The group of 6 trudged along the rocky, muddy path that was etched amongst the trees.
"Papa made this path a while back, before I was born," Beth stated, whilst pointing to a small hole, "and we used to get worms from there, but now that's where we burn the walkers."
Rosita looked over at Madison, eyes narrowed to little slits.
Abe whispered in her ear, "What do you have against her?"
Rosita hissed back, "Just look at her. So arrogant, so.."
Madison's head flicked around, eyes locking with Rosita. She made a face at the latter, before looking back at Beth.
"Be careful here, the boards break a lot," Beth noted, as the group came to a small bridge over a creek, "it's quite old. One at a time."
Abe went first, followed by Rosita. Danny and Ethan were next. As Madison started crossing over, the bridge began to creak. A board popped out of place, then another, then another.
Madison quickly hurried over, followed by Beth.
"Hey! Wait up!" a voice hollered.
Everyone turned to see a man who seemed to be in his early 20's, along with a woman of the same age, holding his hand. Both were running towards the bridge.
"Hey," Abe hollered, "slow down!"
"Stop!" Beth screamed.
The two had picked up a lot of speed, and were quickly crossing over the creaky planks, when the woman tripped, falling face-first. The bridge crumbled, and the two plummeted into the cold water.
"You alright?" Ethan called.
His and everyone else's ears were greeted with screams. Beth ran over to see, and put her hand to her mouth. The other 5 rushed over, and Madison screamed in horror.
About 10 or so walkers had swarmed the couple, and were surrounding the man, who was nowhere to be seen. The woman was trying to climb up the wall of dirt, her face streaked with tears. Her shirt had 'Isabella' etched into it, and was caked with mud.
"Adam!" she shrieked.
Ethan and Danny pulled out their weapons, sending rapid fire at the were all down in about a minute.
When Abe called to the woman, who had fallen to the ground, she merely whimpered, pointing to her friend.
Madison was heaving, and Beth was weakly looking into the distance.
"I'm sorry, ma'am," Abe consoled her, "I'm sorry for your loss."
She stood up, and out of nowhere, let out a deafening scream, and collapsed.
Danny fired at the ground. "There was a live one," he claimed, pointing at the woman's ankle, where a walker had clamped its teeth on her.
Madison let out a sob, while Danny held her close.
"C'mon," Rosita stammered, "let's go."
"But...the people," Madison whimpered, "they're de-"
"Now," Rosita demanded, "get up."
Madison was helped to her feet by Danny, both her and Beth wiping away tears.
Beth led the way, until they reached a grassy clearing. "Here we are. Home."
An old man with a white goatee and hair stood on the porch, holding a can of beer and waving, while a fair-skinned girl with brown hair pulled back in a bun appeared in the window, wearing an apron and holding a butcher's knife.
"Looks like Maggie's making dinner," Beth laughed, "I bet it's beef stew."
They walked up to the porch, where the older man introduced himself. "I'm Hershel Greene," he stated, shaking hands with Ethan, "pleasure to meet you."
"Thanks," Ethan smiled, "you too. I assume you know what's going on?"
"Hell yes," Hershel muttered, "it started a few days ago, and I was one of the first to know about it."
"Oh really?" Ethan asked, "I found out about this crap today."
"Yeah," Hershel sighed, "lotta people have fallen, risen, fallen again."
Beth took Madison and Rosita inside, while Abe and Danny went to get some beers.
"So," Hershel questioned, "whom is your group?"
"Well, I'm Ethan Gold, Abe and Danny are over at the cooler, and Madison and Rosita are with your daughters."
"Well," Hershel chuckled, "seems like we got a solid group of troopers.
Ethan nodded. "Yes indeed."
An hour later, the group was at the dinner table, which had platters of pork, chicken, buttered rolls and green beans, and a chocolate cake was in the oven.
Hershel led a small prayer, "Dear lord, we'd like to thank you for this meal in front of us, for letting us survive another day. We'd also like to thank you for bringing us these new friends, making us a strong group of 8, and hopefully that number will continue to grow. Amen." He looked up. "And now, enjoy the meal."
Everyone piled their plates high, and mingled. There was lots of laughter and smiles, and everyone's minds were taken off the current situation. After everyone had filled themselves, they headed off to bed. Hershel, Beth and Maggie remained in their rooms. Abe and Rosita slept in the spare bedroom. Danny and Madison slept on the pullout couch, and Ethan snoozed on the air bed.
