𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 - 𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐠𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬

2.07 - ash

the group planned to keep randall alive for dale. the guilt that was felt between the members of the group was so immense, it felt as if you were drowning. so, they did something to honor him which briar believed was the bare minimum. briar sat on the couch of the living room as the sun lowered between the snow-filled clouds. her head was resting on her arms as the looked out the window into the distance. spotting a figure running toward the house from the barn, she furrowed her eyebrows before realizing it was shane who had a very bloody nose and went to the front door with rick. "he attacked me and escaped. he took my gun."

the group was sent into a frenzy after the news was broken. rick, glenn, daryl, and shane all headed out into the darkened woods to search for randall, the other members of the group sat in the living room with a lot of concern for the four of them. if he has a gun, then what could he do? briar and maggie sat next to each other on the couch as they waited for any sort of information. it had been an hour or so before the door opened and the duo stood up, seeing glenn and daryl standing outside the door with confused expressions. they both ran toward them, maggie nearly knocking glenn over in a hug as briar hugged daryl, who froze momentarily before patting her back slackly. "did you find him?" briar questioned after pulling away, praying for the news to be 'yes, briar. we did, and he's alive in the barn again.' but alas, it was never going to be that simple, was it?

"yeah. he was dead," daryl explained, "but the weird thing was, he had no bites. his neck was broken." the group froze in confusion and surprise. how could a walker snap his neck? "are shane and rick not back yet?" maggie shook her head, realizing two of the group members were missing.

carl was missing, alongside rick and shane. lori had went up to check on the boy who was supposedly missing, but he wasn't there. the group had spent a good twenty minutes outside, trying to find the boy.

briar and hershel were together, looking into the fields, before a large blaze broke through the large barn that the walkers one were. she squinted her eyes, seeing a large herd of walkers; larger than the herd on the highway. this would rip right through the house. the other members of the group were alerted too, and they all ran inside to grab their guns and any useful equipment that was scattered around. briar handed hershel a shotgun and stood beside him as the geeks made their way to the house, losing interest in the large fire. the group all shot their guns at the herd, barely making a dent in the mass.  briar sighed, putting her gun in her holster before taking out her machete and begun taking them out by hand. she found this much easier as her aim was better close up and she found herself killing more than she once was. the other members of the group slowly began to escape in their cars, leaving just hershel and briar as they defended what was once their home.

two shadows came running up to the house, and as they got closer, briar recognized the two as rick and carl. seeing no shane, she decided to save it for later and ran to the only vehicle left; a red truck. they all clambered inside, rick sitting in the passenger seat as briar revved the engine and sped off up the dirt road and onto the cement. "we'll go to the highway. the others'll probably go there too." rick nodded, his heavy breaths slowing as he began to relax in his seat as carls teary eyes looked out the window and into the darkness.

briar stopped the engine as they all got out of the old rust bucket. they were met with silence. the only noise that could be heard was the gust of the winter winds and the leaves on the ground rattling amongst each other. briars anxiety crept up her neck and sent a flurry of goosebumps down her spine. were they the only ones left? carl grabbed her hand, small whimpers of concern blowing in the darkness as briar rubbed comforting circles on the back of his small one. "where is everybody?" the question might as well have been rhetorical, as nobody spoke up to reveal the possible truth; it was just them.

an engine revved in the distance, the noise of daryl dixon's motorbike coming closer and closer. she squinted her eyes, the lights of his and two other cars approaching them rapidly. they all came to a stop, glenn and maggie being the first ones to come out of their cars as briar dropped carls hand and raced toward the couple. she crashed into them, nearly knocking them off their feet as they all embraced each other. briar had little tears creeping up into her eyes, but she suppressed them and pulled away, her smile growing from ear to ear. maggie left to go and reunite with beth and hershel, leaving just briar and glenn to themselves. "im so glad you're okay." briar sighed, pulling glenn back into her arms once more.

they walked over to the group who stood in a semi-circle next to briars car, standing beside maggie who's cheeks were stained with salty tears. "where's shane?" rick and carl stood in silence as lori covered her mouth in shock. "andrea?"

"i-i watched her go down," carols voice shook, "she saved me, and i lost her." the group later explained that patricia and jimmy were both also lost in the process, the greene family taking their own time to mourn the loss of their family.

the group sat in a field in which they would be sleeping for the night, huddled around a small fire that burned low. they heard a crack of a stick in the woods. ricks face was tripping him with guilt as he looked into the burning embers, briar taking note of this in her head. she had started to mind rick a little less, the two just keeping their distance far from each other.

"we're all infected."

the group was sent into a panicked frenzy, insisting that he was a terrible leader as he kept such a huge secret from them for all of this time. their voices overlapped with each other which caused briar and rick to both get a severe headache. "i killed my best friend for you people, for christ sake!" rick yelled, cutting off their desperate voices, "if you have a problem with me, if you want to leave- go ahead. there's the door, sent me a damn postcard. but if you stay, just remember. this isn't a democracy anymore."

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gray speaks!!

hi guysss thank you for nearly 1k viewers wtaf i'm so popular fr but i don't like how this chapter turned out at all but it's all good! anyways that's the end of season 2 and i'm SO SO EXCITED FOR SEASON 3 IVE GOT IT ALL PLANNED OUT IN MY TINY WEE BRAIN but i love u all so much thank you for supporting this book you're all the best <3

p.s here's a gif of my baby daddy :) rip

word count. 1252