The familiar sound rang through the room. The growls, snarls, snapping of teeth; it woke some people up, sending them into panic mode.

The, now dead, Sarah reached up at Elle, trying to grab her. Elle didn't hesitate to drive the kitchen knife through the burnett's skull, silencing her for good, blood flying at her as she pulled the knife out.

She turned to face her companions, who watched the whole four second event. "She turned."

Everyone was awake, deciding what to do next. How would Deanna, or anyone, react to being told someone in a group full of killers died? Who would they suspect; not trust? The answer was obvious, which is why everyone had to think hard to decide what their next move was.

Elle sat on the couch, facing the body that now had a blanket draped over it. She couldn't help but think about the fact that her suspicions could be correct. Carl saw this in her, and walked over to her.

"How are you doing?" He asked, taking the seat next to her on the couch. Not moving her eyes from the body, Elle shrugged. She didn't know how she felt. Sarah was dead, but she didn't feel bad. She didn't like the girl, which probably wouldn't help her case.

But was she glad? There was no doubt that question would live in her head until she could give a definite answer.

"I don't know." She finally spoke.

"How do you think it happened?" Rick asked the rest of the group as they stood around the kitchen and living room.

"I have an idea," Elle answered, looking up and meeting the bright blue eyes of their leader. She earned some looks of curiosity.

"What are you talking about?" He asked the question everyone was thinking. Pushing herself off of the couch, Elle walked over to the girl, peeling the blanket away. Everyone watched intently as she rolled Sarah on her side, pushing her hair away.

"There's a mark on her shoulder. I pointed it out to her and she said it was from a splinter on the barn door. So either she was telling the truth and it got infected even after she said she would have Rosita check it out, or a walker scratched her and she was too much of a coward to say anything." She explained, pointing at the cut that was oozing. "To be completely honest, it was probably the second one." She dropped the body, and stood up, wiping her hands on her pants.

Rosita now walked up to the body, moving it once more to observe the wound. She herself now stood up, wiping her hands. "That was certainly no splinter."

"Case closed. Can I go back to sleep now?" Elle crossed her arms.

"We still have to figure out how it is we explain one less group member, and how to dispose of the body." Michonne turned down her request.

She huffed, sitting back down on the couch, knowing she wasn't going to be getting any sleep that night.

"How about we just tell them the truth?" Glenn suggested with a slight hint of sarcasm in his voice as he was the only one who thought of doing the obvious. "She got scratched, didn't tell anyone, and turned. Then Elle, who was awake, saw and took care of it." A majority of the group nodded, those who didn't were on the verge of falling asleep.

It was almost five in the morning. Crickets had stopped chirping, the birds were just getting started.

Elle's head resting on her hand as she sat at the kitchen island, where everyone else stood or sat around as well.

She could feel herself drifting... drifting... then she felt her head smack the cold, hard surface of the counter. She groaned while others chuckled at her actions. Her hand had slipped from her cheek, sending her face first into the granite.

She rubbed her forehead as she sat up straight. "I need water." She yawned, stepping off of the stool and onto the ground.

She shuffled over to the cabinet, fetching a glass that she filled with water.

"Okay, we tell Deanna the truth. Don't get too comfortable, we don't know how she'll react." Rick instructed. Everyone nodded, understanding.

"I'm so tired, why couldn't this wait until after we got some sleep?" Elle whined as she and Carl were walking to some kids house. They were told that there are kids their age here, and they should make friends, but Carl and Elle weren't very big fans of making friends for reasons that aren't too different from each other.

Carl is generally socially awkward, while Elle just doesn't like people.

"Look, I'm tired too. But my dad insists that we meet them. Let's just hang out for like twenty minutes, then call it a day." Carl suggested. She was quick to agree.

"Sounds good to me." She spoke, as they walked up the porch steps, hearing them creak under their weight. The two shared one more look before Carl reached up to knock on the door.

Just as his hand was about to make contact with the white door, it swung open. A tall, blonde woman stood there, with a laundry basket resting on her left hip. She wore a smile as she greeted them. "I'm Jessie. You must be Rick's kids." She gave them each a handshake.

"Oh, I'm not-" Elle started but Jessie cut her off.

"Ron!"

"Okay." Elle pushed the correction to the back of her thoughts. A boy who looked to be just over Carl's height, with dark blonde - almost brown - hair came around the corner.

"Oh hey, we're all upstairs." He gestured for them to come up to his room with him and they reluctantly followed.

