ᗯᕼEᑎ TᕼE ᗪEᗩᗪ ᑕOᗰE ᗩᒪIᐯE [ ᴅᴀʀʏʟ x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ]

- 25 -

I had taken a short nap after our group had decided upon a new rout to take. Everything seemed to be going quite smoothly for a while, up until I was rushed to reality once again due to the slowing of the RV.

My eyes shot open as I quickly sat myself up, slowly I made my way to the front where everyone was gathered. In the middle of our path, we were once again faced with another obstacle as a group of cars and people blocked our way.

"No, not now" I heard Rick respond to Abraham's question of ending this conflict here and now.

"They've been waiting. They're ready. With one of us behind the wheel that's five—maybe six—on. . . 16" Rick pointed out as he counted the numbers of our opponents. "We're gonna play it our way, how we want"

"Right?" Rick asked as he turned back to his son.

"Right" Carl responded with a nod of his head.

Rick turned back to face the front of the RV, looking for any movement from the enemies in front of us. "Alright go slow" Rick stated as he gestured for Abraham to put the vehicle in reverse and try to drive away without aggravating the enemy.

Slowly Abraham pushed the gas pedal down as we drove backwards towards the road we came from—ignoring the couple gun shots sounded into the air, followed by another, and another. Once the vehicle was finally back to the main road, Abraham put the RV into drive and took off down the road. Everyone watched through the windows, following then men's movements as we drove off once again and out of sight.

While continuing back on down the road to look for another route, it was quite obvious that everyone was on edge. The enemy was trying to keep us from moving outwards—therefore preventing us from getting Maggie to a doctor at Hill Top. Although the enemy may not have known of our intentions when leaving Alexandria, they had come to be a real pain in our ass.

Currently I had given up on the idea of rest as it felt I truly needed to be awake and ready to go for any more threats thrown at us. It wasn't long before another road stop came to view. This one was different than the others. A chain of walkers were directly ahead, all tied together with the chain, keeping the road from being passable without bringing damage to the vehicle.

Everyone seems to be a little confused and wary of the blockage thrown at us as the group began to get out of the RV with their weapons ready—myself included this time.

The group inched their way up to the line of rowdy walkers, talking amongst themselves as they took in the sight of chains holding the undead together in any and every way possible. Holes through their body, around their neck, wrists, legs, and waist just for the blockade to be effective.

"Come on, let's do this" Rick began when Carl spoke up.

"Dad" he spoke with a tone of possible fear as Aaron finished his idea for him.

"That's Michonne's" the older male spoke as he gesturing towards one of the undead that seemed to quite well resemble said female. The clothing, and the hair seemed all to familiar. A lock of hair that didn't match the rest was stuck to the head.

Sasha then spoke up from the other end. "And that's Daryl's" she said as she gestured to a walked farther down in the line that also resembled said male.

Rick walked up to the one resembling that of his lover, as I started down the one of resemblance to Daryl. Although they did quite well resemble that of the spoken individuals, I could tell they were not who we believed. The faces were off, and there was no possible way for them to become so torn and rotten within half a day if not just a few hours.

I turned to the side as I saw Rick ripp off one of the matted stands of hair with mild rage in his actions, but was quickly countered by a panicked fight or flight instincts as multiple gun shots were fired towards our feet.

"GET BACK TO THE RV" Rick shouted as Abraham began to fire shot at the enemy hidden with the forest, successfully shooting down a few. Sasha did the same as Carl, Aaron, and I quickly got inside the RV to wait on the next move.

From within the chaos of shots as Sasha and Abraham defend each side of the RV, Rick grabbed his axe and cut down a walkers arm to make way for us to enter. Upon the chopped up limb, the walkers were set rampant going towards their individual sides in the process of their pull forward.

"Get it started!" Rick shouted to Abraham as he sprinted back to the RV to start the vehicle, Sasha, and Abraham following after with shots being fired on their tale. Once on board we quickly started the vehicle and drove through the now destroyed blockade. The shots came to a hilt as we left the scene.

Now driving away once again, everyone was gathered to talk as a squeaking sound came from the RV.

"What's that sound?" Sasha asked as she looked towards Eugene for answers.

"Undercarriage could have caught a bullet—or it could be transmission, it could be nothing" the smarter male exclaimed as he blew it off as unimportant for the time being.

Rick looked dazed from where he stood leaned against the side of the RV, deep in thought about the event that happened seconds ago.

"They were firing at our feet. . ." I whispered as I looked up to Rick, knowing he had caught onto this action. He looked me in the eyes as I spoke while he connected more dots to share with the group.

"They blocked the road but they weren't trying to stop us. They want us in this direction" Rick explained as he looked to Sasha who had a map in her grasp.

"Barton Road takes us North, but the gotta know we wanna go North" she stated, looking back at Rick for a response.

"Meadows—could take us East a piece, but we can get back on track on Mayhew" Eugene interjected as he expressed his observations of the Map.

"We're down to a third of a tank, we could top off at the next stop, but no refills after that" Sasha explains as Rick agreed to the idea. Aaron soon arrived after the conversation going straight to Rick.

"She's burning up" I heard Aaron inform the group as he pointed back to the room Maggie was positioned in. Rick seemed to be caught up in the moment as he showed worry within his eyes along side extreme stress for the situation at hand.

Just as we had thought we were in the blue on a road to travel on, Abraham called for the leader from up front as the RV came to a stop for its 4th time. Once again there was another large group of men on top of cars blocking the road we desired. Rick quickly made his way to the front, observing the increased number of men in front of us this round.

"Go back" he said.

"Where?" Was all Abraham has to say as we were now in their territory—playing their game.

The situation could not be avoided any more as the enemy had blocked all our paths we wished to have taken, but Abraham proceeded to do as Rick instructed. He reversed the RV driving back to the road we came, then drove off once again as we trying to deny reality and remain hopeful with our dire situation.

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Chapter 25: End
Slightly a filler chapter