We're all down by the horde of Walkers, ready to do a dress rehearsal of the plan before tomorrow when we actually do the plan.
Rick stands before all of us on top of a truck, "I know this sounds insane," He booms. "But this is an insane world. We have to come for them before they come for us. It's that simple. This is where it all starts tomorrow."
I look past Rick and see hundreds of thousands of Walkers. All snarling and growling, trying desperately to get out of the confines of the trucks and rocks.
"Tobin gets in the truck, opens the exit and we're off. He hops out, catches up with his team at red, staying on the west side of the road."
There are multiple rendezvous, red, yellow, orange, and green, all signaled by balloons of that color. Everyone is assigned to meet at one of them at least.
"Daryl gets on his bike-" Rick's words are cut off by rumbling from behind him.
"You see that?" Sasha asks, pointing to one of the semi-trucks on the cliff.
When all of us look, a piece of rock breaks from under the semi-truck and it falls, slamming into the ground below.
"It's open!" Rick screams. "We gotta do this now! We're doin' this now!" He runs off the truck as all of us disperse quickly.
"Rick, I'll hit the tractor place." Glenn tells Rick quickly.
"Okay, who else?" He asks.
Glenn nods to me and I run with him to Heath. "We got to take them out or they'll distract the horde." Glenn says to Heath.
"I'm here, let me help." Nicholas says.
"No." Glenn and I both say at the same time.
"I'm here!" Nicholas yells again.
"Do everything we say!" Glenn asserts to Nicholas, motioning to Glenn and me.
Nicholas nods quickly "I will." He says and Glenn looks at me, "You sure you can do this with your hand?"
I cock my head to the side with an "Are you kidding me?" expression.
Glenn gets the hint and the four of us take off running to a car, trying to get to the tractor place as quickly as possible.
"Adrian!" Damien runs up to me before heading off with Scott and Annie. "Try not to beat Nicholas' ass, 'ight? We don't need you pissing off Glenn."
I scoff and nod, "I'll think about it."
Damien flashes me a grin before heading off again.
Glenn and Heath shoot two flares in the air quickly, looking back to check if there are any Walkers. We all run through an alleyway of cars before jumping into one and gunning it.
I'm in the passenger seat with Glenn in the driver's and Nicholas and Heath in the back.
I quickly open the dashboard and search quickly for Ibuprofen, Tylenol, literally any pain medication for the excruciating pain in my hand that I refuse to admit. I'm comfortable taking easy, shitty medication like that but any stronger medication I know it won't just be for the pain.
Glenn looks at me suspiciously but doesn't say anything.
"My hand feels like it's exploding, I'm just looking for- fuck yeah!" I exclaim, grabbing a half-empty bottle of Tylenol.
"I thought you said you were good to do this, even with your hand?" Glenn asks.
"I am. I'm right-handed, my left hand is basically useless. I'll be fine." I open a bottle of water and down three pills, washing it all down with lukewarm water.
Rick's voice comes from the walkie-talkie, "Glenn, you there yet?"
Glenn picks up the walkie-talkie, "Almost. We'll have it handled before they get here. And we'll meet you at yellow."
"Copy that." The walkie-talkie then shuts off and Glenn sets it down.
I lean the seat all the way back, practically crushing Nicholas. "Hey! I'm behind you!" He squeals as my seat crushes his legs.
"Whoops," I say, flatly. "Damn. Anyway," I reposition to where I'm more comfortable and I look at Heath. "Did you find any Sour Cream and Onion Pringles on your run?"
He looks at me confusedly, "What?"
"Did you...find...any...Sour...Cream...and Onion...Pringles?"
"Uh..." Heath looks around as if asking for a response. "I think so."
"Sick." I smirk, looking away from Heath.
"We're here." Glenn says, parking the car outside of the tractor shop.
I sit my seat up so Nicholas can get out and I climb out, checking to make sure my gun is loaded.
"Glenn, you have to hurry. The noise could distract them right off the road. Talk to me." Rick's voice comes on the walkie-talkie again as we're running to the store.
"We're here." Glenn says.
We round a few tractors and run up to the windows. There are tens of Walkers inside, slamming on the windows, growling, making as much noise as possible.
"Sounds like a lot." Nicholas queries.
