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RICK COUGHED VIOLENTLY, rolling onto his back to breathe better. His lungs were filled with dust from the clocktower falling apart on the ground. He rolled onto his side, his gaze meeting hundreds of walkers flooding into Alexandria. He was fear strickened when the reality of it all came crashing down onto him. Everything he tried to build almost always crumbled back down to the pits of nothing. He was sitting face to face with the maker of that truth. He really did think that the walls were going to stay holding until the others got back, until Daryl got back. Oh, boy, was he wrong. He wished he had not been wrong about what he thought would be true. If he wasn't, nobody was going to die. He knew though that in the absence of his plan, lots of the Alexandrians were dying tonight.
The former sheriff jumped off the ground, crawling on his legs when he almost stumbled onto the ground again. He ripped his gun from its holster. "Everyone! Get back!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. "Get into your houses, go!" He aimed his gun and shot a walker down. He went to turn again to see there was someone laying in the grass unconscious. Rick fell to his knees, turning them over. "No, no, no." he whispered at the sight of her face. His hands moved down her arm to pick her up. He froze. He had noticed two pieces of wood sticking into her ribcage, another into her abdomen. He ran his hands over his face, shaking his head. He checked for her breathing. She was still alive. Barely, but she was there.
He shot another walker or two to get them away from Ella. Rick checked to make sure everyone was safe and sound in their houses before he was going to save himself and Ella. They were safe inside their houses. Not a soul was out on the streets from what he could tell. If Ella had been anyone else, he would've left her. But this was his little Ella. No way was he going to let her die. She wasn't supposed to go out this way, she was supposed to go out from old age. That was the death he had set in mind for his darling girl.
Rick rolled Ella into his arms, his hands pressed into her stomach to get her to roll, the blood spilling onto his hands. Rick closed his eyes to stop himself from crying. He quickly stood up and sprinted off right as the walkers closed in on them. Turning down to look at the face of Ella, he would've cried if they weren't facing danger alone. Who knew if her being pierced with wood in three different spots was super bad or not. He wasn't exactly sure if there needed to be an exit wound on something like that. He needed to get to the clinic to find Denise.
Unfortunately, he couldn't get to the clinic, he couldn't. The walkers were trying to divert him away from the clinic, they were trying to surround him. Sure, walkers weren't smart. But them surrounding him on basically all sides was a coincidence indicating they were indeed smart.
"Rick!"
Rick turned around to see Deanna shooting at a walker, hitting everywhere but the head. "We need to get the hell out of here!" he ran off in one direction. Deanna followed him. He shot walkers in the way, hitting them square in the head. He sprinted down the street to get to the nearest house before the walkers gained on them. He didn't even realize that Michonne, Gabriel, Carl, and Ron had joined him. His only interest was getting to safety and to find Ella someone who knew how to check vitals without second guessing themselves.
