after a few miles of driving, we decided to stop in the middle of the road, and decide what our next move was gonna be. beth and carl were on watch, lori stayed inside the car, and the rest of us gathered around the front of the hyundai to discuss what we were gonna do next.
maggie takes out the map and rolls it out onto the front of the hyundai. there were red marks all over the center of the map, little pointers, circles, x's. i was in between maggie and hershel.
"we got no place left to go." t-dog states the obvious. maggie points to the map, "when this herd meets with that one we'll be cut off. we'll never make it south."
daryl comes up next to lola, who was next to t-dog. "what'd you say? that it was about 150 head?" he asks. "that was last week, could be twice that by now." hershel points to the map, "this river could delay them. if we move fast, we might have a shot to tear right through here."
lola points at the map, "yeah but if this herd meets with that one they could spill out this way. we got no other way unless we double back."
i sigh in stress, "so we're blocked."
rick points at the map, "only thing left to do is double back at twenty-seven and swing towards greenville." lola scratches the back of her neck in confusion, "but rick we picked through that already? we basically spent the winter going in circles."
"yeah i know, i know. at newnan we'll push west. haven't been through there yet. we can't keep going house to house." he pauses and looks at lori, " 'need to find a place to hol' up for a few weeks." rick replies, referring to lori giving birth soon. maggie rolls up the map and puts it back in her bag. so i guess that's the plan.
"all right." t-dog agrees, "mind if we hit the creek before we head out? won't take long, we gotta fill up on water. we'll boil it later."
"can i come with? i'll bring my list and help measure out how much we'll need. i can help you fill up the cans too!" t-dog laughs at lola's excitement on helping out with the rationing, "yeah you can come, as long as it's alright with your ma'."
lola looks at me for permission, a pleading look in her eyes. she's with t-dog and carol, she'll be okay. i nod, "go ahead, baby. you're fine."
lola's smiles big, "okay! thanks mom."
i let out a laugh as i watch her skip off into the woods with carol and t-dog, who were holding the empty jugs and water bottles. "so what's with you and rick?"
i turn around and see my sister karleen, who was leaning against the truck with her arms crossed over her chest. i laugh, "what do you mean?"
she rolls her eyes, "i mean how he tried to talk to you at the house earlier and you completely shut him down. what's going on?"
i just shrug, "do you remember? at the campfire, the night everything happened? that speech rick made that if we wanted leave we could, and that we wouldn't get far? and he admitted to killing shane? and how he called him a monster and basically described him as a horrible person in front of lola? yeah, that. it just pissed me off. so i haven't had a conversation with him in months."
karleen raises an eyebrow, peeling her back off of the truck door, turning towards me, "damn, you're still mad about that? i was for a couple days until i decided to just make peace with it."
i nod, "i know. after sophia, after dale, lola was doing surprisingly alright. but after her father, she hasn't been the same. she can't go anywhere alone because she's scared she's gonna get attacked like dale did, with no one to save her in time. and if something were to happen to her, she didn't wanna die alone, like sophia did. overall she just has to be with someone at all times, because she's too scared."
karleen nods, "i know, i understand. but your girl, nik. she's strong. and she's helped out this group a lot. we all owe her."
i chuckle, "yeah, we do."
change of plans i guess, rick found a prison and for some reason he thinks it's a good place for us. i don't know, what if there's too many walkers to handle? it seemed stupid to me, sure a prison would have good resources and supplies but a home? a place to sleep at night everyday for the rest of our short lives? it just didn't seem like a place to settle in.
"nikki inside, now!"
i was snapped out of my daze by rick nudging me towards the hole in the fence he had just recently cut. i yank his arm away from me, giving him a scowl that he noticed. after i went through so did glenn and rick. walkers were on both sides of the fence. banging at it, clawing at it, trying to get to us, but we all just stayed in the middle.
after glenn was done sewing wire through the metal fence to make sure the walkers had no hole to crawl through. daryl led the run that we had to make to get to the main get that entranced the courtyard.
we all jogged at a steady pace so that everyone could keep up with each other, i ran with lola and hershel by side, while karleen ran up front with daryl. we all finally slowed down when we came to a gate, there was a prison bus flipped on its side in front of it, but easy to squeeze through. "it's perfect." rick says to us all, "if we can shut that gate, prevent more from filling the yard, we can take out these walkers. we can take the courtyard for tonight."
"okay, so what i'm getting is that we're gonna take out all of these walkers, right? using ammunition?" lola asks rick for confirmation. he nods in response.
she sighs, "alright, but if we do this, we're gonna be dangerously low on ammo, so hopefully we'll get lucky soon after this massacre."
"so how do we shut the gate?" hershel asks, changing the subject as he readjusted his pack on his shoulder. "i'll do it, you guys cover me." glenn speaks up. maggie shakes her head, "no, it's a suicide run."
"i'm the fastest." glenn adds.
"no, you, maggie, draw as many as you can over there. pop em' through the fence. daryl, nik, lola, go back to the other tower."
i grab lola by the hand and start running with her behind daryl to get to the other guard tower. when we get to it daryl raises his knife and opens the door. he cleared out any potential walkers and waved us in. carol joined us too.
when we get to the top i do a quick scan of our surroundings. it was beautiful. the serene view of the trees in the distance, feeling the breeze up here, i liked it. but when you looked down, it was just a mess of rotting corpses shuffling around with no point of reincarnation. "alright." daryl says as he loads an arrow in his crossbow, "start shootin' sum, keep 'em clear of rick."
i propped up the rifle on the metal railing for balance. when i took a quick look around i saw hershel and carl in the guard tower, and faint shouting coming from the others at the gate to distract as many walkers as they could.
with my gun, i started shooting walkers that were near rick. i spotted one coming up on rick's rear, i aimed at its head, and took action, pulling the trigger. the walkers were about to get him just as i did. the walker fell with a thud, and i started to reload my gun. rick looked up to see who had taken the shot, when he looked at myself he knew it was me, he gave me a 'thank you' nod. i just roll my eyes and prop the rifle back on the railing as rick continued to sprint towards the gate.
i heard someone fire a shot next to me, and suddenly rick abruptly stopped, giving one of us a 'seriously' look before he continued running. "sorry!" carol yelled out, and i couldn't help but chuckle.
quickly, rick finally got to the gate and closed it shut, and that's when he ran for the nearby tower next to him. "light it up!" daryl shouts to everyone, meaning start firing. bullets were flying all over the courtyard as we all started shooting the last of the walkers.
and before we knew it, we were done. "we aren't gonna have much ammo left." lola sighs, tucking her black glock back in between her hipbone and sweatpants.
when we got back to the front gate and met hershel, carl, and the others, everyone started smiling. "fantastic." carol sighs with a laugh. "nice shootin' little one." daryl says to lola, patting her shoulder, "you too nik." i smiled at and exchanged a quick 'thanks'.
"you okay?" carol asks lori, patting her shoulder for a quick second. "haven't felt this good in weeks." she replies. "good."
as soon as we enter from the gate carol starts laughing and spinning around, "oh! we haven't had this much space since we left the farm!" lola chuckles and starts jumping in circles, throwing her arms up in a theatrical way.
"whew!" me and karleen cheer together, both of us smiling like idiots. my heart didn't feel heavy, i felt great, as if a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. maybe this place could be good for us. who knows?
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!gif is of nikki when they're discussing where to go!