THE REASON 

chapter seven ; harsh, hate, and rage
[ season five – episode three ]

   "DOES HE HAVE a fever?" Rick asked Maggie after his small conversation with Kloe less than five seconds before.

"He's warm," she replied, her hand held over her chest — her own sadness in her tone from having to lose a friend soon.

"Jim lasted almost... two days before we left him," Glenn commented, releasing his hand connected to his wife's and set it on her shoulder.

"Time for a reality check," a voice said rather loudly behind them. Everyone turned to face Abraham Ford, who stood in the center of the room with his gun in hand. "We all need to leave for DC right now."

Everyone stared at the red haired man, their brows furrowing deeply toward him. "Daryl and Carol are gonna be back," Rick stated as Glenn shifted beside Kloe. "We're not going anywhere without them."

"I respect that, but there's a clear threat here to Eugene. I need to extract his ass before things get any uglier. So if y'all won't come, good luck to you. We'll go our separate ways." He turned his back to the group and began walking to the doors. The Espinosa woman joined Abraham's side with her own equipment.

"You leaving on foot?" Rick questioned, making the pair stop.

"We fixed that damn bus ourselves," Abraham retorted, irritated with the Grimes man as he slowly twisted his body to face him.

"There are a lot more of us," Rick reasoned, raising his brows at the Ford man as he harshly stepped forward.

"You want to keep it that way? You should come."

"Not only did Kloe save your life, but Carol did too. We saved your life," Rick reminded, gesturing to himself and the group behind him.

"Well, I am trying to save yours!" Abraham roared. "Save everyone's!"

"We're not going anywhere without our people," Rick repeated, clenching his jaw.

"Your people took off."

"They're coming back."

"To what, picked over bones?!" Abraham yelled into Rick's face.

"You're not taking—" Rick went to shove the man with his hand, but was immediately pushed away.

"Do not lay hands!"the Ford man shouted even louder than before. Glenn left Kloe's side and walked forward, to which his wife followed behind him.

"Abraham!" Rosita shouted from behind.

Glenn set his hands on the two mens' shoulders, which caused Abraham to yell inaudible words into Rick's face. "Hey, hey, stop! Now!" Glenn bellowed, separating them.

As Rick took a few steps back, Kloe set her hand on his shoulder as she watched her husband.

Glenn veered his body away from Rick and to the red-head. "Do you really think that you're gonna be any safer leaving right now in the middle of the night?"

Abraham ripped his enraged eyes away from Rick and to the Rhee man. "Yeah," he huffed, unnoticeably nodding his head. "Yeah."

"What about tomorrow?" Glenn reasoned. "We need each other for this. We need each other to get to DC. We can get through all of it together."

"I have an idea," Tara announced, heading over to her friend and Abraham. SHe looked around at the ones around her before keeping her eyes on Abraham. "If you stay just one more day and help, I— I'll go with you to DC no matter what. Okay?"

Tara whipped her head to the side, meeting Kloe's eyes. She sent the Rhee woman a soft smile, to which she forcefully returned. Abraham squinted his eyes as he was put into consideration, but he saw the way Tara looked at Kloe and faced back to Glenn.

"Glenn and Kloe, too."

"Like hell they are—" Zayn growled, but was cut off when Jayce wrapped his fingers around his upper-arm. Kloe snapped her head over to her brother's direction and pursed her lips.

"No," Rick dismissed barely above a whisper, loud enough for everyone to hear him though. He looked down at Kloe by his side and sent her a small nod. He wasn't going to let the two people he had known the longest out of the whole group leave.

"Good luck, then. I'm not interested in breaking up what you have here," Abraham replied, much calmer than before. Glenn looked over at his wife, and she moderately shrugged. "Rosita, grab your gear."

"Abraham..." she trailed off, obviously not wanting to take down the offer they were just given.

"Now," he stated sternly. "Eugene let's go." The mentioned man stayed put, not moving an inch. "Eugene. Move it."

