A small yelp escaped from Riley's lips as she nearly lost her balance, a laugh following right after it. A few people were beginning to form in a crowd below her, all of them watching as she carefully walked along the ledge of a roof at the prison. She kept her arms out to her sides, trying to focus on reaching the end of the roof to locate the missing ball she was trying to retrieve.

Just a few more steps away.

"Riley! What in God's name are you doing? Get back down here right now!" A feminine voice called after the girl. Despite the anger in it, the strain from worry and desperation was completely obvious in it, as if standing out in big, bolded, letters.

"Meg, it's fine. I'm a gymnast!" Riley called back as she placed her right foot over her left foot tentatively, ignoring the shouts from her stepmother. Under her breath, a little more to herself than anyone else, she'd muttered with a small grin, "I got it."

"Riley!" Meg called again, pushing her way in front of a few people to get as close as possible. "If you miss one step you're going to fall to your death! Get down."

"I'm fine!" Riley laughed again, looking down for just a moment. The ground was so far away, a hiccup of fear nearly formed in her throat, but she brushed it away hastily.

"Riles, what are you doing?" A new voice joined the small crowd below. This one was easy to put a pin on, Riley heard it everyday. A very kind, gentle, tone was always carried along with the sweet gestures of the man who possessed it, and currently, that same man was beginning to climb his way up a ladder in attempts to get to her.

Riley didn't even bother to call out to Glenn like she did with Meg, instead she gingerly lifted one leg up as she balanced on one foot on the thin ledge. Meg's yells grew louder and the few people watching her gasped or looked away.

"Riley, that isn't funny!" Glenn said nervously. He was reaching over to another part of the prison walls to try and continue his endeavors to reach her, but his body was older and larger than hers- and it certainly couldn't climb as efficiently as hers either.

Riley turned away from him and kept walking towards her destination, the dirty soccer ball now in her line of vision. She bit her lip to hide a smile as her brain began to work a little magic within itself. Another threat from Meg came from down below, this time a warning that she'd tell Riley's older brother, Sawyer, but still the young girl didn't care. Her brother had a soft spot when it came to her, he couldn't ever stay mad at her anyway.

"I see it, Mika!" Riley called down below, watching the little girl's eyes light up in excitement. "It's right there, I just gotta-"

Riley cut herself off with a scream as her foot suddenly misplaced a step and sent her body tumbling downwards off of the ledge and away from the crowd of people. A commotion of shouts and a hysteric yell from Meg suddenly sounded.

"Riley!" Glenn shouted, his voice just slightly closer than before, panic swarming it.

Riley let a few seconds of suspension swim in the atmosphere before getting to her feet and holding the soccer ball up in triumph. No one really bothered to realize that nearly every wall in the prison had a second support ledge next to it, wide and sturdy enough to fit multiple people. Riley only knew this because she'd taken it to herself to explore every section of the prison at night when she couldn't sleep and just needed to think.

Laughing, Riley watched as Meg pressed her lips into a thin line, shaking her head as she walked away towards the outskirts of the crowd, most definitely muttering a string of curses under her breath. Regardless, the girl laughed continuously, walking over to the area where Glenn was, shimmering sweat on his forehead and exhaustion written across his face.

"There was another landing there, you goof." Riley let out a last laugh, as she began to descend from the roof using one hand, the other occupied by holding the ball.

"Goof, yeah. You could've died, Riley. What if you fell?" Glenn scoffed as he followed the girl's lead to the ground.

"Yeah, but I didn't." She snorted with a giggle. "Glenn, you should see your face."

"Yeah, sorry I care." Glenn hopped to the ground, holding out a hand to assist Riley as she landed next to him. He nodded at the ball in her arms. "You going back out with them to play?"

Riley shook her head. "No, I think I'm gonna head back inside. I told Beth I'd help with Judy today."

"Don't you tell her that, like, everyday?" Glenn asked. His boots crunched on the pavement beneath them as they rounded a corner to go back to the main entrance, he paused for a second to let Riley catch up after throwing the ball back to Mika and the other kids.

"Yeah. It's fun though, I love being with Judith. She's like my little sidekick." Riley responded as she ran up next to him.

"She can't even walk yet." Glenn said with furrowed eyebrows. "Much less saying anything besides 'dada.'"

"Actually, the other day I heard her say 'bitch', so, try again." The brunette girl argued, only to be met with a push to the shoulder and a firm 'language'.

Before either could say anything else, a new voice called out to them. Both Glenn and Riley's heads snapped in the direction of the calling, a person in view now jogging up to them.

"Where 'ya guys headed to?" Rick asked, walking up with a hand on his belt. His beard was growing in larger and some dirt was caught on his clothing, but as of recently, this was his new everyday look now. He was no longer Rick the Sheriff, the all mighty savior, now he was just Rick the Farmer, keeping the prison alive. And frankly, Riley liked it a lot. Seeing Rick relaxed and happy made her feel safe, even though she always felt safe with him, things just seemed normal.

"We were just going inside. Riles wanted to go help Beth and I need to get ready for the run pretty soon." Glenn replied with a quick glance at a watch on his wrist.

