the great war (r.g)

seventeen

cora and maggie looked at the walkers pouring into alexandria with panic. with all the walkers forcing their way in, there was no way they would all survive. "get back to your houses, go!" rick was yelling. the people in the surrounding areas ran home, frightened.

"cora, come on," maggie said, pulling her towards the direction of the house.

"maggie i'm staying out here," cora told her. "i can't go and hide inside during this. and before you try to stay too, you need to go." maggie understood and turned back to the house.

cora turned back to rick and deanna, fighting off walkers who were starting to flood around them. cora killed a walker who was coming up onto deanna's side. "cora," rick said, just realizing she hadn't gone home.

"don't even try," she warned him. he nodded at her before returning to the fight. cora didn't exactly know why deanna was fighting. she didn't seem like a fighter but she wasn't bad at it. until she fell onto a saw blade, injuring her. "deanna!" cora rushed to her side, inspecting the wound. blood was gushing out of the wound but cora acted quickly. "take off your jacket," she told her. deanna slipped her jacket off, handing it to cora who quickly tied it around the wound. deanna got back onto her feet and continued fighting.

"come on," rick said at the first second they got a break. cora and rick helped deanna walk down the street towards her house. further down the street, the three of them ran into michonne, gabriel, carl, and ron. jessie must have spotted them hobbling down the street as she came outside, ushering them into her house.

"jessie, do you have any medicine or alcohol?" cora asked as her and rick took deanna to a spare bedroom upstairs.

"yes, in my bathroom. the second shelf from the bottom," jessie told her. cora broke off from the two helping deanna to go in search of bandages.

in jessie's bathroom, cora rummaged through the vanity. she found a loose roll of bandages and a small thing of rubbing alcohol. cora wondered if jessie was allowed to have these seen as resources were low.

back in the bedroom, rick was leaning deanna down onto the bed. cora kneeled down to become eye level with deanna. "i'm going to help you, but this will burn," cora warned her. deanna nodded, not being able to find the words through her pain. cora poured a little bit of the alcohol into the bandage and dumped the rest of what was in the small bottle directly on deanna's wound. "i'm sorry," cora apologized as deanna seized in pain. "i have to clean the wound so it doesn't get infected." cora quickly put the bandage over the wound, attempting to stop the bleeding. she had to put two more on for the bleeding to not seep through.

once the wound was bandaged, michone entered the room. "how is she?" she asked.

"cora bandaged her up quickly," rick informed her. michonne nodded and walked up to deanna, speaking in hushed tones. "that was impressive," rick said to cora.

"i'm just trying to help," cora told him. "would it be bad if i said i enjoyed that?"

"not if it gives you some sense of your life before," rick said.

"just how you enjoy being 'officer friendly'?" cora said sarcastically. he had a reputation for not being very friendly.

"funny nickname," rick laughed.

michonne turned back to them looking like she just saw a ghost. "guys," she said. she stepped to the side, revealing deanna with her shirt lifted up a bit. there on her side was a walker bite.

"well, shit," deanna said, laying her head back on her pillow in a way that made cora believe she had already accepted her fate.

***

rick and michonne laid two dead walkers on the floor in front of the group. "we are all heading to the armory," michonne announced. walkers started puring into jessies home so rick blocked off the stairs while jessie, ron, cora, carl, gabriel, and izzy huddled at the top of the entrance. "from there, we can turn the walkers away from alexandria using flares." the group nodded in unison, agreeing to venture out.

"why are the walkers here," izzy asked. it was a good question. the walkers died downstairs so why did rick and michonne haul them up here?

"to get to the armor we have to sneak through the walkers," rick started explaining. "to do that, we need to look and smell like them." cora connected the dots together. they were planning on gutting the walkers and wearing their insides.

izzy connected them as soon as cora did. "no. no way i'm doing that. i'll stay here until its safe to go out."

"izzy, come on. this is the only safe way right now," cora said, trying to persuade her daughter. izzy maintained the eye contact before eventually looking away, giving in and agreeing to the plan.

several long, gross minutes later, all nine of them were covered with the innards of the two walkers, holding hands in a line: rick, cora, izzy, sam, jessie, carl, ron, then finally, michonne. izzy squeezed cora hand, hard, as they started out into the herd of walkers.

everything was going great until, not ten steps off the porch, sam started whining and calling to his mom, gaining the attention of multiple walkers around them. "shh, be quiet. you'll get us killed," izzy whisper-shouted at him. sam suddenly stopped walking, refusing to move. his gaze was trained ahead, focused on a walker. jessie begged and pleaded sam to keep walking, to be brave, but he just kept whining. more and more walkers noticed and started closing in on sam. one walker latched onto his neck, digging its teeth deep into him. next it was his arm, then his leg, his stomach until walkers pulled him out of jessie's grip. jessie just stood there in shock, watching his son get devoured. then, to the groups dismay, jessie started screaming in pain. walkers latched onto her too, pulling her to the ground.

"let go! get off of me!" carl was shouting. jessie's hand was firmly wrapped around his, pulling him down with her. "dad!" rick jumped into action, hacking jessie's hand off with his hatchet.

before cora knew what was happening, she heard a gun shot. michonne had skewered ron with her katana as soon as he aimed jessie's gun on rick. amid the chaos, a single shot let out.

it didnt seem to have hit anyone, cora thought. until carl turned around. there was blood gushing out of the hole where his eye was supposed to be. "dad?"