No words could describe the shock that ran through me. Rick never seemed like the kind of man to kill someone. His morals looked to be too high to take a man's life. Of course he had no choice but to kill them; they did draw on him first.

Glenn and Hershel shared my shock, Glenn a bit more than Hershel. He whispered "Holy shit," as we slowly took steps toward Rick.

Rick looked to him. "You all right?"

"Yeah," Glenn huffed out. It was clear that he wasn't all right at all. He was shaking as his eyes moved to Rick.

Rick knew that this wasn't the kind of thing that Hershel would approve of. He looked to the old man and asked the same question, not sure if he would get the same answer.

The eyes on Hershel's face took a quick glimpse around at the two dead bodies on the floor. He didn't know what to think. The only reason he nodded at Rick was just to get out of the bar, away from the horrible scene that was before him.

"Ariel?" It was my turn to respond, but what was I to say? All of my words were gone with each bang of the gun.

I knew that he was waiting for me, so I chose the only response to get us out of here. With a slight nod, I gave my answer. "Yeah, I'm good." It may have been a lie, it might not have been, but I didn't care. I just didn't want to look at them anymore.

"Let's head back," Hershel suggested.

As the rest of us stepped away, Rick knelt down beside the fat guy and took his gun. He did a quick check for ammo and stood back up. None of us said a word to him about it.

Glenn thought what Rick just did was a good idea. He went over to the secong guy behind the bar and did the same. That was something that I did agree with. They didn't need the guns anymore, but we did. The more ammo we have, the better.

We were only feet from the front door when car lights flashed outside. Rick ordered that we get down and quick. It was more than likely that these people were with the bastards that Rick had just taken down.

Glenn and I took the right side of the door and Rick and Hershel took the left. We sat under the windows and readied our guns. If these people were anything like the ones were just talking to, we needed to be ready.

The sound of an engine pulled up right in front of the bar. The car doors opened and shut as someone stepped out. Footsteps walked lightly along as another car pulled up with more of their group.

One man walked up to the bar and called for his friends. "Dave? Tony?" He must have turned to another in the group. "They said over here?"

"Yeah," another man answered. "Im telling you, man, I heard shots."

"I saw roamers two streets over. Might be more around here." The gunshots must have started to attract walkers. We needed to get out of here before more showed up. This was the last placed we could be holed up. "It's hot. We gotta get out of here."

"Dave! Tony!"

A slap sound rang through the air. "Shut up, you idiot! You wanna attract 'em? Just stick close. We're gonna find 'em."

Glenn started to shake next to me. He was terrified of the people outside and I didn't blame him. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't scared. I mean, not as much as Glenn, but I held a bit of fear.

A shadow was cast over the cloudy glass on the door. One of the men tried to look in, but the other called him back. "Dude, I said 'stay close.'" Listening to his partner, the man walked away. I breathed slightly.

We waited near the door for a few minutes after the sound of footsteps disappeared. I knew that they were still out there. Their cars were still here.

Rick and Glenn tried to peek out the windows to see if it was possible to sneak out. They could not see much from their position, so Rick stood up. From his reaction, I could tell that they were still out there. He signaled for the three of us met him at the one side.

Glenn was having trouble containing his worry. "Why won't they leave?"

"Would you?" Hershel asked the scared young man. He was right. They were looking for their friend and refused to give up. If it were any of my friends, I'd be looking too.

"We can't sit here any longer," Rick spat out. He didn't want those men to come in here and see what he had done. God knows what they would do. "Let's head to the back and make a run to the car."

"Do you think we can make it?" I questioned. Did he forget that there are four of us here? We not be able to remain undetected.

But Rick wanted to stay optimistic. "We can make it."

Hershel and Glenn agreed to him. I had no other choice than to follow. We were going to have to run fast.

As soon as the four of us got to our feet, gunshots were fired. It sounded quite close. The fear flowed through us all and forced us back down to the ground.

I began to shake inside. I couldn't remember the last time I was this terrified. I'm not the one to get scared. No, my job was to remain brave and tough and strong. I wasn't supposed to allow the fear to get to me. That was a sign of weakness in the Dixon family. Weakness was not a thing that was tollerated. And it wasn't like I was scared of the walkers or the people. It was more of the possibility of not making it back to the farm. I wanted so desperately to go back to my brother and tell him how sorry I was that I left him there alone. I wanted to go back to Shane, to see him at least one last time. I wanted to go back to the group. They were my new family. That farm was my home and I was too stupid to see it before. I feared that I wouldn't get the chance to do any of those things.