Riley's head turned towards Glenn at the mention of the run taking place that afternoon. Those trips were dangerous, usually the group sent out came back with a few less members than being released with, but despite this knowledge Riley still always pestered people to let her go on every one of them. It didn't even need to be a big thing, she just felt trapped inside the fences of the prison, her freedom felt limited, as if there were red lines painted across the gravel marking her boundaries and forcing her to stay inside the perimeter. It wasn't often she was allowed to accompany one, in fact, it was really rare- as it was for all kids who'd wanted to go on one. The adults usually came up with excuses as to why she couldn't go, and today, it was because they stuck her on welcoming duty for a few newcomers.

"You're goin' on that? I thought Maggie was." Rick placed both hands on his hips as he tilted his head a little, looking at Glenn.

"Uh, change of plans." The younger man replied simply with a small shrug on his shoulders.

Rick nodded, instead averting his gaze to Riley. "Michonne's coming back today, I want you to see her. Come back down here in a few hours, alright? Bet you she'll be back by then."

Instantly, Riley's heart surged and her sour mood from before did a full flip. Her lips spread into a wide grin, nodding profusely as she did so. "Yeah, of course. I can't wait."

"Alright then," The Grimes man chuckled before turning and clapping Glenn on the shoulder, "I'll see you later, be safe."

"Will do, boss." The other man smiled before he and Riley started walking off into the prison walls of Cell Block C, the section of the building where them and the rest of their group lived in.

Inside the grey stoned walls of the prison, paired with the smell of dust and metal, Riley and Glenn ran into very few people, majority of them spending their time outside. It was only a few mere seconds it took the two to find Beth, the youngest family member of the Greene's, inside bustling about. Glenn said a little sentence about leaving to go change his clothes before heading upstairs, leaving Riley to approach Beth, who was carrying a crying baby in one arm and a bag in the other. The blonde scurried from one cell to another, murmuring things to herself like she was in a rush.

"Hey," Riley called out to the older girl, grabbing her attention. "What are you doing?"

"Hey, Riley. I'm just packing some stuff up for Maggie, she's going on the run today and I promised I'd help her prepare." Beth greeted the girl, the heavy weight of her accent dragging her words around behind her as her voice faded off, her mind being caught in focus.

"I thought Glenn was subbing in for her?" Riley said as she leaned against a table, to which the other girl exchanged a confused glance before shrugging her shoulder to move the baby in her hold to a higher position. "Hey, I can take Judith for you, did she eat yet?"

"Only breakfast, I didn't have time to give her her bottle yet, that's why she's so fussy." Beth explained as she passed the infant over to the brunette's open arms.

"Oh, I can feed her." Riley offered as she pushed off the table, getting to her balanced feet as she adjusted Judith in her arms.

"Would you?" The Greene asked as she shoved a granola bar into the bag- which Riley was nearly positive wouldn't even be put to use unless Glenn decided to take the bag instead.

"Yeah," The brunette smiled before walking over to the table in which the group kept Judith's supplies at. She looked down into the cherry colored face of the sobbing infant, raising her voice to a higher pitch as she spoke to Judith. "You hungry, hm?"

Judith only cried some more, but Riley was used to it by now. Having been with the baby since she was born, hearing her wails for hours on end was part of her every day by now, but she didn't really mind, anyway. She would definitely be miserable if she spent her babyhood without her mother and living in a prison during an apocalypse.

Scooping a little bit of powder into a small cup, Riley bounced Judith in her arms lightly, humming a song quietly under her breath to tune out the shouts in her ear. Single handedly attempting to twist the lid onto the baby bottle, her fingers fumbled and dropped the cap, her hand knocking over a stand holding pacifiers and tiny tubs of formula as she tried to catch it, to no avail.

"Shit." Riley murmured as Judith screamed louder in her ear, the brunette readjusting the baby on her hip before making a move to pick everything up.

"I think you might've dropped something." A boy suddenly teased at Riley as he bent down to gather the fallen supplies, then standing up and handing her back the lid. Paired with reddish-brown hair and a sea of freckles, Lucas Hall leaned against the table as he watched the girl successfully twist on the cap before shaking it.

"Thanks." Riley smiled at him as she brought the bottle up to Judith's lips, whose cries began to fade once she tasted the formula on her tongue.

Lucas nodded. "What's that song you were singing?"

"What song?" The girl asked with furrowed eyebrows as she averted her gaze from the infant resting delicately in her arms to the older boy next to her.

"You were singing something- or humming, I don't know the difference." Lucas chuckled, earning a weak one back from the girl in response before continuing. "I'm assuming that's why you didn't hear me come in."

"Oh," Riley nodded with realization, her nose scrunching as she thought for a moment. "It's just this one Beth used to sing to me sometimes at the farm."

"It's nice, sounds like something similar my dad used to play before the start." The boy commented as he began to clean up the formula and supplies that Riley had laid out beforehand.

"Peter Gabriel?" Riley asked, slightly stunned at the fact he recognized the artist she'd been humming to. Her eyebrows raised in surprised, a small smile tugging at her mouth.

"Yeah, yeah, sounds familiar." Lucas nodded abruptly, noticing the change in mood in the girl's face. "He's got some good stuff."

"Yeah." Riley nodded, her beam still plastered on her face. She looked down at Judith, who's big, chocolate, brown eyes wandered across the ceiling of the prison. Stuck in the midst of a debate, Riley quickly blurted a sentence out before she could change her mind and deny the thought already teasing her mind. "I have a record player Michonne brought back for me once, you could swing by and listen to some of the things I have, if you want."

