The Walking Dead : The In Between (Season 3.5)

Out of Options

The group walked for a very long time, but it became mutual unspoken knowledge that there was just too many, and Rick's original plan of shooting off flares and getting to the armory wasn't going to work.
They finally were able to find a spot where they could evaluate the plan and regroup from there.
Rick turned to everybody, and they huddled up while Michonne took watch, but still listened in.
"Alright, new plan. Flares from a few guns aren't enough. Too many walkers, too spread out. We're not going to the armory. We need our vehicles back at the quarry. All of us drive. We'll need to round 'em up. We leave, we come back," Rick said, looking at each individual. Jessie nodded, but seemed unsure.
"Okay.. but Judith.. to the quarry and back, I.." she shrugged, looking unconvinced.
Gabriel perked up at another chance to redeem himself.
"I'll take her," he volunteered.
"I'll keep her safe in my church until you all lead the walkers away," his eye contact with Rick was unbreakable.
"Can you do this?" Michonne turned to him.
"I'm supposed to. I have to. I will," Gabriel promised.
"Alright," Rick agreed. Carl lifted his sheet and passed Judith to Gabriel, who took Judith under his sheet.
"Take Sam," Jessie requested suddenly.
"No," Sam shook his head.
"Yes, Sam it'll be safer."
"I'm not leaving you."
"Sam-"
"I'm not. I can keep going. Please. Let's just go."
"Okay." Jessie hesitated, but agreed.
Clementine wondered if ideally, she should let Gabriel take AJ too, but frankly, she didn't trust him enough yet, and AJ wouldn't have been any more eager to go with him than Sam was.
She decided she should at least remind AJ of the rules.
"Okay," she kneeled in front of him.
"You're doing so good, kiddo.
Keep it up. Calm, quiet, and what else?"
She tested him.
"Brave," AJ finished, confidently.
She smiled and nodded. "Good."
Gabriel looked at Rick once more before leaving with Judith.
"I'm going to keep her safe."
"Thank you."

As the evening turned to night, the group kept moving, holding each other's sweaty hands ensuring they stayed together. Suddenly the group came to a halt. Everyone turned around and saw that Sam had stopped walking, causing the hold up. His eyes filled with tears, looking around like he was only just now processing that they were walking through a herd of flesh eating monsters.
"Sweetheart? Sam?" Jessie knelt slightly, trying to fix his gaze to her.
She and Ron tried to urge him forward, but they were unsuccessful.
"Sam, honey, I need you to be strong," Jessie gave him a warm comforting look. Sam sniffled.
"I want to-"
A pair of gray bloody hands grabbed his face and pulled it to it's mouth which elicited a shriek from Sam and Jessie. "Mom!" Sam cried in terror during his final moments.
Jessie sobbed, still gripping Sam's hand. Rick and Carl tried to keep Jessie going, and Clementine shielded AJ's eyes and comforted him, in disbelief and shock.
Rick and Carl couldn't get Jessie to let go of Sam before she was being attacked too. She was screaming in agony, while the others watched, horrified.
"No, no.." Rick shook his head, holding back tears.
"Dad!" Carl frantically attempted to pull his hand free from Jessie's hand.
Rick chopped him free, pained at every swing.
Rick caught his breath and looked up to see Ron pointing his gun at him.
"You," he glared into Rick's soul.
"You!" He yelled angrily. Before he could shoot, Michonne came up from behind him and thrusted her sword through his back.
As he died, the gun fired strayly.
Rick gave Michonne a nod.
"Dad?"
Rick, Clementine, and Michonne looked over to see Carl with the bullet to the eye, just before he collapsed into the ground.

Michonne and Clementine cleared a path through the herd of walkers for Rick to make it imfirmary with Carl in his arms. Clementine now had AJ on her back as she fought walkers with Michonne.
As soon as they got to the infirmary, they rushed Carl inside and laid him down. Denise assessed the situation and got to work, ordering people around.
Clementine backed up, feeling lightheaded, and hearing a really annoying ringing in her ears. She knew that feeling very well. It was fear. It didn't make sense that she just met Carl, but the idea of losing him scared her. She cleared her throat, and adjusted her composure trying to shake it off.
She saw Michonne take hers and Rick's bloody sheet off, and realized she should do the same.
After taking off her sheet with the guts, she took AJ's mini sheet off as well, and brought him into a different room without the chaos and noise.
She laid him down on a couch, and sat with him until he had fallen asleep. Even with undoubtedly, so much on his mind, AJ was always quick to fall asleep if he needed it.
She put a blanket over him before coming back into the room where the surgery was happening.
Denise had Michonne applying pressure, but Michonne kept saying that Rick was out there and needed help, and Denise was insisting that she was almost done, and needed Michonne to stay until then.
"He's taking them all on, we need to go help," Aaron updated Clementine.
She nodded.
The moment Denise was done, Michonne kissed Carl's forehead and ran outside, sword out.
Aaron, Heath and Clementine followed her out. Spencer hesitated at first, but he came too.

The group from the infirmary ran through the herd to get to Rick, who was surrounded, but putting up an impressive fight. They joined Rick with their backs to one another, and effectively built a defense.
"Knock 'em away, drive 'em down!"
Rick yelled over the growls of the walkers as he swung his axe into a head. A huge pile of dead began to form around the group in a circle as time went on.
Eventually, more Alexandrians joined the fight.
"We can beat 'em! We can beat 'em!"
Rick looked around, realizing the power of his group.
More and more members of Alexandria ran from cover to join. Gabriel, Carol, Tara, Rosita, and even Eugene.
After fighting for what seemed like forever, a massive fire went up in the water, grabbing the attention of the dead. "Don't let up!" Rick ordered.
So they didn't. They fought and fought and fought until every last walker was dead, and the streets were littered with corpses.