Fear of the Unknown

The herd was hot on our heels, maybe ten minutes behind us. We stumbled through the woods, my boots catching on roots sprouting from the forest floor and twisting my ankles in the soft dirt hidden under the leaves. My lungs heaved for air after an already long day of running, my lips cracked and my throat quenched for water. We followed the sound of the horn as did at least half of the herd. The fear of the unknown pushed us at an even faster pace through the woods.

"Try again," Glenn stopped for a brief moment, looking at Rick. My heels slid in the leaves, hunching over and placing my hands on my knees to catch my breath.

"Tobin, it's not stopping. Light it up. You hear me?" Rick said through the walkie. We paused for a moment, waiting for a response. The walkie crackled with static, hearing no response from Tobin. "Tobin!" Rick yelled again.

My head snapped up at the sound of a walker snarling ahead of us. We needed to keep moving.

"Michonne," I called out.

"Got it," she answered, slicing her sword across the head of the single walker.

"Shit! Shit! It was half," Sturgess cried out as he stumbled up behind us with the rest of Rick's team. "Jesus, it was more than half."

"We just gotta stay ahead of them. They walk, we run," Annie pushed Sturgess along after us.

We were jogging up a steep hill, weaving through the trees, back towards Alexandria. We were miles away though, if we wanted to get back to see what the hell was going on and stay ahead of the herd our only option was to keep running.

"Rick!" Darryl's voice echoed over the walkie.

"I'm here," Rick answered.

"What's going on back there?"

"Half of them broke off. They're going towards Alexandria."

"Towards you?" Abraham's voice then chimed through.

"We ran ahead. There's a horn or something. Loud, coming from the east. It's not stopping."

"I'm gonna gas it up, turn back," Daryl offered.

"We have it. You keep going," Rick immediately shut down that idea. We needed them to make sure the other half of the herd stayed on track. They needed to stick to the original plan, drive them twenty miles out.

"They're gonna need our help," Daryl fought.

"Gotta keep the herd moving," Rick yelled.

"Not if it's going down, we don't."

"The rest of that herd turns around, the bad back there gets worse. Daryl?"

"Yeah, I heard ya."

The sound of Annie screaming out caused us all to swing our heads back around. She was laying on the ground, rolling onto her back as she clutched her ankle. Glenn slid back down the hill, helping her to her feet and throwing her arm over his shoulder for support. By the time we finally reached the top of the slope, knowing that the steep climb would slow the walkers by a few minutes, Rick stopped to regroup.

"Alright, listen up. Here's the new plan," he called out, making sure the stragglers approaching could hear him. "I go back, get the RV, circle around the woods on Redding. I'll get in front of them before they get there. I can lead them away again."

"The RV's a mile back. I can go with you," David offered, heaving in a breath.

"I'll handle it. Just get home. They might need you there," Rick declined. "Glenn, Scar, Michonne," Rick called on us, nodding his head over for us to follow him away from the group. We walked a couple of meters away, out of earshot from the rest of the team. "If something's in front of you, you kill it. No hiding, no waiting. You keep going," he explained.

"I'm going with you. You can't do this on your own," Glenn grabbed Rick's arm.

"I'm not. Scar, will come with me," Rick answered, looking up at me. I sucked in a deep breath, my lips pursing together as I desperately tried to cover up my nerves. Rick and I'd be taking on the herd alone. "You're the fastest. You can keep up and we can get ahead of them before they reach Redding."

I nodded my head, the realization kicking in and punching me in the gut. Today went from nerve-racking to terrifying all within a few hours. And something about being so frightened for what we were about to do sent me into an eerily calm state. It was like one big fuck it. It was now or never if we at least wanted the chance to save Alexandria.

Glenn's face still looked doubtful, this herd was too much for only two people to handle. But, we didn't have very many options and the rest of the team was out of the question.

"You need to help me," Michonne said, looking at Glenn. "We've gotta get these people back. I can't get them back alone."

"Yeah," Rick shakily breathed out, looking back at the remaining residents of Alexandria, "The thing is, they aren't all gonna make it."

"Rick--"

"You try and save them, you try, but if they can't keep up, you keep going." He gave Michonne and Glenn the harsh reality. "You have to. You make sure you get back," he stressed.