Seemingly taken aback, Lucas bobbed his head up and down. "Yeah, sure, sounds great. That'd be cool."

Riley bit her lip down to hide the triumphant smile beginning on her face. "Great. My cell, six-thirty."

"Your cell?" The boy doubled back, his eyes widening just the slightest bit.

"Six-thirty." Riley confirmed with a side smile as the boy in front of her blew out a breath. His face took a pinkish tint, and the Endicott quickly became conscious of the fact her own skin was probably red.

Turning away, she watched as Glenn came back downstairs, a new t-shirt fitted onto his torso and a belt carrying an impressive array of knives and a gun. He walked over to Beth, his strides long until he reached her, and Riley couldn't help but let a single laugh escape her throat at the confused expression on the man's face as the youngest Greene handed him a safety pack with an extra-protein-protein bar.

With a twinge in her gut under the circumstances the strange interaction appeared in and a fading blush that attacked her cheeks due to the boy next to her, Riley looked down at the baby in her arms, admiring the peaceful look on her face.

The clang of the cell block door shutting as Glenn left rang in her eardrums and Riley looked up, noticing Beth starting to make her way over to where the young brunette stood with a baby in her arms and another red-faced teenage boy with her. Riley also noticed the look on Beth's face.

"Hey, you wouldn't mind getting Billy, would you? I think he mentioned something about playing soccer with us earlier." The girl turned to Lucas abruptly, interrupting the silence that was caving down in the room.

"Okay," Lucas said as he pushed off the table. "You don't wanna come?"

"I have to finish feeding Judith, first. I'll just meet you guys down at the fields, okay?" Riley excused quickly, shifting the infant to a higher position on her shoulder. 

"You sure?"

Riley nodded, watching as the boy turned and left in the opposite direction, his body slowly disappearing into the shadows until he opened the door, wiped from her sight.

"What's this goin' on here?" Beth asked once in earshot of Riley, her pink lips widened in a teasing smirk.

"Nothing." Riley grinned, turning her face away in embarrassment before facing the older girl again. "Just made a bold move, is all."

Beth raised an eyebrow. "Nothing I have to tell your brother about, right?"

"Stop." Riley said as a disgusted scoff escaped her throat. 

"I'm just joking with you." The blonde bumped her hip into Riley's as she moved next to her, reaching her arms out for the baby whose breathing began to slow with long and drowsy blinks. "So, did you do any farming today?"

"No, I've been too busy lately." Riley shook her head as she handed Judith off to Beth, who smiled down at the little girl who giggled in her arms, wrapped in the safety of Riley's own baby blanket from when she was younger.

"That's only because you've been hanging out with me." Beth grinned. Her eyes twinkled as she listened to the sweet sound of a short laugh that had escaped Riley's lips.

"Yeah, well you can't blame me, can you? I guess you're just too fun to be around." The younger girl shrugged.

"Don't lie to me, all we've been doing is making formula and going on walks."

"I like walks." Riley protested.

"But you like farming more." The Greene's eyebrows raised in a knowing glance, pulling a sigh from the youthful lungs of the brunette next to her. "It's okay to get a little frustrated sometimes, I mean, I would too if I had to spend all my mornings with a grump who complained every time I got within a three feet proximity of him."

Riley laughed again, the tickle of the instinctive actions strumming against her vocal cords. "Yeah, well, I guess some things just never change. He's been like this since Lori."

"Just give him some time. He needs it." Beth advised as she tucked the corners of Judith's blankets in a little tighter.

"I've given him time- and space. He only acts like that when he's around me, it's just... weird." Riley blurted, a weird knot forming in her stomach, the same feeling that possesses her body whenever her mind strays to a stressful topic.

Beth didn't say anything, instead just staring at the floor as if deep in thought. Turning her face away, Riley's posture slouched, lip caught in between her teeth as she suffered in the deafening silence.

"If it makes you feel better, we can go for a walk." Beth offered, taking the bottle from Judith's mouth and placing it gently on the cold surface of the metal table they stood at, using the cloth of the blanket to wipe the inner corners of her lips before giving it back to her again.

Riley furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "Why would that make me feel better?"

"You just said you like walks!" Beth argued, her face creasing in the image of her laugh, uprooting one from what felt like the bottom of Riley's body.

"That was an excuse." The younger girl pointed out as the pair began their departure from the cell block.

Beth shrugged. "You still said it."

Riley's head fell, heavy with the weight of a chuckle. "Remind me not to say things just to say things in front of you again."

The blonde grinned back at her. "No, thanks."

"That's three comic books, plus an extra I stole from Carl's pile, but you better not tell him I gave that to you." Michonne said with a raised eyebrow from her seat next to Riley.

Sitting in a small circle, consisting of the older woman, Beth, Nessa, Samson, and of course the lovely participant Judith, Riley's jaw fell open.

"Are you serious? I only asked for one."

"I like to exceed expectations." Michonne replied with satisfaction as she watched the younger girl flip through the pages of each new addition added to her comic collection.

"You're actually amazing, Michonne. Thank you." Riley beamed as she placed the delicate papers to her side.

