A/N: Thanks to everyone who favorited/followed since last chapter! I meant to get a chapter out weeks ago as a gift, but my brother slipped a disk so I spent Christmas in the ER instead. So Happy New Year! So, it's not Wednesday, but next week we are back on schedule!
-LiLou-Wolf-Fox: Thank you so much! I'm glad that you're loving it and I plan to keep this going until the end.
-Kyokkou: Thanks! I thought it made sense for Carol to have another child because she seems to love kids way too much to have only had one. Obviously I agree about Daryl and Carol not being more than friends and this new season has only solidified that in my mind. So glad that you think I have the characters down, that is always the hardest part! As far as Shane goes, I kinda left it open ended on purpose; maybe he was and maybe he wasn't. I think when I originally wrote it, it was more along the lines of who else do you see going off to the woods in pairs, plus he isn't a fan of the relationship to begin with. But Shane is also crazy so who knows what he does in his spare time, exhibitionism might be right up his alley...which weirds me out...Don't even worry about rambling, long reviews are the best! This was a really long response lol
The next day I was surprised to find Daryl walking back to our tent, as I stood outside it rolling up my sleeves. He had said he was going to take Randal out with Rick today and I thought that would have been first thing. He walked up to me and pulled me up against him, leaning down and kissing me softly before resting his forehead against mine. I gave him another quick kiss before pulling back to look him in the eye.
"I thought you were taking Randall out with Rick?" He nodded at me.
"He thought it was more important to secure the fence first, finish movin' everythin' into the house, too. We'll go out later today." This time I nodded before reaching into the tent and pulling out a packed bag.
"I should probably start moving things inside then, unless you want me to go fix the fence?" I jumped as he pinched my side and he smirked.
"Don' ya sass me." He pulled me close by my belt loops. "Tonight I get ya for it."
I laughed, squirming in his arms when he leaned down and bit me lightly on the neck. I hit him lightly with the bag I was holding before pulling away and walking towards the house. Maggie was sitting out on the porch and when she saw me coming she bounced up, walking over to me. She opened the front door and followed me inside.
"Do you want some help packing up?"
"Yes, I hate getting that tent back into its bag." She laughed before pointing me down a hall. I recognized the bedroom as the one Daryl had been in to get his stitches.
"This is the spare room that Dad said you could have. Lori, Rick and Carl are taking his room and everyone else is camping out in the living room." She looked a little disappointed and I smirked slightly.
"Glenn's not bunking with you then?" She sighed and rolled her eyes.
"He doesn't want to with my dad in the house." I smiled.
"That's a good thing, means he's serious." She smiled a bit and looked down.
Maggie and I spent the rest of the day toting things inside from the camp. Together we somehow managed to get the tent back into it's bag, but it stuck out of the top and the poles were left out. I put it in the back of one of the cars so it would be ready to go. With everything from outside packed up and moved into the house or the cars, Maggie and I moved into the kitchen to start looking over what supplies we had. It was getting late in the day when we heard a commotion coming from the porch. We looked at each other before heading outside, to see almost everyone gathered in the area. I walked up behind Glenn and leaned close to him.
"What's going on?"
"Randall's gone." I looked at him shocked.
"What?!" He nodded at me.
"T-dog went to get him for Daryl and Rick to take him out and he wasn't there."
"Rick!" Shane came stumbling out of the woods and ran towards the house, his face bruising and covered in blood. "Randall's gone, slipped the handcuffs and I saw him go into the woods. I chased after him, but he snuck up on me. Got my gun."
"Alright we'll split up and go hunt for him." Rick turned back to us. "Stay in the house, we'll figure this out." I watched Andrea roll her eyes and turn around.
"I could be out there helping!"
"You're helping by being in here." I shut the door after everyone was inside. "Mom and Lori can't shot, so someone has to watch out for them, or is that not good enough for you?" She glared at me and turned away.
"Carl, why don't you go upstairs. I'll be up there in a minute." Lori ushered Carl to the stairs, who stomped up the stairs.
We all waited with bated breath until, we heard steps on the porch and I pulled my pistol out of the back of my pants and pointing it at the door. When the noise got close to the door, I cocked the gun trying to keep a steady sight on it. The door swung open and I saw Daryl step inside. I sighed in relief dropping my arms and rushed forward clinging to his chest. He wrapped his arms around me and lifted me off the floor walking us further into the house. I pulled back and looked up at him.
