THICK SKULL , twd [ 1 ]

1. safe

𖦹

9 MONTHS AGO

        THE WORLD IS BRUTAL, Koa Finch knew this from a young age. When your parents leave you and your sister on a random Wednesday with your uncle saying they'll come back but never fucking do—you learn pretty quickly at the age of 6 what the world is like.

   But Koa isn't sure she ever expected it to get to this point.

Uncle Shane has lost his mind in this new world. He's not the uncle that would take her and her sister to the pet store every Sunday or the one that brought them to every Grimes family party. He's not the one that taught Koa how to ride her bike and then her skateboard years later.

Uncle Shane hasn't been Uncle Shane in a while.

And as Koa stands in the dark forest surrounding the farm they've taken shelter in, watching in fear as he takes out his gun to seemingly kill his best friend, Rick Grimes—his brother—that's surely confirmed.

A man that has become family to Koa and at one point he was family to her sister. Even if her sister is out there in this world, alive and hating her, she'd still want her by her side because Koa Finch is terrified.

She can barely make out what either man is saying, heart ringing in her ears. A pistol sits in the pocket of her denim shorts. She stole it from one of the adults but she'll deal with the consequences later.

Koa slowly steps further into the dark field, gulping with every step, every glade of grass beneath her sneakers makes her shake.

              "They've gotten over you before. They've done it before. They just gonna have to," Shane says when she can finally hear them. Then, he points the gun right at Rick. Koa feels like she might throw up. How'd they get to this point?

           There's no going back from this. She'll tell the world what her uncle did if he's successful, even if it gets her killed.

Rick doesn't freak out, he just asks why, walking closer to the man he's known since high school. Koa walks closer as well, hand hovering over her gun. All those days of Uncle Shane yelling at her to aim, to get the fucking shot come back to her.

        Who knew it would all be for his own niece to possibly kill him? Koa accepts that. She accepts she'll have to kill the man that's raised her.

  This isn't him.

"I thought we worked this all out," Rick says, the two men circling each other. Shane lets out a laugh, "We tried to kill each other, man. What you think? We just gonna forget about it all? We gonna ride off into the sunset together?"