"What's the deal about comics anyway? They're just paper that look really edible." Sam commented from his place on the ground, eyebrows furrowed as he examined the booklets from afar.

"They only look edible to you because you have a disconnected wire in your brain." Nessa, his sister, cocked her head. It was a miracle, really, that they ended up as twins, because they were the most opposite of people that people could get.

Scoffing, Sam shook his head. "I don't have wires in my brain, because I'm not a robot- oh! But I do have that weird kid, Patrick, convinced I'm not human. We had this crazy bet going on how long I could go without eating, it's been three days."

"You just ate two servings of deer a half hour ago." Riley frowned.

"Yeah, but he doesn't have to know that." Sam grinned cheekily with a wink, to which Nessa rolled her eyes dramatically.

"Awe, leave him alone. He's just different." Beth sympathized for the boy.

"Yeah, you think?" Sam raised his eyebrows pointedly.

"It's not a think, Sam. It's a know." Michonne spoke up. 

"Don't you guys ever want to get to, like, actually know someone before you judge them?" Riley asked. "He's actually really nice, and he's pretty good at soccer too."

Sam snorted at her last sentence. "I think I'd have a higher chance of seeing the walkers suck each other off than see that kid play a sport."

"You're such a hater." Nessa said with a shake of her head, but the monotone flatness in her voice just proved to be one of the things she said just to hear her own voice, a reoccurring habit she'd been fond of since Riley met her.

"Okay, this has been a real nice shit talking session, but I have to lay Judith down for a nap now, and I also promised I'd meet Sawyer soon. I'll see y'all later, alright?" Beth suddenly said as she got to her feet.

"It's not shit talking if we're just saying things that are facts, right guys?" Sam looked around their small circle for backup.

"Some of those facts were very opinionated." Riley pointed out.

"Have fun with Sawyer, Bethy." Nessa waved, despite the fact the blonde was still standing right next to them. "And be safe."

Earning a disappointed look from Michonne, Nessa just shrugged innocently. With a scrunch of her nose, Riley looked between the two with a confused glance.

"Why? Are they going outside the fences?"

"One day, sweetie, one day." Nessa nodded.

The ringing vibration of a soccer ball colliding with the metal of the prison fences snapped the young girl's attention away from the other women, focus now in shambles. She hopped off the ledge she'd been seated on next to Michonne, brushing her pants off as she readied herself to leave.

"Where are you going?" Nessa asked.

"I told some of the kids I'd play with them today." Riley explained. "And don't worry, I won't tell Patrick what your wingnut brother said about him." She added with a pointed look towards Sam, a grin spreading across her lips.

"Okay, have fun." Michonne said as she squeezed the girl's shoulder. "Want me to leave your comics in your cell?"

"That'd be great, thanks." Riley accepted as she departed from the group hastily. In all honesty, she loved every bit of them down to the core, but sometimes their conversations drained her sanity to a grit.

The broken rubber from her broken pair of Converse shoes collided roughly with the gravel that littered that prison grounds like sand. The crunch of the sneakers against rocks made a melody with the wind, a whistle flying through the air as its physical brush of companionship separated the loosened strands of Riley's hair.

"Hey, Riley!" A voice from the fields called out to her. "We've been waiting for you for, like, three centuries."

"Do you even know what a century is?" Riley asked once she joined the group she'd noticed from her pervious position with Michonne, Nessa, and Sam.

"Yeah," Billy scoffed defensively.

"Don't ask him to clarify, because he's not gonna know the answer." Lucas grinned as he placed his elbow on the other boy's shoulder, who in response shrugged it off ferociously.

"Ah, nothing new, I see. Nothing new." Riley sighed.

"Y'all got no faith in me, I'm telling you." Billy sucked his teeth as he kicked the checkered soccer ball into a frenzy of wild grass.

"There is no reason to be upset, Young Sir. Not everyone is educated on the topic of time, but if it would please you, I could come by your cell later and offer my help?" Patrick looked down at the boy from his tall height, peering at him through his thick glasses.

"I'm good, P, thanks, though." Billy declined with a quick side glance to Riley, who raised her eyebrows with a little grin to hide her laugh.

"P?" The older boy asked with slitted eyes.

"It's a nickname, Patrick. People kind of do that around here." A new voice spoke up for the first time since Riley had joined their conversation. Carl held the soccer ball under his arm, eyes focused solely on the older boy and nowhere else in a purposeful manner.

"Oh." Patrick nodded. "I see. I appreciate the gesture, B."

"Yeah, we ain't calling me that one, alright man?" Billy clapped Patrick on the shoulder twice before a round of shouts erupted from the small group's right.

"Nick! Come here, Nick." A youthful and feminine voice shouted with a joyous giggle.

Turning to face the commotion, Riley narrowed her eyebrows, watching as a girl she knew by the name of Lizzie, began to hit a stick against the prison fence, dragging fits of laughs from all the other kids with her.

"What the hell?" Carl muttered as he began to walk over. 

Patrick, of course, followed in suit, yet not before Riley had as well. In truth, she really did like some of those kids, especially the youngest one, Mika. She had nothing against the girl's older sister, but she did find her a little strange, in a sense, and it wasn't just because of her obsession with the cannibalistic creatures wreaking havoc not even a foot off the coast of their safe zone.