We were able to hear the men outside, still. One told another that it was walkers they were shooting at. They were headed this way. Now, we definitely needed to get the hell out of this bar before we got stuck here.

I continued to listen to their conversation. They spoke about the buildings they had checked and come up with nothing. A man with a rough voice asked his group members if they checked the bar. When they answered 'no,' he became frustrated. "We're looking for Dave and Tony and no one checks the damn bar?"

They rushed up the steps. Rick readied his gun and I did the same. We didn't know what these people were going to do when that door opened.

Glenn panicked as the door opened slightly. He threw himself in front of it, forcing it closed.

"Dammit, Glenn," I whispered under my breath.

The men outside became alert. "Someone pushed it shut. There's someone in there." The same man called out to us. "Yo, is someone in there? Yo, if someone's in there, we don't want no trouble. We're just looking for our friends."

When we didn't respond, they spoke of a stragtegy. One want to break down the door, but that idea was shot down, allowing me to breathe a little.

The man called out again. "We don't want any trouble. We're just looking for our friends. If something happened, please tell us. This place is crawling with corpses. If you could help us not get killed, I'd appreciate it."

I stole a glance at Rick. With every word they had spoken, the more he freaked out. I could see it in his eyes that he was thinking about talking. I knew we were running out of options, but that couldn't be one.

"No, Rick. Let them leave." My voice was so low, Rick could hardly hear it. "They will leave."

The man's friend supported my theory. "Dude, you're buggin'. I'm telling you nobody's in there."

Rick began to rock as he put his hand to his head. This was getting to him and he was close to losing it.

"Calm down," I hissed. I wasn't getting killed because Rick had a conscience.

Their footsteps began to depart and we were all relieved. Glenn slumped down and Hershel looked up to the ceiling, most likely thanking God. I placed my knuckle to my forehead. The sound of their feet leaving this place behind was music to my ears.

"They drew on us!" Rick yelled at them.

That was it. "What the fuck? Rick, they were leaving!" My voice was filled with rage. I struggled to keep it low so the men wouldn't hear me. The last thing they needed to know was that I was in here.

Footsteps reapproached the bar. "Dave and Tony in there? They alive?"

I shook my head rapidly as our 'leader' answered. "No."

The friend begged to go back to their camp, but the man refused. "I'm not telling Jane. I'm not gonna go back and tell them that Dave and Tony got shot by some assholes in a bar."

The last statement really pissed off Rick. "Your friends drew on us! They gave us no choice!" He really needs to learn that people don't want to hear explanations anymore. They don't have the time or the paitence. "I'm sure we've all lost enough people, done things we wish we didn't have to, but it's like that now. You know that! So let's just chalk this up to what it was - wrong place, wrong-" But he didn't get to finish.

Glass shattered from behind Glenn as gunshots sounded and bullets flew through. We all jumped to the ground as more glass and bullets came flying at us. If Rick kept his damn mouth shut, we could be on our way home by now. But instead, we were protecting our lives.

Rick knew that he fucked up. He got to his feet and fired a shot outside. He turned to us. "Get out of here! GO!"

Hershel and Glenn listened and started to run to the back of the bar. I, however, stood beside Rick and shot at the closest guy I saw. I wasn't sure if I hit him or not because Rick started to yell again. "Ariel, go! I got you covered!" He fired again.

I never liked leaving anyone behind, especailly if there was a chance that person was going to die, but it didn't look like I had much of a choice. I kept my head down and sprinted to Glenn and Hershel. Rick jumped back down to the ground as soon as he saw that we were safe behind something.

The firing had stopped momentarily. We caught our breath and waited to see what they were deciding.

I looked to Rick as he was crouched down. I motioned for him to come and join us so we could get out. I would have covered him. I wasn't going to let any one of us die. I just wish that Rick kept his cake hole shut.

"Hey!" he called to the strangers. We all know this is not gonna end well!" Well, no shit. They're firing at us Rick. That was kind of an obvious thing. "There's nothing in it for any of us!" He needs to let his cop self go. These people were pissed and were not willing to negotiate. "You guys, just back off, no one else gets hurt." He reloaded his gun in case they decided not to listen, which they probably weren't.

