The Light in my Storm

Jesus

"Open the gate! Open the gate!" I heard, from Rick, I could tell that voice from anywhere, Michonne and 2 others came back this morning. She had no word on Daryl saying he was with Abraham and Rosita. Where they were right now she had no idea. I was on watch this morning. I turned facing the street outside of the gate.

Walkers, hundreds maybe thousands of them heading right towards Alexandria, the herd they tried to lead away.

"Holy shit," I said to myself quietly. Rick was a few feet ahead a few stragglers trying to grab him.

"Open the gate! Open the gate!" I screamed to whoever was below me trying to get off the wall as quickly as possible. Michonne was already down there. I joined her, yanking the gate open as quickly as possible. Walkers came from the woods, attempting to get in, Rick had barely made it before they got there, we closed the gate.

"Are you alright?" I asked Rick, he had fallen, I helped him back up onto his feet.

"I-" Rick panted. He was drenched in sweat, cuts on his face. We could hear the walkers spreading along the wall, pounding on it trying to get in.

"Mom?" Katie asked from behind me.

People gathered around.

"Half the herd is here, they can still surround us 20 deep. I know you're scared, for now we're safe. The panel the truck hit seems intact, we reinforced it just in case. Either way, the wall will hold. The others will be back. In here we need to keep noise to a minimum, at night lights out. Keep it like a graveyard in here, maybe they'll move on," Rick went on.

"This place is a graveyard," One woman spoke up.

"You're still alive aren't you? This is the herd from the quarry, and only some of them, most were led away. Rick knows what he's talking about," I told her.

"The people who were here, I was out recruiting with Daryl. We found a cannery, I wanted to search it. Daryl wanted to keep looking for people. We did what I wanted, it was a trap set by those people. I dropped my pack, those people found their way back here because of me."

People walked off. Day and night passed, I spent as much time on watch a possible. Waiting for Daryl to come back. Katie and Carl have been spending more time together again. Day and night, day and night. Finally I sat on watch on top of the wall. Tears pouring down my face. Abraham, Rosita, Sasha, Daryl, Glenn, Nicholas. None of them have come back. Someone joined me, I wiped the tears off my face.

"I didn't think it was time to switch yet," I said pulling myself together.

"It's not," Denise said softly, she was the new doctor since Pete was gone.

"Oh, hi," I said softly.

"He'll be back, don't worry," She said sweetly.

"Yeah, I know," I said to convince myself.

"Been a wild couple days, huh?" She asked, "I have no idea what I'm doing."

I laughed softly, "Drowning in medical books?"

"You have no idea," She chuckled.

The sky was pitch black, the sky itself was beautiful, this would be the type of night you'd hear crickets, birds, squirrels. Nature, beautiful sounds. Instead I'm listening to the growling and snarling of the undead wanting to tear me apart limb by limb.

"How long have you and Daryl been together?" She asked.

"Probably close to a year, hard to keep track of the time before you know?"

"Yeah I get it, but at least you have eachother now right?"

"Yeah, he's one of the best things to ever happen to Katie and I," I said softly. She smiled. We talked for a few more hours, laughed, told stories, joked. Then Carol came to take her shift on the wall. Denise went off to her own house, I went to mine. Katie was sitting on the couch.