OVER THE EDGE
The loud snaps and cracks of wood splintering was constant as the guard tower continued to tip towards the interior of the community. Realising what was about to happen, Jason grabbed Carl by the shoulders and threw him to the ground, diving down next to him and covering him with his jacket as best he could. The creaks and groans got louder as the foundations of the wooden tower fragmented. The tower fell into the community, slamming down on the metal wall with a thud that echoed for miles followed by a crash that shook the ground beneath them.
Pieces of debris flew through the air from the impact of the tower crashing into the ground and smashing to bits on top of the flattened wall. A thick cloud of dust erupted from the wreckage and spread into the community, momentarily blocking out the sun and attacking their throats and lungs. Jason coughed deeply as his chest burned from the dust he had unintentionally inhaled, the corner of his right eyebrow throbbed but he ignored the pain as he stood up.
Jason pulled Carl back up to his feet. "Are you alright?"
Carl coughed a couple times as he nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."
Jason relaxed, grateful that Carl was unharmed. He took a moment to relax, knowing that had they been any closer they could have been killed as it came down.
"Jason, your eyebrow…" Carl pointed out in concern as the dust began to clear.
Jason brought his hand up to his right eyebrow and touched it, spotting fresh blood on the back of his fingerless glove. One of the pieces of splintered debris must have caught him. It throbbed painfully but didn't seem too deep a cut.
"I'm fine." Jason replied. "It's just a flesh wound."
He smiled to the younger teen until reality dawned on him. The tower hadn't been the only danger and for a moment he had completely forgotten about that fact. Jason felt a cold shiver run down his spine when he heard the drumming of slow, uneven footsteps trampling over the metal plates. He looked over at the shattered wall in horror as he watched the herd stumble through the dust cloud. The metallic clangs of the footsteps got louder and more frequent as more and more walkers poured in, rasping and snarling hungrily with bits of wood sticking out of some of them.
Rick looked up in horror as he watched the herd enter Alexandria and start making its way towards him. He quickly scrambled to his feet and ran a few metres away from them to gain some distance. The walkers were slow and easy to kill but there were far too many of them to fight and survive. They had to retreat.
"Everyone! Get back! Get into your houses!" Rick bellowed as he pulled out his Colt Python. "Go!"
Rick shot the closest walker to him, hoping he could distract the herd long enough for everyone to get away. The only way they were going to survive the invasion was by running and hiding. A herd of this size was unstoppable.
Jason unsheathed his machete and Carl unsheathed his knife. They ran towards the solar panels where the herd was flooding in with Ron hot on their heels. They had to get to Gabriel and help him and his congregation get to safety. The prayer group was already running but to their surprise Gabriel was staying at the back with his machete and had already killed a couple of the walkers. One walker was about to grab him but Jason shoulder barged it to the floor before slicing into the head of the one behind it.
"We'll get you to the church, come on!" Jason yelled.
Carl stabbed a walker in the forehead before running with Jason, Ron, Gabriel and the prayer meeting members towards the church. Fortunately it wasn't far from the solar panels so they didn't have much running to do. They made it to the church and threw open the door with the congregation piling inside along with anyone else who was in the street. Once enough people had gone in, Gabriel closed the door behind them.
"I have to help." Gabriel told them after Jason gave him a confused look.
Jason quickly kicked a walker away from them, knocking it into the oncoming group to slow them down. He nodded to Gabriel and grabbed Carl's hand as the four of them started running towards the house. The herd was flooding in rapidly and there were hundreds more still to come.
Rick was on the other side of the solar panels and was still firing at the walkers. He took out three in quick succession with well-aimed shots as he kept himself moving away from the walkers and from the others. He could only buy them so much time before he'd need to run for safety too.
"Rick!" Deanna called, rushing up to him amidst the chaos.
"You need to get back!" Rick demanded as he kept himself moving, firing at a fourth walker.
"We need to get back!" Deanna stressed, firing three shots at the oncoming herd with her own revolver before running after him.
All around them the herd continued its invasion, taking over huge portions of the land and sending an eye watering stench into the air as the corpses continued their march towards their prey.
Further up the street, Carol and Morgan ran away from the holding cell as the herd was rapidly upon them. As they ran as fast as they could, Carol tripped and fell to the ground, slamming the side of her head against the bricks. She shook off the dazed feeling and grabbed the bullets she had dropped, glancing up in fear as the herd advanced towards her.
Once she was back on her feet she ran with Morgan but found the street was starting to get blocked off by the herd. The walkers were closing in around them leaving them no choice but to try and enter the houses to their left. Morgan helped push Carol up the stairs before smacking a walker in the head with his staff. He then used his staff to push one of the walkers back into the crowd before he too ran up the stairs and into the house, slamming the door behind him.
Gabriel was a quick learner as he had already got used to slashing his way through the walkers. Jason, Carl and Gabriel formed a protective circle around Ron who couldn't attack the walkers head on. He had suggested using his gun moments before but Jason had demanded him not to as it the noise would just attract more of the herd towards them.
Jason slashed one of the walkers in the head, slicing into its skull with ease before pulling the blade out and kicking another walker away. There were too many of them to stand and fight so they had to keep moving, pushing through the herd and only attacking to create a path. He kept his eye on Carl at all times, making sure none of the walkers got too close to him. Jason knew Carl could handle walkers but all it ever took was one bite and he wouldn't let it happen.
"Rick!" Deanna called as the man knocked a walker to the ground with his revolver. "Look out!"
One walker was about to grab Rick from behind but Deanna got in the way, grabbing it by the collar and placing her revolver under its chin. The walker outweighed her small frame and started pushing her back. Deanna quickly lost her balance as a second walker attacked her so she fired her gun and killed the first one before falling back onto the workbench. She yelped in pain as a couple of the saw blades dug into her leg and side.
Rick quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her up, shooting the second walker that had fallen down with her. The herd was just about to close in on them at this point so Rick held onto Deanna as he forced her to run with him. Deanna gasped in shock and pain as she ran with him, feeling the warm flow of blood start to seep out of her wounds with each movement. There was no stopping the herd.
Maggie was still by the collapsed guard tower. She had started running back towards the watch point she had previously been occupying but the herd was gaining on her surprisingly fast. One walker managed to grab onto her, impeding her movement and slowing her down. She tried to break free but the walker continued to grab and push her until she fell forward onto her knees.
Maggie quickly rolled onto her back and started backing away as fast as she could. She knew she had to get back to her feet or she would be dead in moments. She fired her rifle at the walker that had knocked her down before aiming up at the next two advancing walkers. She killed them with quick headshots and backed away some more as the herd continued to advance. She was going nowhere fast.
She killed a third walker and then heard the click of her gun running empty. Maggie scrambled to her feet and ran for the ladder to climb up onto the watch tower. She made it half way up the ladder before the herd was upon her, reaching up and grabbing at her feet while moving the ladder around as they pressed against it. The ladder wasn't secure and too much movement would send it crashing down.
Maggie fought with the walkers and kicked herself free before climbing up high enough to grab onto the watch tower itself. As soon as she did the ladder shook violently before it folded up and collapsed into the undead crowd beneath her, leaving her hanging from the side of the watch point. Her muscles burned as she held her own weight, refusing to let go and fall to her death. She roared with effort as she pulled one of her legs up onto the platform, giving herself enough purchase to pull the rest of her body over the edge and roll into the middle of the platform.
The walkers below her crowded around the watch point, reaching their hands up in a desperate attempt to grab hold of their prey. They snarled and rasped hungrily while Maggie lay on her back panting, trying to get her breath back after such a close call. Looking up at the blue sky above her, she watched as Glenn's balloons floated overhead.
Jason, Gabriel, Carl and Ron rushed through the herd as best they could. The walkers were starting to spread out in all directions making it difficult to simply run away. The continued slicing and stabbing at any walkers that got too close as they headed for the main street. The hungry chorus from the undead seemed to get louder and louder as more of them flooded into the community.
"Come on!" Jason bellowed. "They're closing in on us!"
As he took the lead of the group he decapitated one of the walkers before shoulder barging another into a group. The herd was gradually forming a wall of rotting flesh around them, making it difficult to move. Carl stabbed a couple more walkers in the head as they got too close to him. Gabriel slashed his machete into the walkers when he could but he was starting to lose his nerve as they got closer and closer.
"Shit!" Jason cursed loudly.
The others looked ahead to find the herd had finally closed around them, boxing them in. They couldn't fight their way out because any time spent on one side would allow the walkers on the other side to advance. Jason considered his options. He had to get Carl to safety no matter the cost. He sheathed his machete and took hold of his AKMSU. Jason knew if he ran and fired the gun it would create an opening for Carl, Gabriel and Ron to get away but he also knew he would have to stay behind.
Carl noticed him grab the gun and seemed to instinctively know what he had planned. Before he could argue the case with his boyfriend, the walkers ahead of them dropped to the ground as their heads were swiftly sliced apart. Michonne stood behind them with her sword in her hands, blood dripping from the blade.
"Come on!" She called to them.
They didn't need to be told twice. The four of them ran with her towards the main street, resuming their tactic of striking any walkers that got too close with their bladed weapons. There was a large enough gap at the top of the street so they still had a chance to escape the invading army of undead. Once they broke through a smaller group of walkers they spotted Rick running up the street with Deanna at his side, a sea of corpses closely following behind.
"Rick!" Michonne called, getting the man's attention as they joined up with him.
"Good, you're safe!" Rick exclaimed. "Come on!"
Ron stayed by Deanna while Michonne, Gabriel, Carl and Jason kept to the sides. They sliced at any walkers that got too close while Rick and Deanna pointed them out. The street ahead was still clear so if they kept running they could make it to the houses. The herd was behind them and to their right side but the undead were slow and they were fast.
"There!" Deanna called out as Michonne sliced a walker with her sword.
"There!" She called out again, pointing out another walker which Gabriel sliced.
Two more walkers came from the same side which Carl and Jason dispatched with ease. The group stumbled to a stop when a large group of walkers came from the right and blocked the top of the street. The time it would take to kill them would allow the rest of the herd to catch up.
Before they could decide what to do, multiple gunshots rang out as the walkers in front of them dropped to the ground, their brain matter shooting through the air. As soon as all seven of the walkers dropped to the ground they spotted Jessie standing at the top of the street with her gun in her hands.
"Come on!" Jessie shouted. "I have Judith!"
The group ran with her towards her house. They crossed the street in record time, rushed up the stairs onto the porch and shot into the house, slamming the door behind them. Outside, the streets were being overrun with walkers leaving no safe zones outside of the buildings. Alexandria had been overrun.
The group rushed up the stairs, led by Jessie while Rick, Michonne and Jason helped carry Deanna up the staircase. Carl, Gabriel and Ron followed close behind as they all knew that it was safer to be upstairs than on the ground floor where the walkers might break in. Jessie shouted quick directions to them and guided them to a spare room with a sofa, the sound of Tiptoe Through The Tulips coming from one of the rooms.
"Go in there!" She shouted to them as she barged into her youngest son's room. "Sam, I need you to turn off the music and shut the blinds!"
"Because of the monsters?" Sam asked as he watched Rick and Michonne place Deanna down on the sofa.
Michonne knelt down by her side to tend to her wounds while Rick rushed out the room to deal with barricading the house against the herd outside. He watched as Carl and Jason quickly rushed past the door with Carl carrying a crying Judith in his arms.
"You stay up here and you stay quiet, it's gonna be okay." Jessie told him quickly, stroking his cheek with her hand.
"Mum…" Sam began, not believing her from the way everyone was acting.
"Honey, just try, just pretend you're somebody who's not scared." Jessie cut him off just as quickly. "Just try, okay?"
"Okay." Sam replied weakly, nodding.
"Okay." Jessie responded and kissed his forehead. "I love you!"
Jessie closed the door behind her after rushing out the room. She headed downstairs where Rick and Jason already were pulling the blinds closed and making sure the doors were all locked. The herd outside was massive, filling the streets completely like a dark, rotting river. Any noise or strong light that might catch the attention of even one walker could potentially be a death sentence. Jason knew from experience that in a herd, it only took one walker to be attracted to something for the rest of them to follow. The house wouldn't survive it.
"That should do for now." Rick commented, wiping the sweat from his brow now that they had all the doors and windows secured.
"We need a plan." Jason pondered out loud as they headed for the stairs. "We're not going to be able to stay here forever."
"We'll think of something." Rick replied as they ascended the staircase. "We can take a moment to catch our breaths and patch up Deanna before we make any moves."
Jason sighed in a mix of frustration and desperation. The herd wasn't going to move on for a very long time and the slightest loud noise could bring all the walkers on top of them. He didn't like it and he feared for their safety should anything unexpected happen.
Carol sat on the floor of the house she and Morgan had rushed into. She sat in relative darkness with her head resting against the wall as she listened to the chorus of groans from the undead army outside. Her right brow throbbed with pain as she felt the familiar warm trickle of blood drip from the wound. She had obviously been injured when she fell in the street outside.
Morgan returned from his position by the window and turned on a light, causing her to squint from the sudden change in brightness. She squeezed her eyes shut and rested her forehead against her hand as she tried to will the pain away.
"Let me take a look at that." Morgan offered, placing his stick on the floor and crouching beside her.
"No." Carol rejected him quickly, opening her eyes to look up at him. "I'm fine."
"You don't trust anybody, do you?" Morgan questioned.
"Some more than others." Carol answered honestly. She trusted Rick and Daryl. "But you're dead last."
Morgan smiled as he stood back up. "Well, at least we're being honest."
"I don't trust you but I never thought you were lying." Carol told him as he walked back over to the window. "How is it out there?"
"They're filling the streets." Morgan answered.
When he turned round, he watched as Carol rose to her feet and attempted to walk, pausing to look warily at the staircase beside her. She wasn't steady on her feet.
"Hey, it's probably a concussion." Morgan told her, rushing over. "You should sit down before you fall down."
"I am okay." Carol argued, swaying a little.
"Carol, whatever we have to settle it can wait." Morgan told her, leaving his stick against the wall. "It has to."
Carol nodded in defeat and slowly sat back down to rest against the wall again.
Rick and Jason reached the top of the stairs and quickly returned to the room where Deanna had been left. Michonne was still tending to her, bandaging the cut on her leg caused by the saw that she fell on.
"How is she?" Rick asked, relieved that they had a moment to catch their breaths.
"No offence to Michonne but whatever she's doing hurts like a son of a bitch." Deanna croaked in pain.
Jason couldn't help but chuckle. "Probably means she's doing a good job of it."
"I just finished with the leg and that seems to be the worst of…" Michonne trailed off as she lifted the bottom of Deanna's shirt.
She had spotted blood on the shirt and had expected it to be another cut from the saw. She felt her blood run cold when the source of the bleeding was revealed to be a bite. Deanna had been bitten when she fell on the saw blade and there was nothing that could be done. The bite was on her side and could not be amputated or removed in any way.
Rick's own expression turned to horror as he looked at the bite. He thought he had prevented Deanna from being bitten but he had clearly been too slow. The community was going to lose its leader and it was his fault.
Jason closed his eyes and rested his hands on his hips as he shook his head. This was the last thing they needed. No matter what happened now, no matter what plans they came up with, one of them wasn't going to live through it. Alexandria needed Deanna, she was the soul of the community and now she didn't have long to live.
Deanna looked at the bite and then at the grim expressions on the others' faces. She knew what it meant. Their reactions made it crystal clear that there was no hope for her to survive this. Suddenly faced with her own mortality, Deanna rested her head back on the pillows and held back her tears.
"Well…" Deanna groaned in grief and disappointment. "Shit."
Jason and Carl were in the room at the end of the hall. By the design of the bedroom and the size of the bed, it appeared to be Jessie's room. Carl sat on the edge of the bed and bounced his baby sister on his knee while Jason looked out the window. Outside, the once peaceful streets of Alexandria had been taken over by the undead. The walkers marched through the streets like a river of corpses. The constant chorus of hungry groans sent shivers down his spine.
Jason removed the magazine from his AKMSU and counted the bullets. He was glad he had grabbed the magwell extension as he knew the extra rounds were needed. The gun was fully loaded as were his two handguns, giving him plenty of ammunition to use should it be necessary. When he looked back out at the street, he realised that not even the one hundred and twenty bullets he could fire would put a dent in the herd. They were trapped between walls of steel and walls of death.
"Still wish your dad had let me lead the walkers away like I said I would." Jason commented with a sigh, resting his arm against the window.
"Why?" Carl questioned as he continued to bounce Judith. "This could have still happened."
"Yeah, it could have." Jason replied. "But at least most of the walkers would have been following me instead."
"But what if something happened?" Carl challenged him. "You could have died out there. Alone."
"And if I had, then any lives lost from now on would have been saved." Jason argued calmly. "It would be better than having everyone I care about trapped like this."
Carl sighed and placed Judith in her cot before wrapping his arms around Jason's waist from behind, looking out at the street.
"And I'd rather be trapped in here with you than worry about you." Carl confessed, pressing the side of his face against Jason's back. "I'm still glad my dad didn't agree to it."
Jason let out a shaky breath. "Deanna got bit. She's gonna die. It could have been you."
"Or it could have been you." Carl added, tightening his hold of Jason.
Jason broke the embrace and turned around. He held Carl's face in his hands and pulled him in for a gentle kiss, feeling himself relax into the kiss just like Carl did. When they broke apart, Jason stared into Carl's blue eyes and smiled softly, stroking the younger teen's cheek.