We were silent, Glenn and Michonne realizing they had just as hard of a job ahead of them. Of course, we'd try our hardest, but it was still always going to be us before them. Our heads snapped back towards the group, the sound of screaming coming from one of the men. A walker in a shredded flannel sat hunched over the man, its teeth sunk deep into his throat as he flailed from underneath it.

"Oh, god!" the man shouted as Glenn pulled the walker from his throat. The skin ripped through its teeth, blood spewing out from the wound. Michonne instantly stabbed her sword through the walker's skull, silencing it. The rest of the group approached, staring down at their friend. The man continued to cry out, the bite mangling his neck, but not crushing his trachea. He bled out slowly, what would have been and long a painful death before Michonne walked over, wincing as she put him out of his misery with the tip of her blade.

There was silence among us, the only sound filling the atmosphere was the horn before it finally cut off. The wind through the leaves and the birds high in the trees regaining their voice. Rick knelt down, stripping the man of his weapons and pocketing them. He looked up at the team, his face stern.

"Get back safe."

---------

Rick and I had made it to the road. The burning in my nose and mouth now reaching my lungs. But, we keep going because we know we have to. The sun beat down on our backs, the shade from the trees no longer sheltering us. My tank top clung to my skin with sweat, my once loose baby hairs now slicked back across my forehead. I pulled my shirt from my skin, trying to get the breeze of running to separate it, but as soon as it slipped from my fingertips it hit my stomach with a slap. What we were doing was insane. We were now running back towards the herd, trying to get to the RV. This was our last shot and damn did we have to move fast.

I retrieved my crowbar from my belt loop, spotting trouble up ahead. Rick ran right beside me, stepping in sync with one another. We slowed our pace as Glenn's voice rang through the walkie at the worst time possible. The walkers feasting on the body of a woman up ahead hearing the static of Glenn's voice.

"Rick, Scar. We're in a town five degrees east of the green marker," Glenn informed us. I gripped my crowbar tight in my hand as Rick pulled out his pocket knife. "If you get around on Redding in the next twenty minutes, you should be good." Rick placed his hand to the neck of the first walker, twisting his knife into the side of its skull before the blade broke off when trying to retract it. "I think that's how far we're ahead of the herd." A female walker then got to her feet, approaching Rick. I swung my arm's back, holding my weapon like a baseball bat as I indented the back of her head. She fell to her knees and I hit her again, crushing her skull. "I'm gonna try and set a fire and distract them." Rick hit the next walker with his machete, holding it down and slicing the back of its head open, cutting his own hand in the process. "If you don't see smoke, they're still coming your way." My eyes shot open at the blood dripping down his arm, taking down the last walker with one stab through the base of its jaw. Rick gripped his hand close to his chest in pain. "I gotta go. Good luck, dumbasses," Glenn bid us goodbye.

"Come on, we're almost there," I pulled on Rick's shirt, feeling a new burst of energy. We were ahead. Glenn was ahead. He'd buy us more time with the fire. We still had this under control.

It took us about ten minutes to reach the RV, which means we now only had ten minutes to reach Redding. We approached the yellow marker, seeing the campervan parked up alongside the panel walls we installed to turn to herd to the right, further away from Alexandria. Rick swung open the door, running inside the boiling camper. He sat down in the driver's seat, fumbling his hand under the dashboard trying to find the keys.

"Rick, give them to me," I insisted as he pulled them from their hiding spot. He looked over at me, breathing heavily as he balled his injured hand against his chest. "Give me the keys," I yelled, rushing him. He slapped them down in my hand, switching spots with me. I jingled them in the ignition, hearing the engine sputter on slowly. We were on our way.

I sped down the road as fast as the RV would allow me, making up lost time from backtracking towards where we had parked it. Rick fiddled with the walkie as he kept an eye out for the fire Glenn said he would set. So far there wasn't any indication of smoke in front of us, which only left us anxious about what was going on, on their end.

"Glenn," Rick called for him through the radio. He held it out in front of us, only static waves coming through for the other side. I kept my eyes focused on the road ahead, turning onto Redding. I stopped the RV about halfway down the road, now all we had to do was wait. "We're in place by our best guess," Rick continued to speak to him anyway. "You guys make it back yet?" he asked. More static hissed through the radio. "Glenn." Nothing. "Tobin, you there?" Rick tried the other team. Still nothing. "Daryl?" he called out.

"I'm here," Daryl's voice was the first to answer.

