"How are we doing this?" I was the first to ask after a long moment of silence. We had a strong group of people and fighters, and we had a shot at escaping, but we needed some kind of plan. They had the numbers, weapons, knowledge of the area and a chokepoint.

If we could get to the fence behind us, climb over and run for the trees, then we could get to our weapons and fight back. The issue came in getting everyone to the woods safely with no weapons, and I didn't see a possibility where we all made it out alive—but we had no other option.

"However we can," Rick answered, glancing at me for a second before he addressed the others. "Use what you can, belts, buckles, break anything in here to use as a weapon, and when they open that door, we attack them."

"They were feeding you, right?" I asked, looking at Glenn. "I saw the rubbish outside."

"Yeah."

"Then I think they're cannibals," I said. "There's no reason to take prisoners otherwise, no reason to keep us alive this long either. And if they're feeding you . . ."

Isaac was uneasy as he raised his head. "You mean that meat they were going to feed us . . . Aw!" He started shaking his head and turned away. "That's just wrong."

"We need to get out of here, and straight on the road to DC," the red-headed man said.

"Why DC?" Michonne questioned.

"Eugene, tell them," he told him.

The scared-looking person with the mullet took a step forward. "I have doctorates in Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, and I have been studying the undead since the beginning," Eugene said. "I believe I can make a cure. Abraham and Rosita are helping me get to Washington so we can generate the cure and administer it on a global scale."

"A cure for . . . us?" Isaac questioned carefully.

"We're the ones infected," I said simply. "Can't cure dead people."

"Information on the cure is classified."

That was all I needed to hear.

"Fucking bullshit," I muttered to myself.

"What was that," the redhead called after me.

"I said it's fucking bullshit," I repeated louder. "Over 50 percent of the world's population is dead and you finding a cure is classified? It's fucking stupid; you should be telling it to anyone who will listen so we can put the world back to the way it was. If you're the only person that knows the cure—which you have to be, or someone would've used it by now—then you're the one who made it classified. Fucking stupid."

"If I told you the cure, you'd have no way of comprehending it," Eugene said.

"No, but I'd have a way of repeating it, telling it to people who can use it," I argued. "You obviously have a lab, because you're certain you have a 'cure', which means that you would've had to have tested it. I doubt you made him follow you to Washington on a hunch. It also means that you don't need Washington for a lab, you need it for people, other scientists, I imagine."

"You must be Ace," Abraham said. Glenn must've told him about me. "Quite frankly, missy, it doesn't matter what you think."

"Of course it doesn't," I said out loud, turning away before he could answer.

The issue was, that there were only two reasons that something as important as a cure would be classified: the first being that someone made the walkers and wanted to cover it up, or that he was lying about knowing one at all. They made sense with the timings because it takes years to globally make and distribute vaccinations, let alone cures. They had differences, I'm just not sure what they were. But the reason that Eugene was keeping his cure classified had a bullshit reason behind it and I couldn't decide what it was.

"You think you can take a look at the door?" Rick asked, snapping me from my thoughts.

"I can try, but it doesn't seem like there's a safety mechanism in here," I said. "Either that, or they took it out when they made it into a cell."

"Just see if you can do anything," Rick told me. "If not, see what you can get done for making weapons."

"Yeah," I agreed.

I got on the ground next to the middle of the door and started feeling around for the latch mechanism which should have either met the door at the bottom or around the side. I wanted to ask whether they'd tried hooking a belt on the latch, but I feel like they would've tried something like that by now and with the crack in the door being tiny, it was probably an impossible shot.

As I came up with nothing in my search for a safety latch, I started getting a little frustrated. Even if I could squeeze my hands under the giant blocks of metal and find the latch, I would have to try and unhook it with the strength of my fingers. Rick struggled to turn it outside, and he had a pivot to work around. What I was trying was probably impossible.

"What kind of door doesn't have a fucking safety mechanism?" I muttered followed by more cruses as I breathed out an annoyed breath. It felt like being unable to call for help or when your legs just stopped working in a dream, scary with a tinge of frustration.

"Listen, honey. I appreciate the help, but we've been working on that thing for days," Abraham said, wrapping a belt around his fist. "There's no way of opening it from here."

"I'm just trying something," I muttered.

"No offence, sweetheart, but Eugene has three doctorates," Abraham said. "If he couldn't figure it out then I'm not sure you can."

"Oh, yeah. What was that again? Microbiology, immunology and biochem? I'll call you when my proteins get sick." I felt something move under my fingers, hoping it was the latch, but it was just another part of the door that I couldn't recognise with no light. "If I can get it open this way we avoid a fight; it's better trying than not. Especially if you want him safe so badly."

When I found nothing, I moved to the side of the door. Part of me thought at first that maybe the latch would block the wheels from rolling, but that didn't seem like the case and it could've been hooked onto one of the frames to keep the door locked.

"Why did they lock you in here?" Michonne asked. "We saw all your things and knew they were bad. What triggered them to throw you in here?"

"They seemed nice enough, but I was ready to go," Abraham said. "We just got here, but damn, it was time to go. When I told them about DC, a wink and a nod from the head asshole in charge, they pulled their guns and it was right back to our regularly scheduled shitstorm."

"Before they threw you in here, you didn't see Tyreese?" Sasha asked.

"No," Michonne answered.

"Good," she nodded.

