chapter 17: tumbling down

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"Handguns will be a little better for your first go

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"Handguns will be a little better for your first go. Magazine release... Slide release.... Thumb safety." Rick said, showing Ron the handgun in his hand.

Somehow, Eloise got stuck with watching Ron learn how to shoot a gun with Carl and Rick while Jace was helping Denise out at the infirmary.

"That stuff's easy, right, Dad?" Carl asked, trying to piss off Ron. Ron sent him a glare while Eloise put a hand up to her mouth to suppress her giggles. "Yeah. Empty chamber. See it?" Rick asked, showing Ron the gun. "Yeah."

"Someone's in front of you, they have a gun." Rick said. "You're gonna be freaked out. Scared." Eloise said, finally speaking up. She wasn't try to anger the boy, just tell him the truth.

"Your body's gonna tense, you won't have time to think. You're just gonna want to pull the trigger when you get it in front of you." Rick said, quickly bringing his gun up, pointing at the wall. "But you'll miss and you'll be dead. You have to get it up to your eye." He then pulled his gun up again, this time, holding it up to his line of sight.

"You've got to be strong enough to wait for your moment." Carl said and Eloise nodded her head but looked at her fingers thumping against the table she was leaning on.

"Can I, uh...?" Ron asked, gesturing to the gun and Eloise finally looked up and watched as Ron followed the instructions Rick had given him but one thing caught her eye. His finger was on the trigger, ready to fire. Eloise nodded her head to Ron's hand, catching Rick's attention He quickly moved Ron's finger.

"Hey, your finger doesn't touch the trigger until you're ready to shoot." Ron nodded, putting his finger away from the trigger, making Rick nod his head. "Keep that one with you. Get a feel of what it's like to carry one around."

"Can I shoot it?"

Eloise rose her brows at his question. Once Ron noticed her expression he added on. "Maybe like down at the walkers?" Rick shook his head, wiping his mouth as he stared at the ground. "No, with things how they are, the walls are strong, but we're lucky the walkers are spread out. We don't want to pull them all to one spot."

"Well, what about, like, target practice in the center of town? 'Cause then the sound will spread out in each direction. Or maybe we could use, like, silencers or something like that." Ron reasoned but Rick gave him a look, making him slump down a bit. "But, uh... I mean, we probably don't want to waste bullets right now, huh?"

"Just want to learn more." Ron said and Eloise nodded her head, leaning down to her backpack and pulling out a machete. "You will."

She gave Carl a quick peck and turned to walk away from the three when Rick called out to her. "Lou. Where are you going with that?" Eloise turned around, now walking backwards to the center of town. "Rosita wanted me to help with some classes." She answered, sending the machete towards the ground as if she was killing a walker.

Eloise got to the class as Rosita was explaining to the group the proper way to use a machete. "Now, when the blade connects, don't jerk it right back. You'll get stuck."

"Stuck?" One of the men asked sounding disgusted.

"Like an axe cutting into a tree. It's easier to get a blade into bone than out." Eloise said as she stood beside Rosita to make her presence known. "So what should we do?" The man asked as both girls walked towards the middle of the group.

"You should slide the machete down through the wound. One fluid motion. Okay, you ease it through the bone like this." Rosita said before showing them what to do and everyone started practicing. Eloise and Rosita watched them all when Lou's eyes landed on Eugene who was staring off onto the distance.

Eloise walked up to Eugene, patting his back with the flat side of her machete, making the man jump, turning around to face her. "Hey! I'm a weapons novice holding a significant blade here and there are people in my proximity with open-toed shoes."

"Oh well, I'm sorry." Eloise said in a fake sincere voice that Eugene easily picked up on. Eloise sighed, looking up at the man. "Come on Eugene. I mean this in the nicest way... but get a grip." By now, Rosita was standing beside Eloise, scoffing. "What are you so scared of?"

"That would be dying." Eugene said, staring at the ground, not wanting to meet either of their eyes. Rosita rolled her eyes, crossing her arms. "Dying is simple. It all just stops. You're dead. The people around you dying, that's the hard part. Okay? 'Cause you keep living knowing that they're gone and you're still here. What you should be scared of is living knowing that you didn't do everything you could to keep them here. Too upset to keep going? Are the noises scaring you or can I get back to my lesson?"

Without answering, Eugene walked away. Eloise shook her head, wiping some sweat off her forehead before helping out Jessie

...

"You're worried about her." Maggie spoke up abruptly, making Eloise turn to her. putting her hand above her eyes to block out the sun.

Eloise and Maggie were perched up on the guard tower. Maggie was there to see if she could find Glenn while Eloise wanted to find Enid. "I know you are. I'm worried about him." The older woman added.

"Me too." Eloise whispered, grasping Maggie's hand.

Eloise looked around Alexandria, the people. Gabriel was sitting with a bunch of townfolks, reading them a portion of the Bible, Rick was with Deanna and Tobin by the wall, pushing wood slabs against it to keep the wall from falling and Jace was with Eugene, Rosita and Tara. She watched as Jace looked off into the distance, pointing at something in the sky.

Eloise followed his line of sight, her eyes landing on a string of balloons floating in the sky. She let out a shaky laugh, nudging Maggie to see and she could hear the woman let a tired exhale. "Do you think that's-" "It's gotta be." Maggie murmured and with that, the two climbed down the tower and over to Rick.

When they got to Rick, they were both trying to catch their breaths. "That's Glenn. That's Glenn. Maybe Enid too." Maggie breathed out, grabbing Lou's hand for support. Rick smiled at the two before a sound brought everyone out of their relief.

Wood cracking.

Eloise turned her head to the loud noise, her eyes landing on the church tower just outside the walls. She watched as the tower started tipping slowly almost as if it was taunting them with the disaster that was about to happen.

Panic started to rise in Eloise, all her hearing went away in fear as she started running backwards, watching as the tower got closer and closer to the walls but soon enough it was too late.

The wall came tumbling down.




—The next two chapters are going to be absolute CHAOS so have fun😌ANYWHOOO I'm invested in this part of the show so there might be another chapter coming out in the next few hours but we'll seei love you alll <3

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

—The next two chapters are going to be absolute CHAOS
so have fun😌
ANYWHOOO I'm invested in this part of the show so there might be another chapter coming out in the next few hours but we'll see
i love you alll <3

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