Madison Grimes

49

Everyone piles into the two cars we had. Rick wanted Aaron with him, but I wanted to take the lead. To compromise, he left me with Eugene and let me lead. But Rick is staying at a close distance. It's hard to see the road through the rain, and it's even harder to see the incoming walkers. With me is Aaron, Carl, Sophia, Judith, Glenn, Maggie, Espinosa, and Eugene. Everyone else piled into Ricks car.

"How much further?" I ask, ready to be out of the rain. From the corner of my eye, I see about a dozen walkers coming out of the woods. Fear starts coming in, so I honk my horn and hope Rick knows to stop as I speed ahead so I don't break too much in the rain and crash.

"Not much. Take a right." As I do, we come face to face with a crowd of walkers. Shit.

"Mom!" Belle yells as she hugs Carl and Judith. I slam on the breaks, but the car starts to slide forward.

"Everyone hang on!" I yell as Aaron jumps out of the car and races towards a building not too far from the walkers. I see Rick jump out of his car and chase after him. I just shake my head as I turn around and see we're about to fall into a lake. "Get out!" I yell. Carl jumps out and everyone starts to follow. Once I unbuckle, I turn and see the pool of water not too far from me, but I also see Belle. "What are you doing?" I yell.

"Eugene won't get out." She points to the back. I climb out of my seat and see him sitting in the back, not moving.

"Come on!" I yell.

"No." The water is only a few feet now.

"I'm not asking!" I grab him by his collar and pull him up with all my strength. "Go!" I yell at Belle.

"I'm not leaving you." She cries through the rain hitting the car.

"I'll survive." She shakes her head. "Please." She gets in the drivers seat and guns it forward, but the car doesn't move. I slap Eugene across the face once the back of the car enters the water. "If you kill me and my daughter, so help god." This snaps him out of it and he rushes out of the car right before the car submerges.

"Mom!" Belle yells right before she, too, goes completely underwater. I start to panic as I race to the front and grab her. I try pushing the doors open, but come up empty. I point to the back of the car, and she follows my directions. I look up and see someone jump in, but the car is already too far down.

I kick the glass as hard as I can, and after a few good kicks, it gives way. I use my arms to protect myself as I quickly grab Belle, but her face starts to turn purple blue. If Eugene just killed my daughter, I will kill him. I start running out of oxygen, but I keep fighting. For Isabelle. When someone else jumps in, I quickly hand her off to the person, which turns out to be Daryl. He pulls her up the rest of the way before we all resurface.

"Get out of the water!" Merle yells at all of us as he grabs Daryl's hand. I stop to catch my breath as I watch Espinosa start to perform CPR. Right as I'm about to get out, I feel something grab my leg and pull me under. I scream right before my head meets the water.

I look down and see a walker on each side of my feet, slowly dragging me down from their weight. They both try to bite my ankles, so I quickly grab my knife and try to stab them, but come up short once more. I blow some air out before lifting my right leg up and stabbing the first one in the head. As I look down, I see several others trying to work their way up. My eyes widen as I kick the other walker off before being drug out of the water. When I resurface again, I cough from my lack of oxygen and look at Daryl, who had just pulled me out.