Safe & Sound ↠ R. Grimes

Chapter 21: Triggerfinger

A/N: NSFW LATER ON IN THIS CHAPTER, JUST FYI!

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Night had fallen and thunder rumbled overhead.

When the headlights had shined through the bar windows, Rick motioned for them to duck down and be quiet. Annie passed Hershel Dave's gun, then he and Glenn took the right side of the door while she stuck to Rick on the left. They could hear the strangers outside talking, the floorboards creaking as they passed. Just when they thought they were in the clear, had formulated a plan to make for the car out back, the men came back to the bar, knowing their companions would be in there. Glenn jumped in front of the door and stopped the men from entering. Unfortunately, it also alerted them that they were inside as well. The strangers claimed they didn't want any trouble and that, since the place was crawling with walkers, they'd really appreciate not getting killed. Rick answered, telling him that their friends were dead because they'd drawn their guns on them. He tried to be reasonable, but the men outside didn't want to hear it and shot at the doors. Rick fired back, ordering the others to get out but Annie refused to leave his side. Glenn was holed up behind a piano as Hershel was at the bar, both of them guns in hand. Both of them ready to fight their way home to the people they loved.

As both Rick and Annie reloaded their guns, the latter was still trying to end the standoff peacefully. Bless him for trying, but Annie figured they all knew it wouldn't work. A noise from the back drew their attention and Glenn ran to check it, to make sure they weren't ambushed from behind. From inside the bar, everyone heard a shot and Annie feared the worst but the Korean assured them he was all right. Rick told Hershel and Annie to cover Glenn while he held the strangers off at the front. Glenn would run to car and pull up out back so they could make their escape. Hershel seemed to find the idea of him covering Glenn somewhat laughable and Rick thought it was because he had refused the earlier gun training. In fact, it had been the exact opposite; he knew how to shoot a gun just fine, he just didn't like it. But Annie refused to leave Rick alone. She told him she'd stay with him, not liking the idea of him being alone. She swore she'd cover him while he covered Glenn. He didn't seem to like the idea but she refused to budge on the issue.

"Considering the situation we're in, we don't have a lot of options and no time to argue. I'm staying with you. Deal with it," she snapped.

Gunshots rang from outback and both Rick and Annie rushed over, Hershel filling them in that one of the men had fired and must have hit Glenn. The young man was hiding at a dumpster and not moving. When Rick went over, cautious and gun raised, and he found Glenn alive. Scared shitless, but alive. More shots fired and they saw a sniper on top of the pharmacy. His friends told him to jump so they could leave, more walkers than anyone was willing to deal with appearing, drawn by the sounds of gunfire. Hershel and Annie fired at the three walkers eating the man that tried to kill Glenn, Hershel trying to ignore the screams of pain. Annie told Hershel not to kill the man, which he had no problem with although for a very different reason. Hershel couldn't bring himself to do it, whereas Annie knew he was the only thing keeping those walkers away from them.

Along with Glenn, they rushed to the car, ready to bolt, but Rick had disappeared towards the pharmacy. Cursing his stubbornness, the others followed him and they found the sniper. Rick refused to leave him there even though Hershel told him that shooting him would be for the best. The veterinarian told them that if they tried to lift his leg off the metal fence, they'd tear a bunch of muscle tissue and he'd bleed out. The stranger would die anyway. Hershel didn't want to see anymore killing but then Glenn suggested cutting off his leg. With the hatchet in the car and Hershel decided it was possible.

Glenn and Annie left Rick and Hershel to take care of the sniper while laying down cover fire. Annie looked behind her and saw Rick shooting as well. They were surrounded, they needed to leave. In a split decision, Rick ripped the kid's leg free and carried him to the truck. The ride back was filled with the sniper's cries and shrieks of pain. Every turn and bump in the road was like a knife digging into his leg. Randall, the sniper, had been easy enough to keep quiet as he passed out from the blood loss not long after telling them his name. Glenn drove while Hershel did what he could on the kid's leg and Rick blindfolded him. He hadn't forgotten that this kid had shot at them and he wasn't about to risk him escaping, knowing how to get to the farm. Tony's words echoed in his head, about how he'd shoot them all and take the farm. That he'd take Annie. The thought made his lip curl into a snarl. The thought of anyone like that man touching her or the other women in the camp made him ill.