#terminusoftheline

When Theo first came to Terminus, they were already up and running, functioning as a community that had been there all along, simply waiting. Compared to the bedraggled, struggling groups he'd seen before, they were miracle workers creating an island in the middle of so much chaos.  Food, company, a safe place to sleep - these were all such welcoming things that Theo had little trouble accepting the invitation in exchange for earning his keep. 

There was no resisting the dream Gareth sold. For awhile, Theo bought into it wholeheartedly.  Any offered task was accepted and completed to the best of his ability, no matter how menial. It seemed most important to him to be able to earn his place there, not just exist with his hand out, expecting favors.

A little time in, though, and those miracle workers were starting to look a little more like cheap televangelists. While Theo had enough trust and respect for their leader, it was Mary who set him on edge most. With a little more mascara and a couple more cheap, hollow promises, she could have been Tammy Faye Bakker. Something about her was off in a way Theo just couldn't put his finger on.

Still, he wasn't unsettled enough to pack up and leave. Gareth's promises were not hollow. Terminus offered all a survivor could possibly want, short of having family beside them. Rather than take action to dig further, Theo stayed quiet, observing only from the rather prime vantage point afforded to him by working closer to Gareth's inner circle as the duties assigned to him grew more complicated. 

His job at the moment, however, wasn't one assigned. No one had come to him yet with any duties, so Theo set out to find something to do. Eventually, he'd found a small cluster of residents working on altering maps and painting banners and settled in to help. He'd only been there an hour or so when one of the outside doors opened with a soft squeal of metal.

Isle of the Damned.

"Promise: My character makes a promise to your character" Drabble

When Beth had been taken from the road, from the funeral parlor, from Daryl, she'd never thought she'd end up where she did. She'd never heard of a place called "Terminus", especially somewhere that was a "sanctuary for all". As the car had driven up, she'd tried to get a decent look at her surroundings but found nothing familiar or helpful in her plans to escape. 

But that as before the 'welcome wagon' was set up the next morning. Beth had been escorted to the the courtyard of the supposed sanctuary, only to find a few different people and a woman grilling what looked like funny steaks. Even the smell was weird, and she'd eaten some pretty iffy animals during the end of times, usually ones that Daryl had brought back. Just thinking about him made her sad, knowing that he was somewhere out there alone. When she'd said he would be the last man standing, she hadn't exactly been speaking about the immediate future. 

Beth stayed in Terminus for awhile, helping with the cooking, cleaning, and babysitting mostly. Everyone had their jobs to do and if she was going to live there, albeit temporarily until she could find a way out, she was no exception. She found ways to contribute to the tiny society, even singing on occasion to lift everyone's spirits. However, the longer she was there, the more weary she became. New people would show up and then they would leave in the middle of the night. She couldn't understand it. Didn't they want what little safety Terminus could offer? 

All that changed when she saw Gareth with her father's pocket watch. She'd know that watch anywhere, she'd only been playing with it her entire life. And she also knew that Glenn had been entrusted with it when he'd petitioned for Maggie's hand. Why would Gareth have it? Glenn wouldn't have just given it up...unless...

Instead of asking Gareth or any of the other Termites, Beth waited until nightfall and went scouting around the camp. She usually wasn't allowed to go to some places in the day so she took advantage of the shadows and investigated what she hadn't seen before. What she found both shocked, and sickened her. A room with cult like inscriptions on the walls? Skeletons with the meat cut from the bones? Maybe Terminus wasn't the safe haven she'd thought it was. 

Eventually, Beth made her way outside and found a metal train car marked with the letter "A". She'd opened it and found her family, only to be ripped away again by some of the muscle that guarded the place. All of them were dragged into a wide, white room and thrown onto their knees, Beth in front of everyone else since she was living at Terminus.

"Well now she knows everything" Gareth said, sitting in a leather chair on the other end of the room like it was his throne. "Maybe we should just get rid of her friends. Make them useful in other ways."

"NO!" Beth exclaimed, ignoring the sounds of Daryl viciously trying to escape to her. Looking up at Gareth, she tried to hold back the tears she could feel forming there. "Let them go and you can have me instead. I'll stay here and do whatever you want. Whatever it takes for you to just let them go."

The young girl could hear her sister's cries, Carl's sobs, Daryl's angry grunts as he still tried to write from his captor's hold. Gareth strolled over to her, gripping her by the chin and picking her head up to look him in the eyes. "You promise you'll do whatever I say? As long as they go free?"

Peeling her head away, Beth glanced over to her family for one last time, She glanced over everyone, especially Maggie and Daryl, before turning back around to face Gareth.

Glancing back at Lilly, his mouth pulled into a thin line as he felt his jaw clench. She looked pale, and even though she'd reassured him countless times that she was fine, he worried. How could he not? It'd been, by his best estimate, close to four weeks since they'd left Meghan's body buried beneath the orange soil in the shade of a lilac bush on that hillside.  He never should have left --  He shook this thought from his mind. He'd been through it all before. The should haves and maybe ifs. Thoughts like that were poisonous, and they couldn't afford the antivenin. Instead, he paused and turned to face Lilly, Waiting until she was within reach, he pulled her to himself fr the briefest of moments and let his arms wrap around her back. Stepping back, he tipped her chin up and looked into he eyes. Tomorrow. He said.

But the tomorrows kept coming with no way of knowing if they were any closer to their destination. Even though he knew that their pace had been slow these past few days -- every step felt as thought it drained into their bones and sucked the energy right out -- they had to be close. He'd never been much good with maps, but surely they'd stumble over that star labelled terminus before too much longer. 

That night, he took watch as Lilly slept lightly against his shoulder. In the trees, he could hear squirrels and other creatures skittering through the night and his stomach clenched down on itself. Maybe this would be the last night spent this way, he told himself. 

Though he had no way of knowing it, that was the last night he and Lilly would have to spend on the road. The next day, around noon judging by the sky, they stumbled upon a white wooden sign. 

Terminus.

Those who arrive, survive

2mi