"You're naming them?" Carl asked once he was within earshot of the group. In response, all turned around, walking closer to the group of slightly older children approaching them.

"Well, one of them has a name tag, so we thought all of them should." Mika explained with a toothy grin, one of which being missing.

"They had names when they were alive, they're dead now." Carl tried to reason patiently with her.

"No, they're not. They're just different." Lizzie said. Her face was contorted into a look speaking volumes, like she was ready to argue her case.

"Lizzie, they kill people." Riley said gently, although her facial expressions betrayed her tone.

"People kill people, they still have names." The blonde shrugged mindlessly. The vicious growling behind her and the dead skin being torn off of the dead bodies with a squelching noise as they reached their arms through the fence holes had no affect on her in the slightest.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Carl shook his head. "Okay, they don't talk. They don't think. They eat people. Have you even seen what happens? Have you seen someone die like that?"

Lizzie's face turned stone cold, the color draining from her skin as if being sucked out violently. Clenching her hands tightly as her eyes squinted, she nodded. "Yeah. I have."

"Then don't you see what's wrong with them?" Riley asked, appalled. 

"There's nothing wrong with them, okay? You just don't get it." Lizzie raised her voice, stress eating at her flesh and strain strumming her vocal cords like an emotional harp.

"Watch it." Carl snapped at her. "They're not people, and they're not pets. Don't name them."

"Oh, Jesus." Billy murmured from the back of the five, a whistle steaming from his throat. Riley didn't have to see his face to picture the raise of his eyebrows and the downwards angle his pupils pointed at.

Lizzie inhaled a deep breath through her nose, her head shaking a little as wisps of blonde strands stuck to her face. She turned towards the other kids standing alongside her. "We're supposed to go read, come on."

Exiting from the scene, three of the group left, leaving Riley with a more or less concerned look masked onto her face. Her eyebrows were drawn together as she looked at the ground. Being a child and growing up in an apocalyptic scenario was harsh, she knew the experience first hand, in fact, she'd even had the same mindset as Lizzie when she had sanctuary at the ruined farm. Hershel, the elder man who'd run the house, had told her that all the people who were bit were just sick, and they wouldn't get better, so they'd keep them in a large barn on the property. Being so young and naive, Riley let the desperation take over her as she truly had wanted to believe that it was true, a certain person or few in the wooden structure giving her hope. But it was because of this that the girl knew how harmful it was to believe it, she could only hope Lizzie eventually came to terms with the fact the walkers were dead, and there was no coming back.

Gaze lifting from the ground, Riley watched as Mika, the only remaining child, tugged at a piece of her clothing. "Are you coming to storytime tonight?"

"Uh..." Patrick looked around at the faces surrounding him nervously. "Yeah."

Mika grinned, her eyes shining with a glamoured luminosity. "See you then."

As she ran off, calling out to her older sister to wait up, Patrick's skin adopted a heated burn that run from his neck to his face as he became the center of attention in the small group.

"Storytime, man?" Billy laughed, his neck elongating as he looked closer at Patrick's face. Riley laughed as Patrick sighed in defeat, Lucas's own voice combining with hers. 

A small, yet not completely abandoned huff of amusement stood out from everyone else's, and Riley's gaze drew to Carl, whose own lips stitched upwards at Patrick's embarrassment. 

"I go sometimes. I'm immature." The oldest boy admitted, giving into the laughs and chuckling himself. "You guys wouldn't dig it, it's for kids."

Billy shrugged. "I mean, if they've got anything good there, I might give it a try."

"What?" Riley laughed, her shoulders shaking as her body bent over a bit. The image of the boy sitting criss-crossed in a pool of adolescents listening as someone read a fairytale to him seemed other-worldly.

"Actually?" Patrick asked, surprised. He repositioned his glasses a little, pushing them farther up the bridge of his nose as he stared at the boy who'd offered his input.

"Hell no." Billy scoffed. "I'm just fucking with you man, that shit's for kids."

"You said it." Carl lifted his shoulders as he spoke with a 'sucks to suck' tone etching at his voice in response to Patrick's blank stare.

"I'm gonna head up there now," Patrick said, his eyebrow raising pointedly at Billy. "You should come if you would like to, it really is fun sometimes. I'll catch you later, Young Sirs- and Young Ma'am."

Nodding her goodbye, Riley tucked her hair behind her ear to cease the wind from its attempts at stealing it with the air brushing her face. A soft silence tickled the remaining four's skin, until Carl dropped the ball from underneath his arm.

"I think I'm gonna go too. I'll see you guys later." He said, but his voice was no longer let loose, or as close to happy as it was before. Instead, it was rough and hard, like a stone statue was speaking for him.

"To storytime?" Riley asked, astonishment written across her features and dancing with her tone.

"No." He scoffed, making direct eye contact with her- the first time that day. He shook his head as if her words had personally shot him with an injection of bitterness, turning away from her and walking off.

"I think he's mad." Lucas crossed his arms after he observed Carl's figure departing gruffly.

"He's not mad." Riley said quietly. Her fingers gently rubbed against her jaw as she kicked a few pebbles over uncomfortably.