"I'll make sure you and Judith survive this." Jason told him. "I promise. Even if I have to kill every single walker out there with my bare hands."
"I know you will." Carl smiled and kissed him again.
Rick and Jessie looked out the window and onto the street outside. The walkers were grouping together so much that it was impossible to actually see the street. The herd almost looked like one single, shaking creature that lay inside the community. Despite it being half of the original herd at the quarry, it was still the largest herd Rick had ever had to deal with since he woke up in the hospital.
"The fever's setting in." Rick informed Jessie about Deanna's condition. "She doesn't have long. She knows how it happens, right? All of it?"
"Yeah, she knows." Jessie practically whispered.
"She's cracking jokes." Rick commented, his voice shaky.
Jessie placed her hand on his face for comfort. "Rick, she wouldn't have run."
Rick didn't respond right away. He felt responsible for Deanna's death and it was a piercing guilt that he was struggling to ignore. If Deanna had just run away she would have been fine, she could have survived this. Instead, she ran over to help him and got herself killed. He had to put things right.
"We have food and water to last us a while. They're bound to cluster up like that before they move off to one area." Rick explained to Jessie. He knew what walkers were like. "When they do, I'll try to get to the armoury, draw them away."
"With guns?" Jessie asked, unsure of the safety of Rick's plan.
"With flares. I'll open the gate and fire them off." Rick explained. "See if I can get them somewhere. Somewhere that's not here."
"The plans that you gave Rick, I've been looking them over." Michonne told Deanna as she sat with her. "I get it. They could work."
"Even now?" Deanna asked, her face slowly going pale.
"Even now." Michonne repeated with a smile, which Deanna shared. "The Latin in the margins, what was that?"
"It was something Reg used to say when things went really really bad." Deanna replied slowly, her strength fading.
Michonne smiled back at the dying leader. Despite the terrible situation and the fact that she was slowly dying, Deanna appeared to be in high spirits. She was coming to terms with her impending death and was making peace with herself.
"I'm lucky, Michonne. Working with my family towards a better future is all I ever wanted." Deanna explained with a weak smile as she reflected on her life. "That's what I got. I got to do what I wanted right up to the end."
Michonne felt her lip quiver as she listened to Deanna. Despite the positivity Deanna was radiating, it felt all the more tragic. Spencer was the only family that Deanna had left and because of the walkers, he wasn't going to be at his mother's bed side as she died. Her son wasn't going to get to say goodbye. It wasn't fair.
"What do you want?" Deanna asked the samurai.
"I want this place to work." Michonne answered firmly.
"Yes, but what does that mean for you?" Deanna pressed. It was a deeply personal question. "What do you want for you?"
Michonne thought for a moment. She had never stopped to consider what she wanted from life. "I don't know."
"You better." Deanna told her, not wanting the samurai to die with regrets.
The sound of someone clearing their throat caught Michonne's attention. She turned round to find Jason standing in the doorway with a grim expression on his face. When Deanna looked up at him he forced a sombre smile as he stepped into the room. Michonne gave a similar smile and grabbed her sword before leaving the room.
Jason sat down where Michonne had been seated and took Deanna's hand in his own. "Hey."
"Hey." Deanna croaked in response.
Jason hesitated for a few moments. "I wanted to apologise for before. I was pretty horrible to you, more than once."
"Forget it." Deanna answered with a small shake of her head. "It's water under the bridge or over the dam or wherever you like to put it."
"I'm still sorry." Jason pressed, squeezing her hand gently.
Deanna stared at him for a few seconds before smiling weakly. "Apology accepted."
Jason nodded, swallowing heavily. "I also wanted to thank you for this place and for letting us in. It's because of you that Carl and I have had so much quality time together. We wouldn't have had that out there."
"It wasn't just me." Deanna countered gently. Her husband and many others deserved credit.
"No but you were in charge. You were what kept this place together." Jason told her. "I'm not sure how we're going to manage without you."
"As flattering as it is, that's bullshit." Deanna replied with a smile. "You'll all make this place better, safer than I ever could."
Jason nodded as he reflected. "When I blackmailed you, you could have stopped me. You could have fought back. Why didn't you?"
"Because despite our differences I knew then, as I knew when I met you and as I know now, that you are a noble young man." Deanna answered, taking her time with such a long sentence.
"I wouldn't say I'm noble." Jason chuckled incredulously. "Far from it, actually."
"You are. You've always been honest with me." Deanna answered before challenging him. "So, be honest with me now. Will Alexandria survive this?"
Jason smiled and nodded. "Yeah, it will. We'll survive and rebuild." Jason smiled as he nodded. "We'll make this place better and safer. I'll see to it personally. For you."
Deanna squeezed Jason's hand and shook her head. "Don't do it for me. Do it for your family. For Carl. For Judith. Promise me."
Jason nodded slowly. "I promise."
"Good." Deanna smiled and let go of his hand.
Carl watched as Ron stormed through the house on the ground floor before disappearing into one of the rooms. He heard the door shut as he descended the stairs to check on him. Carl knew Ron would be struggling with the current situation as it was unlike anything he had ever experienced before. He needed support and advice.
"Ron?" Carl called quietly as he opened the garage door.
His eyes scanned the garage. The garage was filled with bicycles, exercise equipment, loose tools and bits of metal along with what looked like engine parts. He didn't know what half of the stuff was but the sports equipment was far more recognisable. Carl's eyes finally found Ron leaning over the work bench in the corner of the garage.
"Hey." Carl greeted as he stepped inside, closing the door behind him. "You alright, man?"
"Enid's dead, we're all dead." Ron croaked, his voice breaking through obvious tears.
"Look, my Dad's gonna figure something out." Carl assured his friend. "He always does."
"That's bullshit!" Ron retorted, whipping round and squaring up to Carl. "Your dad's just gonna get more people killed. Because that's what he does. That's who he is. Your dad's a killer."
Carl glared back at his distraught friend. "So was yours."
Ron stared past Carl, speechless. He was trying to process all the thoughts flying through his mind like a whirlwind. Rick and his people came to Alexandria and destroyed his previously peaceful life. Rick killed his father and then seduced his mother. Carl stole Enid from him. Jason bullied him and looked down on him. Rick's whole family just seemed to exist for the sole purpose of hurting him.
Carl could see the pain in his friend's eyes. "We need to work this out."
"I'm dead, Carl." Ron croaked. "My mum is dead. My brother is."
"No, they're not." Carl retorted as Ron walked past him towards the door. "We're gonna make it."
"You're dead." Ron growled as he locked the door. "You're dead too."
Carl watched as Ron pocketed the keys before reaching for his Glock. The crying, the resentment and the remark that he was going to die all suddenly hit Carl. Ron was locking him in the garage and was stupid enough to plan to shoot him. If he did, the gunshot would attract the walkers and get everyone killed.
"We're all dead." Ron finished as he turned around.
As soon as he did, Carl slammed into him with all his force, smashing him against the locked door and forcing him down. Ron roared with exertion as he pushed back against Carl, pressing his foot against the door before kicking off and sending them both crashing against a set of metal shelves before dropping to the floor.
Ron dropped the gun but when they crashed into the shelves they had knocked a shovel to the floor between them. Ron grabbed it as Carl scrambled to his feet to create distance between them, his mind racing to remember something Jason had taught him about fighting armed opponents. Carl ducked and side stepped as Ron slammed the shovel down at his head, missing and smashing one of the panels of the glass door instead. The sharp sound of glass smashing instantly attracted the walkers outside. Carl grabbed onto the shovel as well, keeping his arms loose so that he moved with Ron instead of getting yanked around, a small detail he remembered Jason mentioning.
Rick, Jessie and Jason all thundered down the stairs together, all of them having heard the commotion in the garage and the smashing of the window. Rick shouted Carl's name as the three of them reached the door and found it locked, the sounds of Carl and Ron roaring and growling on the other side.
Jason's heart pounded in his chest as he tried to work out what was going on in the garage. Had the walkers gotten in or was Ron attacking Carl? There had to be a reason for the door being locked and he needed to find out. Jason pushed Rick aside before shoulder barging the door in an attempt to break it down but he failed. As he heard more roars and banging on the other side of the door he tried to kick the door open, slamming his foot against the lock with a powerful kick that also failed to open it.
Ron suddenly surprised Carl by pushing him against the door again. He used Carl's loose arms to his advantage and pushed the bar of the shovel against Carl's neck, causing the other boy to gasp out as he choked from the pressure against his throat. Outside, the walkers broke through the gate and were marching towards the broken glass door now that Carl was in their sights. Carl tried to force the shovel away from him as he heard Jason, Rick and Jessie calling their names.
"Carl!" Rick shouted as Jason kicked the lock again. "Open the door!"
"Ron, open the door!" Jessie shouted as Jason kicked a third time.
"Carl!" Jason bellowed as he kicked the door a fourth time. "I'm coming!"
Jason slammed his shoulder against the door again, cursing in frustration as he tried desperately to get in. He slammed against it a third time, faster and harder than before. He needed to get into that garage. Carl needed him. He was stronger than this. He could break a door. Jason roared as he smashed himself against the door yet again before Rick grabbed his shoulder.
"Back up!" He barked and pulled out his axe.
Rick quickly started chopping the door handle and lock to separate it from the wood. The axe proved to be far more effective than Jason's brute force as the wood immediately started to splinter as the metal loosened.
Carl roared as he finally forced Ron back and shoved him onto his back on the floor. He quickly looked behind him as the first walkers reached the door and started snarling as they reached in. The corpses tried to reach the boys but were unable to as they pressed up against the door. Carl quickly tried to move the set of metal shelves and use them to block the door but it was a flimsy defence at best.
Ron watched Carl in a daze, his previous adrenaline and bloodlust fading away. He heard Rick chopping away at the lock as it broke apart with Jason barking for him to go faster. He turned to his left and grabbed his gun off the floor, tucking it back into the back of his jeans before scrambling for the door. The door swung open as Rick and Jason stood in the doorway, parting to let him rush past as Carl followed suit.
The wooden supports and glass panels of the side door broke and smashed as the walkers broke into the garage. They quickly flooded the room and marched towards the broken door that was being held shut by Ron, Jessie, Jason and Carl. The walkers pounded against the door, threatening to push it open now that it didn't have a lock on it.
"Watch out!" Rick barked as he and Gabriel brought a sofa through from the living room.
They rested the sofa against the door at an angle and pushed against it to keep it in place. They just needed to wait for the walkers to get distracted so they wouldn't pound on the door so much. Rick hoped that the sofa was heavy enough to keep them from forcing the door open.
"We need more and we need to be quiet!" Rick told the others as they wrestled with the walkers.
"I'll see what I can find!" Michonne replied and rushed off into one of the other rooms.
Rick, Gabriel, Jessie, Carl and Jason remained with the sofa, pushing against it to stop the walkers from forcing the door open and knocking it over. The strength of this group of walkers was impressive and it gave them a terrifying example of what the whole herd could do if it converged on one spot. It would tear the whole house down.
"Hey, what happened in there?" Rick asked Carl as Jason listened intently.
"We were looking for some tools and knocked over a shelf." Carl lied as they wrestled with the walkers.
"We heard Ronald." Jessie commented.
"Yeah, Ron saw them break through the gates." Carl lied again, making it up as he went along. "We had to move."
"That was an awful lot of roaring and shouting." Jason remarked cynically. He knew Carl and he knew when he was lying.
"It sounded like you were fighting." Jessie added, completing Jason's suspicion.
"Yeah, we were fighting them!" Ron retorted before storming off.
They all watched him go into one of the other rooms to be alone. He was acting strangely, regardless of the circumstances.
"Carl?" Rick challenged. "It's okay?"
Carl pulled away from the sofa and straightened his hat. "It's okay."
Carl rushed off to follow Ron, leaving Rick, Jessie and Jason with the sofa. Rick and Jason shared a glance. Jason knew exactly what Rick's glare was telling him. He didn't believe it either.
"I'll find out what really happened." Jason nodded to Rick before backing away and following the younger teens.
Carl opened the door to check he had found the right room before stepping inside and closing it behind him. Ron was at the far end of the room with his back turned to Carl, he looked much smaller and far less harmless than he had been moments before. Carl unholstered his Beretta and aimed it at Ron.
"Listen, I…uh…" Ron stuttered.
"Hand the gun over first!" Carl hissed at the other teen.
Ron froze with fear as the tables had been turned. "Carl, I'm sorry…"
Carl glared at Ron. He wasn't sorry for trying to kill him. He was sorry that he failed and was now having to face the consequences. He had lost the element of surprise and was scared. Ron was a coward. A violent coward. Just like his father.
"Yeah, I know!" Carl spat back. "Now give me the gun!"
Ron pulled out the gun slowly and held it by the barrel before handing it over to Carl. The young Grimes took the Glock and stuffed it into the back of his jeans, his chequered shirt hiding it from view as he holstered his own gun.
"Look, man. I get it. My dad killed your dad." Carl told him with a sigh. "But you need to know something. Your dad was an asshole."
Ron stared at Carl, unsure of how to respond. He wasn't wrong about his father but it didn't make it any less painful. Both teens jumped as the door opened and Jason stepped inside, closing the door behind him.
"Jason!" Carl began, putting on the act again. "We were just talking and…"
"Save it." Jason cut him off with a raised hand. "I'm not stupid."
Carl cast his gaze to the floor momentarily. He should have known better than to try and lie to his boyfriend, the very thing he had been angry at Jason for doing before.
"Don't worry. I'm not going to tell the others." Jason told the two younger teens. "You lied but right now that was the right thing to do."
Carl looked up in surprise. He expected Jason to create a scene or at least tell Rick the truth. Ron had tried to kill Carl and Carl had lied to protect him. It didn't make sense for Jason to do the same thing. As he thought about it, Jason crossed the room and squared up to Ron, grabbing the younger teen by his shirt collar.
"I hope you're listening very carefully because I'm only going to tell you once." Jason growled, glaring directly into Ron's frightened eyes. "If you ever try to hurt him again, you best pray something else kills you before I can. Because I'll make you suffer more than you can imagine. Understand?"
Ron swallowed thickly and nodded rapidly. He half expected Jason to do something to him right there and then. Jason wanted to but with the herd outside he couldn't risk it. He let go of the younger teen and turned to Carl without saying anything. The two lovers shared a look to make sure they were on the same page. They were. Jason would stay true to his word if Ron tried anything again.
A loud crash from outside brought them back to reality and their current predicament. Carl was the first to open the door as the three of them returned to the front room where Michonne and Gabriel were peering through the curtains at the herd outside. Jessie entered the room, recognising the crashing sound that had come from outside.
"They knocked the sculpture over." She told them, referring to the metallic owl sculpture she had built.
"All that noise." Michonne commented, cringing as she watched the walkers stumble closer. "It's drawing more."
Carl stood with his gun in his hands, preparing himself in case the walkers started to break in through the window or front doors. Jason stood beside him, keeping an eye on Ron while he gripped the handles of his AKMSU tighter. He knew something had to be done about Ron but the walkers were far more important. He felt uneasy. Something was bound to go wrong.
"Jason." Rick called quietly as he entered the room.
Jason nodded and walked over to Rick so that they were out of Carl's hearing range.
"What happened with those two?" Rick rasped, keeping his voice down.
Jason glanced over at Carl and Ron and sighed. He didn't want to tell Rick right away because the man had more important things to worry about. Yet at the same time he had given Rick his word he would find out the truth and he had. He had to decide who to side with. Carl or Rick.
A sudden loud cry from one of the upstairs bedrooms made everyone jump. Judith was crying for attention and was making full use of her powerful lungs. Jason exhaled a breath he didn't realise he had been holding. He was thankful for the interruption as Rick's attention was diverted to his baby daughter.
"I'll get her." He told the others before rushing up the staircase.
Jason turned back round to find Carl staring over at him. He could tell the younger teen was trying to work out if Jason had double crossed him and told Rick. Jason slowly shook his head and watched as Carl's shoulders dropped the concerns that had made them tense moments before.
Rick made it to the top of the stairs where he could hear Judith's cries even louder than before. Sam was still playing the music in his room, so Rick grabbed the door handle with the intention of telling the boy to turn off the music. However, the sudden silence from Judith prompted him to look up. He turned to his left and found the sofa vacant with only a patch of dried blood where Deanna used to be.
Rick's blood ran cold as he let out a shaky breath. Deanna might have turned already and Judith's cries could have led her walker-self right to the bedroom. Rick walked down the hallway, trying to be as quiet as possible so he wasn't taken by surprise. He pulled the axe out of his belt and reached the bedroom door.
Rick gently pushed the door open and felt horror shoot through his body as he spotted Deanna's body on its knees reaching into the crib. He tightened his grip on the handle of the axe and thrust the door open before rushing towards her to save his daughter.
"No! It's still me!" Deanna shouted quickly as soon as Rick grabbed her.
Rick let go of her and stepped back, his legs shaking from the sudden adrenaline and the terror of almost killing Deanna in cold blood. He lowered the axe as he panted, sweat running down his face as Deanna did the same.
"I'm sorry." Rick apologised and stuffed the axe into his utility belt. "I'm sorry."
"I wanted to see her one last time." Deanna explained, growing weaker. "I thought I could make it. My legs had other plans."
Rick draped one of her arms over his shoulder before lifting her legs and carrying her to the bed. He set her down gently and took another few deep breaths, noticing how much paler she had become.
