FALLEN ANGELS.

chapter twenty-six, death shall be no more.
[ season four, episode eight ]

HERSHEL GREENE WAS A good man. One of the best kind in this new world. He put his own life at risk to help the sick people in cell block A. He had stitched up several of the people at the prison. He helped Odessa with her own mental illnesses as best he could.

He was loved by everyone in the prison. Not a single person hated him. Hershel would smile at you and you would love him instantly.

He was that good of a man.

He understood people. He cared for them. He nurtured them back to health. And he loved them.

He loved his two daughters— Maggie and Beth. He loved his son-in-law— Glenn. He loved the girl that would've been his daughter-in-law— Odessa. He loved everyone. Rick, Carl, Judith, Daryl, Carol, Sasha, Michonne.

Hershel had come a long way. He lost his wife and step-son at the very start. He lost his first wife before the Fall. He lost Otis and Patricia and Jimmy. Then he lost the farm that had been in his family for over a hundred years. Then he lost his leg.

Hershel was strong.

Stronger than a lot of them.

Odessa wasn't afraid to admit that Hershel Greene was stronger then she ever could be.

The old man had lost so much throughout his entire life. Hershel was strong even before the Fall.

He always had his two girls to keep him above water. Maggie and Beth kept him alive. They were the reasons he kept fighting.

She remembered one day they were sat together at one of the picnic tables outside. Hershel asked her to eat lunch with him, just the two of them.

Odessa had smirked and said, "it's a date."

Later that, Odessa was eating deer meat, cucumbers, and acorn cookies Carol made.

"How're you feeling, Odessa?" Hershel glanced up at her as he finished chewing his own deer meat.

"Better. I guess." She shrugged. "I've only had three hallucinations in three months. I still have dreams and nightmares about them though."

"That's good. That's progress," Hershel told her. "And the dreams and the nightmares will keep coming as long as you let them."

"Let them?" Odessa brows furrowed.

"What you went through within a span of those few nights won't ever leave you. First Dale and then Shane, you lost a lot." Hershel said.

Odessa nodded. "It's hard not to forget."

"Don't forget it. Don't repress it," Hershel told her. "Those nights made you who you are."

The two sat in a silence for a couple minutes as they ate. Then Hershel spoke up. "You're too young to be a killer, Odessa. You're too young to have all this blood on your hands."

The girl merely shrugged.

"It's what it is in this new world. Death, killing, it's all part of it now," Odessa said.

"You can't lose your faith, Dessa." Hershel had told her.

Hershel never lost his faith.

Odessa could remember several Bible verses Hershel read to her over the year.

Two stuck out the most.

The first one was Psalm 147:3. It read, "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds."

It was as if it was about Hershel. Odessa told him that when he first read it to her. Hershel only smiled at Odessa. Because that's what he did. He smiled.

And Hershel smiled one last time before the monster that was Philip Blake whispered, "liar."

Then he brought the sword down on Hershel's neck.

Time slowed when it happened.

Odessa's eyes widened. A horrified noise that could only be described as a mix between a gasp and scream came from her.

Maggie and Beth screamed.

Carl and Daryl were both stunned at the action.

"No!" Rick cried out. He pulled his python out and fired at the Governor.

The rest of Rick's people followed.

Odessa didn't hesitate to fire her weapons as tears fell freely down her face.

"Carl," she said to her brother as the tank took down the fence. "Go, Carl!" She shouted for him to run.

The siblings took off together.

Odessa ran for the prison.

Judith. Judith. Judith.

She had to get her baby sister.

"Lizzie!" She screamed as she ran into the administration building. "Mica!"

No one. All of the kids were gone. Judith was missing. "Judith!" Odessa screamed despite the fact Judith couldn't respond.

She heard no crying, no rush of the other children.

The teen found herself in cell block C, she rushed to her cell and grabbed both bags from under her bed. She shoved her shoulder bag into her bigger bag and ran from the cell.

Once she was outside bullets started raining down on her. She cried out as a bullet landed in her shoulder.

She pushed herself against the wall. Her lips quivered and tears fell down her face and onto her shirt.

"Okay," she whispered. "Be strong."

Hershel would've told her to be strong. Her people needed her to be strong right now.

She came around the corner guns blazing. The people that had been shooting at her met their end as bullet after bullet landed in their bodies.

Odessa didn't care where they hit. She just wanted to kill. She wanted to see these people die so bad.

The three dropped.

"Carl!" She screamed desperately. "Dad!"

Cole Tanner didn't cry. Not yet. He didn't have time. The monster that killed his mother had just murdered another person he cared about.

His fired his gun at anyone he saw that wasn't his people. His axe was holstered at his hip. He didn't move his finger from the trigger.

As he fired at the enemy, a bullet found home in his thigh. He cried out as blood splattered.

Maggie, Sasha, and Bob quickly caught him as he stumbled back. Bob had his own injury in his shoulder so when he reached out to help Cole, he winced.

"Come on, Cole. Don't you pass out on me now." Maggie grit through her teeth as Cole swayed against them.

Outside the fence, Theo Blake lifted Michonne's sword off of the ground. Tears fell down his beaten face. But a glint of rage found home in his eyes and it wouldn't leave anytime soon. He looked to his side where Rick and his father were fighting.

This time he didn't hesitate.

He thrusted the blade through this father's chest. He gasped when he felt the blade piece his father skin and bone.

He then yanked the blade from Philip's chest and stared down at him. A tear fell onto his father's body. Michonne was running towards them. She helped Rick to his feet.

"Carl, Odessa? Where're my kids?" Rick gurgled. Rick's face looked similar to the way Theo's did.

"I don't know," Michonne said.

Theo struggled to stand. He and Odessa met halfway on the gravel path. Both teens stared at each other for a moment. That small second felt like decade.

They took in each other's injuries. Odessa's bleeding shoulder with a new bullet wound. Theo's beaten face.

"We gotta go," Theo whispered.

She nodded. "I know."

The teens held onto each other as they stumbled away from the prison. Odessa had no clue if her brother or sister or father or girlfriend was alive but she knew she needed to find them.

"Come on, Dessa. Don't stop running." Theo encouraged her.

The other Bible verse Odessa remembered was Revelations 21:1-4. "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away. "

She never wanted a Bible verse to be so true than she did right now.

With a never ending flow of tears, Odessa stumbled away from her home where she'd seen her family die and be buried.

Lori, T-Dog, Axel, Andrea.

And then Hershel.

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word count: 1,331

:(((((((((.

that was so freaking sad. i always hate writing 4x8 because of hershel's death. my oc's are always so close to him and it breaks their hearts.

and even though odessa knew hershel longer than she knew dale, his death doesn't break her. she knows hershel would've told her to be strong. so that's what she tries to do in the rest of this season and season 5A.

hershel's death is by far one of the saddest. i think i was only like eight when it aired. it broke little me. i cried and cried and cried after hershel's death lemme tell y'all.

but it's time for the journey to terminus. we're about to follow a two week time frame from now until our people reach terminus and y'all are not prepared for terminus odessa.

she's about to get really scary really fast. and what's worse is alexandria odessa. #prayforalexandria. but we still have a while to go until menace odessa makes an appearance.

but this is definitely a sad chapter. dessa doesn't know if her family or girlfriend is alive. all she has is theo and that's a good thing. because theo is her anchor from now on.

rip hershel.