The rock crumbled beneath the truck as a metallic screech rang out. Across the quarry, the movement was subtle at first, but then the loud clicking sound started. The cliff crumbled under the lorry, and it began to fall, hanging on by the bed until even that flipped over and smashed into the ground, crushing tens of walkers. Dust clouds flew upon impact.

But it wasn't enough.

The sound eddied through my mind, loud—much louder than I ever expected. It had been a good long while since I had been this scared of the walkers. But seeing them now, seeing what they could become, sent a chill down my spine.

They started the ascent, pace unbreaking. Walkers were slow admittedly, but relentless. Never winding, never tiring. Every corpse followed the other like a flock of birds in the sky, all flying the same way to create those patterns.

"It's open!" Rick roared. "We got to do this now! We're doing this now!" He planted a hand on the wooden floor beneath him and jumped down from the back of the lorry, before pointing at the others. "Tobin's group, get moving, go!"

The Alexandrians were the first to leave, the people Tobin had to catch up to when he was done moving the truck. Scott and Annie, the two people who returned to the community with Heath, were trailing behind. They had flares ready in their packs from the system they used on the run.

"No, Rick, we're not ready!" Carter shouted.

"Sasha! Abraham!"

"Damn straight, we'll do it live," Abraham said, running to the car.

"You meet Daryl at red. Let him take them through the gauntlet."

Sasha climbed into the car. "Yeah, we meet at red."

"Go!"

Walkers pushed between the two trucks, their skin peeling back into a bloody mess as one of them reached out to us. I ran to Daryl, raising my gun at the herd. It was all I could do before we started running, whatever group I joined.

If we had time, if this happened tomorrow I could have had the flares ready to lure the others back, but I didn't. Rick made sure some of the others did, but I didn't think to grab one—I didn't think I needed to grab one. This was supposed to happen Tomorrow.

"Rick, I'll hit the tractor place," Glenn said.

"I'm with you, man!" Martinez told him.

Rick nodded. "Okay, who else?"

I didn't get the chance to volunteer before Glenn turned to Heath."We got to take them out or they'll distract the horde."

"I'm here, let me help," Nicholas offered.

"No," he waved him off.

"I'm here!"

I stared at Glenn, begging him not to let Nicholas join him. Nobody told me what happened between them when Glenn came back injured, but I knew it was something bad, something that meant Glenn shouldn't trust him around.

"Do everything I say!" He decided.

Nicholas nodded. "I will."

"I should come!" I called.

Glenn shook his head. "No, stay with Rick."

I turned back towards him. "You haven't told me what he's done—"

"That's why you need to go with Rick," Glenn said.

My eyes shot back to Rick as if to say he needed to put some sense into Glenn, but he just waved a hand for me to join him. I clenched my teeth and turned back around to face the herd, the walkers between the trucks.

Glenn and Martinez led the group down the hill in the same direction that the Alexandrians went. I told myself over and over again that it would be okay, that Glenn had dealt with the tension between him and Nicholas.

"Rick, this was supposed to be a dry run!" Carter walked over to him.

"Well, it's not, Carter!" I snapped. "Shut the hell up and get with your group!"

Rick ignored him. "Daryl, get ready!"

"They're coming!" Daryl yelled in return.

"Rick, we haven't even gone through the whole plan!" Carter shouted.

"You want to go back, go back! We're finishing this!" Rick turned away to the truck, barking out orders. "Tobin, you hit it on my signal! They're heading for home, we don't have a choice! Get ready to hit the flares!"

Rick waved a hand down, and the flares were sent off. I climbed onto the truck to ensure the walkers saw, and half the herd turned around, heading straight for us. Good. Abraham and Sasha could get the ones that moved up the other side of the mountains.

"It's working!"

Rick used that as the signal, "Tobin! Hit the truck!"

I jumped down just as the truck lurched forward.

Rick held up his radio. "You all have your assignments, you know where to rendezvous. Daryl leads them out. Sasha and Abraham join him at the bottom of the hill. Glenn, you hit us when you take care of the walkers at the tractor place—that's the one thing we gotta get ahead of."

