Chapter 14 – Dog Food

Beth stood and stared in shock, beads of sweat racing down from her forehead to her cheek and leaving off of her chin. She panted in terror. "- If anyone gets injured by those canines...then you answer for it". She shuddered at the thought of what Tracy and Guillermo would do to her, she turned quickly only to be faced with Waylon, his face also horrified and confused.

"What's happening, Beth?" He gulped and walked towards the window. "What did you do?"

She stared at the ground in thought; it was only a matter of time before guns blasting and walkers getting attracted. "They were going to kill Noah, I created a distraction"

"Beth, what are you thinking?! People are going to die! Don't expect me to back you up in this!" He yelled and suddenly guns began to echo all around outside, the shrieks of the men and the women surrounded the area, Beth's eyes widened and ignored what Waylon had said before darting through the building and reaching the front doors.

People were piling in, with guns and riot shields – who knew a few dogs could cause this much terror. Her heartbeat rose and began to thud violently as she noticed a woman being dragged inside with a large gash across her thigh, she bled all over the floor turning it crimson.

"Someone! Someone help! Canines in the alley, the gates are wide open – walkers are pouring in!" One man ran inside and pointed at Beth. "You, grab a gun!" Beth froze, this isn't what she had expected but she did as she was told, she didn't have a choice – people were gushing out of their rooms and pushing her forward - it was like an open buffet in there. Without a second thought she grabbed the gun from the soldiers hand and began to set it up just like Rick and Maggie had taught her and ran through the array of people and into the courtyard.

Looking up, two of the dogs had gone but the Alsatian had fallen and was now, ironically, a chew toy for the walkers who were ripping it open and munching on its meat. Beth gulped and took a step back; she turned and noticed walkers throwing themselves at the gate, attempting to bash it open. She scanned the area for Noah – after all this was her original goal.

All she saw was an display of chaos, men and women either dead and walking or being ripped apart, guns blazing and people running out of the building, in a moment Guillermo exited the building with Randy and Tracy, they all caught sight of Beth.

"Beth! What did I fuckin' say?!" G stormed towards her and grabbed her by the scruff of her neck.

"G! This isn't the time! We have to evacuate the building" Tracy turned to Randy. "Grab Dylan and some of the useful ones, then meet me by the truck" She ordered as Randy ran inside and she darted towards the large Chevrolet Silverado and hopped inside. Guillermo threw Beth down and growled at her.

"Good luck out here, Beth…I hope they don't get ya" He chuckled with a sinister tone and followed Tracy.

Beth was left sitting on the wet floor with a rifle in her hands, she inspected its ammo – 3 rounds, not nearly enough to take out the herd so she had to make the shots count – she wasn't leaving here without Noah. Struggling to maintain her calm she watched as people scrambled outside the gates in a hurry and many not making it a few steps without being downed – it was a total massacre.

Randy reappeared in a moment with Dylan by his side; they ran to the truck and took a seat in its back. Dylan made eye contact with her for a moment before it drove off into the distance. Beth watched in sorrow until suddenly a walker clasped its hands around Beth's shoulders, she shrieked and dropped the gun in fright – it pinned her to the ground and she struggled to keep it off of her, she looked past it and noticed that her yelp had attracted a fair amount of attention. Three walkers came stumbling slowly towards her, after a few seconds of struggling she threw the walker to the side and picked up the rifle, shooting it clean in the head with only a few seconds to spare – some walkers had now taken their attention off other people with guns to face her, she was being backed up against the chain-link fence and was quickly running out of options.

She gulped and panted desperately until more hands grabbed her through the fence, she yelped and frantically threw herself off of the walker and turned. The thing wasn't dead, it was alive and it was Noah. "Noah!" She squealed and clung onto the fence like a trapped animal.

"Hey, calm down! It's gonna be okay, climb it, climb the fence Beth!"

Beth turned and without a moment to spare began to climb the fence, dropping the useless rifle down on a walker's head, splitting his decaying head open slightly. She clambered up the fence as the infected began to rock it back and forth desperately trying to get to Beth, she reached the top and lost her footing slightly, causing her to slip and hold on, trying to keep from the walkers attempting to bit her through the bars.

"Beth! Drop down I'll catch you! Quickly!" He shouted and held his arms out – without hesitation she let go and landed safely in Noah's arms. She turned to look at him and she almost seemed to forget the chaos surrounding her before snapping out of it and hopping down.

"Any idea on where to go?" She panted.

"Far from here…"