Glenn saw them first. He was on his way back from a run with Spencer when something caused them to freeze in their tracks. Walkers. Hundreds of them, scratching at the walls of Alexandria – their rotting faces twisted into hungry grimaces as they attempted to break through the rafters. Glenn staggered backwards in shock, almost tripping over a rogue tree branch, and the noise caused a few walkers to turn and give him the once over.
"Nicholas?" Spencer was looking over Glenn's shoulder, towards the dilapidated shacks that lined the entrance to Alexandria. Glenn whipped around to see his worst fears confirmed – Nicholas had left the community again. Glenn was ready to shoot that guy in the forehead and leave him for the dead, but they had bigger things to worry about.
"Get up! Now!" Glenn began sprinting towards the shack, Spencer on his heels – and the walkers following closely behind. He hopped onto the fence that surrounded the shack and used a couple of rotten footholds to push himself up past the second floor and onto the roof. Spencer and Nicholas were clambering up behind him, but Spencer slipped on the final foothold and tumbled back down to the ground. The walkers surrounded, hungrily clawing at his jacket and attempting to reach some uncovered skin to chew on. After shooting a few of the closest, Glenn swung himself round, ready to leap down and rescue his comrade.
"Grab this!" Glenn almost fell off the roof in shock as Sasha rushed towards him, brandishing a rope. She hurled it down to Spencer and Glenn noticed she had the other end tied around her waist. Once Spencer had grabbed on, the three survivors heaved on the rope until he was high enough to yank himself onto the roof – shaken, but unhurt.
"Are you bitten?" Sasha asked pointedly, narrowing her eyes at Spencer. He shook his head as she untied the rope from her waist.
"How did you – " Glenn gestured to the roof of the shack, looking curiously at Sasha.
"I was in the bell tower when I saw you guys running over. Figured you might need some help. Lucky they keep a mountain of these things up in the tower." Sasha gestured to the rope, smiling weakly.
Glenn squinted to look over at Alexandria. From where he was standing he could see that the rafters had begun to give way – walkers were infiltrating the community.

Rick had been resting in his house with Jessie when he heard the cries for help. Rushing outside, he arrived just in time to see a herd of walkers burst through the wall. Residents were fighting furiously, but people were getting bitten nonetheless – and the undead outnumbered the living. Rick unsheathed his machete and was ready to head over and help when he spotted Michonne sprinting towards him, followed closely by Carl.
"Get inside! Turn the lights off!" Michonne ordered, dodging past Rick.
Rick took hold of Carl as he tried to slink past."I thought I told you to stay in the house."
Carl rolled his eyes. "Dad, they needed me. I'm better with a gun than half the people here." Rick pushed his son inside and slammed the door. Michonne had already extinguished the lights and was crouched under the windowsill. Rick headed to join her, when Jessie approached.
"Rick, what's going on?" She was with her older son – Ron.
"Get down!" Michonne hissed, irritated.
Jessie hesitated, but once she saw the walkers out the window – her mouth twisted into a look of alarm. "Rick! My son, Sam! I have to find him!"
She started towards the door with Ron, causing Michonne to leap in front of it – eyes narrowed. "Nobody leaves." She snapped. "You'll die if you go out there."
"But, Sam!" Jessie wailed. "He could be alone…and afraid…"
"He's probably with Carol." Rick guessed, attempting to calm her down. "He's fine."
"I don't know that!" Jessie tried to push past Michonne to exit the door. She was making a lot of noise, and out of the window Rick could see a couple of walkers turn their attention to the house.
"Fine!" He exclaimed desperately – anything to shut her up. Michonne spun around to gaze at him in shock, and Rick shrugged helplessly. "But we do it my way."

Minutes later, Rick had everyone in the house wearing blankets covered in walker blood and guts. Jessie and Ron looked as if they were about to vomit, and Rick, Michonne and Carl observed their discomfort – unimpressed with their new comrades.
