6x02; 6x03
JSS; Thank you
No, PLEASE!
Nora felt a hand on her shoulder making her jump and yelp squirming away.
"It's me, it's me."
The younger child relaxed when she heard her sister's voice. "They—they killed Mrs and Mr—"
"What?"
Nora didn't repeat what she had begun to say, replaying the frantic screams of the elder couple that had been on the porch before being slaughtered by a giant man with a machete.
She saw her sister's eyes water ever so slightly before they returned to a nonchalant expression. "Look, we need to get out of here."
"What?" Now it was her turn to say the word.
"We've been talking about this for days."
"You have."
"It's not safe here anymore."
"It's not safe—" Nora halted when more screams followed, "out there either," she protested as her sister brought her close for reassurance.
The day had been quieter, without a considerable group leading a herd away from Alexandria. But the community wasn't too loud on a daily basis, the day had seemed like any other until screams of pain and fear took over the place.
Nora had seen one of the attackers in the window of her room before hearing the screams right outside her house. She'd seen the marriage that had welcomed her and her sister into the house being murdered before running outside, right before hearing footsteps enter the home.
It was a good thing she was good at jumping down floors, otherwise, she wouldn't have managed to jump out the window and get out of the house without being seen.
"Look, we can't let them get these," she showed her sister a bunch of keys. "So we'll get them to someone but then we're out. We need to get our bags from the other house." The bags they'd packed to make a quick run if they ever had to. Those were at one of the empty houses, three streets down.
"What about the others?" the younger sister held back the urge to protest with other matters. They were hidden from sight, but the yells were still in the background. They squatted further down hidden by the bushes when someone with a weapon passed.
"I don't think there'll be any others, Nora... Look we need to stay together. Survive. Remember? JSS. But everyone else...something always happens," Enid said to her.
They couldn't afford to get attached and lose people.
─────✦─────
Carl straightened holding his Colt rifle in his hands when he heard the door being opened. The sound seemed to be from the keyhole. He remained in the wall waiting for the door to open before aiming his weapon at the intruder.
His shoulders slumped and he sent an incredulous look at the visitors.
"Hi," Enid said puzzled at his behaviour as if the place wasn't being currently attacked. Nora, who he knew to be her sister but never talked to before, was next to her silent, deep in thought with a conflicted and sad look.
Carl had seen her talking to his sister though. He'd heard her and Daryl talk about the kid as well.
"Why didn't you just knock?" he asked Enid obviously as he closed the door from the kitchen.
"I have these," she showed him a full key ring. "Didn't want them to have them," she dropped the item into his hand. "And I wanted to say goodbye."
Nora snapped out of her daydream, which was rather hellish as she replayed the recent deaths, staring at her sister with a snarky look.
Why did she get to say goodbye?
And why are we here? I thought she was dating Ron. She thought of the boy with slight annoyance as she'd never liked him, nor his younger brother who was around her age. Not because they were bad, but because even though they seemed to be around the same age, their minds couldn't have a bigger gap.
They were just too naïve and wanted to stay that way.
For Nora, who'd already seen too much, that seemed dumb and ridiculous. Pretending.
"Okay, watch the back door," Carl told her dismissing Enid's last comment, not addressing the fact that both sisters had backpacks on them. "Tell me if you see them coming."
"We're not staying," Enid protested.
Carl turned around facing away from the main door. "You're not going anywhere. Sit down. You're helping me protect Judith," he told her. Carol had been with him until the attack when she told him to stay inside protecting his sister. "You can go with my sister if you want, she's upstairs," he told Nora but the kid shook her head standing close to her sister. He nodded. "Then you two stay here. They're not getting inside this house," he stated sitting down on the floor as Enid followed. "We're not gonna let them."
Enid and Carl sat back-to-back each facing a different area of the house. His hair reached his shoulders, but it didn't match her long straight locks that reached at least until the middle of her back.
Nora remained standing not able to sit down because of how tense she was. She stared at the Grimes' rifle wishing she also had a gun. She wasn't allowed to carry one because she was underage. At least she didn't have to hide her knife anymore.
"Did you see them?" Carl asked.
"They're just people," Enid responded. "This place is too big to protect. There are too many blind spots. That's how we were able to—"
"They got in the walls, but they're gonna die," Carl interjected. "All of them... Don't tell me goodbye."
Nora watched her sister in silence. Through her hardened expression, she could make out the sadness in her eyes.
