I do not own the Walking Dead.
Previously:
Faye glanced at his face, a little heat rising to her cheeks. "Yeah, well," Faye tried to make the conversation light again. "If you were cool, that makes me awesome."
"What?"
"You might've killed two with a bullet, but I killed three with a knife!"
It was only once the two children left the cell, that Faye realised they had been boasting about killing.
"You got full?"
Faye and Carl were cleaning their guns, sat beside each other on the thin metal stairs. The girl nodded. "Yep. You?"
"Two off." Carl replied.
"Shouldn't have shot the walkers yesterday, then." Faye shrugged. "Knives work fine."
The boy gave a little smirk as he looked at her. "Hypocrite. You hate using knives."
Faye had regretted admitting this to Carl the moment she had said it. It had been a month or so before they discovered the prison, after a particularly messy walker had gotten blood splatters all over her top. "Doesn't matter. We need to save ammo, we're low, remember?"
"You don't have to use a knife all the time like you do, though."
She couldn't though, she knew that. Faye didn't always have a silencer, the group didn't have enough for everyone to use one all the time. Right now, she was pretty sure one of the adults had hers.
"-every time."
Faye blinked. "What?"
"I can see it, you cringe every time."
To this, Faye merely shrugged again.
Then, the two children looked up as they heard footsteps, Lori and Beth walking in with crutches for Hershel. Beth attempted to smile at Carl, but he turned his head back down. Faye gave a small smile awkwardly, feeling bad for encouraging Carl to be mad.
Once the women disappeared into the cell, Faye nudged the boy with her elbow. "Come on, Hershel's probably going to go for a walk."
Nodding as he stood up, they walked to the old man's cell door. The farmer pulled himself up into a sitting position, looking over the crutches.
Lori spoke gently. "Just take your time."
As he edged to the side of the bed, Beth stood ready to catch him. "Daddy, don't push yourself!"
"What else am I going to do?" Faye smiled at Hershel's answer. He was tough, she'd give him that. "Can't stand lookin' up at the bottom of that bunk any longer."
Hershel swayed as he stood, gripping the crutches as Lori and Beth helped him stay upright. After a few seconds, he steadied himself and took a step forward. Faye and Carl moved back a little as he made his way to the door of his cell. Lori stopped him.
"That's a good start. Take a rest?"
The man himself disliked the idea. "Rest? Let's go for a little stroll."
A stroll it was.
"You're doing great, Daddy." Beth said, a wide smile on her face.
Although Lori's hand was still outstretched in case he took a turn for the worse, Hershel was actually doing extremely well. He took to the crutches quickly.
This was a good thing, having the farmer back on his feet made everyone more cheerful, Faye could see the others watching from a distance.
"Ready to race, Hershel?" Carl asked, a grin on his face.
"Give me another day," He replied, a surprisingly mischievous look in his eye. "I'll take you on."
There was a moment of peace as the group simply stood, basking in the moment of tranquillity.
It was gone as quickly as it came.
It was the footsteps she heard first. As she spun around, the growls came next. Then she cursed. "Shit!"
"Faye!" Lori scolded, still not seeing the threat. "Don't say-"
Lori saw them too.
Carl finally shouted it out. "Walkers!"
This time, Faye didn't hesitate to pull out her gun, forgetting the worry of sound.
Fifteen bullets for God know how many walkers. Stepping forward as she flicked off the safety, three walkers fell to the floor. Moving forward again, Faye yelled to the others. "It's the gate! Someone opened it!"
As Faye shot one more walker that got too close, she knew the gate had to be shut. If it wasn't, more and more would just come pouring in, drawn by the noise.
The girl ran a hand across her face before muttering a final curse, feeling slightly more grown up for saying it, too. "Fuck my life."
Then, just as T-Dog arrived on the scene, Faye ran forward, shooting two more bullets. Six bullets gone. Nine left.
Skidding to a stop, Faye almost tripped as she ducked under the arm of a walker before turning to shoot it in the back of the head.
Spinning her head around, the girl saw she wasn't that far from the gate. Unfortunately, she was now almost completely surrounded by walkers, four of them directly coming towards her. Facing left, Faye shot the first down. The other three got closer, panic finally setting in. Quickly, Faye aimed and shot the second walker, but missed. The second shot brought it down, but Faye screamed as she was suddenly grabbed from the other side.
Gun dropping away from her, Faye toppled over with the walker on top of her, the stinking breath making her want to throw up as she tried to hold back it's shoulders. It's hands reached forward, about to scratch her neck open and Faye screamed again, hoping someone would get through the walkers.
She was so stupid, why had she run for the gate? Now she was going to die and it would be painful and she would turn-
Her hysterical thoughts were stopped as the body fell limp on top of her. A large hand yanked the body off the small girl before reaching for Faye herself.
T-Dog pulled her to her feet before reaching down and shoving the gun back in her hands. "You bit?" He asked, obviously in a hurry.
Numbly, Faye shook her head. She didn't feel bit. She was pretty sure she would be screaming and in tears if she was bit. No, she was still whole. This was reassuring.
"Alright then, we gotta close the gate. You with me?" T-Dog asked as he shot another walker.
Faye then nodded as she quickly worked out how many bullets she had left. This usually made her feel better.
Six bullets. That was, what, half? Yeah, six was half of fifteen, right? She'd check with Carl later, she had bigger problems.
It seemed that Carol and T-Dog had taken out quite a few of the remaining walkers, but Faye saw no sign of anyone else. Perhaps they had gotten to safety, yeah, that had to be it.