Elle was starting to have second thoughts and looked behind her to see if she could run for the door when she felt Carl grab her hand. "Hey, you okay?" He whispered while Ron went on talking about some 'school' that the kids in Alexandria go to. It was just in someone's garage.

"Just doesn't feel real." She whispered back. She and Carl were about to meet other people their age, who haven't gone through even half of the things they have. They have nothing in common with these people, how are they supposed to make friends?

Ron opened the door that stood at the end of the long hallway that felt like eternity to walk down.

The two stood in awe at the sight. Shelves full of books and comics, board games, even a working gaming console. It's as if their minds were bombs, because they were most certainly blown. "Guys, this is Carl and Elle. This is Mikey and Enid." Ron introduced them, pointing at a tall, thin boy with a terrible haircut and a sweater vest, then a girl with long brown hair who's nose was buried in a comic.

While Ron and Mikey started discussing options for entertainment, Elle zoned out, feeling a bit overwhelmed. Carl felt the same way. It was silly, right? Feeling overwhelmed because you didn't know if you wanted to play video games or read a book, or even just sit in silence? Most people worry about getting eaten alive, but not today. Today they have to make the rash decision of how to keep themselves busy, not the everyday 'life or death' decision.

Elle chewed on her bottom lip while feeling beads of sweat start to form on her forehead. "Let's play some video games." Carl finally spoke, snapping the blonde out of her trance. He started to walk away, his hand slipping out of hers. She quickly squeezed his hand, gaining his attention. He gave her a small smile, letting her know it would be okay.

She let go, her hand falling to her side. She stood there awkwardly for another moment before walking over to the pile of comic books on the bed.

"Mind if I sit?" Her voice spoke almost in a whisper.

"Go for it." Enid offered, not taking her eyes off of the page. Elle sat on the edge of the bed, sorting through the collection. Her eyes fixated on one with the famous Captain America on it.

Yeah, she was a huge fan of Spiderman, but Steve Rogers was always her number one. His companion James Barnes being a close number two.

She opened the cover and let her eyes scan over the pages. The words, the drawings, the blue and red popping off of every page.

She had become invested so quickly, she hadn't even realized someone knocked on the door. "Elle," the voice spoke, catching her attention. It was Jack.

"What's up?"

"I don't know, but Glenn and Maggie wanted to talk to you." He shrugged. She raised an eyebrow, but got up anyways.

"Mind if I borrow this?" Elle asked.

"Take it." Enid shrugged, finally looking up. Her brown eyes meeting Elle's blue ones. Elle walked out, giving a small wave to Carl as she left, him returning it.

Elle walked up the steps of the gazebo that Glenn and Maggie currently occupied. "I'm climbing quite a bit of steps today." Elle chuckled, making her presence known to the couple. "You guys wanted to talk to me?"

The two made space in between them for her on the bench. She slowly sat down, still having no clue as to what was happening. "Should I be worried?" She asked.

"Should we?" Maggie retorted. This only caused the teenager to be even more confused.

"Not following."

"We feel that now we've found a place that we might actually be able to stay in, we can talk about something that's been.." Glenn paused, trying to find the write word to use. "bothering us." Elle edged him to continue.

"You've changed. A lot." He spoke directly and honestly.

"Well, everyone has." She shrugged.

"Not like you have," Maggie spoke next. Elle turned to her. "You're like a completely different person. And not just in a 'the world ended' kind of way, but in an unrecognizable way."

"What does that even mean?" Elle was starting to get upset. She couldn't quite depict if it was anger, or sadness, but she knew that she didn't like the confrontation.

"In the beginning, you cracked jokes at inappropriate times, always tried to prove yourself to the adults, always wore a tough front, and still managed to find a way to be a kid." He paused, letting her process what she was being told.

"Now.. you barely crack jokes, only sarcastic remarks when you're annoyed, you keep to yourself, and you kind of just hang around." He finished. She sat, thinking of how to respond.

The cool breeze moving her hair, hitting her face, calming her.

"I've been through a lot, everyone has. That definitely plays a part, but I acted the way I did because of before everything went to shit." She took a breath, realizing she hadn't actually ever gone into detail about her life before. Not even with Glenn.

"My parents were absent. Not physically- well yeah. Physically." She corrected herself. "But mostly, they were absent emotionally. They weren't bad people, just bad parents. It was always me and my brothers. Cracking jokes is just a coping mechanism, making other people laugh made me happy. And I always felt the need to prove myself because I sought validation from adults because I never got that." She explained as they both listened intently.