At approximately 3 in the morning, Hershel was seated on the porch, reading a book, when 3 shadowy figures approached him.
"Hello?" he called out. This woke Madison and Danny, who also came out onto the porch.
The figures got closer, and Danny put his hand to the handgun in his back pocket.
Upon closer inspection, there was a tall, brown-haired man, a young boy who looked similar, and an African-American woman with dreadlocks, who also had something slung across her back.
"Hello there," the man spoke, "I'm Rick Grimes. And I come in peace." His voice had a bit of a Southern accent to it. "This is my son, Carl."
"And I'm Michonne." the woman said with a bit of a harsh tone.
Both Rick and Carl jumped a bit.
"Jeez," Rick breathed, "how long have you been behind us?"
"About 5 miles." Michonne informed.
From the porch, Danny chuckled softly. The door creaked open, and Maggie and Beth both stumbled out onto the porch, sleepy-eyed.
"Daddy, who are these people?" Beth questioned.
"Some new friends," Hershel chuckled, "better make some room in the basement."
Beth and Maggie went back inside to set up some air beds downstairs.
"So," Rick greeted, "nice to meet you."
Ethan, Abe and Rosita then filed out onto the porch stairs, sipping coffee.
"Quite the group, eh?" Rick guffawed.
"The whole lot of us," Hershel smirked.
Rosita rubbed her abdomen. "Oh god, I don't feel too well."
"Go inside and get some medicine then." Hershel suggested.
Rosita swung the door open and stepped inside, Abe lumbering right behind. Ethan took a seat on the stairs,
"So," Ethan introduced himself, "Hello. I'm Ethan Gold."
Rick nodded. "Nice to meet you."
Ethan returned the gesture.
"Feel free to come inside," Hershel invited, standing up, then vanishing into the house.
Michonne and Carl went in, while Rick wandered up to the porch. Madison looked down uncomfortably, while Danny rubbed her back.
"Couple?" Rick asked.
Danny nodded a bit, while Madison's eyes stayed rooted to her feet. She whispered something to Danny, and went inside. Danny looked down, and followed.
It was just Ethan and Rick on the porch. The latter then took a seat next to the former.
"So, what do you do for a living?" Rick questioned.
"I actually work in an office." Ethan answered, not skipping a beat.
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah…" Ethan said with anod.
"Dad?" a voice called from inside.
"Oh, that's my son," Rick sighed, "be right back." He went inside, the door groaning as it closed.
Ethan glanced out onto the horizon. The sun was beginning to rise, but something was blocking it….
He narrowed his eyes, trying to find out what might be in front of him. Then he realized it. "Oh sh-" He got up, bolting inside.
"Walkers," he shouted, "At least a hundred of them!"
Beth and Maggie bolted up from the basement, Madison and Carl began sobbing, and Hershel led Rick and Danny out to the shed.
"Follow me!" Hershel hollered, "Carl, Madison, stay inside."
Beth and Maggie grabbed handguns, Danny and Ethan got weapons from their bag, and everyone else took a rifle from Hershel, and took aim on the porch.
The first walker came into view, and Beth's gun clattered to the ground.
"Ethan…" she whispered, "isn't that the man from the creek?"
"What man?" Hershel exhaled.
"Um, there was this couple at the creek, and, they died."
"Fire!" Danny shouted out of nowhere.
About 100 walkers were in view.
Everyone shot their first rounds, but no walkers fell.
"Why the hell aren't they going down!?" Hershel screamed.
"You gotta shoot them- in the head!" was Ethan and Danny's response.
The latter stopped firing after he heard a weep near the window. Danny rushed inside, and saw Madison, cornered in the kitchen by about 5 walkers.
"They broke in-thro-through the back window!" she sobbed.
Danny hollered at Ethan, "Bring me a knife!"
Ethan appeared seconds later, and tossed the machete to Danny, who slashed at the walkers.
Four of them fell, but one knocked Danny over, and charged just at the hysterical Madison.
Danny hurled the machete, nailing the walker in the head, which tumbled over. He was relieved, until he heard a cry.
The knife had made a small cut on Madison's forehead when the walker had fell on top of her. It wasn't bad, but Madison was freaking out.
"Oh my god, Danny," she sobbed, "I'm dying."
"Baby...it's just a cut." He reassured her.
Gunfire was heard outside, and the glass behind Madison shattered.
