[SEASON FIVE, EPISODE ONE]

"FUCKER," Tilly whispered to herself as her lighter stayed unlit, no matter how hard she flicked her finger across it only a few sparks appeared. She rarely used it—not wanting to run out of it too quickly. Only on truly cold nights did she use it, winter hadn't been fun on her own, and the girl had used fire as a friend.

On the night of her birthday, whilst blowing out the flames to go to sleep, she had made a wish. To see her family, once more, she didn't care how or when, she just needed them. Feel her father's warm hugs, her mother's encouraging words and hear Carl's dumb jokes. The same wish she made on her nineteenth birthday the next year. Without all of the things that made her happy, she no longer felt entitled to the name 'Grimes'. It was a burden, believing she was the only one left to hold that title.

As her finger now throbbed in pain, all Tilly continued to see were sparks. Angrily, she threw the object away, kissing her morning meal goodbye. The dead rabbit lying next to her was a forgotten object as she slumped onto the log. Her arms folded, her black jacket clinging to her in the morning's cold weather. Tilly was sure the last time she checked it had been summer, why was today deciding to disobey?

Her lips formed a light frown, eyes saddening as she stared ahead of her into the trees. The year alone had been stressful for her, wandering continuously, searching any building she could find. Her belongings ended up being a few pairs of essential clothes, a pickaxe, a small tent and a photo of her family. The photo included Rick and Lori sitting on the couch beside each other, hands linked as they prepared for a cute, couple picture before six-year-old Carl and an eleven-year-old Tilly photobombed with their teddies behind the couch.

Though upset their anniversary picture wasn't perfect, the adults still made multiple copies anyway—one a picture frame to hang on the wall, the other a gift for Tilly to keep on her birthday.

Now, whenever she needed to remember what they looked like she would stare at the picture through glossy eyes, silently pleading for God to bring them back to her. That's what she would spend most days doing, slowly sliding into insanity second by second. At least she had a picture of them, right?

As she stared at the logs piled in front of her, Tilly thought of what to do. Travelling for so long on her own she never truly had anything except for scavenging and sleep, now that she settled herself in the middle of the woods it wouldn't be very easy to come across anything until she moved again.

The nineteen-year-old hadn't had any sort of human interaction for a whole year unless someone was to count taking down geeks as human interaction. Another close call had been about a week ago, seeing a sign about a place called:

'TERMINUS
SANCTUARY FOR ALL
COMMUNITY FOR ALL'

But she never checked it out, any place that was willingly putting up a sign like that was either taken down by assholes or bombed the shit out of.

Hearing her own voice would shock her sometimes, especially with how it had deepened from dehydration, and as the girl chased the end of puberty. Tearing down any kind of supply store in hopes of finding any kind of sanitary product led her to two pads and one tampon sitting in her tent. Soon enough, she'd have to be on the move again.

Tilly didn't realize how soon.

A familiar sound of snarling reached her ears, goosebumps rising as she realised what was happening. The trees could never protect her, no matter how much she wanted them to.

Instantly, her head spun to see a geek making its way around her small tent, teeth chomping together, waiting for its next meal. Grabbing her axe from beside her, Tilly came to a stand. The creature started walking faster to get towards her, eyes set on grabbing its morning meal. As the dead, skinny arms reached towards the nineteen-year-old, she slammed the axe down as hard she could, creating a series of gunk and blood to escape as the creature dropped to the ground.

With struggle, she removed the weapon from its head, ready to let it go for the rest of the day until more growls reached her sense of hearing. As if multiplying, geeks appeared from corners behind her, eyes dead set on the nineteen-year-old. Tilly had one thought and one thought only: she could not deal with all of these assholes alone.

On instinct, her feet picked up, running towards her tent as she scrambled inside for her bag. She knew she wouldn't have enough time to pack everything up, only grabbing a pair of loose underwear, the photo of her family that she pinned to the side, and some spare socks lying about. After shoving everything inside the backpack, Tilly swung it on her shoulders, crawling out of her tent speedily as the geeks began to catch up to the area she had created.

"Bye, assholes." Her voice croaked out before she began to speed off, paying no mind to the dead creatures that tried to follow her. It was a void of trees for most of her run, Tilly happy not to come across any of the dead or living ready to kill her.

The girl stopped her run to catch a breath, eyes widening as she allowed herself to look at her surroundings: fire. She wasn't sure how far away but as she stared above the trees a large stream of smoke floated upwards signifying two things: one, there were other people out there with her. Two, Tilly did not want to find out who they were.

Unfortunately for her, as she got back into sprinting, she heard growling. This time, the growling was not alone. It wasn't just geeks trying to search for their meal, no, they seemed to have already found it. A low scream mixed in with the walker's noises, Tilly heard a nightmare play around her as she fought against how her legs stilled, chasing the sound impulsively.

The trees seemed to end, creating a small circle as she found patches of short grass, and long flowers all different colours everything seemed to be content there if it weren't for the screaming man fighting off the geeks just outside a wooden hut. As Tilly noticed him, he seemed to notice her, eyes pleading as he pushed away any geeks that got close to him.

Quickly, Tilly analysed him, making sure of no bites or scratches—making sure he was worth saving. The dark-skinned man wore a blue beanie on his head, casual clothing for the situation they were in as well as dirt covering most of his outfit. And yet, no injuries.

