Rick and Daryl shot their weapons in a full spray of suppression fire along the wall in order to give Michonne cover. Racing back to the trees, they knew they needed to get out of there. Not only would they be pursued by the Governor's men, but the walkers in the area would be drawn to the noise.
"Come on! Come on!" Daryl yelled, grabbing Michonne to help her as she nearly fell into the tree.
"You okay?" He asked her hurriedly.
"Yeah." She muttered.
"Let's get the hell out of here." Daryl snapped, stalking back toward where Katelyn stood, watching their backs.
"What about Carol?" Katelyn asked, worried that she would get caught in the firefight.
"Didn't see her. Nothing we can do now." Daryl said, tugging her along with him as they retreated into the woods.
"We need to go around this area. Let the walkers be drawn here and his men converge and follow a straight path." Daryl told Rick who had just jogged over to him.
"If they find the cars though, we're screwed." Rick countered.
"All right, but we gotta move fast. Try not to use our guns now." Daryl replied.
"You lead." Rick said, nodding at Daryl.
"Kate, you hold onto my shirt and follow right behind me." Daryl said quietly, looking her in the eye so she knew he was serious.
He could tell she was scared but she wouldn't admit it for anything after their earlier exchange.
Darting into the forest, the group headed back toward the road, hoping they didn't find any walkers along the way.
#################################################################################
It was all Andrea could do not to vomit as she pretended to make love to Phillip. She forced herself not to think about the things Carol told her about him. Closing her eyes, she pretended it was someone else.
She didn't have to pretend long when they were both interrupted by a series of gunfire.
"What the hell is that?" Andrea sat upright, grabbing her gun off the nightstand and her pants from the floor.
"Gunshots." Phillip answered, grabbing his trousers from the chair and sliding into them quickly.
"Stay here." He demanded, but Andrea snorted in derision.
"Not a chance in hell." She replied, buttoning her blouse as she followed him out the door.
Stepping out into the street, the Governor saw his men racing for the back of the town. Merle was rushing toward them with news.
"Back wall, Gov'na." Merle drawled.
"Don't take the men off the other walls. Get everyone who's not on duty. It could be a diversion." Phillip ordered.
Merle nodded, leaving to go deliver his orders.
Andrea followed the Governor to the back wall where the men were converging. Others were running to reinforce the other walls. Turning down the alley, they climbed on top of the dumpster to peer over the ledge. Lights were now shining on the open space and into the forest but she couldn't see anything anymore.
They were gone.
But where was Carol?
Chewing on her lip nervously, Andrea thought she heard something bang against the dumpster and she froze. Stomping her foot down on the lid, it went silent.
Shit! She thought, Carol was inside.
The Governor climbed on top of the wall and joined his men.
"Stay there!" He ordered her.
This time, she listened.
Waiting until he wasn't looking, Andrea opened the lid slightly and whispered inside.
"Carol, go. Quickly!" She breathed loudly.
She saw Carol's head pop out and reached her hand in to help her.
Pulling her out, she had to shove her behind the dumpster when two more guards came running down the alleyway. Smiling at them, she waited until they were on top of the wall before motioning for Carol to run.
"Go!" She hissed, as Carol ran to the end of the alley and peeked around the corner.
Dodging a group of guards running across the main street, Carol bolted into her building and locked herself inside her room.
For now, she was safe.
##########################################################################
Keeping in mind the trap field they set up, Daryl moved the group out and around the area. Slowing down a bit, he skirted the tail of a small ravine before sliding down the embankment and into the stream. Turning to help Katelyn down, he paused to wait for Rick and the others.
"Can we just follow the stream down to the lower area?" Maggie asked, breathlessly running up to them.
"Yeah, but that takes us back across their paths." Daryl answered.
"Let's keep going then." Rick suggested, before the whole group heard the sounds of many footsteps coming toward them.
"Shit! Walkers!" Daryl growled, grabbing Katelyn's hand to pull her behind him.
Looking up, he saw a large group coming toward them, blocking their escape path. If they turned back, they would run right into the Governor's men. However, they could lead them that way and then branch off so the guards from Woodbury would run right into the walkers.
"Follow me!" Daryl called, and began jogging quickly enough to get away from the walkers but slowly enough that they could follow them.
"What exactly is your plan here?" Glenn asked, trotting alongside of Daryl and Katelyn.
"We're gonna lead the walkers right into the Woodbury guards." Daryl said.
"Good plan." Glenn shrugged, glancing behind him to see how far the walkers were.
"Keep making enough noise for them to hear us." Daryl called out to the group behind him.
Michonne darted out a ways from the group. She wanted to make sure that someone could take the walkers out in case the plan didn't work out the way Daryl wanted. Rick nodded when she looked back at him, giving her the go ahead.
"Michonne's taking our flank…just in case." Rick explained to Daryl.
"No faith?" Daryl snorted.
"I got plenty of faith. I also know how unlucky we can be." Rick retorted.
Daryl grunted, smiling mirthlessly.
True enough, he thought.
They ran for a good five minutes before they saw the lights of the searchers up ahead. Daryl halted and motioned for everyone to sprint straight sideways and let the two groups collide. Tugging Katelyn's hand, they ducked low and ran and quickly as they could, leaping over objects and dodging fallen logs.
They didn't see the hole in the ground until Katelyn stepped in it and fell.
Shrieking uncontrollably, Katelyn went down, causing Daryl to stop abruptly.
Squatting down next to her, he saw that she was laying on her back holding her ankle, and rolling around. Katelyn grimaced as shooting pain raced through her ankle, but she wasn't about to admit defeat.
"You all right?" Daryl asked, reaching for her leg.
Katelyn put it down immediately, ignoring the inferno she could feel on the outside of her ankle joint. She knew it was injured, but she couldn't do anything about it right now.
"Just twisted it. Help me up." She stated with more spunk than she felt.
Gingerly putting it on the ground, she tried to act like it was fine. It must have been because it was dark, because Daryl didn't seem to notice. He merely nodded and kept moving. Katelyn was gritting her teeth with each step as shooting pain pounded her leg like a bullet.
Tears sprang to her eyes as they ran, but she pushed them back. He was already furious with her for coming, so she refused to be a burden to him at this point. Pushing herself, she was determined to keep up but about two minutes later, she couldn't hold out anymore and tugged back on Daryl's hand. Bending over, she pretended that she was winded.
"We gotta keep going." Daryl said.
" We gotta slow down for a minute." She kept bending over so he wouldn't see the sheen of tears in her eyes. At this point, she was bawling, tears pouring down her face as her ankle throbbed fiercely.
"We can slow down a bit but we gotta keep moving." He answered.
Katelyn nodded, still avoiding looking at Daryl. Rick and the others arrived, turning his attention away from her.
"Listen." Michonne said, moving toward the group.
They could hear the screams of the Woodbury group that had followed them, easing all of the tension. Taking deep breaths, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and started moving toward the cars again.
"You're play worked." Rick said, impressed with his thinking.
"This time." Daryl retorted, smirking without humor.
They made their way to the cars and climbed in, grateful to have gotten away safely.