THE REASON

chapter fourteen ; two days left
[ season five – episode ten ]

   GLENN WATCHED HIS wife suffer. From sitting in the trunk of the van, the doors open so it didn't get too hot for her inside, his heart clenched with every second she tried to breathe.

For the previous four days, since Tyreese had died, Kloe's asthma worsened. She persevered with it for a couple of days, shrugging it off and thinking it would get better. It never did.

While the others sat outside of the van, waiting for Daryl, Maggie, and Sasha to return, Kloe rested across the seats inside the vehicle. She had used the lasting reliever Noah had given her — yet without the preventer, it was pointless.

They had also gone days without water and were near enough desperate. Even rain water would've been good for them. For March, the weather was extremely abnormal.

The three that had gone out into the woods were scavenging for food and water. However, the creeks had all dried out. With every one they found, they were dry to the core.

Kloe stared out of the window opposite her, using all her inner strength in an attempt to take at least one deep breath. The wheeze in her chest was disturbingly loud and made her wince everytime she did.

Glenn watched her for a minute, her fatigued eyes occasionally blinking. Her chapped lips were also noticeable. Having to breathe through her mouth to make it easier and less painful for her made her ten times thirstier than the others.

They were all weak, but she felt like a complete burden being the weakest.

He sighed deeply before hauling himself inside the vehicle and setting himself behind the seat she was leaning on. "How're you doing?" He didn't really have to ask, he could see exactly how she was doing. And it wasn't good.

She parted her lips, not taking her brown hues off the nature beyond the window. "Shit," she whispered, barely talking being the only volume she could speak.

Being closer to her, he finally took in her appearance properly. She was fatigued from having no sleep at night, afraid that she would stop breathing while she slept. Her face was somewhat pale and dripping with cold sweat.

She was only afraid, while Glenn was petrified. She looked terrifyingly similar to the time she had the virus that spread through the prison at the speed of light.

He ran his fingers through her damp, raven brown hair. He rested his forehead against the side of her head. "You're gonna be okay," he tried to reassure, not just her but himself too.

"From the way things are going..." she paused, sucking in a deep breath that filled the air with a squeak from her chest, "...I doubt it."

"No, don't think like that," he shook his head, making her slowly shift her eyes over to him and look him in the eyes. "Please... don't." She sent him an apologetic look, a pit forming in her stomach upon seeing the desperation in his eyes.

She broke her gaze away from him and back outside. "I don't think I'm the only one with very little hope," she quietly assumed. "The others don't think Washington's gonna happen... just Michonne and Rick I guess."

"I'd like to think there's something there, waiting for us," Glenn countered. "But you're right, I don't think there's anything there. We all thought Fort Benning or the CDC was something... but look how they turned out. The world is dead now."

"We're going after something that doesn't exist," she muttered, flickering her eyes back over to her husband. "And it's killing us." He watched her for a moment, swallowing thickly at her words. "If we don't get water by tomorrow, we're all gonna die. Even if we find water, every pharmacy we've searched has been empty and we're in the middle of nowhere. The closest pharmacy near us is—" she cut herself off, inhaling deeply, "---I'm not even sure where..."

"Hey, we'll find one soon," he comforted, sitting back so he leant against the wall of the car. He blinked sadly and guiltily, "if I hadn't dropped your inhaler while running the other day... you'd still be okay."

"It was almost empty anyway," she recalled. "And we were all running. No matter who had it, it still would've been lost. Don't blame yourself for this."

In unison, the married couple's heads snapped over to the back doors of the van, a young woman's eyes landing on the Rhee woman instantly. Isabelle Marshel looked between them for a moment before climbing inside.

She placed herself beside Glenn, her eyes glued onto his wife. She studied Kloe's face for a moment before exhaling heavily. "You have cold sweats. That's one of the warning signs of the start of an asthma attack."

"You mean the asthma attack hasn't even started yet?" Kloe wondered, her brows raised before quietly groaning. "I already feel shittier than shit."

