Theta state.

That was the name for the position Riley had found herself in when her endless age of exhaustion was broken through by the coughs and groans in the cell beside her own. Her eyes had opened ever so slightly, sealing themselves shut once again as the darkness had overpowered her senses mercilessly. Her blinks were hesitant, as if moving in slow motion, and every time her eyes had opened to see her surroundings her vision was blurred in enervation. Riley couldn't tell if it was late into the hours of the night or baring the edge of the earliest morning, but the palette of her surroundings was immersed in unlit blues and grays. Her muscles felt weak as she tried to push herself off of the comfort of her mattress, the air stripping her skin of all warmth and fighting to push her back to her bed, only the rough and gargled sounds of the retching person she could hear driving her to stand up all the way.

Riley's feet met the floor softly, no sound arising from the contact. As a result of being drawn from her sleep too early, the girl's head took on an enormous weight and forced her eyelids to shut for a long moment before she inhaled the cool air deeply and turned her head to her cell door. Through the sliver of the sky the farthest window allowed her to see, Riley could make out the sun beginning to inch its way up the globe, a line of yellow brimming the darkness of the black sky. So then it was decided, yes, early morning indeed.

"Deep breaths, okay? Just try to breathe." A soothing voice had made an appearance against the silence of cells. It was so faint that Riley barely heard it all, but it was excessively distinct.

Riley walked to open the door to her own cell, the long fabrics of her pants brushing against the floor with every step she took. As she entered the hall- or the upper floor of her cell block, to be exact- the young brunette could hear the sounds of gagging and coughing growing louder and louder along with the attempts at comfort from right next to it. 

Coming up to Sawyer, Riley's older brother's, cell, a gut twisting sight appeared in front of her. Sawyer was on his hands and knees on the floor of his room, body drenched in sweat and leaking through his clothes as he hovered weakly over a metal bucket. His hair was matted down to his face, which glowed a deathly pale shade in the light of a small lamp a few feet away from him. Liquid was spilling messily from his mouth, but Riley couldn't tell if it was spit or puke or both. Kneeling next to him with a hand on his back and a rag covering her mouth, Riley's stepmother, Meg, whispered small words of alleviation and support to him, but the teenage boy could offer no words back as he coughed with a horrible scratch to the sound, as if it was being drawn from his stomach was claws tearing up his insides along the way.

"Meg?" Riley asked suddenly, the sight and the smell from the scene in front of her making her voice shake with uneasiness. 

The woman's head snapped up right away, an expression of fear and worry beating itself onto her face. "Riley, go back to bed."

"What the hell is happening?" The younger girl questioned in a stronger voice, taking it upon herself to step back a little bit. Sawyer's head couldn't even pick itself up to look at his little sister in the doorway of his cell, the weightiness of fatigue and pain heaving it down like an anchor on a boat.

"Your brother is sick. I need you to stay away from him, go back to your cell, now." Meg said in a stern voice. The woman often used a tough or serious tone when trying to get either one of her step kids to cooperate, but this one was unlike something Riley had ever heard before.

"Is he gonna be okay? I don't understand-" Riley shook her head as she watched Sawyer gag again and fall further into the bucket.

"Riley, now!" Meg yelled.

The girl hesitated for a blank moment before backing up and leaving her current placement. All signs of exhaustion had rapidly disappeared, her mind now wide awake and running from place to place in the small confinement of her head. She paused by her cell, knowing it'd be safest to go back into her room, but also knowing that if she did she would never be able to fall back asleep, and all she'd be left with was the sounds of her older brother struggling through consciousness in the room right next to hers as she lay insomniac throughout the next few hours.

Ditching the idea, Riley grabbed a sweater from a hook inside of her cell and threw it onto her body, pushing her arms through the holes and running to leave the cell block in a hurry. It took about a minute for her to reach her destination of the prison roof, but with her current conditions it felt like an hour. 

She sat down on the ledge, both legs hanging off of it as she looked at the ground. Far. That was the only way to describe the sight, but whenever she came to the roof of the building to be nothing but an empty space for her mind to dance alone with her thoughts, things that are as silly as fear simply drift away, too far from her touch for her to try and reach out and grasp. So, she just sits there, and all she sees is the ground deep, deep, deep down below and truly, that is simply all she does. She just sees.

