۫ ּ  ִ ۫   ˑ ֗ 𓏲˖ 𑁍 ࣪ ִ ۫ ּ  ִ ۫   ˑ ֗
࣪𓏲ּ ֶָ ✩◿𝓘𝓓𝓐◸ 🂱 ࣪𓏲ּ ֶָ
CHAPTER SIXTY THREE—
glad you didn't die.

"Where's my shirt at?" Austin realized it was missing, looking down at his bare torso.

"You didn't come with one." Cyndie said in return, stayed frozen at the door.

"I didn't come with one?" he glanced up with frowned eyebrows. "How'd I get here?"

"I dragged you." she shrugged.

"You dragged me?" his eyebrows shot up. "Through the woods?"

"And the beach." Cyndie nodded.

Austin looked down and realized he didn't feel or look like he was drug through woods and a beach. "Why am I clean?"

"I hosed you off." she shrugged again.

He gaped at her. "You hosed me off?"

"Why do you keep repeating me?" she removed her hands from his bag with a wild look in her eye.

"I'm just trying to understand what happened." Austin was trying, but it wasn't adding up. "I fell off a truck, into the ocean-"

"From the bridge, which is why you washed up on my beach." she explained her half of the story.

"Then you dragged me through the woods-" he began.

"The beach first." she nodded.

"Right, the beach first." he corrected himself. "And you hosed me off after dragging me all through the woods?"

"Sounds right." Cyndie confirmed as she pursed her lips. "I also went back for your bag."

"Right, couldn't leave that part out." Austin touched his forehead, realizing his bandana had been missing. His eyes widened just a little in panic, Cyndie pulled it from her pocket and handed it to him. "Thank you."

"How'd you even fall off a truck? Why were you at that bridge?" she sat down next to him now that he'd moved to the edge of the bed. "How are you even alive? How can you see anything without your glasses?"

"Only when things are up close, from a distance it's all a blur." he held his hand infront of his face and moved it closer and farther to indicate. "Haven't mistaken a human for a walker yet, though."

"Well, that's a plus." Cyndie cracked a half grin as he nodded his head in agreement. "Are you on your own?"

"No." he shook his head. "Big community, I was just walking around-"

"And standing on trucks." she added with a nod.

"Right, that too." he agreed with her. "Where are we at?"

"My community. But, they aren't allowed to know you're here." she gave him a warning look, walking to shut the window. "My grandmother is out right now and Rachel is busy all day, so you have to leave before long."

"Yeah, i've gotta get back before my kids worry." he agreed with her.

"You've got kids?" Cyndie rose her eyebrows.

"Well, they aren't my kids." his eyes went a little wide in explanation. "They just live with me, and I take care of them."

"I get that." she agreed with him, thinking of Rachel. "You still got your family?"

"Not my Mom." he winced when he said it, turning as she sat down with him again. "You?"

"Not my brother or my Mom." she had the same wince he had. "I remember your Mom. Barley, but she brought everyone those plastic badges when we lost our robotics competition."

"That's right." Austin smiled, forgetting about that entirely. "I don't remember a whole bunch before everything happened."

"I didn't either." she agreed, glancing back at her head board where the dreamcatcher was . "I always wanted to thank you for that. But, you shouldn't snoop on peoples english papers, you know."

His face reddened. "You know that was me?"

"Do you really think the janitor isn't gonna tell me when some sketchy looking guy asked for my locker combination?" she laughed as he did the same, having to agree. "Thank you, though. I don't know if I belive in all that, but something had to have worked. For a while, anyways."

"A while?" he frowned his eyebrows together in questioning.

Cyndie shrugged her shoulders slightly. "Not too long ago, they came back. Something happened, been keeping me up."

"Yeah." Austin agreed with her, letting it click that it was unlikely Alexandria and Hiltop where the only communities the Saviors messed with. "Do you know who-"

"Yes." he didn't even have to say it, she could tell by the look on his face that he'd been talking about Negan. "Took my brother and my Mom from me. Right infront of my face."

Austin felt Deja Vu.

He frowned and gave her a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry, Cyndie."

