Chapter Text
“Grandpa! Grandma! Watch this!” a young blonde girl canon-balled into a lake.
“Lila!” the older man yelled, rising out of his lawn chair and rushing to the water’s edge.
“George! She can’t swim!” an older woman’s panicked voice screamed.
The man didn’t respond as he quickly submerged himself and pulled the girl out of the water. The girl was sputtering and crying in the grass, as the man patted her on the back. “You’re alright, girl. You’re alright.” he comforted.
That was the last time Lila Hollis went “swimming,” until today.
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Lila Hollis was many things, drowning in student loan debt, recently unemployed, lonely, and not a very good swimmer.
Three days earlier…
“That's it! I’m done!” Lila threw her hands into the air in frustration. “Here’s my two weeks!” She shouted raising her middle finger to her shocked manager as she walked out of the restaurant.
That damn temper, girl. Lila could almost picture her grandmother’s chiding remarks.
Lila slammed her car door shut as she got into her car. She attempted to fasten her seatbelt, but she pulled on it too quickly and it locked up. “Godamnit!” she repeatedly pulled on the belt in frustration.
3…2…1… Deep breaths, Lila. She started to calm her heart. Lila pulled her seatbelt over her chest and fastened it.
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Lila flopped onto the couch in her apartment with a groan. She almost wanted to cry. She knew this job wouldn’t last it, it wasn’t like she hadn’t had experience losing her past 5 jobs. This was just the first one she quit.
Lila had always had a problem with her temper, detentions, suspensions, firings. She wasn’t an idiot, she got straight A’s. Hell, she was in her third year of medical school this semester. However, when that fire inside her got ignited she wasn’t backing down, which has led to her current situation. Indebted and fiv-no six jobs down sans any recommendations.
Before she could wallow in any more self-loathing Lila made up her plans for the rest of the day. First, change out of this stupid fucking uniform, and second, today was the day that she was starting season 7 of The Walking Dead . She had been anticipating this all week, Lila was on her 5th rewatch but she’s never been able to get past season 5. Now she had finally gotten to the end of season 6, and man was episode 16 a cliffhanger.
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What the fuck? if Lila wasn’t crying from losing her job she was definitely crying now.
“Maggie, I’ll find you.” Glenn says after being beaten with Lucille, his eye bulging out.
Negan raises his bat and begins mercilessly beating in Glenn’s head. He’s completely unrecognizable when Negan finishes his assault. Maggie is distraught.
“Lucille is thirsty! She’s a vampire bat!” Negan jokes.
At this point Lila had abandoned her snacks and had begun furiously wiping tears out of her eyes. Why, why, why? What did Glenn do to deserve this?
Abraham? She wasn’t too attached, but Glenn? Neither of em’ deserved to go out like that!
Click.
Lila turned off her television with a huff. She was getting past the denial stage and heading into anger.
She tugged on her sneakers and decided to go on a walk, maybe along the canal to get some fresh air.
She’s been watching this show since she was seventeen, bought all the DVDs, every Talking Dead episode. The show had given her some comfort during hard times, it was the one show she and her grandfather could watch together. She was almost glad he wasn’t alive to see the show get to this point.
She smiled, remembering her grandpa. Glenn was his favorite character, so Lila was carrying the torch in his place. She was allowed to be a little frustrated about his gruesome demise.
Lila’s thoughts were interrupted by a high-pitched scream. She whipped her head around and saw a little girl no older than five rapidly descending into the canal.
She looked around the edge of the water. There was no one to be seen.Where the fuck are her parents?
Lila couldn’t swim, but it couldn’t be that deep right? The little girl just had to be short. Whatever, there’s no time to just wait.
Lila ran to the canal’s edge, she could barely see the little girl who had now gotten at least six-feet from the edge.
5 seconds.
She let herself drop into the canal, the water was cool, but she didn’t let that distract her. She pushed off of the wall, inhaled deeply, and dunked her head into the murky water. The water stung her eyes. The water was deeper than Lila had assumed, but she tried to stay her panic.
There.
20 seconds.
Lila grabbed the girl's hand and pulled. She met the girl’s still open eyes. The girl’s body was light in the water. Lila went to push off of the bottom of the canal, but realized that the canal still had a few feet to go, and it would be much harder to move with the girl. Lila decided to push the girl as far as she could towards the edge and hoped she grabbed on.
35 seconds.
Lila almost sighed in relief at seeing the girl holding onto the edge of the canal, before realizing she herself was still underwater.
40 seconds.
Okay. She was panicking now. Her lungs were straining in her chest, she couldn’t help but exhale the remaining air in her lungs. She thrashed her arms. How the fuck do people swim? C’mon Lila you’ve seen people swim before. Think. Think!
The panic was overtaking any logical thought processes that she had left. She couldn’t keep herself from opening her mouth. She needed to breathe.
Water filled her mouth. She felt her throat tighten before the water met her lungs. Her consciousness fading quickly.
50 seconds.