Chapter 115-Massacre
Kathy's P.O.V
An hour ago
Sitting down, Kathy breathed out a sigh of relief as, for once, it was a relatively slow day. For the last few months, the dead were growing rarer by the day to many relief.
With it not being a hassle and with the supplies occasionally delivered, Kathy had discussed with the other residents if communications could open enough for them to rejoin the Militia.
Naturally, there were protests, but she would rather have them be alive to hate her rather than stew alone in bitterness.
Shaking her head, she walked outside, waving at some of them, but then stopped as she heard a voice cry out from the trees.
"HELP!"
Startled, Kathy and a few of the others ran up, weapons in hand, wondering if something was wrong, and saw one of their patrol members, Mary, bleeding and staggering, her auburn hair a mess.
Gasping, Ruby ran over. "Mary, what's going-"
"Horde...coming..."
Indeed they looked to hear the sounds of groans and the regular cries of the dead.
Cursing, Kathy said, "OK, you all know the drill, get to the walls and-"
"NO!"
Mary held her shoulders, eyes full of fear. "No...not...not normal...not walkers."
But Kathy shook her off to give to Claire, who nodded and took her to the medical cabin as they saw it.
Holy..."
Kathy's eyes widened as an Enormous Horde, bigger than she could remember, rummaging through the trees...groaning...
Then she heard a thick...
And...
She saw it...arrows...the Horde was...
Shooting arrows?!
Not processing this, along with the hardened females, they just stared at this dumbstruck as flaming arrows hit the walls starting to quickly spread like wildfire, some of the arrows hitting the cabin.
By then, the Dead were at the gate scratching their way in and-
A shockwave blasted through the community as the gate somehow Exploded. A good chunk of the dead at the front vaporized but was quickly filled by the dead pouring in.
Shaking this off, the residents yelled and charged in, shooting and starting to fight the dead.
Grabbing her fire ax, Kathy swung and chopped one's head off, hitting another on the side of the jaw. Another she cut through the head...looking around frantically, she saw that arrows were still firing, fiery and hitting the cabin...
Nearby she saw Ruby, with a trench knife, stab one in the head, then another...calling over, "Kathy, we need to fall bac-"
Then a walker nearby, before she could process it, had a knife in its hand and stabbed Ruby in the throat...in horror, Kathy saw the blood flow out of her throat as Ruby gurgled and the walker took it out...turning to her...
And raised a finger to its lips as if shushing her.
Shaking in terror at the sheer absolute impossibility of it...Kathy stumbled away and ran to her cabin, frantically calling for everyone to head to the Boats on the water.
But she saw as, from the ocean itself, dead were rising and grabbing several of the fleeing residents, hatchets, and knives in hand, stabbing and cutting away at their screaming forms.
Kathy turned and screamed as a butcher knife-wielding walker swung at her, but with strength she didn't know she had, she swung her ax directly into its chest, causing it to gasp and stagger.
They felt pain?
"Wh...what...what are..." Kathy said in sheer terror.
And the Walker.
Spoke.
"We. Are...The End." It gurgled and fell to the ground.
Within minutes, the community was on fire, and everything was screaming and dying...the dead surrounding Oceanside.
So she did the only thing she could process to do...
She turned, still covered in blood from the Walker, and ran.
Daryl's P.O.V
Daryl was helping Madison collect vegetables in the garden when his radio went off. "Daryl, we're coming in fast with Kathy." Troy says over the radio. Daryl grabs his radio and looks at Madison as she looks at him, confused.
"Kathy?" Daryl asked with a furrowed brow. "Why isn't she at Oceanside?"
"It's gone, Daryl, she said something's coming. Something bad." Troy says, making his eyes widen as Madison stood, her basket falling over.
"Radio, Carl, Beth, Ezekiel, Reilly, and Javier. Tell them to get here. Now!" Daryl tells Madison, who nods as she runs towards the big cabin.
Daryl looked to the gates, hearing the dread in Troy's voice. The Dixon feeling something bad was coming.
Beth's P.O.V
Beth quickly leaves the radio room and goes towards the door of Barrington's house. "Bethy, what is it?" Maggie asks her.
"Oceanside's gone." Beth answers.
"What?" Maggie asks as Beth ran past her through the halls "Wait Bethy, gone?! What do you mean Oceanside's gone!?"