Riley felt an odd wave overcome her, but it wasn't like she was being tossed and turned and drowned in that wave, it was like she was watching herself be suctioned under repeatedly. Like, she should feel scared and upset and stressed and worried and frantic and every nerve-racking, soul sucking feeling there was to feel after watching your brother writhe on the ground as he threw up and fought against a deathly disease. In truth, she did feel that, but, it was like her body and her consciousness had disconnected, and as her body experienced every one of those emotions, her mind simply observed. Tomorrow, she would wake up, and she would feel every little thing she was detached from right now, but that was tomorrow. A problem for another day.

Hours passed by, but Riley couldn't tell if it was one hour or four, either would be a fair guess, because it felt like one but was definitely the other option, hence the sun rising much farther up into the sky than it was when she last checked it, now settling high atop her and warming her skin. As the girl observed the large ball of light that caused the constellations above her to disperse into their own homes to sleep in, the door in which she had come through opened, closing a few seconds after. Footsteps traveled Riley's way, and she looked back to see who her new company was. Once recognizing the face, she turned around again, this time her gaze being focused on the thin cloth of her pajamas.

"Hey." Maggie said, seating herself next to Riley. In usual cases, the younger girl would make normal conversation, a simple one that's watched between two people who are friendly yet not close, just good enough to talk to even though no meaning was present. But, this was Maggie, and she had been one of Riley's favorite people since she was only ten years old.

Riley looked up at Maggie, offering a weak smile but then letting it drop the second it appeared. It didn't feel right for the moment, and she couldn't handle holding up another front in the presence of somebody else. When she was with Maggie, she never had to.

"You saw your brother?" The older woman asked gently, looking at Riley with sympathy gracing each of her features.

"Yeah." Riley's voice was hoarse as she nodded, looking back down at the ground again, which was slowly revealing itself in the light of the newborn day.

"Meg and Glenn are with him right now. They're taking him to the doctor." Maggie said. She didn't say it in any means of comfort, just in a factual manner. Riley appreciated that, if there was one thing people offered all the time, it was fake condolence and compassion, they wasted their words on sentences they didn't mean, and hearing those bold and large statements with an empty background right behind them made Riley feel like no one ever cared, so they went through one of her ears and right out of the other. Maggie knew this about her, and Riley was thankful she'd been mindful of it.

"To Hershel?" Riley questioned, eyebrows knitting. 

"No, Dr. S." Maggie shook her head, before inhaling a breath and lifting her head. "We're takin' all the kids and isolating them from the adults, it's the best way to keep 'em safe. My daddy is going with you guys."

Riley looked at her, face blanking for a second before she spoke. "You mean you guys are locking us away?"

"Just for a little bit, until this virus is in our control."

"What about Sawyer?" 

"He needs to go to Cell Block D." Maggie said, watching the girl's face for any sign of reaction. "He can't be near anyone. He's contagious."

"Oh." Riley said quietly. The thought of her older brother locked away in a cell block surrounded by people who were coughing up blood into rags and dying on their floors made her more than uncomfortable, but to be fair, he kind of was one of those people now.

"You'll still get to talk to him. There's a window you guys can talk through until he gets better." Maggie offered.

"If he gets better."

"Don't talk like that, it's not like you." Maggie spoke strictly. She elbowed Riley in the arm, to which the girl sighed heavily.

"I know, I'm just-" Riley cut herself off with a shake of her head, pressing the heels of her palms into her eyes. "I'm just stressed. I'm tired."

"I know." Maggie draped her arm around Riley's shoulders, letting the younger brunette rest her head on her shoulder. "I'll walk you back to your cell, pack up your things and we'll get you moving on into the isolation center, okay?"

"Yeah." Riley agreed quietly, lifting herself off of Maggie and getting to her feet. After the gruesome scene she'd witnessed plus the lack of proper sleep she'd gotten, Riley felt that all energy was drained from her body. All she really wanted was to go back to her cell and drop her head onto her pillow and sleep until the day was over, but she knew she couldn't do that. All she could hope for was that there'd be a soft couch in the isolation center.

Brushing her pants off hastily, Riley began to walk towards the door, Maggie's hand resting on her back as they became within close proximity of the prison walls. Each step the pair took inside of the building echoed loudly, reminding them of their own deafening silence. Riley couldn't help but feel like a white dot in a field of pitch blackness as the sound of packing her own bag filled the room, it was so quiet that you could practically hear the thoughts running through her brain. Alas, had you really heard what was rampaging the corners of her mind, it would only be a repeat of one single dominating topic, and that was the obvious absence of her older brother where he should've been.  

