All of Us (The Walking Dead)

Chapter 40

Rosita and I went left towards the shooting. We peeked around the corner and saw that there was a group of the men, probably the last of them from this building still alive, making a stand. Some were shooting out the window at our people outside, and some were shooting at someone that I couldn't see. All of a sudden, I saw Daryl peek around the corner at the other end.

"Ready?" Rosita asked me.

"As I'll ever be," I said. She reached down and squeezed my hand gently, and then we raised our guns and started firing at the same time as Daryl did. We achieved just what we had hoped for; we caught them by surprise. They had been so preoccupied that they hadn't noticed us until it was too late. One by one, we took out the remaining men until they were all gone.

When it went quiet, we knew it was done. Rosita and I emerged from our hiding spot and Daryl ran over to us, grabbing onto me lightly.

"Are you guys alright?" I heard Rick say as him and Michonne came into view. That was who they had been shooting at. I smiled. They were alive and not hurt. 

"Oh my god," Michonne said as they took in my appearance. "What happened?"

"We have to get her back to Alexandria," Daryl said ignoring her question.

"I'm fine," I said in a raspy voice, and then started coughing. They all looked at me with concern.

Rick turned to Rosita. He eyed her. "Are you alright?"

"I'm okay," she said.

Once Rick knew she wasn't hurt, his face turned angry. "What the hell were you thinkin'?"

Rosita dropped her head and she looked down at the floor.

"You could have gotten yourself killed," he said.

Rosita looked back up at Rick and scrunched her eyebrows. "Don't you think I knew that?" she crossed her arms over her chest. "That was my choice. I didn't want anyone else to get hurt. And anyways, it wasn't a waste."

"What are you talking about?" Michonne asked.

"I pretended I was all alone and helpless out there and didn't have a group so they wouldn't suspect me. I overheard them. They were talking about our group. Rick," she said. "I think they know where Alexandria is. They plan on attacking."

We stood there in silence for a moment taking in the news. Everyone had thought Rosita was reckless to go on her own, but it was obviously worth it. We knew now that they were going to attack, even before we had taken out all their people from this outpost.

We walked towards the stairs and made our way down to the first floor. Everyone went ahead of me and Daryl stayed behind with me, helping me down the stairs.

When we got outside, the rest of our group ran towards us.

"Did we get them all?" Gabriel called out.

"Yah, it's all done," Rick said back.

"A few of them took off in a car, we couldn't stop them" Aaron said.

"It's okay," Rick said. It didn't matter. We already knew they were planning on attacking us.

I looked at our group. I noticed a couple people missing.

"Where's Aaron and Siddiq?" Michonne asked, noticing it too.

Gabriel nodded his head for us to follow. "Aaron was hit. But Siddiq says he'll be alright."

"Oh my gosh," I said as we walked up to a few cars. Aaron was leaning against one of them and Siddiq was inspecting his right shoulder.

When they heard us coming, Siddiq turned around.

"You guys are alright," he sighed in relief.

"What happened?" Rick asked.

"Got shot towards the end," Aaron said and winced at the pain.

"He's going to be fine, we just need to leave soon," Siddiq said and focused on Aaron's wound again, wrapping it up to stop the bleeding.

"We need to find the keys to these cars," Daryl said. Gabriel left to go look for keys and others went to the woods to bring back our gear that we had stored there.

I wiped the sweat off my forehead with my good hand. I felt hot. I closed my eyes as I took deep breaths, trying to breath through the pain in my shoulder and back and honestly, all over my body. Standing up and supporting my body weight was taking a toll. All I wanted to do was lay down.

"Sloane?" I heard Daryl say. I breathed in and out through my nose. Wow it was hot out.

"Slaone," I heard him say as he put his hand on my good shoulder.

"Siddiq!" he yelled, getting his attention. I opened my eyes and looked at Daryl. "I"m fine," I said and tried to push through the gravel feeling in my throat, but when barely anything came out, I cleared my voice. When I tried to speak again, I couldn't.

"Sloane," Siddiq said in surprise when he came over to me. He hadn't noticed my appearance yet. "What happened?" he asked as he examined my throat. It must have been red from the man's hands strangling my neck. Siddiq's eyes then went to my arm.

"She dislocated it I think. I popped it back in," Daryl said to Siddiq who started to look at it.

"I think you're right. How'd you know what to do?" he asked.

Daryl shrugged. "Experience," he said vaguely.

My shoulder was still hurting, but the pain was much more manageable since it was in a sling Daryl had made and I didn't have to move it. Standing up and trying to support my weight, it was my back that was killing me.

"My back," I whispered, since nothing was coming out when I used my full voice. Whispering seemed easier on my throat.

Siddiq walked around behind me and slowly lifted my shirt up, eamining my back. I kept my eyes on Daryl the whole time, who stood by me for support. Siddiq gently touched a few spots on my back, and I winced.

"You bruised your back pretty good," Siddiq said as he put my shirt back down. "I won't be able to do much until we get you back to the infirmary and I can examine you properly," he said and came back around to look at my throat again. His eyebrows pulled together. "Try not to speak much until I can examine your throat and see if thee's any damage." I nodded my head.

Right then, Gabriel came running back. "I found keys," he said as he started clicking them until a car sounded. Once they were unlocked, we loaded them up with our supplies and weapons and then left as soon as possible. When we passed our cars we had left on the side of the road yesterday before we walked the rest of the way, we pulled over and a few people got out to drive those cars cack. I expected Daryl to jump out to drive his motorcycle back but he stayed right beside me in the backseat.

"Gabe!" Daryl hollered out the window. Gabriel turned and looked at him. Daryl threw his keys to Gabriel who caught them and then stared at Daryl in shock. Gabriel nodded his head and then went to Daryl's bike.

The rest of the drive back I kept trying to adjust myself, but there was no use; There was no comfortable way to sit in this car without hurting my back.

After a while, we pulled up just outside of Alexandria and the gates opened for us. Daryl opened the car door and helped me out. Siddiq rushed Aaron to the infirmary to treat his gun wound on his shoulder and said he would come to me right after. I was just glad to be back and grateful that Aaron was going to be okay. Luckily, we pulled it all off and everyone was okay, and we were back home. My heart sank at the thought that now we knew we were going to have to defend our home from those people who wanted to take it from us. I didn't know if we would be as lucky as we were today. Daryl walked right beside me and helped me as I slowly made my way in through the gates.

I stopped in my tracks when we got inside the gates. I saw Glenn and Maggie, and a bunch of other people from the Hilltop waiting for us. Then I saw Carol. That was when I knew they had gotten our message. They were here to help us defend our home.