"They're surrounding the RV!"
I moved quickly, opening and closing all the cupboard doors to look for something I could use, but we took most of it out when we used the RV to secure the wall. "I can deal with them, just give me a second! But are we sure we want to run right back to camp? If I can outrun them to the next junction, I could probably make it back to the quarry to get a car and lure the rest of them away."
"No, they'll be coming out of the woods down the road, you'll get cut off. We're tired enough as it is," he said. "All we can do is go back."
He was right, but letting half the herd back to Alexandria would leave us and everyone there trapped. Sure, we had people outside the walls, but if something happened to them it could be a while before they got back to us—if they even could.
I couldn't think about that right now.
The metallic glint in the bin caught my attention—old tin cans that Aaron must've been using while he was recruiting. Those would work. I rummaged through and pulled out three with the lids still attached, not quite removed when they were used. Even better.
Dropping to the ground, I swung my bag onto the ground before rifling for the items I'd been collecting on the road: nails, fertiliser and string. It was a good thing that Olivia hadn't taken them back when we joined the community.
"What are you doing?" Rick asked.
"Making a nail bomb, getting us out of here." I poured some powder into the tin, probably too much, but I needed this to work.
The nails were next, half a box between two tins; I had a handful scattered at the bottom of my bag for the third. Then I added the string to light the bombs, and stood up, looking back over my shoulder to Rick.
"Do you have a lighter?"
"Matches," he replied, digging through his pocket. "Found 'em today."
"That'll work."
Rick handed me the matches. I lit one, putting the rest of them in the back pocket of my denim shorts. As the fire worked its way down the stick, I stepped to the window and stepped up onto the sofa. Walkers were banging at the walls now. I lit the fuse and waited a moment.
As the string grew shorter, I dropped the makeshift bomb out of the window, before we ducked in the stairwell just behind the door and waited. The explosion would have enough force to destroy some of the brains with just the shockwave alone, and there was a chance that if the blast did not kill them, the shrapnel flying in all directions would.
Bang!
The RV shook, and metal clinks rang out along the body. A bloody nail had pierced the door beside me, and I just stared at it for a second. From the damage it seemed to cause, all I could hope was that there was a pile of bodies outside the door so we could make our escape.
Rick blew out a breath. "Fucking hell, Ace."
"That should buy us some time, but we have to go now," I stood and reached for the handle. "Ready?"
A nod was the response I got, so I yanked down the handle and inspected the damage. There was indeed a pile of bodies at the bottom of the steps and a viscous goop caused by the blast that I managed to clear as I jumped out of the RV.
Rick was just behind me as we rounded the RV, and I stabbed a walker just around the back of the RV. Rick ran past me as all the walkers that made it passed us turned around. He gunned down the group of them with his machine gun before throwing it away.
"Don't stop, okay? Just get through them and back to Alexandria. The walls will hold, they have to," Rick was frantic as his feet moved faster. "GO!"
I sprinted, without any attempt to look back. There were walkers ahead of us, some that passed the RV while I made the bombs. I couldn't follow Rick's path, because as the walkers reached for him, that area was blocked off.
They were congregating at the sounds we made, creating a dense and unrelenting group. I reached back to my pocket for the matches, the tin under my arm. Lighting the match, I put the pack away and lit the fuse, dropping the bomb on the ground behind me.
Part of me was worried about the shrapnel, I wasn't sure how far the nails would travel. But by the time the explosion went off, the group would be standing over it and their bodies would block whatever debris would be coming my way. Hopefully.
I flinched as the explosion went off behind us, and Rick flung his head around. I didn't dare look back.
The road came into view, our only way back to the front gate of Alexandria. I considered turning left, running away from the community to lure the walkers away, give Rick a chance to get back, but he was right. There was still a good chance that I'd be cut off further down the road before I could find a working vehicle.
Taking a last-minute decision, I followed Rick. I never would have survived, I had been running for too long now.
Alexandria came into view down the street, but it was only as we got closer that I could see that Deanna was on the fence, not looking our way as Rick yelled out. "OPEN THE GATE!"