"Everyone stay silent." Rick whispered to the group. He turned to Michonne, grateful that he wouldn't have to navigate the stumbling hordes alone. "Michonne, you go ahead with your katana. Carl, Jessie, Ron, we stay together. And whatever you do – don't make any noise."
Jessie and Ron nodded, and Rick took Carl by the wrist. Michonne gently pushed the door open, and the five headed outside. Rick had definitely underestimated the number of walkers they were dealing with. The streets were crawling with the dead – their groans echoing off walls and houses. Salivating mouths and snapping teeth came dangerously close to Rick and he shrunk back, gripping Carl's wrist tighter.
"Mom! I have to go back! I left something!" Ron had begun speaking. Rick gritted his teeth, silently praying for them to shut up before the walkers noticed something was off. Michonne was just ahead of him, decapitating walkers with her katana. They stupidly clamoured for her, but their rotting fingers only grasped air.
"Ron, we have to be quiet!" Jessie whispered back to her son. "Listen, we'll go back later to get it."
"Stop talking." Rick hissed out of the corner of his mouth.
"But mom, I have to get it now! What if –" And those were the last words that came out of Ron's mouth, well, unless you count a scream as a word. His voice had attracted the attention of walkers and they clawed at him, yanking him back from his mother and digging their teeth into his skin.
"MOM! HELP!" Ron screamed, as skin and flesh was torn violently from his shoulder. Blood streamed down his face, and Jessie tearfully tried to pull him from the walkers grasp.
"Jessie, it's too late!" Rick stepped backwards. "Let go of him!"
"I can't!" Jessie sobbed, clutching at her son.
"Jessie –"
Jessie let out a strangled shriek as she was bitten. Walkers surrounded her, dragging her backwards into the horde as they all fought over who got the next bite.
"Rick! Please don't leave us!" She wailed. Teeth sunk into her temple and she released an ear-splitting scream. "Please!"
"I'm sorry." Rick knew what he had to do. It was too late to save Jessie and Ron, but he could still save Carl. And Michonne. And himself.
"Dad!" Carl was trying to run after Rick, but found himself stranded. "Dad, she's got my hand!" Sure enough, Jessie was clutching tightly onto Carl's outstretched hand, even as she was being devoured. Carl was trying desperately to shake her off, but she had a strong grip. Rick could see the walkers beginning to lose interest in Jessie and head towards Carl, so he did the only thing he could think of. Running round to where Jessie was hanging onto his son, Rick whipped out his machete and hacked at her wrist. Jessie screamed at the pain, but after two hacks her wrist and hand were on the ground, and Carl was free. Rick grabbed his son and sprinted towards where Michonne was still fighting off walkers, leaving only the agonizing shrieks and wails of Jessie and Ron behind.
"What went wrong?" Michonne asked, grabbing Rick's arm.
He shook his head, too agitated to speak properly as he blinked back angry tears. "She was hanging onto Carl…I had to do it."
Michonne nodded, stony-faced. "Come on." She hooked one arm around Carl, and the other around Rick, and began pulling them towards the nearest house. "This was a bad idea. We have to get back inside."
"Rick!"
Rick looked up to see a group bolt around the corner towards them – Daryl, Carol, Sam, Aaron, Eric and Tobin.
Daryl took out an approaching walker with an arrow and began bundling the group together to get them in the house. "Rick! Michonne! Carl! Hustle!"
Michonne sprinted forwards with a gust of energy, dragging Rick and Carl along with her. Carol was trying to push Sam inside to safety when he looked over her shoulder and caught sight of the half-eaten corpses of his mother and brother.
"Mom!" Sam took off into the horde, tears spurting from his bright eyes. Carol raced after him, followed by Tobin and Daryl. Scooping Sam up, Carol threw him at Daryl, who began running back to the house. Daryl deposited the hysterical young boy with Eric and was joined by Aaron as he raced back into the throng of walkers, crossbow at the ready.