I shot down the first walkers out, buying us more time and drawing more attention from the herd. Daryl would be the last one out of the quarry, and I didn't want him surrounded before he could get on his bike and get away.

Michonne grabbed my wrist and pulled me back. It was our turn to leave.

"Everybody keep your heads," Rick finished. "Just keep up."

We sprinted out of the quarry and left the walkers to Daryl.

I was quickest through the trees, stopping for the others to catch up only when I killed a walker in my path. Panting, I grunted as I put my hand against the bark. Stopping was a dangerous game because my legs wouldn't want to run again.

Ten minutes, I worked out when I questioned Rick how far we were from the wall when he slowed to pass by me. Ten more minutes of this, and an hour of work on the sides of the road to keep the herd in line before we could head back to Alexandria.

Home, as he put it.

I just wanted somewhere to sit down.

A cry of joy ripped out of me when I saw the end, the opening of the trees parted by the trail of concrete. Thank God. I jumped from the trees straight down to the road, swinging an arm down to catch my weight as I stumbled but didn't fall.

My legs were wobbly as I slowed to a walk, and the ground felt harder than it should have like I had just come off of a trampoline. I dipped my hands under my shirt and raised the fabric upward to dry my face of sweat.

"Glenn, you there yet?" Rick asked into the walkie.

"Almost, we'll have it handled before they get here. We'll meet you at yellow," Glenn's response came between static and panting, they were still running to get to the tractor place. But they were okay, and that was all that mattered to me.

"We're on schedule, that's good." It was good—better than expected. I was waiting for something to happen.

We stopped in a line at the fence, staring at it for a moment. The whole plan rode on this, the idea that duct tape and screws could hold back thousands of walkers. I would have questioned every decision I made, but it was not my work I was worried about.

"It'll hold," Rick said.

"Well, that's good. You know, considering where we're standing," Michonne said.

When air was able to reach the bottom of my lungs, I sat on the ground and breathed out a long sigh. We'd hear the bike approaching, that's when I would stand again, ready to run if the wall came down. I rubbed a hand over my face before looking up at the balloons.

"Michonne?" Morgan began.

She raised a brow but didn't look at him. "Yeah?"

"Back when you were in that place . . . where I lived," he spoke so cryptically that even I turned my head to look at him, and I saw a concerned look in Michonne's eyes like he was relapsing. "Did you take one of my protein bars?"

My eyes turned to Rick who scrunched up his face in confusion but didn't look at them or even make a move to answer. I watched as the corners of her lips pulled upward, and she said, "No."

"See, I could have sworn there was one more peanut butter left," Morgan pushed.

Michonne sighed. "That's how it is, isn't it? You always think there's one more peanut butter left."

I didn't keep track of how long it had been, but as I predicted, the growl of the bike down the road was the first thing I heard. As that became louder it also became muffled, overpowered by the crowd that followed him. The car may as well had not been there.

Rick waved an arm, ignoring the hesitance in Michonne and Morgan as they followed him toward the fence that threatened to fall over. They had to start firing the flares, keeping the attention of the ones in the back so they would follow Daryl and the others without actually being able to see them consistently.

They aimed the orange guns up, looking around the RV to Rick who fired off the first shot. The pinkish light flew into the air, one after the other, illuminating the sky above us. My eyes trailed upward, and I watched as the smoke and flame fizzled out.

I pushed myself to my feet and stared.

The metal crashed as often as gunfire, nailing down the sheer number of walkers behind the wall. It didn't stop, as the crowd kept coming, more and more pushing against the wall that began to sway like it was a tree in the wind.

"I've never hated anything more than that." I'd regretted even attempting to speak even a whisper as the metal rattled with a loud bang.

Michonne slid me a look that said she completely agreed with me, her eyebrows furrowed as she landed back on the wall. She loaded a new flare back into her gun, aimed it into the air and shot upwards, luring the walkers at the back of the herd.

