FALLEN ANGELS.

chapter eighteen, the start of something new.
[ season three, episode sixteen ]

THEY WERE READY. THE group was ready for battle. They were ready for war. They were ready to kill.

Beth, Carl, Hershel, and Judith were leaving for the woods during the battle. Carl was angry he couldn't stay and fight. He was pissed because Odessa got to but he didn't.

It took Odessa some serious convincing to stay and fight but they needed her. She was strong and she was a good fighter. Especially with her knife. She could kill three men with it if she wanted to.

But she was given an an AR-15 for what was to come. Theo stood beside her with his own M16.

"You aren't gonna hesitate this time, are you?" Odessa glanced at him.

The blonde rolled his eyes at her comment. "Not this time, Des."

"Good." She nodded. "Because they aren't gonna hesitate when they see you, Theo."

"If Cole is there... or Angela." He started but was cut off by Odessa. 

"You've already given us the description of both of them. All of us know not to aim to kill Cole or Angela. Maybe a graze to the arm or leg do make it seem like we're aimin' for them but we know not to shoot to kill." She reassured him.

"If he has them fighting," Theo's nose twitched angrily. "I'm gonna kill him."

"You're gonna kill him anyway." Odessa said. "It's time."

─────────

Cole and Angela Tanner did not want to be here. They didn't want to fight. Angela was not a fighter. Cole preferred not to fight. The mother and son both mutually agreed not to fire at any of the prison people.

As Cole walked into a cell he saw a hidden note under the pillow. He quickly but sneakily pulled it out and read the words.

COLE

WE AREN'T AIMING TO KILL YOU OR ANGELA. BUT DON'T GET BUTT HURT IF EITHER OF YOU GET GRAZED

THEO

He quickly shoved the note in his pocket and stepped out of the cell. He told his mother of what he found and she nodded.

Theo and Odessa stood in the tombs. Both with their guns ready and their minds prepared.

When Odessa saw the eyepatch she let the flash bang fly. A second later so did Theo.

Immediately, both ducked behind the wall. Gunshots pinged all around them. The Governor's people were screaming and firing at the oncoming walkers.

The enemy hightailed it out of the tombs and into the courtyard where the gunfire continued as Maggie and Glenn attacked them.

Shortly, the gunfire stopped.

Odessa and Theo slowly came out of the tombs followed by the others.

They met at the at edge of the courtyard. Odessa examined the aftermath in the field.

"We did it. We drove 'em out." Rick said to his people.

"We should go after them." Michonne spoke up.

"Finish it," Theo nodded in agreement. 

"It is finished. Did you see them hightail it outta here?" Maggie looked between the two.

"They could regroup," Odessa suggested.

"We can't the chance. He's not gonna stop," Glenn said.

"They're right. We can't keep living like this," Carol said breathlessly.

"So we take the fight back to Woodbury. We barely make it back last time," Maggie said, shock written all over her face.

"We're more prepared this time," Odessa reassured.

"Yeah," Rick nodded. "Let's check on the others."

When they entered the cell block the others came in right after. Odessa quickly hugged her brother. "You okay?" She asked. He nodded.

She moved to Beth and gently kissed her before kissing Judith's forehead. "You alright?" She asked Beth with furrowed brows.

"Carl killed someone out there," she whispered.

Odessa's eyes widened. "What?"

"A kid. He wasn't much younger than us. He was scared and he was handin' his gun over." Beth rambled.

"My— my brother killed someone in cold blood?" Odessa asked. Her heart was in her stomach. She was a killer. Her dad was a killer. Maggie and Daryl and Michonne were.

But not Carl.

Carl didn't need to be like them.

─────────

Cole slammed the door shut to the truck as the army of Woodbury stared at the Governor. "What the hell are you doing!? We need to dig in!"

"It's not worth it," someone spoke up.

"That was a slaughter!" Karen shouted.

"You bunch of pussies!" Martinez growled at them before turning to the Governor. "I told you we should've handled this shit ourselves."

"We're done fighting for a joke with half a dozen psychopaths livin' in it! They can keep it!"

"You've seen what they done— attacked us! They killed my boy! We're going back!" Allen, the man who was at the prison with Tyreese's group, shouted.

"We are not soldiers. You want us to kill rotters, so be it. That's to survive. But this is insane!" Angela Tanner spoke up. "I'm not putting my son back in that position!"

"Then go home, then! Think you're gonna be safe?" Allen looked to her.

"He shot his own son!" Angela screamed while motioning to the Governor. "He's a psychopath! Not those people back at the prison!"

Then she was shot.

Right in the head.

Cole didn't to scream as his mother's body slumped against him. He held his breath as the Governor shot down his people.

Every time a shot sounded he jumped.

Soon he heard the truck revving and then they were gone.

As soon as he couldn't hear the truck anymore he was pulling himself out from under his mother's corpse.

His looked down at her, his lips shaking violently and his eyes filling with tears.

"Oh," he whimpered. "No, no, no."

Tears fell down his face.

"Mom," he cried. His breathing became erratic. "Mom!" He shouted.

A hand fell on his shoulder and he didn't even care. Karen kneeled beside him and looked at him with tears in her own eyes.

"We should close her eyes," she whispered to him. He didn't respond so she gently let her hand fall on the dead woman's face. She closed her brown eyes.

His mom was dead.

His mom was dead.

She was never going to laugh at her own jokes again or bake cookies for people of Woodbury. She was never going to be a mother-in-law or a grandmother. She was never going to say "I love you" again.

She was dead.

She was murdered by a psychotic monster.