Only then did she turn, and even then she just stared, making Rick scream again. I didn't have the air left in my lungs to try and call out to them, running sideways to avoid the grasp of a walker that came out between the houses in front of me.
"OPEN THE GATE NOW!"
Michonne slid the cloth gate out of the way, while Maggie and Isaac helped with the barred one. They rolled it open just wide enough for the two of us as more walkers ahead cut off our paths. Tobin and Deanna were behind them.
Rick shoulder-charged one ahead of us, tackling it while simultaneously falling to the ground beside it. I grabbed his arm, yanking him to his feet, grabbing my knife. "Get up!"
We ducked between the next three and barreled towards the gates which were already closing as we slipped through. I fell to the ground, catching myself from eating the concrete with my hands as I gasped for air. Sweat was dripping from my face, rolling down my nose and under my eyes.
Martinez jumped in to help close the gate.
Isaac took a knee beside me but didn't touch me. I didn't blame him. "Are you hurt?" He leaned down to look at my face as I was shaking my head, still trying to suck in any amount of air. "Ace, are you hurt?"
"No," I got out raspily, lungs burning with each intake.
"What happened here?" Rick asked. "That sound, it drew them out—"
"We were attacked," Isaac was the one to answer, but he never took his eyes off of the gate that was now hidden by the divider. "A group with the Ws on their foreheads. One of them crashed a truck into one of the walls."
The W people. We already knew that they must've attacked here because they had one of our guns, the baby food we needed for Judith. Nobody went on to explain how bad it was, what happened and who died in the attack. I swallowed down the taste of blood in my throat, glancing at Isaac, but he wasn't even looking at me anymore.
"Spencer shot him but he couldn't get the body off the horn in time," Maggie said.
Rick, still heaving, turned to look down the wall. "Is it going to hold?"
"I looked at it," Tobin said. "I thought it'd be able to, but with this many walkers . . ." he trailed off, shaking his head. "We could try to reinforce it, make sure that it'll hold long enough for the others to get back."
God, it was happening again. The walls were going to come down and walkers would push their way in, just like they did back at the prison. I didn't expect it, the steel was much more durable than the barbed wire that we once had, but now . . . I gripped my chest and hoped to God that I would stay in this moment.
When I finally pushed myself to my feet, Isaac stood beside me.
"We should work on the walls," I said. "I'd like to live long enough for the others to get back and lure these walkers away." I looked around when I realised I could see Michonne and Martinez, both of whom had been sent with the others to bring them back, but— "Where's Glenn?" I remembered then that he was supposed to set a fire for us, to draw the herd away. I assumed he came back here. "I didn't see smoke."
"He didn't get the fire started," Michonne gave me a sad look. "He said he'd send off a signal."
"What kind of signal?" I pushed. "Why hasn't he done it yet?"
"We just got back," Martinez said. "We don't know what happened."
"He was with fucking Nicholas, wasn't he?" Because Nicholas was also noticeably absent. When no one answered, I clenched my teeth. Of course, he was. Why couldn't he just stay away from him? Nicholas had caused Glenn nothing but trouble.
Rick stepped in. "We'll reinforce the walls and wait. That's all we can do."
"I'll help you," Martinez offered, following Tobin to the wall.
"I need a drink," was what I said before I walked away, needing to clear my head.
What I needed was to catch a breather before I was helping reinforce the walls already. My legs were killing me and the aching in my chest was brought about by the worry that gripped my chest, along with the extra exertion I hadn't been prepared for.
Walking away from them, I heard footsteps following me as I headed to the corner where the first house was, ducking behind the wall to get some privacy. I did not look back until I rounded the corner, which was the same time a hand wrapped around my wrist.
"He's going to be okay, it's Glenn," Isaac stressed.
"That's the problem."
I was so sure that we had this conversation already, back when the two of them went missing one night. That is why it was stupid that Glenn allowed him to help every time—he promised me that he would ensure Nicholas never left, never put anyone else in danger. Somehow he was always first in line to screw everything up.
"They could be dead, whether they killed each other or the walkers got them." When Isaac tried to step in, I continued. "If they are alive then they will return to this," I gestured to the gates, the shadows behind the divider.