If she was sad about leaving, why did they have to leave? Did she really believe they'd be better off by themselves?
"Okay," Enid said finally. "I won't."
Nora decided to briefly go upstairs to see Judith, feeling slightly uncomfortable at the scene.
Besides, maybe that would be as close as she would get to a goodbye, even if Judith wasn't the Grimes she wanted to see, and certainly not the man she would've liked to say goodbye to either. Even if he didn't seem to like her much. Even if she thought the woman was only paying attention to her because she was concerned for a rebel kid.
─────✦─────
Grace watched the body fall right after she'd pressed the trigger to her pistol. She ran over to the woman next to it who was withering as she cried in pain. "Shh...hey, it's gonna be okay, alright?" she told her. "We'll get to the infirmary, Olivia is going to check you out, and you'll be fine."
The woman's lips trembled as she tried to listen to Grace, who she'd never spoken to before but knew because she'd come along with Rick.
"Okay?" Grace asked.
"O—okay," she answered before she held back a scream when the woman strapped her upper layer, a blouse, around her slashed stomach.
At least she wasn't hurt with a spike through her body, she'd seen that happen to two fellow residents.
Grace helped the woman up with surprising strength. They turned their heads quickly when there was a short tremor followed by a loud crash and horn. They thought the sound would be over soon, but it kept going.
"W—what's happening?"
"I don't know. It doesn't matter, try to walk."
─────✦─────
"Try again," Glenn told Rick as they ran.
"Tobin, it's not stopping. Light it up. You hear me?" They only heard static. "Tobin!" A walker snarled and Rick called Michonne.
"Got it."
Liz lead the team running up the forest. She could still hear everyone talking, they weren't keeping a distance anymore. The only ones far away were Tobin and his small group who they weren't receiving any information from.
It was her. Then Rick, Michonne, Glenn and Theo. Several steps back, trying to keep up, were Heath, Nicholas and six others.
"Shit. Shit. It was half. Jesus, it was more than half," one of the Alexandrians, Sturgess, said panicked.
"We just gotta stay ahead of them," a woman, Annie, told him. "They walk, we run."
"Rick!" Daryl spoke through the walkie making Liz slow down briefly before going back to her previous pace.
"I'm here."
"What's going on back there?"
"Half of them broke off. They're going toward Alexandria."
"Towards you?" Abraham asked on the line too.
"We ran ahead. There's a horn or something. Loud, coming from the east," Rick informed. "It's not stopping."
"I'm gonna gas it up, turn back," said the Dixon.
"We have it. You keep going," Rick shot down.
"They're gonna need our help."
"Gotta keep the herd moving."
"Not if it's going down, we don't," Daryl protested.
"The rest of that herd turns around, the bad back there gets worse," Rick remarked. "Daryl?" he asked once the man didn't respond.
"Yeah, I heard you."
Liz glanced back briefly then continued facing forward. She recalled once they met the rest. Her dad had returned with Michonne and Theo who'd been part of his group. They learnt that Morgan had been sent back home to tell them the news of what had been happening. And to see if there was anything wrong. There was a chance that the horn didn't come from back home, and they seriously hoped it was the truth.
Either way. They had to handle the disaster they were currently in and tried to move the herd back. However, there were already distracted and without enough flares or ammo, all they could do was run.
"Nicholas," Glenn called the man who'd frozen on his spot. He snapped out of his trance at the call from the Rhee.
There was a high-pitched scream and an exclamation. Everyone slowed down their pace or stopped moving.
"You okay?" asked Glenn.
"It's my ankle," Annie told him.
"Alright, come on. Grab on," he said helping her up. "Let's go. Come on."
The group resumed their running. "It's coming from back home," Heath said not following the group. Michonne and Theo stopped. "It has to be."
"He did this," Barnes, who had also stayed behind, pointed out angrily, although there was mostly fear in him. "He brought us all out here to die. He killed Carter—"
"Carter was dead already," Michonne told him defensively.
"Now they're in trouble back there and we're done," he went on. "We're good as dead."
"Hey, calm down," Michonne whispered firmly.
"What the hell are you talking about?" he shot back.
"Dude—"
"We are done. And it's 'cause of him."
"Shut up and move," Michonne gestured.
"We're all worried, alright?" Theo expressed thinking about his own fears. "But this is no one's fault. Come on."
─────✦─────
Grace carried the woman as fast as she could. The hairs on her back stood and she tensed, her muscles already aching. "Stay up." She let her go before doing a half spin with her gun back in her hands.