Riley sat on the cold stone floor of the administration building, hiding somewhere behind an old wooden desk. In fact, she'd been sitting there for the most recent section of her day. Thanks to recent events, the girl had an odd sense of low social battery, and any sort of interaction with other people seemed to set her a little off, not in any sort of rude way, but it was like a thick layer was surrounding her and reflecting everyone who tried to break through it. It was because of this that she'd sat alone on the floor, tying and retying her shoe laces and examining a few of her favorite pictures she'd gathered from the board in her room. Although the small moment of peace and alone time had proved to rejuvenate her attitude greatly, the scale began to tip a little bit as the hours wore on, and she'd felt a little lonely, now in search for something more to do than the two meaningless activities she'd been cycling between. 

With a sigh so light that it was barely noticeable, Riley picked up her pictures from the floor and tucked them into one of the many pockets of her cargo jeans. As she did so, a looming presence dawned on her in a flash, indicating whoever had just stumbled upon her had only been there for a quick moment.

Looking up, Riley's eyes met Carl's, who stared at her with a slight look of surprise before shifting uncomfortably and covering up.

"What are you doing?" Carl asked, his voice carrying a wisp of judgement, hence the fact she was sitting alone on the floor in a random room behind a desk.

"I just needed a quick break from everyone." Riley shrugged, getting to her feet.

Carl nodded, adjusting the holster of his gun, which the girl noticed in an instant. Because of a certain incident that had taken place a few months previous that may or may not have involved Carl putting down a kid in front of Riley and a few others with what one could argue was unreasonable motive, his rights were restricted. It seemed that now they were returned to him.

"Are you on watch duty?" Riley asked again, knowing certainly well the boy hadn't come specifically looking for her, and she'd be surprised if he was looking for someone else. He was quite the introvert.

"Yeah, my dad told me to." Carl confirmed.

"Oh." The girl mouthed, no noise leaving her voice box as she averted her gaze anywhere else but to match Carl's. With no words seeming to float up and save the two from any awkwardness, Riley began to step forward to pass the blue eyed boy in front of her. She didn't want to be rude and ask him to leave, she was already kind of done with her little downtime area anyway, so she figured it be easiest if she'd been the one to exit first.

Riley's eyes flashed up for a brink of a moment to give Carl a tiny smile as a goodbye as she passed him, stepping out into the hallway and beginning to walk throughout it. She'd made it about half way to the midpoint where a separate pair of doors bisected the corridor into two when she'd taken notice of another person coming from the other end. An elder man, who walked with a slight limp and a long white beard growing from his face.

Parting her lips to question the man who'd been making a clear start for the exit, Riley was cut off before her sentence even formed along the roof of her mouth when the same young companion from before called out to her.

"Hey, are you-" He halted suddenly in the middle of his sentence once he'd noticed her paused in the hallway. He watched as Riley turned around to look at him in confusion before side-stepping so he could see the very same person she'd encountered just a few seconds ago.

"Hershel? Where are you going?" Carl asked, walking up to stand by Riley, who awaited the older man's answer patiently.

"I'm down here away from y'all 'cause you kids are supposed to stay away from me." Hershel said, his voice lightly carrying a warning tone which might've just been poisoned with a hint of annoyance.

"I've been walking the halls. My dad told me to look out for everyone." Carl approached a little closer, only to be stopped when Hershel raised his hand a bit.

"Well, you should keep your distance." 

"You're walking towards the exit." Carl stated bluntly, eyebrow raising with a little attitude on the tail of it.

"I need to go out there." Hershel said, the sentence being his only attempt at an explanation.

"To the cell blocks?" Riley asked, walking up closer with worry straining her veins at the reminder of all of the prison's citizens dropping dead faster than dominoes. "But it's not safe."

"Not the cell blocks, to the woods." Hershel said, staring the two kids down with a daring gaze in his eyes- which was definitely angled more towards Carl, considering his lack of ability to stop opposition from spilling out of his mouth.

"So, you're sneaking out." Carl said, not even a question on the lining. He pressed his lips together, as if he were an adult shaming a child.

"Don't need anyone worrying about me and I damn sure don't want someone telling me I can't go." Hershel spoke grittily, his voice set sternly.

"I can't just let you go into the words by yourself." Carl argued.

"We could go with him." Riley interjected quickly, watching the way Hershel's mouth was about to form a nasty retort back at the younger boy and turning back to the elder man. "If that's okay with you?"

"It's not safe for you to go out there." The Greene man said hesitantly.

