The Fear (The Walking Dead / Daryl Dixon)

Chapter 79 - Someday It Will Be Useful

The dust had pillowed out and billowed from the new opening in the wall. The walkers could be heard long before they were seen. The windmill had been weakened in the attack, licked up by a fire and burned on one side.

"Luke!" Kat yelled, running forward towards him as Michonne took off in front to help the others. "Get inside. Quick. Go!"

"Where are you going?!" The little boy yelled back, refusing to let go of her hand.

"I have to help the others. You go inside and get upstairs." Luke was shaking his head back and forth vigorously with wide eyes. She looked over her shoulder anxiously to where she knew the others would be but couldn't see through the plume of slowly clearing dust. She turned back and knelt down in front of him, squeezing his hand tightly as she spoke to him sternly. She wasn't harsh, but straight forward. "Listen to me. You have to go inside. You go in and you lock the door behind you. Don't open it unless you hear voices on the other side. If someone comes you unlock it and you run back, okay? Don't wait at the door, you run back and let them shut it, but make sure that they do. You go upstairs and you stay quiet." Slowly Luke began to nod. "Remember what I told you. Fire from a distance if you have to but you get to higher ground. Go to your room and if they get inside climb out the window and stay on the roof."

He nodded again before reaching forward and wrapping her tightly in a hug she quickly returned. When Kat pulled back she placed a kiss on the top of his forward and urged him back towards the house. "Go."

Luke took off up the front stairs while Kat waited until he was inside and she herd the door click. Then she took off, running in the direction Michonne had left in.

"My god." She breathed, coming to a skidding halt when she rounded the street corner and saw the walkers that were streaming in through the walls.

"Everyone get back!" Rick was yelling. "Get into your houses, go!" He had his colt python raised, firing it at a few that got too close.

Kat had no weapon save the bowie knife she always had at her side. She snatched up a smaller plank of wood that was in a pile of building materials for reinforcing the wall. She clapped one walker over the head with it, knocking it to the ground but not killing it. She used the heel of her boot to finished the job. With one hard stamp it's rotten flesh and brittle bones crumbled and splatter under her heel.

She threw the piece of wood away and ran for a mallet she spotted a few metres away. Swinging something blunt with a bit of weight behind it was in a lot of ways better that a sharp knife or machete. You weren't guaranteed a kill in one hit, but the follow through and recovery was a lot easier.

Michonne was at Rick's back as he moved with Deanna, supporting her weight as she held a hand over her side. She was injured, badly. Kat ran for them, covering their other side and swinging the mallet through the skull of an approaching walker.

Carl was leading the way out the front and Gabe had joined them, keeping pace, but with no weapon to help. Jessie's eldest son, Ron, was also with them

"Mum!" Aiden's voice yelled out as he came running to help. The walkers were right on their tail, following them like a pack of hungry dogs. Michonne and Kat hung at the back to keep them at bay, but they were beginning to swarm in from the side.

Jessie came just in time, running out of her house with a gun and firing a few quick shots to open a path on her side.

"Come on!" She shouted, waving them towards her. "I have Judith." She added.