"Okay, it's pretty obvious what we're doing here, people." Daryl yelled to his comrades. "If it's dead – fucking kill it!"
Having gained back his strength, Rick took out a walker on his right with his machete. Michonne sliced a few heads off, and even Carl was helping. Tobin held up his machine gun, and was all set to blow some brains out when Carol knocked it out of his hands.
"Are you an idiot?" She snapped. "Using guns will make even more noise, which will draw more of them to Alexandria."
Tobin was busy gaping at Carol's newfound ferocity that a few walkers caught him off guard, causing him to fall onto his back.
Carol rolled her eyes, unimpressed. "Do I have to do everything around here?" She grabbed one of the walkers by the hair and forced its head back, jamming her trench knife into the skull. Throwing the limp body aside, she hurled herself at the remaining walker, knocking it over. Carol stamped on the head, and the sickening sound of bone and cartilage snapping filled the air, as blood and brain matter splattered all over the floor.
Tobin clambered to his feet, still in shock, as Carol turned on her heel to run back to the group.

"This is bad." Glenn was watching the battle from atop the shack, which was still surrounded by growling walkers.
Nicholas sat on the edge of the roof, glowering at Glenn. Meanwhile, Sasha was busy taking out as many walkers around the shack as possible when Spencer approached her. "If we take out these walkers at the base of the shack we can get inside and help the others." She mumbled, concentrating on her aim. "You can help your mom."
Spencer flushed. "Who says we have to do anything? Maybe we just go. We leave them."
Sasha took her focus off the walkers to stare at Spencer in horror. "Leave them? Are you joking? Glenn's wife is in there, and our friends. What about your mom?"
Spencer's face grew stony. "My mother might as well have died when my father did. Have you seen her? And who said Glenn could come? We could go…just you and me."
Spencer may have been gearing up to say something else, but Sasha would never know – because she had just clenched her fist and punched him in the face. He hit the roof with a crash, staring up at her in alarm.
Glenn whipped around, his gaze switching from Sasha to Spencer. "What the hell was that? What's going on?"
"Nothing." Sasha muttered, turning her attention back to sniping walkers.

Glenn was searching frantically for Maggie amongst the groups of fighters within Alexandria, but couldn't spot her anywhere. He hoped that she was safe inside a house, and turned his attention back to figuring out how to leave the roof without dying.
"Guys! They've thinned out on this side!" Glenn called out, leaning over the front side of the shack. Most of the walkers were distracted by Sasha and her snipe technique, which had left the other side mostly clear.
"If Sasha keeps them distracted, we can get down and take the rest out with our knives. Then Sasha can get off the roof, and we can all head into Alexandria." Glenn leant backwards, grinning proudly at his plan.
Nicholas snorted rudely. "You really think you know everything, don't you?"
Glenn glanced over at him. "No. But I know enough to be able to say that you shouldn't be out here."
"What gives you the right to tell me what I can and can't do?" Nicholas spat, leaping to his feet.
Glenn stood up slowly and steadily, so he could get face-to-face with Nicholas. "You are a coward." He hissed, voicing what he'd wanted to say for the last few months. "I already told you. Noah's death, Aiden's death – they are on you. Then you tried to kill me." Glenn instinctively rubbed his left shoulder, where Nicholas had tried to shoot him all those months ago. "I thought you would've learnt from that. You're an idiot, and you're weak."
Nicholas' left eye twitched manically. Glenn was prepared to head over to Spencer and Sasha, when Nicholas threw himself at the Korean with what sounded like a war cry, almost knocking him off the roof. The two tussled, with Glenn quickly gaining the upper hand.
"Really?" He yelled down at Nicholas. "This shit again?"
Nicholas gritted his teeth, and – to everyone's shock – used a burst of momentum to throw Glenn off him, and off the roof. Spencer gasped, and Sasha ran forward to the edge of the roof, craning her neck to look down. Glenn was hanging onto the edge of one of the wood panels – his feet slipping on the walls as he desperately searched for a foothold. Sasha leant over and yanked him up, with Spencer's help. As soon as Glenn was back on solid ground, he hurled himself at Nicholas, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and holding him over the snarling and famished walkers below.