"No, really?" I sass, Nicholas just looks at me but chooses the better idea of not saying anything.
"We need it quiet." Glenn says.
"So what's the plan?" Heath asks.
"Do it slowly." I decide.
Glenn nods, "Yeah. We take 'em out a few at a time." He picks up his backpack and begins walking to the front door.
Glenn tries it but quickly finds out that it's locked. He backs up, "Nicholas you're at the door."
"Alright." Nicholas complies, standing next to the door with his hand on the handle.
Glenn backs up and stands next to me and Heath.
"You let one or two out and then you close it. You keep doing that. That's the truck. That's how we control it. Heath-"
"Wait. what if he can't close it?" Heath interrupts Glenn.
"I'll be able to." Nicholas assures Heath.
"Then we take them on-" Glenn tries to continue.
"Take them on?" Heath's words are exasperated like we just said he was the distraction.
"Yes. If that doesn't work you'll be the bait if you don't shut the fuck up." I grunt through gritted teeth.
"Adrian." Glenn warns. "If we get into trouble, we go behind the building into the woods and we draw them away."
"Hey," Nicholas says from the door. "You've been out on runs since they got here. They're both smart, he knows what he's doing. Me and Aiden, we didn't."
"Wow! You're finally coming to your senses. Well whoop-di-do!"
"Adrian!" Glenn pleads.
"Sorry!"
"This was supposed to be a dress rehearsal." Heath complains, grabbing his knife and gun from their holsters.
"I'm supposed to be delivering pizzas, man." Glenn pants. "Daryl's leading them this way and they're closing in." I can tell by Glenn's voice he's starting to get irritated.
"That noise is gonna pull the herd right off the road and then we have serious trouble. We have to do this."
Heath thinks for a moment before standing ready, "Yeah, okay."
"Okay?" Glenn asks.
"Okay." Heath clarifies.
"Heath, if you think you're going to die, you will." I speak, cracking my whip.
Glenn walks up to the door and sticks his crowbar in it, Nicholas readjusts to have a better grip on the door.
It feels like the sound of the Walkers is growing louder, causing my nerves to jumpstart my entire system.
"On three, ready?" Nicholas nods at Glenn's words.
"One, two, three!" Glenn breaks the door lock and Nicholas swings it open.
We all brace for the Walkers to flow out but when they don't, it catches our attention.
When we all look, there's a metal garage door blocking the door.
I chuckle, "That's embarrassing for us."
"Shit!" Glenn curses.
"So...plan B? Why didn't we have one of those before?" I ask. I pause for a moment before saying, "I have an idea...you're not gonna like it."
"I'm not being bait." Heath says quickly.
"When did I say that? Because I don't think I-"
"The plan?" Glenn interrupts me.
"The windows."
Glenn thinks for a moment, racking through the pros and cons of my idea. "It's the best one we've got. Let's go." He runs to the side of the building we came from and stands before the windows.
Walkers continue banging loudly, blood smears on the windows, clouding our vision to see how many there are.
Nicholas squints his eyes to try and get a view of how many there are, "I think-I think there's something like a dozen in there." He decides.
"We stay back, we get on opposite ends, we draw them to each of us." Glenn orders.
"Try and take down four each?" Nicholas questions.
I scoff as Glenn says "No. This is just, Adrian, Heath, and me. You get back and you stay back." Glenn approaches Nicholas, handing him the walkie-talkie. "Things go south, you tell Rick and you draw them away."
Nicholas stands still and Glenn practically shoves him saying, "Just-move back!" Reluctantly, Nicholas walks away, giving us space to kill the Walkers.
"You ready?" Glenn asks, grabbing his gun.
"No. But since you're doin' this thing anyway..." Heath sighs.
Glenn looks to me, "Oh I'm always ready." I smirk, wrapping my whip up and grabbing my gun instead.
Glenn holds his gun up and shoots the glass, immediately shattering it. Walkers pour out of the windows, their heads getting blown open by our bullets.
My heart rate is surprisingly normal as I blast these Walker's heads open. This feels like a normal day to me.
As I shoot the Walkers, my gun clicks, signaling I'm out of bullets.
"Cock-sucker." I whisper, quickly dropping my gun and cracking my whip on a Walker's head just as it reaches for me.
Once the three Walkers in front of me are dead, I turn and see Glenn shoot a Walker who's trying to get Nicholas.