"No, it has started. But it's just the beginning of it," Isabelle added, glancing back and forth between Glenn and Kloe. "You'll still be able to walk today, and speak. But tomorrow, you'll get weaker. If we don't find any relievers by the end of tomorrow, then we have to forget that plan and look for oxygen instead."

"You're kidding me," Kloe groaned, leaning the back of her head on the glass. "So, I more-or-less only have—"

"—Two days left..." Isabelle muttered, loud enough for the married couple to hear. Her eyes instantly widened from what she had just said. "N— not like that! I mean... two days before it... uh, becomes... dangerous? I don't know."

Glenn swallowed thickly, his eyes flickering away from the Marshel woman and toward Kloe. "Are there not any houses nearby? None at all?" he queried with concern. "And what about the closest pharmacy? There has to be."

"I already told you..." she gasped for breath, "there's none near here. We're in the middle of nowhere. There's nothing but trees and dandelions for the next seventeen or eighteen miles."

"She's right," Isabelle agreed, somewhat nodding her head. "Right now, our priority is finding a pharmacy. The others and I have been keeping a lookout on maps and stuff. And there's nothing."

"Can't we drive those eighteen miles?" Glenn pondered, glancing between the two. "We can get there by later tonight if we leave now."

"That's what we're trying to do," Isablle replied, turning back to Kloe. "I promise we'll find something too, okay? I promise."

Kloe managed to break out a weak smile. "What would I do without you all, huh? I'd be screwed."

...

After Daryl, Maggie, and Sasha returned to the group, they all left to continue on further to Washington. Kloe had been so exhausted from lack of sleep that she ended up passing out from fatigue.

Her breathing stabilized for a short while, but the moment it returned and hurt her, her eyes immediately shot open and awoke her from her desperate need of rest.

She coughed as she gasped for breath, sitting up within an instant. Her hand subconsciously traced over her chest, being able to feel the vibrations from the wheezing.

Her older brother, Zayn, lifted his chin and met her eyes. He didn't hesitate to stick his head out of the trunk's door. "She's up!"

Kloe's brows furrowed together as she waited for whoever Zayn called for. However, when she woke up, she wasn't expecting to see her brother's face sitting in the spot her husband had been sitting in for the past few days.

Yet her veins were filled with relief when she noticed his face peek around the door along with Isabelle. Kloe glanced around, confused. "Where is everybody?" she muttered, her voice slightly returning.

Zayn patted his hand on one of the trunk's doors. "Ran out of gas, now we're on foot. You were completely out of it and we figured you needed the rest. It's okay, they're not far. Only ten minutes ago they left. D'you think you have enough strength to walk?"

His sister stayed still for a second before she unconvincingly nodded. "Yeah. If I have to, I will." She used all her inner strength to pull herself up from the backseat. "Just the Walmart version of Superman."

Glenn hurried over to one of the car's doors and pulled it open. He pushed a seat forward, giving his wife room to exit. He leaned into the vehicle, wrapping his fingers around her arm.

She grunted as she pulled herself out of the car with the help of Glenn. She coughed lightly once more before her shoes came into contact with the concrete flooring.

Truth was, she hadn't walked in a day and a half. The entire time, she rested up for a moment like this where she would be at her weakest.

She swayed for a moment as she stood on the ground, her legs feeling like jelly. Thankfully, with Glenn's arm wrapped around her, she managed not to just tumble down.

The blaring hot sun within an instant, and she immediately felt like climbing back into the van for shade. The heat was unbearable, especially without any water to keep them hydrated.

Zayn and Isabelle grasped onto their belongings as Glenn and Kloe began their journey to the group. It wasn't as hard as Kloe expected it to be, yet it was still bad.

It felt like everything that happened in Georgia was forever ago. And right then, it was like a fever dream. For Kloe, the days were passing by within minutes.

Those four days were like just a single day in her eyes.

"Why is it so damn... hot?" Kloe wondered aloud, frowning deeply as she scanned the area around them. Even from the distance the four were at, they could just about see the other members of the group near the end of the straight road.

"I have no idea," Zayn replied, swiping away some sweat that dribbled down to his chin from his forehead. "It's supposed to be winter, not the middle of July."