A few more slow seconds passed and nothing. Rick saw the door behind me and motioned that I check it out. Glenn was close, so he followed.

The door lead to a back room. It held all of the bar's stock and merchandise. If we weren't seconds away from death, I would have considered raiding this place. We could always use a little bit of alcohol in this world.

We walked through slowly. Glenn insisted he go first down the small set of stairs. With each step, a stair would creak. About halfway down, Glenn stepped on an extremely loud one. He stopped, knowing that the men could very well be back here and waiting. When nothing happened, he continued on. When he was officially off the stairs, I hurried down them, trying to stay as quiet as possible.

Glenn was almost to the door when the rattle of a bottle outside made him and I stop dead. "Shit," someone said.

A shadow appeared on the glass of the door. The knob began to turn and again, Glenn panicked. He lifted his gun and fired. The shadow disappeared as the man fell to the ground. My gun was lifted just in case there were anymore.

"Glenn! Ariel!" Rick exclaimed from the front.

Glenn didn't wait for me to check out the scene. He answered Rick. "We're, we're all right. We're all right." He ran to the wall and prepared for the next wave of them.

I creeped up to the shattered window and peeked out. The man layed dead on the ground and there was no one else around. I walked back to Glenn. "You got him," I whispeed. "He's dead."

He swallowed hard and nodded, accepting it.

"You did good. You did good."

The two of us stood by the door and waited to see if anyone was coming. We didn't know what else to do. Rick probably had a plan in mind, but just forgot to mention it. It would have been real nice to know what we were supposed to do beside guard the door.

The creaking of the wood floor behind us caused Glenn to jump. He flung his gun around, thinking he was ready for a potental threat. It was only Hershel. He slowly pushed the gun away. "Sorry. Sorry," Glenn told him.

"It's nice of ya to join us, ol' man." I took a quick look around to make sure no more shadows were headed our way.

Hershel looked to the frightened young man. "Rick wants you to try for the car."

Glenn freaked out even more at Hershel's coice of words. "Try?"

"Not the best word to use. Can't ya see his freaking out?" I wasn't sure if I was truly concerned for Glenn's state of mind or if it was for my own. His words were making me tense as well.

"You'll try and succeed. We'll cover you," Hershel assured.

"That's a great plan," Glenn said sarcasticaly.

"No offense, but can ya even shoot?" I only asked because I noticed that he never went to Rick's gun training sessions.

"I can, I just prefer not to."

Glenn knew that this was the only option. He nodded quickly and headed for the door. His legs were shaking with every step he forced himself to take. The two of us stood by the side as Glenn pushed the double doors open. He took a quick peek out to make sure there wasn't any immediate threats and then took a step out. He bent down and took the dead guy's ammo and gun as Hershel and I kept watch. He then preceded toward the front where the car was parked.

A gunshot was fired from behind him and Glenn ran to the dumpster that was pushed against the fence. We didn't hear or see anything from him after that. Hershel and I looked quickly and shot when the culprit was found. We both fired a shot or two before he went down. He was still alive. His groans could be heard from twenty or thirty feet away.

Footsteps ran from behind us. Rick appeared with a worried look on his face. "What happened?"

"He fired." Hershel took a deep breath. "He must've hit Glenn. He's behind the dumpster. Doesn't look like he's moving."

Rick didn't think twice. As soon as he heard that Glenn could be in trouble, he marched forward. "You hit?" he whispered sharply to Glenn.

When he didn't answer, my heart dropped. We didn't do the one thing we said that we would do. We didn't cover him. He could be dead because we didn't react fast enough. I couldn't help but belive that he was a goner. He wasn't moving. He wasn't doing anything. I just couldn't take the thought of him dying. Not now, not ever. He needed to be alive. Please be alive.

A/N - Hey, everyone! I'm so so sorry that I haven't posted a chapter for this story in a long time. I've just been so busy lately and I haven't had time. Also, my laptop broke so I didn't have a way of writing anything. Thanks for staying with me and I hope this chapter was worth the wait. I promise I'll try and stay on top of posting more often. Please review this chapter and let me know what you think.