From the way Nicholas and Glenn stare at each other, I assume Nicholas came and saved Heath.
I crouch down and pick up my gun, putting it in my holster and wrapping my whip up.
A Walker stands up and Nicholas looks at Glenn for permission. Glenn nods, "Get it." Nicholas quickly walks over to the Walker and slams his knife into its head, causing it to drop to the ground.
"Alright, let's go." Glenn says. He picks up his bag and runs to the car, we all follow.
A few minutes later, we ditch the car and run to the woods, trying to catch up with Rick.
A whistle catches our attention and when we turn our heads to see who it is, we see Rick, Michonne, and Morgan approaching us.
Rick nods to us and we all begin walking together, meeting up with a few other people-including Carter.
The Walker parade walks past us on the road absent-mindedly, not aware of the group of people in the woods twenty feet away from them. Their growls no doubt causing other Walkers to come this way.
Damien scoots closer to me, "All four of you are still here."
I nod, "I thought about being nice, but ultimately decided against it."
Damien chuckles, "If you decided to be nice I would be worried." I smile but I don't have a chance to respond because I choose to eavesdrop on Carter and Rick's conversation.
"It's working," Carter whispers, turning to Rick. "You were right." He holds his hand out for Rick to shake, which he does.
"Everyone," Rick starts, turning to look at all of us. "We need to finish this. We have to keep moving and fan out down that thing front to back. Like we said, cops at a parade. Glenn, you take the back. You got the other walkie."
"Got it." Glenn nods.
"If it gets sloppy we fire our weapons, pull 'em back on track."
"I'll hit the front." Carter says.
"I'll go with 'im." I decide, knowing he's gonna fuck something up.
"Okay, one after the other." Rick orders.
I run with Carter, footsteps behind me tell me Rick, Michonne, and Morgan are all following us.
Fairly quickly, I lose sight of Carter, his cocky-ness causing him to bolt in front of me.
Suddenly, I hear a guttural scream of complete agony. The scream sounds like, "Carter." I whisper.
Damn it!
I begin speeding through the woods, trying to find Carter before he manages to get the other Walkers off track.
"Damn it!" I curse quietly.
I meet up with Rick, "Where's Carter?" He asks, running through the woods.
"I dunno! He ran off and I lost sight of 'im!"
"There!" Rick points to Carter being grabbed by a Walker that's stuck between two trees.. His cheek is being snacked on, causing his screams.
Rick quickly grabs Carter and slams him on the ground, I unsheathe my dagger and kill the Walker.
"Damn it, shut the fuck up!" I yell, crouching next to Carter.
"Oh, I'm dead!" He screams.
"Carter, take a breath." Rick whispers, trying to put his hand over Carter's mouth.
"Rick!" I yell, pointing to the approaching Walkers.
Carter continues screaming as Rick desperately tells him to stop.
"Damn it!" I yell, pulling his head to the side so Rick can stab him- which he does.
The screaming finally stops as gunfire sounds through the air. "It's working!" Tobin's voice says through the walkie-talkie. "The gunfire is bringing them back on the road."
You know, since I was with Carter when he ran off, normally I would blame myself. But I don't give two fucks about this man's death, I could do a backflip I'm so happy he's gone. He was a menace to Alexandria.
Morgan and Michonne stand behind Rick and I.
"You got 'em, Tobin." Rick praises Tobin.
"Copy that. What was that screaming?" Tobin asks.
"That was Carter. He got bit right in the face. I stopped him."
I look at Rick with a "What the fuck?" expression and Rick sighs and speaks into the walkie-talkie again. "Adrian and I." I smirk and nod, "That's better."
Rick stands up and grabs Carter's rifle. "We have a good hour until we have 'em to green when we hand 'em off to Daryl, Sasha, and Abraham. Why don't you head back, tell everyone what's happening? They should know. " Rick says to Morgan.
"Okay, Rick I just-" Morgan tries but Rick interrupts him.
"Will you do that for me?" Rick asks.
Morgan hesitates before nodding without a word. Rick nods and then points to an off-track Walker. "I'll take care of that one. Michonne and Adrian, you take point."
When Michonne and I stand next to Morgan, he says, "I know it's how it is. I do."
