CHAPTER 9: Separated

"Nicholas."

Glenn yells through the sound of the horn when he sees him stop running and just standing there while looking off in space. Everyone is still running away from half the herd following them to the honking sound coming from Alexandria. Daryl, Abe, and Sasha are still on the road with the other half of walkers. Annabelle looks back to see why Glenn said his name and in the next second one of the girls in the group falls to the ground. She helps her quickly while looking around them and asking.

"You good?"

"It's my ankle." She whines in pain.

"All right, come on." Glenn then puts an arm around the girl and helps her walks with the rest of them, "Grab on. Let's go."

"Come on."

Annabelle yells when she notices the group getting slower. Every second they're out here is a second longer of not knowing what has happened to Carl, Judith or Enid. Everyone wanted to get home as soon as possible but they have their doubts with the loud car horn in the distance. Annabelle didn't care though she had a plan in her head. Reach Alexandria, stop the horn sound, make sure the kids are safe, make sure the walls hold then go to Daryl. That's her individual plan, she knows it will change and get more complicated but she still never to make one to keep herself sane.

"It's coming from back home." Heath thinks out loud, "It has to be."

"Rick and Annabelle did this. They brought us all out here to die." A man points to Rick, "He killed Carter."

"Carter was dead already." Michonne snaps at him, "Nothing we could do to save him."

"Now they're in trouble back there and we're done." The man begins to freak out, "We're good as dead."

"Shut up! And calm down." Annabelle yells at the guy in frustration, "Stop being a girl on her period and fucking man up!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" He snaps at her, "We're done and it's 'cause of you two."

"Shut up and move. Come on."

Michonne says harshly as they follow the rest of the group. Everyone picks up the pace as they walk towards home. Rick stops everyone after a few moments on a flat part of the forest they're currently in. Looking around everyone panting tiredly he knows they have to make plan B or more shit will happen. Facing them all he sighs as he catches his breath.

"All right, 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 them away again."

"RV's a mile back." Annabelle points out before suggesting, "I can go with you."

"I'll handle it. Just get home." Rick sighs while thinking out loud, "Daryl will have a cow if you don't."

"I don't do things for Daryl's comfort, Rick!" She snaps at him furiously, "You forget I was out there just as long as you!"

"They're going to need you there, Anna."

He demands knowing damn well that if something bad happened in Alexandria they're going to need one of them there. No one said anything about it but since the Grimes sibling reunited they have been acting as co-captains or leaders. Everyone silently seemed to be okay with that since no one ignores Anna and Rick's orders. So he knew both of them couldn't be out here for every long, one of the Grimes siblings had to get there as soon as possible. Annabelle still didn't seem happy about his idea making him say brotherly like.

"One of us needs to go back home to keep things in order." He sends her a knowing look making her growl in understanding, with that action Rick then nods behind him, "Annabelle, Glenn, Michonne."

The four move away from the rest and form a small circle to talk quietly. Everyone else is out of breath and in fighting mode. Annabelle didn't like this idea Rick had one bit, she wasn't the person suited for taking charge like this. She always acted as a lone wolf and if someone wanted to follow behind her then she was fine with that but this is different. He wasn't her specifically go to Alexandria to take charge of the situation. As all these thoughts go through her mind she sees the people originally from Alexandria look at them worried from behind.

"If something's in front of you, you kill it." He says lowly to his closest friends, "No hiding, no waiting. You keep going."

"I'm going with you." Annabelle tries again, she couldn't let her brother to this on his own, not when everything is at stake right now.

"She's right," Glenn adds to what Annie said, "You can't do this on your own."

"Glenn, Anna," Rick sends them a stern look, "I can do this."

"You guys need to help me." Michonne speaks up to the two, "We've got to get these people back."

"Yeah." Rick agrees with her, "Thing is, they aren't all gonna make it."

"Rick."

Annabelle warns him, she knew what he was going to say. Sadly she thinks the same thing when it's necessary, like now. But she would never say it out loud and jinx them like that. Rick lifts a hand up knowing what he is about to say is wrong.