"Heads down!" Abe warned. Both the bartender and model didn't need to be told twice as they kept their heads down.
Growls and shouts were heard.
"Keep going! I got one! Help! Here's one!"
Beth peeked through the window. "You guys OK?"
"Maddy's just got a little cut." Danny informed. "It's not from a walker, I swear."
"He's telling the truth!" Madison exclaimed.
"Then stop with the weeping please," Rosita put in, "you're freaking Hershel out."
"Yeah. You're tougher than this, Mad." Danny soothed. "So could you please toughen up for me?"
A stray bullet whizzed just above Danny's head.
"Sorry!" Maggie called. Rosita rushed back out to keep firing, while Beth ran upstairs to get some bandages.
"It's all good." Danny told Maggie. "C'mon, let's get you upstairs."
The others kept firing, while Beth called to Danny. "In here." She gestured to the bathroom. Some bandages were strewn across the counter.
"You sure these are sterile?" The bartender asked, walking Madison upstairs.
"Well," Beth assured, "I learned some medical stuff this year before stuff went down, so, don't worry." She tapped on the hard marble. "Well, these bandages aren't going to put themselves on, so get up here."
Danny helped Madison up on the hard marble.
Beth slowly applied some antibiotic cream to the slash, placed the bandage, and wrapped a strip of gauze diagonally over Madison's forehead. "Um..that should be good." she thought aloud. The model nodded, still a bit shaken. Danny let out a sigh.
All of a sudden, the gunfire outside came to a halt. Beth rushed downstairs.
"Daddy!" she yelled. Both the two rushed downstairs, seeing…a pile of walkers strewn about the lawn, and Beth hugging her father.
"Wow…" Both of them were clearly in awe.
"Well, we got them all." Ethan grinned. Carl poked his head out the door.
"You sure did, Ethan." Danny chuckled. "You sure did."
Carl also ran to his father, hiding his face.
"Now um...how do we make sure these things don't come back?" The model just had to ask.
"We could burn the bodies." Ethan suggested. "Or we could just bolster the defenses we have."
"Burn them." Rosita said. "We have to. Or some of them will be back again."
"Alright then." The conman then asked, "Do we have any gas or something to do that?"
"In the shed." Maggie informed. Danny went to go check the shed to see if that was indeed the case.
"Madison, what's wrong?" Hershel asked, clearly concerned.
"I'm sorry...this is just all so new to me." She apologized. "That and I really don't feel like dying…"
"Understandable." Hershel chuckled.
"She's got a good heart, that I can see." Ethan added. "But Madison, you either adapt to survive, or just don't even bother trying. I can see you want to survive, but here's the question: Are you gonna adapt or are you gonna be a walker?"
"I...I'm gonna adapt. I promise I'll be stronger." The model answered.
"That's the kinda fire we need. Right Hershel?" Ethan inquired.
Hershel nodded, then looked at the open shed door.
"So um...is there enough fuel?" Madison wondered.
"Maybe." Hershel replied. "If Danny's still alive in there, we'll know soon enough." The bartender was indeed, having come out unharmed.
"Any fuel?" Hershel asked.
"There should be enough, but I don't think there's enough for all one hundred." He guessed. "Then again, we could use some dry stuff to tinder it…"
"Well," Beth spoke up from behind her father, "let's get to work."
"Or we could try grease! I know a secret trick from when I worked the bar to generate a lot of that." Danny said.
"Why would you want to know that?" Ethan just had to ask.
"...Good point…" The bartender responded. "But it can help, right?"
"Do we even have grease?" Beth asked her father.
"Danny. Shed." Hershel chuckled.
So Danny looked around the shed for the things he needed, and once he found them he asked, "Now can someone please show me to the stove?"
Beth pulled him inside and showed him the rusty contraption. "There's your little laboratory."
"That'll work." So with that, Danny got it working and began using his secret trick to generate grease, being sure to scrape the grease off and into containers for the fire.
Meanwhile, Rosita was a bit irritated with Madison. And Madison wondered,
"What did I ever do to you?"
Rosita sighed. "Nothing, just, you...kinda overreacted."
"What, you don't think people who have never been in this kind of thing don't?" Madison defended.
"Well, neither have I." Rosita growled. "None of us have."
"Then you wouldn't know." Madison pointed out. "You don't know how other people have it, but that doesn't mean I look at the others who know what this is like and turn the other way."
