The loud gunshot echoed in the night, leaving everyone speechless. Blood splattered all over Abraham's face, which made him instantly step back, letting Pete's lifeless body fall on the ground. An endless and oppresive silence followed, during which no one dared to make a sound. Only Rick's heavy breathing could be heard; the rest of his body was still. His right hand, still pointed at Pete's head, was tightly clinging on the gun's cross as if his life depended on it. His eyes were lost somewhere in the pool of blood that kept spreading a few inches away from his own feet.
Jessie's muffled cry eventually broke the silence, as the horror of what had just happened finally hit her. Carol didn't blink; her eyes just shifted in Rick's direction as he was slowly turning around to face the group. The look on his face was frozen, and not a single part of his body was trembling. He hadn't hesitated once before pulling the trigger, he had barely even looked at Pete before hearing the gunshot. But his body was still.
I would have killed him myself, Carol thought to herself. She wasn't sure if she was talking about Pete, or about Ed. Or both. The only regret she had concerning Ed's demise was that she hadn't been able to take the revenge she deserved. You're a small, weak, nothing. How many times had Ed thrown that at her face? How many times had she been the one on the other side of the knife? Just for once, she wished Ed was still there so she could show him what kind of woman she really was, what kind of woman she always had been even if she didn't know it before.
"Walkers! WALKERS!"
The scream penetrated the air right away, making mostly everyone shift into alert mode. Carol immediately got up, and glanced at Michonne who was already rushing towards the houses. She then looked back at Rick, and had just enough time to catch a glimpse of the concern in his eyes before he started running as fast as he could, his gun still in hand, calling for his son and daughter.
A loud sound exploded a couple of seconds later, and giant flames rose in the air. Everyone jumped in surprise and instinctively took a couple of steps back.
"What the hell is happening here?!", Abraham yelled, trying to cover the noise.
Carol made her way through the frenetic group of people as quickly as she possibly could and grabbed Abraham's wrist. "Take everyone who knows how to deal with walkers with you and see what's going on, I'm gonna go get Tara and the others."
"You can't go by yourself, we don't know what's happening over there!"
"I'll be fine, just go we don't have much time, the fire is spreadi-"
Another explosion burst a couple of meters away from the first one; the screamings intensified.
"Go, NOW!"
This time Abraham didn't object and immediately starting running, taking a few people with him and leaving the others with Deanna as she was finally getting a grip of herself and trying to take as much people as she could to safety. Carol quickly glanced at her, making sure she wouldn't see her - she didn't want to break her cover just yet. With everything happening at the moment, chances were that no one would even notice she was gone; she was invisible after all. She took her knife out of her pants and made her way towards the place where Tara and Rosita were, hoping that they were safe.
"Carol, wait!"
She froze, hid her knife as carefully as she could and turned around with this fake angel's face of hers. Her expression went back to normal when she realized that the man standing in front of her was none other than Eugene.
"If you're going to get Tara and Rosita, I'm coming with you. If you are not, I'm going anyway."
"It's not safe Eugene, and I'll be more efficient by my-"
"I'm responsible for what happened to her, I'm coming and I suggest you shouldn't waste your time trying to convince me otherwise because it's obviously not going to work."
Carol sighed at Eugene's stubborness, but she knew there was no time to waste and that arguing with him would only make things worse. Time was running out, and every single second counted.
"Ok fine, just stop talking and move."
A few miles away, Daryl, Aaron and Morgan were making their way back to Alexandria. The map in which Rick's name was written had left Daryl pretty confused and suspicious, but after hearing Morgan's story, he had decided to give him a chance and take him back to Alexandria with them. He had saved their lives, after all. And he had saved Rick's life as well.
Daryl speeded up the pace a bit; he couldn't help but fear that something had happened while they were away. He knew that no matter where they were, no matter what time of the day it was of whoever they were with, they were never safe. Not in this world, not after everything that had happened. No matter what, he couldn't stop thinking about her. Carol. He had never felt this way towards anyone in his life before, and if he was honest with himself, it scared the hell out of him. He had no idea what it was, but he just knew it was there. He knew he had to keep her safe no matter what, even though she was the toughest person he had ever known and that she'd saved herself and everyone else more than once in the past. But he just couldn't help worrying, couldn't help thinking about her. Damn, that was driving him crazy every minute of every day. What if someone had found out that she stole the guns? Every single time he was away from her, he always had this weird feeling that something would go wrong. That he'd come back and find out that she had been banished again. That she had decided to run away like she did at the church. That she would be dead.