"You try to save them, you try, but they can't keep up, you keep going. You have to. You make sure you get back."

Glenn, Michonne, and Annabelle all look at him guilty knowing he was right. Annabelle looks up to see Heath listening and curses to herself. They suddenly hear someone screaming and they run to the sound. They see one of their group members on the ground getting eaten by a walker from the neck. Annabelle gets the walker off him and Michonne kills it. The whole group now surrounds the man bleeding from the neck. Michonne then kills the group member, the group then just looks ashamed at what they let happened. Rick and Annabelle, on the other hand, has other things on their mind, they didn't have time to be ashamed. After a moment of everyone watching the sound of horn stops. Annabelle then kneels getting the man's weapons as she says without thinking.

"The horn stopped. Good."

"Y'all stick together." Rick nods at his sister then looks around and begins to jog away, "Get back safe."


"We're ahead of it." Glenn says to the group as they walk back to Alexandria, "10 minutes. 20 minutes, maybe."

"We all need to keep up the pace," Annabelle demands without slowing down, "Faster we go the longer it will be for the herd to reach us. We run, they walk."

"She's right," Michonne speaks up tiredly, "Then we all get back home."

"So if we don't, that's it, huh?"

Heath says knowingly making Annabelle glare at him and Michonne sends him a surprised look. The group has been walking in the woods for awhile now without Rick. They couldn't run since a girl sprained her ankle and she needed to have help walking from now on. That didn't stop Annabelle from going fast, she was a few yards away from the group. She scanned her surrounding as she waits for everyone to catch up. She looks at the time on her walkie-talkie and knew Rick is probably halfway to the RV. Thinking about what Heath last said Anna turns to glare at him before snapping annoyed.

"Yeah, that's it. We live or die. That simple."

"You guys..." A guy called Sturgess then says slightly worried, "We don't even know what's waiting for us."

"It's gonna be okay." Another one, David, insists, "We have walls for a reason."

"That sound. Maybe someone plowed right through." Sturgess continues to worry, "Maybe we're walking back to nothing."

"Shh, Glenn's wife is back there." Annabelle snaps at him, "So shut the fuck up."

"Yeah easy for you to say, " The guy thinks out loud, "Daryl isn't even there."

Annabelle turns around and punches him, everyone stands in shock as he holds nose. Her face becomes red in anger, how dare he say that to her? Not only is she angry but she's scared. Scared for her brother, best friend, niece and nephew. She could barely handle what has become of them and this guy talked to her as if she has it easy. She lost her best friend and brother once, she didn't want it to happen again. Miss. Grimes then get in the guy's face snapping with venom.

"No, he's just in front of a herd of walkers on an old bike that could shut down any minute! Everyone is at risk at the moment, not just the people you care about so if you don't stop complaining and shut the hell up I'm going to do worse to you than any herd of walkers can-"

"Anna." Glenn sets a hand on her shoulder, "It's okay. Look, everyone, don't worry about what's gone wrong."

"Figure out how to make this go right," Michonne agrees with Glenn, "So I suggest you all stop pissing off Annabelle before we have something worse than the herd behind us."

"We're moving in the same direction everything else is." A man points out, "We're gonna catch up with something."

"We're gonna catch up with a lot of things and we're gonna end them." Michonne speaks up with her sword ready, "We have no choice. We gotta keep going forward."

They continue to walk in silence, the guy Annabelle punched in now the farthest away from her. He's not holding his nose anymore but you could see a bruise forming. She didn't punch it hard enough to break anything on his face. The group begins to slow down when they hear walkers snarling in front of them instead of behind. Glenn lets go of the girl with the bad ankle while looking to where the sound came from. The noise came from a few feet away from them making them all search the forest for the walking dead. They then spot a dozen or two walking towards them with their air stretched towards them.

"Stay here." Annabelle takes out her machete, "Don't shoot unless you have to."

