CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

˙ CHOKE ˙

"We gladiate but I guess we're really fighting ourselves"

SOME MAY THINK that by living in a world overrun by walking corpses it would bring a sense of familiarity around death, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. Reign had thought she had become accustomed to death, but every time it came up she found herself in disbelief every time.

The group had left Atlanta long ago, travelling up the east coast of the country in two vans, determined to find anything, or perhaps anyone.

About a week ago they had entered Noah's old village, only to discover it had been burnt down and destroyed, presumably attacked. His whole family had been killed, slaughtered right in his own home. To everyone's shock Tyreese had had a run in with one of Noah's brothers who had risen from the dead as a walker, leaving Tyreese with the unfortunate fate similar to Beth's as he suffered from a brutal bite to his forearm. They did everything that they could, even cut off his arm. However, he was too far gone, and slipped right out and under the group, none of them being able to do a single thing about it. That was the thing about death it seemed. By the time the reality of it all had set in, it was too late to reverse its consequence.

They were all exhausted, hungry and tired, even the vampires who were finding it difficult to tame themselves. It was becoming increasingly difficult, especially for Damon to live off the blood of squirrels which seemed to be going extinct.

With no where else to turn, they had decided to head to Washington in hopes of finding something there. Apparently while Reign was cooped up in that hospital, Abraham finally got his chance to head to Washington and take Eugene to make the cure, but their trip was cut short when the devastating truth came out. Eugene had lied the entire time about knowing how to make the cure. He had only said so to earn the protection from others, a strategy for survival. Reign was quite furious, but not so much shocked when she found out Eugene had lied about finding the cure. It was to be expected, as she knew it sounded too good to be true. In all honestly she felt bad for Rosita and Abraham who had put their lives on the line to save his ass.

However, there was still the destination of Washington in mind, and that was a good enough place as any. They had intended to go there, so they couldn't think of any reason why they shouldn't now. Maybe they would find other people there, people who did know what was going on. People that were surviving, and not just making it.

They had it going fairly good for a while, until they ran out of gas. They were just over half way there, so with no other way they travelled on foot. They began their trip to Washington a little over a week ago, their journey on foot beginning only two days ago.

They all walked in a line on the open road, using every ounce of strength they had left in them to keep walking. Every now and then they would stop for breaks, some of them breaking off in search of food or water, but 99% of the time they came back unsuccessful. Now they were only surviving off a few cans of food and a dozen quarter empty water bottles. It was painful yes, but to Reign that wasn't the main concern she had at the moment.

To her, the death of Beth still felt as if it were yesterday. She hadn't gotten one good night's sleep since it all happened, because frankly she couldn't. Every time she closed her eyes she saw Beth stand up to Dawn, stepping in front of Reign to prevent her from killing the officer. Every time she heard the gun shot ringing through her ears as if it were happening all over again, and every time she felt the blood splash on her face as the bullet pierced Beth's skull. She had gotten Dylan and Bonnie back yes, but now her mind had gone from determined to find them to guilt over the loss of the one they couldn't save. She was overcome with this emotion and immense quilt, so she kept unusually quiet.

No one had really talked to her much, not that they had the energy to form words anyways. They were all waiting it out. Waiting to reach their destination, or waiting to reach the end. Maybe secretly a little bit of both.

Reign knew as they all grew hungry that it was a dangerous play to keep Gizmo around, but thankfully they had all accepted him into the group. He was always the one barking of a nearby walker in the middle of the night, protecting them and earning their respect. That's the reason Reign found it extremely unsettling eating dog meat the group had scavenged from a pack of wild dogs they had stumbled upon moments ago.

Their stomachs were filled with meat and protein making their dehydrated lips jealous. Water was the one thing they failed to find, until now.

"What is this?" Daryl asked, stepping out from the brush as he returned back from another scavenge run for water, coming up empty handed. He approached the group as they surrounded several jugs of water on the road they had found, a single piece of paper attached to them that read; FROM A FRIEND.

"We can't drink it," Rick stated, his beard getting out of hand. They were all a mess, barely holding themselves together. "We don't know who it's from."

"Somebody could've put something in it," Carol pointed out, her large gun strapped across her body.

"Somebody's been watching us. They must've known we'd come this way," Dylan spoke carefully, glancing around warily at the tree line on both sides of the road. His military instincts were taking over.

"We haven't heard or seen anything for miles," Stefan told them, holding Caroline's hand. Even the vampires were filthy, their flawless pale skin dirtied in both blood and mud. They were even a little sweaty from the lack of blood they had been getting.

"We also haven't had a drink in a while. We can't hear or see as well as we use to," Damon murmured, running his hand through his raven black hair.

Reign stood there beside her brother as they argued, all of them tired and beyond dehydrated. She let her ears listen while her eyes stayed trained on the bottles of clear, pristine water in front of them. Her whole body was drawn to it, the sight of the bottles making her mouth water. The more they argued the more infuriated she became, so finally she made a move.

In one step she grabbed a bottle and ripped off the cap, placing the top of the bottle to her lips and tilting it back. She felt the warm liquid graze her lips for a split second before it was violently slapped away from her face, a very furious Damon standing in front of her. Of course it was Damon. Who else could it have been? She wasn't surprised, he was a vampire after all which explained how he acted so fast.

