I'm not a huge fan of this chapter. It feels rushed, but it does have a lot of action. Oh, and I'll be veering away a little (or a lot) from what happened in this episode.
I hope you all enjoy!
Chapter Thirty-Seven
"Lori, you need to calm down," Carol soothed and guided the distraught woman to sit on the bed she and Daryl had vacated to answer the door.
"Oh, Carol! I knew I shouldn't have let Rick go with Shane!" Lori sobbed. "Carl wanted to go, but I told him no. He must have snuck out when I was sleeping!"
"Of course, he can't fuckin' stay in the house," Daryl mumbled from where he stood close to the window, arms crossed over his chest. Carol glared at him and turned back to her friend.
"Maybe he found Rick and is safe with him," she said and rubbed comforting circles on Lori's back. "Soon, they'll come through the door perfectly safe." The words sounded wooden in Carol's mouth, but she needed to say them in hopes of keeping her friend calm.
Lori didn't say anything and leaned her head on Carol's shoulder. Carol looked over the top of Lori's head at Daryl and felt helpless. What was there to do? The boy had run off and no one knew what Shane had wanted to show Rick, so they didn't even know where to start looking.
"Do you want me to go look for him?" Daryl's voice startled Lori. She had almost forgotten that he was there. She turned red-rimmed eyes to him.
"Would you, please?"
His gaze shot to Carol, whose eyes were wide. "Yeah. I'll look for him." He moved to leave the room with his crossbow in hand. Carol didn't say anything to Lori and shot after him.
"Daryl, wait!" She stopped him before he went down the stairs and he turned to her. "Let me come with. Two eyes are better than one, right?" Her voice was shaky as she tried hard to not let the fear come through. She failed.
"Naw, I got this. 'Sides, you need to stay here with Sophia."
Carol reached out and grabbed his arm. "You can't go out there alone. You have no idea what is out there!"
"I'll be f-" He was interrupted by the sound of a gunshot. Both of their faces went pale. Everyone knew that sound attracted walkers. No one would fire a shot in the middle of the night. Unless they absolutely had to...
"That was Rick!" Lori came flying out of the room, eyes wide and a fresh stream of tears on her cheeks. "I just know it. Oh, God, there has to be a reason why he needed his gun!"
Daryl rushed down the stairs, Lori and Carol not far behind. Hershel and Patricia were in the kitchen looking worried and the rest of the group, except for Beth and Sophia, were in the living room, crowding around the window. Glenn broke free and ran up to them.
"Who do you think did that?" He asked.
"We don't know for sure," Carol answered. "But Rick and Shane are out there somewhere."
"What?" Glenn's eyes widened.
Suddenly Daryl was beside her, grabbing her arm, gently. "I'll be back," he said. "I'm goin' to see what's goin' on and to see if I can find the kid." He kissed her quickly on the cheek and was out the door before anymore could be said.
Glenn watched the whole scene, but instead of looking smug at witnessing Daryl's PDA, he looked panicked. "Carl's out there?"
Carol nodded. "He snuck out when Lori was sleeping to find his father."
Glenn shook his head. "Why can't he be more like Sophia? She, at least, stays in the house when told."
"She's a good girl," Carol said and smiled.
Several minutes later, Daryl burst through the door, by himself and eyes wild. "There's a herd."
That's when all hell broke loose.
Carol went racing up the stairs, along with Patricia, to get Beth and Sophia while the men and Maggie took whatever weapons they could find and went outside.
Carol shook Sophia awake and Patricia did the same. The four of them raced down the stairs, but not before Carol stopped in the room she had shared with Daryl to grab her gun and a knife. She pressed the knife into her daughter's hand.
"You do whatever it takes to survive, you hear me?" She made sure she had her daughter's full attention as she spoke. "Aim for an eye socket and jam the knife through. Can you do that?"
Sophia's eyes were wide with fear, but she nodded her head and clutched the knife in her fist. "Yes, I can, mama. But where are you going?"
"No where. I'm getting you safely in a car that will get you out of here and then, I'm looking for Daryl."
Sophia grabbed her wrist. "No! You can't do that. You have to get off safely, too."