Glenn, Michonne, and Annabelle go toward the walkers leaving the group to wait for them. The three being to stab and cut the heads open. Glenn simple stabbed their heads as they got closer to him. Michonne cuts them smooth and clean cut, unlike Annabelle. She butchered them making blood go everywhere, she usually makes a mess when doing anything. It didn't matter though all of them her covered in sweat, dirt, and blood anyway. They continue killing what's in front of them as they hear gunshots behind them. They don't look back until all the walkers in front of them are dead. Once they're all dead the three turn around to see Sturgess running away. One of the men was shot by accident in the leg, he is now trying to push off walkers coming at him.

"Sturgess!"

Annabelle yells as he leaves them behind, she then curses to herself before running toward the injured man. Glenn watches him leave in disbelief before helping Annabelle get the walkers off the man who got shot. They finally kill the walkers and see the man holding his leg in pain, as they all watch the man on the ground they didn't notice one last geek come at them. He takes a bite of one of the other members and he yells. Michonne quickly kills the walker before it can get to anyone else. She sees a bite mark on the man and looks away in defeat. The man sees the look on her face and turns back to the rest of the group saying.

"I know what it means… We gotta keep moving, right?"

"Damn Right." Annabelle nods at him in respect, "You all heard the man. Let's keep moving."


"Hey, we gone out five miles yet?"

Daryl yells to Sasha and Abe as they slowly drive with the horde of walkers following them. They've been driving for a while now since the last time they talked to Anna and Rick on the radio. So the three have had time to think about what's going on with Alexandria, the honking noise, and the other half of the herd. Daryl has been none stop thinking about Annabelle while driving on his bike, she's out there in the woods with a herd chasing after her. It was so unsettling to him and he finally has had enough of his mind wandering to the idea of what's happening to his best friend.

"Give or take some yardage." Abe answers back from his car with Sasha, "You got a reason for asking?"

"Next intersection we're gonna spin around and go back."

Daryl calls out through the noise of the growling walkers behind them. Sasha turns and looks to Abraham in panic as she drives. The only reason he is changing the plan is because Annabelle could be in danger at this moment. They knew he already didn't like his plan because Annie wasn't in his sight, now the plan is fuck up and he still hasn't seen her since this morning. Abe rubs his face knowingly while Sasha yells to him.

"The plan is to go 15 more."

"Yeah, I'm gonna change that." Daryl says determinedly, "Five's gonna have to work."

"The magic number's 20. That's the mission." Abe explains to him, "That's making sure they're off munching on infirm raccoons the rest of their undead lives instead of any of us."

"You want to go, we can't stop you. But without you, they could stop us." Sasha warns him as they keep driving, "Anna is going to be okay Daryl. She has lived this long."

"Daryl she is with Glenn and Michonne." Abe sees a battle going on in Daryl's mind and adds,
"She's just like you. A fighter, she'll come back home to you."

Daryl rides his bike thinking about what to do. He promised her he would be by her side and he already broke it. He didn't want what happen with the food trucks happen to her. They have been split apart for almost a year because they chose to leave each other's side for a moment. He didn't want to think about how he could lose her now for another year or maybe forever all because of some 15 miles. When they reunited he chose her brother to keep the guns they had a secret, this time he is choosing her. He sees the intersection and calls out to them pressing onto the gas.

"Nah, I got faith in you."

"Daryl!" Sasha yells at him, "Annabelle is going to be okay without you!"

"Don't do it, man!" Abraham calls out to him as he rides away, Sasha sends him an alarmed look but he just nods and blurts out, "He'll come back."

"How do you know?"

"He loves Annabelle and she would want him to come back."


"Can I take a look."

"Please." The man with the bite on his back then asks as Michonne checks it, "Is it bad?"

"It's about what you'd expect."

She answers trying not to sound guilty. Glenn is in the back helping the girl with the bad ankle walk. Nicholas and Heath held the man with a bullet in his leg next to them. Little ahead of all of them Michonne is next to the man with a bite in his back. Annabelle is up front looking around in caution as they walk on the concrete road. The man lets out a half laugh and thinks out loud.