"I— I don't want to," Eugene responded submissively, avoiding any eye contact from anybody.

"Now," Abraham stated rigorously through gritted teeth.

"Okay," he whispered, standing up from the pew he was sitting on and slowly walked over to Abraham and Rosita. The Ford man began walking toward the door, the two behind him following him on his heels.

Kloe felt bad for the two following the man. It was as if they were forced into doing something they didn't want to do — which was exactly what was happening.

She finally took her hand off of Rick's shoulder, expecting him to be calm and not push any further. But hell, she was wrong. "You're not taking the bus," he muttered, causing Kloe's shoulders to slump down as she watched the three freeze behind Glenn.

"Try to stop me."

Kloe gulped as the air in the room grew thick and she held her breath. Glenn and Kloe both shared a glance before looking over at Rick, who clenched his jaw tightly. His knuckles turned white before storming forward over to Abraham.

Kloe lunged forward, attempting to stop the Grimes man by putting her hand back on his shoulder. But it did nothing as he got ready to raise his fist. "Wait, wait, wait, stop!" she yelled, tugging on the man's arm. Abraham rolled his eyes and shoved his gun into Eugene's chest.

She figured it was useless even trying and letting go before she got herself hurt. Glenn dived forward once again the moment he saw Rick's fist fly into the air. "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! Hey, hey, hey!" He pressed his palms against the mens' chests this time, keeping them apart. He looked at Rick, sending him a look to not say anything more and nodded to his wife.

Kloe obliged and stepped forward, wrapping her hand around Rick's upper-arm and dragged him somewhat away — but still kept him close. "Calm down, alright," she murmured.

Glenn's head twisted toward Abraham and stared straight into his eyes. "You stay..." he stopped, waiting for the man to actually look him in the eye. And when he did, he continued. "You stay and help us, and we will go with you," he pointed at his wife and himself.

"No," Rick butted in, glaring across at Glenn. He wasn't going to give in — he didn't want to. He wanted his group together. He didn't want it splitting up again.

"It's not your call," Glenn told Rick firmly, before he shifted his gaze over to the woman beside the Grimes man. She seemed hesitant for a moment, but she gave in and nodded. He then went back to facing Abraham. "You stay, help us."

He fell silent for a moment, looking down at the ground beside him as he was put into consideration for the millionth time that day. The silence was so loud that Kloe swore she could hear her brain working. Finally, he looked over at Glenn from the corner of his eyes. "Half a day," he said. "Come high noon, we're taillights. I'm not waiting for the other damn shoe to drop."

"And we will leave with you," Kloe assured, nodding across at the man.

The red-head nodded, finally closing in on an agreement. "Twelve hours. Then we go."

...

"I don't want you to leave, Klo," the Marshel girl whispered from beside Kloe on one of the pews. It had been around ten minutes after the agreement was settled, and there had been nothing but a thick, tense and quiet atmosphere around them. "It's gonna be weird without you."

"I have to, Isa," Kloe said, sending the young woman a sad gaze. "But I'll be back, you know that. It'll only be a week or two. No matter what, I'll come back for you guys. I promise."

"I know, but... what if something was to happen? None of us would know about it," Isabelle replied, a sad expression etched onto her face.

Kloe tilted her head and shook it. She set her hand over Isabelle's shaky one on her knee. "Nothing — and I mean nothing — will happen to us, okay?"

A true smile plastered onto Isabelle's face, and she couldn't help but wrap her arms around the Rhee woman. At first, Kloe was taken aback, but it didn't take long before she returned the embrace.

She rested her chin on the top of the Marshel woman's head. If there weren't so many things going on that made Kloe feel like she was getting punched in the gut frequently, maybe she would've let out a sigh of relief that she was happy.

But she was nowhere near that, and currently — they all waited for Tyreese to walk out of the small office where Bob and Sasha were. They were all going to have a meeting on what to do about the Terminus dicks.

