Madison Grimes

21

"Tony! Dave!" Rick groans a little louder then he probably meant.

"They attacked us." The footsteps stop and I glare at Rick. He's going to get us killed if he keeps this up.

"They alive?"

"They gave us no choice." Then, they send a whole clip into the door. Rick thought faster then I did by slamming us both to the ground. There's a brief second where the gun fire stops. I'm faster than him as I spring up and grab his arm, pulling him with me to where the guys just went. As we step outside, gunfire is the only thing we hear.

"Where'd they go?" I yell over the guns, as if he has all the answers.

"Over here!" I follow his finger and see them crouched by a corner. We run over there, barely missing bullets as we go. As we crouch by them, Glenn looks at us with terrified eyes.

"There's a snipper on the roof." Rick looks at me and I nod, moving to use a dumpster as protection. I pull my gun out and line my shot up, aiming for a boy's head. As I pull the trigger, a hand grabs my shoulder and I feel a face on my neck. I turn fast and shoot three shots, thanking god for the silencer I forgot to put back in the RV. I watch as the walker goes down. I've been bit. Oh no, oh no, oh no.

I turn as I hear a loud thud and watch as the boy falls by the dumpster, catching his left leg on a spike. Following the thud, then men's voices from earlier scream and drive off. I look around and find my group in front of me, throwing questions at me. I can't hear anything except for the boy next to me screaming. Glenn grabs my face, forcing me to look at him. I watch his mouth move but I don't hear him. I just turn around and point to my shoulder. I feel him move my shirt, then the world goes to normal.

"You're not bit." I look at him as though he's grown a second head.

"A-are you sure?" I ask, trying to see myself. He just stops me by grabbing my hands and holding them to his chest.

"I'm sure." I nod and pull him into a hug, happy that I will live another day. Once I pull away, I notice Hershel and Rick debating on what to do with the kid.

"Please don't leave me!" He keeps screaming.

"We can't leave him to die like this!" Hershel exclaims. Glenn elbows my shoulder. I look at him and watch as his head points to the incoming walkers. I nod slightly and stand in our next positions. We stand back to back an start firing rounds into the walkers.

"We can't bring him back!"

"This isn't right!"

"He tried to kill us!" I groan as they keep arguing.

"Do it." Glenn says.

"You sure you can handle this?"

"I'm going to get the car, do what you have to." I nod as we break off. I hop on the trash can as Glenn sprints to the parking lot. I didn't realize going to Atlanta would pay off this much. I stand over the boy and look into his pleading eyes.

"Please." He cries. I look down and see Rick and Hershel hasn't even noticed me yet. I roll my eyes and pull a rag from my back pocket and hand it to the boy.

"Put this in your mouth." Tears stream down his face as he listens. I ready myself and pull his leg off, making him scream. I hold back a scream myself as I feel a stitch pull too much.