"It's just gone. I don't know what happened, but the leaders are going to the Campgrrrounds."
"I'm coming," Maggie says. Beth nods as Maggie follows her to one of the cars.
"Maggie!" From the window, Althea leaned out "What's going on?!"
"Stay with Hershel I'll be right back!" She called up to her wife.
Daryl's P.O.V
Daryl looked at the truck as it came into the campgrounds, Everybody climbing out, and Daryl looks at Kathy, who he saw was shaking and wide eyed. "Hey," Daryl says softly as he lays his hand on her shoulder. "You're safe now."
For a second Kathy jumped as she looked at Daryl and just nods as Daryl looks at Alicia. "Can you get her cleaned up?"
"Can do. Come on dear." Alicia says gently to them both as she leads her away to the washing area.
"What happened?" Daryl asks the others, seeing all their grim and yet perplexed expressions.
"I don't know. She didn't say anything on the way back." Troy confessed, rubbing a hand through his hair. "She said they were attacked by walkers. Walkers that spoke, she said the end came, the end of the New World is coming."
"Walkers? That speak?" Daryl says, skeptical. "Man, she could have hallucinated it when it fell for all we know. I mean, come on. We've been at this shit for years now. You think we would have heard that at some point."
"I know." Dwight says. "We have to hear her out, though."
"We will when the other leaders get here."
Dorie took his stetson off and looked at Daryl grimely "All I know for sure? That wasn't a normal herd from what it sounds like."
Alicia's P.O.V
Alicia sat in the bathroom with Kathy using a rag to wipe the blood off the now mostly nake woman, who was frantic in getting it off "Kathy. Kathy!" The other woman stopped looking at her with almost wild eyes. "You're safe here."
"No, I'm not." Kathy says firmly, throwing the rag and turning to her. "I know you all probably think I'm crazy, but I know what I saw. They used arrows, Alicia. They blew up the gates. These walkers or people or whatever the hell they are, they used weapons, they spoke, and these things led the herd. I saw one of them use a knife and stab Ruby through the throat. I killed that thing, and he said we are the end," Kathy says as she looks at Alicia. "We are up against something more dangerous than the saviors, than Richmond. These things are evolving and last I saw they were headed this way."
"We'll beat whatever this is. The Campgrounds will survive." Alicia said firmly, not willing to give up her home for almost a decade now.
"No, it won't. Alicia, you need to get everybody gathered, get the kids and get the hell out of here. They use the woods for cover. This place is easy pickings for them. Everything we've all worked for over the last decade, these things are going to destroy it."
"We've fought for a future. I have a life now. I've built a future. Nothing is going to destroy that." Alicia growls.
Charlie's P.O.V
Charlie walked into her room and looked at Rachel, who was sitting on the bed, her arms clutched around a pillow tightly. "You okay?" Charlie asks.
For a moment, Rachel didn't speak but she started softly and emotionally "Oceanside hasn't been my home in years, but the only reason I'm alive is because of Oceanside. Those women were my friends, my family for a time."
Charlie stared then sits down beside her, hugging her as tears were seen in her eyes. "We'll kill whatever did that to them, I promise."
"I know." Rachel closed her eyes and wrapped her own arms around her. "I love you."
"I love you, too." Charlie says as she kisses her.
Carl's P.O.V
Carl, Rick, Daryl, Shane, Madison, Laura, John, Morgan, Rosita, Negan, Kate, Maggie, Beth, Tara, Arat, Reilly, Javier, Ezekiel, Carol, Troy, Dorie, Dwight, and Alicia were all standing or sitting in the Main cabin.
Alicia stood and came to the front, wringing her hands and started to say
"She told me that they attacked. They were being led by something: people or some kind of walker. She said they were using arrows. They used it to light the walls on fire and blew up the gates with some kind of bomb. She said she saw one of them stab Ruby in the throat."
Javier held a hand up "I'm sorry, she's saying that there's...what a new kind of walker?"
Shane shrugged "Hey these things already violate every law of nature, anything's possible."
Negan rolled his eyes, glancing over "Oh come on Shane, I'm calling bullshit on this. She was probably just wacked out and seeing some fucked up shit. Hell when your drunk that's a Tuesday-"
He yelped as Kate just punched his arm once without even looking at him "We get it don't be a asshole for 5 minutes."
