Destination Life or Death

21.

We started hearing banging coming from a covered door in the back of the store. As we all stood pointing our guns at the door, Michonne went and opened it. She sliced the walker's head that came tumbling out as I stabbed the one that was crawling on the ground. We made just enough noise to draw in the walkers from outside to the front door. "They know we're here now," Heath said, pausing "We can't wait it out, the herd will be here any minute," he added quickly. I looked at him then at Michonne. "What do we do Mich?" I said, not moving my eyes off of her. She didn't answer but stayed looking at the door. I ran to the door that had small cracks in it through the boards, "Holy shit Mich!" I said looking at the large herd that had broken off headed straight to us. "They're coming." she said looking at me then the group. "Okay great, now what do we do?" I questioned while looking at her. "I'm gonna open the doors, be ready to shoot." she said nodding to us. I looked at her and nodded. We both knew it was a risk but it was the only thing we could do. She opened the door while we all shot at the walkers coming in. I ran out with her and started slicing through walkers with my katana. "Go! Go! Go!" I said yelling at the small group inside while they all ran ahead of me and Michonne. As we ran, a girl who had sprained her ankle fell. "Just run!" she yelled to us while laying on the ground and shooting a few walkers before being torn apart. I looked at Michonne and started running again. It never got easier but it became something I had to deal with. We reached a metal gate that cut us off, Michonne pulled a large wooden wheel over to us to give us a step up. Heath and I went over first then Michonne, but David just didn't make it up quick enough. I felt a tear glide down my face as I watched David scream in pain. I looked to the ground and stuck my hand in the fence to grab the letter he had written to Betsy, I pulled my arm out right before a walker tried to grab me. "Dezzy, what are you doing!?" Michonne yelled angrily. "I had too Mich." I said, shoving the rolled up note in my pocket. We started running as we all gave each other saddened looks. As we walked through the woods, we came to a river that we started walking along, I looked back at the town thinking of Glenn and Nicholas. "There's no smoke." Heath said looking at me then the sky, "It doesn't mean they didn't make it" he added quickly. "That herd is still coming" I said looking at Michonne with my arms crossed "This creek should slow them down." she replied looking at me, then the water.

Once we all got back to Alexandria, we soon realized our plan didn't work. The walkers were piled onto the metal walls surrounding us. All of Alexandria stood by the walls. We were all worried and scared, but some of these people wouldn't make it out and I think they knew. "You can hear it." Rick said, walking up to the large group everyone was standing in. "Some of you saw it," he paused, "They got back here, half of them. Still enough to surround us, 20 deep." he said looking at everyone then the walls again. "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." he paused again, "The panel the truck hit, seems intact. But we reinforced it just in case. Either way, the walls are gonna hold together." he looked at me and then Michonne, "But can you?" he asked, moving his eyes to everyone else. "The others. They are gonna be back." Rosita added. "Daryl, Sasha, Abraham. They have vehicles. They're gonna lead them away just like the others. And Glenn and Nicholas are gonna walk in the front gate after. They know what they're doing and we know what we need to do." he paused while putting his hands on his hips "We keep noise to a minimum, pull out blinds at night, even better, keep the lights out. We try to keep this place as quiet as a graveyard, see if they move on." I looked over to Carl who had been looking around but then focused on me. I nodded to him. I was scared, and I was hoping he would see it. "This place is a graveyard." a woman with short hair spoke from the crowd but no one responded. "The quarry broke open," Aaron spoke as he stepped forward, "and those walkers were heading this way, all of them." he paused staring at the woman "The plan Rick put into place stopped that from happening." he spoke before breaking eye contact "He got half of them away. I was out there recruiting with Daryl. I wanted to try to get to the cannery and scavenge, and Daryl wanted to keep looking for people.'' he said looking at me, Rick, Michonne and Carl before speaking again. "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 that attacked us, they found their way back here because of me." I looked at him then Rick. "There will be more to talk about.'' Rick spoke looking at Aaron. Deanna started walking away quietly, not even answering to people saying her name, Rick followed and that's when the group broke up.