"Walkers!"
Daryl's hiss made everyone's eyes snap open. Within seconds everyone was up and armed, looking down the slope. The clouds had cleared and the moonlight revelead a group of maybe twenty walkers heading in their direction. The putrid smell wafted up to them, filling their mouths and noses, making them gag. Lori bent double and threw up.
Rick had to make a quick decision. The sound of gunshots would undoubtedly attract more; but twenty was a large group to take on using only knives and pickaxes. Daryl's crossbow would take down a few before it came to close combat, though. Were their chances good enough?
"Formation." Rick ordered. He and Daryl faced the incoming threat. T-Dog, Glenn, Maggie and Hershel were guarding the back and side of the group, while Carl stood in front of Lori, Carol and Beth. Dani placed herself in the middle too.
The sharp thuds of arrows hitting their mark rang through the cold night air. One walker's skull literally collapsed on itself when shot, which made Dani feel sick to her stomach. Still the rest of them approached - self-preservation was an instinct they did not possess, only the burning hunger for the flesh of the living drove them.
One more corpse hit the ground. And one more. Yet now, they were too close for arrows and the men thrust forward with knives and pickaxes, piercing through crumbling bone. They tried to maintain a close formation, but as Glenn and Maggie stepped to the side to take a few more down, Carl's left flank was left unprotected. The boy didn't let that freak him out, though, and he held his knife high, ready for any advancing walker. Dani stepped closer to him.
Their strategy seemed to work as one by one, the walkers bit the dust. "Take that, sonofabitch!" Daryl growled as he dispatched the last one with the stock of his crossbow.
As the dead were no longer a menace for now, the living could breathe again. They looked at each other, weary but victorious. They were alive still.
Daryl kicked one of the corpses with vicious hatred. "Yer disease-ridden, stinkin' rottin' sonofobitch, yer shit's all over my bow. Shithead."
"It was a human being once, Daryl," a soft voice said.
Dani regretted the words as soon as they had escaped her lips. All eyes were on her now and as Carl's gaze met hers, he shook his head slightly.
"Well it sure wasn't human no more when it came up to chew our flesh off, ya stupid gal," Daryl grumbled.
Mercifully, Rick came to her defense.
"It's OK, Dani. We all lost people. We lost people who got bit. We know what you mean."
Slowly people relaxed and started settling in again, hoping to catch a few more hours sleep. Dani was about to lie down herself when Maggie grabbed her arm. Dani flinched.
- You know, I knew you weren't the bravest woman around, but what you just did was disgusting. I've never seen such cowardice in my whole life.
- What are you talking about?
- Hiding behind Carl, a twelve-year-old kid, when walkers were all around us? Seriously? I have no respect for you anymore, Dani, the other woman spat.
Dani's cheeks burnt with anger as she watched Maggie storm off. She hadn't been hiding behind Carl. She'd been standing close to him to keep him a little safer. Yet she knew Maggie wouldn't understand or believe her, and she let her shoulders slump in surrender. Let the woman think what she would.