"It doesn't matter whether it's real or not." Carl stood "Something wiped Oceanside out and she said it's coming up this way."
"So what do we do? Send a scouting group out?" Arat asks, eyes concerned.
"No, not yet, if what she says is true. This is something we have never gone up against," Daryl says. "We need to lock down the communities, make sure they are ready to fight a herd that big."
"He's right. We need to ensure our people are safe. The people that are alive, we'll send a scouting party out later. Soon as we leave, we tell all scavenging parties to head back." Rick says.
"She said we should leave." Alicia says. "The Campgrounds."
This got some wide eyed looks, as John said "She said what?"
"No fuck that this place is our home!"
"We can beat some corpses!"
"That's bullshit!"
"HEY!" Daryl shouted to get all their attention and to restore order, he looked at his wife "You agreeing with her? This is our home."
"Daryl, I know you want to protect this place. It's your home. You build it from the ground up. But think about everybody, about Ofelia and Merle," Alicia says as she lays her hand on his face. "We have to keep them safe no matter what, baby."
After a moment, looking outside to the cabins and to the other residents...he looked down and sighed "Where the hell would we go?"
"The Kingdom." Ezekiel says, making them look at him. "All of you are welcome to come to the Kingdom. We have enough room for all of you. A doctor to take a look at the two of you." He says to Laura and Kate.
"Thank you." Daryl nodded at him.
Ezekiel almost looked offended "Thanks are not necessary, I said before we are all brothers and sisters in arms, and we will make do."
"Okay, have everybody start packing. Everything we have, food, guns, gas, ammo. Everything, we don't know what will happen to this place while we are gone. We're not leaving it for someone to steal."
Everybody nods as they leave, Carl stopping as he heard Ezekiel say to Carol and Alicia "I'll go ahead and make preparations."
"Thank you again." Alicia said gratefully, then looked at one form in particular, and bowed her head.
"Shit, Sherry's gonna freak when she hears this."
Arya's P.O.V
Arya sat on the porch, watching the gate with intent, rocking back and forth. "They'll be back soon." Earl says as he walks up to her holding something that was wrapped.
"What is that?" Arya asks looking at it.
"I made you something, consider it a very Early Christmas Gift." Earl says as he holds it out to her.
Arya smiles as she takes it, She unwraps it and looks at the man . It was a small staff with a blade on both ends. "This is amazing, Grandpa Earl!" Arya says with a grin.
"It will work better than that small knife that you carry," Earl says with a smile as he hands her a sheath. "Won't you and I go take it for a spin? I saw a few walkers on the wall."
"Fuck Yes!" Excitedly, she stood and started to run "I'm gonna kill so many of these fucking things!"
"Goddamit slow down I'm not young anymore and watch your mouth!"
"I'm Excited Fuck!" She grinned at him and sped up more.
Daryl's P.O.V
Daryl was packing his bag as he kept glancing around the room He looked at the picture of Merle that Anna had drawn. He grabbed it and put it in his bag. He looked at the door as Rick walked in. "How are you doing?" Rick asks.
"I don't want to do this. But I know I have to. To keep my people safe, my kids, my wife, doesn't make it easier," Daryl sighed as he put his hands on the table, and leaned over it.
"I know, believe me, I do." Rick says. "But I know what this place means to you. You built your life here, Daryl. Your kids were born here. You built this place for your people, your family. I know this isn't easy for you. But when this herd is gone, and everybody is safe, you'll come back here. I promise you, we aren't abandoning the Campgrounds, We're just leaving for a little while." Rick says.
"...Thanks Rick." Daryl says as he throws the bag around his back. Rick nods as he follows Rick out and walks towards his bike, where Alicia is waiting.
"Merle and Ofelia are in the truck with John, June, and JJ." Alicia tells Daryl, who nods. Daryl kisses her and climbs on his bike, and she climbs on behind him.
"Lead the way," Carol tells Daryl, who nods as Carol gets in her car. Daryl drives the bike forward and watches the campgrounds through the mirror, not knowing if he will ever return to the place he built, his home.
Thanks for reading. For now, Daryl and his group will be staying in the Kingdom. The next chapter will show the community's reactions to what happened to Oceanside and some more. As always, suggestions, ideas, and feedback are welcomed. Until next time.