The moment Tyreese exited the room and sat down on one of the pews, Kloe stood up — leaving Isabelle's side — and walked over to the small table they had set up with ammunition.

Maggie was in charge of the table, filling up all the guns until they couldn't fit anymore bullets. Reina worked on putting the rounds in their own pile; shotgun ammo, pistol ammo, rifle ammo etc.

Rick began the meeting, explaining everything they would do. About how they'd approach the assholed that ate Bob's leg for dinner. How they weren't leaving them alone. How they ignored Kloe.

"Plan's got stones, I'll give you that," Abraham stated, looking up and over at Rick. Kloe bit down onto her bottom lip — it sounded like a hell of a good plan.

"Make our move before they do," Glenn added from beside the Grimes man.

"That's right," Rick nodded, glancing over at the Rhee man. "They're not counting on us thinking straight."

"Are we?" Rosita wondered, her eyes dancing between the four that were in the center of the room; Rick, Glenn, Kloe, Maggie and Reina. "I'm just making sure. It's a big play."

Rick tilted his head as he looked down at Rosita. "Remember what these people are capable of." He shifted his eyes across everyone in the room, making sure everybody acknowledged the meaning of his words. His eyes then landed on a particular man on one side of the room. "Tyreese?"

"Yeah?" he responded, not even looking up at anyone except the floor.

"You up for this?"

A few footsteps caught Kloe's attention, causing her to snap her head over to the doorway of Gabriel's office. There stood Sasha, her arms folded over her chest. "I'm going with you."

"You should stay with Bob," Tyreese recommended.

"No," she stated solidly, "I want to be out there. I want to be a part of this."

Kloe swallowed thickly as she took a deep breath. She watched as Tyreese followed his sister into the office, thinking of ways to persuade her into not going with them.

She faced her husband, who was already looking at her. "Are you sure you wanna come? I know how much you hate him, but..." he searched her eyes, not sure on which one to look at more.

She bit down onto her bottom lip as she wrapped her fingers around his hand. She then nodded assuringly, "I'm one hundred percent sure, Glenn."

...

It wasn't long before the group headed out to get to the elementary school that Gabriel had mentioned not so long ago to Rick and Kloe.

Rick took the lead like always, being in the front with his rifle tight in his grip to the point his knuckles turned white. Behind him was the woman that still had yet to find her samurai sword, Michonne.

Following her steps was Sasha Williams — she was one of the two people that were the most determined to kill Gareth and his minions. Around a meter behind her was Kloe — the other that was determined. She had her bow wrapped around her shoulder and an AK-47 in her grasp.

His eyes trained on the back of Kloe's head was her husband, Glenn. He wanted to stay by his wife's side no matter what. Then lastly behind him were four others — Jayce, Reina, Tara and Abraham.

They all walked in single-file as they walked past the corpses on the ground outside of the church — the ones that were about to get a chomp on Bob on the grass.

And as they walked, Kloe took a final glance back at church one last time before it left her sight, and she couldn't believe what she saw on the wall. There was a singular letter that was written with blood — most likely Bob's.

"Oh my God..." she whispered, her eyes enlarged. Hearing her words, the group whipped their heads over to her, then looked over at what she was starting at.

"Oh shit," Jayce muttered, swallowing thickly.

A

"That was on the container we were in," Reina mentioned, recognizing the way it was written. Except, the writing on the container was with black pain — not someone's blood.

"We can't worry about this now," Rick reminded them all as they turned to face him at the front. "We need to leave and find them before they get away."

And with that, they all went back to heading toward the woods. It was nothing but darkness — the moon being their only source of light. Fortunately, it was a full moon.

Kloe took a deep breath as she stepped inside the dark shadows casted by the leaves above them and the long, intimidating branches. There were some twigs that no one could see that often poked into some of their skins.