"He's just being a bitch 'cause he doesn't like Riley." Billy explained to Lucas, to which the girl sent him a nasty look. To be fair, the statement did teeter on the line of truth, but when a boy you were close with for so long suddenly faced you with an undeniable hatred, hearing it in a blatant affirmation kind of stung like salt in an open wound.

"Why?" Lucas turned to Riley, his eyes carrying a deepened curiosity. He'd already been aware of the fact both her and Carl had been together since almost the beginning and came to the prison in the same group, but his mind just plugged in a random piece reading that they never really clicked, hence why the two usually didn't hang around each other much.

"I don't know," Riley shrugged with honest truth, choosing the path Beth had directed her towards earlier. "I think he's just had a hard time since his mother."

"That was like, months ago you said." Billy pointed out.

"That kind of pain doesn't really go away." Riley said nearly instantly. It was more of a silent defense for herself than it was for Carl, though. She'd been speaking from experience.

"Oh, yeah." Billy nodded, his senses picking up on the bruise he'd just punched. "Do you guys, like, think it'd be funny to show up to storytime today? Just for fun?"

"Maybe." Lucas said. "But later, me and Riley kind of have something to do around then."

The boldness of his sentence could be easily compared to having someone wack a tree branch into your stomach, because that was exactly what Riley felt the second his words hit her eardrums. Her lips parted, her voice halting as she tried to come up with a sum of words to play off of Lucas's, but she, for once, was truly at a loss for things to say.

"What?" Billy asked as his whole body swiveled with his head to face the girl. His eyebrow was raised, and like a tidal wave, the same expression Beth had worn earlier began to fall across his face.

"Yeah." Riley nodded casually. "We're just going to check out some of the records I have from the farm."

"Uh huh." Billy said slowly, his eyes drifting between the two like a detective. "I see. Well, y'all let me know, because I'm not showing up to that thing myself."

"Got it." Lucas agreed before letting his own gaze fall to his wrist, where a clock face ticked on his watch. "Hey, I'll catch up with you guys later, I promised my dad I'd help him with fence duty."

"Right now?" Riley asked him.

Lucas laughed. "Uh, more like five minutes ago."

"Oh, well, I'll see you later then, right?" The girl smiled at him, the angle of the sun shining in her eyes and resulting in a squint.

"Yeah." Lucas said breathily. He hesitated a moment before sending the two a quick smile and turning around to venture up the same hill Carl had just moments before, once becoming a mere outline of a person to their view grinning to himself with a satisfactory nod.

"Lucas is coming over? To your cell?" Billy asked stunned. He moved over into Riley's line of vision, hands on his hips with his jaw sweeping the green blades of grass at his feet.

Riley shrugged, her face twitching into an animated smile. "We're just listening to music together."

"Inviting a boy over to your cell to 'listen to music' will never just end in 'listening to music'." Billy said knowingly. He began to walk away, Riley's own body paralyzed for a moment before running to catch up to him.

"Wait, so what are you saying?" She asked quickly. She observed her friend's face as it contorted into annoyance at her cluelessness. 

"I'm saying the kid's definitely planning to get to know a little more than just your music taste." Billy stated as if it were obvious.

Riley looked towards the ground as her lips parted. There were many different ways she could interpret what the boy just said, but everything she tried didn't seem quite right.

"Listen, just try not to overthink it. It'll probably be over before you know it." Billy said with a push to her shoulder.

Riley let out a bland laugh. "I don't think I want to hangout with him if I'm just waiting for it to be over the whole time."

Billy shrugged. "Then have fun. Give it a little try, see how you feel."

"Well, I mean... how much is 'a little try'?" Riley asked unsurely, eyebrows knitting together. She felt like she was digging at handpicked dirt when she talked to him, only little bits of dry dust chipping away, clogging up her lungs and irritating all of her senses.

"However much feels right, don't be too confident, but don't not be confident. Just level it out." Billy nodded as the words left his mouth, pride flourishing him as he listened to the advice he'd given her.

Riley scoffed, shaking her head. In the beginning, she'd felt assured of her decision to invite Lucas over. She didn't think much of it, he was being nice to her and he'd admitted to liking her music taste, if she wasn't mistaken he'd also dropped a few hints in the time he'd known her about wanting to get a little closer to her. She was just testing the waters, seeing how it'd go down, she never really had a problem with being a little bold. But now, Billy seemed to have a different and much deeper point of view on everything.

"You don't think I gave him the wrong idea, do you?" She asked the boy next to her.

"Well, do you like him?" Billy interrogated her. The question had taken Riley by surprise, in a conversation like that it'd be expected to come up, but in truth, she really didn't actually expect it to come up.

"I don't know." Riley admitted. A blush attacked her face, forcing her to turn her head away from Billy, her eyes now taking in the sight of people packing up a truck for the run taking place in less that twenty minutes. Glenn stood next to the vehicle, hoisting a box onto his shoulders before transporting it into the trunk. 

"Oh, Lord. That is not good." Billy whistled, regathering her attention.

"What? Why?" Riley further pressed, now a feeling of insecurity and worry tingling up her spine and making a fashionable appearance in her tone.

"Because you might lead him on. Don't do that." Billy warned.

"What?" Riley asked, a little unfamiliar to the term.

"Just get yourself sorted out, no rush. Try this one time out, if it makes you feel good, then you probably like him." The boy confirmed for her, his change up catching Riley painfully off guard.