"Me too." she agreed, but didn't let it get to her badly. She was always tough, but what she'd witnessed made her a hundred times stronger. "Is that how you lost your Mom?"

"No, she had a baby and it just didn't...she couldn't make it." Austin really didn't like talking about people he'd lost. Sometimes it helped others to talk about their sadness, for him it just wasn't like that.

"What about the baby?" Cyndie asked him curiously.

"She made it. She's good." the thought of Judith brought a smile back to his lips. "Your Dad?"

"Got bit pretty early on." she explained. Austin couldn't imagine looking his Mom, Dad, and brother all in one. He felt for her. "It was fast though. He wasn't in a lot of pain."

Clearly, based on how she said it, her Mom and brother had been. Austin hesitanted, he wasn't sure if he'd be making it worse or better by letting her know he understood her pain. That he had someone he loved killed by the hand of Negan, right infront of him. "He did the same thing to my best friend. I know it's different, because that's your Mom and your brother, but I do understand. The not being able to sleep part mainly."

"It just replays, you know?" Cyndie nodded as he did the same. "Unless I stay up for so long that I literally pass out the second I close by eyes, sleeping isn't easy."

"I could hit you really hard so you'll pass out and go to sleep?" Austin rose his eyebrows in questioning, a little smile spreading across his face to show he was joking.

Cyndie laughed but nodded her head. "I'll hold you to that."

"Is that all you've lost?" she asked after a second. "Your Mom and your best friend?"

"No." that was an understatement. "We've lost a lot of people."

"But were any that close go you?" Cyndie asked because of how similar how she felt was mirrored through him. She'd lost three important people to her, but so far he'd only said two.

"Yeah." it was a little quieter as he said it, nodding his head. "I did."

She could tell he really didn't want to talk about that one, so she didn't push it. Not this time, that was deeper on some level and she knew it. "Hey?"

He rose his eyebrows in questioning as Cyndie nodded her head. "Glad you didn't die."

So simple, and half way joking, but based off the amount of thought he's had so badly lately due to loosing Glenn, he really needed to hear it.

"Glad you didn't die too." Austin agreed with her, looking to his bag. "Why were you looking through my bag?"

"I was stealing your clothes because Rachel is stealing mine." she answered him, standing up and walking over to throw the blue shirt he had left. "I have a way to sneak you out, but I need help with something before you go."

"Help with what?" he stood up and pulled the blue one on. "How come I can't be here?"

"How come you ask so many questions?" she handed him a wine glass that had water in it, raising it in a circular motion as he tried to mimic her. "It's what we do before we go into the water. To wish us a safe trip."

He choked on the sip he took. "We're going into the water?"

"It's stuck on something, the current took it." Cyndie explained as the pair rode out into the water. "It's not hard to get, I just need help lifting the bottom so I can yank it but I don't want anyone to know I messed it up."

Austin looked over the boat. "How deep is it?"

Cyndie gave him a look. "Don't be a wuss."

"I am not." he defended himself, looking down at the water he couldn't see a thing in. "I'm not a good swimmer."

"Don't have to be. It's not far." she promised, dropping the anchor. "All the good fish get caught down there. I made it."

"Robotics did pay off then." he hummed, following her lead in loosing his shoes.

"You haven't put it to use out here?" she seemed shocked, considering it helped her out the most.

"Not really." he said honestly, dipping a hand in the water to see the temperature. Considering he didn't remember what it felt like after passing out last time.

"You don't have, like, a certain requirement with your community?" Cyndie found that hard to believe with how smart of a person he always had been. Even if he did fall off a truck and wasn't the most slyest when it came to dropping dream catchers into a locker.

"Yeah, but it's not really with building stuff." that also took her off guard, she figured that how he built up so much muscle. "I'm usually in the infirmary, or the bar."

"You're a doctor now?" she knew he was smart, but she didn't know he had that in him. "Done anything super gross?"

"Well..." Austin thought about it. "I had to stick my hand in a woman's appendix to find the source of her internal bleeding. I also had to remove my brothers explosive eye and then sew it all up."

"Yeah." Cyndie agreed with a cringe. "Pretty gross."

"Pretty gross." he stood up as she did.