Blood seeped in between the seam where the two sheets met. Too much blood, like the brain had exploded on the impact of hitting the wall—could have been due to the pressure the crowd emitted all being that close together. People died in raves by similar means.

The smell almost made me sick. I turned away, gagging around the other side of the RV with a hand over my mouth, blocking any sound that was going to emit from the back of my throat if I stood around there any longer.

Rick, Michonne and Morgan each moved behind the RV, investigating the wall as it crashed and rattled and clanged against the metal posts holding it up. It'll hold, I repeated over and over in my mind, choosing to believe it.

"We're almost there, in the woods now."

That was the signal we were given to leave the fence and rush into the trees, getting ahead of the herd so we could keep them on the road. This was the last thing we had to do before we left the walkers to Daryl, Sasha and Abraham.

Rick whistled to get his attention when we found Glenn and the others—all still alive. That meant Nicholas hadn't done anything stupid . . . yet. Carter and the Alexandrians were in the trees waiting for us, already working before we got there.

He turned to Rick. "It's working. You were right."

Shocker, I would have said if we hadn't been ten meters away from the herd. They stumbled forward after the cars, the yellow balloons swaying back and forth just across the road from us. The corpses, luckily enough, didn't have enough sense to notice us through the trees.

Rick only nodded and turned around to face the others. "Everyone, we need to finish this. We have to keep moving and fan out down that thing front to back—like we said, cops at a parade. Glenn you take the back, you got the other walkie," Rick said. "Ace, Martinez, go with him."

"Got it." Glenn's voice was barely audible as he agreed for us.

"If it gets sloppy, we fire our weapons, pull them back on track," Rick said.

"I'll hit the front," Carter said.

"Okay, one after the other."

I followed Glenn as we ran back, against the current of the walkers. Nicholas and the others came with us, each stopping one by one down the line, spreading us out. I walked beyond Glenn, signalling that I would take the very back of the group.

As I did, I looked over my shoulder at Glenn. "How did it go?"

He shrugged. "No problems. Had to break the window because the shutters were closed, less controlled than I wanted."

My eyes flicked back to the man trailing behind us. "He okay?"

"He did fine."

Martinez wisely kept his mouth shut when I looked at him.

Fine. I could tell Glenn still didn't want Nicholas beyond the walls, but he offered in a way that nobody could argue unless it came to light what happened between the two of them outside the walls. Whether Glenn didn't want Deanna to find out or me was another question.

I opened my mouth to say something else when I was cut off by someone screaming.

Screaming.

My eyes met Glenn briefly before I stepped out a little to see the walkers had started to turn off the road to the treeline where our group was now spread out. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Nicholas' head shot toward us, his eyes wide, seeking answers.

I clenched my teeth and looked back up to the walkers that came our way. The sound was too far down for them to break off yet, luckily enough. I was staring down the face of hundreds of walkers that would most definitely kill me.

Static screeched from Glenn's from the radio attached to his belt.

"Tobin, they're breaking off."

Tobin responded, "What do you want us to do?"

"Fire your guns and draw them back."

"That sounds like Carter," Nicholas said.

"The others will get him," I said. "Don't move."

Shots burst out over the sound of the walkers, and I stepped beyond the tree to watch as the walkers who had been distracted by the screaming turned back onto the road to follow the sounds that Tobin was making.

Thank fuck for that.

"It's working. The gunfire is bringing them back on the road," Tobin announced.

"You got them, Tobin." Rick.

"Copy that. What was that screaming?"

"That was Carter. He got bit right in the face—I stopped him."

Shit.

My mouth fell open for a second, but as the shock factor wore off, I felt nothing. I clamped my tongue between my teeth and kept my eyes forward, not showing the Alexandrians how little I cared that their friend had died—we had a job to do.

It was at least an hour before the herd passed, and they had to keep focused until then. They could grieve later.

We followed along with the walkers on foot, my glance occasionally going back to them to make sure we weren't spotted. The finish line was nearing and all we had to do was escort them to green before we could hand them off.