"What are you, fucking immortal?" Spencer growled, struggling under Glenn's vice-like grip.
"Something like that." Glenn hissed back.
"No way!" Spencer pulled his gun out and pointed it at Glenn. "We don't kill each other!"
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Sasha almost yelled. "This idiot almost killed Glenn!"
"But Glenn's still alive…" Spencer began, but was barely able to finish his sentence before Sasha smacked him across the head with the butt of her sniper rifle. He hit the roof for the second time, and Glenn looked alarmed – before turning his attention back to Nicholas.
Nicholas had taken the opportunity of Glenn's distraction to knock him over, and the tussle began again. The two were dangerously close to the edge of the roof, and it looked as if Nicholas had the upper hand – when Glenn used all of his arm strength to throw Nicholas aside. Nicholas rolled off the roof with a cry, and Glenn and Sasha rushed over to see if he had been as lucky as Glenn. However, he had not. Nicholas hit the ground with a sickening crack and was immediately surrounded by walkers.
Glenn jumped back from the wall in shock. White as a sheet, his legs shook uncontrollably as he slowly found his footing. He had just killed a living human. He was a murderer.
Seeing his discomfort, Sasha gently lay a hand on his shoulder. "Quick, now's our chance." She knew Glenn would be reluctant to agree, but she was perfectly aware that this might be their only chance to return to Alexandria. Sasha nodded over at Spencer – who was just beginning to regain consciousness. "Whilst they're distracted."
Glenn nodded slowly, but his visible distress was etched all over his face. He and Sasha propped Spencer up between them and the three dismounted the roof on the opposite side, immediately beginning to run towards Alexandria.

Back in Alexandria, the combined efforts of Daryl, Rick, Michonne, Carol, Aaron, Carl and Tobin didn't seem to be enough.
"There's too many!" Daryl yelled, backing up towards the house.
Michonne helped Rick kill a group of walkers who had gotten dangerously close to Carl, when Tobin cried out – he had just been bitten. Without missing a beat, Daryl shot the walker with an arrow. Carol and Aaron headed towards Tobin to drag him into the house, but it was too late – he was already surrounded.
"I'm sorry." Carol whispered, before stabbing him in the head with her knife. Aaron pulled her out of the way of a few more walkers, and Daryl rushed over to join them.
"Need some help?"
Rick turned on his heel, and his mouth spilt into a relieved grin. Abraham was standing at the end of the street, accompanied by Morgan, Tara, Rosita, Maggie and about ten other residents.
"We'd love some." Rick smiled gratefully, slicing a nearby walker across the face with his machete.
Abraham and his group got to work immediately, and they were making good progress. The dead hit the ground, blood spattering the pavement with every kill.
"Rick!"
Michonne pulled Rick aside as he twisted round to see Deanna exiting her house with a small handgun. She began shooting frantically at walkers, but her aim was off and she only hit about two.
"No guns!" Rick shouted, but Deanna was too far gone. Tears in her eyes, she raced into the herd of walkers and was immediately devoured. She was still holding onto her gun as the walkers dragged her down, and bullets were being fired in every direction.
"Get down!" Rick pulled Michonne to the ground as everybody else covered their heads. The bullets stopped, and Rick looked up shakily.
"Is everyone okay?"
Michonne nodded. Daryl inspected his bare arms, and Abraham surveyed his crew.
"Dad?"
Rick spun, and would have fallen over in shock if he wasn't already on the ground. Carl was standing, looking down at him – and he had been hit. The bullet had taken out his right eye socket and the flesh around it, as well as the back rim of his hat. Blood gushed from the open wound as Carl attempted to take a shaky step forward, and immediately hit the ground – out cold.