"What are you thinking Rey!" Dylan exclaimed furiously, scolding his sister while Daryl looked at her in shock.

Reign ignored her brother and turned her anger to Damon instead. "Why the fuck would you do that! You're wasting perfectly good water!" She waved her hands around, her voice raspy and dry. All she wanted was water.

"We don't know where it came from," Rick repeated sternly.

"So we're just going to leave it?" Reign snapped. "We're all slowly dying, barely holding on yet there is clear water right in front of us! We're just going to let it pass! This could save our lives!" she yelled.

"Or it could kill us," Abraham shrugged.

"So what?" she shouted, her voice booming through the quiet air. "We're dying anyway," she said quieter, but still loud enough to be heard.

Still looking down, she kicked the bottle of water on the ground that she had opened, and stormed away. She didn't look behind her, but she hopped no one was following. She needed to get away. She needed to be alone.

She stopped suddenly and turned off the road and into the forest, glancing behind her quickly to realize no one was in fact following her. With a sigh of relief she walked deep enough into the forest until she was assured she couldn't be seen or heard by any walkers, vampires or people. She walked until she was completely alone.

She looked back and sighed in relief as no one had followed her, allowing her to lean against a tree in peace. She slid onto the ground, clutching her knees up to her chest as she rested her head down. The thing with being alone was that it allowed her thoughts to consume her. When being around people, it allowed a distraction, something to listen to even if she didn't participate in the talking. But being alone was dangerous, and not in the sense of lack of protection but rather dangerous as it allowed her mind to wander off to her dangerous thoughts.

As she sat alone on the ground did her dangerous thoughts slowly creep into her mind, screaming of the visions and pain she had been feeling and witnessing in her head every night, depriving her of sleep. Soon she couldn't hold it in any longer, and broke down all at once.

Her body rattled and her hands shook as she allowed the hot tears to leak from her eyes. She hadn't cried, let alone fully break down like this for a long time, too long for her to remember. She never cried, not that she refused to but rather she chose to move on. Crying allowed time for thinking, for wallowing yourself in emotions that only caused pain. Reign always tried to avoid pain by either being brutally cold or using bitter sarcasm, or even both. But this time there wasn't anything she could say that would make her feel better, so she chose to break down. She allowed herself to break down.

She wiped her cheeks rapidly to try and keep up with the tears that flowed from her eyes, but it was no use. She was sobbing uncontrollably, choking and making weird noises that seemed to be inhuman. But as the water flowed from her eyes and her stomach tied in a knot did all of Reign's emotion lead back to one thing; Beth.

Her tears were filled with the pain of guilt she felt from the young girls death. She watched Beth be slaughtered right in front of her, felt the blood splash on her face. Beth was only trying to protect Reign, prevent her from killing Dawn. Beth hated violence, and wanted to avoid it at all coast. But Reign, being the violent and angered one lashed out, not thinking about the consequences as all she wanted to do was get out of that goddamn hospital. She had promised Beth they would get out of there, and she wasn't about to let some stupid cop prevent them otherwise. It just so happened Beth had a different plan, a plan that resulted in her death.

Reign jumped as the loud roar of thunder sounded above her, snapping out of her sobs. Seconds after rain poured from above her, drenching her immediately after a few seconds. She listened to the rain drops crackle against the leaves of the forest floor to calm herself down, once again using something to distract her from the pain. She thought about just sitting there in the rain peaceful, until a spark of lighting flashed across the sky. Rain was peaceful, lighting was not.

Groaning to herself, she hulled herself to her feet and walked back to the road, thankful that the rain disguised her tears. Her long raven black hair was drenched, and her body began to shiver as the water soaked through her shirt and under her leather jacket.

She walked onto the road unnoticed at first, but Dylan spotted her quickly. She made quick eye contact with him before turning her direction to Rick, who was alarmed with the approaching storm. "We need shelter!" he yelled over the loud rain, thunder once again roaring around them.

"There's a barn this way!" Daryl yelled, leading them all into the forest.

Reign walked behind her father, a shoulder brushing up against hers as she walked. She turned her head and quickly relaxed noticing it was only Michonne. She wasn't in the mood for one of Damon's lame remarks.

"You know if you tilt your head just right, you can gargle on the rain drops," Michonne said, nudging her arm before demonstrating herself. The woman tilted her head back and waited a few seconds until enough drops had entered her mouth, before letting out a gargling noise as the water vibrated on her vocal cords. After a few seconds, Michonne tilted her head down with an extremely proud look on her face, happy to show off her unique skill.

Reign only huffed a laugh, and cracked a small smile at Michonne's attempt at cheering her up. She smiled more widely at Michonne despite her body that refused to, in hopes that the smile would keep her from asking more questions.

Thankfully for Reign it had worked, as their trip to this barn was quiet. They approached the barn and entered it, the smell of rotten corpses and cow manurer hitting them immediately. But the roof was intact, keeping the rain from them which was all they needed.

However, it wasn't the rain that was their problem, but rather what followed after. None of them realized what the violent storm would cause them in the long night ahead.

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[EDITED: 07/24/18]