Instinctively, Tilly charged forward, catching the attention of the geeks as half of them turned to face her. Shit. Her axe swung forward, getting the closest creature in the head as it fell to the ground. The man who she tried to save seemed to gain more confidence as he was pushing the geeks with more force, stamping on their heads as others landed on pikes.

As Tilly got to a fourth one, it was already on her, grabbing her shoulder as the dead prepared to feast on her neck. The stranger pulled it back, smashing its head against the wall in a moment of anger. Geek sludge poured down the wood as both of the fighters caught their breath.

"Thanks," the man whispered, facing the girl as she placed a hand on her forehead, calming down from the situation. Her wavy hair was a combination of muck and blood as it swayed by her shoulders. He moved forward, holding a hand out in front of her. "I'm Tyreese," he introduced himself.

"Tilly," she responded, turning to face him with a terror-struck face as the girl hesitantly shook his hand. Almost right away, Tyreese's eyes widened as he turned towards the doors of the wooden hut, smashing the doors open as Tilly followed him cluelessly. She flinched back as Tyreese charged forward, slamming a much smaller man to the ground. Tilly watched as he punched the man, slowly entering the place as her eyes stayed on the gruesome event, curious as to what was happening.

Tyreese snatched the knife out of the cap-man's hand, placing it at his throat as Tilly was starting to second guess whoever this man could be. The small coos of a baby caught her attention, eyes growing even wider as she noticed the small thing lying in a little basket

"Yeah." The unknown man on the ground began to speak as Tilly felt odd standing there, shivering from the intensity of everything happening around her. They were actual people (well, she hoped they were), the first people she had come in contact with for over a year! "That's how it works."

"I won't," Tyreese whispered, breathing heavily as he kept the knife at the man's neck. He sat up slightly, kneeing the stranger in the face, Tilly cringing as blood splattered from his mouth. Again, Tyreese punched him. "I won't." Punch. "I won't." Another punch. "I won't!" Tyreese continued this pattern, angrily punching as Tilly felt frozen, watching the man in horror.

At least a full minute passed as Tyreese removed his bloody knuckles from the man's contorted face, breathing laboriously as he pushed the man up, forcing him to stand. "If I see you again, I will." He threatened before allowing the cap-man a free escape, watching as he cowardly ran off. Tilly's jaw was ajar, eyebrows raised as she turned to face Tyreese, his eyes going from one of anger to guilt as he saw the fear on her face.

"He tried to kill me, then the baby." The man explained as he picked up the small person from its basket, hushing its soft babbles whilst bouncing it softly. Tilly nodded, grasping her head around what happened before.

"Why didn't you let him die?" Tilly questioned, heart rate returning to whatever her normal was as Tyreese found himself sitting on the ground, Judith on his knee.

"I will not be like him, no matter what," Tyreese answered, a silence encasing the space as all three of them calmed down from the situation. "Why are you alone?"

"Why do you have a baby?" The girl retorted, Tyreese chuckling as he held the back of Judith's head, a smile on the baby's face as she recognised the man.

"This is Judith, she's a-a friend." Tilly cringed at the name, it being a reminder of something she'd like to forget. "Something wrong?"

"Oh no, the name's just familiar. It was the name of my third-grade teacher, God I hated her." Tilly explained, a small smile on her face as she remembered simpler times. When all that worried her was getting another scolding for throwing a pencil across the room or taunting one of the boys in her class. Tyreese laughed lightly, peering towards the girl as he studied her, still pondering on his earlier question. "I assume little Judith is better than Mrs Mueller though."

Tyreese nodded, a wide smile printed across his face as an idea caught up in his mind. "You wanna hold her, it's all I've been doing the past few days since our place was overtaken."

Tilt hesitated, questions running through her mind over what his place could've been, but she just ignored them staring at the baby. "Um, sure?"

Tyreese stood up, Tilly following as they exchanged the baby. Judith was confused at first, not recognising the person whose arms she sat in. Almost immediately, her eyes turned soft as her fussing stopped in Tilly's arms, army green irises calming as she looked at the woman who held her. It pained Tilly how similar she looked, how much her face took on the features of a young baby she had once held and watched grow up before the world took him and her family from her. She stopped any tears from filling her eyes as she swayed any Judith lightly as if she was the most delicate thing in the world, just how five-year-old her had done the day Carl was born.

"My other friend should be coming back soon. I'll introduce you to her." Tyreese said as he rested on the wall, cleaning any geek blood that had gotten on him.

"What's her name?"

"Carol." Tilly felt as if Tyreese had pulled out her heart and squeezed it until there was no blood left, then placed it back inside her so she would forever feel the feeling of emptiness just for the simple name. The name of a kind woman who had cared for Tilly, whose daughter had been as sweet as her mother. Hopefully, Carol Peletier didn't suffer the same fate as her baby did.

Tyreese seemed entranced by something at the window, his breathing growing different than before as his eyes glowed happily. "Holy shit," he whispered, turning towards Tilly as she held a face of confusion. The man walked over to Tilly, offering to take the baby as his mood changed from solemn to full bubbly. Tilly willingly handed Judith over, puzzled by the sudden shift as Tyreese began to exit the hut.

What the hell?

——

author notes —
HII!! I didn't want the reunion to be straight away so we have a rick pov next chapter.. not entirely—we also see other pov's of people in the group still alive.

Sorry if this isn't the best—I was unsure on how to write it

Tilly's love interest will not be spoken about for a while simply because I'm stuck on three different people, hopefully by the end of season five I will have decided :)

Finding edit audios to use for tt is actually so hard

Anyways,
Byee </3