Chapter 7: Night Terrors

The guys went back into the city the next day. Abby stayed behind and attempted to try and do a stock take of what she'd managed to get from the hospital.

She wandered down to the water with Laurie afterwards and they joined the others in washing and talking. She liked this little ritual they had, it seemed almost civilised considering the current situation.

They laughed and talked about the things they missed, Abby couldn't help watching Ed out of the corner of her eye; his very presence near them put her on edge.

It wasn't long before Ed kicked off, of course he would carol was smiling and enjoying herself, he had to put a stop to that.

He argued with Andrea and Jacqui before he struck carol in front of them all, Shane waded in to get him away from her. Abby was glad Shane was there to restrain Ed, but he didn't just restrain him. Instead Shane decided to kick the living shit out of Ed until carols screaming stopped him.

Abby watched Shane walk away; she'd never seen him like that before.

It got dark and the guys still weren't back. Some people were shunning Jim for his strange behaviour earlier on that day; well it wasn't exactly normal to randomly dig graves. They kept the fire low and conversation to a minimum, they were all listening for the sound of tires on the road.

Rick, Glenn, T-dog and Daryl ran along the road and started up the incline to the camp. Daryl was silent, he couldn't believe merle had stolen the van…well secretly he could believe.

Abby was talking to Laurie when Amy's scream ripped through the quiet night air. Within seconds everyone was on their feet and arming themselves, Carrie was crying next to Abby as they watched Amy get a chunk bitten out of her arm by a walker.

Abby fired as many shots as she could but reloading was going to be difficult. She got Carrie back to the others and managed to reload the gun before the walkers got to close.

Three walkers began to advance on the cluster of unarmed people in the camp and Abby fired at them, she hit one in the head and watched half his skull shatter onto his two fellow walkers. She ran, she had to get them away from the others and it seemed to be working. It was going ok until she tripped, she hit the ground and spun round. She fired and took out one of the two walkers but the other one kept coming and she was out of ammo.

They'd heard the screams and now all four were racing up the hill to get to the camp. Daryl charged ahead of the others and saw the walker and then he saw Abby.

Abby suddenly froze, she hadn't frozen up in fear like this for years but it was like seeing your own death coming right at you. It was also knowing what you would become if they didn't kill you.

The walker lunged at her. Abby wanted so badly to move or at least shut her eyes but she couldn't.

Suddenly the walker jerked backwards and hit the ground. Abby slowly turned around to see Daryl running up to her; he grabbed her by the arm and yanked her up.

The next day was awful; Abby sat in Daryl's truck where he'd put her last night and watched Andrea.

Andrea hadn't left Amy's side all night; everyone was waiting with baited breath for the inevitable.

Abby jumped as Daryl took a break from pick axing the walkers and opened the truck door; he leant against the seat and was silent for a moment. He seemed to be judging whether or not it was safe to talk to her,

' What happened…thought you could handle yourself?' he said, he was mocking her instead he almost seemed…worried,

' I…I don't know I just froze' she continued to stare at Andrea

' Guess it was just my turn to save your ass?' she could tell he had a little smile as he said it. He grabbed the pickaxe and walked away again to continue his job.

Heads turned as Amy raised her hand, Andrea was talking quietly to her as Abby got out of the truck. Everyone's hearts were in their throats waiting to see how Andrea would react. It hit everyone when the gunshot rang out and Amy hit the ground. It went quiet as Andrea sobbed and people gradually resumed what they had been doing.

Abby walked over to Daryl, she couldn't explain it but she liked to be near him, it made her feel safe. She watched him as he stood over Ed's body; carol walked over and asked for the pickaxe. Daryl paused and caught Abby's eye, Abby nodded and he handed it over to carol. He walked over to Abby and they watched carol slam the pickaxe into Ed's skull. They both flinched at seeing the usually demure carol cry and slam the axe down one more time. Everyone turned as Jacqui began to shout,

' He's been bit…. Jim's been bit!' she shouted, Jim looked cornered and an argument soon broke out. Daryl threatened Jim with the pickaxe, which made Rick pull a gun on him,

' Thought we didn't shoot our own?' Daryl said as he walked away

' We go to the CDC, maybe they're working on a cure and then they could help Jim' the debate about going to the CDC had been going since the attack and Abby was all for getting out of these woods.

Morales and his family announced they were going to Alabama to see if the family they had there were still alive. The remaining campers climbed into the trucks; the cars she and Glenn had brought back and her truck were emptied of fuel and left behind. Rick taped a map and a message to the red car for someone he'd met before arriving at the camp. Carrie and john climbed into dale's RV and Abby joined Daryl in his truck.

They stayed silent for a while but it was a strangely comfortable silence. They weren't far out of the camp when everyone suddenly had to hit the breaks,

' What the fuck!' Daryl cursed as he grabbed his crossbow and jumped out of the truck, Abby followed him and looked ahead. Everyone was peering out of windows or climbing out of the vehicles to see what was going on.

They watched as a lone figure ran down the road towards them.

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