"Don't worry, honey. I have a gun and Daryl taught me to shoot. I'll be fine. I promise." She leaned down and kissed her daughter's forehead. "Now, let's get going!"
They burst outside just as Rick and Carl ran up steps of the porch, eyes wide and frantic. Behind them, in the distance, she could see the numerous stumbling figures. Rick looked at Carol and Patricia. "Where's Lori?"
"Inside somewhere," Carol answered.
Rick shoved Carl at Carol. "Please, can you get him to safety? I need to get Lori." Without another word, Rick ran in the house and Carol had two children clinging to her arms, while Patricia, behind her, had one. She didn't know where to go. The vehicles were several feet away and she and Sophia had the only weapon.
Just then, a truck came to a screeching halt in front of the porch and the passenger door swung open. Maggie flew out and went to her father, who was in the front yard with his shotgun, refusing to move. "Get the kids inside!" She shouted before running off.
Carol didn't need to be told twice and she shoved Carl and Sophia into the passenger's seat just as Patricia started to scream. Carol turned around to see that two walkers had come up from behind them and one had sunk their teeth into Patricia's neck. Beth was screaming, too, and tugging on the woman's arm.
Carol wrenched Beth away and pushed her in the direction of the truck, hoping the girl had enough sense to climb in. Another walker attached itself to Patricia's arm and the pain was evident on her face. Carol knew what she had to do, but she didn't want to do it.
She raised her gun. Patricia saw it and nodded. "Please," she begged. Carol pulled the trigger and watched her friend crumple to the ground. Quickly, she put the two walkers down, before the tears could blur her vision.
Now, she knew how Daryl felt when he had to put Dale down.
"Lori!" Rick shouted through the house, searching each room as he ran past them. Carol had said she was in here. But where? "Lori!" God, please don't tell me she ran outside with those things everywhere.
"Rick!" Suddenly Lori was there, long brown hair flying as she wrapped him in her arms. "Where's Carl?"
"He's with Carol. She's putting them in a car and getting them out of there." He grabbed her hand. "Now, we have to do the same!"
When they went through the front doors, they were greeted with the sight of a trunk pulling away fast down the road, the one with Carl safely inside. Hershel was in the grass firing shot after shot with his daughter, Maggie beside him. T-Dog stood not far off with a handgun.
"We got to get them out of here," Rick said to Lori. "You grab Maggie and I'll get Hershel. T-Dog will follow." Lori didn't want to get separated from her husband, but she needed to help save her people.
"Shit!" Merle cursed and picked up his pace. The walkers were growing near and he nor Randall had a weapon to end them. Well, he had a knife, but if he stopped to start killing walkers he would be overrun in seconds.
"Wait!" Randall sounded terrified. "I can't keep up!" His leg was prevented him from running at full speed and Merle felt bad. He really did. There was nothing he could do for the kid, short of carrying him and if he did that, they would both be killed within seconds.
"Hurry up, man!" He called back. If they could make it to the farmhouse, then they would have some type of shelter and judging by all the gunshots he was hearing, they would also have someone there to protect them.
Up ahead he could see figures that weren't walkers. He could see the bright flashes as their guns went off. Almost there. He turned to tell Randall that. He looked back just in time to see a walker tackle him to the ground.
Merle couldn't do anything to help the kid. He felt utterly helpless and kept running.
There were dozens of walkers and they just kept coming. Lori grabbed Maggie by the arm and screamed that they needed to get out of there while Rick did the same with Hershel. "Come on," she coaxed Maggie. "We need to get out of here!"
"Not without my dad!"
"Rick is getting your father. Come on!"
A rotting hand grabbed Lori on the arm and she screamed, falling to the ground. More were coming and Maggie had her hands full. The sound of Hershel's shotgun could still be heard, but Hershel, T-Dog and Rick couldn't be seen.
Lori struggled with the walker as she heard Maggie do the same. Just then, the walker's head exploded and the body fell to her side. Blood sprayed across Lori's face, but she didn't care.
"Get up!" Someone was yelling and grabbing her by the arm. "Come on!"
It was Andrea.
More walkers stumbled close to them and Maggie quickly took them down before they could reach Andrea and Lori. "I can't see my dad, anymore. Or Rick. There's too many!"
Lori struggled to her feet and looked around. All she could see were walkers.