"Yeah," Michonne whispers. "I do, too." I decide not to say anything because as of right now, Morgan pisses me off so I know it's not going to be something nice.
Michonne and I walk off and Morgan's footsteps depart as well.
Rick catches up with us shortly, handing me Carter's rifle.
As we're walking along the edge of the woods, a horn blares loudly from a distance.
"Aw for fucks sake!" I groan. "What the fuck is that? Shit, we gotta go!" I yell as Walkers begin coming from the road.
All three of us run a few feet before hiding behind trees. Michonne's the first to speak, "Whatever that is, it's far. It sounds like it's coming from-"
"Home." Rick finishes her sentence. Without another word, we begin racing through the woods, the sound of the Walkers growing closer and closer to us.
My lungs turn cold as I begin to struggle to catch my breath from how much we're running.
God damn smoker lungs.
We catch up with Glenn and his group who are just as confused as us.
"Tobin, it's not stopping! Light it up!" Rick yells into the walkie-talkie. The only thing heard back is static.
"Michonne." Rick motions to the approaching Walker before running again. "Got it." Michonne says, slashing its face open with her katana.
As we're running, Daryl and Rick speak indistinctly through the walkie-talkie, I assume Daryl's trying to turn back.
Sweat drips down my forehead and my lip bleeds from me chewing on it out of anxiety.
Annie falls to the ground and twists her ankle, Glenn and I quickly help her up and I hand her to Glenn. He helps her continue to run with her arm wrapped around his neck.
"Nicholas." I warn. He looks at me and then nods, beginning to run.
"It's coming from back home. It has to be." Heath says.
"He did this." A man standing next to Heathe says. Michonne and I look at each other then at the man. "He brought us all out here to die. He killed Carter."
"Carter was dead already." Michonne sasses.
"You are aware if you can't amputate the Walker bite, you're dead, right?" I ask the man, showing my metal foot.
He ignores both Michonne and me, "Now they're in trouble back there and we're done. We're good as dead."
"Hey, calm down." Michonne whisper-yells.
I grab the man by the shirt, "Well us four are good as dead if you don't lower your voice and shut the fuck up!" I shove him angrily back.
"What the hell are you talking about?" He asks, straightening his shirt. "We are done. And it's 'cause of him."
"Want me to kill 'im? 'Cause I'm thinkin' 'bout it." I ask Michonne.
"No," She quickly looks at me and then at the man. "Now shut up and move. Come on."
The man hesitates but continues to run, Heath, Michonne, and I follow. "You're hot when you're mad." I smirk.
She scoffs and looks at me, "Thanks."
Once we catch up to the group, we're at the top of the hill.
Rick discusses the new plan with us, "Alright, listen up. 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 'em away again."
"RV's a mile back. I can go with you." A man standing next to Heath offers.
"I'll handle it. Just get home." Rick says. "They might need you there."
Alyssa.
"Glenn, Adrian, Michonne, Damien." Rick nods to the right and all four of us follow after him.
"If somethin's in front of you, you kill it." Rick orders. "No hiding, no waiting. You keep going."
"Comforting." I mumble. Damien snorts.
"I'm going with you. You can't do this on your own." Glenn tells Rick.
"Glenn, I can do this." Rick reassures Glenn.
Michonne says. "You've gotta help us. We've gotta get these people back."
Rick agrees, "Yeah. Thing is, they aren't all gonna make it."
I smirk at Rick's straightforwardness but bite my nail to hide it, Damien smirks too.
"Rick." Michonne spits.
"You try to save them, you try, but they can't keep up, you keep going." Rick pleads.
"Its one of us or all of us, Michonne." Damien says.
Rick nods, "Yeah. You have to. You make sure you get back." Rick's voice is hard as a rock with determination.
Hot flashes hit my body multiple times from the humidity, heat, lack of water, and running.
A man screams, immediately catching our attention, causing us to bolt through the woods.
There's a Walker wrapped around a man on the ground, trying to eat his throat out.
"Oh god!" The man screams in horror.
Rick quickly jumps into action, grabbing the Walker while Glenn grabs the man and Michonne kills the Walker.
When we look at the man gurgling and sobbing on the ground, his whole throat is open, spitting dark red blood.
"Ow." I whisper as he bleeds out.
"No shit." Damien whispers back.