Nobody spoke to one another, nobody mentioned Carter again.

A walker groaned at my side, and I turned to take care of it. The last thing we needed was walkers in the trees drawing the others out, away from the road. I pulled out my axe and swung it against the walker, wedging the corpse up against a tree.

I continued dawdling in the back afterwards, Martinez and Glenn just ahead of me. Part of me couldn't wait to get back, because I was knackered. After all this, I wanted nothing more than to collapse in my bed.

You're almost home! A sign beside the road read out. Alexandria was written in cursive, and just below inside an arrow it said Next right. A retail sign for the new homes that were being built before the world ended. Starting at $800K.

I almost chuckled. There were worse things than ending up in a home worth close to a million dollars for free, I supposed.

A loud noise rang out on my right and continued droning on and on. My head shot to the source of the noise, but it was too far away to see whatever it was. But the sound was coming from the east, away from where we wanted the walkers to go.

Alexandria.

"What the hell is happening?" Heath asked.

"It's a horn or something," Glenn said, his eyes falling back on the walkers. "It's pulling the back half off the road. Oh, God."

The bodies were indeed coming our way, drawn in by the sound of the horn. My heart was pounding in my chest, and I froze, falling backwards a step as a walker caught us in its sight. "Fuck this."

"We gotta go," Martinez grabbed my arm and shoved me ahead of him. "Now!"

We took off into a sprint. The Alexandrians were a lot slower than us, I realised because as we ran diagonally to meet up with Rick and the others at the front of the group, they were barely keeping up with us. I looked back to see Scott and Annie coming through the trees with the others and I knew we were getting close.

My chest was heaving, and drops of sweat rolled down my temples. The horn was still blaring away in the distance, a nonstop droning sound that made my mind race with worry. It was coming from Alexandria, but I didn't understand why they would be using the horn—

Isaac.

I had to push him to the back of my mind. Squeezing my eyes closed, I pushed my legs forward. I couldn't think about him right now, we had to get back to the others and figure out what the hell was going on.

We caught up with Rick and Michonne, who stopped to speak to us. "We need to get back, we can't stop a herd."

"We can get Tobin to fire the guns again," Martinez said.

Rick nodded, pulling the walkie to his mouth. "Tobin, you need to fire the guns again. That horn is drawing the back end of the walkers back to Alexandria!" There was static when he released the button and no response. "Tobin, you copy?!"

I waited for gunshots to show that Tobin could hear us, but none came. "Fuck," I breathed, keeling over. "Fuck this is bad."

There was a hand on my shoulder. Martinez was the closest voice to me as he tapped my back a few times, "I could run back a mile or two and get around them, fire the guns myself."

"It'd take too long," Rick shook his head. "The rest of the herd will be gone with the others and they'd have nothing to follow. You'd be surrounded. All we can do is run back to the community and hope we can get a better signal."

"I don't know if the others are gonna make it that far," Michonne said. "We might have to stop and hold up somewhere."

"We can't," Rick denied but offered no solutions to the problem she suggested.

"Where's Morgan?" I asked, straightening up, noticing I hadn't seen him in a while. He couldn't be with the Alexandrians, could he? He was a better survivor than that.

"I sent him back an hour ago to tell the others we had to start a day early," Rick said. "He's alright."

The Alexandrians showed up behind us, one of them yelling out between pants. "They're coming!"

"We have to keep going!" Rick yelled.

I chased after him.

Glenn was in front of us, the fastest up the hill. I didn't even see the Alexandrians behind us as I looked back over my shoulder, and then I shot Rick a worried look. Even if they were slow, there was no way they'd let the herd catch up.

Martinez had given up on his bat spun the bat around in his hand before smashing it against a walker, and it fell to its knees. I stabbed it as I passed the body, ensuring its death, because the blunt force had not been enough that time to kill the walker.

Glenn slowed ahead of us, panting as Michonne, Rick, Martinez and I caught up. "Try again," Glenn pointed to his radio.