"You and your plans." He commented with a smirk.
"They're yours now." Deanna replied, her breath shuddering as if she was cold.
"From now on someone needs to be with you." Rick told her, his face grim as they both realised what it meant.
"Yeah…" Deanna sighed, quietly resenting her impending death.
"It can't be her." Rick added, looking over at Judith.
"Yep." Deanna responded with a depressed smile.
"I'll find someplace else to put her." Rick told her, preparing to grab his daughter.
"Rick!" Deanna beckoned him back over, pulling out some pieces of paper. "I wrote something for Spencer, for Maggie."
Rick took the pieces of paper from her and pocketed them. "I'll make sure they get them."
"Will you look out for him?" Deanna asked the man beside her, resting her hand on one of his.
"I will." Rick replied, feeling tears stinging his eyes.
"Will you look out for him like you look out for your people?" Deanna asked, referencing their conversation from before the tower fell.
Rick stared down at her, feeling partly guilty for her not being able to properly say goodbye to her son. He also knew that he didn't care about Spencer like he cared about his own family. It wouldn't be right to make a promise he wasn't going to keep.
"Guess what?" Deanna challenged, sensing his inner conflict. "They're all your people, Rick. They are."
"We haven't had a chance to make it that." Rick countered. Deanna was still the leader, even now.
"But that's how it is." Deanna retorted with a smile. "I didn't run over to help you out there because I like you, or because I think you're a good man, a good father, or that you can grow one hell of a beard."
Rick couldn't help but smirk in amusement at that final remark. It was one of the first and few amusing conversations they had when he shaved the beard off completely. Everyone had passed some kind of comment.
"I ran over to help because you are one of us." Deanna finished with a wise smirk. "That's the right answer."
"You alright?" Morgan asked as he observed Carol sitting with her eyes closed.
"Just resting my eyes." Carol answered sleepily.
Morgan rested his stick against the wall and stepped down two of the stairs. He realised that they were above the holding cell, the very place he had wanted to keep Carol away from before the tower collapsed. At least he knew they were secure in the building.
The light that he had turned on earlier suddenly switched off, returning the earlier darkness. He ascended the stairs and looked at the bulb. When he did, he noticed that Carol had disappeared.
"Carol?" He called out in confusion.
When he received no answer, he started slowly making his way across the room. It wasn't a big building and there weren't many places to hide. He also knew that Carol wasn't stupid enough to go outside so she had to be up to something. A sudden movement caught his attention and when he turned to his left Carol slammed into him and knocked him off his feet before rushing down the stairs towards the holding cell.
Carol unlocked the door at the bottom of the staircase and rushed inside the cell with her knife in her hand. The sight that greeted her confirmed her suspicions. Denise was on her knees with an IV bag as she tended to a man in dark clothes with long black hair. On his forehead was the unmistakable W scar. The same man who had attacked Morgan in the house the day before.
"Get the hell away from him!" Carol barked at Denise.
"He's tied up he…" Denise attempted to mount a defence.
"I said get the hell away from him!" Carol repeated.
Denise quickly scurried out the way just as Morgan descended the stairs and stood between Carol and the Wolf with his staff at the ready. Things were not going according to plan.
"This could have waited. It should have." Morgan argued. It really was not the time. "Now it can't."
Jason stood in the front room with the others, Carl, Jessie, Gabriel and Ron, while Michonne searched the other rooms for more furniture that could be used as a barricade. They could hear the walkers outside on the porch, groaning and shuffling incessantly, watching the shadows pass by the curtains. Jason let his AKMSU fall by his side, held onto his shoulders by the strap, so he could place a hand on the back of Carl's neck. The younger teen instinctively tilted his head back, enjoying the gentle, comforting rubbing Jason's hand performed on the skin.
It was as they stood there, calm in the middle of a storm, that Jason realised it was too easy, too good to be true. One of the walkers tripped over the remains of the owl sculpture, creating more noise as the metal pieces skid across the wooden porch. The walker itself fell, slamming against the wooden board that covered the hole in the front window. The wooden board vibrated against the window with a sudden dull drumming noise. It was enough to attract the attention of the walkers on the porch. All it took was for one walker to bang against the board and prompt the rest to do the same.
"Shit!" Jason cursed as the board moved and a couple walkers peered in. They knew.
Jason rushed up to the board at the same time as Gabriel and Jessie. The walkers were pushing against the wooden panel which was already quite loose without the added pressure. There were so many walkers on the porch, making it difficult for the three of them to hold the board in place. They were going to get in soon, it was only a matter of when not if.
"Rick!" Jessie shouted for their leader.
Carl and Ron upended the coffee table and stacked it against the window but it provided little assistance to them. The walkers tore down the wooden board and started trying to reach in while continuing to press against the window. The group of living people on the other side were struggling to keep the hungry corpses at bay.
Rick rapidly thundered down the stairs and into the room, slamming up against the window with the others to keep the walkers from getting in. The window shook violently as both sides wrestled with one another as the commotion attracted more and more walkers to the house. The smell was nauseating and the noise of their snarls was deafening.
"There's just too many of them!" Gabriel exclaimed as he struggled to hold them back.
"Carl, get back!" Jason called as he reached for his machete.
The front door that had been barricaded with several heavy chairs and a dining table was forced open by the herd. The walkers started streaming in from there leaving the group no choice but to abandon the window as well.
"Everyone get upstairs now!" Michonne bellowed as she started slicing the walkers with her sword.
Jason held the line with her, splitting the skulls of the invading walkers with his machete. One of the walkers closed in on him but he shoulder barged it before forcing his machete into its skull. The blade got stuck in the bone, almost causing Jason to topple over as more walkers closed in. He kicked the closest walker back into the group behind it before pulling the blade free with a grunt of effort.
"Jason! Now!" Rick roared from the stairs as the walkers filtered in from two different openings.
Jason backed up to the stairs as Michonne and Rick pulled the upturned sofa away from the garage door and used it to block the staircase. The lower level of the house filled with walkers in record time as the corpses continued to flood in from now three different openings. The walkers tried to pile against the sofa but the hallway was too narrow and the sofa was at a perfect angle which prevented it from being moved. The corpses stretched out their arms at the group as they snarled in frustration.
"I got this one, you get the one behind it." Rick told Michonne, gesturing to the closest walker. "We're gonna need at least two."
Jason, Carl, Jessie and Ron stood on the landing and watched as Rick and Michonne killed the two walkers and manoeuvred them past the sofa. They dragged the corpses up the stairs and past them.
"Stay here." Rick told them. "You see any of them squeezing through you get me."
"If any squeeze through I'll take care of it." Jason responded, tapping the handle of his sheathed machete.
"You get me." Rick repeated just as sternly as he dragged the corpse into the room they had originally kept Deanna in.
Jason looked down at the walkers as he stood next to Carl who held his Beretta in his hands in case anything went wrong. He studied the rotting faces of the undead, their teeth snapping impatiently as they stared hungrily up at their prey. All those rotting, frightening faces that used to be living, smiling people. Each walker had a story, had a life before all of this. It was easy to forget they were once people.
"Do you ever feel sorry for them?" Jason asked his younger lover.
Carl shrugged. "Not really. They're not people anymore."
"True but they were people once." The older teen commented. "It's sad."
Jason let the silence remain. They were all considering it, all of them reflecting on the people they knew who had since died and turned. It was a sharp pain that never went away. When Jessie followed Rick through to the other room, Jason took a few steps closer to the door so he could listen in on their conversation.
"We're gonna need bedsheets!" Rick told them as Gabriel and Michonne stood to attention. "Enough for everyone!"
"Bedsheets for what?" Jessie asked, clearly confused.
"We all go to the armoury." Rick answered, pulling out his knife.
"How?" Jessie questioned, even more confused than before.
"We're gonna gut these things, cover ourselves with the insides, it'll mask our smell and make them think we're like them." Rick explained as he and Michonne got ready.
Jessie, Ron and Gabriel all looked back at him in a mixture of horror and confusion. The idea of walking through the herd seemed like insanity to them all.
"I've done it before." Rick added, sensing their fears. "We stay calm, we don't draw attention, we can move right through them."
"He's right." Jason added from the dividing doorway. "I've had to do it a couple times as well. It works."
"They're in the house, they're making noise, more are coming." Michonne added, trying to stress their desperation.
Rick and Michonne started cutting into the walkers, slicing them open to reveal their decomposing organs. The smell was horrifically wretched in the small, enclosed space. Gabriel lurched, close to vomiting while Ron went visibly pale. Jason lifted one of his gloved hands to his face as his eyes watered from the stench.
"Anyone who stays here is gonna die." Rick told them.
"If they manage to get past that sofa and make it up here we'll have nowhere to run." Jason added. "Too many walkers and too little space, we wouldn't even be able to fight our way out. We need to leave if we want to live."
"What about Deanna?" Gabriel questioned, reminding them all that she was still with them.
"She doesn't have long left but she has a gun." Jason answered. "She can stop herself from turning. If she can't, then I'll do it."
"You don't have to." Michonne told him, not wanting him to shoulder that responsibility.
"I know." Jason responded curtly. "But I can if she needs me to."
Rick and Michonne shared a look before they started scooping the insides out of the walkers' chest cavities.
"You don't need the knife." Morgan said as he stared Carol down. "We can talk."
"No, this is over." Carol responded, shaking her head as she held her knife out.
"We can be better than them." Morgan argued. They didn't have to kill the Wolf, he was no longer a threat to them.
"We are better than them!" Carol retorted. They weren't the ones destroying communities and slaughtering the inhabitants.
"Not if we kill!" Morgan barked.
"They made us kill. We had to stop it." Carol told him, remembering how she, Aaron, Rosita, Carl and Jason had defended Alexandria. "I had to stop it."
"Where there's life, there's possibility." Morgan argued. "Even if we never let him out."
"I'd get out." The Wolf commented, his face pale from the infection he had.
"Even if we never let him out!" Morgan barked over him. "He could know what he's done, he could know!"
Carol knew the Wolf didn't have a conscience. It was pointless. "I don't want to have to kill you, Morgan."
"You won't." Morgan countered calmly.
"I will." Carol spat back, her voice shaking as she brandished her knife.
"You can't." Morgan reaffirmed. "I won't let you."
Michonne opened the bedroom door and stepped inside, closing it quietly behind her. Deanna was laying on the bed with her eyes closed, her face ghostly pale and her hair damp from cold sweat. The only evidence that she was still alive was the laboured rise and fall of her chest. The samurai placed a hand on Deanna's arm as she sat down beside her.
Deanna shook as she woke, her breathing coming out in pants from the scare she had just been given. For a moment she had thought Michonne was a walker as she had dozed and had been dreaming. Her breathing slowed down when her eyes landed on Michonne and she realised she was safe.
"What's happening out there?" Deanna croaked weakly.
"They're getting in." Michonne explained. "The rest of us, we're gonna have to go."
Deanna's face fell as she understood the implication. She couldn't go with them because she was already on death's door. They were being forced to leave her to the mercy of the walkers and the infection that was destroying her body.
"If you want me to, I'll…" Michonne began, offering to euthanize her.
"No. Not ready. Not yet. I will be. Soon. And when I am." Deanna answered weakly, pulling out her revolver. "I'll do it myself. It's my life. From start to finish. Dolor hic tibi proderit olum."
Michonne recognised the Latin as the same from the plan's margins. "What does it mean?"
Deanna let out a tired breath. "Someday this pain will be useful to you."
Deanna stroked Michonne's cheek as the samurai's lip quivered, tears stinging the corners of her eyes as she took Deanna's hand in her own. She hated having to leave Deanna there, having to say goodbye to the leader of the community but there was no other choice.
"Go. They need you." Deanna told her, smiling.
Michonne nodded and stood up. "Thank you."
"For what?" Deanna questioned, confused.
"For believing." Michonne replied. It was the strength of Deanna's beliefs that had created Alexandria.
"I still believe. I cocked it all up but I figured it out." Deanna replied, grabbing Michonne's hand. "What do you want? Now you figure it out."
"I will." Michonne answered with conviction. That was one promise she would keep.
"Good." Deanna responded, smiling again. "Give 'em Hell."
Michonne returned to the room in the hallway as Rick was helping Gabriel cover himself with the walker guts. They had cut the bedsheets into ponchos so they could all wear them without the risk of them falling off. Jason was helping Carl and in return Carl was helping Jason. The samurai couldn't help but smile at the pair, they were more alike and more in-sync with one another each day. It was a beautiful thing to watch.
Michonne slipped on her own poncho and started scooping up the guts to cover the sheet. The smell was just as repulsive as ever but everyone was starting to get used to it. Rick had also started covering himself with the rotting organs and coagulated blood. This was their best bet of surviving the horde outside.
"We need to move." Rick said to Jessie, scooping up some of the insides for her. "You and me."
Jessie crouched down beside him. "I'll do it."
Just as she started covering her own poncho with the innards while Ron looked on in disgust, Sam's bedroom door opened. The music filled the room and riled up the walkers at the bottom of the stairs as the young boy looked on in absolute horror. He couldn't even begin to make sense of what he was seeing.
"Mum?" He asked in shock.
"You need to listen to me, okay?" Jessie tried to explain to him. "We aren't safe here anymore. We need to do this so we can be safe out there, we need to look like the monsters."
"No, please, no." Sam begged, terrified at the idea of going outside.
"Yes, Sam, please. Honey, we have to go, okay? We have to, Sam." Jessie argued soothingly. "Honey, just pretend you're brave, okay? Just make it all pretend, okay? None of this is real and you're somebody who isn't afraid, okay?"
"Okay…" Sam gasped out. He was on the verge of tears and so was Jessie.
Jason watched the two of them, listening to the conversation while studying Sam's face. He grimaced as he came to a predicted conclusion. The boy had obviously been protected from the world by his mother his whole life. Pete had been an abusive drunk, much like Jason's uncle, and the marriage had somehow survived past the apocalypse. Jessie had allowed herself and her children to be abused by that monster of a man for who knows how long.
The results of it all were clear. Ron was taking out his anger on Carl, trying to kill him because Rick killed his father. Jason wouldn't be surprised if Ron wanted to kill him as well, given that he didn't put up with any of the angsty teen's behaviour. Then through everything that had happened since with the Wolves' attack and the herd at the gates, Sam had been allowed to just lock himself away in his room. Jessie's best encouragement was for him to pretend and maybe he was really good at pretending. But what happened when he stopped pretending?
Jason sighed as he came to the only conclusion that there could be. The young boy wasn't prepared for the world, he wasn't prepared in the slightest. He was terrified, immature and naïve. In a few minutes, this frightened child was going to have to walk among hundreds of hungry corpses for what could be more than an hour. Jason didn't think Sam would make it. The boy was too fragile and it filled him with worry.
Ron was also still at the forefront of Jason's mind. His erratic and irrational behaviour could flare up at any moment. If he flew off the handle outside in the middle of the herd then they could all be killed. Jason's hand instinctively rested on the handle of his machete. If anything went wrong he would need to be prepared to kill either Ron or Sam or even both of them. He felt sick to his stomach at the idea of killing a young child but if it kept Carl safe then he knew he wouldn't hesitate.
"You okay?" Carl asked, his hand finding Jason's under their ponchos.
"Yeah, yeah. Just getting ready." Jason exhaled deeply. "For out there."
"We'll be alright." Carl affirmed. "We can do this."
Jason smiled and gave Carl a quick kiss. "I know."
"I will kill you to kill him." Carol threatened, her hand shaking as it held the knife. "Because I don't want anyone else to die!"
"You should kill me." The Wolf spoke up, knowing he'd finish what he started. "But you're all going to die. You don't belong here."
"You tell me you're sure." Carol continued, glaring at Morgan. "You tell me you know how it will happen, how it will go."
Morgan was about to speak but couldn't find the words. He had no way of knowing how it would all turn out, if he was making the right choice or not. There was a chance that the man he was defending could change, despite the despicable things he had done before. He could change and be helpful to the group. If he let Carol kill him there would be no way of knowing for sure.
"Step aside." Carol ordered with a venomous tone. "I'm not asking you again."
Morgan grit his teeth. He had to take the chance. He swung his stick and disarmed Carol, knocking her knife out of her hand. She quickly threw the keys at him before kicking his staff out of his hands and against his leg. Carol rushed for her knife but Morgan grabbed her leg, forcing her to try and crawl her way towards her knife, stretching her fingers to try and reach it.
Unfortunately, Morgan was larger and stronger than Carol and started to pull her back. She stopped struggling and kicked Morgan in the face, pulling away from his grip and grabbed her knife before scrambling to her feet again. She swung her knife at Morgan but he dodged and grabbed her arms, wrestling with her to prevent her from stabbing him. Carol broke free and wrapped an arm around Morgan's head but he used one arm to stop her knife while the other grabbed her leg to knock her off balance. As soon as she lost her balance, Morgan used both arms to lift her off her feet and slam her back down onto the floor, knocking her unconscious.
Morgan stared down at Carol's unconscious form, hoping that he hadn't done any serious damage in that moment. He barely heard Denise shout to him before a sharp pain exploded in the back of his head and forced him to fall to the floor. The Wolf stood over Morgan with the stick in his hands. It was time to make his escape.
"No!" Denise shouted, attempting to rush towards him.
The Wolf quickly pulled out Morgan's knife and pointed it at her, a satisfied smirk on his face. Things had worked out in his favour in a way he hadn't expected. He used Morgan's knife to cut the cloth that bound his wrists together, smiling at his new found freedom.
