DISCLAIMER: I don't own The Walking Dead.
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CHAPTER TWELVE
"You all right." Rick asks Glenn when he comes to stand beside him and Hershel. Glenn just looks down at Tony's body before slowly looking up at him and softly saying yeah.
"Hershel?" Rick asks as he turns to look at him and he just looks from Dave and Tony's bodies before looking up at him and he starts to slowly nod his head, which he returns. Those men would have killed them, to take the farm where Lori and Carl and the rest of the group are, he did the right thing.
"Let's head back." Hershel says and Rick nods before seeing Tony's shot gun lying on the ground. He bends down and picks it up before starting to search Tony's pants pockets, he finds two shot gun shells, better than nothing.
As he and Hershel walk towards the door he looks over at Glenn to see him bending down behind the counter. When he stands up he sees Dave's gun in his hand and he starts walking towards the door with them.
All of a sudden car lights flash over the windows and Rick whispers to get down and they run over to the walls by the door, hiding from the big windows and the curtains that cover only half of the big windows.
The moment the man that got out of the truck and called for Dave and Tony, he knew they were in trouble, seeing as both of their cars are out front with those men and he knows those gunshots are sure to bring walkers to them.
Rick listens as they talk and he can tell that there are three maybe four men outside. He holds his gun a little tighter trying to think of a way to get himself, Glenn and Hershel out of this bar and this town safely.
After hearing the men walk away he waits a moment before slowly looking out the window, he pulls back the curtain and he doesn't see anything. He stands up and looks out the window again when he still doesn't see any of them he crouches pass the windows of the doors and over to Glenn and Hershel.
"Why won't they leave?" Glenn whispers and Hershel looks over at him and asks 'would you'. "We can't sit here any longer. Let's head out back and make a run for the cars." Rick whispers to them and they nod and start to get up to go to the back when gun shots ring outside.
They quickly move back to the wall taking cover, just in case. Rick looks over the half window curtain and sees one of the men outside before another two men come running up, all of them carrying some pretty heavy fire arms.
He slides back down to a crouch when the men walk to the bar looking for Dave and Tony. He cocks his gun when he hears the boards outside the door creek.
When the door starts to open, Glenn panicking jumps in front of it and pushes it close, alerting the men that someone is inside. Rick shakes his head, it is the last thing they need, but he can't fault Glenn for it.
"Yo, is someone in there. Yo, if someone's in there, we don't want any trouble. We're just looking for our friends. If something happened tell us? This place is crawling with corpses. If you can help us not get killed I'd appreciate it." One of the men outside said while whispering to his friend about how he know someone is inside and that they might have Dave and Tony alive inside.
Rick looks from the dead body of Tony and Dave's legs from behind the counter and he knows he has no other choice. "They drew on us!" He yells out and he hears the men approaching the bar again and he asks if Dave and Tony are in here and alive.
He yells no and he hears one of the other men saying that we killed Dave and Tony. One of the other men said that they should leave but the man that talked to them before said he ain't leaving and going back and telling his group that Dave and Tony were shot by some assholes in bar.
"Your friends drew on us!" Rick yells getting angry and a bit scared, they need to leave. "They gave us no choice! I'm sure we've all lost enough people. So let's chalk this up to what it was, wrong place, wrong..." Rick yells but is cut off by the men firing into the bar, glass falls all over them.
He stands and shoots out the broken glass of the door, at the men while yelling at Glenn and Hershel to go and run. When more gun shots fire inside Glenn and Hershel take cover behind a piano and pillar.
When the gun shots stop he quickly reloads his pistol. "Hey! We all know this is not gonna end well! There's nothing in it or any of us! You guys just... back off, no one else gets hurt!" Rick yells as he cocks his gun and he waits but they don't reply.
They then hear a garbage can out back rattling and Rick knows that they are trying to ambush them from the back so he nods his head towards the back at Glenn.