I stood up and sighed, annoyed with working on the door, running my hand across my forehead. It didn't help that it felt like I was cooking, being melted alive in this heat trap of a death box. I hoped that the plan would take place before I got a heat stroke in here and became useless to the group. I should've taken the gear off, but I wanted it for the extra protection.

Abraham gave me a look

"Give up?"

"Fuck off," I muttered.

Glenn was sitting down next to the back wall of the train car just a metre or so from what Rick was doing. I sat down next to him, letting out a huff as I joined him on the ground. Abraham was insufferable, I knew that for a fact.

"He's an asshole," Glenn told me. "You just have to learn to ignore him.

"Yeah," I rolled my eyes. "Sure."

Glenn was quiet for a moment before he reached for a belt on the ground beside him. "Here, you can try and sharpen the buckle if you don't have anything to use."

"Thanks," I muttered.

"Ace," Rick called, and I glanced up. "You still have the watch?"

I nodded, reached into my pocket and held the silver watch out to him. I remembered now, seeing Glenn, that I was supposed to give it back to him. I was a little preoccupied with everything that happened today.

"You have my watch?" Glenn asked both of us.

"Picked it up off one of the assholes," Rick gave a nod. "I'll give it back, I just need it right now"

"Yeah, okay," Glenn nodded. "I'm just glad you guys found it."

Rick walked over to a wooden pillar that framed the inside wall of the car, holding the chain against one of the corners before pulling it back and forth like a chain, sawing a section from the wood to cut a part off.

Smart.

Other people had broken sections off that were falling apart from rot, but they came loose with a swift kick before snapping off. They were bulky though, and needed more time to be shaved down against the ground of the walls. Rick's would already be shaped into a spike when he was done.

"I had your bag, you know," Glenn said. "The yellow one."

I raised a brow, "You did?"

"I put some of your things in it, but they got it now," he gave a sad look. "Sorry."

"It's a bag," I said. "I'll be fine."

"No," he shook his head, telling me it was more important than how I was making it seem. "It had your radio too."

I gave a nod. "I stopped using that a while ago."

Turning my head back to the ground, I tried to ignore the look I was getting from Glenn and continued what I was doing. I couldn't talk about my dad right now. I started scraping the buckle along the ground in quick motions, something that made me more hot, but necessary if I wanted an edge in a fight. This was all I had, and getting out wasn't going to be an easy feat.

"Beth's alive," Maggie said, squatting next to me and Glenn. "Daryl told me."

"That's great." Glenn hugged her, and I could see her wipe the corner of her eye as she rested her head on his shoulder. Glenn could tell that she was crying because he started comforting her immediately. "We'll find her, okay?"

She nodded, sitting back from the hug and extending her legs in front of her to rest beside us. "Yeah, we will."

"Daryl told us what happened," I said. "I'm sure she's okay."

"You weren't together the whole time?" Glenn asked.

I shook my head.

"You were with Rick and the others?" He pushed further. "Isaac?"

"No, I was alone for a little," I said. "I found Isaac, and then the others."

I was with Martinez first. It was a struggle in my mind as I debated telling them, and I couldn't look either of them in the eye when I realised how badly they would disapprove. They would be so disappointed in me for being with him.

Martinez had been fine to me on more than one occasion, but he held them hostage. I knew why he couldn't just let them go, that he had been following the Governor's orders for his self-preservation. None of that made him any less of a dick. Choosing self-preservation over the right decision was something I wish I could do, but I had done horrible things to stay alive, and I knew I would have to keep doing it. I was no better than he was, but Glenn was.

"I need to tell you guys something," I said. "I just . . . I don't want you to hate me."

Glenn's surprise came first. "Hate you?"

"Ace," Maggie placed a hand on my knee. "You can talk to us about anything."

"We can't hate you," Glenn added.

You could after this. Even if they didn't hate me, they were still going to be upset or unhappy with me. Seeing them here made me realise what a shitty thing is done by staying with Martinez for as long as I had, considering his involvement in the two of them getting tortured.

"Do you two remember back in Woodbury?" I questioned.

"What about it?" Glenn asked, scooching closer to me.

"There was this soldier," I didn't look up from the buckle I was scratching against the ground, "Mexican guy, short hair?"

"Yeah," I heard Maggie breathe out. "I remember him."

I nodded. "He let me go that night. If—if anyone else caught up to me that night, they would have shot me. He caught up to me and told the radio that he missed me, and he let me live."

They just stared at me expectantly, waiting for me to finish my story.

"His name was Martinez, he found me after the war," I said. "The people the Governor used to . . . they were his people. The Governor tried to kill him and used his group to attack the prison. He found me when I got out and I was shot and bleeding and he saved me. He's been helping me. I was just thinking . . . he might come back to help us."

I wanted to bring up that Tara had also known him for a short time, but I didn't know whether Maggie knew that already. Maybe Glenn didn't even know, which would've been a little strange seeing how close they were. I didn't want to upset them by telling them that their friend was the Governor's soldier, especially after the news I dropped.

There was a moment of silence as they mulled over what I'd said. I could see them thinking it over, deciding how much they wanted to blame him for what happened to them. As far as I knew, all he did was hold them prisoner, but Merle and the Governor were the main culprits for the torture. But he was one of the people that kept them there to live through all of it, and they didn't deserve what happened to them.

"Okay," Glenn gave a nod. "It's okay."

"You thought we'd hate you?" Maggie questioned.

