𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙠 ↠ 𝘤.𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴

59: Now

The community was quiet. There were a few people who quietly moved any dead bodies out of the way and into piles on the curbs.

Michonne stood just below one of the watch platforms, describing to Maggie and Elle exactly what happened in the town after the group of walkers had split up. "The town was overrun, and he split off with Nicholas." She talked about Glenn. "He had this idea that," she paused, as if she were trying to recall the plan. "If he lit a fire, it would stop the walkers from coming here. I tried to go instead, I wanted to. The fire never got lit. We had to keep going, I'm sorry." Maggie brought a hand to her mouth, trying to keep herself together and not cry.

Elle rubbed her forehead as Michonne resumed talking. "He said if he got stuck, he would find a way to send us a signal."

"A signal?" Maggie asked, trying to think of what a possible signal could be.

"How would he do that?" Elle asked. Before she could receive an answer, there was a yell. It came from the other side of the walls.

"Open the gate!" The voice shouted. Deanna, who stood up on the platform turned around to inspect the source of the noise. The voice repeated itself, yelling for the gate to be opened. Michonne, Maggie, and Elle all rushed over and pulled the giant gate open to see Rick running towards the opening, countless walkers following him.

A few were in front of him and went for him. He pushed one off of him, causing him to fall to the ground. He quickly got back up as more people began crowding around the gate, fear filling their eyes as they saw what followed close behind Rick.

Rick panted as he ran through the gate, letting Michonne and Maggie quickly close it just as the walkers caught up. They stuck their arms through the metal bars, growls filling the air as they tried to grab at anyone they could. Elle quickly closed the gate that blocked anyone from seeing the image. "Holy shit."

Everyone was outside, trying to reinforce the walls as more walkers kept coming, spreading themselves all around the walls as if they were trying to surround the community. Thick slabs of wood and extra scraps of metal were propped up against the wall and nailed into the ground. "You can hear it," Rick spoke loudly as he walked, catching everyone's attention. "Some of you saw it. They got back here, half of them. Still enough to surround us, twenty deep." He paused, looking at everyone now that he had their attention.

"Look, I know your scared— you haven't seen anything like this. You haven't been through anything like this. But we're safe, for now." He looked in the direction of where the truck crashed. "The panel the truck hit seems intact, we reinforced it just in case. Either way, the wall is going to hold together." He sounded confident in that. "Can you?" The question caused people to look around at their peers, not knowing the answer. "The others, they're going to be back." Rick stated.

"They're going to be back." Rosita repeated, having full confidence in the other's return. They nodded at each other.

"Daryl, Abraham, Sasha, they have vehicles. They're going to lead them away just like the others. And Glenn and Nicholas are going to walk back through that front gate right after. They know what they're doing." Maggie took a few steps forward when Rick mentioned Glenn. She had her arms cross over her chest and was visibly stressed. "We know what we need to do. We keep noise to a minimum, pull our blinds at night— even better, keep the lights out."

"This is going to be hell." Elle whispered, standing next to Carl and Tara.

"We'll try to make this place as quiet as a graveyard, see if they move on." Elle glanced over at Ron to see him rubbing the side of his leg. Not thinking twice about it, she gave her attention back to her leader.