"It is technically spring now, y'know?" Isabelle slightly smiled, her chapped lips cracking. "And besides, our bodies are beginning to overheat because of dehydration. We're feeling the heat a lot more than usual."

"God, I forget you're smart with health shit," Kloe breathlessly chuckles. "So I'm not gonna get sunburn and get sunstroke, nice."

"No... you can still get sunstroke, even if it was not as warm as it is," Isabelle corrected. "We're all exhausted, not just from dehydration but from our bodies overheating too."

"We will find something soon," Glenn reassured the other three... well, four. He was trying to assure himself too. "There are plenty of creeks around here, so we have to find something, surely."

"They're all empty," Zayn mumbled. "If all of the creeks we've found so far are all drier than powdered cinnamon, then whatever we find will also be empty. All we need to do is get into a town and pray that there's some bottles of spring water there."

"At least we have somebody left in this group with some faith," Kloe sarcastically eyed her older brother out of the corner of her eyes. She weakly smiled, "we need more of it."

...

It didn't take long to catch up with the others. Once they did, Daryl and Carol had gone off looking for some water. While they were gone, the small herd that dragged their feet along the road behind them only grew bigger.

Rick, Michonne, Glenn, and Jayce stood on one side of the road beside a steep ditch — and Sasha, Abraham, Maggie, and Reina were on the other side. Together, they waited for the walkers to be less than a meter in front of them before sliding to the side, causing the corpses to fall mindlessly into its trap.

Although, Sasha had another plan and began to attack the walkers with her knife — the main thing Rick and the others didn't want to do. They were all too weak, and they didn't want to use all of their strength to make them more thirsty than they already were.

Kloe managed to catch onto something from afar as her and the others watched, and that was that Rick almost got bitten on the arm. Fortunately enough, Daryl and Carol had returned and were in for the rescue and saved him.

After that, they walked into some deserted cars and looted anything they could find within them. There was nothing. As if their luck would have gotten any worse.

Currently, they were sitting around on the side of the road in the shade. It didn't help the high temperature they were all psychologically feeling from their dehydration, but the sun was only making it worse.

Kloe had her head rested up on her brother's shoulder, while Glenn on the right side of her massaged her knee. With every breath she took, she struggled. Everyone could see that.

Her eyes indistinctly shot open when there was rustling in the trees from behind. She swerved her neck and looked over her shoulder, seeing Daryl Dixon making his way through the branches.

She returned to setting her head on Zayn's shoulder, only to keep her eyes open this time. She watched carefully as Abraham Ford lifted up a small bottle of whiskey.

"So all we found was booze?" Tara asked, watching Abraham pop off the cap and pouring the liquid into his mouth. As much as it looked inviting since it was liquid, it wouldn't help their desperation of thirst and would only make it worse.

"Yeah," Rosita replied nonchalantly.

Tara turned her eyes back to ahead of her, briefly gazing across the others before turning to the ground. "It's not gonna help."

"He knows that," Rosita added, nodding her head beside Eugene.

"It's gonna make it worse."

"Yes, it is."

Kloe blinked for a few seconds before averting her eyes over to the red headed man, who was swallowing down multiple mouthfuls of the alcohol. Her brows raised at how he managed to drink the substance.

The one word that lingered across her mind was how.

"He's a grown man," Eugene commented, a book he kept from a library he and the group scouted out. "And I truly do not know if things can get worse."

There was a long silence as everyone stared into space. Until Rosita replied, "they can."

There were more rustles from the woods and an insane amount of growling. Except, it wasn't coming from the dead... it was more like a wild animal. More of an actual growl, not snarls.

In unison, everyone's heads snapped over to the trees. Emerging from them, four dogs that used to belong to people showed themselves. Rick and Daryl both whipped out their knives, stancing themselves in the right position.

The dogs then began to bark hysterically at them. Kloe bit down onto her bottom chapped lip and prayed for them to stop. They could've attracted lurkers nearby.

That was until Sasha stood up, grasped onto her sniper and took each of the four dogs out one by one. Kloe's body jolted as she watched the four bodies of the dogs fall limply onto the ground.

