The Fear (The Walking Dead / Daryl Dixon)

Chapter 43 - Raining Down

They scattered. Everyone scattered. And not by choice.

Walkers fell and we were forced to run and dodge and duck and then shoot the ones that came at us, or swing blades at their heads or cave in their skulls with whatever blunt object was handy.

I could hear Bob yelling out for help, still trapped under the last shelf, but no one could get to him. Not yet. We wanted to, but no matter what we did there was another walker blocking our path and once that walker was taken out another fell through the roof behind it.

The darkness of the store didn't help. It found it had to distinguish walker from friend in the distance. I could see Daryl though. He was the closest to me, separated by three walkers. I took one out with the machete and he took out the second with an arrow. I took care of the third while he retrieved his arrow and reloaded. Once we stood side by side the familiar rhythm we'd perfected over the months, going back to the fall of the farm, easily took over. He'd move forward, take out a few while I watched his back. Then he'd step back and I'd step forward, giving Daryl a seconds break while he watched my back instead. Back and forth it went until we rounded a corner and come across a large group.

Daryl grabbed my arm and pulled me back to a stack of boxes that we quickly ran up like steps, staying high up away from the walkers with their out stretched hungry arms. We gave up on the crossbow and machete, grabbing out our handguns and shooting them down, but the noise only drew more over.

Glenn then came around the same corner we had with his own gun, shooting more of them until we'd finally taken them all out. A loud thud sounded above us and we looked up briefly to see some kind of heavy machinery that had been left by the army, that I couldn't quite make out through the holes in the ceiling, beginning to break it's way through.

"Move!" Glenn yelled at us.

We leapt down and ran a few steps with Glenn and came across another walker that was shot down by Zach before we could make a move.

"Lets get Bob." Zach said.

Daryl ran for the fallen shelf, allowing me to cover his back as he pulled a crawling walker that had been heading for Bob away from the trapped man before caving in it's head with his heel. More fallen walkers marched their way over to us. Zach ran to lift the shelving while Daryl pulled Bob out and I shot down the approaching walking dead.

The ceiling became more fragile as more and more beams clattered to the ground.

"We have to get out! Now!" I yelled. "Glenn!" He stood 10 metres from me and closed the distance at the sound of his name. Tyreese and Sasha also came over and I looked around waiting for Michonne who soon joined us just as a stomach turning scream echoed across the store.

We turned just as a walker that had crawled from under the shelving ripped Zach to the ground and tore into the side of his neck.

"Zach!" Glenn yelled out just before moving to help the kid, but I grabbed his arm and yanked him back before a beam fell right in front of us.

It was his neck, there was nothing we could have done. More and more of the roof above us began to rain down and we were forced to run back for the door, leaving Zach behind us. We had just made it out when the piece of heavy machinery fell through and hit the ground hard and shook it under our feet.

We all stopped outside and looked at the building labelled Big Spot and no one said a word. We went back to the same vehicles we'd showed up in with no supplies, minus one group member and drove back to the prison in the same formation we'd come here in.

The sun had just set when we made it back. We parked the cars, we got out and everyone aside from Daryl, Glenn and I went back to the cells.

"I'll, um... I should go find Beth." I finally said after a moment of silence.