"Yeah," he breathed in agreement.
Isaac did not have the same care for Glenn, I doubted, but even his eyes held the same hopelessness. I reached back for my backpack, grabbed the water bottle I had taken out for the day and took a large gulp. Once I was done with the walls, I would have to try and get some rest. There was no chance I spent that long running in the sun without heat stroke catching up to me.
"So much for our date, huh?" I asked.
Isaac immediately shook his head. "You can't give up on that. I'm not."
"I know," I breathed out a sigh and rubbed the back of my neck. "It's just a little hard to think about the future right now." The streets were covered in blood, some bodies still yet to be moved. "What happened here?" I asked softly. "Really?"
"They were just killing people for no reason," he said after a beat. "None of them had any guns, they were just merciless." That much I could tell, from the state of some of the bodies. "I had my gun on me, and I killed two of those people. One broke into my house, and the other was about to kill Maggie when I found her.
"I'm sorry," I said.
"It wasn't hard," he admitted. "I knew what I needed to do."
That's how it had been today in the RV. I knew I had to kill the man before he had a chance to get a hold of me, and I did. Though, my kills must've been closer in quarters than Isaac, because he wasn't wearing his blue gloves.
"I killed one." Isaac raised a brow at my statement. "They found us in the RV and shot at us. It was the reason we couldn't start it to lure the herd away. They must have come from here because they had one of our guns and some baby food."
"How many were there?" Isaac asked.
"I only saw two," I said. "Rick killed more through the wall of the RV."
He nodded, seemingly understanding. None of us had anything else to say about what we had done, our kills. What number did that even bring me to, now? I shoved the thought down, I didn't want to know, I decided quickly.
"Did you know about Morgan? That he doesn't kill anyone?" Isaac asked after a moment. "Carol had to stab someone that was trying to kill him, and he just tried to fight him off instead."
"I didn't know that," I said.
"It seemed . . . strange," he decided on a word and continued. "They were killing people in the streets, they were brutal and he just—" Isaac stopped himself. "I don't want to say that he didn't do anything, because he was fighting them, but it was like he didn't want to hurt them."
I shook my head. "He's been isolated for the better part of a year, maybe longer. He could still be working through some stuff."
"Maybe," he said.
"I should help reinforce the walls," I finally said.
"Yeah, I should get back to working too," he said. "See you later, yeah?"
"Yeah," I nodded.
At the fence, Tobin and Martinez were already working. Wooden posts and planks were all they had, not enough to keep this wall up, even with them all propped against the fence. But we had to try, even if it kept the people watching them work to feel better—a situation like this was a prime way to start a mutiny.
I walked forward and grabbed a plank, taking it to the side of the fence they hadn't reinforced yet to help them.
Martinez did the same as me, coming over with the thicker wooden posts in his arm and jamming the top under the metal support that ran along the side. As he struggled to keep it up, I moved behind him and pushed it up from the bottom.
He sighed when it was in place, looking back over his shoulder. "You okay?"
I shook my head as I propped up the plank, wondering if this feeble attempt was even going to hold up the fence. My muscles were sore now and I rubbed my temple trying to relieve some of the tension that was building up.
"Glenn's gonna be alright. He's a tough son-of-a-bith, always has been," he said. "I would've gone with him myself, but Nicholas insisted."
"Nicholas doesn't get to make those decisions," I snapped. "He shouldn't have been out there in the first place. He can't survive out there, and then he just puts everyone else in danger."
"We needed everyone we could get working on the herd," Martinez said.
"We could have done it ourselves."
"Maybe, probably. But if we're just protecting the people here then they aren't learning anything."
"They shouldn't be learning with something this important," I said. "When I learnt to kill walkers, we'd just lost a little girl in the group. Rick taught me how to shoot, and I asked Daryl to take me out so I could kill walkers up close so I knew what I had to do when the time came." I explained how I'd decided when to get involved. "When we met those creepy men in a bar, I could shoot, and use a knife. And I needed to. I made sure it wasn't dire when I learnt how to survive."
