What Lies Ahead • the walking dead ¹

14 • Escape

»Play: The Way (Instrumental) by Zack Hemsey«

"We're all gonna explode!"

The girl yelled. She had had enough. This group was broken, they didn't even know what to do with themselves. Or who to listen to. They were all stuck in their own magical worlds, where everything was fine. But in reality, the world was falling and Rick was dragging them down with it. Whether they saw it or not.

Alexa huffed, walking away from Rick and the others. Just in time to see Chase and the rest of the group running back toward her with their bags on their backs. Chase ran up to the girl, throwing his arms around her waist before handing her, her backpack and med kit. Seeing the group returning Shane and Daryl ran up to Glenn, who was holding both bags of weapons.

"Out of my way!" Shane yelled at Rick, who was now standing in front of the door. Rick jumped out of the way, just in time for Shane to slam on the door with an ax. Daryl joined him with his ax, both men now pounding into the door repeatedly.

"Watch it!" Alexa called, raising her pistol to the door. Daryl and Shane ducked out of the way as Alexa fired, her bullet not even making a dent. "Well, that didn't do shit." She murmured sarcastically.

"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher," Jenner commented from his desk, watching as the trio of Shane, Alexa, and Daryl came back to the group from the door.
"Well, your head ain't!" Daryl yelled, getting ready to swing his ax at Jenner's head.
"Whoa! Whoa!"
"Daryl!" The group yelled and screamed as Alexa, Rick, and T-dog fought to restrain a very pissed-off Daryl Dixon.

"You do want this," Jenner spoke up after the group had neutralized Daryl. "Last night you said you knew it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead." The group all turned to Rick (who Jenner was referring to) for answers. Had he really said that about the group he was supposedly leading?

"What?" Shane asked in disbelief. "You really said that? After all your big talk?"
"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?" Rick retorted, struggling to put words together.
"There is no hope." Jenner cut in. "There never was."
"There's always hope," Rick said through gritted teeth, trying to win back the people's favor. "Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here, but somebody somewhere-"

"What part of everything is gone do you not understand?" Andrea spoke up, from where she sat crying on the floor with the other women and children, besides Chase and Alexa.
"Listen to your friend. She gets it." Jenner said matter of factly. "This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event."

The whole room seemed to be holding their breaths as they listened to the sounds of Carol, Sophia, Andrea, Jacqui, Carl, and Lori's sobs in the ten minutes they had left. Daryl scoffed as he ran back to continue his work on the door. Alexa watched the man for a few seconds, she sighed looking around the room at all her fellow survivors. These people, though it was hard to admit, she cared about them.

The girl remembered how Glenn, T-dog, Rick, and Daryl found her in Atlanta. How they offered her a place to stay safe. A reason to get her brother and leave with them. She remembered how Lori and Carol thanked her for saving their children's lives. Even though Alexa said it was no big deal, she realized how much it meant to them. She remembered how Shane (the big asshole he is) backed her up when no one else would listen. She remembered how Dale offered her and her brother a place to sleep. And although she didn't know Andrea and Jacqui all too well she still cared about them somewhere deep down.