As she pushed a thin branch out of her face so it didn't poke her in the eye, a soft sound of a twig getting snapped somewhat in the distance caught her attention — making her freeze in place.

Glenn placed his hands on her shoulders before he could bump into her and frowned. "What? What is it?" he wondered, barely seeing the expression on her face.

"I heard something," she informed, making the others turn to face her once again. Rick quietly rushed over to stand beside her as she went into a look of deep concentration.

She snapped her head over to the direction she heard the snap come from — and the moment she did, she could've sworn she had never glared as much as she did in her life.

"It's them," she stated in a soft whisper, but they all picked up on the harshness, the hatred, and rage that was present in tone.

Gareth and his friends emerged out of the dark shadows across the road from them — thinking that they had left for the elementary school completely. But they were just too damn stupid and messed with the wrong people.

The group hidden in the murky, sinister woods all watched as the cannibalistic group headed over to the church that they had only just left less than a minute beforehand. Deep down, Kloe wanted to laugh at how stupid and pathetic the cannibals were.

But this was no laughing matter. Not in the slightest.

The church the small group were headed to consisted of people she cared about. The people that she called family. She swallowed the saliva in her now dry mouth as she squinted her eyes ahead.

Fortunately for them, they already had this all planned just in case this sort of thing happened. If they had left and Gareth and his minions decided to attack. Kloe was the one that came up with the plan — and they were all thankful that she did.

The original plan was to just attack them at the elementary school, where they most likely would've been sleeping. Maggie had pointed out the fact that there was a possibility that Gareth could attack while they were gone, and that was when Kloe had built up a plan inside her head.

At that exact moment — staring at Gareth with a pair of eyes she was not familiar with — she could've sworn that she felt something click within her. Something that certainly didn't belong. Something very little humane.

Right then, she could've grabbed onto anything sharp, stormed over to the man and slit open his throat.

Never ever in her life would she have thought she'd wanna do that. It frightened her that she had even got a thought close to it.

The men snapped open the lock on the entrance to the church with a pair of pliers, making a loud booming sound rocket through the air. That was another thing the larger group had planned before leaving.

When they return, make sure to knock on the door three times, pause. Two times, pause. Four times. Then let them in. Reina had been the one to suggest the idea, bashing her fist down on the wooden table in front of her and letting it be known what it should sound like when they got back.

The moment she watched them step inside the temporary home, she didn't waste a second before stepping forward through the trees — only to be stopped by a muscular hand belonging to Rick Grimes.

"We can't go in just yet," he whispered sharply, immediately noticing the hatred in the woman's eyes. "They're gonna be hiding, remember? We can attack when they least expect it."

Taking a few deep breaths, Kloe gave in and nodded, despite the amount of voices in her head telling her to just shake her head instead and go after them.

She gulped once more as she shifted her gaze over to her husband, who was watching her with different eyes to normal. He could see right through her, no matter how many times she tried to cover it. He could tell that she wanted to kill Gareth, and sure it did worry him dearly — but nothing could ever make him mad at her for what she did and didn't do. He loved her too much for that.

And with that, they all went back on themselves. They all went to the front door, their guns aimed high as they quietly stopped in front of it. "Do not make a damn sound," Abraham whispered promptly the moment they stopped. "We'll go in when you give us the order," he told Rick, who nodded in return.

Both Kloe and Rick were in front of the others, both standing side-by-side in front of the door. They all waited momentarily before the silence was filled out with Gareth's annoying voice.

"Well, I guess you know we're here," he said, walking through the dark shadows inside the church as he searched around in hope to find someone he recognized from a few days before. "And we know you're here. And we're armed. So there's really no point in hiding anymore."

It sounded like they were directly on the other side of the door — if Rick and the others moved just an inch, they would've heard them. Kloe's right hand moderately shook for a moment, which caused her to break her eyes away from the door and down to her hand.

She sucked in a few deep breaths through her clenched teeth, a few goosebumps forming on the back of her neck down to her lower back.

