Life Is About More Than Just Surviving • | Clexa AU | (in editing)

Chapter 18

Lauren's POV

        I raise my hand to find that no one else in the room has. During my scan of the room, I meet Lexa's eyes filled with worry.

        "Lauren, please come up here and tell everyone what they should do when we get out there," Clarke asks me.

        I slowly walk up to where Clarke is standing and turn around to face the crowd of people waiting for my instruction.

        "When we get out there, you need to stay in a single file line behind me. We should all link arms or hold hands so we will stay connected and no one gets lost. Keep your eyes on the ground, and walk slow. Do not look around. If you don't follow those rules, that hoard will be on us in seconds and no one will survive." I finish. As soon as I stop talking people start yelling.

        "How do we know we can trust her?"

        "What if they smell one of us?"

        "What if someone gets lost?"

        "Why are we trusting a little girl with our lives?" one man finally yells. A chorus of 'yeahs' and other people agreeing with him fill the room. 

        Before I can say anything, Lexa stands next to me and starts to speak.

        "If you can't trust her, find your own way out. Who just saved all of those people from that factory? Yeah, her. She risked her life just to get back the people you love, and she's risking her life again by leading this group through that hoard. She may be a little girl but she's stronger than all of us. Please just stop and trust her," she finishes.

        Everyone is silent. I step away from Clarke and Lexa and push my way through the crowd trying to find Bryce. I get to the back corner of the room and he's standing there, trying to see over the crowd in front of him. As soon as I reach him I bury my head in his chest and he wraps his arms around me, holding me tight. Soon enough he pulls back and looks down at me.

        "Hey, I know it's a lot of pressure, but we both know you can do this. Clearly Lexa understands that too. We all believe in you, you just have to believe in yourself, Lauren," Bryce tells me. His words almost bring me to tears, but I manage to hold them back. 

        "You're right. I can do this," I feel more confident than ever before. 

        He just nods at me and smiles. "You can do this," he tells me.

        "I can do this," I almost whisper to myself and nod my head.

        I look up at him and pull him into a quick kiss, shorter than I wanted it to be but it helped. I pulled away and gave him a quick smile before running off to find Clarke again. I find her in the same spot as before, talking to some people.

        "I'm ready," I say confidently.

        "Good, the front door is going to break down any second. We should start leading people to the back door," she says. 

        I nod quickly and head towards the back door. "Everyone line up and I will lead you out the door! There is absolutely no talking or noises once I open that door! Make sure you hold hands so you do not get lost!" I yell to the crowd.

        When I'm done talking, people start to line up behind each other and I feel someone grab my hand. I thought it would have been Bryce, but I turned around to see Lexa, Clarke, and Bryce behind them. 

        "I tried to get to you first but Lexa shoved me out of the way," Bryce shrugged his shoulders.

        I gave Lexa a quick 'i'm not impressed' look and turned back towards the door. It was pretty much already silent in the room, so I took my free hand and opened the door. The light from the outside flooded into the room, and the only thing you could hear was the moaning and groaning of walkers. I kept my eye level around the knees so I didn't make direct eye contact, and so that I didn't run into any of them. I moved at a very slow pace, and the smell was horrid. I felt Lexa squeeze my hand, probably to make sure I was okay, so I squeezed hers in return as a way of communication. 

        It's been about 15 minutes of walking, this hoard is huge. Lexa's been squeezing my  hand every few minutes, and I do the same to show her I'm okay. I can see a clearing up ahead where there are only a few walkers at the back of the group. I almost squeal because I successfully led these people through a huge hoard of walkers when I'm used to doing this by myself.

        The second I step into the clearing, I hear a scream and Lexa lets go of my hand. I instantly take out my knives and start plunging them into the heads of as many walkers as I can. The hoard has grouped around everyone else, and I can't see any of them. I go to the spot where I was last walking through and try to clear a path of walkers back to everyone else so I can help them. I've killed so many walkers by now that I am completely covered in their blood, and they can't tell the difference between me and them. I'm able to continue walking straight through all the walkers, keeping a strong grip on the knives in each of my hands.

       I hear gunshots going off, and I just keep following the walkers to wherever they're going to. In front of me I see Bryce and Lexa on the ground kneeling over Clarke, trying to help her up. The walkers are getting closer to them, and Lexa realizes she has to fight them off before she can help Clarke. She turns around and her eyes lock on mine, with panic and realization in them. She knows exactly what I'm going to do. These are the people I love, I have to do it.

        "HEY, OVER HERE! COME TO ME YOU BLOOD THIRSTY WALKERS!" I yell as loud as I possibly can.

        I look over to see Lexa with complete panic on her face and Bryce right next to her. I can hear them yelling for me but I ignore them. I've directed all the attention towards me, whichever ones aren't attracted to me are ones they can handle. I continue to scream at the monsters, slowly backing into the woods. I look behind me and see that there are tons of them behind me as well. I tighten my grip on my knife and take out my sword, ready to fight for my life, even though I know sure as hell what's going to happen to me.

       I am going to die tonight.