She shot the upcoming person that was trying to attack them. She aimed her gun at the woman that was charging but she was shot by someone else.
"Oh thank God," Grace whispered as she saw Rosita followed by Aaron. She quickly grabbed the woman again —she didn't know her name— and put her hand around her shoulders whilst she held her bleeding wound. "I need you to help her get her to Olivia."
Aaron moved to the other side of the woman, putting the bloody arm around him.
"We just came from there. Holly was hurt," Rosita told her. Her surprise lasted barely a second as she thought of the woman that had relieved her from her post. "I'll cover you."
"Someone needs to get to the armoury," Grace said. "I don't think they have guns," she told them. "The last thing we need is these assholes getting to ours."
They'd already caused enough trouble as it was. In less than fifteen minutes, perhaps ten. She didn't know how much it'd been.
"We can get her there," Aaron said to Rosita. "You go."
Rosita looked at them and Grace nodded encouragingly— or rather pressuring. "Have you seen Tara? Maggie? Carol? Carl? Or Eugene?" she asked Aaron about the people she was concerned about. She had been at the pantry right after her shift ended when all hell broke loose, she hadn't seen anyone.
"Tara and Eugene are at the infirmary, I don't know about the others," he answered as they jogged practically making the woman between them soar over the ground. He glanced briefly at both women. One growing paler by the second, the other with splashes of blood on her face making her hair stick to it, her clothes stained similarly.
Grace sighed relieved once the horn stopped.
Her brother had been her main concern ever since he left for the dry run. Her worry deepened as she realised that the horn had probably attracted walkers from the herd after being drawn by it for minutes. Maybe it had been set free.
She only hoped her brother was okay.
─────✦─────
Liz kept moving until her dad called her and she stopped. They waited for the others to catch up. Michonne was the last of them to join.
"Alright, listen up," Rick told them with his rifle strapped to his back. "Here's the new plan. I go back, get the RV, circle around the woods on Redding. I'll get in front of them before they get there. I can lead them away again."
"By yourself?" Liz asked bewildered, but her tone sounded accusive.
"RV's a mile back," David pointed out. "I can go with ya.'"
"I'll handle it," he told them. "Just get home. They might need you there. Glenn, Michonne, Theo...Liz." They moved away from the others as he continued speaking. "If something's in front of you, you kill it. No hiding, no waiting. You keep going."
"I'm going with you," Glenn said. "You can't do this on your own."
"Glenn, I can do this—"
"Man, you can't think about doing this on your own."
"You're not going by yourself," Liz declared.
"Liz—"
"No," she objected.
"You need to help me," Michonne whispered. "We've got to get these people back."
"And you will get help," Liz remarked. "They can go," she nodded at Glenn and Theo who were trying to persuade her dad. "I'm going with you," stated to her father. "The three of them can handle taking everyone else back, leading the herd away is not a one-man job," she remarked.
"She's gotta point. We can handle things," Theo supported. "One of us can go with you, the rest of us get everyone back."
Liz didn't remove her eyes from her dad who decided not to protest again knowing they wouldn't get anywhere that she didn't want. She was silently telling him that the person that would go with him was her.
"Yeah. Thing is, they aren't all gonna make it," he told them addressing a different matter.
"Rick—" Michonne complained looking at him in reprimand at his matter-of-fact and almost careless tone.
"You try to save them, you try, but they can't keep up, you keep going. You have to." Glenn, Theo, Michonne and Liz started at him pointedly. "You make sure you get back."
A scream made them run finding Barnes on the ground getting bitten on the neck. No one from the group was with him, he was alone seeing as the others arrived with them.
Perhaps he was trying to run away.
Michonne killed the walker with her katana.
The ones that weren't part of the group of five, stared at the man in fear and shock. The former held discouraged, gloomy expressions with the exception of Rick who looked rather bored as if he knew this might happen. It left a lot to interpretation...or perhaps it was the opposite.
Michonne pierced the dead man's head with her katana and like a switch, the sound that had been following them constantly stopped.
"The horn stopped. Good."
He rounded the corpse taking out its knife and gun. The people who didn't know him well, stared at him cryptically, slightly unnerved. Particularly Scott and Heath, the ones in Alexandria other than Rick's group with more experience since they went on runs as well.
Rick looked up. "Get back safe."