"We've been watching you," he continued as he slowly departed from the wooden entrance. "We know who's here."

Do you, though?

"There's Bob... unless you put him out of his misery already. And Eugene. Rosita. Maggie. Martin's good friend Tyreese. Kloe's best big brother Zayn. Can't forget about her sad little sister, Brianna, can we? Isabelle. Carl. Judith."

You're forgetting about the rest standing right outside the door. And they're ready to slit your throat over, and over, and over again.

"Rick and the rest walked out with a lot of your guns..." Gareth brought up, his eyebrows raising into his forehead as he licked his lips, his eyes searching around the dark area in hopes of finding someone. "Listen, we don't know where you all are, but this isn't a big place. So let's just stop this now before things get more painful than they need to be."

You want it to stop? Maybe you should've stopped after I told you strictly not to follow us!

No one spoke for a few moments as Gareth and his group approached the two doors inside the church, twisting the doorknobs to which they never budged. "Look, you're behind one of these two doors and we have more than enough firepower to take down both," he stated, growing impatient. "Can't imagine that's what y'all want."

A gun cocked. A floorboard creaked.

"How about the priest?! Father, you help us wrap this up, we'll let you walk away from this. Just open the door and you can go. You can take the baby with you. What do you say?"

There was silence. Then there was a baby crying. Judith crying.

Kloe heart skipped a beat and she bit down harshly onto her tongue. Her face scrunched up as she repeatedly begged the baby to stop crying — though it was too late.

"I don't know... Maybe we'll keep the kid." He smirked, "I'm starting to like this girl."

Kloe snapped her head over to Rick from beside her, baffled from how he had remained so calm throughout hearing the torture of Gareth's voice. Kloe could've ripped out her ears if she could.

"This is your last chance right now to tell us you're coming out."

"Rick," whispered Kloe, catching the man's attention. His eyes lowered down to her hand, which had subconsciously wrapped around the door knob tightly. The moment Rick gave her the signal, she would've pushed open the door within a millisecond.

He nodded, "now."

She silently twisted the knob, not a single creak erupted from the hinges of the door. Everyone beside and behind her raised their weapons, their fingers hovering over the trigger.

As the door noiselessly gaped, their eyes instantaneously landed on the two men that stood either side of one of the doors — the door to the room everybody else was hiding inside.

There was no hesitation in Rick's shots as two bullets fired into the mens' heads. After Rick stepped into the small building, the other now smaller group unable to make out his figure due to the dark shadows, Jayce followed.

The muscles in his hands began to ache from his cramped fitting of his hands encased around his gun, but he didn't care. None of them did. Jayce needed to protect Maggie — it's what he wanted.

"Put your guns on the floor," Rick ordered.

"Rick, we'll fire right into that office. So you lower your gun—"

Jayce fired his gun, the bullet piercing through the dirty blonde's two fingers. He screamed out with agony, lifting up his hand — the same hand that was wrapped with a bandage after Kloe Rhee shoved her knife through his palm — into view with widened eyes.

The man whimpered as he knelt forward, clutching his partially destroyed hand. Jayce just blinked as he met the eyes of the man beside Gareth, "do what he said and drop your fucking weapons."

At once, Rick and Jayce intimidatingly stepped forward, emerging from the shadows. "I'm not going to say it again. Put your guns on the floor and kneel," Rick snarled, tilting his head to the side as the others behind him flooded into the room, staying put within the shadows.

"Do what he says," Gareth grunted, his teeth clenched together from the amount of pain that was raging from his left hand. Everyone except the man next to Gareth obliged. "Martin, there's no choice here."

"Yeah, there is."

"Wanna bet?" Abraham growled, the end of his weapon barely touching the side of Martin's head.

Giving in, Martin set down his gun in front of him defeatedly and crouched down onto his knees.