Glenn then quickly gets up and runs to the back and everything is quiet for a few seconds. When a shot rings out coming from the back of the bar, fear rushes over him and he yells for Glenn as he gets up and starts running for the back. 'I'm all right. I'm all right.' He hears Glenn yell back and he sighs in relief and he stands up beside Hershel.
"I'll hold 'em here. You cover Glenn. See if he can make it to your car. Tell him to pull up back, we'll run for it and get the hell out of here." He tells Hershel as he pants trying to catch his breath. "You want me to cover Glenn?" Hershel asks him and he half jokes saying that the gun training would have become handy right now.
"I can shoot, I just don't like too." Hershel said cocking the shot gun, shocking him a bit but making him happy to hear it none the less. He watches Hershel walk to the back of the bar to go and tell Glenn. He jogs back over to the windows to see if he can see any of them out front and when he gets to the window several shots fire out back.
He quickly turns and runs to the back jumping the small steps and over to Hershel. "What happened?" He quickly asks Hershel while looking out the door when he hears a man crying out in pain further down the alley.
"He fired. He must have hit Glenn. He's behind the dumpster. Doesn't look like he's moving." Hershel tells him and he quickly opens the other door and walks into the ally and he holds his gun and Tony's shot gun down each opposite side as he makes his way to Glenn.
"You hit! Are you hit?" He asks in a harsh whisper as he slowly walks towards Glenn, knowing that there are still two men out there. Glenn shakes his head telling him no several times as he clenches and unclenches his shot gun.
"It's all right. The car is right there." He said after he moves to crouch beside Glenn behind the dumpsters. "We're almost home." He says and then asks Glenn if he is good and when he says he is, Rick looks from him and then over to Hershel.
"Let's go." He says and gets up and starts making his way to the entrance of the alleyway. When a gunshot fires and hits the dumpster right beside him he pushes Glenn back behind the dumpsters and they take cover.
Rick looks over the side of the dumpster and looks around and he spots a man standing on top of Steve's pharmacy with a rifle. He can't believe how close that was, he takes a deep breath trying to think up a plan to get them out of here and back to the farm, back to the group, back to Carl and Lori.
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Seeing as how none of them can get to sleep as they hear gun shots still echoing from town, they all sit around the living room. Eva wants them prepared to leave the second Charlie or Cody see walkers on the farm, so after moving the boys out on to the sofa she helps the others move their bags out into the living room.
They place all the bags and boxes by the door ready to go if they have too. She softly clips the straps of the car seat over Warren, making sure not to wake him, he will be fine sleeping in the car seat for a night.
After she fixes the baby blanket she looks over to the other couch to see Sophia and the boy, cuddled up fast asleep. She gets up and moves the car seat onto the living room table and walks over to Kailee and Mel as they keep fidgeting with the bags.
She softly turns and pushes them over to the couch and sits them down. "I know it is hard to sleep but try and get some rest, it is going to be a long few days." She tells them and they look up at her and tell her ok before they start moving around trying to get comfortable on the couch together.
She limps to the kitchen and sees Jenna and Abigail packing up the rest of the food and the plates and utensils into boxes. "After this is done, we'll look through the house one more time." Eva said as she picks up one of the full boxes, ignore the sharp pain in her leg as she lifts the heavy box and she takes it back out to the living room with the others.
"When the house is done, I want you both to sleep in Charlie's room." She tells them as they take the last three boxes to the living room. She wants them down on the first floor and Charlie's room is closest to the living room and front door.
They each grab an empty or half empty bag and they start going through all the rooms packing up everything that they missed on their first panicked attempt. She points to Charlie's room when they are finished and they nod their heads and they both make their way back to go and get some rest.
"I'm going to go on watch upstairs, I'll be able to see farther." She tells Charlie from where he is sitting by the window with his shot gun in his lap as he looks through the night vision googles.