Rick nodded, panting and reached for the radio. "Tobin, it's not stopping. Light it up. You hear me?!" Static screeched out as it did before, but there was no answer. "Tobin!" Rick shook his head, waving an arm to the walker that was coming toward us. "Michonne."

"Got it."

She swung her sword upwards and cut the walker in half.

"Shit! Shit! It was half. Jesus, it was more than half!" One of them panicked.

"We just gotta stay ahead of them," Annie said. "They walk, we run."

I ran after Rick, keeping his pace. My legs ached, running would have been fine, but why was there such an incline? It was a good thing we had spent so long amongst the trees because the shade had kept my head cooler than I expected.

Rick's radio screeched to life and Daryl yelled down the static. "Rick!"

"I'm here," he said.

"What's going on back there?"

"Half of them broke off, they're going toward Alexandria," Rick said.

"Towards you?" Abraham asked.

"We ran ahead. There's a horn or something—loud, coming from the East. It's not stopping."

"I'm gonna gas it up, turn back," Daryl again.

"We have it, you keep going."

"They're gonna need our help."

"Gotta keep the herd moving!" Rick yelled.

"Not if it's going down, we don't."

"The rest of that herd turns around, the bad back there gets worse!" There was no answer after that, and Rick shot a breath out through his nose. "Daryl?"

"Yeah, I heard you."

"Ah!" I looked back in time to see Annie fall behind us, and I stopped.

"You okay?" Glenn asked, going back for her.

"It's my ankle," she said.

Although heaving, he grabbed her arm and pulled it up over his shoulder. "Alright, come on. Grab on."

Martinez moved to help Glenn carry her, waving me forward with his other arm. I pulled out my axe and led them up the hill in the direction Rick ran off when I stopped, making sure the rest of the group was keeping up.

Rick was waiting for us further up the hill. "All right, listen up. Here's the new plan. I go back, get the RV, circle around the woods on Redding. I'll get in front of them before they get there. I can lead them away again."

"RV's a mile back. I can go with you," David offered.

"I'll handle it," Rick waved him off. "Just get home, they might need you there." He turned away and nodded his head. "Ace, Glenn, Michonne."

Martinez, too, followed anyway. Rick led us all a few steps away from the others.

"If something's in front of you, you kill it. No hiding, no waiting. You keep going."

"I'm going with you, you can't do this on your own," Glenn argued.

"Glenn, I can do this," he shook his head.

"You need to help me," Michonne said. "We've got to get these people back, and one of you is going to have to carry Annie."

"Yeah. Thing is, they aren't all gonna make it," Rick said.

Michonne glared at him. "Rick."

"You try to save them," he clarified, "you try. But they can't keep up, you keep going. You have to, you make sure you get back."

I straightened up. "Then I'll go with you."

"No," Glenn denied.

"Hear me out," I said. "I mean, fuck. I can't carry anyone like you guys, and they can kill walkers now." I turned back to Rick. "I can keep up with you. And the RV is a piece of shit so if it stops then I can hotwire another car on the road. Make sure we keep them moving."

Rick stared at me, panting, but nodded. "Fine, alright. Drink some water because we have to move, now—"

We were cut off by a scream.

Barnes.

A walker had snuck up on him and taken him down. As I looked over my shoulder I saw the walker biting the front of his neck, not deep enough, because he was still able to cry and scream. Rick pulled it away from him and stabbed the walker.

He gargled on his blood, twitching and staring up at us. I swallowed down a lump in my throat as I looked at him. Michonne was the one to step up, raising her sword and stabbing it straight down into his head, putting him out of his misery.

"The horn stopped, good," Rick knelt over his body, taking his gun and knife from his corpse. He looked back at the others, "Get back safe."

"Rick, it's Glenn. We're in a town five degrees east of the green marker. If you get around on Redding in the next 20 minutes, you should be good—I think that's how far we're ahead of the herd."

Glenn started talking as we had come across three walkers eating a body. Rick slowed to stop, going to reach for his knife. I grabbed my axe, looking at him to get his okay, and when he gave me a nod I marched towards the first walker.

