the great war (r.g)

fourteen

cora and rosita were in the infirmary when the sirens went off. tara was finally out of her coma and cora and rosita, being the only ones with some sense in the medical field, were tasked to watching her. there was a new doctor in alexandria however, rick felt better that the two stayed with tara. once rosita and cora processed what the sirens meant, they rushed outside.

cora and rosita watched everyone running around like crazy. people dressed in shabby clothes were killing the citizens of alexandria. "look at their foreheads," rosita said, pointing to one of the men in the street.

cora took a closer look at the attackers to see what rosita was talking about. etched into their foreheads was a 'W'. "what do you think it means?" before rosita could answer, two men ran up the porch. rosita fought one off, bashing his head into the wall while cora sunk her knife into the other's neck. once he was dead, rosita stabbed him in his head to prevent the man from turning into a walker. "let's go," cora said. her and rosita left the infirmary to help around the community, leaving tara with eugene and denise.

down the road, the duo found aaron fighting off a group of 'W's' trying to kill a woman named holly. cora and rosita joined the fight, saving holly although she suffered some major injuries. "we need to get her to the infirmary," aaron said. "now."

aaron and rosita put holly's arms around their shoulders to help her to the infirmary with cora following closely at rosita's side. "who are these people?" cora asked aaron.

"they are a cult that call themselves 'the wolves' and this isnt the first time we've come in contact with them," aaron told her. "granted, they've never infiltrated the walls like this before." they arrived at the infimary in no time, handing holly off to denise and deanna.

cora immediately turned around and headed back outside. once she got to the bottom of the porch stairs, rosita grabbed her arm. "cora, where are you going?"

"the house. i don't know where izzy is and if she's smart, she would be there," cora told her.

rosita let her arm go and said "fine. i'm going with you though." cora gave her a smile before going off towards the house.

***

the two got there, alive, but had to fight through many wolves. the house was empty. "izzy!" cora called throughout. there was no response, the house really was empty. "she's not here."

"i bet she's fine," rosita tried to comfort her. "izzy isn't stupid."

"cora?" someone said from upstairs. cora ran to the voice with rosita following closely behind.

"enid," cora said breathlessly once she saw the girl holding judith. "where's izzy?"

"her and carl went out there," enid told her. "they convinced me to stay here snd protect judith. what's going on?"

"a cult has infiltrated alexandria," rosita told her.

"did they tell you where they were going?" cora asked. enid shook her head before rosita and cora ran back outside, to the chaos.

to cora's relief, she found carl, ron, and izzy on the opposite side of the house. "there they are," cora told rosita. "you can go. try to help somewhere else, i've got this." rosita turned and went the opposite way while cora went to the three kids. ron was running away from one of the wolves but before cora could go in and help, both izzy and carl shot him in his legs. "izzy," cora called out.

"mom!" she sounded relieved. "who are these people?"

"a cult," cora said shortly. behind them, carl yelped and fell to the ground.

"carl!" izzy yelled and ran over to him with cora right behind her. before they could get to him, carl managed to shoot the man in his head.

"carl are you okay?" cora asked, kneeling down next to him.

"i'm fine," carl said, standing up and brushing off his jeans. "ron, izzy, lets go inside." the three started to head inside but before ron got to the stairs, enid stepped out the door. something about this interaction made ron run away.

"i'll follow him," cora told carl and izzy. "you two get inside." the two obeyed cora and got inside, shutting the door behind them. "ron!" cora yelled, chasing after the boy. ron ran towards his house, up the stairs, and inside but what he didn't see was the group of wolves around the corner of the street, following him.

there was only three. cora could take them. the wolves spotted her so the element of surprise was out of the picture. the first one ran at her carelessly, leaving his midsection exposed. cora landed a swift kick to his stomach knocking him to his back. before killing him, another one came at her. this one was more skilled, landing a punch on cora's cheek. it didn't knock her down but it did send her back a few feet. this gave the first wolf enough time to get back to his feet. now it was two on one. cora unsheathed her knife holding it up, ready to fight. the second wolf came at her. cora was ready this time, swiping his feet out from under him. while the first wolf came back cora bent down, quickly stabbed the second one in the head before slicing the calf of the first one. he went down, landing hard on his knee. cora knocked him out with a punch. she stood up off the ground and brushed herself off, silently proud of herself for taking out two wolves at the same time.

she forgot about the third one. there were three wolves following ron, she only fought off two. in her moment of pride, cora didn't see the third wolf coming at her. the lady ran fast and her punch came even faster. cora was on the ground before she even saw the wolf. the sky was spinning, so was the wolf when she came into view. thankfully, cora still had the sense to roll away from her second punch. the wolf howled with pain when she punched the concrete. cora got to her feet, although wobbly, and held out her knife again, ready to fight. the wolf's knife was larger. with one hit, cora's knife was knocked out of her hand. in her dazed state, cora thought her knife was more important than trying to dodge the wolf's attacks.

her stomach felt warm at first. then she felt the pain. cora looked down at her side and saw the blood spreading over her shirt. she looked back up at the wolf just in time for her to plant another punch to cora's face.

on the ground, cora felt the blood pulling out of the deep slash in her side. the sky darkened until everything was gone. cora laid there on the sidewalk, bleeding out. the last thing she heard was someone yelling her name followed by rushed footsteps to her side. then, nothing.