"It won't be long now. They're almost here. I'll get them going your way again."

"Rick, where's Red?" Daryl disregarded Rick's information. "I told ya to watch her. That was the deal," he snapped through the walkie.

Rick looked over at me, his lips pursing together as a soft laugh emitted from his lips. He raised his brows at me amused, holding the walkie out for me to take.

"That's why you asked me to come with you?" I rolled my eyes at him.

"You are fast," Rick answered, still shaking the walkie for me to answer Daryl. I snatched it from his hand, shaking my head.

"Daryl, it's me. I'm here," my voice carried through the walkie.

"Shit," I could hear Daryl mutter under his breath, "You waiting for the herd?" Daryl asked.

"Yup," I laughed, "you picked a hell of a babysitter for me. Now it's only Rick and I that stand between a couple of hundred walkers and Alexandria."

The line was silent as Rick and I could hear the faint sounds of gunshots coming from behind us. Coming from back home. My heart sped as Rick grabbed the walkie back from my hands.

"There's gunfire coming from back home," he informed Daryl. "We gotta sit with it and hope they can handle it." It was like he was speaking to both Daryl and I. Spotting the clear worry in my scrunched-up brows, he was trying to settle me down. "I think they can. They have to. We keep going forward for them. Can't turn back 'cause we're afraid."

"We ain't afraid," Abraham was the first to respond.

"This is for them. Going back now before it's done, that'd be for us--"

The RV door slammed open, bouncing off the inside wall as a man fired off rounds at our heads. Rick jumped over to my side, both of us ducking down behind the seat.

"Rick?" Daryl's voice buzzed through the walkie, "Red!"

Rick got to his feet before me, running at the man that was clearly ill-trained with a gun as he tried to reload. I could feel my adrenaline pumping as I stumbled to my feet. Rick already had the man pinned to the floor of the RV, when a second man came barreling in to attack Rick from behind. The man wore a blue baseball cap, his eyes and ears instantly following the commotion and not even spotting me past the cap of his hat. He picked Rick off of his feet effortlessly, strangling him with his arm from behind.

Without a reasonable thought in my mind, I ran at the man twice my size. I grabbed at my belt, my fingers fumbling with the loop as I realized my crowbar had slipped out when Rick jumped on me. Already in the motion, I leaped onto the man's back, my own arm snaking around his neck as I screamed. I gripped my legs around his body, using it as leverage to raise my right arm and repetitively bring my elbow down hard on the top of his head. The man stumbled backwards, releasing Rick from his grasp to now deal with me. I kept digging my elbow deep into his skull as he kept backing up. He swung me around until he slammed all his weight against the RV wall, crushing me in the middle.

All of the air left my body as my limbs went limp. My back slid against the wall of the RV, my legs crumbling from underneath me before my ass hit the floor. The man now turned, reaching out for me as a bullet from Rick's gun lodged into his temple. The second bullet hit the first man that was now unconscious on the floor. My lungs shallowly sucked in air as they began to fill my lungs again. I watched as the blood pooled out from the man's skull just inches away from my feet. My eyes, not breaking from the carved W in the skin on his forehead.

"Thank you," Rick huffed out. I finally looked over at him, his good hand extended out to help me to my feet. I stood up, wiping the sweat from my forehead as we both stared down at the dead man. Rick then slowly knelt down, retrieving something from the man's jacket pocket. Rick's hands shook as he held a small jar of Judith's applesauce. Rick looked over at me, both of us realizing what was going on back at Alexandria right now. The Wolves had found us.

My head shifted back towards the open RV door, my heart rate picking up once again. The noise of the herds hissing and wailing filtering in through the open space as they began to stumble out from the woods. They were here. Rick jumped into the driver's seat, the surprise attack from the Wolves allowing the herd to catch up to us before we were ready. Rick turned the keys in the ignition as I watched through the window. Their heads multiplied, turning into one big blur. The engine sputtered repetitively, not starting up.

"Rick! We've gotta get this thing moving!" I shouted, hearing the engine continue to give out.

Rick punched the dashboard as his eyes pricked with tears, finding Judith's applesauce being too much for him to bear. "No, no, no, no, no."

The dead's groans grew louder as they began to swarm the RV, the engine now completely giving out on us. Our plan was ruined, the herd was headed straight to Alexandria, and we'd be dead if we didn't leave right now.

"Rick, we gotta go now!"