"Huh, didn't expect this."

"None of us did." Annabelle thinks out loud as she turns to look at him when she watches him fiddling with his wedding ring she asks, "How long you been married?"

"Three months." He looks at her then to Michonne, "She wasn't my wife from before."

"How'd you meet?"

"It was early on. Aaron found me." He looks back to Annabelle when saying Aaron's name, "I was alone, lost everything. Everyone. Myself, I- I wasn't crazy. I just gave up on being someone, an actual person. Know what I mean?"

"Yeah." Michonne nods for him to continue. "I do."

"We found Betsy on the way back to the community. She still saw me. After I thought I was dead and gone, she was my first friend." He looks to Annabelle with a small knowing smile, "Then she was more. She made me more. Even better than how I used to be."

Michonne looks at Anna to see her reaction from his confession. She turns away from him and Michonne when Daryl pops into her mind. When they met she was nothing and didn't know what the fuck to do with her life. Becoming friends with him and Merle she found a reason to live again. They made each other better people, it was like they needed each other to be better people. They were her angels from above even if they were a pain in the ass to everyone else. Daryl was different than Merle to her, though. Daryl wasn't just her best friend or angel like the oldest Dixon. He knew her better than anyone without her having to tell him a single thing. She didn't even need to tell him what she thought, he already knew. He understood her without her having to explain herself. He made her more, something more.

"-But if I could make it back, I'd want to say good-bye." The man continues, "Tell her... finding her in all this, that was everything."

Everyone is quiet for a moment until the girl next to Glenn nods to the man bleeding his leg out, "We need to stop and bandage him up."

"No, we keep moving." He insists not wanting to slow them down. "I'm okay."

"You won't be if we don't stop your bleeding." She points out.

"We'll find a place," Glenn speaks up reassuring.

"Can't stop out in the open too long." Annabelle announces tiredly, "Come on."


"Let's check if these cars work first." Glenn demands as the group walks into a town, "See if they can get us back."

"I'll stay with them."

The man with the walker bite suggested. Glenn nods and lets go of the girl, Heath and Nicholas also let go of the man who got shot. The three wounded stay in place as the rest check the cars. The town so far looked dead, no people or walkers were in sight. Glenn leans on a car with Michonne and nods to Annabelle to quietly come over. When she reaches them Glenn says quietly while looking around.

"Listen, I need to get home, but I'm not leaving them behind."

"We patch Scott up, we get going." Annabelle thinks out loud, "We should get there before dark."

"Rick knows what he knows." Glenn vaguely points out what her brother said earlier about not them all making it back, "He's right but that doesn't mean… We're not going to give up."

"We're ahead of the herd." Michonne speaks up, "Maybe half an hour now."

"We can stop. We can make it." Annabelle says determined, "This is halfway home, right?"

"Yeah."

Glenn nods as he looks between the concerned women. The three stood there as if it's the last thing they didn't want to do at the moment. The Korean begins to think about his wife and how to get back home. Michonne checks their surrounds for a place they could help the wounded members in their group. Annabelle thought of her brother and best friend hoping they were okay and be back home soon. Noticing Glenn looking more worried than he should Annie stared at his for a moment in seriousness. Everyone else continues to look in the cars poorly parked on the road.

"This is where it happened." Heath thinks out loud next to Nicholas, "This is where you and Aiden's run went wrong… and got a few members killed."

"I said it at the dealership." Nicholas says honestly, "Aiden and I... didn't know what we were doing."

"The people on your crew who died?"

"They weren't afraid." Nicholas tells him as they look in cars, "We were."

"And Annabelle?" Heath says remembering the day Annabelle refused to go with them, "She didn't even bother to come with y'all."

"No, she didn't come. But it wasn't because she was afraid or didn't bother." Nicholas glanced at the woman they are talking about, "She didn't come because she knew it would go wrong and she would be to blame."