"Please." Denise pleaded. "Please don't."
"Don't what?" The Wolf asked, shaking his dirty hair out of his eyes.
"Don't kill them. You said they were already dead, you said I was." Denise argued, trying to appeal to his psychosis. "You don't need to kill us. Just let us die. Just let us die."
The Wolf appeared to think about it before picking up the keys and standing up, pointing his knife at Denise as he backed her up against the wall.
"You are so full of shit!" Denise spat at him as she tried to twist away from him.
The Wolf laughed in amusement. "You're what I like about people."
"Tara!" Rosita's voice sounded from the stairwell door.
The Wolf quickly moved himself behind Denise and held the knife to her throat as Rosita, Tara and Eugene entered the room. They all froze when they spotted him, with Rosita and Tara aiming their guns at him while Eugene hung back with his machete.
"Just be still." The Wolf told them calmly.
"Don't." Tara gasped.
"Lower the guns." The Wolf ordered, though the two women refused to do so. "Lower the guns."
Rosita and Tara knew it was best to do as he said, they couldn't afford to have anything happen to the only doctor in the community. They lowered their guns, glaring at the man.
"Good." He continued. "Slide them over. I want them."
Rosita and Tara slid their guns across the floor towards him while Eugene slid the machete over. The Wolf bent down and picked up Tara's gun before standing up straight and aiming the gun at them.
"You don't need her." Tara attempted to plead with him.
"No. I don't." The Wolf retorted as he made his way forward. "Back. Back."
The others backed up as he slid past them, holding the gun to Denise's head as he made his way towards the front door of the holding cell.
"You're not going to make it out there." Tara warned him, assuming he didn't know that the walkers had taken over the streets.
"We'll see." The Wolf replied with a laugh as he opened the door and backed out of it.
Rosita, Tara and Eugene watched helplessly as he backed up to the locked door and used the keys to unlock it. He opened it and guided Denise out with him, keeping his pace slow and quiet so they avoided being noticed by the walkers.
Jason, Michonne and Carl stood on the landing as Michonne peered down at the walkers downstairs. Most of them were simply standing still, others were shuffling around and the rest were still clawing at the sofa. The density of the herd wasn't going to get any easier to navigate but they would at least have more space outside.
"We have to go." Michonne whispered loudly to the others.
Rick and Gabriel came through to peer down at the walkers as well. Ron stood beside Carl, swaying on the spot nervously as his mother and younger brother came through to join them.
"We're ready." Jessie told them. "Ron?"
"Yeah." Ron rasped. Their lives were in the hands of his father's killer again.
"I'll get Judith." Rick told them as he headed back through.
"Rick." Gabriel stopped him. "I'm not going to give up out there. I will not turn back, no matter what happens."
Rick saw the conviction in Gabriel's eyes and nodded. "Yeah, I know."
Carl and Jason watched Rick walk down the hall to get Judith. Ron took this moment to glare at both of them before looking away again. Jason stared down at the walkers as his heart started to pound a little harder. In a few moments, they would be in the middle of the herd, in the eye of the storm with no way out. He inhaled slowly and deeply, willing himself to ignore the stench of death that was all around them.
Jason turned his head and stared softly at Carl. He couldn't control the gentle smile that crept onto his face as he admired his boyfriend's face. Even damp with sweat and a little pale from nausea, he was still the most attractive person he had met during the apocalypse. He was proud to call Carl his. Carl turned his head and met Jason's gaze, staring back into his eyes with his own bright blue orbs.
Jason thought back to Kellin. His deceased soulmate would have struggled to face such a grim situation. He could imagine him even now, holding Jason's hand tightly as he swallowed heavily, fearfully looking down at the herd. Kellin would have needed Jason by his side at all times to keep him safe and strong. It was a relief for Jason to know that Carl was different. Carl was a survivor just like everyone else in the group. Carl didn't need the constant protection Jason felt obligated to provide. Carl was brave and could fight the dead and the living. He would survive this with Jason and the next day they'd be able to celebrate their survival and their love.
"What?" Carl asked after Jason continued to silently stare.
"I love you, Carl." Jason replied with a wider smile. "And I promise I won't let anything happen to you."
"I love you too." Carl replied, blushing because the others could hear. "And I won't let anything happen to you either."
The sound of footsteps on the wooden floor signalled Rick's approach. He carried through Judith, who was blissfully unaware of the danger they were all in. Jessie lifted Carl's poncho so that he could take hold of his little sister. Carl had put on a harness under his poncho so his hands would be free while carrying her. The quiet little bundle quickly disappeared under the gut covered poncho.
Jessie checked that her gun was loaded before pulling her own poncho back down. Rick stepped forward and led the descent down the stairs. They walked slowly and quietly as Rick pushed the sofa out of the way and slipped through into the herd. The smell was horrendous and the sight of the walkers so close was terrifying. However, none of the corpses reacted to their presence. They were perfectly camouflaged as they walked through the undead.
Rick took the lead with Carl right behind him. Jason stayed close behind Carl with Jessie, Sam, Ron, Gabriel and Michonne behind him. The front room was packed with walkers from wall to wall in a way that reminded Jason of his busiest clubbing days before the world ended. It didn't take them long to reach the front door and walk through onto the porch as some of the walkers started making their way upstairs.
In the upstairs bedroom, Deanna lay in the bed and pressed the barrel of her revolver to the bottom of her mouth. She had reflected on her life, thought about her family and friends while reliving her most precious memories. Despite the miserable way her life had to end, it had most certainly been worth it. Her only regret was not being able to relive a single second of it. She smiled to herself, confident that the others would survive without her and that Alexandria would come back from this.
A sudden loud snarl interrupted her thoughts as she herd the walkers thunder up the staircase. Deanna grit her teeth as she used her remaining strength to lift herself out of the bed. She limped over to the door and opened it to reveal the herd of corpses stumbling down the hallway towards her. Deanna lifted her revolver and fired the first shot, striking the closest walker in the head. She smirked and fired again, killing a second walker, causing the others to trip over its body. This was her community and she would defend it to the end. She quickly fired three more consecutive shots, killing three more walkers with expert marksmanship before her revolver clicked empty.
As the rest of the herd thundered down the hallway towards her, she considered closing the door. She didn't have long to live and they would probably break through the wooden door eventually. She had also used up all of her ammunition, so she had to wait for the fever to finally kill her. The idea of waiting patiently for death to take her made Deanna nauseous. She was stronger than that. Alexandria was her community and she would defend it to the end. As the herd closed in on her she let out one last roar of defiance before they overwhelmed her.
The others stood together on the porch, surrounded by walkers in all directions. The walkers had filled the porch, filled the house and had filled the streets. Alexandria belonged to the undead and the group were in the middle of it all. They all had sweat trickling down their faces as they struggled to contain their nerves. From where they stood, they could hear Deanna's gunshots and final screams before the soundtrack of the dead dominated the air once again.
Gabriel observed the walkers anxiously. He rarely had to deal with walkers and up until that day he had never really fought them except for two occasions. He trusted Rick and the others, they had taught him how to fight and survive, they had taken care of him and hadn't killed him like he once felt he deserved. He said a quiet prayer in his mind, asking God to protect him through the upcoming ordeal.
Jessie stared out nervously at the herd. She was another who had very little experience with walkers and never could have imagined doing something as daring as this. However, the fact that they were standing in the middle of a sea of hungry corpses and hadn't been harmed proved that Rick had been telling the truth. She trusted the man she had come to love and knew she had made the right choice by entrusting her life and the lives of her children to Rick.
Michonne breathed evenly as she stood on the porch among the dead. She was no stranger to walking with walkers as her chained up pet walkers had helped camouflage her in a similar way. She could tell the guts were a much safer form of camouflage so long as they all remained as quiet as possible. They would get through this. She knew they would. They would live and continue Deanna's legacy as a way of honouring her memory.
Jason closed his eyes as he heard the shots fired by Deanna followed by her final screams of defiance. He bid a silent farewell to her and reminded himself of the promise he had made on her death bed. He opened his eyes again and scanned the herd of ravenous cadavers. He would make sure Carl survived this, he would help retake Alexandria so they could live safely and happily. He turned his head and squeezed Carl's hand, a silent reminder of his promise on the landing. He wouldn't let anything happen to Carl.
Carl squeezed Jason's hand in return and looked up at him. He swallowed thickly but felt protected with Jason and his father on either side of him. He was nervous nonetheless, he had never been in a situation where he was surrounded by walkers before and he knew there'd be no hope of survival if anything went wrong. Carl turned his head and stared up at his father for reassurance.
Rick stared back at his son with a look of determination. He was anxious but he knew they could walk through the herd. He would keep his family safe and they would work together to get the herd out of Alexandria. They would retake the community so that things could return to normal. They could survive this. They would survive this. He was going to guide them through it.
Rick took his son's hand. Carl kept his other hand clasped tightly together with Jason's. Jason took Jessie's hand, who in turn took Sam's. Ron took his brother's hand and Gabriel's. Finally, Michonne took Gabriel's hand and supported them from the back. Rick took the lead and Michonne took the back, keeping everything controlled and as safe as possible. With one last nod of determination, Rick slowly stepped down off the porch and onto the street. The others followed him, making sure to never let go of each other's hands as they entered the streets of Alexandria again.
The sun was low in the sky as they made their way through the herd. The streets were absolutely filled with walkers, making movement difficult as they had to be really careful so they didn't draw attention to themselves. The stench of death never seemed to fade, their senses refusing to get used to the pungency of it. The noise was deafening. The constant chorus of rasps, groans, snarls and growls that came from the undead as they meandered in search of their next victim.
It was unnatural to them all to be so close to the walkers. The abnormal experience of walking calmly through a sea of cannibalistic corpses was felt by them all. The horror came from the realisation that all the roamers used to be people at one point. People like them. Living people with memories, thoughts, dreams and loved ones. All of that was forever gone. If souls did exist, there were none among the bodies that shambled around them.
The most striking thing apart from the fetor was the appearance of the dead. Differences in their appearances told stories of who they were and how they died. Their clothes. Some worked in offices. Others were police officers. Many had been survivors. Their injuries. Some were missing arms. Others had gaping, fatal injuries near vital areas and for many the exact cause of death wasn't clear.
Some of the walkers still looked human, almost living while others had already began to rot into nothing. Lips missing, leaving exposed, grey teeth. Eyes or noses missing as they had been consumed or had simply fallen away over time. Hair falling out the more it got caught on sharp or rough surfaces. A few of them even showed exposed bones, highlighting the supernatural nature of the virus that created them in the first place.
Rick, Jason, Carl and Michonne kept their wits about them. They watched the walkers, looking for openings and any signs that they had been discovered. They reluctantly scanned the rotting sea for familiar faces in case some of the others hadn't made it. Fortunately they couldn't recognise any of the walkers. Jessie, Ron, Sam and Gabriel spent most of the time keeping their heads down in an effort to block some of the horror out.
Rick gradually realised that the walkers were absolutely everywhere. His estimation of them being able to surround the community twenty deep had been fairly accurate. There wasn't a single square foot of land that wasn't occupied by the walkers, leaving the group with very little chance of guiding the herd back out the gates. They would need to change their plans. Rick slowly guided the others off the street and onto a clear patch of grass close to the lake.
"Alright, new plan." He told them, keeping his voice low. "Flares from the few guns aren't enough. Too many walkers, too spread out."
Michonne and Jason stayed close but had their backs turned to Rick so they could watch the herd and make sure they weren't noticed. Carl did the same, not letting go of Jason's hand.
"We're not going to the armoury. We need our vehicles back at the quarry." Rick continued. "All of us drive, we'll need to round them up. We leave, we come back."
"Okay." Jessie nodded, trusting Rick implicitly. "But Judith? To the quarry and back…"
Rick hesitated. It would be a difficult trip if they were taking Judith with them, not to mention the extreme danger it would present for her.
"I'll take her." Gabriel offered. "Keep her safe in my church until you all lead the walkers away."
"Can you do this?" Michonne asked, mirroring Jason's own private concerns.
Gabriel smiled, remembering Jason's reaction when he had led the walkers back to his church in Georgia. The young man had almost killed him for nearly getting Carl and Judith killed and his anger had been totally justified. It was time for the priest to put things right.
"I'm supposed to. I have to." Gabriel replied, turning back to Rick. "I will."
Rick thought for a moment before nodding. Carl stepped closer to them, turning his back to the walkers as he raised his poncho. Michonne and Jason shielded him from the herd as he passed his confused baby sister to Gabriel. Gabriel held her lovingly in his arms under his poncho to keep her quiet as they prepared to move on.
"Take Sam." Jessie asked of him quickly. She knew how scared her son was.
"No." Sam quickly retorted. He didn't want to be separated from his mother.
"Yes, Sam. It'll be safer." Jessie told the young boy.
"I'm not leaving you." Sam argued stubbornly.
"Sam…" Jessie sighed. This wasn't the time for him to disobey her.
"Mum, I'm not." Sam insisted. "I can keep going."
"Sam." Jessie repeated, doubting him.
"I can keep going." Sam insisted slightly louder. "Please. Please."
Jason took a breath as he listened to the argument. The safest place for the boy was at the church, it was close by and would be well barricaded. However, if Sam were to have a nervous breakdown or get scared, then both Gabriel and Judith could die as a result. They couldn't handle Judith dying, it would be too great a tragedy. Perhaps Jason had been wrong about Sam. Perhaps he could survive.
"Let's just go." Sam finished pleading his case.
Jessie sighed. "Okay."
"I'm going to keep her safe." Gabriel repeated to Rick. His voice steady. Confident.
"Thank you." Rick replied. His voice unsteady. Nervous.
With that said, Gabriel walked past them and returned to the herd. He stayed on the grass and walked slowly, keeping his head down and making sure he took the shortest path to the church. He knew he could do this and he would. Jason smirked as he watched him go. Carl had been right when he stopped him from killing the priest.
"Hey, he's gonna make it, okay?" Jessie told Rick, noticing the nervous expression on his face. "I know it."
"She's right." Jason added, turning round to look at Rick. "He's one of us now."
Rick nodded nervously and reached his hand out. "Sam."
Sam took Rick's hand, creating a new order for them to walk in as they started making their way to the gates. Jessie took Sam's hand and then Carl's. Carl and Jason had never let go of each other's hands so Jason reached his other hand out to Ron. The younger teen looked at Jason's gloved hand reluctantly, not particularly wanting to hold hands with someone who had threatened him several times. Jason growled under his breath and forcefully grabbed his hand. Michonne then took Ron's other hand and maintained her position at the back of the group as they continued on.
Tara looked out the cell door at all the walkers out on the street. None of them could see her so it allowed her to observe them in relative safety. She was panicking, however, as her girlfriend had just been forced out there with a murderous psychopath. She had just let it happen and it was eating her up inside.
"We have to try!" Tara argued, insisting that they go after him.
"We cannot go out there." Rosita retorted. "There are too many of them."
"Rosita, he's gonna kill her!" Tara argued back desperately.
"We won't get to her!" Rosita countered aggressively.
"She needs us!" Tara barked as she marched up to the Latino woman.
"We'll die. That is what will happen. We have one gun and the streets are filled with those things." Rosita explained, proving that she cared but she was still thinking clearly. "That man needs her, okay? She's a doctor, he is sick and I think we've seen that he knows how to survive but we need to make sure that Carol and Morgan are okay and then we make a plan. We cannot just go."
Tara reluctantly nodded, holding back her tears. "Okay."
"Oh God." Carol sighed as Eugene helped her up, quickly working out what had happened. "Rosita, I'm gonna need your gun. I'm gonna do a sweep of the brownstone, I wanna see what other surprises are in here."
"Hey, he's waking up." Eugene pointed out as he crouched down next to Morgan.
Morgan patted the back of his head where the Wolf had hit him before sitting up more. He turned his body and scanned the room, quickly realising that Denise and the Wolf were missing.
"Where is he?" Morgan asked them, grimacing from the pain still throbbing through his head. "Where's Denise?"
"He took her, didn't he?" Carol asked rhetorically.
Rosita nodded and stood up, handing Carol her gun. The older woman took the gun and left the room, staying true to her plan of sweeping the entire building. Morgan watched her go, knowing that if anything happened to Denise it would now be entirely his fault in Carol's mind.
"Let's get you up." Eugene offered and helped him to his feet.
Rick continued to lead them through the herd. The sun had vanished below the horizon some thirty minutes before, leaving Alexandria in darkness as they continued to walk among the dead. The walkers seemed slightly more agitated at night but that could have been a figment of their imaginations brought on by anxiety and stress. They couldn't get used to the smell or the sound of them.
As he led the group through the walkers, Rick kept his axe in his hand. He didn't expect anything to go wrong but he preferred to be ready just in case. Jason kept a tight hold on Ron and Carl's hands, feeling more in control by being the dividing line between them. He hadn't forgotten that Ron had tried to kill Carl earlier and he'd make sure that was known once the walkers were gone. Carl made sure he kept his eyes on all the walkers that got close. All it could take was a misunderstood touch to set them off. Having Michonne, his father and Jason all close by made him feel a lot safer than he would be if he was alone.
Sam had taken a quiet yet morbid fascination with the walkers. He couldn't stop looking at their rotting faces. Missing body parts. Blood stained clothes. Torn open skin. Loose or missing eyeballs. Ripped lips exposing infected teeth and gums. Rigid, shambling gaits. Aggressive snarls of hunger. They were monsters.
