WHITE FLAG

chapter seven : regret
{ season one - episode five }

"WHY WON'T YOU tell us what happened to your neck?" Glenn inquired, worry clearly present in his tone as he stared at his exhausted best friend.

Kloe hadn't had much sleep that last night. She stayed up most of the night, crying with physical and emotional pain.

She placed her hand onto a wooly scarf that used to be her grandma's, bringing it higher so Glenn and Zayn couldn't see the bruises. Despite Glenn already spotting it, she couldn't deal with the two of them being angry over it.

"I told you, I'm fine," she remarked, her voice croaky.

"How're you fine if you're just covering up your neck?" Zayn stood up, his arms crossed over his chest.

"I don't know," she shrugged, "It's cold."

"Bullshit, it's like a hundred degrees out," Zayn snapped, "Just tell us, Klo. We're not mad."

Kloe scoffed at her brother's words, "I'm sure you'll be mad at someone else, though," she mumbled in hopes the two never heard.

To her luck, Glenn heard her as clear as day and he frowned as shock and realization filled his expression, "Somebody strangled you?"

Zayn gritted his teeth as he watched his sister grimace at his best friend's words. He knew he was being protective, but he couldn't help but get angry at whoever did this to his little sister.

Kloe closed her eyes and took a deep breath before she opened them, staring blankly at the two young men standing in front of her. Reluctantly and hesitantly, she nodded her head exceedingly slowly.

"Who?!" Zayn growled, clenching his fists, ready to storm out of the tent to beat up whoever hurt her. Glenn, who noticed the anger building in his best friend's body, placed a hand on Zayn's shoulder in an attempt for him to calm down, only to be shrugged off.

"It doesn't matter, Zayn! He-" she paused for a moment, "He's dead now..."

"Don't tell me it was Ed?" Glenn sighed, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yes," the brunette girl answered honestly, "But, like I said, it doesn't matter, Zayn, because he's dead now."

Zayn scoffed as he shook his head in disbelief. If only he'd stayed behind with his sister, maybe he could've saved her from being in her situation. Little did he know, his best friend was thinking the same thing.

They both wished they had stayed behind to protect the girl that they both deeply cared about.

"Where's Merle?" Kloe asked curiously, trying to change the subject.

Zayn took a deep breath, "We don't know. When we arrived, the only thing left of him was his hand."

Kloe swallowed thickly, nodding her head in understanding.

"Hey, you three busy?" Shane called through the polyester fabric that made up the tent, overhearing the conversation the three were having.

"No," Glenn answered, "everything okay?" He stepped towards the exit of the tent, pulling the zipper. Shane's eyes shifted between the three, pursing his lips at the Schmidts.

"No," he shook his head. "Andrea's been sittin' with Amy all night and we need help clearing out the bodies, you in to uh, help?"

Glenn hesitated for a moment, peering over his shoulder as he looked across at Kloe. She nodded in response, making the boy nod along with her as he turned back around to face the man, "Yeah."

...

Daryl raised the pickaxe that he tightly gripped onto and swung it down into a corpse's skull.

Glenn and Kloe had agreed to throw the dead bodies that were their people before they got eaten into the holes that Jim had dug up the previous day and to throw the dead walkers into a fire pit.

Kloe swiftly pulled up the gloves on her hands, stepping over the lifeless body Daryl had stuck his pickaxe into and wrapped her hands around its left arm.

Glenn gripped onto its right arm and T-Dog grabbed its feet. With all the strength the three had, they lifted the walker off of the ground and carried it over to the fire pit. When they were close enough, they threw the walker's body into the fire without hesitation.

Kloe straightened her back, taking in deep breaths.

They worked more and more for the next fifteen minutes or so, throwing endless amounts of dead bodies into the fire.

"Hey!" Rick's voice called out. T-Dog, Glenn and Kloe turned to face him, along with Daryl and Zayn. "Come here real quick."

The five of them shared a quick glance before stepping over to where Carol, Lori, Dale and Shane were already standing.

"What do you want?" Daryl snarled, pickaxe over his shoulder.

Rick sighed, pointing over to where Andrea was sitting beside her dead sister, Amy.

Kloe's face dropped at the sight of the sisters. Neither of them deserved this.