"Just try to stay close." Cyndie shrugged, jumping over board and swimming under. Austin gaped and tried to be as graceful as she had, failing miserably.

But, he did make it under water where the salt burnt his eyes due to keeping them open. He following Cyndie, though she was a much quicker swimmer. Though, she was right. Her fish trap wasn't too deep, but was too big to pull on her own. Austin waited to see where she'd go, watching as she stopped at the top go give it a yank. He swam to the bottom, pushing a couple of the rocks away to shove it up, freeing the trap for Cyndie to swim north with it.

He had absolutely no clue where she was going and why she hadn't been going back up.

He swam after her as she headed toward a cave. Austin stopped. She was insane, she was absolutely insane. She swam right into that dark cave, no hesitation. He knew he was gonna panic, but he went anyways to see what she had bothered to go in for. Plus, what kind of guy would he be if he'd just left her behind? A sane one, for starters.

There was a light upwards. He didn't swim too far into the cave, maybe six or seven feet before there'd been a huge opening where the light was coming through. Austin swam up and coughed, gasping for a breath. Being under water was not something he was completely trained in, far from it. It was a water hole, a round space forming around them as the opening shined in bites of the sunlight through.

"You really aren't a good swimmer." Cyndie spoke from where she sat on one of the rocks, watching him gasp for air like he'd been under for much longer. Though, she did this everyday. He hadn't even gone under water since the lake stop with Beth before the prison.

"I told you." he climbed out and threw his hair out of his face. "Why'd you come here?"

"It's my system." she explained, pointed to the rope that was tied off on one of the rocks. Austin sat down and waited for his breathing to come back, following her point before it lead back to the weaved trap she had. "That way the trap won't just float off into the water. It has to stay within a certain reach."

"Hopefully the fish won't tell their fish friends about it." he said, putting a hand on his chest and tried to get a breath that simple was not coming back. "Oh my god. That was a lot. How are you normal?"

"I do it all the time." he gave him a half judgment, half worried look as he continued to huff and puff. "You gonna make it?"

"Uh-hu." he shut his eyes and slowed his breathing. "Tell me about this trap again."

It wasn't long until they made it back, Cyndie drove the boat to the other side of the bridge so Austin didn't have to cross it. They hit the dock as he stood up. "You said you have a radio?"

"One in my room." she nodded her head. "Think it'll reach?"

"Maybe." Oceanside wasn't too far from Alexandria by boat, it just seemed that way due to the ocean. "Turn it on tonight, maybe an hour after the sun goes down, and we can try to find the same channel to see if it's close."

"Got it." she agreed with a nod, handing him his bag. "Sorry for stealing most of your clothes."

"That's okay." he pulled it on his shoulders. "Find me a lobster and i'll call it even."

Cyndie smiled. "You got it."

He climbed out of the boat and back on the bank, turning to look at her again. "If I can't get you on the radio signal....are we gonna get to talk again?"

Cyndie nodded. "I'm sure we can find a way. There's not that many of us anymore. Not good ones, anyways."

"Yeah." he nodded his head. "I'm glad I got to see you again."

"Me too." Cyndie nodded her head as she started to back the boat up. "Don't go falling off any more trucks, please!"

"No promises!" he yelled to her. "Try to not get your robot stuck under water again!"

"It's a weaved trap!" she corrected from a distance, the boat heading back toward Oceanside as Austin headed up the small hill to find his way back to Hiltop, following the ribbon he'd left. That's when he realized Glenn hadn't haunted his head since the night prior.

Austin got back to Hiltop about an hour after the kids woke up, greeted with Luke as he walked in. Enid was sitting with him. "I didn't know you were here."

"I was just teaching Luke some morse code. Maggie took Levi and Natalie to get something to eat." she said as Luke let his hug with Austin go. "I think you better know something."

Austin braced himself by the look on Enids face, pulling her aside a little with a faint arm rub. "What's the matter?"

"It's Carl." she gave him a look. "He's going to Negans place."

•

kylie speaks

this made me so happy
but also kinda sad?? i'm
still getting use to beth not
being the only romantic
girl in austin's life. but,
also so happy bc look how
precious they are!