"I can protect myself." Riley assured, letting her hand fall to the handle of her sharpened blade which was held firmly in the loop of her belt as backup evidence. 

Hershel exhaled, looking between the two standing in front of him before coming to a conclusion in the silence of his head. 

"Alright, then. Follow me- and I better not hear y'all makin' any noise."

Riley knelt on the grass, the plush softness of the green bedding creating a natural barrier from her and the rockiness and dirt below it. Using her knife, she cut the stems of flowers with a long stalk, already having a large bundle of the multicolored plants held in the grasp of her hand. The small group of three had successfully made it out of the prison with no one to catch them and send them back to the administration building, and for the last fifteen minutes or so they'd been in the forest. Hershel was busy with the task of picking apart little herbs he'd called 'elderberries' from a bush a few feet behind the two kids, one of which remained on the ground plucking her own flowers while Carl stood on strict watch next to her with his gun at the ready.

"So," Carl spoke up, his voice coming out of the blue, a little voice crack breaking it awkwardly hence the random words so suddenly. He cleared his voice, continuing. "I was gonna ask before, how's your brother doing?"

Riley frowned, tying her first bundle of flowers together with a spare hair tie, sighing soon after. "Not great."

"What happened?"

"I don't know, I just woke up hearing someone sound like they're dying and at first I couldn't even tell if I was imagining it, but then I saw him on the floor and he was just..." Riley trailed off, shaking her head to try and rid it of the gruesome scene, but it was one of those things that stayed plastered to the front of her head as if she were being forced to watch it on a big screen.

Carl stayed quiet for a minute. "Do you think he's gonna die?"

Riley scoffed at his insensitive bluntness. "Okay, what's your problem? Like, seriously."

"What? I'm just asking, like genuinely." Carl defended himself quickly, looking down to see the girl staring up at him with an expression that made him shrink a little.

"Well, I hope he doesn't." The Endicott answered, her tone saltily sarcastic despite the truth underlying her words.

"Me too. I like your brother." Carl nodded to himself, glancing around at the trees every now and then to make sure the coast was clear to stay in their current location.

"He usually has that effect on people." Riley muttered back, scavenging the ground for rocks in case she ever reached a point where the boredom drove her mad and she resorted to sharpening her knife in the mean time.

A looming silence crept amongst the air like a thick fog, but Riley didn't really mind. Ever since the early brink of the morning she hadn't really been in a talkative mood, which was kind of unusual for her- she never really had those moods. But, in this case it was pretty justified. She tucked her knife back into its pouch, dropping a few grayed stones into one of her pants pockets and holding her flowers in the other, organizing her items and new collectives diligently. 

"When did your dad give it back?" Hershel's voice cut through the silence like a knife through butter.

Knowing the question was not directed at her, Riley stayed silent, but made a tiny effort to keep her ears open and listen into the oncoming conversation incase anything interesting were to spike her curiosity. She knew the older man was referring to the gun held steadily in Carl's hands, and she also knew Hershel was a little skeptical of it- and to be fair, she kind of was too. Disregarding the boy and her making a team effort to try and buy Michonne some time while she was being attacked by walkers the previous day, this was the first time he'd had his gun for a long time. That last time, she was hiding out in the forest with Carl, Hershel, Beth, Nessa, and Meg, all of them trying to keep hidden from the Governor and his men when they stumbled upon a boy who had them at gunpoint. He did end up dropping his weapon, but for some reason only known in the deepest and darkest pits of Carl's endless maze of a brain was a real explanation hidden as to why he made the choice to kill him. 

"Yesterday. After everything happened." Carl said, turning around once to glance at the man.

"You've grown a lot these last few months. There's a responsibility about you." Hershel said, still occupied as he picked handfuls of elderberries from wherever he could see them on the green lush of the bushes. "I think it's done you good to step back."

"Yeah." Carl agreed, stepping back to cover a new area. "It was alright. Can't be like that all the time."

"I would have been fine on my own. It's peaceful out here." Hershel said, moving onto a new bush closer to Riley, who was done with her own tasks and began to observe which little flowers the man picked.

She agreed with his statement, it really was calming to be out there. She needed the breath of fresh air, to catch a break from the chaos wreaking every corner of the prison. She felt a sense of calmness, of relief and tranquility sitting on that grass and being surrounded by the nature of the outdoors instead of the cold stone walls and belches of the sick.

"These last couple days, we might be safer outside those walls than in." Hershel continued, his voice lowering in concentration.

"Feels like it, doesn't it?" Riley asked, looking up at the older Greene, who smiled down at her with a comforting twinkle in his eye.