"You wouldn't-" Heath begins to say but Nicholas gives him a look.

"We would blame everything on her, Heath." He sighs ashamed, "Well before Rick's people came that's what we would do."

They ended the conversation there. Annabelle has always been a complicated subject when it came to the people in Alexandria. Probably because she was once a con/stripper, not to mention when she came there she looked out of control. Rick's group coming into the picture made them see it wasn't as complicated as they made it out to be. They thought Annabelle was the only person who was terrifying but seeing Rick's group made them realize Anna isn't the only one in this world like that. When none of them find a working car Glenn announces.

"No luck."

"We have to stay on foot." Annabelle points out next to Glenn and Michonne, "But first we need to find a building with medical supplies."

"Nicholas was here last." Heath thinks out loud and suggests, "He can show us the way."

"Uh, okay." Nicholas mumbles and points somewheres.

Glenn and Annabelle share a look before the Korean says, "All right."

Annabelle calls to the three waiting for them, "There are no cars."

"I got you." Glenn and Heath help the wounded walk. "I got you."

Michonne and Annabelle are side by side walking behind Nicholas with the rest of them a few feet behind. They walk down the quiet street while following Nicholas. After a few yards, they all stop when they see a familiar hat on the ground. It's the hat Sturgess was wearing, he's the guy who ran off without them. Nicholas goes to it and picks up a hat in front of him before whispering.

"Oh, Jesus."

"Sturgess's?"

"He left us behind."

The wounded lady says what they all are thinking. Nicholas nods and begins to walk again down a path. They all turn a couple of corners before the witness Sturgess dead on the ground with walkers eating his insides. Nicholas doesn't move away, he just stands there shocked. Annabelle pulls him back quietly snapping.

"Come on, we're counting on you."

"Herd's that way." He nods and points one direction before going the other direction to find walkers also coming at them Nicholas then whispers, "Shit."

"Nicholas," Annabelle growls impatiently at him, "Where are we heading?"

"Uh…"

He frowns then goes to a warned down pet store. Everyone follows him in and checks the place for walkers. The place is covered in dust and they can see animals bones in a few cages making Annabelle want to barf in disgust. Once they make sure the place is safe everyone relaxes and looks for supplies. Michonne walks down one of the aisles before reaching Heath and whispering.

"We stay quiet, patch Scott and her up, get out of here."

"Those walkers in the alley and down the street," Heath points out before explaining, "They're blocking the way out of town."

"We can't take 'em on, not in the shape that we're in."

"Listen. Guys," Annabelle comes up to them and suggests, "We'll have to lead them away if we have to."

"Because that's been working well lately," Heath says annoyed.

"We're trying here." Michonne snaps at him, "I'm not giving up."

"Yeah, sure." He lets out causing Michonne's eyes to go wide, "Not yet."

"Excuse me?!" Annabelle shoves him, "We could leave y'all right now if we wanted to. Glenn, Michonne and I can survive. It's you who fucking needs our help, so I suggest not pissing off people wanting to save you. Or should we call Sturgess in here and maybe he can help you."

He looks away in defeat as Glenn comes up to them calmly, "Hey, I was thinking, if we can find a way to distract the herd coming in, then they won't make it back to the community."

"How… Wait..." Annabelle nods realizing what he wanted to do without even saying it, "Burn one of the buildings."

"Hopefully more." Glenn agrees with Annabelle, "I've done it before."

"They'll get drawn to it." Anna adds hopefully, "And they'll stop here."

"It's gonna take some time." Heath thinks out loud.

"I'll do it." Annie volunteers instantly, "You stay with them."

"It's my plan." Glenn looks to Anna seriously, "It's on me."

"You have a wife, Glenn." She snaps at him.

"That's why I'm doing this." He tries for her to understand, "You've got to get everybody back. You're the one who can."

"Michonne can lead them, I ain't leaving you!" She whispered frustrated, "I already left Daryl, Carl, and Rick. I can't keep doing that."