"I shouldn't have stayed with him after what happened," I said. "I know what he did but I . . . there's no excuse."

"You were alone, and dying," Maggie said. "I'm glad he helped you."

"I'm glad you're here," Glenn added, placing a hand on my shoulder as I finally looked up at them. "If it's because someone helped you, saved your life . . . none of the rest of it matters."

I gave a nod and glanced back down. A lot more mattered, but for some reason, they didn't see it. Glenn reached his arm over my shoulder and pulled me into a hug that was warm, but I appreciated it.

"Hey, Glenn?" Tara questioned as she walked over. "Can you help me for a second?"

"Yeah, sure," he gave a nod and stood up.

"I'll come with you," Maggie said.

I got back to work on my makeshift weapon, scratching on the ground which added to the noise of Rick's chain against the wooden frame. He was a long way through now, but it wasn't enough. I hoped he'd be able to finish it before we had to fight. I could see the sweat running off his face as he worked, but he didn't stop.

I was barely alone for a second when their space was taken up by Isaac. He sat in silence for a little while, pulling his knees up as I continued looking down at the belt buckle in my hands. I knew what he wanted to talk about, and I was biding my time so he didn't bring it up. Something that failed.

"Can you believe it?" Isaac asked, sitting beside me. "A cure."

I wanted to answer honestly when I realised that he wasn't asking a question. He believed what Eugene said and he was excited about the cure. I should've seen it coming, realised that something like that would make Isaac so happy, would build his hope that one of the things that made him so anxious would be wiped out of existence.

"Don't get your hopes up," I pleaded. "We don't know that we're going to make it out of here."

"I know, it's just . . . It's kind of what I've been dreaming of," he said. "Hard to not be excited about it."

"I lost that dream when I saw the CDC in rubble," I said.

"Really?"

Giving a nod, I watched Isaac's face switch from contemplation back to awe. I wondered if he found any of the details of Eugene's story, or whether he just stopped listening after the word cure was thrown around. I'd argued with his points, but my arguments were immediately shut down by Abraham.

"Well I think it can happen now," Isaac smiled.

"Yeah, maybe," I said quietly, in hopes that it would stop him from beaming about it.

Isaac seemed to get the message, but there wasn't much else he could do to prepare for the fight. He had his gloves that would keep any blood from his hands and really nothing else that could be used in this fight.

"Hey," he said, getting my attention. "Be careful out there, okay?"

"You too," I told him.

I heard chattering outside the train car for the first time since we'd been here. Hours had gone by and we'd seen no one, heard from no one, which worried me. If they were here now then that probably meant that they were here for us.

"Alright," Daryl called from where he was watching the door. "Got four of them pricks coming our way."

"Y'all know what to do," Rick said, as he met my side at the front of the train car door. "Go for their eyes first, then their throats."

I glanced back to Isaac who stood closer to Carl and Michonne, giving them a nod before listening for any footsteps outside. There was nothing for a short while, metallic sounds that I couldn't make out, but we stayed ready.

"Put your backs to the walls on either end of the car," A man called. "Now!"

When none of us listened, I finally pinpointed where the metallic sounds were coming from. I looked up at the same time Glenn did when I heard the footsteps and clunk when a door above us slid open and sunlight beat down through the hatch in the top of the car that we'd all missed.

Fuck.

A second passed before the man dropped in a small, cylindrical object that I recognised. We had them at the prison and used them in Woodbury. Tear gas. We all looked at it for less than a second before Abraham yelled out. "MOVE!"

I sprinted backwards with Rick as the bomb exploded with a flash and gas started spilling out and filling the train car around us. I pulled the neck of my top up over my mouth to breathe, but I could feel the pain it caused my eyes when the clouds surrounded me.

My throat burned and I started coughing, feeling unable to breathe and tears rolled down my eyes as I dropped to my knees. Rick ahead of me had disappeared, but I knew he was so close that he could touch me.

Unable to keep myself up anymore, I dropped to the ground and dropped the buckle somewhere, but I couldn't keep myself up. I was so disoriented I barely felt when I was picked up until I felt weightlessness take hold of me.

Light burned my eyes, and I felt the direct warmth of the sun hit me. I was practically dropped back onto the ground when I groaned and rolled over, my arm coming up over my eyes to wipe away the tears and block the sun that was still hurting me.

The blow hit me before I even opened my eyes.


My head hurt as I came around, my face pressed against the cold concrete. I groaned, gagging when I felt the cloth in my mouth that was tight around the back of my head. The material loosened and the feeling subsided.

Everything was blurry, and I had to squeeze my eyes closed a few times to see the room we were in, hurting the bruises gathering on my face. Brick walls were painted white long ago, now turning dark and grey with chips and cracks in all four walls. The ceiling was a warehouse metal roof, with the structure visible just underneath. Pipes spanned the height of the wall next to a large window broken by square dividers.

In front of me was something metal, difficult to see from my angle on the ground, that looked like a box shape. Four men were lined up next to Glenn, Daryl, Rick and Bob. I could see when Rick met my eyes, that he didn't know I was here until now.

There was a metallic sound of something being sharpened in the room, but I couldn't see what was happening. One of the men behind Rick reached out to hand a machete to his friend with goggles across the top of his head as they walked down the line of people, stopping at the last one, a blond guy around Glenn's age.