"Y'all can't be serious," Daryl muttered, resulting in Kloe scowling over at the man. "Let that girl hamstring us? The dead girl's a time bomb."

"What do you suggest?" Rick inquired, placing a hand on his hip.

Daryl stared at the man before he stepped over to him. "Take the shot. Clean, in the brain from here," Daryl gestured to his head for example. "Hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance."

"No," Lori stated firmly, the attention falling onto her. "For God sake, let her be."

"Andrea will kill you if you did that, Daryl. Not even kidding, she's scary when she's mad," Kloe added, remembering the day when they had saved Rick and Andrea pointed a gun straight at his head.

Daryl scoffed as he spun on his heel and began to walk into a different direction.

In the corner of Kloe's eyes, she spotted Glenn flipping his cap in his hands repetitively.

"You sure love flipping that hat," she commented, a small smile plastered across her face.

The boy swiveled his head, unable to hold back a sheepish smile. He felt something inside his heart that he never felt before. He didn't know what it was, but it was different from normal.

"Wake up, Jimbo," Daryl said as he stepped past Jim, breaking Glenn out of his thoughts. "We've got some work to do."

Glenn and Kloe's attention fell onto Morales, who struggled to lift a dead body, which to their surprise, was one of their own people.

Daryl relinquished his pickaxe and seized onto the dead body's feet. "Thanks," Morales muttered.

The two men began to stumble over to the fire pit that was beside Kloe and Glenn. Her eyes widened instantly when she realized what they were doing. They were gonna throw the dead man into the fire pit, even after they all agreed they put their people in the graves.

"What- what are you guys doing?" Glenn stammered, who had the same thoughts as his brunette friend had. "This is for geeks. Our people go over there!" he gestured toward the dug up graves, prepared for company.

Morales and Daryl bluntly ignored Glenn as they continued to drag the body closer and closer to the fire pit.

Kloe stepped forward, annoyance flowing through her blood at the mens' ignorance. "Hey!" she called out, "did you not hear what he just said? He said our people go over there-"

"What's the difference?" Daryl interrupted. "They're all infected."

"Our people go in that row over there," Glenn repeated firmly. Daryl and Morales released the body from their grip as they straightened up to look at Glenn and Kloe in disbelief. "We don't burn them! We bury them. Understand?"

Glenn didn't receive an answer, instead got a stare of an 'are you serious' look. Subconsciously, Kloe lifted her hand to Glenn's shoulder and began to rub it gently.

"Our people go in that row over there," Glenn repeated once more, but in a more calm tone.

Daryl and Morales acknowledged by seizing onto the dead body again and dragged it over to the pile where Glenn had motioned towards.

Kloe whipped her head around to Glenn, who was quite plainly holding back tears. Something was definitely up with him and she could see straight through him and knew something was wrong. His eyes fluttered to the ground, hiding the sadness that had plastered across his face.

"You okay?" Kloe asked sympathetically.

Glenn didn't answer, instead he continued to stare at the ground. Earlier that morning when he first woke up, he began to think about how his best friend had gotten hurt. Since then, guilt had been taking over him.

Kloe patiently waited for an answer for a few seconds, only to receive no answer at all. "Hey, what's up?"

"It doesn't matter," he mumbled, biting his bottom lip tightly.

"It does," she corrected. "You're clearly feeling down about something. You can talk to me."

Glenn heavily sighed as he lifted his head up and locked his chocolate brown eyes with her dark brown ones, "I'm just regretful right now."

The younger Schmidt's eyebrows abruptly glued together with confusion. If she was thinking correctly, there was nothing for Glenn to be regretful about. He hadn't done anything wrong, not that she knew of anyway.

"What do you mean?" she questioned. "You've done nothing wrong, Glenn."

"I have," he whispered. "If- if I told Rick that I wasn't going to Atlanta, I would've been able to help fight all of these walkers, and maybe, some of these people wouldn't be in this situation."

"Hey. None of this is your fault," she assured. "With your heroic skills in the city, Rick and everyone most likely wouldn't have been back in time to save us all," she weakly smiled at the boy, but he didn't even attempt to smile.

"Because I went, you got yourself hurt, too," he mumbled as he pointed toward her neck.

"That wasn't your fault, it was Ed's," Kloe stated. "He was hurting Carol, so I gave him the medicine and got myself strangled, it's no big deal."