"But if Daryl and Rick-"

"Don't use them as an excuse Glenn," She demands with her arms folded, "I'm not leaving you. Period."

"Fine, I don't wanna hear any shit from Daryl though." He sighs knowing that she made up her mind and he can't change, he then turns to Michonne saying, "If we take too long, you just go."

"I can't just come to Alexandria without you two!" Michonne argues, "We stay together, that's how this works."

"We'll meet you there." Annabelle reassures, "If we get stuck out here, we'll find some way to show you guys we're okay."

"We all have a job to do," Glenn tells the group.

"There's a feed store." Everyone turns to look at Nicholas who has been quiet the whole time, "It's old. A lot of dry stuff inside. It should go up easy. I'll go with you. I can- I can draw a map."

"No." Annabelle gives Glenn a look not trusting the map he would give them, "You lead the way."

"I just gotta do one thing first. Annabelle, come with me." Glenn says and they go a few feet away from the group and kneel in an aisle, "The radio?"

"Here."

She takes it out and hands it to him, he turns in on and looks to her as he says, "Rick, it's Glenn and Anna. 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. I think that's how far we're ahead of the herd. I'm gonna try to set a fire and distract them. If you don't see smoke, they're still coming your way. I got to go... Good luck, dumb ass."

"Rude much?"

"Long story, I'll tell you about it sometime."


Glenn, Nicholas, and Annabelle run through the town to the feed store Nicholas was talking about. The rest of the group is still at the pet store. The three ran at the same pace with the look of determination. This plan could solve the herd of walkers coming toward them and Alexandria. They come across a walker laying on the ground growling at them. Glenn takes out his knife to kill it but Nicholas stops him while thinking out loud.

"Wait. It should be me. He was on my crew. His name was Will. He was 19. We left him behind."

Glenn looks to Annabelle for approval and she nods, he turns back to him pointing, "You're not that guy anymore. Hey, you are here now. You are not that guy anymore."

"Okay."

Nicholas nods and kills the walker. In Annabelle's book, Nicholas was still the same coward he always was but she didn't need to say that now of all times. Too much is at stake to jinx it and fuck up this mini-plan Glenn has. She hears a distant gunfire and looks over her shoulder blurting out.

"What the hell... Is that home?"

"We need to go now." Glenn demands and they all begin to run again, "Where to next?"

"It's just up ahead. We light it up and we go."

Nicholas yells at them as they turn a corner. The three are running as hard as they can, they can hear the herd of walkers coming. They must have lost track of time since the herd of walkers is strolling into town now. They didn't have much time to burn the building so they had to do it quick. They all turn one last corn and stop in front of the already burnt down building. Anna's mouth drops in defeat and looks to the men in shock. They stare at the last parts of the black burnt building, the sound of geeks coming closer makes Anna start thinking about plan B. Moving closer to Nicholas she barks at him this wide eyes.

"There's gotta be another building."

Glenn looks around in terror, all streets are filled with walkers coming straight at them. The streets are packing more and more walkers causing Annabelle heart to beat faster. This is bad, very bad. Annabelle then spins around realizing she doesn't know where to go so she shouts to Nicholas in panic.

"We gotta go. Where do we go?"

"Um…" Nicholas looks around in shock.

Glenn yells at him, "Where?!"

"Uh," He keeps looking around in fear, "Uh…"

"Nicholas! Damn it! Help us!" Annabelle yells at him while taking her gun out as the walkers get closer, "Tell us where to fucking go before her geek food!"

"This way." He finally snaps out of it and points to a direction, "This- this way."

"Go! Go!"

Glenn yells running behind Nicholas next to Annabelle. The three sprint away from the geeks with their weapons in a hand. Turning a corner they find it's a dead end but it's too late they have to keep going that direction. Glenn yells to Nicholas when he slows down slightly.

"Come on!"

"No!" He yells trying to open a gate, "No!"

"Guys, we're fucking trapped! Look what you did!"

