Let the Angels Commit

One walker on my back, and two walkers coming from my left. My ears rang, blocking out any noise around me, but I could feel its finger digging into my collarbones. I was lightheaded from the force it took to cut through bone. I stared down at my trembling hands covered in blood, real human blood. My mind couldn't make sense of anything, the world through my eyes was moving in slow motion.

My gaze drifted up from my hands and onto Oliver. I could see him crying as he held pressure on Juliet's stump with his flannel, yet there wasn't a sound making it to my ears. Paul hunched over behind him heaving up last night's dinner from the scene. Then my eyes darted across the room to look for the others. They were all cornered. The group couldn't hold them off, they were too inexperienced. The lavish life inside of the Woodbury walls hindered their survival skills. I had seven people with me yet I felt alone. Each of them, a small anchor attached to my foot.

My own survival skills kicked in. The sound of the walker behind me growing louder in my ears, its hot breath hitting the back of my neck and sending chills down my spine. I threw my head backwards, the back of my skull making contact with the walker's face and throwing it off of me. I got to my feet, taking the two walkers out coming from my left. I got Roni out first, taking down one of the walkers that trapped her by the wall. She swung her arm back, having room to her right to take out the other two.

"Derek, throw me the gun!" I shouted as he stumbled backwards, away from the walkers chasing him.

I was risking it. The group was flustered, with this many walkers closing in at once their hand-to-hand combat was no match. On top of that, the one person with a gun was no shot himself, most of Derek's bullets hitting the walkers in the chest and only drawing more to us. But this was my only hope of getting these people out of here alive.

Derek tossed the Glock to me. I caught it in the air, popping the slide backwards and into place in one quick motion. I steadied the weapon, aiming for my target. I hit the trigger, one bullet flying through the skull on one walker's head and making contact with the second walker on the other side of it. The bodies hitting concrete in unison. I turned to my right, shooting down the four walkers that Rigs was fighting off. Each bullet lodged in the centre of the back of their skulls.

Being free of their troubles, the three of them went back to taking on one walker at once. I now did a 360, aiming for the walkers that filtered in through the front door. With only one bullet left and five walkers stumbling through as I emptied the magazine. Just as I slipped my knife back out from my pocket, switching weapons, four gunshots went off. The sound of the AK rippling through the warehouse. The walkers dropped, piling up by the entrance. A small figure stood in the shadow of the door frame.

I stumbled backwards, all the air leaving my body as the largest wave of relief washed over me. I couldn't see the figure's face, the moonlight cascading over their head and shadowing any recognition. But standing at only 5'2 and wearing that all too familiar sheriff's hat, I knew it couldn't be anyone else.

"Carl?" I called out.

The boy stepped into the room before two more people jogged up behind him.

"Carl! Carl, where the hell did you-" Rick yelled at him before his eyes landed on me. "Scar?" he questioned.

He walked over to me as I stared at him in disbelief. I had made my peace with the fact that I probably wouldn't see any of them ever again. Not knowing who was dead, or lost, or had moved on. I only had a small grasp of Daryl until we separated and a split second of reading Maggie's message to know that she made it out of the prison. But here before me, alive, was Rick, Carl, and Michonne.

He wrapped his arms around me and I sunk into him. I felt safe again.

--------

Rick, Carl, Michonne, and I left the warehouse later the following evening. Even though the two groups were now headed to the same destination, Roni wanted to give Juliet some time before they were on the move again. Rick thought it'd be better if we stayed in a larger group though. We were all weak right now and the more numbers on your side the better. But really, I think in some way he was trying to replace our old members with them. I knew how he felt. It was like a phantom limb that was no longer there yet your brain plays tricks on you every once in a while, making you feel its presence. How often do I turn my head over to say something to Glenn when he's not there.

However, Roni denied Rick's request. They moved their belongings to the second floor, which was smarter than moving to a separate building. Although the smell of the rotting walkers in this heat would swarm the building fast, leaving it hard to suck in the air around you, if another herd blew through the group's scent would be indistinguishable. All those dead walkers on the main floor were their shields.