"Come on. I have the keys to Shane's Hyundai. We need to get in and go," Andrea took charge.
"But Rick," Lori protested.
"And Daddy."
"If we don't leave now, we'll all be dead and you'll never see them, again!"
They had no choice. They ran.
Daryl could have sworn he had heard his brother's voice. But it wasn't possible. His brother couldn't be here. Not in this mess.
Daryl felt like he had searched everywhere for the Grimes men and Shane, but to no avail. He had witnessed Jimmy try to make a run for the RV and got swarmed. Daryl could still hear the young man's screams as he was being ripped apart. There had been nothing he could have done for the boy.
"Help!"
The voice didn't sound familiar, but someone was yelling for help and Daryl was going to help. He ran to where the voice had come from and saw someone on the ground. A dead walker laid across him, a stick in its eye socket, while another tried to get to living human underneath.
Daryl shot a bolt through the walker's temple and tossed the dead walker off the struggling body underneath. He was surprised to see that it was Randall.
"You bit?" Daryl asked, checking him over with his eyes.
"N-No. Almost. But I stabbed the bastard in the eye with a stick." Daryl helped him to his feet and noticed the way he favored his leg, remembering that he had been injured before Shane and Rick had dropped him off.
"Come on. We gotta get out of here." The gunfire from the house had ceased, meaning that everyone had left or everyone was dead.
Carol...
No, she was strong and she had probably gotten Sophia off the farm a long time ago. At least, that was what he would keep telling himself.
"Where we goin' to go?" Randall asked. "I can't run and there walkers everywhere."
"My trucks over that way." Well, at least it was earlier. "We get to it and we get out of here. It ain't that far. Can you make it?" He didn't know what he would do if Randall couldn't. The young man had been running around with some bad people, but it didn't mean he deserved to die.
"Yeah. I can."
"Good. Let's go."
Fuck.
He couldn't believe his fucking luck.
Merle had reached the farmhouse to only be greeted by some old man, the black man who had dropped the handcuff key...and Officer Friendly. Sure, he had been looking forward to meeting them, to get his revenge, but not like this. Now, he was at the mercy of those two fuckers. Again. However, this time, his ass wasn't going to get left behind.
Officer Friendly's eyes registered shock when he saw Merle appear out of the darkness, but instead of aiming that nice pistol at Merle's head, he shot a walker that had been getting dangerously close to Merle's right side.
"Merle," he said in a way of greeting. If there hadn't been fucking walkers everywhere, Merle would have given Rick a few choice words in return. But right now wasn't a good time.
"We need to get out of here!" T-Dog shouted from Rick's right and when he saw Merle, his eyes widened.
"My truck is in back," the old man said and Merle noticed that he looked defeated as he lowered his shotgun. The farmhouse must have been his home.
"What are we waitin' for, then?" Merle cried. "We need to get the fuck out of here!"
Carol watched as the truck containing Carl, Sophia, Beth and Glenn disappeared from view. Sophia had grabbed at her, wanting her mother to hop in with them, but she had declined. Daryl was still out there somewhere and she needed to find him. If anything had happened to him...
No. She didn't want to think of that.
After shooting Patricia and the walkers, Carol had run. She didn't know where, but as long as she found someplace where there weren't any walkers that would be fine with her. She needed a place to be able to stop and think of what her next move would be.
Three more pairs of headlights were soon spotted leaving the farm, but Carol was too far away to flag them down. Daryl had to be in one the vehicles.
With one last glance at the farmhouse, now surrounded by the undead, Carol took off into the woods, hoping that none of them followed her. She only had three more bullets left in her gun.
For her daughter and for Daryl, she would survive.
So, the point of all this switching around from canon is because I wanted to play a little bit with different interactions of some of the group. I wanted to write about some characters that didn't really interact in the show. If you are a little confused with what happened in this chapter, here are the different groups:
Group 1- Glenn, Sophia, Carl and Beth.
Group 2- Lori, Maggie and Andrea
Group 3- Hershel, T-Dog, Rick and Merle
Group 4- Daryl and Randall
Group 5- Carol
I'm debating if I should bring Michonne into the story. Thoughts? And out of curiosity, which group is your favorite?
Thanks for reading!