The first man lifted a metallic bat, pulled his arms back and slammed it against the back of his head. When he fell over and leaned into what I could now tell was a trough, the one with the machete grabbed his hair, pulled up and slit his throat. Blood spurted into the bath and he let the body fall over again.

I stared, not able to close my eyes as I realised what was happening. They were going to go down the line and kill everyone the same way, and then it was my turn. The men screamed through the gags, and I could see the look on Glenn's face as he held his gaze forward. I struggled against the ties again, to no avail.

And then they hit the next one, grabbing his face and slitting his throat when he was unconscious. Blood came over the side of the trough as they dropped his body back down, and the screaming grew less and less the more they killed. When they stepped over to the last person, I knew what was happening. They only had to kill this one before they got to Glenn . . .

I was going to have to watch them kill Glenn.

Footsteps behind me made me try to peek over my shoulder, and I could just see Gareth over the shoulder pads of my gear, looking down at a book as he walked in. "Hey, guys," he said, getting their attention. "What were your shot counts?"

"38," the man with the bat replied as he hit the third person, and the second one cut him.

And then they were tending behind Glenn. He squeezed his eyes closed, bit down on the gag and braced as the man behind him got ready to swing down. He was shaking, just as I was. I wanted to scream, to do anything, but my breath caught in my throat and I felt the tears rolling down my face and over my nose.

"Hey!" Gareth snapped, which stopped the man from swinging. "Your shot count?"

"Crap, man," the one with the goggles said, and Glenn finally opened his eyes. "I'm sorry. It was my first round-up."

"When you're done here, go back to your point and count the shells," Gareth said. "Kaylee won't be gathering them until tomorrow."

"Hey!" Bob yelled through his mask. "Hey, let me talk to you!"

Gareth raised a hand to point, starting with my people as he said, "Four from A, four from D?"

"Five from A," one of the men answered, and Gareth met my eyes as he looked over his shoulder. "Had a rack spare, and the guys have been saying they wanted a girl."

Fucking sick. If it wasn't for the gag, I would've made sure they knew just how disgusting they were. I struggled again against the zip-ties, my head against the ground crying out from the bruises as my body moved around.

There was a pause from Gareth, and he finally answered. "Make sure to get the gear off her when you're done here, take it for cleaning."

Bob called out again, his words muffled by the gag but I could hear what he was trying to say. Let me talk to you for a minute. He repeated it until a disgruntled Gareth finally walked over and pulled the gag from his mouth.

"What?" He asked in an exasperated tone.

"Don't do this," Bob said. "We can fix this."

"No, we can't."

"You don't have to do this!" Bob yelled frantically before Gareth could put the gag back. "We told you there's a way out of all of this, you just have to take a chance. We have a man who knows how to stop it, he has a cure, we just have to get him to Washington. You don't have to do this, man. We can put the world back to how it was."

"We can't go back, Bob," Gareth said and reached down to pull the gag back into his mouth.

"We can! You don't have to do this!"

Gareth next moved to squat down in front of Rick, and he reached forward to pull the gag out of his mouth instead. I rolled my head over to look for anything to help and kicked against the ground to move.

"Saw you go into the woods with a bag, and come out without it," Gareth said. "Well, actually, we saw you go into the woods with another man, and leave without him. But we have people after him already. They got far enough away before the herd came in, he's not getting away."

Martinez.

He was talking about Martinez. And now they were hunting him down, they were going to kill him. All I could hope was that he managed to get away, that he could run or hide or live. But he was on his own, and there was no one there to help him.

He was probably in a better position than we were.

"Had to pull my spotters back before we went looking for the bag," Gareth said. "What was in it?"

Silence followed.

Gareth wanted an answer, he wanted the power that came with Rick giving him an answer. With all the supplies they had, all the guns I counted when we were being led around, he didn't need anything else. If he wanted any useful information then he would've asked where it was, not what we had.

We were going to die anyway, and Rick was not giving him the satisfaction.

"You hid it, right? In case things went bad?" Gareth tilted his head and nodded. "Smart. Still, we'll find it. But, it's too dangerous to go out there right now. What was in it? I'm curious, and it was a big bag."

"Well, let me take you out there," Rick answered. "I'll show you."

"Not gonna happen," Gareth shook his head and stood up, "this might."

I expected him to put Rick's gag back in his mouth, just let his men get to killing them. My heart started racing again when he turned to me, gripping the back of my gear and dragging me along the ground. I yelped, trying to kick to get myself free, but that was all I could do.

"You leave her alone!" Rick barked.

When I was centred in front of my group Gareth yanked me upwards to my knees, gripped the back of my head and pulled out a knife, holding it right in front of my eye. I swallowed hard, trying to keep myself as still as I could as I looked down the blade of the knife.

The others were blurred in my vision, but I could hear Glenn yelling through his gag, and see Daryl's body swing from side to side as he tried getting out of his ties. When I could focus on them, Rick was just staring at him, head tilted as he glared to the side of me.

"She's going to die anyway, but if you answer it'll be when she's unconscious." More silence, more glaring. "Or I could do it like this."

Gareth pushed my head closer to the knife, and Rick answered just before it pierced the barrier. "There's guns in it. AK47, 44 magnum, automatic weapons, night scope, compound bow, and a machete with a red handle," Rick tilted his head. "That's what I'm gonna use to kill you."