One thing about Kloe was that she was a dog lover. When she was younger, she would always beg for a pet dog. Her parents always said no because of their mother's allergy.

She couldn't help but feel guilty as she felt her stomach quietly growl. She and the others were starving.

Rick rose to his feet and stumbled over to the side, wrapping his hand around a branch that had fallen off the tree above them, supplying them with the shade they wanted.

It didn't take long for them to start a fire, and for Daryl to skin the dogs. Zayn helped him with chopping them up to small chunks and sliding them down onto sticks people found in the woods next to them.

The Schmidt man handed a stick of two lumps of meat over to his sister, who weakly took it and thanked him. She stared at the dog meat for a moment or two before she hovered it over the hot flames Rick and a few others had started.

Glenn did the same beside her, watching her absentmindedly. "Don't feel guilty," he whispered, leaning into her ear. She snapped her head over to him, frowning slightly. "I can see in your face. We haven't had food in days."

"I know," she coughed as she went back to watching the flames rise. "Just... never eaten a dog before."

"I don't think any of us have," Reina spoke up from beside Tara. "It's okay, though. I feel guilty too. These dogs used to belong to someone. They were someone's pets at one point."

"God, now I feel even worse," Kloe admitted, glancing over her shoulder at the lone collars that were thrown on the ground by Daryl. She attempted to suck in a deep breath, but it only resulted in a loud wheeze and barely enough oxygen for her lungs.

"Is there really not any other way other than inhalers to help?" Tara wondered, leaning forward with her own stick of meat over the fire.

"There is one more thing that could work..." Kloe wheezed, watching the others that looked at her for clarification. "Water."

"The one thing we can't find," Reina groaned, leaning back exasperatedly. "I'm fed up with living like this. There's surely a lot more around here that isn't Washington. There has to be more survivors like us."

"Everywhere we go goes to shit," Maggie mumbled, not taking her eyes off the ground. "No matter where we go, we're probably gonna wreck it in our own way anyway and will have to find another place and wreck that one too."

The others all stared at her for a moment, a sad look filling their eyes. Ever since Maggie lost her sister, Beth, she had been the worst off when it came to 'faith'. She hadn't been the same. She had lost so much in a short period of time. Her entire family was ripped away from her.

The only closest person she had left was Jayce Bryant. But the only thing that rambled through Maggie's mind was how long exactly did he have left before he got ripped away from her too?

Jayce swallowed thickly before setting his hand on Maggie's shoulder and whispered something in her ear the others couldn't hear.

Kloe broke away her gaze and looked back at the meat. If she continued to suffer from her stupid lung disease, she wouldn't have to worry about anything anymore.

She immediately felt like slapping herself across the face for thinking something like that, but she knew deep down that the thought was only the truth and reality.

An even larger wave of guilt flushed over her as she glanced over at her husband beside her. Why would she be so selfish to think something like that? She should've been thankful that she still had people that would give their own life for her.

She slowly shifted her eyes back over to the fire and the meat on her stick. Her eyes lightened a little when she noticed hers were done. She pulled it over toward her and examined the meat on the wood.

Attempting to blow it to cool down, her lung immediately thought differently and made her cough. Her hand flew over her mouth as she gasped for breath. A hand instantaneously rubbed her back.

When she caught her breath, she looked over at her husband who was the one caressing her back. He watched her with sympathy for a moment before she lifted the stick up. "Can you blow it, please?" she asked, wanting to scream with rage from how much she felt like a burden.

He pursed his lips and nodded, carefully taking the stick of meat out of her hand. She observed him as he blew onto it, the meat cooling down. He handed it back to her. "Thanks."

He smiled at her, rubbing his thumb over her shoulder for a short moment.

She took a bite, her eyes glossing over as she chewed on the contents. She stared into space as her eyes continued to fill with tears, not enough to fall out.

When would it be over?

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words: 3401
23rd july 2023
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shorter chapter than usual BUT KLOE AND HER ASTHMA COMING INTO PLAY HELLO?? scared.