"It is, Klo. You could've gotten seriously hurt if he didn't let go-"

"You all left my brother for dead!" Daryl yelled suddenly, making Glenn and Kloe spin around to face the enraged man. "You had this coming!"

Kloe released the breath she held while Daryl harshly exasperatedly walked away. Daryl was always intimidating, so her body subconsciously held a breath while he yelled at whatever it was.

She hesitantly turned back to Glenn, who continued to look back down at the ground again, "Glenn-"

Glenn shook his head, "Doesn't matter."

Before Kloe could argue, he abruptly walked away from the girl.

She wiped away a bead of sweat from her forehead. It was too hot to do all of this work, but it had to be done.

She glanced over at Jim and Jacqui as they both faintly bickered. They were too far for the brunette to hear what was going on, but she pushed it aside. "A walker bit Jim!" Kloe instantly stopped in her tracks and froze in place. Her heartbeat was practically pumping out of her chest. A lump had formed in her throat.

She swallowed thickly as she slowly swiveled her body to Jim and hesitantly approached the man, as did everybody else. Far from everyone, she spotted Glenn leant against a car.

Daryl and Zayn harshly stepped forward, making the man panic, "I'm okay," Jim said.

"Show it to us," Daryl commanded.

"You heard him, show it," Zayn firmly added.

Trembling with fear, Jim spun around and gripped onto the same shovel he used the day before to dig up the holes and lifted it in defense.

"Easy, Jim," Shane held up his hand.

"Grab him!" Zayn shouted over to T-Dog, who quickly nodded.

"Jim, put it down," Shane repeated. "Put it down."

T-Dog grabbed onto Jim from behind, causing him to drop the shovel. Glenn sprinted over and seized onto the shovel.

Daryl abruptly lifted up the man's bloodied t-shirt, revealing his chest and a bit was clearly presented on the man's stomach. "I'm okay. I'm okay," Jim repeated as T-Dog and Daryl stumbled backward. "I'm okay."

Kloe stared at the man in shock. Her eyes slowly began to burn from not blinking, but she bluntly ignored it and continued to stare at the man.

"I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay," he panted, "I'm okay."

The younger Schmidt gradually shifted her eyes to the short grass on the ground. She didn't know what to say. She didn't know what to think. She didn't know what to do.

That meant Jim would die. No matter what, he'll die and turn unless they put something through his brain. She'd never seen what happened to people when they got bit, but somebody told her that they have some kind of fever.

...

"I say we put a pickaxe in his head," Daryl said. "And the dead girl's and be done with it."

Kloe stared at the man as if he were crazy, and at this point, she was most certain that he was. Jim had sat himself behind the RV, while the rest of the group stood around in a circle, debating on what they should do.

"Is that what you'd want if it were you?" Shane questioned.

"Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it," Daryl answered truthfully.

"I hate to say it, I never thought I would, but maybe Daryl is right," Dale mumbled.

"Jim is not a monster, Dale, or some rabid dog," Rick snarled.

"I'm not suggesting-"

"He's sick. A sick man," Rick cut the old man off. "We start down that road, where do we draw the line?"

"The line is pretty clear," Daryl plainly responded. "Zero tolerance for walkers, or them to be."

"What if we can get him help?" Rick inquired, he parted his lips to continue speaking, but Kloe was quick to interrupt him.

"Rick, as soon as you're bit, there's nothing you can do."

"You don't know that, Kloe," Shane stated. Kloe's eyes were set on the man and they were narrow. Just as she was about to retort, Rick cut her off.

"No, I heard the CDC was working on a cure," Rick added.

"I heard that too. Heard a lot of things before the world went to hell," Shane commented.

"What if the CDC is still up and running?"

"Man, that is a stretch right there."

"Why?" Rick asked. "If there's any government left, any- any structure at all, they'd protect the CDC at all costs, wouldn't they? I think it's our best shot. Shelter, protection-"

Kloe bit the inside of her cheek, thinking deep into the thoughts in her mind about what Rick was saying. Maybe the CDC had a good chance.

"Okay, Rick, you want those things, all right? I do too, okay?" Shane interrupted. "Now, if they exist, they're at the army base. Fort Benning."

"That's a hundred miles in the opposite direction," Lori reminded.

