Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
RUTH
IT HAD BEEN HOURS. Rick and the others locked the barn shut, looking for Randall. The girl saw the sun slowly set between the slits in the doors. She could feel the cold from the autumn night seeping into the wooden structure like a mysterious monster. The chilly air was like its tendrils, and the wind forced its way through her thin flannel. Shivers ran up and down her spine, and she clenched her restrained arms against her torso in an attempt to stay warm.
The night was quiet, from what she could tell. She didn't know what the night would entail, but she knew she wouldn't sleep well. Something was wrong, and she could feel it. Why did Shane take Randall? Why did Rick not respond when she said he was the miscreant? Did he not believe her?
Her thoughts were interrupted with a gunshot. Ruth jumped, and her breathing quickened. It was only one shot. Did they find Randall? Hopefully he's dead, she thought. She heard shouts in the distance, mostly a male's that she couldn't really recognize. She kept quiet, listening to the shouts mostly die down. Her breathing settled back to normal, and she closed her eyes to control herself.
Sadly, that didn't prepare her for the second gunshot. She yelped at the release of a bullet from a gun. Something was wrong. She heard shouts from outside, and not just the man's this time. She heard the rest of the group arguing, and panic resonated in their tones.
Ruth rattled the handcuffs. "Hey what's going on!" She shouted. "Hello?" She took a glance through the slit in the wooden paneling. The sound of loud groans made her stop rattling her cuffs, and she froze. She spotted movement of a large mass of bodies outside, which could only be biters. There had to be hundreds of them.
"Shit." She had to get out of here. She leaned her back against the wooden post, using it as a support to pull herself up. Ruth didn't have time to think about the consequences, and pain erupted from her thigh like somebody had set fire to it. Her mouth spit out a hiss, and she dropped back down onto the floor.
Suddenly the door opened, and Rick ran in with a boy that she didn't recognize. They barricaded the door just in time for tons of biters to slam their hands against it. She quietly gasped, tears leaking from her eyes. She didn't want to think about dying tonight, but it somehow forced its way into her mind. The doors creaked as the corpses moved them back and forth. They wouldn't hold, and Rick seemed to know that as well.
Rick turned, noticing that Ruth was in the same place he left her. Her dark eyes stared at him in fear, most likely from both him and the monsters that lurked outside. He didn't want to trust her, but he had to in this moment if he wanted Carl and himself to survive. He glanced around the room, devising a plan quite swiftly.
