All of Us (The Walking Dead)

Chapter 37

It was still dark out, but you could tell that the sun was going to start rising soon. We started walking in the direction we knew the building was at, hoping that we were still on Rosita's trail since it was still too dark to track anything. Soon the sun would be up and we would be able to get back on her trail.

We made it to the building as the sun was just starting to show itself. We stayed far enough away that they couldn't see us, but close enough that it was in our sights. 

"Let's start checking the perimeter," Rick whispered. "Keep your eyes out for movement and on the building to see if we can find a way in."

We started making our way around the perimeter, but stopped when Daryl put up his hand. He crouched low and examined the earth.

"What is it?" Rick whispered as we walked up to him.

"Picked up her tracks again," Daryl said. The dirt we were looking at was messed up and there were foot imprints everywhere and leaves scattered. My face fell as I realized what the marks in the ground meant.

"They found her here," he said as he noticed a drop of red liquid on a leaf and touched it with his fingers. Blood. My eyes went wide. It was obvious by looking at the ground that she had struggled, and then you can see the trail of footprints leading towards the building to the right where they dragged her away.

"They took her this way," he pointed towards the trail I was looking at. They started to slowly head in that direction, seeing if they could get a closer look. I stayed where I was and looked around at the marks in the ground. I walked to the left a few feet and bent down, picking up a small branch that was snapped in half. There were a few leaves on the ground. I carefully picked them up and moved them to the side, noticing slight indents in the ground where someone had walked.

There was another trail going to the left.

"Wait," I whispered towards the group walking away.

Daryl turned around from the front of the group and came back. Everyone followed. Daryl bent down beside me to see what I was looking at.

"There's another trail that leads over there," I pointed to the left. Daryl squinted his eyes and examined the ground.

"Sloane's right," he said as he stood back up and looked at the others.

"You can track?" Rick asked as he came up to me.

I shrugged. "I wouldn't say I'm great at it. But when you're on your own for a while and you can't rely on anyone else, you pick up a few things."

Rick nodded his head looking impressed. "Nice job," he said as he passed by me. He elbowed Daryl on the way by too. I bit back my smile at the fact that I had caught this over Daryl.

Daryl and I lead the group this time, following the trail. It didn't take us long until we both stopped.

"Did you lose it?" Rick asked.

I shook my head. "It stops here."

I squatted down and examined the earth. There were leaves everywhere, but the movement ended at a little pile of leaves in front of us. It looked a little odd though, as if it didn't quite fit.

Daryl must have thought the same thing, because he crouched down beside me and started brushing the leaves away. Looking at the loose dirt below it, it looked like someone had buried something here in a rush. 

We dug down into the ground until we hit something. Daryl carefully brushed away the dirt until we saw a box. We carefully lifted it out and opened it. My eyes went wide. It was dynamite. Daryl immediately tugged me backwards away from the explosives.

"I completely forgot," I whispered as I turned to the group. "Rosita had said that she was going to use the dynamite to help take them out."

"She's smart," Michonne said. "She must have buried it quickly when she knew that she was spotted so they wouldn't find the dynamite. We can use this to help create a distraction."

Rick was lost in thought, finally coming up with a plan of attack. "We can use the dynamite to blow up one of the walls of the building and we'll have some people stationed there shooting from a distance. That's where all of their people will be because they'll think that's where all of us are. What they won't know is that a few of us will be entering from the other side of the building unnoticed when they're all occupied with our distraction, and we'll take them out from the inside. They won't see us coming," he said and then looked at Daryl for confirmation. It was obvious he valued his opinion. 

Daryl nodded. "I'll go in through the other side," he said.

"Okay, so me, you, Michonne and... Sloane. We'll go in through the back," he said, and Daryl glanced at me, probably not too fond of the idea of me going in the building since it seemed more dangerous. I would have volunteered myself anyways if Rick hadn't said my name. He continued. "Everyone else will be shooting anyone who comes out of the whole we make with the dynamite."

Everyone nodded and we got ready.

Eugene was the best with the dynamite so we let him take control of that and just followed his orders.

"You sure you're okay with coming in?" Daryl asked me.

I nodded. "I'm sure Daryl."

Daryl stood beside me protectively as we walked up to Michonne and Rick.

"You guys ready?" Rick asked.

I nodded. We still needed to find an entrance in the back. Once we found either an unlocked door or window that looked suitable, we would radio to Eugene who would set off the dynamite and blow up the side of the building on the other side from where we were. That was our cue to move in since the people in the building would likely be distracted.

We walked through the woods to the back of the building, carefully observing. Once we made sure that the coast was clear, we stayed low and moved in towards the building, and then crouched down low beside it. Unfortunately, there were no doors on this side.

"There," Michonne pointed to a window just too high for us to look in but it was the only one that we'd be able to reach.

"If someone could just boost me up a little I could look in," I whispered.

Daryl stood under the window and cupped his hands together to boost me. He nodded at me to go. I put both my hands on his shoulders for support and then lifted my right leg. When my foot was securely in his hands I pushed up.

I grabbed onto the ledge of the window and slowly raised my head so that I was just peeking in. I examined the layout and didn't see anyone.

I bent back down and jumped to the ground.

"Okay, so the window is at the end of a long hallway. There are doors on both sides of the hallway and I couldn't see anyone," I whispered to them. "The doors were mostly closed so there could be people in them."

Rick nodded his head. "Okay, I think we found our way in."

"But how do we all get up there?" Michonne asked.

I looked around but didn't see anything that would help.

"We'll do what Daryl and Sloane did. Boost each other up and in," Rick said.

"And what about the last person?" Michonne asked. "We just pull them up?"

Rick looked at me.

"I'll be the last person," I sighed and volunteered. I was the smallest so it made the most sense to pull me up. 

Michonne put the walkie talkie to her lips. "We found an entrance. We're ready on our end."

"Copy that," Eugine spoke back instantly. "In precisely t - one minute this nitroglycerine stick is going to detonate and blow the side of this building to timbuctoo. Over," he said. 

It was time.