The monsters will come and you won't be able to run away when they come for you.
Carol's words echoed in the young boy's mind. She had said them when he had caught her raiding the armoury for handguns. She had threatened to tie him to a tree outside should he ever tell anyone she was there.
The ones out there. They will tear you apart and eat you up all while you're still alive.
Sam froze when he saw it. Another walker mixed in with the crowd but this one stood out. It was a child, no older than he was. It staggered away in the opposite direction. That's what he would look like if the monsters got him. He'd turn into one of them and he'd wander around without a soul just like the rest of them. Just like Carol had told him.
Sam let go of Rick's hand, quickly getting his attention along with that of the others. Jason narrowed his eyes at the young boy who was frozen on the spot and cursed under his breath. He had been right all along, Sam couldn't handle being out there in the herd. Jason instinctively let go of Ron's hand as he rested his hand on the handle of his machete. He tried to prepare himself for what might be necessary.
"Sam?" Jessie questioned her son, trying to get him moving. "Sam, come on."
Sam didn't respond. He continued staring ahead at the child walker as he felt tears brimming in his eyes. His legs felt numb from fear. He wanted to be at home in his room. He didn't want to be out there anymore.
"Come on. Sweetheart? Sam?" Jessie continued. "Sam, come on."
"Come on, Sam." Rick attempted. The boy had been doing really well up until this moment.
"Sam, hey, you can do this." Ron whispered to his brother. "Sam, just look at mum."
"Honey, you can do it." Jessie tried to encourage him. "Sam, I need you to come with me."
Sam cracked. He let out a whine like a terrified puppy as he tried to speak. He tried to communicate his fear to them, to point out the child walker ahead of them. To tell them about Carol's warning but he couldn't. His body was shutting down as fear took over and he started to shake.
"I need you to come with me." Jessie told him. "I need you to be strong."
"I want to…" Sam choked out in terror.
Jason saw it first. He tried to react. He tried to move. He unsheathed his machete and stepped forward but he was too late. Two walkers behind Sam had heard him and quickly sank their teeth into his right shoulder and the left side of his head. Sam wailed in agony and fear as the walkers ripped into him, blood pouring down his face and body as his knees buckled and he fell to the ground. Jason cursed under his breath and sheathed his machete. There was nothing that could be done.
An ear splitting scream sounded from Jessie as she watched her youngest son get devoured. It was a sight no mother could ever be prepared to witness nor to cope with. She screamed again as tears rolled down her eyes while Ron looked on in an almost catatonic state. He had lost his father and now his younger brother.
"Jessie!" Carl tried to get through to the woman who wouldn't let go of her son's hand. "Come on, come with us."
Jason noticed the walkers were drawing closer, attracted by the feeding frenzy and Jessie's screams.
"Jessie, I'm sorry but we need to move." Jason hissed, constantly looking over his shoulder. "We have to go!"
It was too late. Before any of them could say another word a small group of walkers grabbed onto her and bit into her. They all went for the neck and shoulders, quickly silencing her screams as they ripped out her jugular, causing her to drown in her own blood. The walkers forced her to the ground as they started devouring her flesh.
Ron stumbled back in total shock. What little was left of his family had just died in front of him. They were all gone. He couldn't process it right away. He couldn't even cry. He just stood there like a statue as the walkers tore his mother and brother to shreds.
Rick shook his head in a mix of horror and disbelief. He didn't want to believe that the woman he had fallen in love with, the woman he had risked so much to save was now gone. In a few seconds he had lost her and he had been completely powerless. Rick didn't want to accept that he'd never get to see her face again, that he'd never feel her lips on his again, or that he'd never see her smile or hear her laugh. Everything he loved just seemed to always get taken away from him.
"Dad!" Carl called out to him, drawing the attention of more walkers.
Rick turned and saw that Carl was trying to pull himself free from Jessie's grip. Unfortunately, upon her death her muscles had tensed to the point where she had a vice like grip on Carl's hand. Even with Jason pulling Carl with all his strength wasn't enough to yank him free and as the walkers devoured her the closer Carl got to joining her.
"Rick!" Jason called out as well, growling with effort as he tried to pull Carl free.
Rick looked around at the walkers as they approached his son. The walkers had taken so many loved ones away from him. As he looked down at Jessie's half-eaten corpse he vowed to never let it happen again. The walkers wouldn't take his son or anyone else in his family. He pulled out his axe and with a silent plea for forgiveness, he slammed it down onto Jessie's arm. The limb didn't sever right away, so Rick slammed the axe down again, slicing into the bone. One more hit. He said a silent goodbye to Jessie and sliced the axe through her arm, cutting it off and freeing his son.
Carl and Jason both fell back on the ground as they had been pulling so hard. Carl's Beretta fell out of its holster and landed on the grass behind them. Rick kept his axe at the ready as he scanned the sea of corpses along with Michonne. None of them appeared interested anymore except for those taking part in the two feeding frenzies. They were safe for now. Carl and Jason quickly got back up but were confused to see Rick staring behind them with narrow eyes.
The click of a gun safety was enough to make both teens spin around on the spot. Carl's eyes widened in shock when he saw that his Beretta was now in Ron's hands and was being aimed directly at Rick. Ron's eyes were cold. The mixture of stress and shock was too much and he was in an even worse state than he had been in the garage. Jason quickly pulled out his Operator and aimed it at Ron's head.
"You…" Ron gasped out, glaring at Rick.
Rick was the man who had killed his father. Rick was the man who had led his family out into the herd to die. Rick was the man who had killed his entire family, just like he knew he would. Rick was going to die for what he had done. Then Carl would die for taking Enid from him. Then Jason would die as well. They would all die.
"Put it down or I'll kill you." Jason hissed. "I don't care if every walker hears it."
"You." Ron wasn't listening. He didn't care. He squeezed the trigger.
Jason was about to shoot him when suddenly Michonne's sword erupted out of Ron's chest. She knew he was going to pull the trigger and couldn't let it happen. Ron's eyes widened as his arms and legs splayed apart. His finger pulled the trigger and fired the gun but the bullet missed its target. Jason holstered his gun as Ron's body fell to the ground. Rick nodded to Michonne in gratitude as they all let out a sigh of relief. It was over. They were okay.
Jason turned to check on Carl and make sure he was okay after seeing his friend die in front of him. He froze when he saw blood trickling down Carl's cheek from under his hat. Rick noticed Jason's horrified expression and turned to look at his son. He too saw the blood running down Carl's cheek as the teen lifted his head and looked at his father. More blood poured from the hole where his right eye used to be. The bullet had struck his eye socket.
"Dad?" Carl gasped out weakly before collapsing on the ground.
"Carl!" Rick choked out. He couldn't lose his son.
Jason stared down at Carl's lifeless form. Blood had covered his cheek as it ran down his face and continued to pour from his eye socket. The wound itself was horrific. His eye was gone, blood was everywhere and there were sharp bone fragments sticking out of it. As Jason stared at the wound and Carl's motionless body he felt a cold shiver go through his whole body. His legs shook as his knees threatened to buckle and his face went white as a sheet. Jason grimaced as he swallowed down the bile rising in his throat. His chest felt tight, as if he suddenly couldn't breathe.
Jason squeezed his hand tighter. "Nothing will happen."
"How can you be so sure?" Kellin asked fearfully.
Jason kissed him softly. "Because I'll always protect you and keep us safe. I promise."
Jason let out a shuddering breath as the memories came flooding back to him. He had promised Kellin the same way he had promised Carl.
"What?" Carl asked after Jason continued to silently stare.
"I love you, Carl." Jason replied with a wider smile. "And I promise I won't let anything happen to you."
Kellin was gone now. The worst night of his life came back to him in violent flashes. The rain. The thunder. The dark, cold room where they sat together. Kellin's bite and his dying wishes.
"I love you. I love you so much and I always will." Jason told him, squeezing his hand as his tears continued to fall.
"I love you too. Always." Kellin replied weakly. He smiled. That same smile Jason had fallen in love with the first time they met.
Kellin's breathing stopped and his grip on Jason finally loosened. He was gone. Just like that, the most important person in Jason's life, the only reason he had made it this far, was gone. The last person in the world that he was prepared to lose now lay dead in his arms. Jason wailed with grief, his tears falling on Kellin's lifeless face.
Despite all his promises and best efforts, he had failed. Jason had vowed to never let what happened to Kellin happen to Carl. He had known all the way back when they met that he wouldn't be able to handle losing someone so close to him again. Jason had insisted that Carl learn to fight, to wield different weapons and think like a survivor. In the end, Ron, the snivelling little bully that Jason had wanted to kill had been the one to destroy his life. In one final act of accidental cruelty, Ron had taken Carl away from him. In a fraction of a second Jason's world had come crashing down around him.
An inhuman bellow of horror erupted from Jason. It echoed around them as his heart broke into a million pieces, each shard stabbing and cutting his insides. He looked around as the walkers approached him. They were to blame for it. The walkers had taken everyone away from him in some form or another and this had been the last straw. Jason unsheathed his machete and sliced into the head of the nearest walker with a roar of rage. Another walker tried to grab him and received the large blade to the face as a result.
Rick noticed that there was no blood under Carl's head. The bullet hadn't gone through his head so there was still a chance he could be saved. He rushed forward and picked his lifeless son up in his arms. Michonne started running in front of him, using her sword to kill any walkers that got in their way as they ran for the infirmary. They had to get Carl to Denise as fast as possible and they wouldn't let the herd get in their way.
Jason slammed his machete down into the skull of another walker as he kicked another one away, the corpse falling back against its companions. He ripped the machete out of the walker's skull and spun round to decapitate another one. Any that got too close he quickly kicked them hard enough to knock them on their backs. They wouldn't take him. He wouldn't let them. Jason quickly bent down and picked up Carl's gun and fired it to stop one of the walkers from grabbing him.
Jason threw off his poncho and draped it over the heads of a couple walkers, blinding them and preventing them from biting him as he slashed another in the head. He fired three more quick shots from the Beretta, killing each walker with a perfect headshot. He moved forward, knocking a couple walkers off their feet before shooting another two of them and slashing another with his machete.
When Rick heard the gunshots he looked back in time to see a walker on either side of Jason bite his arms. He cursed and yet again silently asked for forgiveness as he turned around and continued running with Michonne. They couldn't save both Carl and Jason so they had to choose one. Carl was the most important person in Rick's life and he was determined to get him to the infirmary and save his life. He wouldn't let him die.
Jason roared wildly, stumbling as the walkers bit into the sleeves of his leather jacket. Their teeth squeaked loudly against the material as Jason tried to quickly shake them off. When he couldn't shake them loose, he spun himself around quickly, knocking the walkers off balance and using them to knock the herd back a couple steps. When one of the walkers finally let go, he used Carl's gun to shoot the other one off him. Jason hacked at the head of the nearest walker and knocked its corpse back as he ran forward. He had to keep moving.
Jason ran through the herd, trying to keep himself to the widest areas as he continued firing Carl's gun. Each shot he fired struck a walker in the head and ended its existence. Any other walkers that got too close were sliced and slashed with the long blade of his machete. He couldn't feel the movements he was making, it was like he was running on auto-pilot. His body moved for him as he continued to kill the walkers without stopping for a moment. Jason knew if he stopped he would die. He wasn't ready to die yet. He had to take vengeance against the apocalyptic world of the undead.
Tara looked out the cell door at the walkers in the street. They all appeared to be getting drawn to the gunfire. She shuddered to think who was stupid enough to be firing a gun in the middle of a herd that size. She knew whoever it was had very little chance of surviving. They were just sounded the dinner bell with each pull of the trigger.
Morgan, Rosita, Eugene and Carol had all heard the shots as well. Whoever it was had clearly been putting up one hell of a fight before their gun ran empty, or the more likely and far more grim possibility, they had been overwhelmed by the walkers. There was no leading them away. They were too spread out. A plan of action would need to be put into place to distract the walkers or to kill them, though the chances of such a plan working without fatalities seemed very slim.
"Sooner or later we're fighting our way out, just like whoever that was." Eugene commented to Rosita. "I know that you're fully aware that we will."
"Yeah, we will. Not you." Rosita spat back as she also wondered who had just gone down fighting.
"Well, by my reckoning…" Eugene started to put up an argument but was cut off.
"Eugene, come on." Rosita retorted before walking away from him, leaving him to stare at the blade of his machete.
Upstairs, Carol had finished checking the building and had made sure they were safe and secure inside. She headed over to one of the windows with the hopes of catching a glimpse of who had been fighting the walkers. She sighed as she stared out at a crowded but otherwise calm street.
Carol sat down and rested her forehead against her hand. Perhaps the gunshots had been someone she cared about making a final stand before death. Perhaps the gunshots had been the Wolf and Denise before the herd overtook them. At the thought of that possibility, Carol felt the guilt inside her squeeze around her heart. If she had just killed Morgan then she would have been able to kill the Wolf and save Denise.
Approaching footsteps startled her and caused her to stand up and aim the gun at the doorway. Standing there, stick in hand, was Morgan. The man she had failed to kill. The man who wouldn't kill, not even the worst people. She inhaled a shaky breath before lowering the gun and turning back to look out the window.
"You had a child, right? A husband?" Morgan asked, finally working out why Carol carried so much conviction with each action. "I didn't want to hurt you, I just had to stop you."
"You saved him for you, not us. If it was for us you would've…" Carol trailed off, the wounds of her past still stinging her along with her guilt. "I should've killed you. I should've."
"You can't." Morgan retorted after a few moments.
Carol felt herself shake. He was right. Despite everything she had done, everything that had been necessary, she knew she couldn't kill him. All the lives that she had taken had been dangerous people in some form. Morgan wasn't dangerous or evil. He was just misguided and stubborn. Attributes he would no doubt apply to Carol as well.
The sound of a metal shutter opening snapped her out of her thoughts. She grabbed her gun and rushed out onto the terrace to see what was going on. To her surprise, Carol spotted the Wolf pushing walkers out of the way to clear a path while Denise followed behind.
The Wolf turned and called out to Denise. "Come on!"
Carol took her shot and fired twice, both bullets striking him in the chest. Denise looked up with a shocked expression when she found Carol with her gun in her hands.
"Go!" Carol shouted. They weren't far from the infirmary. "Go!"
"Go!" The Wolf echoed as he grabbed a walker and pulled it down with him.
Denise ran past him as the walkers tore into his bleeding chest while Carol looked on from her spot on the terrace. She couldn't shake the feeling that something didn't feel right about what had just happened.
Jason shoulder barged a walker out of the way before side stepping another. He slashed the next walker in the temple with his machete before kicking it away. Another closed in on him but he grabbed it by the throat and decapitated three others that closed in on him, growling loudly at the hungry corpses. He continued to push through the herd, using the one at the end of his arm as a shield to help control them a little better.
Jason slammed the machete into that walker's skull before kicking the knee of another walker. He chopped off its head with a powerful vertical strike and ducked under the next two walkers so he could get some space. Once he was past them he turned back around and beheaded both of them before making his way towards the van that Eugene had used to save Glenn weeks before.
He slashed and hacked at any walkers that got too close to him as he ran for the vehicle. He needed to create space and put a dent in the herd at the same time. If he stayed on the ground slashing too long he knew he would get overwhelmed and killed. Jason scrambled up on the bonnet and climbed onto the roof. He looked down at all the rotting faces as he sheathed his machete and grabbed the grips of his AKMSU with both hands. He had close to eighty rounds in his assault rifle and he was going to use them all wisely. Jason had to kill the walkers quickly so they didn't knock him off the van by rocking it too much.
He opened fire on the corpses, making sure each bullet hit a walker in the head. He refused to waste a single bullet. He refused to leave a single walker alive. His failure to act had caused the death of Kellin and now he had lost Carl as well. Jason bellowed furiously at the walkers to get their attention as he kept shooting them, disgusted at the sight of their decaying faces.
Aaron opened the door to the infirmary as Denise rushed in. He quickly slammed it behind him and hoped that none of the walkers had noticed. They had been lucky so far as none of the walkers had even paid them any attention for the last couple hours.
"You okay?" Spencer asked her quickly.
"I'm fine." Denise answered, out of breath from all the running. "How are my patients?"
"They're doing well, we moved them upstairs just in case." Heath explained, earning a sigh of relief from Denise.
"Oh my God…" Aaron gasped as he looked out the window.
Outside, running across the grass and heading for the infirmary were Michonne and Rick. Michonne was easily recognisable as she sliced through walkers with her sword while Rick followed her carrying Carl in his arms. They were running as fast as they could throw the maze of undead cannibals.
"It's the kid." Heath pointed out. "Is he bit?"
"No." Denise declared. She remembered hearing screams and gunshots. "I need bandages, top shelf next to the sink, two IVs from the fridge and all the clean towels you can find. Aaron, grab the gurney."
Everyone did as they were told. Aaron wheeled the gurney into the centre of the room, Spencer grabbed the bandages and Heath grabbed the IVs while Denise rushed over and opened the door just as Rick came thundering in, Michonne hot on his heels. Rick quickly carried Carl over to the gurney and placed him on it.
"Is this a gunshot wound?" Denise asked, needing details immediately.
"Handgun, close range." Michonne answered as she slammed the door shut behind her.