I could see Rick walking over from down the street as more Alexandrians came to watch or listen if they wanted to know more about where the walkers were holding. It didn't matter, whether Daryl, Abraham and Sasha came back today or tomorrow was not something we could predict and I intended to rest either way, no matter whether they were scared or upset.
Rick addressed the Alexandrians as he neared. "You can hear it, some of you saw it. They got back here, half of them—still enough to surround us 20 deep," he explained, mainly for the ones who had been in the dark. "Look, I know you're scared, you haven't seen anything like this. You haven't been through anything like this. But we're safe for now."
For now—nobody missed that.
I swallowed down the lump in my throat, digging my fingers into my skin as I rubbed my temple. My head was starting to hurt, and my mouth filled with saliva to indicate that I was getting ready to be sick. I couldn't wait to get to bed already, so I spent the rest of the day.
"The panel the truck hit seems intact." It did, surprisingly. Despite being hit at speed by a lorry, the walls held, barely even a dent left in its wake. "We reinforced it just in case. Either way, the wall's gonna hold together." Rick faced them. "Can you?"
Martinez placed his hand against the steel, feeling the battering as walkers hit the wall. I eyed him, wondering if he could give me any indication of how bad it was, but he just shrugged his shoulders. Couldn't tell from here, but I could hear how many were just outside. They could've gotten in—it could've been worse.
"The others, they're gonna be back," Rick said. "They're gonna be back. Daryl, Abraham, Sasha, they have vehicles. They're gonna lead 'em away, just like the others. And Glenn and Nicholas are gonna walk back through the front gate after." God, I hoped so. "They know what they're doing, and we know what we need to do. We keep noise to a minimum. Pull our blinds at night. Even better, keep the lights out. We'll try to make this place as quiet as a graveyard, see if they move on."
"This place is a graveyard," Francine said.
After all that had happened today,
Rick just nodded quietly in agreement.
"The quarry broke open and those walkers were heading this way," Aaron stepped forward as he spoke. "All of them. The plan that Rick put into place stopped that from happening. He got half of them away. I was out there recruiting with Daryl. I wanted to try to get into a cannery and scavenge, and Daryl wanted to keep looking for people. We did what I wanted and we wound up in a trap set by those people. And I lost my pack. They must've followed our tracks. Those people who attacked us . . . They found their way back here because of me."
There was a silence that settled amongst them as Aaron met eyes with Rick,
Rick only nodded, thanking him. "There'll be more to talk about."
Tobin turned his head as Deanna began walking away and pushed himself away from where he was leaning against the wall. "Deanna? Deanna?"
They all watched as she left, but no one tried chasing after her.
Rick dismissed everyone, telling them to get away from the wall, seeing how uncomfortable everyone looked to be standing around here with the sounds from the other side. They turned, leaving in silence until they were closer to the middle of the community.
The headache was creeping in, sunstroke taking hold. I needed to get a hat I turned back to the house to sleep.
It was dark when I woke up and I blinked a few times to make out the room. I reached for the lamp on my bedside table and squeezed my eyes closed as I flicked it on. The headache was gone, and some sleep gave me the chance to get over the sunstroke.
Sitting up, I noticed something different in the room. On my chest of drawers, there was something there that wasn't there before I went to sleep. I stood up and walked over to it, seeing some clothes with a little note on some torn paper that read, Wear this, please with a little smiley face following.
Underneath was a short black dress with white dots and a netting overlay. It was nice, a little nice for the current situation we were in, but curiosity got the better of me and I grabbed some underwear that matched.
As I walked to my bedroom door, I grabbed the handle before seeing a note taped at my eye level that said: Meet me out back.
I was curious now, so I turned left into the rear of the house and went for the back door. Isaac was in the garden, dressed smartly in his white button-up shirt with light beige trousers, and he had his bag over his shoulder with a blanket draped over the body of it. I stepped down the steps and walked over to him.
"I assume you left me the note?"
"I didn't want to sound too demanding," he said.