Rick had the second, stabbing it in the head, but his knife broke. When the second one came at him, he put a hand against it to push it back and he yelped in pain—that was when I saw the machete sticking out of its shoulder. Rick reached around the back, pulling the machete free and killing the walker with it.

"Are you okay?" I asked. "It didn't mix with your blood did it?"

"No, I'm fine," he said.

"I'm gonna try to set a fire and distract them. If you don't see smoke, they're still coming your way. I got to go—" Rick knelt on the ground and stabbed the corpse that the walkers had been eating in the head, not letting him turn. "Good luck, dumbass."

I raised a brow. "Dumbass?"

Despite the pain in his hand, Rick breathed out a chuckle. "First thing Glenn ever called me."

"You cut your hand, maybe he has a point," I said, watching as he leant down to loot the human body—no one we knew. "I probably have something you can wrap your hand up with."

"Not here, not now." He shoved a packet of cigarettes into his bag. "When we get the RV in place, I'll deal with it then."

"You really are a dumbass," I said. "Are we going to be there in 20 minutes?"

"We'll be cutting it close, but we'll make it," he said. "We have to, come on."

Rick kept his hand raised to his shoulder as we ran. All we had to do was get back to the wall and get the motorhome on the road again. I knew all we had to do was the walkers from getting to Alexandria if Glenn hadn't been able to start the fire.

As we finally came to the wall, a smell trailed up my nose. It was from the pile of corpses that had either died by hitting their head or gotten stuck by the ones that did. I grimaced, my nose crinkling as we ran past the wall to get around it.

The RV was where we left it behind the wall with all the other cars. Rick made it there first, opening the door and climbing inside. I followed him in time to see him sit down in the driver's seat, taking a moment to inspect the blood running down his wrist.

He reached across with his other arm, but I snatched the keys away from him, closing them in my fist. Rick gave me a bewildered look, but I gestured to the passenger seat for him to move.

"Fix your hand."

"Ace, you can barely drive a car."

"But I can drive," I said. "Just wrap up your hand and tell me where to go."

Rick reluctantly agreed, moving over a seat so I could take the driver's seat. I started the engine, bringing it to the bite point before giving it probably too much petrol to get it moving. I just wanted to make sure I didn't stall so we would make it to Redding.

"Easy," he said, pulling out a rag to wrap around his hand.

I nodded, turning the RV around and started following his directions, driving faster than I would have liked, because we had to get there ahead of the walkers. My heart rate was pounding for a whole different reason.

"Slow it down, real slow," Rick coached. "You can't swing this thing around corners like a car, alright?"

"I got it," I said, changing down a gear as I slowed down the caravan. "Have I ever told you how much I hate driving?"

Rick chuckled. "No, but Carl hates your driving. He said so when we got off the farm."

"No surprise there."

I saw out of the corner of my eye that he had managed to wrap his wound beside me. He leaned back toward the kitchen for a tea towel and began wiping at the blood on his arm, more smudging it across his skin than actually cleaning himself up.

Rick continued directing me towards Redding, a few turns away before we drove down a long straight road. I guessed it was Redding because he made no indication that we were going to be making any more turns after this.

"Slow down, park it up here," he said.

I nodded, doing as he said, pressing the brake and turning off the RV as we stopped. My eyes looked left, and I waited for the walkers, but they weren't there yet. So instead I leaned forward in my seat and looked to the skies.

"I don't see any smoke," I said.

Rick only responded by reaching for his radio. "Glenn, we're in place by my best guess. You guys make it back yet?" He let go of the button, and there was only static hissing. "Glenn." More static. "Tobin, you there?" No response, I was starting to get worried. "Daryl?" Static—

Then, "I'm here."

"Won't be long now. They're almost here, me and Ace will get them going your way again," Rick explained.

"How 'bout that, Daryl?" Sasha's voice came next. "He's gonna be coming our way."

Weird. I would have said something about it, but I was distracted by the sound of gunfire on my right. Alexandria. Why was there shooting coming from Alexandria? I clenched my teeth, staring out into the woods.