He doesn't look away from the window but tells her ok and she grabs the second pair of night vision goggles that they found on one of their many scavenging trips. She fixes the kids' blankets before walking over and covering up the girls who all but passed out the moment their heads hit the pillows.
She slowly walks up the stairs and down the hall to Jenna's room, the window faces west away from town, she is afraid that walkers will come through here to get to the town.
If they can hear those gunshots, she knows walkers for miles heard them too. Since everything went to shit, every sound seems to echo through the silence.
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Rick listens as the man on the roof falls down and starts yelling in pain as the other man drives off down the road leaving him behind. He turns to Glenn and tells him to get Hershel, before taking off across the street.
When he gets there he sees the man, well kid, no older than twenty with his leg impaled on a gated fence. "Rick!" He hears Hershel calling for him so he looks away from the kids' leg and sees him and Glenn running towards him.
"We have to go now." Hershel says when he reaches him and he tells him no, they can't just leave the kid here to die, plus they need information from him about his group.
When the kids' cries start getting louder he shushes him before looking back to Hershel. "I'm sorry son, we have to go." Hershel says and the kid starts begging and Rick says no again saying that we can't.
"He was just shooting at us!" Glenn yells at him and he turns and yells that he is just a kid. "This place is crawling with walkers!" Glenn yells back at him and he looks over Glenn's shoulder and he sees several in the distance.
"We can't just leave him!" He yells back and he hears Hershel telling him the fence went clean through, so he looks back to him and the kid. "There's no way we can get the leg off in one piece." Hershel tells him and he starts shaking the fence to see if it will come easily apart.
"Shut up or I will shoot you!" He yells when the kid screams out in pain. "That may be the answer. We're not gonna get that leg off without tearing that muscle to shreds. He can't run and he may bleed out. Maybe we should put him down." Hershel says and Rick looks up at him confused that he would suggest that and Hershel looks back before motioning to the kid.
"I don't want to see anymore killing, but this is cruel." Hershel tells him and he starts to agree with him when Glenn asks if the can just take the leg off. He then looks at the kid's scared face before looking back to Glenn and asking if the hatchet is still in the car.
They ignore the kid as he starts begging for them to not cut his leg off. "Will this cut through the bone?" Rick asks showing Hershel his pocket knife and Hershel starts telling them how he has to cut the leg off.
"He will lose his lower leg. When we get clear off here we will have to find some tender and cauterize the wound so he doesn't bleed out." Hershel tells him and he says that they have no choice and to hurry up and he walks through the open gate door and pushes the kid back down on the dumpster.
While Hershel starts tying his button down shirt around the kids leg with the stick Glenn gave him, they hear Glenn yelling walkers. When the kid screams out Rick covers his mouth muffling the sound. "Oh god they're everywhere." Rick says when he looks up from the kid and he sees walkers coming towards with from the other side of the building.
He shoots two of the closer ones and asks Hershel how he is doing when he looks down he sees the kid's rifle so he quickly bends down and picks it up. And starts shooting the walkers but there is just too many of them.
He yells at Hershel to hurry that it has to be now as he starts walking backwards towards Hershel and Glenn. Hershel moves away from the kid and over to Glenn, Rick looks up at the kid who is begging not to leave him. He looks down at the kid's leg and does not hesitate as he grabs his leg and rips it up off the fence.
Ignoring the kids screams as he and Glenn quickly drag him to Hershel red truck throwing him in the back. When Rick is about to climb in the passenger seat something catches his eye, a bright neon green poster board hanging on the side of the bar that is facing the pharmacy. He reads the name at the top twice before quickly running and ripping it off the wall ignoring Glenn as he yells at him.
He read's, 'SOPHIA PELITER' at the top in big bold letters and he laughs as he jumps into the truck and he starts reading the note as Glenn takes off driving out of town.
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A few hours later after the gunshots finally stop, Jenna comes into the room and relives Eva from watch. After thanking her, she walks down the stairs and into the living room. After softly moving Sophia's feet she sits down on the couch with her and the boy.