He took my hand and led me away from the house into the back garden, not too far before he dropped my hand. I watched, trying not to be confused as he turned away, taking the blanket to lay it on the ground, and dropping the walkman on top of it.
"What's this?"
Isaac smiled. "Our date."
I looked at the blanket again, realising he had been setting up a picnic date while I had been asleep.
"I just thought there may be some time in the future when everything is going to become about surviving, and we won't have time for stuff like this. But while we're stuck here and we have nothing else to do, we may as well make the most of it," he explained and waited for my reaction. "You like it?"
I smiled. "It's perfect."
"I wanted to have a picnic in the daytime, but I assumed you'd have a headache from the sun today," he was saying, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. "And it won't be great with all the walker noises, so I walked around town to find somewhere quiet, but you can hear them everywhere, so instead I found this." He pulled out a Walkman. "I could only find one pair of headphones, so you can take them."
I couldn't wipe the smile off my face, my heart flipping as I looked at him. "Does that have two jacks?"
He looked down and nodded. "Yeah, but we only have one pair of headphones—"
"I have earphones in my bag," I cut him off.
He grinned. "Inside?"
"Yeah, I can get them—"
"No, you sit down. I'll get them," he said, gently pushing my shoulder to the blanket he'd set up. "I'll be right back."
Isaac ran back towards the house, ducking inside the back door to retrieve my earphones from my room. I sat down on the blanket, leaning back as my eyes drifted into the sky, staring at the stars and waiting for him.
He was right about the noises, as the walkers had started to disperse around the sides of the town, and now they could be heard wherever you were. At least having the music would drown them out a little, but honestly, it didn't matter if we did or didn't because I was still beaming that Isaac had set this up.
He came back out, the earphones coiled around his fingers, holding up his hand to show me he found them. He dropped down beside me on the ground, kicked off his shoes and pulled his feet onto the blanket. I did the same, crossing my legs under one another.
"Where'd you get the Walkman?" I asked.
"Walkman was courtesy of Aaron," Isaac answered. "I didn't tell him why I wanted it, but he did say there's some cheesy music on here, so we've got that to look forward to."
"Great," I laughed.
I grabbed one of the earbuds, the music growing louder as I pushed it into place. Isaac took the headphones, covering both his ears. I wondered how he was supposed to hear me if he didn't pull one of the speakers back.
He must've noticed my confusion, because he said, "You have to put both in so you don't hear the walkers."
"But we won't hear each other talk." I gestured to my ear, wondering if he could even hear me now.
Instead, Isaac moved forward onto his knees and reached for my other earphones, holding my head still with one hand as he placed the second one in, silencing any sound I was once able to hear and filling my ears with a random old love song I didn't recognise.
Despite my questioning stare, he sat back and patted the ground for me to move to sit beside him. He reached for his bag, pulling out two pens and his notebook, before handing one to me. I held the pen in my hand, hoping that he didn't want me to draw. My drawing ability—or lack thereof—was probably going to be the thing to ruin this relationship.
Isaac grabbed a torch and scribbled something down before he turned his sketchbook back to me, and I read, This is how we can talk.
You were going to sit here and listen to thousands of walkers for me? Isaac only gave a goofy smile and shrugged, reaching for the notebook, but I pulled it back and wrote: How was this date supposed to be any fun for you?
His reply was quick and scruffy. I like seeing you happy.
I covered my face with my hands, hating how much that affected me. Butterflies tickled under my skin and I had to stop myself from letting out a little squeal as I read it over and over again. I took the pen and told him, This is the nicest thing anyone has done for me.
I owe you after everything you've done for me.
Isaac didn't elaborate, didn't have to, but I'd always considered what we had just done for each other. That's the way things were with us—not just me and Isaac, but everyone. That's not to say that I wouldn't go to the end of the world for him with the way I felt at that moment.
He turned for the bag, digging around for the food he packed.
I wrote and held the book up to him, So, what food did you scrounge up?
He looked back over his shoulder, grabbing his pen and awkwardly saying, I don't appreciate the word 'scrounge' on our date.
Even with the reprimanding sentence, Isaac reached for the bag pulled out the food and laid it all on the blanket. Tubs of pasta and sauce, some protein bars and— I held the chocolate up to him and raised a brow.
