I had this chapter already written up and planned to post it Monday because I didn't think I'd have the energy to today, but I figured what the hell, here it is a day early!
Lady-Finwe: And there will be more to come :)
Galwidanatitud: I mean I wouldn't mind if Daryl was holding me down either ;P
"She seems alright, her pupils aren't dilated and she's coherent when she speaks," Hershel told the group. "But she's lost a decent amount of blood. She needs rest."
I was lying on the couch, still drenched in sweat from being awake while Hershel had stitched me up. Daryl was sitting on the floor in front of me now, no longer needing to hold me down.
A sound rang out in the distance. Everyone became silent.
"Gunshot?" T-Dog asked aloud.
"Maybe they found Randall?" Lori suggested.
"No," Daryl spoke up. "We found Randall out near Isabell. He was a walker."
"Did you find the walker that bit him?" Hershel asked.
"Were you bit?" Sarah asked in concern as she rushed to my side.
"He wasn't bit by no walker," Daryl said. "Died of a broken neck. No bite marks on him."
There was a collective look of confusion mixed with horror that circled around the group for a moment.
"Who did that to Isabell then?" Andrea asked.
"Shane," Daryl replied simply. "Shane and Randall's tracks were right on top of each other in the woods. They were together. Isabell saw them."
Lori rushed forward to Daryl, a pleading look on her face. "Would you please go back out there and find out what is going on?"
Daryl gave her a curt nod. "You got it."
He got up from his place beside the couch, turning briefly to give my shoulder a reassuring squeeze, and then he was out the door, crossbow in hand.
All eyes then turned to me.
"What happened out there if Randall didn't escape?" T-Dog asked me.
"Shane must have let him out of the barn," I said slowly, fighting the drowsiness. "He led him to the forest, pretended he wanted to join his group to find out where it was."
"Did he?" Lori asked quickly.
"Yeah, somewhere just off the highway. A few miles out," I told her.
"Then what happened?" Andrea asked, wanting me to continue.
"Shane snapped his neck. Then he ran into a tree, gave himself an injury so he could make up a story to tell you all," I said. "He knew I had followed them, so he called me out. When he saw I wouldn't go along with his story, he hit me across the head. I blacked out until Daryl and Glenn found me."
"Oh God," Lori said sounding sick to her stomach. "He's out there with Rick right now."
Daryl came bursting back through the door.
"There's walkers everywhere coming this way," Daryl told the group in a panic.
"How many?" Andrea asked, jumping to her feet.
"A whole herd," Daryl told her.
He raced back outside, Glenn and Andrea flanking him.
I sat upright on the couch, wincing at the movement. I checked my belt to make sure my knife was there before turning to Sarah.
"Get my bag, it's over there," I told her, pointing across the room.
Sarah wordlessly crossed the room and brought it back over to me. I unzipped it, digging around inside to look for my gun as everyone pressed themselves up against the windows to look outside.
"What do we do?" Lori asked.
"Patricia, turn the lights off," Hershel ordered the woman.
She obeyed, and suddenly we were cast into darkness.
I found the gun at the bottom of the backpack and pulled it out. I ordered Sarah to zip it up and to wear it. She shot me a confused look.
"If we have to run at least there's some food and water in there. Throw a blanket in too, now," I ordered her.
She did as I told her and I stood up, feeling dizzy at the movement. I checked the magazine in the gun, counting twelve rounds before putting it back in and checking the safety. It was off for now and I put it into the back of my jeans.
"Can't we just wait them out?" I heard Lori whisper through the screen door to the group on the porch.
"Unless there's some underground tunnel I don't know about," Daryl said, "A herd this size is going to rip through the house."
"Carl!" Lori said in sudden realization as she scanned the room.
"You told him to wait upstairs," Beth reminded her.
Lori nodded quickly before racing up the stairs. I heard a door swing open before furious footsteps were racing back down the stairs.
"Carl is missing!"
"Maybe he's hiding?" Andrea offered.
"No," Lori told her. "I told him to wait upstairs. I'm not leaving without my boy!"
"We're not, we're going to look again and we're going to find him," Carol suddenly spoke up, rushing to Lori's side. They two were soon running back upstairs in a panic.
I made my way out onto the porch and felt my stomach drop when I saw the full extent of our situation. There had to be at least forty walkers making their way to the house, possibly more. I turned and saw Sarah still peering through the window in the house. I walked back inside and grabbed her arm, leading her outside.
"No matter what, you stay with me. Got it?"
She nodded her head vigorously, her eyes wide in terror.
Maggie appeared with a duffle bag of guns. She dropped them on the porch and started to pass them around. Even Hershel was arming himself.
"We should go," Daryl told the group. "Before they reach us."
"You can go if you like," Hershel said back. "I'm not leaving my farm."
Daryl shot him an incredulous look. "We might have guns but we ain't got the numbers. You plannin' to take them all on?"
"We have guns, and we have cars," Hershel said.
"Kill as many as we can, then use the cars to lead the rest of them off of the farm," Andrea said, figuring out what Hershel intended to do.
"You serious?" Daryl asked the old man.