Annabelle yells at Nicholas knowing she should have seen this coming. This is the whole reason why she went with Glenn, for this not to happen. Walkers come closer and closer to them but they can't go anywhere. Glenn and Annabelle look at each other in fear. They had people waiting for them and the two have no idea how to get out of this alive with walkers coming from everywhere. At that moment the idea of never seeing Daryl or Maggie goes into their minds. Looking back to the walkers closing in on them Glenn takes out a gun before whispering.

"Damn it."

Annabelle aims her gun and begins shooting their heads, as Nicholas and Glenn do the same. They just kept on coming, no matter how many they kill. They all run out of ammo and take out knives. Annabelle takes out her machete and keeps killing them. As they get closer Glenn kicks a few down and jumps onto the big garbage can behind them. He grabs Annabelle and pulls her up with him. He then yells to Nicholas hastily.

"Up here! Up here!"

He gets up with them and it is a tight squeeze, Glenn has an arm around Annabelle's waist so she won't fall off. Nicholas looks around in shock, his eyes are wide as he looks down, he almost looks like he is about to cry. Walkers now surround the dumpster, their hands try to grab anything of theirs. Annabelle is doing anything to not fall off and Glenn is holding her so the both are out of the way of the geeks' grasps. Nicholas however, looks down at the walkers like it's one big dream.

"Nicholas!" Annabelle tries to get his attention, "Hey, Nicholas! Damn it! Nicholas!"

"Nicholas! Look at me." Glenn let's go off Annabelle and grabs him, "Hey, look at me! Look at me! Hey! Hey! Nicholas! Look at me!"

Glenn is holding Nicholas's shirt trying to get him to calm down, Annabelle is doing everything in her power to not fall off. Droplets of sweat fall from her forehead as she looks down at the hundreds of walkers trying to get her. Her body is exhaustively numb from the sun, running, fighting and yelling she has done today. She almost wanted to just fall and be done with her life but every time her mind wander to that idea she thought of Daryl, Glenn, Rick, and Carl. She knows she has to stay alive for them. Just as she about to say something to Glenn Nicholas looks up at them distorted and says calmly.

"Thank you."

Annabelle turns alarmed when she hears what Nicholas said, Glenn, trying to get him out of whatever state he's in by shoving him. Her eyes go wide when she watches him lift up his gun to his head. All thoughts of her well-being and family are forgotten as Nicholas closes his eyes. Glenn is shaking his head yelling at him desperately.

"No! NO! Nicholas!"

"Nicholas! Stop!-"

He doesn't listen to their cries as he shoots himself quickly. Blood splatter on their panicking faces and for a second everything but the suicidal man was gone from existent. Nicholas begins falling down in Glenn's arms while Annabelle gets to witness the dead Nicholas taking Glenn with him toward the hungry walkers around the dumpster. Her heart stops at the sight as she screams with all her might. Annabelle tries to grab Glenn but it was too late he was already falling with Nicholas's dead body on top of him.

"-No! No! Grab on- GLENN!"

Her mouth is wide open as she sees them fall, she didn't even realize she is screaming on the top of her lungs. Glenn and she make eye contact before he falls in with the walkers surrounding them. She hears him screaming but she can't see him, tears are falling down her face uncontrollably. She takes her knife and starts stabbing walkers heads rapidly. Annabelle couldn't stop screaming as she did so. She didn't even think about how she was going to get out, all she could think about was Glenn. How she could have saved him and how she just watched him die.


"Damn it. That woman always has to mess with my head…"

Daryl growls to himself as he turns around and goes back to where Sasha and Abe are driving. He left them to go and make sure Annabelle is safe but if he told her he left Abe and Sasha for her she would be mad. She would stay with them even if it is ugly, she wouldn't leave someone who could get hurt without her. It would kill her if someone died and she could have prevented it. Daryl makes it back to the road next to Abe and Sasha's car. They give each other a look before Abe calls out to him.

"What changed your mind?"

"Anna would make me sleep on the couch if I didn't stay with ya'."