I was worried the threat would make him angry, piss him off enough that Gareth would stab me anyway. Clenching my teeth around the gag, my heart raced as I closed my eyes and waited for the impact.

Instead, Gareth laughed a breathy chuckle in my year, and when I opened my eyes he pulled the knife away. I felt the handle brush against my leg as he holstered it, and I looked back at his eyes to see they had returned to Rick.

This is it.

My chance.

I reached back as far as I could with my arms behind my back to grab the handle of the knife, and as Gareth pulled back to stand up the knife slipped silently out of his holster. He didn't seem to notice as he walked forward to put the gag back in Rick's mouth and patted his shoulders twice.

"Thanks."

I put the knife down on top of my calves and sat back so it was hidden under my legs. Gareth stepped back so he was behind me, I tried keeping my cool, closing my eyes as I waited for someone to notice, praying that none of them did.

"You have two hours to get them on the driers, Imma go back to public face," Gareth told his men. "Now's the time we can get messy, but we need to dial it all in by sundown."

"Got it."

"Yes sir."

There were two shots from outside, against metal. I didn't know if it was one of them, but the shots weren't that far from where we were, and I couldn't work out why these people would be shooting around their building without leading any new people around.

Gareth reached down for his holster and grabbed his walkie. I clenched my teeth when I realised that he might realise the knife was gone, but he never seemed to notice. He was very luckily distracted by the commotion that wasn't planned.

"Hey, Chuck?"

I could see Rick looking at him for a second, his eyes where Gareth's holster was. Then he turned to me . . . Rick knew. I couldn't tell whether he was angry or impressed, but I had no other option. We didn't have any weapons or anything else to cut our ties with.

The guy behind Glenn took an opportunity to swing again, and held my breath, hoping they'd get distracted again, when more shots rang out. The man pulled the bat away and looked at the other person, confused. I could see Glenn, relieved.

There was a moment of silence, and then—

BANG!

I was thrown to the side, as the earth around me shook, but I kept my knees tight to hold the knife in place so I didn't lose it. Glenn grunted, and I could see him using this time to get his arms loose, his body swinging from side to side as he bit down on the gag.

"What the hell was that?" A man's voice came from Gareth's radio. "Do you copy?"

"You stay here," Gareth told his men and walked for the door.

"These guys aren't going anywhere—" one of them argued, but Gareth interrupted him.

"Stay here until I know what's happening!"

With Gareth gone, I could comfortably reach for the knife and grip the handle in my hands without the people seeing what I was doing. The blade was big, so it took a bit of work but I managed to slip it between my ankles and cut the zip tie, I held my knees together so it looked like nothing had changed.

I could hear Glenn struggling to get free, and I had to stop them before they were able to kill him.

"So we just sit here?" The man with the goggles asked.

"Got a job to do," his friends replied.

My time was running out; I had to save Glenn.

They didn't line up to kill him at that moment, because the man with the goggles was panicking about his people, pacing around the room as he radioed Gareth who never responded. His friend tried to get him to do the job, but he was scared.

This was my chance.

I pulled the blade up, awkwardly twisted it around and cut the zip tie around my wrists, keeping my arms behind my back when I noticed that the man had paced around to my side of the trough as he continued talking on the radio.

"You there, Gareth?"

"He's busy," his friend responded.

"You smell the smoke? You hear the shots?" Goggles asked frantically. "He could be dead! The hell are we doing here? The whole place could be going up!"

"You went on one roundup and you blew protocol," the bald man reminded him. "We don't deal with security. That ain't our job. This is."

When Goggles turned away, frustrated and annoyed, I took my chance to get on my feet, squatting down not to draw attention to myself as I pulled the gag from my mouth. Glenn was looking at me, now panicked, shaking his head. I had to turn my attention away and look at the men and the directions they were looking to decide my best time to strike.

"Hey," the bald man said, and I started creeping over. "Look at me."

Goggles turned to face him, the other way from me. "What?"

As his eyes met his friend's, I ran forward and struck the blade against his neck, cutting deep enough to tear through his jugular. The blood spurted out of his neck, covering me, and my face, but I yanked the knife free, causing more damage as the man fell over.

When I turned to the bald man, I went to strike him with the knife, but as I stepped forward he swung the back of his hand down and hit me in the jaw, throwing me off balance. I fell, and the knife fell out of my hand, sliding along the floor when I hit the ground. I tried to chase it but the man grabbed my ankles, yanked me towards him and flipped me onto my back in one movement

As he raised his bat to hit me with it, an arm came back and jammed a wooden shard into his neck, and the man gargled. Rick pulled it back and stabbed him again in the stomach when the man fell to the ground beside me.

I was panting, looking at the body, but Rick lowered a hand to me and I took it. "That was a stupid thing you just did."

"It worked," I said, grunting as I stood on my bad leg.

"It did," he agreed.

"Rick!" Glenn called through his gag.

He took his wooden shard and went behind the trough to cut them free as I went across the room to take Gareth's knife. As far as I could tell, it was one of the only weapons we had right now. I had to keep it.

"If they got problems, we got a chance," Rick was saying as he turned to cut Daryl free.

Glenn grunted and pulled his gag out of his mouth. "Sounded like a bomb!"

"Sounds like a damn war," Daryl came next.

After untying Bob, Rick stood up and as he passed one of their tables with weapons he pointed at it. "Right there."

"What the hell are these people?!" Bob asked, standing up.