"No, we're not." Carl said gruffly. He gestured in front of him, where Riley could see a small and decaying tent resting inaudibly among the brush of the ground.

Standing, Riley walked a little closer, redrawing her knife in case they ran into a situation where it was necessary. She would've much preferred to have her bow with her, as it was indeed her preferred choice of weapon and she felt much more confident with it compared to a hand knife, but in situations where you're living in an apocalyptic world you learn to take what you can get.

Approaching the scene cautiously with Carl in front, gun at the ready, the trio took in their surroundings. Besides the rotting tent, nothing else seemed to be there. No recent messes, no signs of people living there, no wet blood trails. Completely abandoned. Riley's eyebrows began to furrow at the stumped ending to why whoever was there had randomly picked up and left when a growl pulled her attention to the bottom of a tree nearby. Of course, a walker was trapped in the ground, roots curling through its spoiled rib cages and eyes melted of any emotion. 

"Let's wrap this up." Hershel said, drawing his company away from the cannibalistic monster who lay, unable to move, in the ground. 

A rattling shook from behind them, all three party members whipping around to see a new walker appear from behind a tree. A long, torn, rotten dress clung to its loose skin, what seemed to be a bear trap caught on one of its shins. Slowly, yet very, very surely, the walker advanced upon the group, and in instinctive response, Carl raised his gun.

"Don't," Hershel raised his voice at the boy, causing him to halt in his footsteps. "You don't need to."

Carl stayed still, stance frozen and gun still held up in the air before lowering it, eyes trained on the walker. Riley glanced at him, noticing how he turned his gaze away from the attacker and looked at the weapon he held onto dearly. Walking forward, the girl raised her knife and plunged it into the skull of the walker, a squelching noise and a little bit of blood being the only action caused from the exertion. Tugging the blade out of the now dead walker's soft skull, Riley turned back to Carl and Hershel, who began to move on back to the prison once their only threat was eliminated.

"It was so peaceful." Hershel declared with a small shake of his head.

"It was." Carl said, stalking away until he was leading the group. "Can't be like that all the time."

Riley look unsurely at the boy in front of them, deciding against saying anything and instead sticking by Hershel's side in case something happened in which the old man couldn't defend himself. 

It was easier sneaking back in than out of the prison, and within minutes the trio was climbing back up the rocky and dusty pathway and onto the hot pavement which lay baking underneath the afternoon sun.

"What do you plan on doing with those?" Hershel asked, once they were walking on flat grounds again. He was breathing a little heavily, the task of moving cautiously and quickly above uneven flooring wearing his energy thin.

"Hm?" Riley questioned before glancing down at her bundles of flowers held carefully in the safe embrace of her fingers. "Oh, these? I was gonna work on flower crowns, just to pass the time."

"Oh?" Hershel hummed.

Riley nodded, a close-lipped smile appearing on her face as she looked down. "I think I'll teach Mika too, I feel like this sorta thing is right up her alley."

"What about the other one, her sister?" The elder man asked, adjusting his sack of elderberries from over his shoulders.

"If she wants," Riley said. "She doesn't really strike me as the flower crown kind of girl, though."

She'd probably get mad that I tried killing plants, too. Riley thought to herself saltily. She never really paid much mind to the little argument she that well as Carl had gotten into with Lizzie, but she was kind of skeptical of the girl. The way she defended walkers and their morbid actions like her life depended on it, Riley wasn't too fond of spending her time around her. But, despite those gruesome and uncomfortable things about her, Lizzie was truly just a girl. A young one, growing up in a scarily traumatic situation where she was too naive to understand the position she was stuck in. Riley understood that first hand.

"Yeah," She said, eyes cast towards the ground. "I'll teach her too."

"That's more like the Riley I know." Hershel nodded, satisfied. "Give her a shot, maybe she'll surprise you."

"With what? Her flower braiding skills?" Riley snorted with a grin, looking up to stare at the man's face.

"With whatever she has to offer." He replied, a soft smile on his face. "How about you two head back to the administration office, I'll check up on y'all later."

"You're not coming back with us?" Riley asked, eyebrows furrowed. Carl turned around as well from a few paces away, staring at Hershel with furrowed eyebrows and a frown on his face.

"You're not going to the cell blocks, are you?" The brunette boy asked suspiciously.

"Don't y'all be worrying about me. Now go, before your dad catches you missing." Hershel stated bluntly, his last sentence aimed at Carl in specific.

