After snoring for a few minutes Rick decides it's time to move from there. As he starts to move footsteps sound off the wooden steps and he quickly gets back under the bed. We hold our breaths as he approaches the room "Yo" he calls out to whoever is sleeping "Comfy?" He asks the man.
The sleeping man grumbles "you waking me up to see if I'm comfortable?"
He grits back "I want to lie down."
The one on the bed responds "two other bedrooms up here to choose."
"Them's kids' beds. I want this one." He retorts back.
"It's claimed." He returns.
The one standing by Rick's head answers "I didn't hear it. You gonna have to lay claim somewhere else." He tells him. One of them must attack the other as they grunt while fighting. Their feet stumble about the room before a body plummets to the ground.
The man lies face up, and I inch backwards in fear. I stare at Rick, wondering what to do but he just stares ahead at the man on the ground. The man on the ground tries to fight back but soon his face is back on the ground, this time right on the wooden floor. His eyes slowly open and widen when he see's us under the bed. "Len! Len, stop! Stop, Len! Stop!" He tries to tell his friend, or whoever it is attacking him to stop, to tell him about us hiding.
"Hell, no." The man grunts gripping tightly onto his throat.
"Stop!" He tries more but soon his eyes roll shut and he stops resisting.
"My bed now, jack off" the man, Len, jumps on the bed sighing out happily.
The man falls asleep as the other one did rather quickly and Rick nods at me to move out. I slowly move around Len's leg as it sprawls off the bed and wait for Rick to follow me. He stands up, but we hear someone call up to us "Tony, Len, get your asses down here!" He shouts. He bounces something against the floor as we see him walking up the stairs. Rick and I quickly dart into another bedroom, a boy's room and I go to the bedroom and hide to the right of the door, Rick to the left. "Yo, you hear me?" He asks, his voice closer now. We push ourselves against the walls and stare at each other. The man enters the room, bouncing the ball against the floor. I close my eyes, focusing on my breathing when the sound of the ball against the wood in the room jolt them open. Rick keeps his eyes on me, wide and worried. I eye his hands in fists, reminded that his gun is now with Carl. The man moves out of the room and I allow myself to breath out just slightly. I pull the knife out of my pants and go to hand it to Rick but he moves to a window and tries to open it. All the windows in here are painted shut.
"Rick." I try to get his attention with a small whisper but he either doesn't hear me or ignores it, moving further into the bedroom.
"Claim, claim, claim!" The man yells out.
Len, the one in the bed responds "shut the hell up. I'm trying to sleep."
One of the men downstairs yells out "there's a woman shacking up in here."
"Say what?" One of the two upstairs with us answers back. Rick's eyes grow wider as he looks at me, rage flies through him and my heart pounds into my chest. How the hell do they know about me? I wonder to myself. I grip my knife tightly, worried I'll have to use it. Rick takes a hold of a trophy in the room, I can't tell but it looks like a hockey player on it, maybe lacrosse.
"Come on down!" He shouts back.
"She hot?" One of them asks. We hear multiple footsteps and hide from being seen from the hall.
The man downstairs calls back "don't grab your pecker just yet. She ain't here."
Rick and I exchange a glance "what the hell you hollering about?" one of them asks.
They descend downstairs "found her shirt. Must have washed it this morning." He answers. Michonne washed her shirt this morning before leaving, she left it hanging up to dry. "Smells good." He adds on.
"Oh, you found a shirt? She could be miles away by now." One of the other men say as they leave the upper level. Rick peaks just for a moment and pops back in to nod at me to follow him.
"Why'd she go to all the trouble of washing a shirt when she's just gonna ditch it? She'll be back." He explains to them.
I worry about Michonne and Carl as we move rooms. They can come back any minute now, walk right up to them. "I call first when she gets here." The hick from the bed, Len, calls to them all.
"Who knows who else she got with her." One says back. "We need to be ready for anything. Len, take the side room." He directs.
"Hold on, let me get a gun." Len calls back and quick footsteps are heard as he runs up the stairs. I move to the closest door, the bathroom, and Rick follows me. He turns to face me once the door is closed but my eyes are trained to his side. Rick glances at the man sitting down and quickly lunges at him. The trophy hitting him in the chest and startling him. They fight one another and I see the man going for the machine gun on the counter. I quickly grab it so he can't but he knocks me to the ground and I drop it. The man has Rick against the wall, both of them clamping one another's throats. I grab a hold of the scissors I spot on the counter and quickly move behind the man. I raise my arm high to stab him but he spots me at the last second. He sends his elbow into my face and I land on my ass but notice the tool bloody on the ground. My focus is back on the man as he comes after me now, Rick in a heap on the floor catching his breath. The man gets on top of me with an evil grin but begins to struggle when Rick puts the gun to his throat and squeezes it towards himself. They both struggle but ultimately he fails as he looses consciousness and falls to the floor.
Rick rushes over to my side, he gives me a knowing look, an 'you okay' look and I nod, telling him I'll be fine. He turns back to the door, aiming the gun at it while catching his breath. I stand up, going to the window to open it. It opens quietly and I psst for Rick to start moving. He helps me up, allowing me to put my leg on his to hoist and I get on the roof first. Rick hands me the gun and climbs out behind me. Rick goes to jump down first. He swings the gun around his shoulder and slowly lowers himself down. He hangs on the drain pipe, getting ready to let go when it snaps under his weight and he falls quickly. He gestures for me to come down quickly and I do. I lower myself down as fast as I can and land loudly on the porch. I stumble forward into Rick on impact and he accepts the tumble and holds me close as we hug the wall. We wait for a few moments for someone to come out the door but they don't so we move off the back porch and onto the ground. We hover to the brick foundation as we move around the house towards the front door. As we get closer, the door opens and a familiar bouncing sound echoes through the air. The man walks slowly on the porch, bouncing the ball when it suddenly stops. Rick slowly peaks up to see if he's gone but he ducks down quickly, eyeing right above us to signal he's there. The man spits to the side, almost landing on Rick's foot before he starts to whistle. We stay crouched in the dead leaves, ready to wait it out when I see Michonne and Carl in the distance. I tap Rick on the leg to get his attention. When he looks at me I nod my head in the direction and he looks. I can see him curse under his own breath and drops his head for only a second. He raises his hand up slowly, ready to attack the man to save them and I grip my knife tightly. Just as he is about to reach the ledge a man inside starts to yell out. "Stop her!" He yells. We hear footsteps on the ground again "Kill her, kill her!" Someone yells at the door to the house opens quickly.
Rick darts to his son and I follow behind him quickly "go! go!" He shouts in a whisper to them and we all run away from the house to seek safety elsewhere.
We make our way away from the houses and back towards the railroad tracks from earlier. We start walking, not turning for anything. Carl whips out a can of cheese, asks with a smile if I want any. I smile, taking it from him "used to hate this crap" I say as I start to squeeze some in my mouth.
Carl laughs as I hand it back to him, squeezing some into his mouth as well "it's like gravy now, ain't it?" He asks me. I nod, wiping my mouth of any left over.
We walk over to an old train container. On it lies a sign. The sign reads "Sanctuary for all. Community for all. Those who arrive, survive." Underneath that is a map with a star around an area labeled 'Terminus.' All four of us stare at it, wondering what to do. Michonne is the one to ask "what do you think?"
I look to Rick, knowing that's who she is really asking and wait for his answer. He pauses, looking at the three of us. He answers "let's go" and we make our way forward again.