"They ain't people,"

"I want to say that I called cannibals," I reminded them.

Bob took Goggles machete and went to put down one of the bodies, but Rick stopped him. "Don't. Let him turn."

As we moved through the caged doors, I wanted to throw up. Bodies hung from chains, some pieces cut up on tables. I stopped, unable to tear my eyes away from it. It even shook Daryl, as he slowed to a stop.

"Cross any of these people, you kill 'em," Rick said. "They won't."

Bob grabbed a machete from the table, and Daryl walked over to some kind of machine to use as a weapon as Rick started heading for the door.

There was a hand on my shoulder, and I turned to Glenn. "Are you okay?"

I gave a nod. "Y-yeah. Fine."

He could tell I was lying, but led me out of the room and didn't bring it up again. As we approached a door with a glass window, I could hear more yelling coming from a red shipping container as someone yelled for help. Walkers banged against the walls of the containers, trying to get to the people inside.

"If we run, we can get by them," Rick said. "They're distracted."

"We got to let those people out," Glenn said.

Rick looked at him, almost confused, and then at me. I didn't know what to do or say. We didn't know who the people in the container were, how long they'd been in there if they were just prisoners like us. I shrugged, and I could see Glenn look at me out of the corner of his eye.

"That's still who we are," Glenn looked at me, and then back to Rick. "It's got to be."

Rick didn't give a nod, but by the way he contemplated what was said, and ran out of the door, I could tell we were following Glenn's plan. I had the knife read and followed after him, taking one out at his side, when the others were put down by the others around me.

"Help! Help!"

Glenn ran to the shipping crate, struggling to open it like it had been rusted closed for a long time. When he finally managed to pull the latch free and yank the door open, a long-haired bearded man ran out at us and grabbed him by his shoulders.

"We're the same!" Glenn panicked and pushed him away, and then the man grabbed Rick. "We're the same, we're them!"

"Back off!" Rick yelled.

The man smiled and gave a creepy laugh as he yelled. "We're the same."

I could see him more clearly now, looking like he had a black pen drawn over his face. None of it made sense to me, and I couldn't read it, but I was trying to stay as far away from him as I could at that point.

As he laughed, Rick pushed him away and he just kept laughing, staring at us. Then a walker came out from behind the crate, grabbing him and biting him on the neck.

"Come on!" Rick gave a wave of his hand and Glenn went to kill the walker with the bat, swinging it down a few times.

I could see Daryl keep an eye on the passing herd when he rushed forward to grab Glenn by the shirt and pulled him back, pushing him against the wall with a hand on his chest before he could get spotted.

Rick pulled me in so I was next to Glenn, keeping me out of the line of sight. He looked the other way, before back to the side that Daryl was covering, and with his downturned expression, and the franetic stepping back and forth, I could see that we were stuck here.

"How the fuck did a herd get inside?" I muttered helplessly.

"We gotta double back," Bob said.

"As that way, we go back we don't know where we are," Rick said.

"We don' really have a choice, do we?" Daryl asked.

When he said that I heard shooting, and yelling. People were coming this way. I looked to Rick who could see what was happening, but even he spun around with a concerned expression, which immediately changed to something I couldn't read.

"Wait here," he said and ran across to the next car.

"Rick," Glenn whispered loudly after him. "Rick!"

Rick ducked behind it, and I could see him waiting, taking his time to find out what he could do. From what I was seeing, hearing, it didn't seem like there was a lot he could do. Daryl moved back from Glenn to watch the walkers because what I could see was that Rick had his back to any walkers that came his way around the car.

"Fuck, walker," Daryl muttered. "I need to save his ass."

No one stopped him when we saw that a walker had spotted Rick, and Daryl ran across in a low position to kill it before it grabbed him. I squeezed my eyes closed when it got close, but Daryl jammed the pipe into its head. When I opened my eyes, I could finally breathe out.

The shooting continued in sprays, the noise hurting my ears. I couldn't do anything, which was making me more anxious. Glenn and Bob both were watching each side, and all I could do was make sure no one came back from the door we used to get here.

I finally turned to look for Daryl and Rick past Glenn when I saw Rick rush to grab the last man in the line of five people. He grabbed him around his neck, and the man panic-shot in front of him before Rick stabbed him and grabbed the AK before he could fall over.

Rick then used the gun and sprayed at the four people in front of him, who never had a chance to turn back around and fire back. He stepped forward, swinging the gun back and forth and turning around to check for more people, but everyone was dead now.

They ran back our way, and I could hear the screaming from the people as Rick rushed back and gave Bob a handgun.

"We'll have to double back," he said.

As soon as we doubled back, I heard the sounds of the walkers following us. No one seemed to notice as we ran back through the room where we were held and then out through the doors where they dragged us in. We had to weave in and out of different rooms to avoid members of Terminus, and more walkers that seemed to be coming from all directions.

Some of the buildings were on fire, which blocked off a lot of our paths. I didn't understand how so much damage could happen when we hadn't seen anyone. If someone was fighting them, then why hadn't we run across them by now? It sounded like a war, like a lot of people, so where were they?

Eventually, as we made it into another room, I recognised the black door with bars for a small window. I knew where we were, we'd been here before. I remembered the painted letters that led us to where we were going, and we were almost back to the train car.

"I know where we are," I yelled, running for a door marked A. "We can go this way, come on!"

"Stick on her!"