The closest they were getting to the house, the more their vision was blurred because of the smoke. Carol could barely see anything to her left, she had no idea what was going on, or if her family was safe. A shiver ran down her spine as the possibility of losing anyone else hit her. She couldn't let that happen, she couldn't take another loss. Her heart skipped a beat once they were close enough to the house to realize that the flames were already starting to reach it. Think, Carol. Think. Fast. Act.
"The back door!", she shouted, stopping Eugene from entering by the front door that was about to be destroyed.
They bypassed the house, coughing a couple of times because of the smoke that was getting thicker and thicker as seconds went by. The back door was clear - for now -, but locked. Carol groaned as she found out, trying to open it.
"I need something sharp, I can open it", Eugene said innocently.
"Eugene we don't have time for that, step back", Carol said, drawing a small gun out of her back pocket.
"Where did you get this?!"
"Doesn't matter, now is not the time", she snapped back right before firing her weapon through the door lock. She then kicked hard on the door, twice, before it finally broke apart.
The inside of the house was filled with smoke; Carol and Eugene covered their mouths as much as they could with their arms and clothes.
"Tara! Rosita!", Carol coughed.
"Here!", someone called from upstairs almost instantly.
"Come on", Carol said to Eugene as she rushed towards the stairs. "Can you move?", she shouted.
"I'm trying to, but Tara is barely conscious and the flames are about to reach us." Rosita's voice became a bit shaky at the end.
"Hold o-", Carol was interrupted by the big burning beam that landed right in front of her, making her instinctively lean forward and cover her head with both of her hands.
"Is everything alright?", Eugene asked from behind.
"Depends on what you mean by 'alright'", Carol replied, "This thing's not gonna help. Good thing that only one half of it is on fire. For now, at least."
They carefully stepped over the beam, Eugene almost falling all his way back along the way, and entered Tara's room without stumbling across any other obstacles.
At that same exact moment, Daryl lifted his head up and saw the thick smoke in the distance. His heart stopped beating.
Tara was leaning on Rosita's shoulder, barely awake.
"Oh thanks god", said Rosita as she saw Carol and Eugene, "She was fine until she got up, and then her head started spinning and she lost consciousness again."
"It's ok, she'll be fine. We'll be fine", Carol said trying to keep her composure. Keep going, don't think about the fire, don't think about the other house. Don't think.
Carol lifted Tara's left arm to help Rosita carry her, but Eugene stoppped her. "Let me do this, please."
Carol just nodded and moved away, letting Eugene gently lift Tara up, releasing Rosita from half of the weight she was carrying. Carol grasped Tara's wrist, checking for her pulse. "It's way too low, she's gonna need medicine or she won't make it."
"But she was just fine before the fire!"
"She got up way too soon and too fast, and the smoke is only making things worse."
"We'll find medicine, but right now we need to get out."
"Everything that we've got is in this drawyer. You get out, I'll take them. Take this gun, you'll need this more than I do", she said while slipping her gun in Rosita's pocket.
"Carol, no!", Rosita shouted, turning around.
"Do you want her to live?!", Carol snapped while she was already searching for the medicines in the bedside table.
"The bed is on fire, the entire place is going to collaspe in a matter of seconds you-"
"Then you might as well just leave her here because she's not gonna make it!"
The ceiling started crackling, and the flames wrapped the wooden beams just above Carol's head.
"You go, I'll take the medicine", Eugene said and let go of Tara to run towards the bedside table. Carol turned around, coughing harder than before. "Eugene, no!"
Another crackling came from the ceiling.
Rosita didn't have any time to lose; she quickly glanced at her two friends and then decided to move. She couldn't stay there, the only person she could help at the moment was Tara.
"For God's sake Eugene don't stay here, Rosita can't make it alone", Carol coughed, trying to fight back the tears in her eyes due to the smoke.
Crack.
"If you die in here with the medicine, Tara wont make it at all", he replied back.
Crack.
"I got it", Carol said, ignoring Eugene's last comment, and handed him the boxes of medicines, "Now, let's get out of here".
Crack.
The two biggest beams collasped at the same time with a loud thud.