Hershel finished loading his rifle. "This is my farm. I'll die here."
"I'll grab the keys to the cars out front here," Andrea offered before running back into the house.
"Guess that's as good idea as any," Daryl conceded. He turned his attention to me. "You should stay back here at the house. You're not in any shape to be out there fighting."
"But—"
Daryl sent me a stern look before he slid over the porch railing and was moving towards his motorcycle. Maggie and Glenn were racing towards the SUV, while T-Dog jumped into the driver's side of Hershel's truck, Andrea jumping into the passenger seat.
"He's right," Sarah said beside me. "You're injured. You shouldn't be out there."
"I can't just leave everyone to die," I told her. "I have to do something."
"You're having trouble just staying on your feet as it is."
Something in my distance caught my eye. I squinted and noticed it was a fire, growing in intensity.
"The barn is on fire," I said slowly. "Rick…he must be in the barn."
I made to run for it, but Sarah latched onto my arm, holding me back. She pointed towards the vehicles that were converging around the barn. Glenn, Andrea, and Daryl were shooting off rounds, knocking walker down after walker.
"They'll get Rick out of there," Sarah assured me. "You don't need to rush into danger."
"I can't find him anywhere!" Lori yelled from inside the house.
I jumped at the noise, turning and running inside. Sarah followed closely behind me. Patricia and Beth had just spotted the burning barn outside while Carol tried to calm Lori down.
"Maybe he ran after Rick earlier?" I suggested.
"Maybe he set the fire?" Beth said.
I turned my attention back out the window. The walkers weren't being corralled by the vehicles. Hershel's plan wasn't going to work, the whole farm was about to be overrun. We needed to get out of here.
"We have to go," I told the women. "Grab a bag if you see one, we'll need the food. Beth, you know where Andrea put the keys to the cars? Get the keys to that blue one, we should all fit in that," I ordered.
"I'm not leaving without my son!" Lori shouted.
I tried to remain calm as I placed my hands on her shoulders. My head was throbbing from the adrenaline and the pain. "He's not in the house, or the shed, or the attic. We have to move outside. You just have to trust that he went after Rick and that they're together. When we find him he's going to need his mother—you have to get out of here."
Beth ran back into the living room with the keys in her hands. I directed everyone to head out onto the front porch and I followed out after them. Hershel was out front, shooting down as many walkers as he could, but they were nearly twenty feet from him and closing the distance.
"Get in the car," I ordered the group.
I ran out towards Hershel, pulling my gun out and turning the safety off. I fired it at the walkers nearest us. Two dropped.
"Hershel it's time to go!" I shouted at him.
He continued shooting rounds into the oncoming undead.
"Your daughters need you Hershel!" I shouted again. "We have to get out of here!"
I heard screaming from somewhere behind me, but I was too terrified to take my eyes off of the walkers in front of me. Suddenly I was aware of Sarah at my side. She didn't even have a weapon on her.
"Dammit, Hershel!" I screamed.
A gunshot exploded behind us and I jumped at the sound. I spun around to see Rick with Carl. I felt relief flood my body.
"Did you see Lori?" Rick asked frantically.
"She was looking for Carl," I told him. "I got her to leave the house, but…" I glanced at the car I'd told Beth to grab the keys to. It was sitting vacant. "I don't know where she went."
"We have to get out of here!" Rick ordered. "The farm is lost. We need to find the others."
"But it's my farm!"
"Not anymore!" Rick yelled before grabbing Hershel and dragging him with him.
He led us to the red truck, somehow the keys were sitting in the ignition. A scream in the distance caught my attention and I turned, spotting Carol running from the shed. She was being chased by walkers.
"Go with them," I ordered Sarah, gesturing towards Rick, Carl, and Hershel.
I turned and ran towards Carol, firing two more rounds and thankfully hitting two more walkers in the head. They dropped to the ground, out of my way. Mentally I counted off how many bullets I had. There were only eight left. I needed to use them carefully or I'd run out.
The sound of a rumbling engine roared towards this direction. I spotted Daryl on his motorcycle heading towards Carol. He slowed down to let her on and I stopped on the spot, glad she had been saved. I turned to run back to the truck that Rick had taken, but I'd slammed straight into a body. I screamed and raised my gun to shoot but Sarah was yelling at me.
"It's me!" she screamed in terror, her hands raised above her head.
I lowered the gun and swore furiously.
"Why didn't you go with the others like I told you to?!" I yelled at her.
"I couldn't leave you!"
I shook my head and noticed the walkers were starting to converge on us now. I grabbed Sarah by the arm and pulled her in the opposite direction, straight towards the forest. As we ran, I heard the rumbling of the motorcycle growing louder.
"The hell are you doing?" Daryl yelled at us.
"I heard Carol scream, I went to help her!" I shouted back at him.
He looked over his shoulder at the herd now converging and heading our way. He turned back to face me, his face a mix of emotions. There wasn't any more room on his bike for Sarah and I. He couldn't help us.
"Go!" I yelled at him. "Get out of here!"
Daryl sat there on his idling bike beside us, frozen in place.