Isaac . . . what was happening there?

Rick raised the radio again, "There's gunfire coming from back home. We gotta sit with it and hope they can handle it. I think they can—they have to. We keep going forward for them. Can't turn back 'cause we're afraid.

"We ain't afraid." Abraham.

"This is for them. Going back now before it's done, that'd be for us," he released the button a second before saying. "The herd has to be almost here."

I sighed, leaning back in the seat.

Rick, facing me in his seat, just sighed. He held the radio in his hands, staring down at it. I hadn't realised until that moment just how exhausted he looked until that moment. His hair was dripping in sweat, his eyes watery likely from the cut in his hand and his breath stuttered as he panted.

I doubted I looked much different.

The door slammed open behind us, and shots hit the dashboard between the seats. I screamed, dropping into the footwell below the bullets while Rick threw his body backwards. When the man ran out of bullets, Rick was the quickest and pushed himself up from behind the seat and rushed him. He slapped the gun to the side and took him down, landing on top of him as they hit the ground.

The radio screeched out. "Rick? Rick!"

I grabbed the radio. "There's people, I don't know how many yet—"

Another man ran into the RV, seeing Rick fighting the man first, and then his eyes landed on me. I raised my gun as he swung his own down, hitting the crook of my elbow. I cried out in pain, reaching for my holster with my other hand. He grabbed my arm, keeping it away from my knife before he dragged me kicking and screaming from the front seats. Keeping me locked against him, the knife pressed to my neck.

Rick was still grappling with the first man, so I didn't stop fighting.

When I got my wrist free, his arms grabbed around my waist and hoisted me into the air. To retaliate, I kicked a leg out and pushed back against the table hard. The man fell backwards and we both went tumbling down the stairs outside.

"ACE!"

My body rolled to the side on impact getting far enough away from him that I was able to reach for my knife. The man was gasping for air when I spun on my knees and swung the knife down into his chest. I'd winded him in the fall, the only reason I'd lived long enough to kill him first. As he continued to move, I pulled the knife back and this time aimed for his heart.

A gunshot rang off from inside the RV and Rick stepped back into the doorway where I could see him. He waved a hand to me, "Come on."

Panting, I climbed back up the stairs with my hands on the cupboard before falling on the sofa beside the door. My hands came up over my face when I saw my gun on the ground, so I leaned forward to grab it, holding it in my hands.

"We're okay," he whispered, but he was hyperventilating, twitchy, panicked.

I kept my head in my hands and tried to catch my breath.

Rick dropped to the ground in front of me and placed a hand on my knee, leaning forward for a machine gun as he blew out a quiet shh. My head shot around in all directions, but I didn't see what had made him reach for a gun.

He stood up, aiming it at the wall just above the two sofas that faced each other with a table between them. After a second, he shot at the wall just below the window and sprayed back and forth until he ran out of bullets.

"What the fuck?!" I breathed.

"There were more," Rick said. "The guy in here, he's got a W on his head. And he has one of the guns from Alexandria, silencer too. If the walkers weren't coming already, they're gonna be now." Rick waved a hand to the driver's seat, "Get her started, we have to be ready to leave."

"Yeah," My head was nodding as I shifted seats. I pressed my foot on the clutch and turned the key—

And the engine did not turn over.

I tried again and again, turning the key to start the caravan, but it didn't work. It made the same spluttering sounds every time. It dawned on me not long after that when the man shot at us he hit the dashboard and went right through to the engine.

"I could take a look—"

And the walkers came out of the woods.

Hey, guys. Uni has been kicking my ass lately so I didn't really feel like editing this one. Trying to come to grips with giving myself breaks and not working myself too hard or burning out so the same might be said for future chapters coming, because I want you to read them but I also just want some time off sometimes.

The good thing about a forensics masters is that I can just use this book to practise writing the initial views of houses that CSIs have to do, and I now know more about blood spatter which could be useful for writing. I'm pretty sure I've been doing that wrong up until now.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and lmk what you thought :)