Kloe glared down at Gareth as she slowly walked forward. As she stepped past Glenn, she felt him grab onto her wrist, only for her to rip it back out with force. Taken aback, Glenn's lips parted as he watched his wife stop in front of the man in pain.

Rick stayed close to her side, his hand hanging over the machete with a red handle. Kloe couldn't wait for the man to fully look up at her. "What part of 'don't let me see your face again' did you not understand?"

The man's heavy breaths came to a stop and his face contorted into fear as he slowly lifted his chin. Gareth met the eyes of Kloe Rhee. "Jesus Christ..." he muttered, glancing back down to his hand.

"Did the explosion make you deaf? Did my fist knock your eardrum out for a moment? Did you have to pick it back up after?" Kloe stared down at the man who rocked back and forth. "You are so... damn... stupid."

"Whatever you want to do, just get it over with already," Gareth seethed, gazing up at her once more. He moved his eyes over to the man beside Kloe. "There's really no point in begging, is there?"

"No," Rick said grimly.

Gareth retracted his eyes back to Kloe, "you should have just killed me when you decided it was best for me to not be able to shoot as accurately as before."

"Yeah, I should have," Kloe hissed, a scowl present on her pink lips. "We also could have just killed you the moment we watched you waltz in here like you rule the place. But, you know, can't waste the bullets. Even you're not worth the hard earned bullets."

"We used to help people. We saved people," Gareth began, his chin trembling along with the rest of his body as he looked back and forth at Rick and Kloe. "Things changed. They came in and..." he paused, his head falling forward as he let out a groan. He looked back up, meeting direct eye contact with Rick. "After that..." he stopped again, opting to change the subject, "I know that you've been out there, but I can see it. You don't know what it is to be hungry."

Kloe flashed her eyes up for a second, meeting her husband's eyes. She could see it. She could see the reluctance in his chocolate brown eyes which so only shined to her in the darkness that he didn't want him or his wife killing anybody.

"You don't have to do this. Either of you," Gareth trembled. Kloe broke her eyes away from Glenn and back down to the man. "We can walk away. And we will never cross paths again. I promise you."

The brunette woman scoffed, "I already gave you that chance, asshole. I let you live... and you wasted it." Her hand was now hovered over her own knife in the back of her pocket, retracting it.

"Besides," Rick began, tapping his finger on his machete's red handle as Gareth shifted his gaze over to him, "I already made a promise to you."

Before Gareth could even process what he had just heard, Kloe knelt down so she was the same height as he was and slashed her knife across the man's throat.

The cut wasn't deep enough so he could choke on his own blood, but it was deep enough for him to scream out with pain. His hand flew up to his throat as tears began to flow out of his eyes.

She rose to her feet, staring down at the knife that was coated in blood. The crimson liquid on the man's throat ran down his chest and arms. She took one step back as she watched Rick whip out his machete and cut directly through the dirty blonde's face.

All hell broke loose as Michonne, Jayce, Sasha and Abraham all began beating the others' faces with the butt of their guns — all while Glenn, Reina and Tara watched with shock.

The three didn't want people to die like this. They were expecting something more humane. Like shooting them in the head — a quick, painless death.

Kloe felt eyes bore into the back of her head. She slowly turned her neck to the side, her eyes meeting her brother's who stood at the doorway of the room the others were hiding in.

His eyes were wide, and his eyes somewhat welled as he watched his sister try to calm herself down with just a few deep breaths.

She turned her head back forward as she gulped thickly. The air around her grew thick, and her ears started to ring— no, scream inside her head. Everything began hitting her like a ton of bricks.

She pushed forward, budging past Rick and hastily stormed over to the door. Glenn didn't even try to grab hold of her. He just stared at her.

She pulled open the door with new-founded strength, slamming it behind her. 

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words: 4900
14th may 2023
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SORRY FOR NOT UPDATINGGGG I'VE BEEN ON HOLIDAY FOR THE PAST WEEK but i promise i'll update more!