I got Carol to steal some, he wrote.
So 'scrounge' is bad but 'steal' is okay? I asked, tilting my eyes up. Isaac glanced back, read the sentence and nodded before he opened one of the tubs of pasta. As he prepared everything, I said, I didn't know there was chocolate here.
As I took one of the open tubs and a fork, Isaac wrote, What do you think she put in the cookies at the party?
I was going to write about how I wasn't very present at the party, but he could probably read that from the expression on my face. I shrugged to brush off the bad feelings and instead wrote, I probably thought they were sugar cookies.
Remembering the party left a tightness in my chest that I tried to ignore, focusing on the music as I began to eat the pasta. It was good, I hadn't had a proper meal like that in a while. And Isaac had heated it recently because it was warm—he must've done it when we went inside.
After the day I had, this made everything so much better.
Isaac leaned forward, eating with his left as he began writing again. Good?
I took my pen. Very.
We ate the rest of our food without saying anything, which was fine by me. The music switched over two more times before I finished my pasta, and reached for my water. Isaac had moved onto the protein bars, and I eyed the chocolate, concealed by the foil.
He seemed to notice and waved his hand toward it for me to take. I grinned, taking the bar and opening the pack to see how much there was before splitting it in half for the two of us to share. When Isaac had cleared away the empty tubs and wrappers, I held out his half to him, which he happily accepted.
Isaac laid down, pulling the Walkman to rest next to his head, giving more slack on the wires. I took the spot beside him,
He held the book in the air and I pointed the torch up, mindful that the light was only on the book, not drawing more attention from outside the walls. He pulled his pen back down so I could read what he was saying.
We needed this, we needed normal.
The music in my ear kept a hopeful ray over what could have been a bleak and dreary sentence, and I imagined that is how he meant for it to sound. We finally had something in the darkness.
I smiled and asked, This is normal?
I guess writing what we want to say because we're surrounded by walkers isn't normal. But this, dates and spending time with each other . . . he trailed off in his sentence, before finishing with, This is what I wanted.
His head turned to look at me, and a smile instinctively worked its way onto his face. I reached out, brushing my fingers along his jaw, looking into his eyes. I wanted to tell him that this was what I wanted too, but his eyes drifted back to the paper and he continued writing under a new line.
We can't let them win. This world, it won't beat us.
I took the book from his hands and wrote my promise to him.
It won't.
Isaac smiled, and propped himself up onto an elbow, his face coming over mine as he pressed his mouth down against my own. He pulled back, looking into my eyes, but his lips returned to mine in seconds. I closed my eyes and my lips parted, as I scooched closer to the heat of his body.
His tongue slipped in, brushing against my own. It was a little awkward at first, and I lost my rhythm, not understanding what I was supposed to do at the invasion, but I didn't pull away. When I caught on, I lifted my hand to his chest, my fingers curling around his muscle that was firmer than I expected.
Isaac shifted, his knee resting between the gap in my legs so he could comfortably keep himself off the ground. My heart was pounding in my chest, but all I could think of was his mouth on mine, the intensity like he couldn't get enough—enough of me.
After a minute or two, I pushed him back a little, and he complied, lifting his head mere inches from mine so I could catch my breath. He was panting too, his hooded eyes trailing back down to my lips before he met my eyes.
He lifted his hand to my hair, brushing it back as he managed to pull the earphone out just long enough to ask, "Was that okay?"
I nodded, and he put the earbud back.
His voice turned husky as he grinned. "Good."
He leaned down, planting his lips on mine again as he lifted the earbud back into place. I ran one of my hands up from his chest over his shoulders, fisting his shirt on the opposite side. Isaac shifted, propped up on his elbow as his hand gripped my waist, squeezing gently.
We made out for the rest of the night.
They finally got their date :)
I hate this season so much, so I don't have much to say about it. There's like one exciting episode and one funny episode and nothing happens until right at the end. Just wanted to know if any of you actually enjoy this season or not?
Anyway, hope you liked the chapter and lmk what you thought