my tears ricochet

Part 111

Hands reached up to where they stood, trapped on a ledge made of rock and darkness. The torch shed barely enough light to see the desperate upturned faces gathered below, forms writhing to get closer. Glenn pulled out a slender flashlight and flinched at ragged looking fingers catching on the rock. "Hey, uh... guys?"

The growling of the bodies below was almost deafening. Their eyes rolled and flashed, stringy hair white and chalk coloured with the bit of light shining down. Rick ducked forward and jabbed a knife through the brittle skull of one walker trying to haul itself up where the ledge stooped down slightly. "I'm guessing there isn't a ladder somewhere around here," he grimaced, straightening up and edging away from where the bodies below tried reaching for him. "Anything solid we could try climbing up?"

Beth scrambled up the wall, her own fingers chasing cracks for leverage, Daryl hoisting her feet up as high as he could to help with the process. But she caught loose stones and slid down in a tumble, crying out from the fall. "Damn, you okay?" He cursed, helping her up to her feet. He swept a hand around her head to feel for blood, checking her over in the shadows.

"I almost had it," Beth muttered, whipping her head back up to look at the distance above, frustrated. "I just caught a bad spot."

"Nah. It's too high. You'd risk breaking your neck. We need a better way," Daryl said, sweeping a glance around. The walkers looked old, the skin tight to the faces, hollowed out cheeks sucked in with pit like eyes gaping up at him. He took the flashlight from Glenn and shone it into the distance across the sea of heads.

"You got something?" Rick asked, leaning close to his side.

"Groundwater's deeper in here. That water's coming from outside."

"Yeah, I'm not seeing a really helpful bridge across this and that," Glenn frowned. "Just a really not great scenario."

He moved the light and Rick stopped him, pointing. "Whoa, whoa. Go back. See that?"

It lingered on a rough slab of stone jutting up through the walkers. "It ain't much of a bridge."

"We could use those to jump across. It isn't good, but we can't stand here waiting for our friend to come back," Rick said sourly, looking at it.

"For real?" Glenn blanched. He looked sick at the sight of it.

"It'll have to do."

They couldn't die buried beneath the ground. They had traveled so far, endured so much. Their lives couldn't be extinguished by the miserable darkness. "Here," he said, thrusting the flashlight into Rick's hand. "Shine where I'm jumping. We'll keep it moving."

"I can try climbing again, I could do it—" Beth stammered, looking at the men. "I just need to grab something easier this time. I won't fall, I promise."

"We don't got the time, Beth. And if you make it, you're gonna be facing Simon's people. This was a trap. He knows we can't get back out the way we came in," Rick said gently. "You just gotta trust that we can get through this."

"Hell, Greene. This ain't so bad. Just a couple jumps. I've seen you drive," Daryl needled, stepping away from the ledge to give himself a bit of a head start to jump. "This oughta be safer."

His heart hammered in his chest as he jumped. His feet his the rock and he wobbled, desperate to balance himself again. Dozens of hands reached for him. Fingers caught at the soles of his boots. Rick obediently shifted the light over to the next rock. Beth's gasp was barely heard beneath his own racing heart and the rattling moans of the undead. "C'mon," he beckoned, hoarse. "Let's go!"

The next rock was easier. It was flat and he crouched low, adrenaline a sick twist in his stomach. He kept going, chasing the swift series of steps and jumps, grasping onto a thick rock and scrambling around a narrow ledge, kicking down hard when he was nearly dragged straight down. When he hit the clear end he slumped down, miserable with the feeling of surviving something awful, a rattling similarity to the morning after the clearing when Negan lined them all up.