𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐄𝐓𝐇 || ᵈ.ᵈⁱˣᵒⁿ

XXVIII

—/<3/—

Rory looked around frantically as the walkers swarmed the farm. She could hear her friends yelling and screaming as they made a run for one of the cars or got cornered and bitten.

She shot down the walkers that's blocked her path as she ran towards her tent. She scrambled inside and grabbed Pumpkin, who was trembling beneath a sleeping bag and tucked her under her shirt, holding the feline tight as she ran after Rick and Carl. They were just ahead of her, running past Dale's RV.

She'd lost Daryl once the walkers started heading towards them, he'd ran off somewhere and she was so focused on the dead that she didn't see where he went. She hoped he was alive, she'd grown fond of him.

"Rory!" Rick yelled as she crushed the skull of a walker with her foot. Her head snapped towards him urgently. "Get to the car!"

Rory sprinted towards him, weaving through walkers and dodging their decomposing hand before she dived into the backseat of Rick's car beside Carl, who was hyperventilating whilst staring at the carnage out of the window. Hershel was in the front seat, watching his lifelong home go from a sanctuary to an overrun disaster in a matter of minutes.

"Did you see anyone else?" Rory asked, out of breath. Rick started the car and sped away from the farm.

"Saw a couple of cars leaving a few minutes ago, I know some people got away." Rick swerved to avoid a walker. "Did you seriously go back for the damn cat?" He asked when Pumpkin mewled from under her shirt, popping her head out of the collar.

"I didn't go back, I was running in that direction anyway and I wasn't just gonna go past the tent knowing there was a kitten in there," Rory said defensively.

"You could've gotten yourself killed." Rick gritted his teeth, eyeing her through the mirror.

"Let's not do this, Rick, I saved my cat and we're both alive. Right now we need to focus on finding the others."

—/<3/—

Rick, Rory, Hershel and Carl arrived at the highway the next morning after driving around trying to spot anyone they knew all night. Thankfully, everyone had the same idea and most were reunited. Hershel ran to his daughters, Lori ran to Carl and Rick, and Rory ran to Archie, Niamh and Mikey, immediately clomped into a hug by her brother.

"I'm so glad you're alive," Archie whispered into her hair in their mother tongue. "I couldn't find you when the walkers swarmed, I thought you died." He pulled back from the hug and checked her over for injuries.

"I'm okay, are you?" Rory asked.

"Yeah, we had a close call trying to get to the car but we're alive and not hurt," Archie said. "I think worrying about you over the years has taken at least 10 years off my life so far."

"Sorry," Rory huffed, reaching out for Niamh and Mikey to join the hug. They'd been staring at them since Rory arrived, not having a clue what they were saying.

Niamh almost knocked the siblings over with how forcefully she threw herself into them, and Mikey joined the other side, wrapping his arms around all three of them.

Daryl pulled up on his bike a minute later with Carol on the back, and Rory and Archie jogged over to make sure they were okay. Carol let out a relieved laugh as she climbed off the bike and hugged Archie close.

"You okay?" Rory asked Daryl quietly.

He nodded. "You?"

"Yeah."

"You got a cig?"

Rory pulled the pack out of her pocket, handed one to him, took one for herself and then offered to pack to Archie, who accepted.

"Is this seriously how you two talk?" Carol raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" Rory questioned as she lit Daryl's cigarette for him.

"You're so short with each other. I guess I didn't expect it since you spend so much time together."

"Ain't any of your business how we talk," Daryl said curtly.

Rory gave Daryl a look. "We do talk, just not right now."

—/<3/—

"Pick up anything you can whilst we're here, we lost everything back at the farm and we don't know when we'll find a new place to set up," Rick ordered as he began rifling through one of the cars. "We don't know how long it'll be before this place is overrun too, so move fast."

Rory put Pumpkin into Archie's car, grabbed her backpack from the front seat and went to the nearest car, drove her knife into the skull of a walker that was strapped into the passengers seat and opened the glovebox to check for anything they could use.

She slammed it shut with a sigh when all she found were CDs. Then she reopened it, grabbed them all without checking what they were and ran back over to Archie's car, dumping them on the drivers seat so Archie could look through them, remembering how he was complaining about his lack of music since Niamh took his precious CD holder before they got to Atlanta.

She was more lucky when checking the trunk, there was a pack of 24 bottled waters, a jar of pickles bigger than her head, and a couple cans of canned vegetables.

"Got anythin' good?" Daryl asked from the car next to hers.

"Huge jar of pickles, you?"

"There's a lock box back here, probably a gun in there."

"Just take the whole box, we'll break it open when we get somewhere safer," Rory said. Daryl agreed and tucked it into his bag before wandering over to Rory. He took the heavy case of water from her and walked it over to one of their cars, stashing it wherever they could fit it. They'd be living in their cars from now on, so space was limited.

—/<3/—