OUTLIVE.
❝The dead were never the enemy.
It was the living. ❞
THE WALKING DEAD.
DARYL DIXON.
BOOK TWO of the LANCASTER SAGA.
[ SEASONS 4 - 6 ]
*****
*I do not own The Walking Dead or any of its characters. I simply write to write. Astrid, any addi...
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[ xxv. i can't lose you ]
june 30th, 2012
➸➸➸
IT DID NOT TAKE long before Astrid began her climb up the crumbling fire escape stairs that led into the so-called overrun warehouse that Gabriel had previously described. The walk into the nearby town had been relatively quiet, the only conversation coming from Bob Stookey. He spoke excitedly of a return to 'the real world,' a world promised by Eugene's cure for the disease that had all but ravaged their entire existence.
However, Astrid remained distant from her own expected excitement, instead silently harboring doubts that danced like shadows in her mind. This was not a world that would effortlessly rebound from its calamitous descent. The devastating reality was that at least three-quarters of the population had already succumbed to the contagion. Eugene's plan to rectify the catastrophe for the remaining one-quarter was a mystery in itself.
After all, the living, including Astrid, were already carriers of the infection, and injecting a walker with a needle seemed a dangerous risk. The seemingly possible solutions did not make sense, and as the mullet-haired man maintained a stern and cryptic silence on the matter, Astrid's disbelief in the prospect of a swift resolution only deepened. It was crystal clear to her—even if it were not to others—that this nightmare had still only just begun.
In fact, Astrid was almost grateful for that. She did not necessarily want to return to the "real world."
She had grown accustomed to the reassuring presence of her group. The thought of being separated from them, thrust into a world of strangers, unsettled her to the core. What if society tried to regain its lost semblance of normalcy? The idea of dwelling in a quiet, secure neighborhood, in a solitary house with only Daryl, pursuing her unwanted medical profession, felt disconcertingly wrong.
After all this time, Astrid could not go back to normal. She could not bear to exist without her new family. Inconvenient as it might be at times, the thought of not seeing Rick, Michonne, or Glenn every day was one she did not ever want to imagine.
Astrid's introspective musings were suddenly interrupted by an ominous creaking beneath her, and she immediately froze in place.
Her eyes met Rick's, the man now mirroring her unease. The disturbance would not have been quite so unsettling had they been on the ground floor of the warehouse, but the precarious structure of the building heightened their fears. Peering deeper into the shadowy, second-story room, Astrid's eyes fell upon a gaping chasm in the center of the floor that did not look promising.
Astrid pulled her pistol from her waistband as she cautiously scanned her surroundings. The abandoned warehouse was in a disastrous shape. Bent clothes racks, broken furniture, and crates of mysterious contents littered the area, leaving a twisted tapestry of destruction in their wake. A quick glance over her shoulder revealed Michonne, Sasha, Bob, and Gabriel trailing carefully behind, their watchful eyes searching for any signs of useful supplies lost in the disarray.