Cole didn't realize Karen left his side to hide in the big army truck but Cole didn't care. He couldn't stop staring at his mother's face.

There was a bullet hole right between her eye. Blood pooled under her head and stained the concrete. It began to soak into his pants and again his skin but he couldn't feel it.

The only time he moved was to kill the biters. There weren't many.

When he heard vehicles approaching he didn't look up. He knew from what direction they came from it wasn't the Governor. It was the prison people.

"Cole!" A voice gasped. A second later Theodore Blake dropped beside him. Cole looked up at the young boy with blood shot eyes and blood on his face.

"He killed her," his voice came out quiet. "He killed all of them."

"I know." Theo nodded. Tears fell down is face freely. "We're gonna kill him for it."

Odessa watched the two with sad eyes. She kneeled beside them and dropped her hand on Cole's shoulder. She knew what it was like to lose a mother. But her mother didn't love her.

Cole's mother obviously did.

"We gotta go."

─────────

When the group crept along the outskirts of Woodbury, a shot fired. Odessa yelped and fired her gun up at the wall.

The fire fight only last a couple seconds. Karen stood with her arms raised. "Tyreese's! It's me! Don't—"

Tyreese?

The man who came to the prison?

Odessa peaked out from her hiding spot at the wall as a man shouted from the wall. "Karen! Karen, are you okay?"

It was the Tyreese from the prison.

"I'm fine!" She responded. She stood back up with her arms raised.

"Where's the Governor?" Tyreese shouted back.

"He fired on everyone. He killed 'em all. Cole and I are the only ones who survived," Karen informed them.

Cole hesitantly stood with his own arms up. "Why are you with them?"

"They saved us." Karen replied.

"We're comin' out!" Rick shouted. The five all left their hiding spots and raised their hands so Tyreese could see they meant no harm anymore.

As they approached the gate Tyreese and his sister opened it. "What are you doin' here?"

"We were comin' to finish this. Till we saw that the Governor did." Rick explained.

"He— he killed them?" Tyreese asked, still unsure.

"Yeah," Rick nodded. "Karen told us Andrea hopped the wall going for the prison. She never made it. She might be here."

Tyreese and Sasha let them in. Odessa led them to where she and Glenn and Maggie were held. "This is where he held Glenn, Maggie, and Odessa." Rick stated, glancing at his daughter.

"He held people here?" Tyreese asked, also looking to the teenager.

"He did more than hold them," she said. Her voice was hard and guarded. She didn't want for reveal what she felt being back here.

They rounded a corner and saw a single door at the end of the hall. A pool of blood was at the bottom. "Will you open it?" Theo questioned.

Rick put his hand on the door and they all raised their weapons. "One, two..."

Rick opened the door. They saw the walker before they saw Andrea. Michonne rushed in and Theo was next. He rushed to Milton and bit back a gasp. He and Milton were never close like he had been with Martinez but it was still sad to see a man he knew for so long dead.

Odessa stared at a bloody Andrea, "I tried to stop them." She told them.

"You're burnin' up," Michonne stated.

Andrea reached up to her shirt and jacket and pulled it back to reveal a walker bite. Odessa sucked in a breath at the sight.

Andrea was going to die.

"Judith, Carl... the rest of them—" Andrea started.

"Us. The rest of us." Rick corrected her.

"Are they alive?" Andrea asked.

"Yeah, they're alive," Rick told her.

Andrea looked at a crying Michonne and then to Theo. "It's good you two found them," she then looked up at Daryl and Odessa. "No one can make it alone now."

"I never could," Daryl said softly.

"Me either," Odessa agreed quietly. Odessa had tears falling silently down her face. She didn't even bother to wipe them.

"I just didn't want anyone to die. I can do it myself." Andrea said.

"No," Michonne quickly disagreed.

"I have to. While I still can." She said and then looked to Rick. "Please? I know how the safety works."

Odessa reached up and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand as Rick handed Andrea his python.

"I'm not goin' anywhere." Michonne said.

Andrea's eyes lock with Odessa's, "I'm sorry, Odessa."

She apologized for what she did to Daryl, for when she left Beth alone, for not killing the Governor when she had the chance. She nodded. "I know."

They left the room. Odessa bowed her head as they wait for the shot.

And when it comes, no one jumps.

─────────

They brought back Andrea and Angela's bodies to be buried alongside everyone else they've lost.

They brought back the people from Woodbury. Young and old and people who were unable to fight. Tyreese and Sasha are welcomed to the prison with open arms this time.

Odessa decided she liked the siblings. She knew she would befriend both and grow to love them.

Cole Tanner returned to the prison as well. He was quiet, he didn't speak to anyone as Tyreese led the people of Woodbury into the prison.

Cole was told he would be joining the group in cell block C. As would the Williams siblings.

Odessa grabbed a shovel from against the wall and broke the news to everyone else of Andrea Harrison's death.

She dug the grave for Andrea and Cole joined her later, digging the grave for his mother.

They laid them to rest later. Cole was the last to walk away. He promised his mother.

"He's going to die."

_______________________________

word count; 2,074

and that's the end of act one!! i'm already three chapters into act two and omg so much happens so fast.

but omg so much happened in THIS chapter. this chapter was actually really sad with both angela and andrea's deaths.

are you guys ready for cole's development? because i'm so ready for you guys to see it. it's literally so good. i love him.

odessa & theo >>>. they're the best and most badass besties ever.

i wanna change the story to present tense but that means i have to go back and redo all of wastelands and this act and that's so much 😩🥲. but i'm still tempted.

rip angela.

rip andrea.