Riley nodded before departing from his side and walking up to Carl, who'd grumpily accepted the fact Hershel was simply too strong for his reins of overprotective mentality. In response to seeing the girl approach him, Carl set about to stalk away immediately, foot after foot and step after step getting closer to the building of sanctuary. Riley took obvious notice to the way Carl tried to leave the bubble of her presence in a mad dash, and she purposely slowed her stride down to let him get a good few feet away before picking up her speed again to a normal pace. If space was what he wanted, Riley was damn fine with giving it to him.

Nearing the entrance back to the administration building of the prison, Carl began to decelerate, walking up to the door leading inside the infested building and placing a hand on the structure. He waited there for a second, gaze angled downwards as he stood stiller than a statue, and Riley was a halted in a moment of confusion before clicking together that the boy was probably waiting for her to catch up. Quickening her pace, Riley stepped up to the door, now open thanks to Carl who held it with one hand, refusing to look anywhere but the ground. Casting her own gaze away from him, Riley stepped past the boy, shoulder brushing against Carl's soft and battered fingers that held the wooden frame of the door gingerly, awaiting her pass into the building. At the faint and subtle touch, Carl's eyes snapped upwards, watching as Riley disappeared into the structure in a flash, all of her disappearing without a trace before his eyes could even process the movement. His body felt cemented to the ground, and despite the fact Riley had already walked far away into the lands inside the door, he stood holding it open still, nothing transferring in nor out of the ajar space except for the replay of the physical encounter running back and forth. In a usual instant, Carl would think nothing of a moment as small and forgettable as that, but the circumstance altered his brain in a foreign way he had experienced only a very few times in his life.

Riley inhaled a deep breath, her lungs itching from the dusty and thick air clouding the rooms of the prison. The day was beginning to dim, lightness seeping into the hollow cracks of the earth ever so slowly as evening began its steady approach. Her heart thudded violently as it awaited the moment she was preparing herself to come, her nerves on edge and skin glistening with sweat. All felt red although it looked like blue in the cold, stone, hallway she stood in, tiny, her small frame against the darkness of the never ending corridor. 

"Riley?" A low, broken, so torn and rethreaded voice croaked from the room she stood outside of. "Are you there?"

Riley drew in one last breath through her nose, releasing it from her mouth as she tucked her hair behind her ears nervously, the fingers she used to do so shaking like they were in the midst of their own little earthquake. She stepped into the room, the pale face of her brother staring at her from behind a thick glass wall.

"Hi." She said, her voice a little too quiet and a little too unsteady. She cleared her throat, walking over to window and leaning down. "How are you feeling?"

"Like a million bucks." Sawyer laughed, the whiteness in his face illuminating against his gray pigmentation in the dark light, the sweat on his skin gleaming in the little light they worked with, streaming down his face as he worked a grin using his exhausted, overworked muscles.

Riley forced a light laugh of her own out uncomfortably. She was lucky she even got the chance to speak to her brother, considering she was supposed to be in isolation at the moment. But seeing him in the state he was in was far beyond agonizing to watch. The way he struggled to stand, leaning against the pane of the window for support, the way he coughed uncontrollably every time he inhaled a little too quickly- which he was forced to do often hence the exhaustion he'd endured every second he tried to move more than an inch at a time. Seeing the way he fought so tirelessly to even put a smile on his face just for her was like scratching an opened, bloody, wound on repeat.

"Is Hershel in there with you guys?" Riley asked, trying to start another conversation, hopefully more easy to flow with.

"Yeah," Sawyer nodded, his voice scratchy and hoarse in the echoing room. "He has this tea he made, got the stuff in it out from the woods."

Riley nodded, already knowing the information given to her. Sawyer's eyes drifted upwards slowly, as if the action itself drained half of his already weakened energy. He gazed at her face for a moment too long.

"He said you went with him, you and Carl. Left the building and went out there to go get that treatment for the sick people in here. You're so brave for doing that." He continued.

"It wasn't that hard." Riley shook her head.

"He said you took down a walker too, you haven't done that in months."

"I wasn't scared of it." 

"I know you weren't." Sawyer said, his voice dropped low, eyes closing for a moment before opening again. "You can take care of yourself, I know that."

Riley nodded, a smile on her face, but she couldn't tell if it was simply for show, just for her brother, or because his words made her feel valuable. It was probably both, but the praise made her feel good, she liked that he didn't treat her like a little kid. 

