Chapter 5: Don't Look Back

Something inside me changed. I suddenly felt the strongest urge to embrace her and to hold her until those beasts left. I wanted to fix her, protect her. I moved my hand to cup her cheek.

"You're safe." I told her.

It was so hard for me to say that. I wanted to tell her that she was never gonna be alone anymore and that if anything ever happened to her, I'd never be able to live without her. I couldn't bring myself to do it. I started to think about what my dad would've done to me if he heard me say that to anybody. The scar on my chest was burning. I move my hand to the floor, looking through the cracks at the walkers pacing under us. I felt Carol still looking at me. She sniffled.

"What are we gonna do?" she asked.

"I dunno." I said standing up.

I walked out onto the landing. There were geeks surrounding the entire barn. We were in a bigger shithole then I thought we were. I looked at the RC and the farmhouse in the distance. The entire area was empty. Carol walked up next to me.

"Ya think they'll come for us?" she asked with fear lining her words.

"Dunno." I grumbled.

We just stood there for awhile, really taking in our situation. We were helpless. Without the other, we were either dying of starvation or becoming freaks. I wondered what they were doing in the house and if they even knew where we were and if we were safe. They probably don't even care. They wouldn't rick the group to save two people. Especially not Shane. I looked down. Some of the zombies were heading for the livestock. More followed after them. They ran at the animals with hunger in their eyes. More and more followed the ones before them. I quickly turned on my heel and went back into the loft, peering over the edge. Their numbers were thinning. Carol said something to me, but my thoughts were too loud for me to hear her. I clutched the knife in my belt and turned to face her.

"Come on." I said, grabbing her arm.

"What?" she said as I dragged her along, "Are you crazy?"

"This could be our only chance at survival. Shut up and go!" I said, shoving her at the ladder.

I could see that she was trying her hardest to climb down as fast as she could, but it wasn't fast enough. I was so afraid we were going to die, my fear turned into fire burning in my body.

"Carol, move!" I shouted.

She looked up at me with tears pooling in her eyes. She reached the bottom of the ladder and started running for the house. I scrambled down the ladder, skipping the last few rungs. I ran as fast as my legs would take me. Don't look back. Don't look back. I heard footsteps behind me. I tried to scream for Carol, but I couldn't find my breath. As we grew closer to the house, I looked back.

The geeks were running towards us. With their arms outstretched, they were still pouring out of the barn. The walkers feasting on our live food supply looked up as we passed by. Carol turned back to look at me. Tears streaked down her face as she pushed herself to keep going. She ran up the steps of the house, crying, screaming and pounding her hands on the door. I followed soon after her.

"Rick, it's us! Open the door!" I yelled.

"Help us! Help us!" Carol screamed desperately, losing her voice.

The zombies' pace wasn't slowing down. They were quickly approaching camp. I looked across to the RV. Andrea and Dale stood in the window, staring at us in horror. Tears were falling down her face as Dale held Andrea up. It was too late to get to the RV; they were invading the camp quicker than I thought it was possible. Panic taking over me, I shouted at the door pleading for them to let us in. Carol backed away, and crossed her arms over her chest, looking at the undead coming closer.

"What are you doing?" I raised my voice, almost reaching hysteria.

She simply turned to face me and calmly said with a smile, "You're a good man, Daryl Dixon."

It's over. We're both dead. This is how it ends. I walked to Carol, watching the bastards approach us. There were no words that needed to be said, the silence spoke for us. I put my hands on her shoulders and pulled her back so that we were against the door. Their feet hit the steps and I pulled her into my chest.

"You're safe." I whispered.