"What happened?" He rubbed my back looking down at me before addressing the group.
"Randall's dead, he turned."
"You got the walker you bit him, right?" Lori was wringing her hands.
"That's the thing. His neck was broke."
"No bites, no scratch marks." Glenn glanced at everyone nervously.
"What about Rick, Shane?" Daryl shrugged.
"Haven' seen 'em."
"Could you please go look, we have to figure out what's going on." Daryl nodded at Lori, letting go of me.
"Come on, Glenn." Glenn sighed heavily leaning his head back.
They barely made it to the front door when a gunshot rang out. We all rushed out onto the porch. and you could vaguely hear Rick in the distance, but couldn't hear what he was saying. Everyone was more focused on the huge stream of walkers coming into the yard.
"What do we do?" Maggie was leaning over the railing looking out at the farm.
"Get in the cars. One person drives one person shoots." Daryl ran down the steps and got onto his motorcycle. I watched as he tried to draw some of the walkers away using the sound
"What about Rick?" I turned to Lori.
"He'll be fine, just go find Carl. We might need to get out of here quick."
"Oh my god, the barn!" I moved to the railing as I heard Maggie on her way to a car with Glenn. I watched as the barn go up in flames.
"I can't find Carl!" I turned back to see Lori standing in the doorway panicking.
"Calm down, we'll find him! I'll help you." My mom steered Lori back in the house and Andrea shoved a rifle into my hands setting the ammo onto the railing. Loading the gun I took shots, picking off walkers that leaked into the yard at a seemingly endless pace. Andrea and I ran out of ammo for the rifles and switched to out handguns. For every walker we killed it was replaced by two more and it became obvious we weren't going to win this fight.
"Time to go!"
I could hear T-dog shout from the truck and I put my arms down glancing his direction. I raced with the other women towards the truck, but stopped when I felt someone grabbing my arm. I turned and saw Beth holding me as she screamed and looked back at Patricia, whose arm was being ripped apart by walkers. I grabbed Beth's arm and pulled it out of Patricia's grasp dragging her to the truck. I saw a walker just beyond Beth and shoved her towards the truck. The walker ran into me and I managed to hold him back just far enough that he couldn't bite me.
This walker was strong and I stumbled back falling to a knee. I shoved the walker to the side and stood up quickly. I turned towards the truck, but my path was blocked completely. I back pedalled hoping to find a way to go around, but it was hard to stay focused. The fire in the barn roared in the background with screams and gunshots coming from all around. As more walkers closed in around me, I kept moving backwards to the woods. I glanced towards the field and saw a huge herd pouring into the yard. I sighed and gave up hope of making a run for the truck. I turned back and ran for the woods. The trees would help thin out the walkers.
I wish I had a knife. Using the gun was too risky on my own. I tried to keep my gaze ahead of me, but I was worried about tripping over something and spent a lot of my time looking at the ground, as I ran. I looked over my shoulder and saw that I had outpaced most of the walkers. I stopped for a moment panting. I looked around the wood and realized that I had no idea which way the road was. I had planned on cutting through and hoping to meet up with the group. As I turned in the circle I did recognize where I was. I took off again and sighed in relief when I saw the deer stand in the distance. I grabbed the ladder and began climbing up and was surprised by how much harder it was when no one to hold the rope steady.
I let out a small scream when I felt the ladder swing violently. I looked down and saw a male walker clinging to one of the steps and reaching for me. A few other walkers were gathering at the base of the tree as well. I couldn't quite reach the walker from where I was, so I took a deep breath and went down a step smashing my foot into his face. I watched the deep brown blood spray out around my boot. The walker kept grabbing for me so I forced my foot down again, this time I felt his face cave in and my foot was covered in dark blood and tiny pieces of flesh. I watched his body go limp, but the toe of my boot was stuck in nose. I thrashed my leg quickly until my foot came loose before I quickly climbed up the ladder, barely escaping the walkers who had made it to the ladder. I clawed my way onto the platform and quickly pulled the ladder up, shaking it several times to get the walkers away from it.
I kneeled in the center of the stand panting, hands braced on my knees. After catching my breath I crawled to the side of the platform and looked down. I counted the walkers at the base of the tree. Six. I sat back on my heels and opened the chamber of my gun. One bullet. I closed the gun and set it down near the trunk as I laid on my side curled up towards the tree. I closed my eyes and tried to hold in my tears, as I let sleep overtake me.