Rick looked down at his son's lifeless form. It was the first time he had got a proper look at the horrendous injury he had sustained. His right eye had been completely obliterated by the bullet along with parts of the eye socket, causing bone fragments so stick out and run red with blood.
"Please save him." Rick croaked out as his whole body shook. "Please."
Denise started working on him immediately, turning on the light so she could get a better look at the injury and work out what to do.
"That's gonna draw them here!" Spencer hissed at her.
"I need the light!" Denise retorted as she tried to stop the bleeding.
"Where's Jason?" Aaron asked Michonne as he prepared to help Denise.
Michonne tilted her head to the gunfire. "He's still out there."
"Jesus…" Aaron muttered before being called over by a desperate Denise.
Michonne helped Rick, who appeared to be in shock, by removing his disgusting poncho after removing her own. Rick pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger as damp locks of hair stuck to his face. He had just witnessed his girlfriend and her family die in a matter of minutes and had almost lost his son right after that. He got over Lori's death but he knew he'd never get over Carl's.
Rick watched as they went to work. All of them but him. He had led Carl and the others out into the herd. It had been his idea so he was responsible. He shook with shock and could barely understand a word of what Denise was saying as she barked orders to the others. Rick peered out the window from behind the blinds and saw the walkers advancing towards the infirmary.
Then he heard it. The sound of gunfire. The shots were spread out. Precise. They weren't panicked but instead were being aimed well. Rick realised it was Jason firing the shots and when he squinted he could see gunfire in the distance. Jason was alive and was fighting the herd. Rick glanced back at his comatose son. He had been forced to abandon Jason in order to save his son and had succeeded. He knew that when Carl woke up he'd want to see Jason. Rick owed it to Carl to go out and save him too.
The walkers were closing in on the infirmary, drawn by the light enough to make them ignore the distant gunfire. If the walkers broke into the infirmary then Carl would die. He couldn't let that happen. He couldn't let Carl die and he couldn't let Jason die. Too many people had died on his watch and many of them to the undead freaks that littered the streets outside. It was time to make amends and to stop anyone else from dying. Rick pulled out his axe and opened the infirmary door.
"Rick, what are you doing?" Michonne called in horror. "Rick?"
Rick didn't answer her. His mind was focused on one thing. Killing every last walker in Alexandria. He was going to finish what Jason had already started.
"Rick!" Michonne yelled as the door closed behind the former sheriff.
Rick marched along the porch towards the herd. The walkers snarled loudly as they spotted him and gravitated towards him. With a roar of effort, Rick slammed the axe into the head of the closest walker before kicking it away. He quickly turned and slashed a walker to his right followed by one on his left. The next one he rolled over his body so it fell to the ground before receiving the axe blade to the head.
Rick slashed another walker with the axe before grabbing one by the throat and pushing it back. As he pushed it back he killed two more walkers before slicing the skull of the walker he was holding onto. Rick continued swinging at the walkers as they closed in around him. He had to defend the infirmary and draw some of them away from Jason who he could still hear shooting. Rick was hacking through the walkers at a rapid pace, something that he couldn't keep up forever.
Inside the infirmary, Michonne was holding Carl steady while Denise worked on his wound. The doctor had been cursing the horrendous injury as it refused to stop bleeding which forced her to take much longer. She was slowly working on some temporary stitches that would give her more room to work and more time to work with.
"Rick's out there!" Michonne told her in a blind panic.
"Hold on." Denise told her calmly.
"He needs my help!" Michonne argued.
"Just one more suture." Denise told her as she continued to work on Carl's eye.
"He's out there!" Michonne cried desperately.
"This is his son." Denise responded, glaring at her. "Give me a second."
"He's taking them all on just like Jason." Aaron commented as he watched from the window. "We have to go get them."
"What?" Spencer questioned, incredulous.
"We have to." Heath replied. It wasn't right for them to stay hidden inside. "This is it."
Denise finally finished the sutures. "Okay, got it."
Michonne quickly kissed Carl's forehead before grabbing her sword and rushing out the infirmary with Aaron, Heath and Spencer. They all slashed and stabbed their way through the walkers as they rushed towards Rick. He was easy to spot, standing in the middle of a large circle of undead freaks. He was about to be overwhelmed.
Rick growled angrily as he pushed a walker back and slashed at another. He was getting tired and wasn't killing them fast enough. The walkers had boxed him in so all he was doing was delaying the inevitable. He jumped when the head of a walker behind him split apart as Michonne burst through the rotting crowd to help him. Rick nodded in silent thanks as he noticed Aaron, Heath and Spencer also killing walkers.
The five of them quickly formed a circle formation with their backs to each other. This way they could all fight the walkers and only have to worry about the corpses in front of them. There was no fear of being attacked from behind anymore, allowing them to focus and be more precise with their attacks. If the walkers got too close then they simply pushed them back as they killed them. They could all still hear the gunfire from the other side of the community.
"We have to get to Jason!" Rick shouted to them. "We fight our way through!"
Despite their formation and determination, there were still far too many walkers for just five people to fight off. They were doing very well, killing a walker every ten seconds or so but they didn't have enough people to keep all the walkers at bay. It was only a matter of time before someone got bit.
"Knock them away!" Rick commanded. "Drive them down!"
The sound of a door slamming shut was heard close by and Rick spared a moment to look over in the direction of the sound. Rushing down the street, stabbing and slashing walkers, were Olivia, Bruce and Eric. They quickly joined the formation changing it to an eight person formation. This strengthened their defence considerably and gave the walkers very few gaps to squeeze through. There was a chance.
"We can beat them!" Rick bellowed confidently. "We can beat them!"
The group of eight continued down the street. They kept themselves moving as Rick guided them towards Jason. The gunfire wouldn't last forever as Jason would inevitably run out of ammo and Rick was determined to get to him before that. He owed a lot to his son's boyfriend and the least he could do was help to keep him alive. They would get to him and they would kill all the walkers in Alexandria. They would take their community back.
Jason continued shooting the walkers that grouped up around the van. He had to shoot faster because the herd kept coming and some of them were rocking the van back and forth making it difficult for him to keep his balance. A carpet of dead bodies surrounded the van courtesy of his previous gunshots. Jason roared at the walkers as he fired ten final shots before his AKMSU clicked empty. He cursed and let it drop to his side before pulling out his TRP Operator handgun.
Jason held the pistol with both hands as he shot at the closest walkers, making sure each time that he shot them in the head. Regardless of how many walkers he killed they just kept coming, some of them tripping over the bodies of their deceased companions. Jason's handgun clicked empty after he had killed ten walkers, forcing him to eject the magazine and toss it to the ground before slamming in a new one. He was going to have to move.
Jason moved to the front of the van and quickly shot the ten closest walkers one after another, their brains splattering onto the concrete as they dropped dead once again. Jason holstered his gun and slid down the windshield of the van until his feet hit the ground. Once there, he reached into his inside jacket pocket and pulled out his second handgun, the Taurus PT909 he kept for insurance.
Jason held the pistol in his left hand and quickly started firing shots at the advancing walkers. With each shot fired he would rush forward, slashing any other walkers with his machete using his right hand. All the gunfire had attracted a large portion of the herd to his location which was making movement much harder than before. He growled and grunted with effort as he sliced their skulls apart and blew their brains out as he kept moving.
An object on the ground caught his eye. He fired at four more walkers while slashing at another eight as he ran. The walkers continued to snarl and growl hungrily as they continued to advance towards him, their teeth clicking together with desperate bites. Jason ducked under the arms of a walker to pick the object up off the ground before kicking another walker in the knee cap. Once it was down he chopped off its head before spinning round and shooting two more walkers that had got too close for comfort.
Jason sheathed his machete quickly and backed up onto the grass where there were less walkers. The area he was in seemed to have mostly dead bodies which meant the herd was dispersing in another direction. He could have swore he heard distant shouting, like the barking of orders. Perhaps he wasn't the only one putting up a fight. Jason fired the remaining six rounds from his Taurus before it clicked empty as well.
Jason returned the gun to his inside pocket and took the brief moment he had to grab the object with two hands. The object was Carl's sheriff hat. It had fallen off his head when he had collapsed and had been left behind by Rick and Michonne. Jason swallowed thickly and glared hatefully at the incoming walkers as he placed the hat on his own head. He would wear it in Carl's honour as he killed all the walkers that he could.
"Kill me if you can!" Jason hollered at the herd as he unsheathed his machete and his knife.
The walkers snarled as if they were galvanised by Jason's challenge and advanced towards him. The walker right in front of him had its skull split in two by a vertical strike from the machete while the walker to Jason's left had its temple stabbed with his knife. Jason pulled both blades out quickly and beheaded two more walkers with his machete before stabbing another in the forehead with his knife. Jason was far from finished.
"That's it!" Rick barked at the group. "We do this together!"
Gabriel stood inside the church and watched the group fighting the herd outside. He bounced baby Judith in his arms as he looked at his congregation and the other residents who had managed to make it to the church. They were all just sitting inside, waiting for the walkers to disappear while Rick and the others were outside risking their lives.
Gabriel shivered as he remembered the screams of his previous congregation. How they had come to him for sanctuary after Atlanta had been bombed only to find themselves locked out by the man who had married them and baptised their children. He remembered how they had screamed and wailed in fear and pain when the dead attacked them. He had sat inside his church and listened as entire families were torn apart.
To their credit, Rick's group had accepted him and taken care of him despite what he did. Even after all the horrible things he had said to them they kept him around. They kept him safe and refused to kill him even though he had given them every reason to. He wasn't going to stand by and watch as they suffered the same fate as his old flock.
Gabriel walked up to Anna. "Can you take her?"
Anna nodded with a gentle smile as Gabriel passed Judith to her. "Of course."
He smiled back before heading towards the front of the church, grabbing his machete off one of the chairs as he made his way to the front door. Tobin watched him in disbelief.
"Gabriel." Tobin took a step towards him. "What are you doing?"
"We've been praying together. Praying that God will save our town." Gabriel explained to them, smiling confidently. "Our prayers have been answered. God will save Alexandria because God has given us the courage to save it ourselves."
Tara entered the main room after having watched the herd from the front door.
"Guys, it's thinning out there in front." She told them.
"We need to get out there." Carol told them. "Rick's making a stand."
"How's that?" Eugene questioned, surprised at how anyone could stand up to the herd.
"He's out there fighting them with Michonne and some others." Carol answered. "It's time. Up the alley, I'm going."
Carol handed Rosita her gun back before turning to Tara.
"Denise is safe." She informed the younger woman.
"Did you see her?" Tara questioned, relief washing over her.
"Yeah, she made it to the infirmary." Carol replied, glaring at Morgan. "I'm gonna go help Rick."
"I'm going too." Morgan declared, gripping his stick.
"I'm with you." Rosita stated, following Carol out.
"Alright, me too." Tara breathed out as she prepared herself to fight the herd.
"Right behind you." Eugene added.
"Eugene, you don't have to!" Rosita exclaimed, spinning round to face her usually cowardly friend.
"That's incorrect, I do. No one gets to clock out today." Eugene answered with conviction. "And Hell, this is a story people are gonna tell."
The walker herd continued to march down the streets towards the commotion caused by Rick and the others. They continued hacking, stabbing and slicing at the undead army that surrounded them, leaving dead bodies littering the streets. Rick cursed under his breath as he realised they had lost track of Jason. Without the gunfire it was almost impossible to find him. Rick could only hope that the young man was still alive.
Rosita, Carol, Tara, Morgan and Eugene emerged from the alleyway to join the others. They dashed in between the remaining walkers, stabbing those that got too close to them as they made their way towards the group. Morgan quickly knocked a walker to the ground with his stick but froze when he saw its face. It was the Wolf he had kept in the cell.
"I'm sorry." He muttered to the rasping, snarling walker before he killed it.
He quickly followed the others and joined the group. The group was turning into a powerful force of defiance against the herd. Rick continued to guide the group as he hacked at the walkers with his axe. Michonne sliced them into bits with her sword. Aaron, Heath and Eric stabbed them with their knives. Spencer crushed their skulls with the butt of his gun. Olivia, Kent, Bruce, Francine and Gabriel hacked at the walkers with their machetes. Tobin and Barbara were also present as they sliced and stabbed the starving corpses.
With the addition of Carol, Rosita, Tara, Morgan and Eugene to the already powerful group of survivors, the circular formation was proving to work perfectly. No matter how many walkers came at them the stumbling cadavers were pushed back and killed by the eighteen strong defensive formation. There was no chance for any walkers to slip past them and they were making progress against the herd. If they could keep it up they would have Alexandria back.
Jason growled and roared as he continued to cut his way through the walker herd. He stabbed a walker in the eye, whipped the knife out and stabbed another in the eye before beheading two more walkers with his machete. His arms burned with exertion as sweat poured down his face from under Carl's hat. He roared at the walkers as he kicked and pushed them back when they got too close before launching his counter attack with his bladed weapons.
Blood splattered over his chest and face as he ripped the blades out of the softening skulls of the infected. Tears brimmed in his eyes and fell down his face, blurring his vision as he continued fighting the herd with the same aggression as before. Jason cried out in a mix of rage and grief with every powerful strike he delivered to the undead. They had taken so many people from him and he couldn't handle it anymore.
Jason bellowed as he beheaded a walker and stabbed its companion in the forehead. After Kellin had died from a bite he had been completely alone and lost. Walkers had taken his parents from him, had taken his best friends from him and had destroyed the camp he stayed in before. After he had been stabbed out on the road and nursed back to health in a hospital by some of the kindest people he had met, they too had been wiped out by the undead.
Jason had vowed to stay alone. He had decided to survive for as long as he could until something or someone finally killed him. He had always assumed it would be one of the ravenous undead that would finish him off, just like they had done to everyone else in his life. What Jason hadn't been expecting was meeting a whole new group of survivors and one special survivor in particular.
He would be lying if he said he didn't instantly take a liking to Carl, though that initial interest was not romantic in nature. It didn't take him long to start falling in love with the younger teen because of his kind nature, his optimism and his incredible inner strength. Jason felt he could relate to Carl and be understood by the boy. It had taken him by complete surprise when he discovered that the attraction went both ways.
If Jason were to die tonight, to be overwhelmed and consumed by the herd he was continuing to fight against, he could die content. Although he was determined to kill every walker in Alexandria for what they had done and the pain they had caused, he was at peace with life. The last couple months with Carl had been the happiest they could have been, especially the last few weeks in Alexandria. They had been given the opportunity to be a proper couple and behave like they would have done before the world ended.
Jason would forever be grateful to Deanna and her people for making that possible, along with Rick for allowing the relationship to blossom. He had never expected to be happy during the apocalypse but they had all made that possible, especially Carl. Carl was the best thing to have ever happened to him since the world ended and Jason wasn't ready to face the world without him. He would pay everyone back by destroying the herd and then he could finally rest. He refused to be without Carl.
The walkers around him continued to snarl loudly as they tried to grab and bite him. Jason grimaced as more blood splashed across his face as he continued hacking them to pieces and stabbing their brains out. Jason kept moving forward, killing every walker that crossed his path while an increasing number of the hungry corpses slowly followed him wherever he went. He would kill them all soon enough.
Maggie grit her teeth as she held onto the wooden panels of the guard post she was trapped on. There was a group of at least fifty walkers below her and they kept slamming against the support beams, causing the wooden platform to sway back and forth. Every loud creak made her heart stop for a moment as she expected each one to be followed by a loud crack. It was only a matter of time before the whole thing came crashing down on top of the walkers.
"Hey!" A voice suddenly yelled from the street level.
Maggie peered down as she heard four gunshots and discovered her husband, Glenn, standing among the walkers firing his gun at them to get their attention.
"Over here!" Glenn yelled at the walkers as he continued firing his gun at them, killing any that got too close. "Come on! Here!"
"Glenn!" Maggie shouted, relieved to see her husband alive but all to conscience of the incredible danger he was in. "Glenn!"
"Over here, come on!" Glenn shouted, trying to get the attention of more walkers as he fired shots and punched a walker to the ground.
"Maggie!" Another voice called.
Maggie turned to her right to find Enid climbing up the support beams and onto the dividing column between the wall and the guard post. She carried a long line of fabric with her that could be used to help her climb down the other side of the wall.
"Enid?" Maggie called back in disbelief.
Glenn continued shouting at the walkers below, dashing in between them and shooting any that were too close. He was trying his best to be as loud as possible but the majority of the walkers at the guard post were ignoring him.
Enid walked along the dividing beam as fast as she could being very careful not to fall. If she fell from there she would be killed by the walkers below. Maggie reached out a hand and helped Enid onto the guard post once she was close enough before turning back to watch her husband fight the herd that was closing in around him.
"Just go!" Glenn hollered to them. "Just get over!"
"No!" Maggie shouted back and pulled out her revolver.
Glenn had backed himself against the wall with walkers approaching him from all other directions. He shot the ones that were closing in faster than the rest but he was fighting a losing battle. Maggie fired her revolver and killed one of the walkers but when she pulled the trigger again her gun clicked empty. She cursed as she was forced to watch her husband with no way of helping him.
Glenn shot a walker and shoved another back. He pushed a third walker away before shooting it and then shoved a couple others back. They were rapidly closing in around him and he had nowhere to go. All he could do was keep pushing them back and shooting them in the head as quickly as possible. He knew Maggie had a chance to escape and that was all that mattered to him.
"No! Glenn!" Maggie cried as she banged her revolver against the wood to attract the walkers. "Over here!"