─────✦─────
When she heard the door open, Nora went downstairs quickly in panic as she held a gun she'd found in the house lingering around making sure Judith was okay first.
Here the people had left them in different spots in case they needed to be grabbed in a hurry.
She relaxed only so slightly when she saw that her sister was fine. Carl had just shot one of the attackers at the distance. Nora realised that Ron was close to him, so the Grimes had probably just saved him from getting killed.
Carl walked closer to Ron and the man as she remained close to Enid who stayed on the porch of the house.
The man held his leg as he begged desperately. "Please," he wheezed. "Please don't kill me!" Carl stared at him carefully with shock holding his gun. It felt like a lifetime ago since he had needed to do something like that. Since they'd been in danger because other people attacked them. "Please, help me, please. My leg."
Carl glanced at Ron who didn't look thankful in the slightest, rather distrustful, but also shocked. Then he focused on the man again.
He had gotten too close though and he grabbed his leg and reached for his gun. Carl struggled trying to move away. After a couple of jerks from his legs, he managed to kick the man back before shooting him.
Ron stared at him panting and breathing heavily. Out of fear, surprise...anger perhaps.
"Come inside," Carl said without looking at him. He was staring at the dead body with a 'W' on his forehead shocked, reassuring himself that he had done what he had to do. "I can keep you safe."
He could keep people safe. He could.
Ron glanced away from him when Carl looked at him. He stared at the house where his girlfriend and her sister were, clenching his jaw.
He glared at Carl.
"No."
"Ron," Carl called as the boy ran away.
"Carl, come on!" Enid yelled at him so he would get back inside. Once he was running, she realised what her sister was holding. "Where did you get that?"
Nora shrugged. "It was in the house."
The kids went back, hoping that the screams would be over soon. So they wouldn't have to worry about someone barging inside and attempting to kill them.
─────✦─────
"Listen," Theo spoke as Glenn checked a car was working and Michonne was near them, "about what Rick said...we're not seriously thinking about considering it, right?"
They weren't doing so well. The group had reduced to one less person after Sturgess ran away. Aside from Annie, Scott was hurt too by a gunshot to the ankle. A bullet that was meant to go to a walker shot by the man who ran away scared. And the worst of all, David had been bitten, so technically, there were two people short. He was already dead.
They were slowing them down, but he couldn't bare the thought of leaving them behind. It was wrong.
Glenn came out of the car and put his hands on the open door. "I need to get home," he began in a hushed tone so the others wouldn't hear, "but I'm not leaving them behind," he nodded at Theo. "We patch Scott up, we get going."
Michonne glanced at them thoughtfully, softly. "Rick knows what he knows. But... we're ahead of the herd. Maybe half an hour now. We can stop. We can make it."
They shared an understanding look, glad to be on the same page.
None of the cars turned out to work, so they were stuck walking. The town they had arrived at though was in the middle of their way home, so there was that.
As they walked trying to find a place to patch up Scott before he lost more blood, they found the body of Sturgess being eaten by a small herd. The group of walkers connected to a bigger group which prevented them from crossing.
They ended up settling for the meantime in a pet shop. Dead animals were in the cages still, their decaying bodies were even bones now in some cases. The smell was bad, and the place was dirty, but there would be things to treat Scott.
"We stay quiet, patch Scott and Annie up, get out of here," Michonne said not raising her voice.
"Those walkers in the alley and down the street, they're blocking the way out of town," Heath observed.
"Let's take care of what we can first," Theo mentioned looking at the others around the place.
"We can't take 'em on, not in the shape that we're in," Michonne stated. "We'll have to lead them away if we have to."
"Because that's been working well lately," Heath pointed out sarcastically.
"We're trying here," Michonne retorted. "We're not giving up."
Heath, who had heard their conversation with Rick and was no longer trusting them fully, said, "Yeah, not yet."
Michonne and Theo started at him confused before Glenn and Nicholas approached them.
"Hey, I was thinking," Glenn started, "if we can find a way to distract the herd coming in, then they won't make it back to the community."
"How?" asked Heath while they talked in whispers and murmurs.
"Burn one of the buildings," Glenn said as he showed them the only flare gun in their possession. "Hopefully more. They'll get drawn to it and they'll stop here."
"It's gonna take some time," Heath told him.
"I'll do it," Michonne volunteered. "You stay with them."
Theo sighed as once again someone decided to take things on their own. "Alone? I'll go with you."
"It's my plan," Glenn said grimly but surely. "It's on me."