"We got more coming in the back!" I heard Glenn yell.

"Keep running, we just have to get to the car!"

As we slipped through a garage door, I kicked a latch once everyone was through and the chain rattled as the door came barrelling down, partially blocking the walkers behind us off. For now, at least. They were 100 percent getting through.

"This way!" Rick yelled.

We sprinted after him as the banging on the metal continued. Nothing was better when we finally made it to the train car. There were still so many walkers coming into the clearing and stopping at the red car marked with A.

"Oh fuck," I muttered, seeing the amount of walkers that were around the train car, let alone the ones that followed us. "This is going to be shit."

"We can make it, we just have to get to the fence," without a word of warning, Rick ran forward. "Hold them off! I'll get the others!"

"Come on!" Glenn said and ran after him.

I was next, ignoring the pain my leg felt as I kept up with Bob, Daryl and Glenn. We killed walkers that had followed Rick, before turning to the ones that were filling the clearing behind us.

There was smoke everywhere from the explosions that had gone off, and I could barely see a walker before it came out of the fog to grab me. I was quick enough though, my reaction just fast enough to take them down before they could grab me.

I heard the clunk as Rick opened the train car. "Come on! We fight to the fence!"

Bullets fired at the walkers past me, and I glanced back to see everyone barrelling out of the train car. There was yelling from Abraham about staying close to Eugene, which I ignored, killing walkers that were coming at my group from the side as they ran to the fence.

"Ace!" Rick yelled. "Move up!"

Looking back, I only then realised that everyone had passed me, and even some walkers had slipped behind me to follow Rick and the others. I ran for one that was getting close to him, stabbing it so he didn't have to waste the bullets, and he placed a hand on my shoulder to keep me ahead of him.

After that, I made sure to stick close to them, catching up to the others when I found Isaac in the crowd, I saw that he now had a wooden spike that he used to kill a walker, almost falling over as it dragged him towards the ground.

"Gross," he muttered to himself.

I didn't want to say anything to him and draw all the attention to the fact that I was covered in blood, but he seemed to notice. I watched him glance at me, and I avoided his eyes before nodding for him to follow the others. He didn't want to be anywhere near me like this, and I understood.

One of the walkers had Carl, and Michonne used her sword sheath with two wooden spikes to kill one in front of her, before stabbing it backwards to help the one that had Carl. He thanked her with a nod and ran to the fence.

Some of the others had made there already, and I led Isaac in that direction. "Go for the fence."

"You're coming too," he grabbed my arm, which surprised me a little. He had the gloves on, but even seeing me covered in as much blood as I assumed I was should be making him uneasy.

"Rick's hanging back, I need to make sure he's okay," I said.

"Then I'll wait."

"There's too many walkers, just get out and keep the others safe," I begged, pulling his hand away from mine. "Please."

Isaac breathed out a sigh through his nose, but turned and ran away.

Rick had stayed to gun down another big group of walkers, but the huge crowd was still gathering from where we came. I was afraid that maybe he'd miss one, maybe he wouldn't notice or get distracted. Either way, I didn't plan on leaving him alone after he saved me today. I ran back for him, killing a walker at his side, and he gave me a look between relief and frustration that I was still close enough to save him from that.

"I'm not leaving you alone," I told him, my voice firm so he wouldn't argue. "We go together."

"Then we're buying the other's time."

I flinched when I heard a shot that wasn't from Rick and looked up to a loading dock to see Terminus members run down towards us.

"Behind me," Rick shoved me back with his arm before he fired up at the loading dock.

I saw Gareth fall over from one of the shots—he was hit. The others retreated, running away from the gunfire as Rick kept them suppressed. I placed a hand on his back to keep me centred behind him, and away from any shots as he sprayed more in their direction, making sure they didn't try to escape this way.

When I looked around for walkers, I saw one that I recognised. The man I killed with the goggles was walking our way, snapping at us, which just made me realise that I'd killed another person—I was covered in his blood. I clenched my teeth, and my grip on Rick's coat tightened on its own.

He turned, placing his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it. "Come on, we need to get to the fence."

He moved me so I ran back towards the last person, which was Abraham waiting for us at the fence, yelling at us to hurry up. He let me climb over first, helping me over with a hand on my leg, which hurt but I probably wouldn't have made it over otherwise. Rick was next before Abraham hopped the fence himself. It moved as the herd pushed against it, catching up and almost grabbing Abraham before he could get over.

"Jesus Christ, that was close," he muttered.

"This way," Rick told everyone before we even had a chance to rest.


"Right here."

Daryl pointed at the ground when we made it back to the bag of guns we buried, and I was more than thrilled to get my own knife and gun back. I was gutted that I lost the M4 and my axe, but there was nothing I could do to get them back. Daryl handed Rick the shovel we hid and Rick started digging for the guns.

"The hell are we still around here for?" Abraham asked.

"Guns, some supplies," Rick answered simply. "Go along the fences, use the rifles, take the rest of 'em out."

"Okay," I gave a nod.

Glenn had a much different reaction. "What?"

I clenched my teeth and turned away from him; Glenn was undoubtedly disappointed in me, seeing me kill one of them already, for agreeing that I would go back and do it again. But that's what Rick wanted. If we didn't take them out, they could follow us. I didn't see how it was a bad idea, logically.

Some moral implications were overshadowed by the amount of adrenaline in my system, and I had to ignore any guilt until we were safe enough to feel it. I almost watched Glenn die today, and I was not going to let it happen again.