"Then, how do I know if I don't like him?" 

"You'll wish you were with Carl instead." Billy said decisively. "I'm gonna go find your brother. If I don't see you before it happens, good luck."

"Sawyer? Why?" Riley asked ignoring his last statement. Her shoe crunched on the rocks of the pavement, alerting her they were now near the prison building and had abandoned the lush grass of the fields.

"He sharpened my knife for me, told me to come pick it up today. You wanna come?"

"Oh, no. It's fine, I'll see you later." Riley said, shaking her head. Billy nodded, giving her a small smile before taking his leave, walking over to the big, metal, doors of the prison and disappearing into their darkness.

Walking along the cracked surface of the blackened asphalt, Riley let her head tip back with a sigh. The warmth from the sun's generous rays shone down onto her face, heating her body up as all slivers of frigidity seeped out of her skin. Needing some much necessary 'me time', the girl leaned against the hot and slowly chipping railings of a nearby staircase as she stood there, the toe of her shoe tracing drawings within the dirt. As her body engraved the patterns of newfound art, her mind etched out a plan of her own, the way she would design a run if she could. Her brain worked furiously as she counted the exact number of people she would need in order to come back with the most successful supplies in an amount that would last them what seemed like forever. Her eyebrows furrowed, eyes narrowed, bottom lip sucked into her mouth as the tip of her tongue stuck out of the corner, the same face she made whenever she was so deep in thought it couldn't even take the world's strongest man to pull her out no matter how hard he tried.

But sometimes, you didn't exactly need a man that strong.

"You coming on the run?" A semi-deep voice snapped Riley's head up as the bottom of her shoe kicked messily over her drawings.

"No, not today." Riley replied as Carl nodded. "I need to help a new family settle in."

Carl snorted with a mutter underneath his breath. "Good luck to them."

Riley watched as he continued on away from her, her lips slightly parted as he walked along as if he hadn't seen her at all.

"So, are you going then?" Her voice raised so he could hear her.

Carl turned around, only a few steps in front of the girl. "Yeah, I am."

Riley nodded. "Where you guys headed to?"

"Doesn't matter."

"Sure, it does."

"Why?"

"Because maybe I need something from there."

"Well, in that case, is there any shampoo you require from a drugstore run? Maybe some bandaids for the little scratches on your knees?" Carl mocked. His hands rested on his belt as his eyes bore a nasty gaze into hers, but Riley paid no mind. 

"Actually, I have been getting a few migraines here and there, if you could possibly spare a few minutes of your precious time for a Tylonel bottle?" Riley asked kindly. Her tone seemed to strike a nerve in the blue eyed boy in front of her as he kicked at a rock.

"Oh, yeah? Alright, that'll work." He said as he turned to leave.

"Oh! And I got a nasty cut on my arm the other day, happened when I was feeding the gophers outside the fences. Bacitracin would be great too, if you would be willing to look?" Riley continued.

"Of course, how could I forget? I should've made sure there's nothing else you need for your obsessive amount of bodily injuries." Carl seethed.

"Well, if we're on the topic, keep an eye out for some Claritin while you're out there. My allergies have been getting pretty out of hand lately-" A false sneeze worked it's way out of Riley's mouth as she grinned. "Did 'ya see that?"

"Oh, definitely. It's awful, really. I'll be sure to bring some back." Carl sneered sarcastically as he turned on his heel.

"Don't forget the Neosporin!" The brunette called after the boy. "And some cough drops or syrup, please."

"Anything else you need?" Carl snapped as he spun around faster than the blink of an eye.

"A peach would be nice, too." Riley pulled out of the random, a grin tickling her cheeks as she knew the switch up would pull his last straw.

Without a word, but only the soft puff of a scoff escaping Carl's lips, the brunette boy stalked off, away from the young girl and down the hill, the sharp hit of a car door slamming remaining the period at the end of their sentence.

"The sheets we have now are already clean and safe to sleep on, but if you need to switch them out for any reason there's a linen closet in the hallway between Cell Block C and D." Riley walked  a woman through a few simply given steps as the lady ran her hand over the thin materials that made up her bed. In her arms, a baby slept against her shoulder peacefully, eyelids closed in a drowsy haze, thumb stuck in his mouth as a he mumbled tiredly.

"Thank you," The lady, who Riley had learned's name was Diane, smiled gratefully at her. She looked around the small room, eyes glistening in what was either relief, amazement, or both. She couldn't have been over thirty-five, but the stress wrinkles in her face seemed to age her up a bit.

"What's his name?" Riley asked, gaze being drawn to the baby in Diane's arms like a magnet. 

"Hm?" The woman snapped out of her daze to look at the younger girl before down at the infant she cradled. "Oh, Arthur. I named him after my husband. He passed before the outbreak."

"I'm so sorry, that must've been terrible for you." Riley said, the honest answer Diane's statement catching her by surprise.

"Thank you." Diane nodded, eyes drifting to the corner of the cell. "It was. But I believe that everything happens for a reason, I learned to live out there, among those... things. Now I can be a strong mother for my child."

"That's beautiful." Riley said softly, examining the way the woman stared with adoration at her son. "If you don't mind me asking, how did he pass? Your husband, I mean."

