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"There you go! It's a small one but it'll do," Rick said, seeing the small rabbit caught in the snare. He put it in his bag and began showing us how a snare works. "So, this is just a simple slipknot. Tie one on both ends, then tighten one side to a branch." Rick then motions towards the ground that dipped in.
"Now, you see how the ground here is sort of like a funnel shape?" Rick asked, looking at me and Carl.
"It's a trail?" Carl guessed.
"That's right," Rick nodded. "That's where you want to set the noose. So you hide it with leaves. Then you put sticks all around it so any animals going by have to run this way. Right into the trap." Rick demonstrated it by pretending his hand was the rabbit.
"Help! Somebody help!" With one glance at Carl, I knew what he was gonna do. He jumped up and ran towards the voice, I followed.
"Carl. Aurora. Stop! Carl! Aurora!," Rick called after us.
"Help! Get away! Get back!" The screaming continued. There was a man surrounded by walkers. Carl aimed his gun and I aimed my knife. I resisted the urge to squeal when I was pulled back.
"We can't help him," Rick whispered. I watched with wide eyes as the man got his face ripped off.
"We gotta go," Michonne whispered urgently. Rick grabbed ahold of both mine and Carl's arms, yanking us away. We ran out onto the train tracks. We froze when we saw walkers eating a dead body ahead. rick took out his gun and ran towards them. He smashed a walker with the barrel of his gun, then one more. Michonne came up and stabbed another one. I threw my knife into the last walker.
"Let's go," Rick said. There was a small herd of walkers ganging up on us. As we ran past the smashed walkers, I ripped my knife out. Then we ran.
"Thought maybe there'd be some houses down this way. Maybe even a store," Michonne said. We had lost the walkers a little while back. I was glad we could run faster than them. "There's got to be some food around here somewhere.
"Hey, look," Carl nodded at a car ahead of us. Its back gate was open and the windshield was broken. Overall, it was abandoned and a good place to stop for the night.
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"You know, we never got to talk about our kiss," Carl said. We had been sent to sleep in the car but there wasn't much room. We cramped together on a seat. We were very close together. And I mean very close. I took a deep breath and looked up at Carl. I bit my lip, not knowing what to say.
"Yeah," I said, averting my eyes away from Carl's gaze. The car fell silent again. And it was an awkward silence. The worst kind of silence.
"Ror-" Carl didn't get to finish his sentence before there was a hand on the window. And a face. The man in the window smirked. And I don't think it was a walker. I looked at Carl with fear in my eyes. Nobody dared to move. I should've grabbed my knives, but this man had a gun. One-shot through the window, the next through our head. I looked through the other window and watched Daryl get beat up. Daryl was here but I wasn't sure he could save us.
"Come here," The fat man opened the car door and yanked us out.
"You leave them be," Rick warned angrily. Another man came over and grabbed my arm. I cried out. His grip was tight against my arm.
"You'll get yours. You just wait your turn." The only guy in the group I recognized was Len. I started to cry in fear.
"Listen, it was me. It was just me," Rick said carefully.
The leader leaned down, gun pressed to Rick's head, and said, "See, now that's right. That's not some damn lie. Look, we can settle this. We're reasonable men. First, we're gonna beat Daryl to death. Then we'll have the woman. Then the girl. Then the boy. Then I'm gonna shoot you and then we'll be square."
"Stop it!" I cried when Carl was shoved to the ground. The fat man sat on him.
"Hush it, little girl," the guy holding me warned.
"Let them go," Rick said, his voice low and dangerous.
"Leave him alone!" I sobbed, struggling against the man holding me.
"Stop it," the man warned. When I didn't stop, he turned me around and swung his fist. I fell to the floor with a throbbing pain in my cheek.
"Don't touch her!" Carl yelled, squirming against the fat guy.
"Stop your squirming," the fat guy said. Then he began to laugh, taking his jacket off.
"You don't touch him!" I screamed. The man hovering above me swung at me again. I felt my lip split open. I froze at the sound of a gunshot.
"I got him. Oh, it's gonna be so much worse now," the leader said. I turned my head just enough to see Rick get kicked in the stomach. I started to cry harder than before. I heard another gunshot before I reached into my pocket and pulled out my spare knife. I went to swing it at the guy on top of me but he caught my wrist.
"Nice knife," the man said. He took it from my shaking hand and held it against my throat. I was crying so hard I could barely hear or see my surroundings. But I could sure as heck see Rick bite a chunk out of the leader's neck. Rick then spit out the skin and blood.
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