When I looked at the others again, I could see Isaac looking at me too, which I also had to ignore. He'd killed now, but whether he understood this in the same way was something I couldn't read in his expression.

Rick looked back over his shoulder at us. "They don't get to live."

Glenn was quiet for a moment, and he was looking at me when I finally glanced up to meet his eyes. "Rick, we got out. It's over."

"It's not over, till they're all dead," Rick said, taking his Python.

He reached back into the bag, grabbing my beretta and knife holding it out for me to take, which I did. I placed them in my holster before he grabbed a rifle and handed it to me. I looked at the gun, before holding it ready.

"The hell it isn't," Rosita said. "That place is on fire, full of walkers."

"I'm not dicking around with this crap," Abraham said. "We just made it out."

"The fences are down," Maggie added. "They'll run or die."

"They could follow us," I argued quietly, receiving a look from most of the others. "It's happened before, it happened yesterday."

Rick looked at everyone, and then me. I gave him the nod that said I'd go with whatever he wanted, but it seemed like we were outvoted on this. Rick didn't seem to care, back in his leadership position, but with the new people who hadn't been around for this, I doubted him in charge was going to go down well for this moment.

Footsteps in the fallen leaves got my attention, and I looked back over my shoulder to see two people. Carol and Martinez walking our way. Daryl ignored the fact that Martinez was there, and ran over to her, hugging her instantly.

My eyes went to Martinez, who'd taken a few steps away from them. He had my bag over his back, my yellow bag. In his hand was my climbing axe, which he waved in my direction to show me he'd gotten it back. I understood what happened then. They had been the ones to break us out.

"You look like shit," he said when I walked over to him. "Isaac lets you kiss him with that face?"

I scoffed, shaking my head. "Is it really that bad?"

"Yeah, what the hell did you do there?"

Stuff. I didn't want to get into it, so I tried to change the subject. "What the hell is all over your face?"

"Mud, walkers are tricked by mud, right?" He grinned, wiping a hand over his stubble to get some of the mud off. When he was done, he held out the axe, which I hung from my holster. Then he handed me the yellow bag. "I put some of Isaac's stuff in there: his book, box of gloves. Couldn't carry it all."

"Thank you," I nodded at him. "Thanks for coming back."

"I said I would," he told me and nodded to some of the people behind me. I glanced back to see him looking at Glenn and Maggie, who were each staring in our direction, partly glancing towards Carol. "I doubt they're going to like it though."

"I spoke to them," I said. "They might be civil."

"They don't have to be," he shrugged. "I get it."

When Daryl had finished hugging Carol, Rick walked over to her. She placed a hand over her mouth, happy to see that he was alive and so close to crying as Rick stopped in front of her.

"Did you do that?"

She smiled and nodded before they hugged too. The last they had seen each other was when Rick took her away after what she did at the prison. I assumed that it didn't matter too much anymore, because finding her after we lost so many people overshadowed what she'd done at that point.

Carol saved us.

"You have to come with me," Carol said, pulling away from Rick.

And we followed her. Carol took us back to the road and led us somewhere, but she wouldn't tell us why. Strange that she had a surprise after everything that happened, but we followed her. I assumed that we weren't going back into Terminus now, which was fine. I was the only one that was ready to do that again it seemed, and I would be happier not killing anyone else.

As we came up over a hill, I saw a cabin. Standing outside of the cabin was Tyreese, holding Judith. My mouth hung open and I watched Rick run ahead, followed quickly by Sasha and Carl. Tyreese handed Rick the baby before Sasha slammed into him, hugging him tightly.

Rick and Carl were smothering Judith, and I could see his eyes well up as he pulled close and kissed her on the head, almost not believing that she was even there right then. I couldn't believe it either, and I wanted them with a smile, wiping my own eyes with the back of my hand.

Someone grabbed the shoulder strap of my bag, pulling it away from me, and I looked back to see Isaac. He nodded over to Rick, Carl and Judith, before telling me, "Go see her."

I let him take the bag and sprinted over to the three of them, placing my hand on the back of her head when I stopped in front of Rick. I had been beating myself up when I thought she was dead, cursing myself for not spending any time with her while I worked in the prison, and now that she was back I never wanted her to go.

When everyone had caught up, relieved that the other members of the group were alive, Rick handed Judith to Carl while the others sorted through the bag of weapons, making sure everyone had something to protect themselves with.

"I don't know if the fire's still burning," Rick said.

I looked back to the black smoke rising in the air, about to tell them that it was, but Carol beat me to it. "It is."

"Yeah," Rick said. "We need to go."

"Yeah, but where?" Daryl asked.

"Somewhere far away from there."

Everyone walked for the tracks, the only path we had that would get us away from Terminus as they walked off to the road. Carl carried Judith after the group, Isaac shortly behind him as he walked ahead. Rick stopped next to one of the Terminus signs.

I stopped behind him, waiting for him to go as he covered his hand in the red mud, and I watched him alter the Terminus sign. When he was done, he looked over his shoulder to me, stepped back so he was standing at my side and looked at the sign.

NO SANCTUARY.


Season 5, arguably one of the best seasons (but I do have a special place for 3). I'm working on it, but the massive gaps between the season breaks are hard to fill and I'm not sure that I'm going to be able to fill them with the way everything is written.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed.