Only Hope Left

Maggie swung Sera arm around her neck as they made their way to the end of the Greene’s property. In as little as a couple of days Maggie and Sera and become somewhat friends or at least Sera didn’t mind her company.

“Here should be fine.” Sera said, she had asked Maggie earlier if she could take her out for some fresh air. Sera slowly eased out of Maggie’s arms and leaned against the tree beside her.

Sera sighed and looked around her as Maggie slid down the tree on the other side of them and plopped down on the grass ungracefully. The skies were clear today, the sun had reflected off of the large pond to their left, a small dock had extended on one of the sides and went in a ways, possibly made for fishing.

“I haven’ been here ‘n a while.” Maggie commented and pulled her knees up to her chest; a slightly breeze blew across them blowing Maggie’s hair across her face. Sera nodded slightly, not sure what to say at the time.

“Dad use to take us fishin’ when we were younger; me ‘n Otis. That was before Beth was born.” Sera attempted to sit down beside her without stretching her stitches. She cringed as her side tightened when she got half way down, ignoring the pain she turned to Maggie.

“My Father wasn’t much of a fisher.” She commented Sera laid back in the grass looking up at how the tree branches mingled together as they grew out up into the sky. “Didn’t learn much there.”

Maggie turned her head a bit and snorted a little. “No offence but I really didn’t think you had a father.”

Sera looked at her from the corner of her eye. Maggie averted her eyes. “Just ‘cause I don’t’ talk ‘bout 'em, doesn’t mean they never existed.”

There was a long silence between the two. Sera closed her eyes and took a deep breath greedily taking in the fresh air.

“What was he like?”

Sera stiffened, and hesitated from a moment. “He wasn’t your model Father if that’s what you’re thinkin’.” She started; she tilted her head to the side, she swallowed loudly. “When I was about ten my mom was in a car accident. She didn’t make it through. I think that was about the time dad actually acknowledged that I was there.”

Sera took a deep breath and bit the inside of her lip. “Can’t saw I really got along with him after that either. He was your regular everyday hardass; you did something wrong, you sure as hell knew it, cause he would throw a temper tantrum like you wouldn’t believe.”

“A temper tantrum? Like a little kid?” Sera propped herself onto her elbows and nodded at Maggie, she giggled slightly.

“Lucky I had no younger siblings, they would have inherited it.” Maggie shook her head, Sera smirked. “Would have been harder to handle.”

“So let me guess…” Maggie paused for a second. “You and your father bonded over hunting and you all lived happily ever after.” Sera snorted, and chuckled slightly.

“Not even close.” But then Sera thought about it a little. “I guess it would depend on how you look at it.”

Maggie laughed, then stood up. “We should head back, Dad’s gonna freak if he finds out we left in the first place.”

Sera smirked and shook her head, “you’re such a rebel.”

~

Hershel sat at the dining room table; he sipped out of a cup Sera guessed that the liquid was water. That was all that was left; water. As the pair entered the house he stood from his seat and approached them, both figuring that they would get lectured for leaving his sight.

“We just needed some air dad-” Maggie had started to say but he held up his hand, to stop her from talking.

“I need you to take one of the horses and find someone.” As Hershel explained what had happened, Sera peaked into the room off to the side. A man stood over the bed where a young child laid; he was motionless other then the slight rise of his chest from his breathing.

Sera’s breathing hitched, it had been the first time she had met new people since she arrived at the farm with Jason. She reached into her back pocket, her fingers grazing the gun she had taken with her and Maggie on their walk. The man didn’t seem to notice her presence and wrapped his fingers around the small boy’s hand.

Sera turned to Hershel. “You’re going to have to go into town, aren’t you?” she asked him she pushed away from the door frame, moving her hand away from her gun. “Let me go.”

Maggie was shocked that I would even volunteer, but Hershel shook his head. “Sera, you are still healing. Any sort of stress to your side will make the wound open again.”

“Hershel, I know how to take care of myself. I promise I can do this.” Sera was practically begging him, she looked behind her to the little boy, visions of her own child flashed into her head.

“Sera, I understand you mean well… but you are in no condition to go.” Hershel argued, Sera pressed her lips in a thin line in defeat.

“I’ll go.” Otis spoke up; over the few days that Sera had lived under their roof she hadn’t heard much of him, only from Maggie, so it surprised her when he spoke up. “It’s my fault the boy got shot in the first place, I’ll go.”

Hershel had no objections for Otis. Sera sighed and sat down frustrated as they began to talk over their plan.

~

Not even minutes later, Sera followed Maggie to the barn, to help sattle one of the horses.
“You know dad means well right?” Maggie said as she laid a horse blanket on the horses back before placing the sattle on top of that.

“I could do it, I could come back faster, there would be no risks of being too late.” Sera rushed to explain herself, to explain her reasoning.

“Yes, you probably could. But for as long as I’ve known you, you’ve been hurt. In more than one way.” Maggie crossed the stable to grab the rains she had forgotten. “You lost your daughter, and your best friend. So in other words you lost everything that you had lived for and you’re still angry. That anger can get in the way; you have a bad temper, a temper that makes people run in fear and you being angry like this aren’t going to help the situation that this boy is in.”

She nodded in agreement but inside Sera was seething. Maggie didn’t know her; it had been possibly three days since she had arrived. How much could she have gathered in that little of time?

“You need to stay here; Dad wants you on guard on the porch. I told ‘em you got a good shot. Seeing we’re low on numbers you’ll be our best guard on the front lines.”

Sera nodded and pulled her gun out from her back pocket, slipping the clip out so she could see how many bullets she needed.

“Take care.” She said before turning to leave the stables, she heard Maggie climb onto the sattle and take off into the woods.