This New World We Live In (A Walking Dead fanfic)

Ambushed (Chapter 6)

Maya's POV

I woke up in the morning and climbed out of my tent, only to hear the sound of a gunshot. I turned my head frantically, looking for the source of the noise.  I thought we got rid of all the "walkers" as they called them, last night.  I spun on my heel to see Andrea sobbing into Amy's lifeless body, her dad's pistol in her hand.  Putting together the pieces, I realized what happened. 

Amy turned... And Andrea shot her

I sprinted towards them, ready to sob with Andrea, when an arm reached out to hold me back.  I squirmed and turned my head to see that it was Rick.

"Let. Me. Go." I said to him, a surprisingly sharp tone to my voice.

He took a deep breath and gulped, before reluctantly putting me back down as I ran over to Andrea.  I placed my arm around her and started to cry.  She tensed, but then relaxed again, after realizing that it was only me.  

We kneeled there for a few minutes, then I got up.  Andrea started to get up too, but I stopped her.

"It's okay," I said while patting her back.  "Take your time."

She sunk back down to her knees and buried her head in Amy's body again, while I stood up and walked over to the rest of the group.

* * * 

Carol's POV

I stared in horror as Daryl pulled Ed's body out of the tent.  What was left of his stomach was charred, and his intestines were spilling out.  I kept watching as Daryl took a pick- axe and set Ed's body down, in the middle of camp.  He was going to hit him in the head with it, destroy his brain so that he wouldn't turn.  As Daryl brought the axe up over his head, I stopped him.

"Wait!" I yelled, jogging over to him. "Let me." I said  with an intense look in my eyes.

Daryl handed the axe over to me and walked over to that Katie girl.  They were both watching me carefully, seeing what I was going to do.

Years of anger piled on my shoulders and the axe became heavy.  I pulled it over my head and swung down on Ed's face.  With adrenaline now pumping through my body, I swung down hard again.  Years of being kicked, punched, scratched, yelled at and years of not being able to fight back.  I swung at him for a third time.

Fourth.

Fifth.

I wasn't even bringing it above my head anymore, just quickly bringing it up to my knee and back down on his head.  I wanted to get as many jabs in there as possible.  

After the seventh swing, a tear trickled down my face.  

I use to love him. 

Why did he have to hit me?

What did I do wrong? 

I was crying now, and before I could bring it down the eighth time, Daryl grabbed the axe from me.

"That's enough." he said softly.

I nodded and walked back to my tent. 

* * * 

Katie's POV

"Wow," I said to Daryl with my eyes wide in surprise.  "Who knew such a peaceful woman could be holding so much back."

Daryl put down the pick axe and dragged Ed's body over to the fire pit that the others had set up to burn the walkers after the aftermath.  I limped beside Daryl, towards the pit. Just as Daryl was about to put Ed's body in the pile, a voice stopped him.

"Our people go over there." He said.  It was Glenn.

Daryl and I looked over to where Glenn was pointing.

"Our people go in that row over there." He continued, "We don't burn them!" He yelled. "We bury them." He said with a crack in his voice this time. "Understand?"

Daryl reluctantly placed Ed down to where Glenn pointed.

Daryl and I turned around to go back to go find more of the dead walkers, when Daryl said, "We can't stay here.  It's not safe anymore." 

I nodded with him in agreement.  It wasn't safe.  "Our gunshots last night probably attracted more, too." I replied.

We spotted another dead walker.  Daryl bent down to start dragging it to the burn pile, when we heard Jacqui raise her voice,  ‘‘Then show me!’’ She said. 

Daryl froze and stood up slowly looked at them.  I turned around too.

‘‘A WALKER BIT JIM!’’ She yelled.  This time, Daryl ran over, picking up his pick axe.

‘‘Show it to us!’’ Daryl yelled at him.  I hobbled over to see Jim pick up his shovel in self-defense.  He held it protectively in front of him.  Shane, Rick, and Carol ran over, too.  Meeting up with Daryl and I.  

‘‘On the ground!’’ Shane yelled, referring to the shovel.  ‘‘Put it on the ground right now!’’ 

But, before Jim could do anything, T-Dogg came up from behind him, knocked the shovel out of his hands, and held his arms back.

‘‘I’m okay!’’ Jim said.  ‘‘I’m okay.’’ He assured the group.  Daryl stormed over to him and lifted his shirt up to reveal distinctive teeth marks near his ribcage.  It looks like the walker started to bite him, but he killed it mid-bite. There wasn't a chunk missing, just the teeth marks.

Rick sighed and rubbed his forehead as he turned away, followed by Shane.  Daryl dropped Jim’s shirt as if it, too were infected, and walked towards me. 

‘‘What should we do?" I asked Daryl.

"Well, Rick and Shane have been talking about leaving and going to the CDC." He replied, walking back over to the walker he planned on dragging to the burn pile.

"I meant about Jim." I told him.  He didn't respond, thinking about an answer, when we overheard Rick talking to Lori and Shane, which gave us our answer.

"What if we can get him help?" Rick said to Shane.  "What if the CDC's still up and running?"

"Man, that is a stretch right there" Shane replied, shaking his head.

"Why not?" Rick continued, "I think it's our best shot.  Shelter, protection, rescue-"

"Okay, Rick you want those things." Shane said, inturupting Rick.  At this point, Daryl and I had joined in the circle, along with Carol and Dale. "I do, too.  Okay, now if you want those things, they're at the army base.  Fort Benning."

"That's a hundred miles in the opposite direction." Lori said, speaking up for the first time.

"That is right," Shane said, "If that place is operational, we'd be safe there."

"I heard that the CDC was operational." Rick retorted.

"Was." Shane responded.  "A lot has happened since then, Rick."

Rick looked like he was getting impacient.  "My gut is telling me CDC." 

"Well your gut also told you to go to Atlanta and take half of our able-bodied men with you, and look how that turned out, we got ambushed." Shane replied, slightly raising his voice.

Ambushed?

Rick closed his eyes and took a few breaths. "Alright, I see where you're coming from. But I strongly suggest the CDC..." He paused and looked at the rest of us. "Anyone agree?"

I nodded my head. "Yeah."

Lori also nodded. "I support your decision."

Rick nodded in understanding. "Alright then... I see where people stand" He looked at Shane. "We'll talk about this later."

He didn't waste any time after that sentence, before glaring at Shane and walking away.