𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝑻𝒊𝒎𝒆 | 𝘋𝘢𝘳𝘺𝘭 𝘋𝘪𝘹𝘰𝘯 ¹

𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒚 𝑭𝒊𝒗𝒆

Chapter Forty Five,
What's Left of Us

"Get these people on the bus. Be ready to drive!"

Through chaos and the fading screams around them, the Simpson family sat there frozen in time. All around them everyone was running to save their lives, but them. Life meant absolutely nothing at that moment.

A shot fired from the tank got the prison crumbling behind them and yet they remained sat there refusing to leave Angie's side.

"We gotta go, come on!"

"Grenade!"

"Run! Run!"

"Sasha! Sasha!"

But they had to.

With one last glance at her mom, Chloe stood up, following the horde of people as the grenade exploded, nearly bursting her eardrums. It felt like she had blacked out for few seconds, her head spinning as her eyesight slowly refocused allowing her to take in her surroundings to find no one there but her.

In her delirium state, she heard a shot from the tank land above her taking down the bridge that connected the two cell blocks. That's when she started running just in time to find walkers surrounding her. Reaching for her bow she found no arrows so all she had was a knife. She managed to take down the first walker that approached, then the second, but the third was a harder task as her legs gave away and all she could do was crawl back to the porch and lock herself inside the gate that kept the walkers out.

There was no way out, she couldn't take them all down with just a knife, so she sat there hoping someone would come to her rescue.

Or perhaps not.

"Daryl!"

And then she heard a voice. It was Merle.

"Merle!" She yelled from where she stood inside the little prison separating her from the Walkers that blocked her view.

"Get outta my way fuckers!" She heard Merle roar as he took down some of the Walkers that were surrounding her.

"Merle!" She yelled again.

"I got ya sweetheart, I got ya. I want ya to duck, take cover behind somethin' now!"

Looking around all she could find was the barricades that she and Glenn had placed there a few hours ago. She ducked right before Merle opened fire, tearing down every standing Walker.

"Yer knight in shinin' armor!" He chuckled before moving towards her. "Now why don't ya open the gate for me sweetheart? Let's get ya outta here."

She did as told letting him help her out. "Where's yer fam?" He asked.

"I don't know," Chloe muttered.

"Don't ya worry we'll find them later. Now we have to get outta here, come on," he said, leading the way. "Daryl!"

"Merle?" Daryl shouted back. He was walking towards them with Beth in tow. "Ya both okay?"

"Yeah, we gotta go."

Leaving their destroyed sanctuary behind, they marched. Hearts filled with memories, eyes full with tears, they walked away.

***

Just like her twin, Alli was lucky enough to run into someone to keep her company.

"Carl! Carl?"