Diane looked back at her, a sad smile on her face. "He always liked taking matters into his own hands."

Riley paused, her brain getting lost in the maze of the riddle she'd approached before it clicked. "Oh."

Diane simply shrugged, a tear falling from her eye and dampening Arthur's blanket as she looked down at him, grazing his cheek with the tip of her ring finger.

"There's another baby in the prison, you know." Riley spoke up suddenly, catching the lady's attention. "Her name is Judith. If you feel comfortable with it, we could introduce them sometime."

"That'd be sweet, I think- I think I would like that." Diane said, her thin lips spreading into a broken smile. She hugged her own child closer, her eyes beginning to cloud over as her mind escaped her body in a trance.

Riley nodded, feeling gladder to have given the woman hope for a more gratifying life for both herself and her child, although all the information she'd gathered within the past few minutes had hurt her heart in a way she'd never really experience before. Suddenly, she felt extremely grateful for the life and people she'd been gifted with.

"If you ever need anything, just ask me. I'll always be here to help." Riley said as she turned to exit, giving Diane space for the night.

"Thank you-" Diane paused as her head fell to the side a bit. "I'm sorry, honey, what was your name again?"

"Riley." The younger girl said with a reassuring smile.

"Thank you, Riley." 

The Endicott closed the older woman's cell door, her foot steps echoing around her as she walked towards the door signifying the exit of Cell Block C, the area in which all newcomers and residents of the previous community of Woodbury lived. Little fragments of conversations passed through one of Riley's ears and swept right out of her other, her sight blinded as she navigated her way around the prison on autopilot. Her brain couldn't help but think about Diane and her baby and her husband and her life and her everything, because as soon as Riley had heard her story, she felt sick. Not the kind of sick where your head hurts and your mother makes you soup as you sleep all day, the kind of sick where it feels like your mind is addicted and attached to something that strips you of your moral being each second longer you spend with it, the kind that crushes your lungs as you dwell on it until you're forced to physically stop and refill them because if you don't you might just faint.

Riley shook her head with a deep breath as she reached a hallway with a large 'exit' sign above a door at the end. Making a beeline for it, Riley's feet couldn't seem to move fast enough, it was like every time she took one step forward, the door took one step back. Walking turned into a sprint as the girl became more desperate to leave the building, her hands finally pressing against the hard surface and pushing it open, a cool breeze from the evening air hitting her in the face as her hair flew out behind her. Taking a moment to catch herself, Riley pressed a hand to her eyes, the light blue tint of the air around her bringing a calmness to the vibe her surroundings held. With each passing second, Riley felt her heart rate slow down to a normal pace, her tense muscles softening as she blew out a breath from her mouth, hand dropping from her face.

The sound of multiple car doors opening and shutting suddenly flooded Riley's eardrums, and she'd realized that all members from today's run had probably just returned. She looked at the sky- seemed about right. It wasn't dark yet, but the celestial plane had began to take on an inkier and more thorough shade of blue, signaling that it'd been at least a few hours since they left.

Riley took a step forward, then another, and another again as she approached the scene of people emerging from the horizon. Most carried boxes, some empty, some full, and all carried the look of exhaustion on their faces. Some people, the girl didn't know, so she didn't dwell much on them nor take the chance to converse with them. She didn't see Glenn, or Daryl, or even Michonne for that matter, so she'd taken it upon herself to assume they were still unpacking the trucks.

However, she did see one person, and the second the outline of his figure came into view she'd known who he was. A Sheriff's hat rested atop his mess of brown fluff, a gun was strapped into his holster on his leg- which he'd recently earned back, but probably not for long. Riley made no move to come up with a little tease for him though, her mood was just a little too dull for it at the moment, but maybe, if he was as unwinded as she was, he'd even have a conversation with her, one not so vile, perhaps.

As Carl walked closer into view, Riley could make out the stains of crimson splattered all over his clothes and smeared on his face. His jeans had a new cut in them, right at the knee, and his face was grim, eyes casted towards the ground solemnly. As he treaded closer to Riley, his gaze lifted up, resting on her figure which now halted in her steps, standing still once she'd seen the change in appearance he'd adopted within the last few hours. He didn't say a word, his lips never even parted, but his hand raised slightly as he got closer to her, and that was when she noticed a spheric object in his hand, safe from the dirt and the blood that coated the rest of his body.

Body only centimeters away from colliding with Riley's, Carl walked past her, the stoned look sewed deep into each of his features never altering as he aimed for the same door she'd just recently left through. His presence left the girl's line of vision, disappearing behind her own being, yet not before dropping the item held sanctuary in his hand into her own.

Looking down at the component now in her grasp, Riley's lips parted slightly, the sweet fragrance of the fresh fruit tickling her nose.

A peach.

a/n - fun fact i restarted this chapter three times and still could not get it to be perfect :/ but first chapters usually do me like that so oh well. now that i've got this out of the way, next few chapters will be easier and faster and definitely sm better!! ik carl didn't appear much in this part but he's my bbg so he'll be in the next ones a hell of a lot more dw, and i also changed things up a bit and had him go on the run so just ignore that it's not canon. tysm for all the support u guys have given me so far, it's so motivational and sweet i can't thank u guys enough :)) vote and comment if u want if not that's cool too, but next part will be soon i promise!! <33