"That is right," Shane nodded, "but it's away from the hot zone. Now, listen to me. If that place is operational, it'll be heavily armed," he paused for a moment, "we'd be safe there."

"The military were on the front lines of this thing. They got overrun. We've all seen that!" Rick bellowed. "The CDC is our best choice and Jim's only chance."

Simultaneously, the group all set their eyes on the sick man over by the RV.

"You go looking for aspirin, do what you need to do," Daryl abruptly started stepping backwards toward Jim, lifting his pickaxe. "Someone needs to have some balls to take care of this damn problem!"

Hastily, Kloe clasped onto the knife that was wrapped around her belt loop while Rick hurried over to the angered man and cocked his gun against his head. "We don't kill the living," Rick muttered harshly, gritting his teeth.

Daryl turned his head to Rick, lowering down the pickaxe that he had raised, "That's funny coming from a man who just put a gun to my head."

"We may disagree on some things, not on this," Shane stated. "You put it down. Go on."

Just as Rick lowered his gun, Daryl harshly pushed the pickaxe into the grass with a solid grunt.

"Come with me," Rick seized onto Jim's right arm.

"Where are you taking me?"

"Somewhere safe."

...

The younger Schmidt had volunteered to help bury the bodies with Rick and Shane. She was slightly annoyed at her best friend for putting all the blame on himself when really it wasn't any of his fault.

Yes, maybe if everyone stayed in camp, they could protect each other, but if they didn't have those guns Rick mentioned, it was certain no one would be alive.

Kloe was digging up a hole a few meters away from Rick and Shane. She needed her own space. Everything that had happened was too much for her to handle.

"Say it," Rick said to his best friend, catching Kloe's attention.

"Okay." The sound of the dirt being dug up came to peace, causing Kloe to spin around to the two men. "I'm thinking if you'd stayed here, if you'd have looked after your own. Instead, you went off. You took half our manpower with you. I'm thinking maybe our losses wouldn't have been so bad. You know, one of our strongest people went down yesterday-" Shane paused, glancing over toward the brunette girl for a few moments. "You're lucky you got back in time, otherwise she would be sittin' in that pile of dead bodies."

Shivers fluttered up the brunette's spine, the thought Shane had just given her was not nice. She understood what he was coming from at a certain level, but it still wasn't a nice thought.

"If we hadn't gone off and brought those guns back when we did, I think our losses would have been a lot worse. Maybe the entire camp."

Kloe's eyes flickered back and forth between Rick and Shane, unsure on what to say. Instead, her attention fell onto a car with a cargo bed filled with dead bodies in plastic bags.

Daryl stepped out of the car and began to approach the three adults, "I still think it's a mistake not burning these bodies. It's what we said we'd do, right? Burn them all, wasn't that the idea?"

More footsteps filled the air, making Kloe spin her head around to spot practically all of the group stumbling toward them.

"At first," Shane answered, panting.

"The chinaman gets all emotional, says it's not the thing to do, we just follow him along?"

"For the last time, he's not Chinese," Kloe mentioned, plainly irritated.

Daryl sent the girl a quick glare before turning back to the rest of the group, "These people need to know who the hell is in charge here. What the rules are."

"There are no rules," Rick stated.

"Well, that's a problem," Lori stepped in. "We hadn't had one minute to hold onto anything of our old selves. We need time to mourn and we need to bury our dead," her voice cracked a little as she tried to hold back tears. "It's what people do."

Everyone stood in silence. Kloe felt a lump form in her throat. She hadn't heard the word 'funeral' ever since she and her brother tried to persuade their mother into giving her father a funeral, but she refused to.

It felt strange for the group to only have nineteen people in it. The night before, there were a little over thirty. So many people died and it overwhelmed the group majorly.

Everyone began to stand side by side, waiting for the funeral to begin. Kloe quickly made her way over to Zayn and Glenn, who both stared at the ground in shame.

They stood around for around five minutes, patiently waiting for Andrea and Dale to carry up Amy's dead body up the hill. The two stumbled over with Amy's body, which was layered over with a white sheet. There was a mix of blood and dirt stains all across it. Andrea was covered with Amy's blood all over her neck and arms.