Rosita grumbled, and pulled her arm back. Madison put her hands up, not trying to offend Rosita.
Now Abe was glaring at Madison, and Rosita was stepping forward.
"I didn't want to offend you guys." She apologized.
Rosita grabbed Madison by the arm. "You don't know what I've been through..one more thing like this...and…I don't even know."
"Hey guys, I got all the grease we could need for this!" Danny's voice suddenly called. This startled Rosita, causing her to accidentally pop Madison in the nose. "Yeah, impressive I-" He then saw this. "Uh…"
Rosita put her hands up. "Sorry. Sorry. Sorry."
"Yeah. It was an accident." Madison assured Danny.
"Oh, okay. So uh, ready to burn these things?" The bartender was a bit hesitant to say that second part…
"I guess." Hershel said, a bit stunned. So with that, the walker bodies got all set up as Danny began pouring the grease on them, a little disturbed with what he was doing, but Ethan urged him on.
Flames shot into the air, startling everyone a bit.
"...Think that was a bit too much?" Danny asked.
"Maybe." Ethan shrugged.
"Probably." Hershel chuckled.
Abe tapped Rosita on the shoulder, and pointed at Madison.
Rosita looked over at Madison, unsure what to say. Madison just stared on ahead, thinking about what Ethan said to her earlier.
Beth started singing randomly, catching everyone's attention.
"She's a pretty damn good singer." Hershel whispered to Ethan, laughing a bit.
"Yeah. She does sound the part." He agreed.
"It actually happens when she's kind of stressed out. After her mother died, she was singing all the time."
"That's actually a pretty good way to relieve stress." Ethan commented. "Better than punching a wall."
Hershel chuckled. "Yep."
'Adapt to survive…' Madison thought. 'I might as well do that, or just find out how I can get Rosita to stop hating me…shouldn't we all be working together in times like this?'
While Madison was thinking, something was sneaking up behind her. From under the porch, a hand grabbed her ankle.
She jerked her ankle, not wanting whatever was there to take her. "Guys!" She pointed this out without flinching at first, but then did when she saw the hand and heard a growl. Another one popped up, grabbing her other foot, knocking her over.
Ethan was quick to notice, and shot at the growls.
A katana sliced at the hands, and a machete was swung.
But then...the boards beneath Madison broke, and she fell into the open space.
"Lemme go!" She yelled, kicking at whatever was pulling her.
A walker popped out, and held her down on the ground, mouth open and ready to bite. The model, in a fit of courage, threw the walker off of her making sure not to touch its teeth. It snarled and grabbed her hands. It wasn't giving up without a fight. The model kicked the walker in an attempt to have it let go. She wasn't going to give easy, either.
Then, Madison felt a blinding pain in her chest, and saw Rosita's gun aimed at her. The walker was off her, with a bullet hole through its head. And oh, how Madison was feeling it.
Then, next thing she knew, Ethan was carrying her upstairs, and Hershel had medical supplies bundled up in his arms. The conman was pretty confused and a little angry at what had happened, but he had to keep his cool. First thing tomorrow he was going out on his own to get any leads on his dad's location. He was going to lose his mind with this conflict going on if it kept up.
Rosita looked at Danny silently. "Um…."
"Don't. Say anything." The bartender bluntly responded.
"But...I..I didn't…"
"Didn't what?" He now asked.
"I didn't mean to." Rosita whispered. Abe was glaring at Danny.
He took a deep breath and asked, "Could you please tell me what really happened down there?"
"I tried to shoot the walker. That's it. I didn't expect the bullet to make it to her too." she stammered.
"Well, that walker must have had a weaker skull than others." He sighed.
Rosita looked away, towards Madison and frowned.
"You know, I don't know what was going on between you two, but I know now that your heart was in the right place." Danny sympathized. "I just hope Mad will be alright and realize that too…"
"I doubt it." Rosita growled. "She's stuck-up."
"Just saying...it'd be better to die happy than die with a grudge." He frowned.
Ethan set Madison down on the bed upstairs and Hershel gestured Danny over. The bartender walked on over.
Madison wasn't moving, and looked quite pale.
"She's gone...isn't she?" Danny asked, looking depressed.
"I don't know, unfortunately." Hershel frowned, checking her pulse. It was still there, just not as strong as he would want it.
Rosita walked out of the room, and Beth followed her. Danny prayed for the model to come through, and he left the room to go talk with Ethan.