The walkers ignored her. They continued to rapidly advance on Glenn, completely boxing him in and making escape impossible. Glenn pushed another back and shot it before doing the same to another. The next walker he pushed survived when his gun clicked empty, forcing him to pistol whip it instead. He grunted as he pushed them back and pistol whipped the incoming walkers. He could hear Maggie crying his name as the herd overwhelmed him completely.
Suddenly, a loud barrage of gunfire sounded from the top of the front gate. All the walkers around Glenn collapsed to the ground as their skulls exploded under the onslaught of bullets. Glenn covered his head with his arms and slid down the wall into a crouched position to avoid getting hit by any of the stray bullets. He looked up, as did Maggie and Enid, to find Abraham and Sasha standing on top of something behind the gate.
"Can you get the gate? Appreciate it, pal!" Abraham shouted and laughed as he opened fire on the walkers yet again.
Glenn quickly rushed over to the main gate while Abraham and Sasha covered him with their gunfire. He unlocked it and pulled open the large metal gate with a grunt of effort to reveal a fuel truck with Daryl at the wheel. Daryl slowly pulled in so that Abraham and Sasha could help Maggie and Enid off the guard post. Glenn rushed round and got into the cabin of the truck with Daryl.
"What the hell happened?" Daryl asked, shocked to see the place overrun with walkers.
"I don't know, I just got back." Glenn answered, panting. "Listen, we can lead some of them away but they're scattered."
"Naw, we'll get them all together." Daryl replied, already working out a plan. "Won't have to lead them away."
Daryl banged his fist against the roof to signal to the others that he was moving before driving off. He drove through the streets towards the lake, knocking over walkers on his way before reaching the lake in the centre of Alexandria. He reverse the truck towards it before pulling the handbrake and getting out.
Glenn, Maggie and Sasha rushed out and started stabbing walkers in the head to defend the truck while Daryl went round the back. He grabbed the fuel line and opened it so it could start pouring out of the tank and into the lake itself. His plan was to set the lake on fire and all the fuel from the truck would help to accomplish that.
Jason continued marching forward through the herd, a sizable portion of it following behind him the entire time. He slashed the heads apart of walkers with his machete in his right hand while stabbing walkers in the head with his knife in his left hand. His limbs burned from the constant fighting but he couldn't stop. There were still more walkers that needed to die. Jason's clothes were damp with blood and his hair was soaked with sweat, the dampness keeping Carl's hat firmly locked on his head despite all his rapid movements.
Jason cursed as he roared and growled at the walkers while he cut into them with his machete and knife. His night was supposed to have been spent with Carl. He had planned the whole thing out, they would have dinner on the roof together to reminisce on how they met. He then planned to make love again. The following day was going to be a day dedicated to just the two of them, he didn't care what anyone said. It had to be just them.
Jason snarled as he beheaded another walker, more blood splashing over his face. He didn't care how he looked. He didn't care that his clothes were red with walker blood. All he could think about was how things were supposed to have been. He was supposed to have discussed his future plans with Carl, about what they were going to be for each other. Jason had been thinking about Glenn's comments about marriage since the day before and they had been starting to make sense to him.
Jason wanted them to be something more than just boyfriends. In the regular world, two months was hardly any time at all and was far too soon to be thinking about anything permanent. This wasn't the regular world anymore, this was a world where anyone you cared about could die at a moment's notice. Too many times he had spoken to someone in the morning only for them to be dead by the afternoon. He didn't really care if Rick approved or not. He wanted to recognise how special his relationship with Carl was.
Jason felt the tears mix with the blood on his face as his chest tightened. None of that was going to happen anymore. Carl was dead, killed by a combination of Ron's cruelty and Jason's lack of preventive action. Jason would never be able to express how much he'd be willing to give for a second chance. It was the only thing he wanted. More time with Carl. The one thing he could no longer have. Jason bellowed angrily as he slammed his machete into yet another walker, the group behind him growing in number.
Rick's line of defence were being pushed back. They had reached the other side of the community where Jason had originally gone to, evident by the number of corpses littering the street. Unfortunately he was long gone, leaving Rick to worry that he had been overwhelmed somewhere else and was already dead. All he could do was focus on managing the group and he would focus on finding Jason later.
The vast majority of walkers were coming from only one direction, straight ahead. This allowed the group to focus their assault better as everyone was participating. They slowly backed up until they created a half circle against the wall behind them. This was their last line of defence. This was their final stand against the advancing herd. Bodies littered the ground with many of the walkers tripping over them before being executed by the variety of weapons the group were wielding.
"Back up!" Rick bellowed to them.
They had to back up a bit more and let the walkers that were filtering out of the street spread out. Their assault would be much more effective if the walkers started spreading out in even directions instead of coming at them as one large mass of rotting flesh. Rick knew they were all tired, everyone was struggling to keep up the defence but they ultimately had no choice. This was a battle that would go down to the last man standing if it had to.
Jason beheaded a walker before dashing across the street. He ducked and dodged the walkers that reached out with cold arms in a desperate attempt to grab hold of him. On the other side of the street, he stabbed a walker in the eye before rushing down the flight of outdoor steps. He had made it to the armoury and the sizable portion of the herd that had been following him was about to catch up to him.
Jason knew he had to bide himself time to reload his weapons so he quickly knocked the door open and rushed inside. He grabbed the first gun he laid eyes on, Rick's Norinco Type 56 rifle he stole from Terminus. He checked that it was loaded before rushing back out of the armoury and practically jumping up the stairs to get back onto the street level.
The herd that was following him had grown in size and made it impossible to escape anywhere but back down the stairs. There was at least a hundred walkers closing in on him leaving him no other option but to raise the assault rifle and open fire wildly. Jason screamed angrily as he waved his aim back and forth between his left and right side, keeping it aimed at head height as he continued to squeeze the trigger. The rifle bucked strongly with recoil as Jason wasn't familiar with the weapon and his arms were tired from all the exertion.
Blood, brain matter and skull fragments flew into the air as the wild barrage of bullets tore through the herd. Some bullets shot through more than one walker due to how clumped together the approaching herd was. The walkers at the back tripped over the bodies of those that had already been killed before also being shot in the head with the assault rifle. When the weapon stopped firing due to lack of ammunition, Jason used it to crush the skull of the closest walker before rushing back down the stairs and into the armoury once again.
Jason threw the rifle down on the floor and grabbed a magazine for his AKMSU, ejecting the old one before slamming the new one in and pulling back the bolt. He let it hang by his side as he grabbed extra magazines for his two handguns as well. Jason breathed a sigh of relief as he finally reloaded all his weapons but his relief was cut short when a pair of stiff, cold hands grabbed his shoulders. Jason cursed and lurched his head forward, hoping he could keep his neck and the back of his head away from the incoming set of rotting teeth.
The walker behind him snarled hungrily as it tried to sink its teeth into his flesh but Jason constantly shook his whole body from side to side as he tried to fight the walker off him. He spun around and slammed the walker against the table but it still wouldn't let go. When Jason glanced at the window he could see where the walker's head was so he pulled out his knife and thrust it behind him, luckily stabbing the walker in the eye.
As the body dropped to the floor several more walkers had already poured into the armoury so Jason grabbed the gun closest to his hand, a Heckler & Koch P8, and opened fire on the incoming walkers. Each gunshot resulted in a headshot that dropped the walkers like sacks of cement. Jason dropped the gun and rushed back out the door in time to witness the next group of walkers come crashing down the stairs.
Jason took aim with his AKMSU and opened fire on the walkers at his feet and those at the top of the stairs. The more he fired his gun the more walkers shuffled off the street and crashed down the staircase towards him. They all snarled loudly as they fell and as they reached up to him after having broken their bones on the way down. Jason continued firing at the walkers as they appeared at the top of the stairs before his gun clicked empty yet again. More and more walkers came crashing down the steps so Jason decided to retreat and rush through the armoury and pantry to the other street.
As he made his way up the street the first thing he heard apart from the chorus of undead groans was a dog barking. He recognised the bark as belonging to Brodie and soon discovered Trisha's house surrounded by walkers. Jason unsheathed his machete and his knife and rushed towards the house. He made short work of the walkers banging on the doors and windows by stabbing them in the back of the head. Once they noticed him, he started slashing them with his machete and shouting at them to get their attention.
Out of the corner of his eye he could see Trisha watching in horror from her bedroom window. The group that had been attacking her house changed course and shuffled towards him while the rest in the street did the same. In order to make sure they didn't double back, Jason sheathed his knife and pulled out his Taurus to create noise. He shot as many walkers as he could with the gun while carefully backing up, grateful that it held eighteen rounds in a single magazine.
Trisha watched from her bedroom window, biting her knuckle as she watched Jason throw caution to the wind and fight the horde. She struggled to recognise him at first because of the blood covering him and the hat he was wearing which she recognised as Carl's. Fearful tears fell from her eyes as she watched the herd close in around him. Brodie whined beside her. He had already spent all the bullets in his Taurus and was now using his Operator.
Jason cursed as the chamber of his gun clicked. He holstered the Operator and pulled out his knife again to assist with his machete kills. Despite his grief and the adrenaline providing rage that was still coursing through his veins, he felt panic surge through him. He had been so focused on distracting the herd from Trisha's house that he had allowed the herd to circle around him and box him in.
Jason grit his teeth as he panted. He wasn't sure if he had enough energy left to keep fighting or if he could escape from the situation he was now in. The walkers were closing in all around him and he couldn't kill them all fast enough without getting bitten at least once if not completely devoured. He roared in defiance and continued to hack away at the herd anyway. He would go down fighting.
Glenn, Maggie, Sasha and Enid were all crammed in the cabin of the fuel truck while Abraham drove it away from the lake with Daryl standing on top. He stopped when Daryl banged on the roof to let him know they were far enough away. The archer picked up the rocket launcher they had collected on their travels and stood up straight, aiming it at the lake. Daryl pulled the trigger, his shoulder jutting back slightly from the force of the rocket leaving the launcher.
The rocket flew through the air ridiculously fast and exploded on impact with the lake, the fuel in the water instantly erupting into a mass of flames as the explosion rocked the community. The flames soared high above the houses as the fire rapidly spread along the surface of the lake and illuminated the town with a bright flicker of dark gold. The sudden loud explosion and bright light was enough to attract the attention of almost all the walkers in Alexandria. They all turned towards the light as the survivors jumped in shock from the sudden eruption of fire. The walkers began stumbling towards the lake, easily attracted by loud noises and forgetting completely about the people they had been trying to consume.
"Don't let up!" Rick bellowed and resumed his attack.
The rest of his group did as he instructed. They attacked the walkers with renewed vigour and with greater ease now that the walkers were walking away from them instead of towards them. All the walkers were slowly making their way towards the lake with many of them entering the fiery water, the flames consuming their rotting flesh and burning them to the bone.
Jason quickly realised this was his moment to cheat death and started hacking his way through the walkers that had been behind him. The rest of the hungry corpses were making their way towards the lake so he could afford to ignore them as he stabbed and slashed at the walkers who were still going for him. He couldn't help but smirk at the ingenuity of the group, whoever had set the lake on fire was a genius and with that distraction they had a solid chance at saving the community.
Jason roared as he killed the last of the walkers that had been attacking him before turning his attention to the ones that were walking away from him. He rushed up behind them and started stabbing them in the heads one after another while slashing and beheading others. This was much easier than the fight for survival he had been enduring for the last hour and the majority of the walkers were completely ignorant to his presence. He ignored the aching of his muscles and kept attacking them.
Glenn rushed through the herd, stabbing the walkers as quickly as possible. He was fighting for his wife and unborn child. Maggie was stabbing the walkers for the same reasons as her husband. Sasha fought the walkers to protect the group and the community they lived in. Abraham bludgeoned the walkers with his rifle so that the group could live, especially Rosita and Sasha. Enid joined the fight as well, recalling what Glenn had told her and fought for her loved ones, Carl, Ron and even Olivia. Daryl stabbed them with expert speed and precision as he fought to keep the group, his only true family, alive.
Within the large line of defence that Rick had formed, Olivia slashed at the walkers to protect her home and the people she cared about. Heath and Tobin also stabbed at the walkers with their knives to protect their home. Barbara, Kent, Bruce and Francine used their machetes and axes to hack and behead the walkers in order to protect their families and their community. Spencer bludgeoned the walkers to protect his home and his mother.
Eric stabbed the walkers so that Aaron could live while Aaron stabbed the walkers so that he and Eric could continue to live in the community. Gabriel slashed the walkers with his machete, desperate to change things so that he never repeated his cowardly past. Eugene also hacked at the walkers to repay the others for all the times they had saved him, now it was time for him to help save them. Tara stabbed at the walkers to keep her friends safe and to keep Denise safe.
Rosita stabbed the walkers quickly, desperate to protect her friends and to protect Abraham. Carol took out her rage on the walkers, stabbing them fearlessly to keep her family alive. Morgan crushed their skulls with his staff so that everyone could continue living in the community. Michonne sliced through the walkers with her sword to keep her family alive, to keep the people who had brought her back from the brink alive. Rick continued to lead the charge with his axe, killing walkers by the dozen so that his son and daughter could live and as a way of avenging Jessie.
Jason remained on the other side of the community and continued stabbing and slashing at the walkers. He was drenched in blood and brain matter just like everyone else but he didn't care. He kept fighting, desperate to kill all the walkers and take the community back. He was doing it for Carl, to honour his memory and how much he had saved him. It was revenge for everyone he had ever lost to the undead.
Everyone continued fighting through the night. The walker herd seemed to be endless but the large groups were thinning out as more and more bodies hit the floor. All of the residents of Alexandria who had taken the fight to the undead roared and cursed as they slashed, stabbed, hacked, sliced and crushed the walkers. The tide of battle was changing as they held the advantage against the brainless monsters that had invaded their home. They would keep fighting until they had their home back, they would keep fighting until every walker had been eliminated. Alexandria was their home and they weren't going to give it up without a fight to the death.
Three hours later and the community was still enveloped in darkness apart from the flickering light of the fading flames at the lake. The residents continued their assault on the walker herd though the numbers had been lowered to manageable levels. They were able to split up and start checking inside the houses for remaining walkers and double check that all the bodies on the ground were dead for good.
Jason stumbled and almost fell against one of the houses, quickly reaching his arm out to steady himself against the wall. His entire body ached, his muscles burned and his chest was tight, making it hard to breathe. He felt dizzy but he kept going, despite being short of breath and lacking balance. One last walker stumbled up to him, snarling as it did so but Jason lifted his machete with a shaky arm and slammed it down into the cadaver's skull.
The skull split in two as the walker ceased all movement and dropped to the ground. It almost took Jason with it as he lacked the physical strength to remove the blade from the walker's head so he simply let go of the handle. Jason took a few more deep breaths in between his desperate pants and rounded the corner.
Jason's eyes widened as fear shot through him when he came face to face with yet another walker. This one grabbed him by the shoulders and by some super human effort he managed to grab its walkers. The walker pushed all its weight against Jason as it tried to bite his face and managed to knock him back against the wall of the house. Jason's vision blurred as the back of his head slammed against the building but he forced himself to focus as the walker continued trying to bite him, its teeth snapping together constantly.
It was only then did Jason recognise the walker. The torn open chest cavity, the remnants of a gut covered poncho and messy bloodstained blonde hair revealed its identity. Ron. Jason grit his teeth and growled in a mix of panic and rage as his knees buckled and he crashed to the ground with his back against the wall. Ron's teeth were inches from his face as he snarled hungrily. Jason moved his left arm and managed to force his forearm under Ron's chin while his right hand unsheathed his knife.
"You killed Carl!" Jason roared at the undead Ron with tears in his eyes. "But you're not killing me you little shit!"
Jason thrust the knife into Ron's temple, the corpse stiffening as it died again. Jason didn't even bother to remove the knife from Ron's temple, instead he simply pushed the dead teen off him. The body thudded down beside him as it bled onto the grass. Jason rested his head against the wall as he closed his eyes and panted to get his breath back. He knew he couldn't stand back up. This was the end for him. In the distance he could hear the fight for Alexandria gradually coming to an end.
Jason pulled Carl's hat off his head, causing his sweat-soaked hair to fall into his eyes. He shook his head to remove the strands of hair and held the sheriff hat with both hands as he stared down at the front of it. Looking at the hat made so many memories rush through his mind. Memories of his boyfriend. Memories of the boy who saved him from himself. Memories of the one person who was able to make him happy again. Memories of a person who was now gone.
Jason made it to the top of the stairs just as he heard one of the bedroom doors slam shut. He aimed his gun at the direction of the noise and studied the sight before him. With their back against the door as they tried to catch their breath was a boy. He couldn't be any older than sixteen. He had a gun holster on the right thigh of his jeans but no gun. His dirty top was blue and grey. His long dark hair whipped out from under the sheriff's hat he wore but the most striking thing was that he only had one boot on. Before Jason could make any more observations the boy froze as he finally became aware of Jason's presence. He didn't say anything. His eyes darted to his gun that lay on the floor, too far away to reach quickly. He stared back at Jason with an intense look of fear in his blue eyes.
Sensing that the boy was afraid of him, Jason decided to attempt communication but kept his gun aimed at the boy.
"Hey, kid." He said calmly. "You okay?"
The boy stared at him for a moment, his breath still uneven. "I'm not a kid."
Jason smirked but didn't lower his aim. "Yeah, well you aren't a man yet either."