"We'll meet back up!" I told him. "On the highway, where we looked for Sophia!"
I didn't wait for him to answer, I grabbed Sarah by the arm and forcefully pulled her into the forest. It was a moment before I heard the motorcycle engine rumble and then the noise slowly died off in the distance.
"Stay close, keep up with me," I told Sarah in a whisper. "We need to draw them out and lose them before we head back to the highway."
My head was exploding with pain and I felt weak, but I didn't have a choice but to keep moving. If I stopped now, Sarah and I would be overrun by walkers. We had to keep running through the night to make it to the highway in time to meet up with Daryl and Carol. If we didn't…we might not meet up with anyone again.
We ran until Sarah nearly collapsed, she was leant up against a tree, breathing hard. I stopped beside her, trying to catch my breath.
"How're you still going?" she asked me.
I didn't answer her, instead I held up a finger to let her know to keep quiet. She tried to catch her breath as I listened to the night around us. We had to have ran a mile or so from the farm by now. The walkers moved at a slower pace than us, so we should have a fair lead on them by now. I'd had us run straight into the heart of the forest, which is the way the walkers trailing us should keep going if we managed to make it another mile veering straight left, towards the highway.
"You need rest," Sarah told me, her face full of concern. "You're really pale. You don't look so good. You shouldn't be exerting so much energy."
"Well," I told her as I tried to catch my breath. "Unless you're suddenly strong enough to carry me a few miles, I don't have a choice."
I wiped a hand across my forehead. It was drenched in sweat despite the cool night air.
"Come on, we need to keep moving now. We have to head towards the highway. If we run about another mile out, we should lose the walkers by then. We could probably move at a slower pace the rest of the way to conserve energy."
Sarah looked like she was on the verge of tears as she glanced back behind us from the direction we'd come.
"Hey," I said, trying to catch her attention. She turned back to me. "Don't think about it right now. Just focus on running, okay?"
She nodded, fighting the tears back.
I picked up the lead again, changing directions for us to run in. Sarah was just behind me, but I could hear her breathing hard at the exertion. I wasn't sure how the adrenaline still had me moving, especially after the blow to the head I'd taken hours ago.
My legs were burning in pain, fighting against my mind's will to keep going. I wasn't entirely sure how far we'd run and if it had been a full mile yet, but I couldn't keep up the pace. I slowed down to a walk, my breathing labored and heavy. Sarah slowed down beside me. I managed the effort to raise a hand to my lips, so she knew to keep quiet. I didn't want to risk drawing attention to us if there were any other walkers nearby. I wasn't sure if I would have the energy to take one out at this point.
Our walk to the highway was long. It had to have taken us a few hours to get through the last few miles. At one point, I'd collapsed, unable to keep moving. I was exhausted and lightheaded. Sarah had to pull me up and support my weight for the rest of the way. But once we reached the road, I seemed to find a second wind. We just needed to find the vehicle that had been left full of supplies for Sophia. Daryl would know to look for us there.
I had spent some time wandering down the side of the highway, my eyes open looking for a familiar road sign that would mark the area for where we had broken down weeks ago. It was awhile before I finally did.
"The car should be just up ahead somewhere," I told Sarah, my voice breaking the long silence between us.
Eventually we came across an old car, white writing across the windshield. Most of the words had washed away from rain, but I could still make out Sophia's name on it. The food and water were still on the hood of the car where the group had left them for her.
"There," I said, pointing out the car to Sarah.
Sarah let out a sigh of relief.
"Let's scan the area first, make sure no walkers have settled in here since they left this message. Then we can crawl into one of the cars and spend the night there."
Sarah nodded and followed behind me. We moved from one car to the next silently. When I felt satisfied that we would be safe for the night, we made our way back towards the car with the message. I found an older minivan that was open and thankfully had no bodies inside.
"We'll stay in here tonight. Keep the doors locked. There's room to stretch out and sleep," I told my sister.
I let her climb in before me, turning and shutting the door softly behind us. I locked it and then stood in-between the driver and passenger seats, locking those doors as well.
"You should take the backseat to sleep on. It'll be more comfortable," Sarah told me. "The floor right here is fine for me."
"You sure?"
She nodded her head before sliding my backpack from her shoulders.
"There's some water and food in there," I told her.
She opened it up and pulled out a water bottle, handing it to me before digging in and pulling out a sleeve of crackers and some beef jerky.
I opened the bottle and took a few big gulps before passing it to her. She passed off the beef jerky to me. We drank and ate in silence for a few minutes. When we finished we stored everything back into the bag.
I laid down on the backseat of the van. It was comfortable, though not long enough to fully stretch my legs out on. I was too tired to really care at this point though; I was just glad that Sarah and I had made it here safe. Hopefully Daryl and Carol would be here in the morning. After I'd thought about it more, I figured this is where the others would probably end up, too. It was the only other landmark we would all know.
"Goodnight," Sarah said softly.
My eyes shot open, spotting her stretched out on the floor in-between the two middle seats. Her head was resting on the backpack like it was a pillow.
"Goodnight," I replied before closing my eyes.