"I'm proud of you still, don't try and fight me on that one. Let me tell you, 'cause we both know Meg would kick your ass if she found out." Sawyer whispered, no energy left to raise his voice to a normal range anymore.

Riley laughed, a real one that time. She knew he was right, if her stepmother ever found out she left the prison grounds and went into the woods without telling her- or anybody else for that matter- she would be knee deep in shit trouble.

"Yeah, she would." Riley agreed. "Has she been helping you?"

"Yeah," Sawyer breathed. "She's brave too. She's just a pain in the ass."

Their stepmother had never really been the Endicott children's favorite person. She was their father's remarried wife, way too young for the man and had thin patience for his children. Riley always had the suspicion she'd married him for his money, despite the fact even after he had passed in the beginning of the outbreak she cared for her and Sawyer like her own. Riley did have to give her that, there was nothing forcing Meg to stay and protect the kids like her life depended on it after her husband had died, yet still- no matter how much they pushed her buttons and defied her every rule- she kept them under wing when times were breaking to a grain and tumbling into the deepest pits of hell imaginable. It was the truth, Riley and Sawyer wouldn't have survived as long as they had if it weren't for her.

"How is Beth holding up?" Sawyer asked suddenly. The two had let a little moment of silence overcome them, the older of the two needing a minute to regain whatever strength he could build up that was protected by the infestation clamoring around in his veins.

Riley swallowed, not really sure how to give him an answer that would satisfy him. The whole reason Riley and the remainders of her family had stayed with the Greene's at their farm in the beginning was because Sawyer was dating Beth. They had the picture perfect teen love that Riley used to watch in the movies, the kind where they would go on dates to carnivals and the boy would buy the girl flowers and send them to her house once a week. They couldn't do that anymore, for quite obvious reasons, but regardless of the fact their pure and aesthetic relationship had been beaten and broken by the apocalypse, they still found a way to keep their own love intact. Riley just hoped that this sickness wouldn't be the one thing to ruin it.

"She misses you." Riley said. "She's afraid you're gonna die."

"Tell her I won't." Sawyer replied instantly, coughing in a brutal way after the words were ripped from his voice too soon. "Tell her I'll be okay."

Riley nodded. She wished Sawyer could tell Beth that himself, but the blonde had busied herself with the job of protecting Judith. The younger girl had offered to watch the baby while Beth visited Sawyer, but all she did was deny, saying she couldn't risk it. Riley knew the real reason that Beth was rejecting the idea of visiting her boyfriend was truly because she was afraid that if she saw him, she would break down, afraid of the sight in front of her. Riley also knew Beth didn't want to hurt Sawyer like that, or give him the idea she was weak or afraid, although seeing him on the path to dying would just be the final weight to break the walls she put up.

"Are you?" Riley asked quietly, only a moment's hesitation to the two worded question holding her back for a second. 

"Of course." Sawyer uttered, mirroring the crashing expression on his little sister's face. "I always am. Remember that one time Shane threw me and Glenn down a well and we were almost eaten alive by a walker? I survived that pretty well."

"I know," Riley said with a shrug. "But you were still almost eaten alive."

"I would've made a damn good lunch." The older boy joked, before growing serious once again. "I also got Glenn sick."

Riley laughed. She didn't mean to, she covered her mouth with her wrist, but it was too late to stop the sound from leaving her body. It wasn't funny in any sense, considering the man could literally die from the sickness, but the bluntness of the admitted statement caught her off guard.

"Yup," Sawyer nodded, laughing unsteadily himself despite the cough attacks that racked his body from the foot up. "He won't speak to me now."

"I don't think I'd speak to you either." Riley pointed out, her grin still everlasting on her face. "Is he doing okay?"

"He'll be fine." Sawyer shrugged, to which his sister merely rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, I'll check on him right after this, next time you see me-" the boy's voice was torn out of his mouth, pushed away as there was no room left for his words because a fit of gargled coughs that squeezed his lungs dry. He took a deep breath, steadying himself as Riley watched uncomfortably.

"Sawyer?" Her voice was a mere mumble, and she stood to her full height, ready to leave and retrieve someone incase he needed help, incase it was time.

"I'm okay." Sawyer said, nodding a little. "I'm okay."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm not dying." He clarified. "But I should probably go and sleep. Dr. S told me to rest as much as I can, I just made some space in my busy day for you."

Riley watched his lips turn upwards with his joke, although it didn't match the pale and weak mask that was plastered onto his face. 

"How can I ever repay you?" Riley asked, with a soft sigh from her lips. 