"You have a wife, Glenn," Michonne remarked. "And you have a sister," she added looking at Theo.
"That's why I'm doing this," Glenn responded. "You gotta get everybody back. Both of you. You're the ones who can." Michonne and Theo looked at him doubtfully. "If I take too long, you just go."
"We're not leaving you, man," Theo told him at the same time Michonne said, "We're not leaving without you. That is not the way this works."
"I will meet you there," Glenn reassured them. "If I get stuck out here, I'll find some way to show you guys I'm okay. We all have a job to do."
Downcast, with troubled eyes, Nicholas said, "There's a feed store. It's old. A lot of dry stuff inside. It should go up easy. I'll go with you." Glenn looked at him silently. "I can—I can draw a map."
"No. You lead the way," he said. "Just gotta do one thing first."
─────✦─────
"Rick, Liz, it's Glenn."
The father and daughter slowed down walking fast down the road. There were three walkers feeding off a body.
We're in a town five degrees east of the green marker. If you get around on Redding in the next 20 minutes, you should be good.
Instead of risking the walkers following them, they walked up to them. Her dad moved to one with his pocket knife. He managed to kill it but once he tried pulling back the weapon, it broke.
I think that's how far we're ahead of the herd.
Liz took out her hunting knife stabbing one in the head. She would make sure to clean it later so it would be safe to use during a hunt.
I'm gonna try to set a fire and distract them. If you don't see smoke, they're still coming your way.
The other launched towards Rick and he grabbed the blade inside the one he'd just killed. He miscalculated and instead of grabbing the handle of the machete, he grabbed the blade. He managed to kill the walker but sliced his hand in the process.
I got to go.
She stared at her dad observing his bloody hand.
Good luck, Liz, dumbass.
She stared at the body the walkers had been feeding from absentmindedly. It was one of the Alexandrians, but she was thinking back to when Glenn had described his first encounter with her dad. I called him a dumbass...He'd shot a gun in the middle of a giant herd and hid inside a tank surrounded by walkers... it felt like the right thing to say.
As she did so, she bend down and stabbed the man in the head before it turned into something else.
Her dad panted as he knelt to take out the weapons of the man, as well as the bag he was carrying.
"You okay?" she asked seeing him breathe heavily.
She ripped part of her flannel as she took it off, deciding to stay in her shirt. She handed the cleaner side to him.
He nodded appreciatingly receiving the item. "Yeah," he stood up wrapping his hand in it. "Let's keep going."
─────✦─────
Grace was glad to know no one she cared about was dead.
She had managed to save some people. Right before the attackers who named themselves Wolves killed them, or when they tried to finish the job. But she was disappointed to hear that neither Holly nor the woman she'd carried back to the infirmary, whose name turned out to be Stacy, survived.
They had been at least fifteen deaths, but she was sure there were more because the people who were checking on the dead hadn't been through places with bodies she had been it yet. Those were at least four more.
She felt bad about them. Still, she couldn't help but thank above that no one from her own family had been part of those dead bodies.
"What happened today, that's what it's like out there?" she heard Spencer ask Rosita.
They were walking in a group with Maggie and Deanna, all of them checking the gate in case something needed to be taken care of.
"Pretty much."
"How do you—how do you just live knowing that's the world?"
A faint humourless chuckle escaped Grace as she walked forward, but she still managed to hear Rosita.
"This group, Abraham, and this place... Make sure you got something worth dying for."
Maggie walked to a burned walker that used to be a member of Alexandria. Grace looked around to see if there was another. Deep down she hoped about finding someone alive, even if she was sure that the ones they found were the only ones there would be.
"We're still here," Maggie told Deanna as she stared hopelessly at the burned walker.
"Not all of us."
"But we still are," Grace remarked to her going up to the tower to keep watch. Life went on and they needed to keep pushing.
It wasn't much, but she would at least start by making sure the place regained its protection.
─────✦─────
"You know how to treat gunshots?" Scott asked Theo after he'd explained what would need to be done. He would've been able to do it if they'd found the right equipment, but all they had were bandages. Glenn and Nicholas had already left minutes ago.
Theo felt the tags inside his shirt. It was rare that they were tucked in, as he generally had them outside. "I was in the Army," he said. "I know a thing or two," he smirked. "Don't worry, you're taking it really well. First time I was shot, I might have cried."