The boy didn't answer him, unsure of how to respond.
"What's your name?" Jason asked him, trying to keep his tone friendly.
The boy appeared to hesitate for a moment before finally answering. "Carl."
When Jason had first met Carl, he would never have even considered them being together a possibility. He had expected Carl to be one of the many people in the apocalypse who he only saw once and then never again. Jason smiled at how wrong he had been and how obvious Carl's interest in him had been.
"Is loving someone worth it anymore?" Carl asked, yet another question that came out of nowhere.
"What do you mean?" Jason asked, slightly stunned by the wording of the question.
"Well, any one of us could die tomorrow or even tonight." Carl explained himself, his tone depressingly low. "Won't love just bring even more pain?"
Jason thought for a moment, looking ahead through the windscreen at the campfire. Carl did have a point but he couldn't accept it to be true. There was always more than one way to look at things.
"That's true but it also makes love all the more special." Jason answered.
"Michonne told me that love is something you act on." Carl told him, though his hesitant tone showed he still didn't fully understand what that meant.
"She's right. The people you know could all die tomorrow." Jason answered, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder. "How you make them feel before their time comes is so,soimportant for that very reason."
"So you should love someone even if you don't have long?" Carl asked, trying to understand Jason's way of thinking.
"Absolutely. I'd rather die having experienced love than died without ever knowing what it felt like." Jason told him, rubbing his shoulder gently.
Jason noticed the dark patches on the hat. The damp spots where his tears had landed. The strongest memory for him was their first kiss. The way their relationship had officially started.
Carl turned to look at him and realised their faces were quite close together as a result of examining the scars. Jason realised this too and smirked.
"We're kinda close." He teased.
Jason had meant it as a joke but Carl couldn't help but blush at the comment. He knew he cared a lot about Jason. It was obvious to most of the group when they had believed him to be dead at Terminus. Michonne, as his most trusted friend, knew that Jason had become very important to Carl. He felt his heart pound in his chest. He wanted something but he wasn't sure what it was.
Jason noticed the blush and the slight change in Carl's breathing. He was suddenly nervous and Jason couldn't figure out why. Their faces were close together and he had made a light joke about it but now neither of them seemed to want to move.
"What's up?" Jason asks quietly, concerned for Carl.
Carl stuttered, their eyes meeting. He could see the nervousness and pain inside those blue eyes.
"I…I don't know." Carl answered. His face was still red and Jason's questions weren't helping.
Jason moved his face a little closer to Carl's. They could feel each other's breath against their faces with how close they were. He was starting to piece it together.
"Carl?" Jason whispered, not taking his eyes off the teen's. "Do youlikeme?"
Carl swallowed nervously as his blush intensified. His eyes darted between Jason's eyes and Jason's lips. He had never been this close to someone in his life. He had never felt this rush of adrenaline before, it was different from the adrenaline produced by fear or rage. It felt good. There was another feeling but Carl didn't know how to describe it. Jason's questioned returned to his mind, realising he awkwardly hadn't answered it yet. It was an important question. Carl wasn't sure what his answer was. He was feeling too many new and different things.
"I…I don't know." Carl repeated, his face flaming up with embarrassment.
Jason felt the very same adrenaline coursing through him. He had noticed how Carl's eyes darted from his eyes to his lips, how he swallowed nervously and how red his face had turned. He recalled that Carl had never been intimate with anyone in his life. This situation was new to him and he didn't know how to react. Although he said he didn't know if he liked Jason or not, Jason took that as a positive reaction. He had to guide Carl through this. He had to make a decision.
Carl's eyes widened as Jason closed the gap between them. He felt warm lips on his own. They were soft and gentle. Nothing was forced. His heartbeat accelerated. This was what he had wanted. This was why he had got so nervous. The feeling he couldn't describe was want. Desire. Jason pulled away slightly and gazed into Carl's eyes, looking for any signs of rejection. He couldn't find any.
"Is this okay?" Jason asked, placing a hand gently on the back of Carl's neck.
Carl swallowed nervously again and nodded slowly. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do or what he was supposed to say. Jason closed the gap again, connecting their lips just as gently as before.
Jason's body shook as he cried. He couldn't hold it in anymore as he felt an emptiness where his heart used to be. When Kellin was dying in his arms he had doubted his ability to survive but he had managed it somehow. This time with Carl was different. It hurt too much. He knew from experience that it was a pain that was never going to go away and Jason didn't want to feel that pain anymore. He apologised to Carl in his mind as he pulled out his TRP Operator and leaned his head against the barrel.
"Jason, don't!" A familiar voice stopped him.
Jason opened his eyes, his vision blurred by tears to find Kellin kneeling in front of him also crying.
"You promised, remember?" Kellin pleaded with him. "You promised you wouldn't."
"I can't keep that promise anymore." Jason argued, tears falling down his face as he panted unevenly.
"Why not?" Kellin asked, holding Jason's free hand.
"Because the two people I loved most in this world are gone and I can't do this anymore!" Jason spat, his lips quivering uncontrollably as he continued to cry. "I want to join you both. Please. Forgive me."
Before the hallucination of Kellin could mount any kind of counter argument, Jason made his decision, closed his eyes and pulled the trigger.
When the sun creeped out from below the horizon, Alexandria was a very different place than it had been the night before. The streets ran red with blood. Thousands of bodies littered the ground, making it impossible to walk through the community without tripping over a rotting corpse. A pillar of black smoke rose from the lake as the last flames continued to burn a little longer with charred bodies floating in the water around them. The community had also lost seven members during the chaos.
Michonne walked through the streets with her sword sheathed on her back. The last walker had been killed an hour earlier and peace had returned to the town. Rick had rushed off to check on Carl as soon as he was able to, desperate to know if his son was still alive or not. Most of the others had done the same after hearing what happened to him. Before he rushed off to the infirmary, Rick had asked Michonne to find Jason as he hadn't been seen for hours. They both feared the worse.
Her heart sank when she finally found him and had her fears confirmed. Michonne made her way up to the side of the house where a bunch of corpses lay on the grass, one of which had Jason's machete stuck in its forehead and another had a knife sticking out its temple. She felt her legs tremble as she looked at one body in particular, tears welling up in her eyes. How was she going to explain this to Carl when he woke up?
Slumped against the wall of the house, covered head to toe in blood was Jason. His bloodstained hair covered most of his face due to the drooped posture of his neck. She couldn't tell if the blood was his or belonged to walkers. His arms and legs were splayed out and lay limp. His handgun rested in the open palm of his right hand, the chamber slid back to indicate the gun was empty. Next to his left hand sat Carl's sheriff hat, stained with dry blood splatters.
After a night of constant walker killing she didn't have the strength to carry Jason's body back to the others. Michonne considered waiting before giving everyone the bad news as it was perhaps more considerate to give them time to get over the night's events a bit more. One thing she could do was take Carl's hat back and tell Rick what had happened. She understood what had happened with Jason.
When Michonne lifted the hat a hand suddenly shot up and grabbed her wrist. The action was so unexpected that the samurai flinched back in surprise and reached for her sword, expecting the tight grip to be from a walker. However, it couldn't have been a walker because the grip was from a warm hand, not a stiff, cold hand that was typical of the undead. Looking down she was met with Jason's bloodshot eyes staring back up at her through his hair. He had dark bags under his eyes and his skin was pale but he was alive.
"I'm not dead yet." Jason croaked out with a hoarse voice. "So, I think I'll have that back."
Michonne's lip quivered wildly as she grinned, relief washing over her as the tears fell down her face, her hands gripping Jason's shoulders. She could tell Jason was of ill-health but he was alive and that was all that mattered.
"Don't get too excited." Jason remarked just as hoarsely. "I'll be dead soon."
Michonne felt her blood run cold. "Why? Were you bit?"
Jason shrugged his shoulders. "Don't think so but what does it matter? I've got nothing left."
"Yes you do." Michonne retorted, furrowing her brow at this unexpected pessimism.
"Carl's dead, Michonne! And I died with him!" Jason barked weakly. "I didn't survive because I wanted to. I just didn't die. Luck. That's all."
Michonne gripped his shoulders in an effort to calm him down. "Carl's alive."
"Don't try to save me with lies." Jason hissed, knocking her hands away weakly. "I watched him die."
"No. You watched him get shot." Michonne corrected him firmly. "Denise saved his life. Come to the infirmary and see."
Jason swayed in place, struggling to process the information he had just received. His lover, the person he cared most about in the apocalyptic world, who he had believed to be dead, was still alive. His wish for more time, for a second chance, had been granted by some unseen force. If Jason was religious he would have been thanking God. He nodded slowly.
Michonne wrapped Jason's arm around her shoulders and helped to lift him to his feet. His muscles felt like they had been shredded completely by the night's battle. He couldn't walk unaided and his whole body seared with pain as he stumbled with Michonne's help. He knew he would need to be seen to by Denise but he didn't care about that. Jason just wanted to see Carl.
It took the two of them longer than usual to reach the infirmary due to Jason's lack of stability on his feet mixed with the mass of dead bodies that littered the streets. When they arrived at the infirmary, Jason saw everyone for the first time since the previous day. Barbara, Kent, Bruce, Spencer, Eric, Aaron, Tara, Rosita, Enid, Olivia, Heath, Sasha, Abraham, Carol, Morgan and Gabriel were all resting outside. They were clearly holding a vigil for Carl.
They all stared at Jason with a mix of relief and sympathy. None of them said anything because it wasn't necessary and they all understood there was only one place Jason needed to be. For a moment, he locked eyes with Enid and although she didn't say anything he could tell something had changed. She looked at him with genuine concern and sympathy instead of the brash cynicism he had been accustomed to. He made a mental note to speak to her as Michonne led him inside.
Inside the infirmary, Glenn and Maggie were helping each other and basking in their reunion. Daryl sat on the gurney while Denise patched up a nasty stab wound he had on his back. She looked at Jason with obvious concern but Michonne slowly shook her head, silencing whatever the doctor was about to say. She led Jason down the hall and opened the door.
Jason felt his chest constrict tightly around his heart when he saw Carl lying in bed. He had been stripped and cleaned and now lay on the bed unconscious with a bandage wrapped round his head that covered his eye. Rick was slouched back on the chair next to him, snoring softly while still covered in walker blood. Michonne helped Jason round to the other side of the bed and sat him down on the chair.
Jason breathed heavily as he fought to hold back his tears. He didn't want to cry in front of Michonne for some reason that was as unknown to him as anyone else. He peeled off his fingerless gloves and stuffed them in his jacket pockets before holding Carl's limp hand in his own. Carl didn't look peaceful to Jason. It wasn't the same as when he slept in their bed. Carl's body was more rigid and the large bandage hinted at the horror of the wound underneath.
"How?" Jason gasped out. It had been a whole question but only one word had come out.
"The bullet hit him at an angle and destroyed his eye." Michonne explained with a grim expression. "Denise has done the best she could to stitch it up."
"So, now what?" Jason asked, his voice just a whisper as his body shook.
"Now all we can do is wait." Michonne answered and left the room without another word.
Jason squeezed Carl's hand as he looked at the younger teen's unconscious form. With Michonne out of the room Jason couldn't stop the flood of tears from streaming down his face as he shook and gasped as he cried. He couldn't believe Carl was still alive, he couldn't believe that he had been given a second chance. He was incredibly lucky that he had wasted all his bullets on the walkers or he would have been dead by now and would never have known.
"Carl? I don't know if you can hear me but if you can I need you to listen." Jason spoke lowly, staring at his face to watch for any possible reaction. "Please don't leave me. I know you think I'm strong but I'm not. I'm weak, Carl. That's why I need you."
Jason watched as his tears fell on Carl's limp hand and left damp patches on the bedsheets.
"I can't do it. I can't face this world alone, Carl. I can't survive it without you." Jason gasped out as he tried not to cry too loud. "You're the best thing that has ever happened to me, please don't leave me, Carl."
Jason bowed his head as he scrunched up his face and let himself cry strongly. His body shook with each gasp for air as the tears streamed down his face. As he recalled all the memories he had shared with Carl, a realisation of what day it was hit him. He lifted Carl's hand and kissed the back of it.
"Happy two months, poppet." Jason choked out.
Their relationship had started exactly two months ago. Jason had originally planned to spend the night before and the whole day celebrating it with Carl. Instead, he was sitting at his bedside wondering if he would ever wake up again. It was torture to see him in such a vulnerable state and be absolutely powerless to help him.
"You're the best thing to ever happen to him." Rick's voice seemed to boom in the quiet room. "I've never seen him happier than when he is with you."
Jason looked up at Rick with heavy eyes. "It's my fault. I knew Ron was trouble. I should have done something."
"I was the one who took us out there." Rick rasped back. "It's not on you."
"It is. The commotion in the garage was Ron trying to kill Carl." Jason explained, wiping his tears away with his thumb. "I should have stopped him."
"You couldn't have predicted what happened out there." Rick responded, still grieving for Jessie. "What happened to Sam, to Jessie."
Jason remained silent. He actually had predicted that Sam would most likely die but Jessie's hysterical reaction he hadn't anticipated. He still felt guilty about not killing Ron when he had the chance. If he had, Carl wouldn't be lying in the bed beside him missing an eye.
"I'm sorry for abandoning you out there." Rick apologised, leaning forward. "I tried to go back for you but…"
Jason raised his hand. "Rick, it's okay. You did the right thing."
Rick stared back at him, trying to gauge his sincerity. He didn't think it was okay. In hindsight it probably didn't really matter because Jason had survived. What was done was done.
"Is Judith okay?" Jason asked, realising he hadn't seen the child.
Rick smiled. "She's fine. Gabriel got her to the church safely before helping us."
Jason leaned back in his chair and smiled. "I guess we were both wrong about him."
"We were wrong about a lot of things." Rick replied before narrowing his eyes. "You should get cleaned up and have Denise take a look at you."
Jason shook his head. "I'm where I need to be."
"You don't look well." Rick argued gently. "It'll only take a minute."
"No. I'm staying here until he wakes up." Jason retorted. "And if he doesn't, then I'll deal with it. You shouldn't have to do that, Rick."
"He could be like this for a while." Rick pressed. "You need checked out, cleaned up and some food in you."
Jason smiled softly as he rested his head on his hands as they held Carl's. "I'm fine, Rick. I've been given a second chance."
After a few minutes the steady rise and fall of Jason's chest told Rick that he had passed out. The leader was concerned for his son's boyfriend but at least if anything happened they were already in the infirmary. Rick looked down at his unconscious son and held his open hand.
"I was wrong. I thought after living behind these walls for so long that maybe they couldn't learn." Rick whispered to Carl. "But today I saw what they could do, what we could do if we work together."
Rick couldn't believe how effective the Alexandrians had been at fighting the walkers with him and his group. The formation they had put in place had worked perfectly. Just over twenty people had eliminated over eight thousand walkers over the course of a few hours.
"We'll rebuild the walls, we'll expand the walls. There'll be more, there's gotta be more." Rick continued. "Everything Deanna was talking about is possible, it's all possible, I see that now."
Rick glanced over at Jason's sleeping form. They had all been given second chances. Carl deserved to be safe and to be happy. As the new leader of Alexandria, Rick now shouldered the responsibility to make sure the community was a safe place for his family.
"When I was out there with them and it was over, when I knew we had this place again I had this feeling. It took me a while to remember what it was because I haven't felt it since before I woke up in that hospital." Rick explained to his son as he too broke down into tears. "I wanna show you the new world, Carl. I wanna make it a reality for you. Please, Carl, let me show you."
For the first time since the apocalypse began, Rick felt hope. He knew they could survive and that they could thrive. The residents of Alexandria were ready. They were family now and he knew they could accomplish great things together. All Rick asked for was that Carl would wake up and get to see it happen and get to live it.
Rick's eyes opened after being squeezed shut due to his tears when he felt movement against his hand. He looked down to discover that Carl's limp hand had tensed into a light grip that held his father's larger hand. Rick didn't know if Carl was awake or not but it was a positive sign that filled him with even more hope than before.
Rick knew things would be difficult. He was also aware that Carl could be unconscious for a while and may not ever make a full recovery but for now his son was alive. They had taken the community back and almost everyone had survived the night. There was hope after all and that was all that mattered.
So there we go. The chapter is finally done and it is massive. This took a while to write due to the size of it and also because of stuff going on in my personal life.
To make up for the long delay, I have a proposition for my readers/fans.
The next few chapters are going to cover the 2 month gap between episodes 9 and 10. As 2 months is a long time, I'm asking you to send in the scenes you would like to see. The requests can be as detailed or as vague as you like. The scenes you want to see can be specific events, interactions between specific characters or entire storylines that can play out throughout the next couple chapters.
Obviously I do have a general outline for the next chapters, but the more ideas and inspiration I receive the faster I'll be able to upload them. So send your ideas to me in the reviews/comments, in private messages or to my or my Tumblr.
Anyways, hope you've enjoyed the chapter and can take the time to leave a comment/review so I know what you liked and didn't like.
Thanks for all the kudos/favourites/votes/bookmarks etc.
Thanks to the reviewers of chapter 27: Sarah_94, Hunter, jar98, xoneworldx, ThoUgHT_PurGes, hideyoshinagachika, kingcarlgrimes, uruark, Fan, Thewalkingdeadisthebestshow, xayylaax, NukeRose, NicosWriting 87, 27, ElleWatt and SovietSpaceDog.