Regaining control of her breathing, Faye ran beside T-Dog taking out two walkers. Four bullets. Carol stood by one of the doors as Faye guarded T-Dog while he shut the gate, preventing any more walkers entering the yard. A long haired walker stumbled towards them, but Faye shot it down before it got too close. Three bullets. Gate now shut, Faye and T-Dog followed Carol's shout and ran into through the door, walkers fists thumping from the other side.
The three stayed tight as they ran through the dark halls, T-Dog attempting to guide them. "There's a set of double doors that'll lead to a corridor that'll get us back to a cell block."
"You think we can make it out? We could get caught by walkers!" Carol cried.
The man seemed sure of himself as he spoke. "I'm getting us there. God has always been lookin' out for me, he'll get us out of these tombs."
His words reassuring her, Faye followed by T-Dog's side as they hurried through the winding hallways. As they passed another corner, two walkers finally emerged, arms outstretched as they growled.
Checking his gun, the man turned to her. "How many you got?"
"Three." She answered immediately, still painfully aware of how low on ammo she was. Nodding, T-Dog replied.
"Same. Carol?"
The woman did not reply, simply raising her gun towards the walker heads and pulling the trigger. When the only sound was a click, the woman shook her head. "Nothing."
"We'll make do." T-Dog said, the last part directed to her. "Just don't miss, make the bullets count. Got your knife?" When she nodded, he continued. "Put the jumper behind it so you can grab it quickly."
Faye already knew this, Daryl had scolded her once when she was surprised by a walker, but it had slipped her mind in all the commotion.
Striding forward, the first two walker's fell to the floor as T-Dog shot them through the forehead. Sticking close, the three ran around the corner, slamming open the doors. This corridor had another three walkers, Faye having to shoot two of them herself.
That left her with one single bullet.
T-Dog assured the two girls they were going to be okay, that they were close to the cell block, when he was cut off by the loud sound of walkers. As they rounded the corner, Faye finally laid eyes on the group of walkers heading through the passageway. Carol's shout of surprise was quickly muffled, but the noise still attracted attention and the smell of rotting grew stronger as the walkers came towards them, increasing in speed.
Instinctively, Faye span and legged it the opposite way, feet pounding against the stone floor. Reassured by the footsteps of T-Dog and Carol behind her, Faye raced on.
Then, suddenly, she skidded to a stop.
The steps weren't there. Frantically, Faye spun back around, silently praying that she wouldn't see the two adults in the hands of the walkers. When they weren't, Faye realised that they had gone back the way they came.
And as she heard a shout of her name from the other direction, Faye realised, to her horror, that she was alone.
Walkers still approaching, Faye span around and ran down the dark tunnel, blood pounding in her ears.
One bullet, one knife, one little girl.
(This would be life-threateningly hard.)
The more corners she turned, the more walkers seemed to appear. Her feet ached and her lungs heaved for air, Faye knew she was completely lost. That meant the other's would have to come and look for her, if they even thought she was alive. And even if they did, she would be pushing them out further and further.
Quickly slowing down to a stop, Faye pulled out her knife. She was taking a stand, she couldn't go on running in circles. Her fingers shook from the adrenaline, as she held up the gun, trying to steady herself.
The moment the first walker rounded the corner, the girl didn't hesitate to pull the trigger, the bullet landing to the left of it's forehead.
Faye was about to automatically work out how many rounds she was left with before remembering her new predicament.
One knife, one little girl.
(She probably wasn't going to make it out.)
Two more walkers came stumbling forward. Running to meet them Faye pushed the first as hard as she could, sending it back a little bit, before doing the usual routine with the second. Kick the knee, walker falls, stab the head.
Faye had no time to flinch as she yanked the knife out when the first walker approached again, repeating the process. As the blade crushed the walker's skull, yet more walkers appeared through the darkness. As Faye focused on them, the walker beneath her hands reached out again. The girl twisted and pushed the blade as hard as she could, kicking at the walkers flailing arms.
However, she was forced to simply abandon the knife as yet another walker pushed up against the back of the first, almost pulling her hair.
Faye backed away as quickly as she could, but cursed loudly as her head slammed into a metal door. She turned around to see a pitch black room, a metal door hanging open. Seeing it as her only chance to hide, Faye ran in, swinging the door closed behind her.
Her hands searched the cold walls, trying to make out how large the room was, only to make a full circle to the door quickly.
Suddenly, the door banged against it's hinges, and Faye let out a small scream as walkers seemingly piled up against the door, snarling and growling as they scratched at the metal.
Faye sunk to her knees.
She was trapped here.
In this tiny tiny room with lots and lots of walkers outside that wanted to eat her and she was going to die because she couldn't breath!
Faye's body trembled as panicked tears streamed down her face, hitting the tiny room's walls as if an escape route would magically appear. Her breaths were quick and shallow, bringing no real amount of oxygen to her straining lungs.
A scream of pure frustration and fear came pouring out as Faye realised she would probably die here, alone and in the dark. The walkers would break down the door and she would be torn apart, eaten alive.
As if her life would mean anything, anyway.
One little girl.
(She was as good as dead.)
Head spinning, Faye passed out.
Author's Notes:
Chapter 16 is done! Thank you for all the reviews, any suggestions have been noted. I'm glad the last chapter was well received.
I've got a very busy few days, so the update will have to wait Monday, or at the very latest, Tuesday. I don't want to rush a chapter, then it won't be as good a quality.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Please review, I love to hear your thoughts and advice.
Thanks.
Cobalt Flame.