Scott laughed weakly, not in the mood to laugh but thankful for the attempt. Especially considering the man was probably worried more than them about what was happening back home, which added to their concern about the ones far from it. "I don't believe it."
Theo chuckled. "I said might have, didn't I?"
"Annie, I'm gonna figure out a crutch for you," Heath said once Michonne finished wrapping her ankle.
"Just leave me," the woman told them.
"What?"
"I'm slowing you down. We're gonna hit more roamers. It's that simple. Leave me."
"Leave us," Scott said.
"No," Heath protested.
"It's stupid for you guys to wait on me. We'll all go down. Come on, man, wake up. You don't want to do it now, you do it out there," he tried convincing bleakly. "We get into trouble again, you run. And you don't look back."
"No, if we go, we go together. We got each other's backs just like always," Heath told him and Annie. "Okay? We don't leave people behind. Not us."
He directed the last part at Michonne and Theo and the duo looked at each other before squinting their eyes at him. What was that supposed to mean? Theo was the one who looked less accusative and rather curious. Michonne stared at him with a less readable face.
"No one is leaving anyone behind," she stated.
"I'm gonna find something for you, Annie."
Theo followed him into the back of the shop. "Hey, look," he caught up to him. "Whatever is going on, please let it go. We need to work together," the Middleton twin observed. "We have to trust each other if we want this to work."
Heath glared at him defensively. "Hey," Michonne reached them before he could respond. "Do you have a problem with us?" she asked directly.
"I'm just looking out for my people," Heath told them.
"And you think that we're not?" she asked offended.
"Look, I heard what Rick said," Heath confessed no longer searching the store choosing to stare at them.
"Which part?" Michonne shot back.
"How they wouldn't all make it. 'They' meaning 'us' and not 'you'." Michonne and Theo sighed. "How you should leave us behind if we can't keep up."
Instead of looking offended or ashamed, Michonne stated, "Glenn is out there risking his life for you and for everyone else and we're still here, so I don't know what the hell you're talking about." She stared him in the eye.
"Things are gonna get worse and then we'll see," Heath challenged knowingly.
"Yeah, we will."
"With all due respect, dude. You don't know us," Theo told him. "And Rick's not here, we are. And we want to get them back home, just as you do."
"Rick said what he said because sometimes you don't have a choice," Michonne added.
"That is not how we do it," Heath shot frustrated and angry.
"Because you've never had to do it any other way," Michonne whispered back harshly. Heath scoffed. "You haven't been through it, not really."
"Michonne—"
"Not like Rick," Michonne ignored Heath's interruption. "Rick was out there. I was out there. Theo was out there. We know, you don't. But if you don't learn, you will die, we will."
"I've been doing runs from the start, okay?" Heath fought. "I know what it's like."
"Do you?" Theo asked calmly. "Doing a run is not the same as living out there."
"Have you ever had to kill people because they had already killed your friends and were coming for you next?" Michonne asked firmly. "Have you ever done things that made you feel afraid of yourself afterward? Have you ever been covered in so much blood that you didn't know if it was yours or walkers' or your friends'? Huh?" she became harsher as she went on.
Theo watched silently, but his mind was somewhere else. Unlike most people, he'd lived the horrors of war before walkers took over the world. The dead beings were one thing, but he'd already come close to human monstrosity.
Heath didn't say anything. "Then you don't know."
But he would. Maybe not as well as them, but once they had to run away because the herd was nearing the shop, once they would lose Annie and David who would sacrifice themselves for them...
Then he would have a glimpse of what being out there was truly like.
─────✦─────
Rick and Liz reached the construction wall were dozens and dozens of walkers laying on the floor. They ran next to them going up a small hill to reach the RV that was on the other side. Liz jumped over the wall with struggle, it took her a lot of strength to prop herself up even though her dad was helping.
She was the fastest of the group, but she'd never considered herself to be durable.
They had been running for minutes and minutes. What? Half an hour maybe? Perhaps more.
They entered the vehicle and Liz sat on the driver's seat before her dad so he wouldn't argue with her. She found the keys and turned on the car hurriedly.
She went faster than she'd ever driven a car before. Until they reached the spot.
"Glenn, we're in place by my best guess," Rick said through the walkie-talkie. "You guys make it back yet?"
The weight that was leaving Liz as she rested her head on the wheel came back when they didn't have a response, just static. It was hissing at them as if it mocking them for being so trusting. She straightened looking at her dad.
"Glenn," he repeated.