Rick was disappointed in their decision to stay, but I preferred it this way. I couldn't even say that I knew these people long enough to like them. But what I did know was that they were at a completely different stage of the apocalypse from us. It was weird to think that we had all been in this shithole for the same duration of time, yet some were just beginning to learn their survival skills. They still didn't know what it felt like to be hungry for days on end. Or that relieving feeling of a walker's blood coating your body, because at least it wasn't your own. They didn't know the guilt you carry when you have to pull the trigger on another soul, that split-second decision of your life or mine. In the end, even if I did end up liking them, they would only be a burden. And we couldn't afford that responsibility when we already had a responsibility to our own group to keep them alive first.

The sun was beginning to set as we continued to walk down a roadway, making sure we stayed on route with the railway tracks. The sun slowly descending behind the trees meant that nightfall would creep up on us and being out on the road made it easier to spot any walkers nearing.

"We're close now, right?" Carl asked.

"To Terminus?" Rick questioned.

"Yeah."

"We are."

"When we get there," Carl paused, "are we gonna tell them?"

"Tell them what?" Michonne asked, her voice held a certain level of concern for the boy. I could see how much her demeanour has changed since I last saw her at the prison. Michonne had already grown so close to our group, but now it was different. She always walked beside or behind Carl, one eye always on him, like a protector. Like a mother.

"Everything that's happened to us," he answered, his hands buried deep in his pockets, "all the stuff we've done. Are we gonna tell them the truth?"

Michonne's eyes worryingly landed on mine, she didn't know how to respond. I looked over at Rick, I could see that he was thinking it over.

"We're gonna tell them who we are," he answered his son.

"But how do you say that? I mean… who are we?"

A silence fell over us, no one knowing how to respond to that question. The thought of it pondered in all of our heads. We knew that we were good people deep down, but the things that we have done to get to where we are now, others would argue differently. Shane, Randall, Dave, Tony, Andrew, Tomas, The Governor, the man in the woods that I killed. From our side of the story, all those fatalities were in our defence, but for theirs we were killers.

Thankfully the conversation was cut short when we walked up to an abandoned SUV in the middle of the road. We decided that this would be a good enough place to set up camp for the night.

As the sun finally disappeared from the horizon and the moonlight took its place, Rick and I started up a small fire while Carl took a nap in the car. The birds chirping in the trees were now replaced by the quiet hum of the crickets rubbing their legs together, communicating in the night.

"How'd you guys get out of the prison? Did you see anyone else make it?" I asked. I hoped they had more answers than I did. After the explosion I had no recollection of my surroundings, the only thought in my mind was getting out of there.

"I was down in the field with The Governor," Rick explained, "we were fighting, he nearly killed me. Michonne got him with the sword and the walkers took care of the rest. I found Carl, but we were the last to leave. There wasn't anyone alive left after us." Rick dropped his head, not making eye contact as he relived the day in his head.

"Did you make it out with anyone?" Michonne asked, a gleam of hope in her eyes as she looked at me.

I twiddle my fingers together, "Daryl got me out," I answered, "I was with him for about a week before we were separated. That group took me, thinking I was alone. When I woke up it was the following morning and they left Daryl with a herd of walkers on his trail." My eyes glossed over with tears as I thought about it, not knowing if he was even still alive. Until now I didn't let myself think about it, the image of it was suffocating. There was silence, they didn't know how to respond. "I saw a message from Maggie though. It was a message written on one of the Terminus maps… to Glenn."

A branch snapping in the woods caused us all to jump, immediately attaching our hands to our weapons. Rick kicked some dirt and leaves over our fire, killing the flames. We analyzed the direction it came from, studying the tree line for anything out of the ordinary. There was no follow-up to the crunch of the stick, leaving us to settle back down.

"We just have to make it through another day," Rick said. "At Terminus, if the folks there are taking in other people, they have to be strong. They have to have a system."

"I wonder if the whole thing is legit." Michonne voiced her reserves.

"We let people in," I responded.

"We did," Michonne agreed, "But so did The Governor."

"Yeah, it's always the same, isn't it?" Rick agreed. "But we don't get to know until we know. Maybe this place isn't even there anymore-"

"Oh, dearie me," a deep, husky voice chimed up from behind us. Within seconds of hearing the man's voice the cold barrel of a gun was pressed to my right temple. My heart stopped, the fear dropping my stomach to my feet. How did we not see them coming?

Rick was frozen with rage. A blurry man with snow-white hair and a beard to match hunched over him. Michonne spun, reaching for her sword before another man kicked it away, placing his gun to the back of her head.

"You screwed up, asshole." Three more men walked out from the bush, loading their weapons as the leader spoke. "You hear me? You screwed up."