It Comes With The Name

Chapter 26: It's Time To Go

"What the-" One of the men exclaimed.

"Somebody pushed it shut. There's someone in there."

It was quiet for a second before one of them called out. "Yo, is there someone in there? Yo, if there's someone in there we don't want no trouble. We're just looking for our friends."

No one responded, they all exchanged nervous glances as they heard the other men whisper to eachother. "What do we do? Bum rush the door?"

"No, we don't know how many of them there are." The man responded quietly before raising his voice again. "We don't want any trouble. We're just looking for our friends. If something happened, tell us. This place is crawling with corpses. If you can help us not get killed, I'd appreciate it."

Lauren watched Rick eye the bodies on the floor and clench his jaw as the men spoke, he was struggling with what to do. The men outside lowered their voices again, speaking to each other. "Dude, you're buggin, I'm telling you there's nobody in there."

Rick pinched the bridge of his nose and Lauren eyed him wearily.

"Someone guard the door. If they're in there they might know where Dave and Tony are."

Rick locked eyes with his sister and she sent him a warning look, shaking her head. Don't do it. The footsteps began to depart from outside the door and despite Lauren's warning, Rick spoke.

"They drew on us!" He yelled.

"Rick," Lauren hissed. "What the hell are you doing?"

Their footsteps once again approached the bar doors. "Dave and Tony in there? Are they alive?"

Lauren gave Rick another shake of her head, silently begging him not to say anything. He once again ignored her. "No."

Lauren Hershel and Glenn all grimaced when Rick told them this. If they weren't looking for trouble before, they definitely would be now.

"They killed Dave and Tony." One of the men said in disbelief.

"C'mon man let's just go." Another one reasoned.

"No! No, I'm not leaving. I'm not telling Jane..." He trailed off. "I'm not going back and telling her Dave and Tony got shot by some assholes in a bar!"

"Your friends drew on us! They gave us no choice!" Rick snapped. The men silenced themselves and Rick took that as a sign to continue. "I'm sure we've all lost enough people, done things we wish we didn't have to, but it's like that now. You know that! So let's just chalk this up to what it was...Wrong place, wrong-"

Shards of glass sprayed over Lauren's head as the window above her shattered. Multiple bullets lodged themselves on the other side of the bar. Rick sprang up, firing a few shots out of the broken window.

"Get out of here!" He shouted. Lauren Glenn and Hershel scrambled to their feet, making a run for the exit door as Rick tried to cover them.

Lauren made it almost fully across the room before the bullets came flying at them again. She ducked down behind the counter of the bar, peeking her head around ever so slightly to make sure everyone was alright. Rick was still by the broken window, now crouched down again with his back pressed against the door. Glenn was huddled next to the old grand piano pushed up against the wall, trying to use it for cover. Weaponless and terrified, Lauren saw him take a shaky breath. She locked eyes with Hershel who was a few feet away from her, the only space between them was the open gap between the bar and the wall he was against.

Hershel stole a glance around the corner while Rick began yelling out to the men from where he was. He was trying to persuade the men to just go home, that a shootout wasn't worth it. She was pretty sure he was just using this speech to buy them time though. Rick had been a cop for years, he knew when a shootout was inevitable. Hershel used the opportunity to slide the shotgun he had across the floor to Glenn who picked it up and gripped it tightly, trying to calm himself down.