"By leaving and letting me sleep. I've had to stare at your ugly face for too long now." Sawyer said with a fake- or maybe not so fake- yack. He still, quite clearly, possessed his teasing traits he carried as her older brother. This was probably the only time Riley was thankful for it.

"Tell me about it, you look like a goddamn walker already." Riley snapped, to which Sawyer rose a weak middle finger on his right hand, forehead pressed against the glass as he fought for relief in the coolness against the heat burning up his body.

"I love you, Riley. I'll see you soon. I promise." He said, staring into the dark hues of her irises from his lower position on the other side of the window.

Riley nodded, forcing a final, last smile onto her lips. "I love you, too."

Letting her words hang in the air and echo around the empty room, Riley left, going back to her position in the hallway and leaning against the wall just as she had before. She waited until she heard who was probably Meg help Sawyer stand and make his way back to the cell he'd be staying in for the next few days, or weeks, if he was really unlucky. If he survived that long. 

Dragging her feet across the musty stone floors in the prison, Riley made her way back to the administration building, where she really should've been that whole time, but Maggie let her go- thanks to Meg giving the okay for once. The main room in the safe zone was dark, only the whites of papers and pictures reflecting against the blackness absorbing all. She turned a corner, careful to be silent against the already quiet atmosphere she'd stepped into. Aiming for a door about two rooms down and to the left of where she already was, Riley took another step forward, then another, before a small trail of flower petals littering the ground a few feet away caught her eye and kidnapped her into a realm of distraction.

As her eyes squinted while she tried to make out more detail on the little pink petals drowned in the darkness of the blackened room, a gunshot rang loudly and hammered the once silenced territory into a mound of harsh, echoing, noise. Riley's foot knocked into a pile of books stacked near the wall, sending them all flying and tripping her slightly as they did so. The girl regained her balance easily, but not before the small crash of the sound echoed throughout the hallway, although they seemed very belittled beside the deafening noise of a gun.

"Who's there?" Someone ran up from some distance in front of her, arms raised with a weapon pointed at her face steadily.

Riley gasped as a Carl came up in front of her, arms still raised with his gun aimed right at her nose. Looking to the side of his weapon so he could make out her face, Carl sighed and dropped his hands, putting his gun back into his pocket.

"Riley? Where were you?" He asked, curiosity blending with a favorable touch of impatience in his tone.

"I went to go see Sawyer." The girl replied back, eyes narrowed at the boy. "Did you just pull a gun on me?"

"I didn't know if you were an intruder." Carl defended himself quietly.

"Surprise! I'm not. Did you hear that?" Riley asked, referring to the blow of a gun that resonated from an unknown area of the prison not even a minute beforehand.

"Yeah, where was it from?" Carl asked, stepping closer to her as their conversation drew longer by the passing second.

"I don't know, maybe the sick ward." Riley muttered, a sickening fear dawning over upon instant. The hairs on the back of her neck rose up and the color in her face drained to a ghostly white.

"Do you think...?" The boy in front of her glanced into her eyes momentarily, a confirmed suspicion etching itself along his features.

The girl just stood there, too afraid to try and validate his question. The weariness of the whole day was taking a toll on her mentally and physically, another sentence running off into an area in which she couldn't access for any answers was not what she needed for what felt like the millionth time that day. She began to open her mouth to speak again, but she truly had no idea what words she could form to offer a valuable answer. Fortunately, she wasn't left blinded with that task, no sound needing to escape her own mouth when a voice down the hall cut their conversation to the quick.

"Carl?" The sound of heavy footsteps reverberated throughout the hollow hallway as the person to which the voice belonged to crept closer. "Carl? Riley?"

A flashlight bounced along the walls, and Rick's voice lowered to a whisper-shout as he approached closer. 

Sharing a disoriented glance with Carl, Riley turned back towards the way she came from, leading her body to the place where Rick's voice originated from with the man's son on her heels.

"We heard gunshots." Carl said once the pair stepped into Rick's line of view. His arm was extended in question, but Rick provided no answer as he stepped closer to them.

"I need your help."

a/n - next chapter is gonna be super fun i love to write ab zombie massacres !! i feel like i haven't been able to show a lot of riley's character yet and i hope she doesn't seem too boring or like y/n LMFAO i hate that bitch sm but i do swear riley will get more interesting soon! anyway, we're getting closer to the prison fall and i literally cannot wait, cus that's when we're gonna get the real carl and riley content <33 have a sweet day guys chapter 4 is already in the making :)