When she sits down her body relaxes from all the stress and pain from the day. She lays her arm over Sophia's and the boy's legs and leans her head back against the couch and she feels her eyes droop and before she knows it she is fast asleep.
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When Charlie finally takes a small break from the window, he slowly gets up, his legs and ass feeling numb from the hours of sitting.
As he stretches he looks around them living room and sees that all the kids are still asleep and it makes him happy to see Eva sitting there fast asleep with the boy and Sophia, he knows she needs it.
He quietly walks to the kitchen and over to Cody, who is on watch looking to the backyard. "Anything?" He asks quietly and Cody looks away from the window and shakes his head.
"Not even one, not too sure if that is a good thing or not. I'm scared they are just gonna swarm up, hundreds of them." Cody said shaking his head again before rubbing his eyes.
Charlie can't blame the man, he is thinks the same thing after the several hours of nothing, only sounds of gunshots and thunder in the distance. He pats his shoulder before handing him a water bottle and a thing of pop tarts, before turning and making his way up stairs to give Jenna her food and water.
He sits back down on that uncomfortable chair and looks out the window as he slowly eats his stale pop tart. He pushes the every growing fear from his thoughts as he stares out the window.
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When they get further out of town, Hershel has Glenn pull over, the kids' leg needing to be cauterized because it is bleeding too much. He covers Glenn as he starts a fire on the side of the road and Hershel as he stands at the back of the truck with the back hatch open as he looks over the kid's leg.
All he can think about though is that note that is sitting on the front seat, he can't help but quietly laugh to himself. He feels so much weight come off of his shoulders and the pain in his heart evaporates as he replays the words over and over in his head, 'Sophia is alive... Sophia is alive'.
Hershel has no problem burning the kid's leg, seeing as he passed out from blood loss and pain a little while before they stopped. When Hershel is done, Glenn quickly stomps out the fire before moving over to him and Hershel.
He smiles at Glenn who looks at him so confused so he walks over to the front seat and grabs the poster and brings it back and hands it to Glenn. Glenn grabs it warily before unfolding it and Rick can see as he reads it the fear from what happened at the town melt away as he starts laughing in joy before he looks up at Rick.
They both start laughing and they give each other a hug both so happy with that note. When they pull apart Rick can see Hershel very confused face, and thinking from his point of view he can see why.
They were just shot at, almost died, covered in the kid's blood and they just cauterized the wound and they are laughing and hugging like it hasn't happened. He laughs a bit as he and Glenn tell him that it is about Sophia, the little girl they have been looking for, for so long. Hershel shakes his head and smiles before patting both he and Glenn on their shoulders.
"I want to tell Carol, when we are alone as to not over whelm her and with bringing, what was it… Randall, bringing Randall back to the farm, it will be best." Rick says to Glenn and Hershel as he drives back to the farm and Glenn nods his head as he relaxes against the seat, completely drained from the day they had.
Rick didn't know what to think or feel at that moment as he drove back to the farm. On one hand he is completely happy and relieved, being able to bring this good news to Carol and the group. On the other, bringing Randall to the farm, he knows it will just cause more problems with Shane.
A part of him didn't want to leave the kid there because just that he is a kid. The other part the bigger part knows they need information on the other group who would kill just to get what they have.
He drives around the back streets and taking some roads twice just to make sure the other truck is not following them. When they stop again after the kid wakes up enough to be moved to the backseat, after he passes out again he has Glenn tie a blind fold over the kids eyes not wanting him to see the way back to the farm, just in case.
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When Eva wakes a few hours later she and Charlie take the girls and the boys into his room and they have them lay long ways so they all can fit, the girls' legs being too long and would hang over the sides but they curl up and fall back to sleep.
She has Charlie and Cody lay down on the couches to sleep as she, Jenna and Abagail take watch. She sits down on the uncomfortable chair that Charlie occupied and she looks out the window.