He didn't answer. Liz looked ahead of them. No smoke. Something had gone wrong. Her concern grew as if it wasn't enough to be worrying about her siblings and everyone back home.
"Tobin, you there?" Same response, or lack of it. "Daryl?"
Her heart stopped at the static, but quickly there was a click and his voice came through. She sighed leaning back on the seat. At least things seemed to be going like there were supposed to for him.
"I'm here."
"Won't be long now," he told him. "They're almost here. I'll get them going your way again."
"How 'bout that, Daryl? He's gonna be coming our way," Sasha said. The knowing and scolding tone in her voice made her look at the walkie as if that way she would be seeing and communicating with Daryl.
She extended her arm and Rick passed her the object. "Daryl," she spoke pressing a button, "just stay where you are, okay? Were you're supposed to be," she emphasized. "We'll handle things back here. We all have jobs to do."
He said nothing, but she was sure that he listened. She didn't know what had happened, but she hoped that he stuck to his part of the plan, which was vital.
There were distant gunshots and she handed over the walkie to her dad. "There's gunfire coming from back home." At least he thought it was coming from back home. There was the possibility it was from the other group. "We gotta sit with it and hope they can handle it. I think they can. They have to. We keep going forward for them. Can't turn back 'cause we're afraid."
"We ain't afraid," Abraham said.
"This is for them. Going back now before it's done, that'd be for us," her dad remarked. "The herd has to be almost here."
"Here," Liz showed her dad a couple of tissues so she could get a look at his hand. He let her grab it and check the wound, knowing that she would insist otherwise. There was alcohol and she used that to clean it.
They were silent, both of them thinking about everything that was happening. They were fatigued, exhausted. But Rick felt grateful for his daughter's stubbornness because even if he didn't say, it felt nice not being alone.
That is until they were in danger.
The door to the RV opened and Liz barely had time to avoid to shots directed at her head. Her dad pulled her over to his side covering her as much as he could. With his other hand, he had been about to say something through the walkie before they got shot at. The walkie received a bullet when he moved Liz out of the way.
The gun clicked out of bullets and moved out of the seat tackling the blonde guy down. Another man entered the vehicle and grabbed him trying to pull him away.
Liz took out her knife before jumping on him and stabbing him in the neck. He let go of her dad and he had the chance to grab his Colt Python shooting at the other one. Once again he searched the dead bodies for weapons but ended up finding something worse.
An apple sauce jar in one of the men's pockets.
Rick stared at it breathing unevenly because of the exhaustion and the fear that seized him knowing that they had come from Alexandria. Liz clenched the seat in her hand trying to ground herself so she wouldn't get more anxious than she was. Her bloody nails dug deep into the surface.
Rick's breathing returned to normal as his eyes narrowed looking at the mirror. His mind set with alarm and caution again. There was a woman sneaking up on the car. It took him a few tries waving his hand but Liz saw him and he motioned her over to him, indicating her to be silent.
She glanced at him with a serious glare moving over to him, glancing at the place he was. Three people were caught in the mirror.
Rick grabbed his rifle quietly before doing the motions and shooting at the side of the car. Liz didn't have time to warn him that maybe it wasn't a good idea. What was currently a priority was their lives.
At the other side of the line, Daryl drove back with a clenched chest. Not getting an answer had worried him, but he knew he had a job to do. He knew what he was meant to do as he returned to Sasha and Abraham.
Rick got back to the car, resting his injured hand on the wheel. It was fully open now and they didn't have time to take care of it. He twisted the key, but instead of the engine turning on, it only sputtered.
He tried it again, clenching his hand.
He breathed rapidly and shakily as the car failed to turn on. The sound of growls and snarls reached them.
Liz could practically hear her heart beating, but as she heard what she knew was an approaching herd and the car didn't work, she could've cried.
"No, no, no," Rick glanced around panicked hitting the car barely able to speak. Liz put a hand against the side of her face as she sighed alarmed.
Several walkers made their way out of the woods to the road they were in.
"Shit."
━━━━━━･❪ ❁ ❫ ･━━━━━━
Sorry for the delay, but hopefully the longer chapter will make up for it. It baffles me how I can spend like three chapters on a single episode and then put two in one chapter like...c'mon
I wasn't planning originally to write so many POVs...but then I thought that the other OCs needed to have some spotlight and I liked the result. I love the twins sm 🥰
What are your thoughts on the characters?
Thank you for supporting the story, have a nice weekend!
Dedicated to dragon457