Michonne kills the man as everyone else stares in horror.
Finally, we're surrounded by the silence of the rustling trees.
"The horn stopped. Good." Rick brings up the obvious. He takes the man's gear and looks at all of us, "Get back safe." He says, walking off.
Around twenty minutes later of us trekking through the woods, Glenn says, "We're ahead of it. Ten minutes. Twenty minutes maybe."
"We all keep up the pace, we all get back home." Michonne expresses.
"So if we don't, that's it, huh?" Heath asks.
"Oh god, don't start this shit." I groan.
"We don't even know what's waiting for us." A man says from behind me.
"It's gonna be okay. We have walls for a reason." Another man says.
"That sound. Maybe someone plowed right through. Maybe we're walking back to nothing." There's so much fear in this mans voice it's causing his voice to shake, I can tell it's freaking everyone else out as well.
"Shh, my wife's back there." Another man shushes the man angrily.
"Mine too." Glenn says as well.
I think for a moment, "What's y'all's favorite food? Ooh! And why? Nobody ever asks why people like their favorite food."
"What?" The same man from before asks.
"What's your favorite food?" I look back at him. I'm not good with comfort but I know distracting the mind is helpful, that's what I'm best at.
"Cheese curds. They're like...perfectly cheesy and crispy but not too crispy." Annie says from behind me.
I nod and look at her, "Those are fucking bomb. They're so good." I look at Heath, "My favorite food is Sour Cream and Onion Pringles. I dunno why. They just taste like before the fall I guess."
Damien snorts, "God you inhale those Pringles."
I smile, "It's the way to my heart."
A few people chuckle behind me, Damien leans closer to whisper something in my ear, "It's working."
I nod, "How about...least favorite food? I fucking hate mushrooms. The texture is weird and they're too mushy even though they look like they'd be cruchy. Oh, and I'm also like super allergic, that too."
"You're allergic to mushrooms?" Michonne asks.
I nod, "Like mega. Had to go to the hospital a few months before the fall because my grandma put mushrooms in the chicken noodle soup."
"I didn't know that." Glenn says, softly.
"I don't make it my whole personality." I look at Scott, who is walking next to Michonne. "Least favorite food?"
He thinks for a moment but doesn't get to reply because there's multiple Walkers in front of us.
"Stay here." Glenn whispers to the group. "Don't shoot unless you have to." He sets his backpack down and nods to Michonne, Damien, and I.
All four of us, as well as Heath, quickly run to the Walkers. There's a little over a dozen. I crack my whip, causing a Walker approaching Damien to get distracted and head my way. I crack my whip on the Walker's head then I hear gunshots and Scott groan in pain, on the ground.
"God fucking damn it!" I curse, killing another Walker.
"Sturgess!" Glenn yells as the man from before runs away.
"Let 'im fuckin' go! He wants to be a pussy, let 'im!" I yell, continuing to kill Wakers.
Once the Walker's surrounding Scott are dead, all of us surround him as he groans in pain on the ground, holding his leg.
"Want me to go after 'im? Can't promise I'll bring 'im back but I'll know where he went." I smirk.
"No." Michonne sighs she's an overworked mom and I'm a toddler who never shuts up.
It's quiet, minus the groaning of Scott, until a sudden Walker growls and takes a chunk out of another man's back, causing him to scream in pain.
He quickly kills it himself and Michonne runs to check his wound.
"This is a great trip." I mumble.
"I know what it means." He pants. "We gotta keep moving, right?"
I raise an eyebrow, "I like him." I whisper to Damien.
A few minutes later, we finally make it out of the woods and onto a deserted road. Glenn is helping Annie walk and Nicholas and Heath help Scott walk.
Damien and I walk behind the group.
"I'm worried about Alyssa." I say quietly to Damien.
"She's a badass. She'll be fine. She's got my lucky hat." He flashes me a grin.
I smirk, "I need to wash that damn thing. It smells like Daryl."
Damien winces, "Gross. I'll hold her down while you take it off her."
I nod, "Deal."
Glenn and everyone else talk about stopping someplace but because of the distance of Damien and I from the rest of the group, I can't hear exactly what they're saying.
A little less than an hour goes by and we finally make it to a broken down town with a plethora of cars just sitting there.
"We'll check the cars first. See if they can get us back." Michonne says.