put so much trust into her that Bianca couldn't tell him no. So, she nodded her head sharply, steeling herself for what was about to happen.

⠀⠀⠀"Good," Rick told her and removed his hand from.

⠀⠀⠀Rick turned to the gate, and Lori handed him the carabiners. They stood together, tense as they'd been since Shane was killed, and waited a moment before Lori opened the gate and Rick was sprinting across the field. Glenn, Maggie, and Beth were screaming, calling attention to them rather than Rick, and the walkers got closer only to get stabbed through the head. Carl, Hershel, Daryl, and Carol stood up in the towers and shot the ones dangerously close to Rick down. Daryl had gotten one walking up behind Rick without him realizing, then Carol nearly shot him in the foot.

⠀⠀⠀Bianca stood by Lori, watching intently as Rick made it to the gate and closed it without issue. Then, he picked up the gun he'd dropped behind him and shot the walkers on top of him before running back to the gate.

⠀⠀⠀"Light it up!" Daryl yelled down to the rest of them when Rick was safe. Bianca pulled out her gun from the hem of her pants, one she didn't use as often as her sledgehammer and helped kill the rest of the yard through the holes in the fence.

⠀⠀⠀It felt too easy to kill them all. They were only a handful of people against three dozen walkers, and they'd gotten them all. When the yard was clear and the dust settled, Bianca put on the safety and rested her gun back between the hem of her jeans.

⠀⠀⠀"You okay?" Carol asked Lori worriedly as she returned from the top of the tower.

⠀⠀⠀Lori held the gate open for them to pass through and gave Carol a warm smile as she said, "I haven't felt this good in weeks."

⠀⠀⠀Daryl smiled at Lori, then wrapped his arm around Bianca's neck to drag her behind him.

⠀⠀⠀"Ah, home sweet home," Daryl laughed, his chest rumbling into Bianca's bones, and she allowed a slight smile of finally finding somewhere they could stay awhile.

⠀⠀⠀"Oh! Oh, oh! We haven't had this much space since we left the farm!" Carol exclaimed, hopping ahead of them in delight with her hands raised.

⠀⠀⠀A walker stirred, but Glenn rushed ahead, forcing it down with his heel, and stabbed it through the head. When he finished, T-Dog started chuckling until it grew louder and louder, followed by him shouting, "Whoo!" Bianca felt that the sentiment couldn't have been better said.

AUTHOR'S NOTE —

You know what sucks, these first two episodes because Cal's not in them :/ lameeee. We have a little longer to wait until finally FINALLY we see what Cal has been up to since the Governor found him :)

This is kind of boring, I guess. Maybe a hint or two to things that happen in the season... but other than that. I really like the next episode with the prisoners officially introduced, but we still have one of episode one.

Okay, thank you guys for all your support! I'm excited to get through this season which is pretty much all written except the last episode lol. 

SONG: Sound of Madness by Shinedown

Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment if you'd like. However, this is an all kind of reader safe space. So even if you ghost read or comment every chapter, I hope you know it means the world to me that you've come into this fic ♡ I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and until the next one.