When The World Caves In |C.G.

thirty six

Darkness surrounds us as we enter the Big Spot. I'm pushing a squeaky cart, and Daddy is a step ahead of me. His crossbow raised as I gather things we might need back at the prison. 

We'll be coming back sometime later this week for the rest of the items. No way would all of this fit into the cars anyways. 

"Grab anything you might want, be careful." He tells me before drifting off to another aisle. I keep my flashlight steady by placing it on the cart, turning a corner to find Michonne decapitating a cardboard cutout. 

We're in the candy aisle, I say nothing to her but pull a bag of m&m's off of the shelf tossing them towards her. She smiles and nods her head in thanks. Theres two bags of jolly ranchers so I throw those in my backpack for Beth and I's stash, also grabbing the remaining box of Big Cat's, dumping the entire thing in my backpack as well. Carl loves those things.

There's an instant camera that I throw in my backpack too, it might be nice to get some baby pictures of Judith. She's already grown so much over the months we've been at the prison. I think about the way that baby pictures of Carl and I are long gone, hell most pictures of us are gone too. We already got the opportunity to look at those and laugh about how goofy we looked. Judy deserves that too, when she gets older. 

I'm pushing my cart into the book aisle when a large crashing sound catches my attention. The sound of Bob screaming pierces the air as well. I abandon my cart towards the sound. It's empty anyways, most of the stuff I found was things for my friends anyways. I hadn't found anything for the whole prison yet. The man is trapped under a shelf, broken glass and liquid surrounds him.

"You all right?" Daddy asks, shining his flashlight down through the crevice. He lets it linger on the mixture of red liquid on the ground. Probably wondering if it's wine, or blood. Odds are, it's probably both. "You cut or something?" 

"No, man, but my foot is caught." Bob says, staring up at us from where he's stuck.

"All right, he's just caught." Daddy says telling the others. They nod, grateful that it's not some sort of life threatening injury. Those are usually the ones obtained on runs. Bob got lucky. "Come on, help me up." 

"What happened?" Glenn calls across the store. His voice echoes along the vacant aisles. 

"Everyone's all right, we're over in wine and beer!" Zach yells back. Tyreese, Zach and Daddy all push the shelf up, I kick a few of the bottles out of the way. 

"I was moving fast, man." Bob says, his voice doesn't sound all there. He sounds like he's trying to convince himself.  "I drove right into the drinks." 

Tyreese begins to say something but he's interrupted by a walker falling straight through the ceiling above me. I duck for a moment, shielding my head with my arms, a ceiling tile bouncing off of it. I wait for the impact of the walker to hit me, but it stays hanging by it's intestines. The look of it makes me sick, but there's no time to slow down like that. I got lucky that it didn't come crashing down on me. 

The dead things blood covers every inch of me, and I stand there in shock. Daddy calls my name, snapping me out of the daze I'm in, ushering me towards him. He grips my shoulder tightly, keeping me directly next to him. 

"You hurt?" Daddy asks and I shake my head, blood dripping down my forehead and into my eyes. 

"No I'm good." I say, he takes his right hand and wipes my face. I accept the gesture, glad to be able to see again. It comes away covered in blood and he shakes the excess of the red liquid onto the floor. "It's not mine." 

"I know." He says, grateful. 

"Yeah, we should probably go now." Glenn says, staring at the gaping hole in the ceiling. It's creaking loudly and more walkers start falling through the ceiling as Daddy reminds us that Bob is still trapped under the fallen shelf. 

More and more fall through, the ceiling growing weaker and weaker with each walker that tumbles down. In turn, sending even more walkers our way. We have to watch from all angles now, from our left, to our right, to the sky above us. 

The sound of gunfire echoes throughout the store, Daddy and I are back to back as we kill walkers coming our way. He shoots a walker through the head as it nears me before swinging his crossbow into the skull of another. I send a bolt flying through the skull of one rounding a corner. 

Four walkers come stumbling our way, and Daddy urges me on top of a pile of boxes. He kicks one away shooting another in the skull. There's a helicopter creaking above us as more walkers swarm; luckily Glenn and Sasha kill the walkers surrounding our tower of boxes.

"Daryl go!" Glenn yells at Daddy. He hooks one arm around my waist jumping off of  the tower. He land on the ground with a thud, and we look for what needs to happen next. 

"Get Bob!" I yell at Daddy, turning my back towards both him and Bob as I keep walkers from coming near. Zach lifts the shelf as Daddy pulls him out. 

We help Bob to his feet, and he's safe from harms way. Zach isn't though, because when he's setting the shelf back down a walker latches itself onto his ankle. Taking a bite straight out of Zach's calf.

Zach's scream echoes loudly in the store and I watch in horror as another walker sinks it's teeth into his neck. Daddy grabs my hand, screaming for us all to go. He drags me out of the building as Zach screams as he's ate alive.  

The ceiling caves in the minute we get out of the building. Zach is buried alive, still suffering in there waiting to turn. We watch, mouths gaping for a moment. Eventually the shock wears off, and we load back into our vehicles. No one says a word as we do. 

It's never easy losing someone, and I think about Beth who just lost another boyfriend. I don't think her and Zach were serious, but she still cared about him. It's hard not to grow to care about someone you live in close quarters with. 

 Nightfalls as we make our way back into the prison. I lay my head against Daddy's vest as the motorcycle weaves through the trees, trying to forget the way we're down one person. He was only a few years older than me too, the same age Beau would be if he were here. 

The group silently treks into the prison, Daddy makes his way to tell Beth about Zach. I on the other hand, peak my head into Carl's cell. He's reading comic books on the bottom bunk. The comic book is long forgotten when he sees me though. 

"Hey," I say. I don't sit down on the bed, I'm still covered in guts from the walker that fell through the ceiling. "We lost Zach out there, I just wanted to make sure you were still here." 

"Are you okay?" He questions, standing up to take me in and I nod solemnly. 

"I'm going to rinse off, then head to bed." I tell him tiredly. "Just wanted to say goodnight." 

"Goodnight Roo." He whispers, pressing a kiss to the top of my forehead, not minding the dried blood that I know still stains my skin. It's itchy and I feel disgusting. I need to scrub the remnants of today off. To try and forget how everything went wrong. To try and avoid thinking about what could've gone differently. 

"Night Cowboy." I say, wrapping my arms around his waist in a hug. Gently, I peel myself away from him and grab a set of clean clothes from my cell. Then I head to the bathroom. It's late, so no one is in here. It's dark too which gives me the heebie jeebies so I go shower as fast as possible. I hate the dark. It's probably one of my least favorite things in this whole world. 

By the time I'm heading back to my cell, there's coughing heading down the hallway towards me. I recognize the lanky, awkward figure as Patrick. He's awfully sweaty and his cough sounds awful. 

"You okay?" I call out and he nods weakly. 

"Just needed to rinse the sweat off of me." Patrick tells me between coughs. 

"Need anything?" I ask. If he wanted me to I could find him some crackers and water. Carol lets me rummage around in the food pantry. She says it's cause I help stock it half the time, but in reality I think it's just cause she has a soft spot for me and Daddy. Mostly me though. 

"Nah, I'm okay. Night Rory." He tells me as we pass. Patrick makes his way into the bathroom and I watch his form disappear around the corner. 

"Night Patrick."