The Ottos were dead. It had been three months since the fall of PADRE and the death of Troy and Serena Otto. Madison Clark had left them bleeding out on the shores of the godforsaken PADRE had been after gutting the pair of them in front of their child. Although in the end, the Ottos seemed to have had the last word, for after their deaths, the last of their group fulfilled their wishes, and led a horde to PADRE, decimating whatever remained there before either scattering or being slaughtered by Madison's group.
In the end, after reuniting with one another, Alicia and Madison Clark took Tracy, the last Otto, back to California, where it all began, in hopes of starting another settlement and raising the child themselves. With them came Victor Strand and his family, Frank and Klaus, hoping to find someplace permanent and safe to live.
With the threat of the Ottos vanquished, Madison had taken to raising Tracy herself, seeing that as a much better option than leaving the 8-year-old where she was alone and orphaned. She sees something in the child that had fallen into her lap, her own child, her son, that she never got to save in the end, and she would not fail again. Desperate to give her family a new place to live, nothing will get in her way from securing this new community. In the end, they had chosen to settle in their old neighborhood, or what was left of it. It seemed over the years, people had tried to settle here and failed; this would be different. Madison would ensure it. Three months since their arrival, the small group had gotten the gates secured and fixed, the neighborhood cleared, and had begun gardens and repairs on the houses that were not in too much disrepair. The Clarks were in their old house, along with Tracy, while Strand had taken up residence in the house next door with his own family, and so far, things had been going well. Or...as well as things could go when housing an Otto.
"Tracy?" Madison asks, knocking gently on the child's door in the morning, "Breakfast is almost ready." She says softly, going silent, waiting for a moment. She knew that had been a difficult transition for the child. Everything she had ever known had been ripped from her, but eventually Madison was sure Tracy would see she was better off. This was better for everyone. Troy never should have been a parent, not with Madison knowing of him. He was dangerous and unpredictable and would have only dragged his child into trouble.
Not hearing anything, Madison knocks on the door again, "Tracy?" She grabs the handle and turns, peaking into the room. Empty. "Shit," A curse leaves the blonde woman's lips as she pushes further into the room, looking around, "not again..." Turning on her heel, Madison leaves the room and dashes through the living room and to the front door, leaving Alicia in the kitchen. Only slowing as she approaches the front door to Strand's house, she takes a breath before knocking on the door.
~*~
"Go slow, okay?" Serena asks softly, her arm wrapped around Troy's middle, carefully as he leans on her, carefully and slowly making his way over to the couch. Serena watches him, ensures he's taking it slow; the last thing they need is for him to strain himself, to hurt himself further. To push himself too fast, too quickly, and put a stop to his healing and progress. Not when he was finally up on his feet. Serena ignores the strain in her own shoulder as she helps Troy to the couch and gets him set down; he had gotten the worst of Madison's ire. She had asked for peace one minute before plunging Alicia's arm into Troy's torso. Serena still remembers the pained gurgles Troy made as he fell to his knees. They haunted her dreams most nights, and Tracy's cry. Serena had tried to intervene, to save Troy, to get Madison off of him. Madison was ready, though, and put two bullets in her. One through her shoulder, the other through her side, just barely missing her liver. All in all, they were through and through...it could have been worse.
In the end, Serena had woken, covered in her own blood and alone save for an unconscious Troy. Not knowing where her child was, Serena had gathered whatever strength she had and dragged Troy away from the scene back to the hotel, and struggled to stop the bleeding. Her mind was a blur of her husband's blood everywhere, on her clothes, her arms, and the rattled sound of his breathing. She had stopped Madison from digging the ragged piece of metal into Troy's torso too far, but just barely. When she had finally stopped the bleeding, Serena herself had passed out from her wounds and woken up hours later, dazed and confused. Immediately noting the lack of their daughter, Serena had secured Troy in a small room and dragged herself back out in the swamp looking for Tracy, but there was no trace of her. Her child and PADRE were gone.
After looking for hours, nearly passing out several times in the process, defeated and her face red with tears, Serena had dragged herself back to the hotel and tended to her own wounds and Troy's. So for the last few months, they had stayed put in the abandoned hotel without their daughter or their people, alone and recovering.
#princesavior [...] an independent, medium activity and mutually exclusive writing blog for original character heath tate smith from the walking dead universe. designed around canon and headcanons / part of the hopeverse collection. est. april 2018, revamped july 2025.
#saviormatriarch [...] an independent, medium activity and mutually exclusive writing blog for lucille smith from the walking dead universe. designed around canon and personal headcanons / part of the hopeverse collection. est. 2016, revamped june 2025.
Everything happened so fast that Nick barely had time for it to even register. When the military came for Griselda and they spoke his name as well, he was frozen in place. It wasn't until Alicia told him to run that it clicked. Or was it his mom? Did it matter who spoke? No, whoever it was, was right.
Like when he'd seen Gloria eating a man's face, his legs willed themselves to run the fastest they could carry him. He weaved between the soldiers, and through the streets of El Sereno that he knew better than anyone, just narrowly escaping. They gave chase into the night with their tanks and jeeps and guns.
As they barreled down a main street, he circled around, until he lost them, and made his way to a hole in the fence that his mother had previously slipped out of, and creeped through it, into the night.
Without all the city lights and street lamps, the surrounding city was darker than he had seen it in all his life. It was nigh impossible to navigate through the pitch black. He could really only on his muscle memory and the very faint illumination of the moon.
The city was a ghost town. Rotting corpses lined the desolate, dark streets, and the stench was enough to make Nick gag. All that broke the silence of the night was the buzzing of flies, and the distant uproar from the military searching for him. He didn't look back. He knew if they found him, they'd kill him.
He didn't know if any of The Dead were still shuffling through the streets, but he had to find somewhere to hide until daylight. The military was a bigger threat at the moment. His family would run, and they would meet him in the desert east of here. That was what they had said the plan was. They wouldn't change it. But he would need to scour the city for drugs first. The last thing he needed at a time like this was withdrawals. It could kill him. And mom had given the last of the stash to Griselda.
Where was the library? It had heavy doors, and they were less likely to look there. Who the hell would hide in a library? Those didn't even have food. Even if he needed a pharmacy more than anything, they were sure to search pharmacies first, thanks to that narc, Liza.
He stumbled over the bodies as he let his feet lead the way towards the nearest library, all the while, the sound of the jeeps grew closer. His heart pounded in his chest as he feared being caught. He couldn't see well enough to run out here. He had to hide, but where, if he couldn't make it to the library in time?
I am trying to get back into writing here on Tumblr! I'm submitting this ask under my RP blog so feel free to give that a look! Below is just a quick run down and such
-Friendly writer
-Willing to double
-Love writing anything, romance, slice of life, hurt/comfort, fluff. All the things!
-Big on OOC chat, I wanna make friends with the people I write with
-I can plot or wing it (plotting is preferred if we haven't written together before)
-OC friendly!
-18+ only
Fandoms I write for:
- House of the Dragon
- Historical Dramas (Medici, Reign, My Lady Jane, The Borgias etc)
- Outer Banks
- The Walking Dead Universe (mainly FTWD)
Give this post a like or comment if anything piques your interest and I'll get in touch, or feel free to DM my blog, my DMs are always open😊