"I can do it. I can do it," Andrea cried as she went to place her dead younger sister's body in the dug up hole. Dale knelt down to help Andrea, but she immediately stopped him, "I can do it! I can do it." A loud thump hit against the dirt.

Kloe glanced down to the ground, swallowing the lump that was still in her throat.

...

"I really don't think this is a good idea," Zayn muttered, his arms folded over his chest like usual. It was the next morning, and everyone had spent the rest of the previous day packing up. Now they were finally ready to leave. Zayn thought the worst of all. What if they got to the CDC and there wasn't anyone there? Then they'd all be doomed since gas doesn't last forever.

"Do you have a better suggestion?" Kloe inquired, her brows frowned as she stared at her older brother, "Staying here would be worse."

"Going to the coast would be better," Zayn answered. "If we go to the CDC and there's nothing there, then we're dead, all of us."

"Then we'll go to Fort Benning, just like Shane said," she reminded.

"Lori was right though, that's like a hundred miles away," Glenn remarked.

"Yeah, I know. But if it's the only chance we get, then we'll have to take it."

Andrea and T-Dog approached and leant on one of the cars Glenn and Zayn had prepared. Tired of the throbbing pain in her feet, she quickly hauled herself up onto the car hood and sat there and Shane and Rick began to speak up.

"All right, everybody listen up," Shane instructed. "Those of you with CBs, we're gonna be on channel forty. Let's keep the chatter down, okay? Now, you gotta problem, don't have a CB, can't get a signal or anything at all, you're gonna hit your horn one time. That'll stop the caravan. Any questions?"

"We're, uh..." Morales spoke up, "we're not going."

"We have family in Birmingham. We want to be with our people," Miranda informed.

"You go on your own, you won't have anyone to watch your back," Shane pointed out, his eyebrows raised.

"We'll take the chance," Morales stated. "I gotta do what's best for my family."

"You sure?" Rick asked.

"We talked about it," he replied, "we're sure."

"All right," Rick acknowledged by nodding. "Shane?"

"Yeah, all right."

"Three hundred and fifty-seven?" Rick asked.

"Yeah," Shane nodded.

Rick stuck out his hand which had a gun in it and offered it to Morales. He hesitantly took the gun out of the man's hand, his eyes flickering back and forth between the gun and Rick's eyes.

"The box is half full," Shane handed a box of ammo.

"Thank you all, for everything," Miranda cried, wrapping her arms around Lori.

Kloe hopped off the car hood and wrapped her arms around Morales' back. "It's gonna feel weird without you," she pulled away and smiled at the man.

"Thank you for everything, Klo," he smiled back, patting her shoulder.

"Take care," she added.

"Channel forty," Rick reminded, "if you change your minds. All right?"

"Yeah," Morales nodded.

The group watched carefully as Morales and his family gathered into a car. "What makes you think our odds are any better?" Shane questioned. "Come on. Let's go! Let's move out."

They all got into the cars. Kloe decided to go in the RV with Dale, Glenn, Zayn, Jacqui and Jim. Glenn sat at the front with Dale, navigating him the directions to the CDC. Zayn sat on the dining table, fidgeting with the edges of his green jacket.

Jacqui and Kloe sat at the back with Jim, he wasn't doing so good. He was burning up and was sweating drastically.

Rick, Lori, Carl, Carol and Sophia all went in a separate car. Shane went in his own car by himself. T-Dog and Andrea went in a different car. And lastly, Daryl went in a car with a cargo bed which was occupied by his brother's motorcycle.

Jim groaned in pain as Jacqui dabbed a damp cloth against his chest. Kloe squeezed his hand gently to assure him that everything was all right, or that's what she was just telling herself to make her feel better.

She glanced over at the front, spotting Glenn looking at the brunette through the rearview mirror. Noticing she was looking, he quickly looked away and stared at the map on his lap.

Kloe slightly grinned to herself and shook her head a little. Although, it soon faded away as she looked back at Jim. He couldn't take much more.

He wasn't going to survive.

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Words: 3752
- 4th December 2021

21 days until Christmas!!

Who else is excited for Christmas? I'm not too excited tbh, there's not much to do because of covid and everything.

Anyway, I am super duper excited to write next chapter (wink wink). Mainly because- never mind, I can't say. You'll have to wait and see.

Thank you all for reading! Merry Christmas! ⛄️