She goes over plans on how they will get out of the house, making back up plans and making backups for those backups, making sure to cover everything if there are a few walkers or hundreds... or people.
She does this for so long that she didn't even notice that the sun was rising until the boy came up and started climb up onto her lap.
She smiles down at him and he returns it and she sighs in relief, they made it one more night. Now it will be easier to spot walkers from farther away, it made the situation a lot better, until the sun goes down again.
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The sun is up when they finally get back to the farm and they can't be happier. When Rick climbs out of the truck Carl runs up to him and he pulls Carl to him giving him a big hug before pulling Lori into his arms.
"Are you hurt?" Lori asks him as she pulls away. "No, but what happened to you?" He asks her when he sees her spilt lip and the cut on her forehead and she tells him she was in a car accident.
"Car accident, how?" He asks her confused. "I went looking for you." She tells him and he looks at her in shock. "Snuck out on her own, I brought her back." Shane says and he looks at him before looking back at Lori, what was she thinking.
"Are you crazy? You could've..." He starts to ask her but is cut off by T-dog asking 'who the hell that is'. He looks away from Lori and back at Randall before looking around the group before settling on Shane, knowing that shit is about to hit the fan.
After he helps drag Randall over to the shed so Hershel can try and fix his leg he stands with the group and tell them after Hershel is done he will explain what happened in town.
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After they are done eating she tells Kailee and Mel to take watch down stairs to give Abagail and her some time off and when they leave she turns to Sophia. "Can you do something for me?" She asks Sophia and she looks at her and nods her smiling.
"I need you to take watch upstairs, you just stare out the window and if you see any people, walkers or alive you come down stairs and tell one us, even if you see just one ok." She explains as she pushes the binoculars over to her and she sees her eyes get big and Sophia gives her a big smile and she gets up and jogs up the stairs to take her first watch.
She looks over to the boy to see him staring up at her and she smiles at as she gets up and starts cleaning up the mess from breakfast. "How about we go through that name book and try and find your name, how's that sound?" She asks him and he nods his heads and giggles as she picks up the baby and takes her hand when she reaches for him.
She helps him hop off the chair and they make their way to the living room and he climbs on the couch as she places the baby down in his playpen with some toys and his bottle.
She grabs the name book from one of the bags before sitting down next to him and turns to the E's and to the place the girls left off.
She sits there naming off the names as he shakes his head, while listing to the baby gurgle and blabber away happily in his playpen, so happy to have this peaceful moment in time with them, with everyone safe.
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After listening to Rick telling them about what happened in town and Randall, Carol gets up from the table with the others as the all leave the house and back to camp.
Carol passes by Daryl as he walks into his tent and he gives her a nod before zipping up the tent door. She walks to the RV and goes inside and she walk to the back and sits down on one of the beds.
She picks up the pair of T-dogs pants and she continues where she left off, sewing the rip up. She needs these mind numbing tasks to help her through the day or else the fear takes over and she is tired of crying and seeing the pity on the groups faces every time they look at her.
When she is about to start on one of Shane's shirts she feels the RV rock, so she looks up and sees Rick walking towards her carrying a bright green poster.
She sets the shirt and needle down on the pile of clothes she is mending as he sits on the other bed. He doesn't say anything just gives her a small smile before handing her the poster.
She takes it confused and her hands began to shake as she opens the note and sees her babies name in bold at the top. She begins crying and Rick kneels before her and pulls her into his arms and she just cries but for the first time in a very long time, they are tears of pure joy and happiness.
She reads the note over and over each time and each breath making her happier and she thanks god for this miracle. She runs her fingers over the words needing to feel that they are real.
'Hello Carol, my name is Eva and I found Sophia and she is alive and well...'
'I found Sophia and she is alive and well...'
'...Sophia and she is alive and well... '
'...she is alive and well... '
'...she is alive... '