"And that changed when I realized I'm a part of a family that loves me, acknowledges what I've done and accomplished, and knows what I'm capable of." She sighed.

"You don't need to prove yourself." Maggie finished for her, and she nodded. "You alright?" She asked, noticing the girl biting her nails. It was a habit she was never able to break.

"Yeah," she took a breath before a small smile spread across her face. "I kind of wish I could shove it in my parents faces;" she got a small chuckle out of Glenn and Maggie. "but the chances that they made it even a week are very slim."

"What did Glenn and Maggie need?" Carl asked as he and Elle now lied across his bed, just looking at the ceiling, in the dark.

"They just wanted to talk," Elle shrugged. "Did you have fun at Ron's?"

"Yeah, it was alright." He answered. The conversation ended there. Something else the two of them had in common, was they couldn't keep a conversation going. Not even with each other. "Did you hear that there's going to be a welcome party for us?" He asked.

"Nope, first I'm hearing of it. I'm not going to go, though. There's no point." She answered, calmness flowing through her tone as she just kept looking up.

"You do know that my dad will make us go, yeah?" He smiled, looking at her.

"Who says we can't leave early though?" She gave a light scoff before looking at him as well.

They held eye contact for what felt like eternity. Elle looked between his bright blue eyes before turning back to face the ceiling.

"I think I'm gonna head to my room and attempt to get some sleep." She spoke as she sat up, stretching. They said their quick 'good nights' as she left, closing the door behind her.

She yawned as she opened her door, entering the darkened room. As she closed the door behind her, she kicked off her shoes and walked over to the bed, not even bothering to change before getting comfortable under the blankets.

time skip because i can

Today was considered a "big day" for a number of people in their group. Everybody who was assigned a job had their first day.

Elle scoffed at the thought of having to sit in a garage and actually learn stuff that wouldn't be beneficial to her survival or health. "Somehow, I don't feel like my job is too different than before." Glenn joked, referring to his job a a pizza delivery boy before the dead started walking.

"Same here. I'm going to 'school,' to learn. The world is literally ending, I'm not exactly sure that reading is going to help me live through the end of humanity as we know it." She crossed her arms as she stood on the porch along with most of the group who hadn't already gone out to get their jobs done.

"It'll be great for you- and Carl- to live a somewhat normal life." Rick spoke up. Elle shook her head.

"Fighting the dead, and the living, is a normal life now. That's the problem, these kids are weak. In fact, everybody is. They cry over dead controllers and chipped nail polish." She kicked at a rock, sending it flying off of the wooden porch, watching it land on the sidewalk before her.

Daryl grunted in agreement. He had been talking even less than usual, but now, it's just a grunt or hum as a response to anything being said.

"You're going, that's that." Jack replied to her argument. She rolled her eyes, knowing that a majority of the adults would agree with him anyways, so there was no use in arguing.

"Well, we better get going." Tara stood up from the wooden chair, Glenn and Noah following as they made their way down the steps.

"Good luck." Maggie wished them. They waved before walking away. "You guys are kids, this is a good thing for you." She added to the conversation, directing her attention at the two.

"Do you think we need it though? You all know this is useless and won't benefit us in any way that we need."

"What is it you need exactly?" Jack snapped.

"To live! To not get torn apart by flesh-craving-freaks that were killed by other flesh-craving-freaks. Learning math, and reading dumb books isn't going to help anyone face the fact that the world is gone. There is no hope for the world, you just have to live through it." She shouted back, earning stares from not only their group, but from people passing by on the street as well.

Everyone went silent, some realizing that Elle had a point. Carol cleared her throat before speaking, "Did you talk to Deanna yet?" She changed the subject before the current one got way too out of hand; smart.

"She said she was sorry for our loss and that we can bury Sarah properly in the cemetery they've started. She said she noticed that Sarah was a little squirrely during her 'interview' and the walker scratch must've been why." Rick explained, rubbing his face where his beard used to sit.

"Definitely not what we thought her reaction would be." Michonne shrugged, earning a few nods of agreement. Elle rolled her eyes.

"Better get started on that grave."

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hey. so it's been a hot minute lol. sorry for the chapter being crappy, short, and poorly paced. i would fix it, but then id put it off and you'd be reading this a month from now which i know is not what you guys want.

anyways.. you know the usual;
Leave feedback/predictions because i read all my comments (even on older chapters!)

i love you guys all so much, and thank you a ton for all the support and love on this story :) <3