Didn't See That Coming | The Walking Dead(1)

Part 72 (Then We Run)

The sound of the horn continued to blare out, drawing the back half of the herd away from the road, heading straight for Alexandria. Rick kept trying the radio to get a hold of CJ but was still getting no response. He had heard nothing since she got cut off.

Rick, Michonne and Glenn, along with the Alexandrians, ran away from the road to put some distance between them and the walkers.

"Try again," Glenn said as they stopped for a second.

"Tobin, it's not stopping," Rick radioed the other group. "Light it up! You hear me?" The was a crackle of static, but no response. "Tobin?" Still no response. A walker approached them as they began to run again. "Michonne."

"I got it," Michonne muttered, swinging her sword to kill it.

"Rick!" Daryl shouted through the radio.

"I'm here," Rick replied as he ran.

"What's goin' on back there?!"

"Half of 'em broke off, they're going toward Alexandria," Rick explained quickly. "There's a horn or something coming from the east. It's not stopping."

There was a second of silence. "I'll gas it up, pick up CJ and circle back," Daryl said.

"I can't get through to her," Rick replied, breathless as he kept running. "I was talking to her, and she got cut off."

"What? When?!" Daryl asked, panic suddenly setting in.

"Just a few minutes before the horn started," Rick replied.

"She was headed for that warehouse, right? I'm gonna go find her," Daryl responded decidedly.

"Daryl, you can't! You gotta lead your half of the herd away."

"If she ain't responding, it means she don't know what's happenin' on your end," Daryl said, urgency lacing his words. "Somethin' coulda' gone wrong. She's by herself out there!"

"I know, and I'm sorry," Rick replied. "But we gotta keep that herd moving."

"Can't just leave her out there!" Daryl persisted.

"The rest of that herd turns around and the bad at Alexandria is only gonna get worse!" Rick said quickly. "I know you're worried, but we gotta believe that she's okay. We gotta finish this now. That's what she would tell us to do."

Daryl didn't respond for a moment. Every instinct he had was screaming at him to drive to that warehouse to find CJ. But he knew that Rick was right, as much as he hated it.

"Daryl?"

"Yeah, I heard ya," he finally responded.

Rick quickly clipped the radio onto his pocket, and they continued to sprint through the woods to reach Alexandria and find out what was happening. The horn was still sounding loudly; they hated that there was no way of knowing what was happening back home. Rick ran ahead of the rest and Michonne hung back to wait for a couple of Alexandrians that had fallen behind.

"He did this," a man hissed breathlessly. "He brought us all out here to die. He killed Carter."

"Carter was dead already," Michonne shot back angrily.

"Now they're in trouble back there and we're done!" he exclaimed. "We're good as dead!"

"Hey!" Michonne whispered loudly. "Calm down!"

"The hell are you talking about? Your friend, CJ. She's somewhere out there alone, right? She could be dead. All because this plan failed! Because his plan failed!"