𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐌𝐒 𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐌𝐒
she's been through more hell than you'll ever know. but that's what gives her beauty an edge... you can't touch a woman who can wear pain like the grandest of diamonds around her neck

OUTSIDE near the vans, Octavia held the pistol to Eugene and waved it at him to grab. She couldn't stop thinking about her time last night with Daryl which made her cheeks flush.

"Oh, no, thank you," he said shaking his head.

"Just take it," she told him. "You gotta protect yourself."

"Not if I don't go." Eugene challenged her.

"We're not driving all that way so we can just drive back with the wrong shit." Aiden sighed, raising his brows at the man.

"It's a dozen of these," Eugene told him, holding up the little black box in his hands for each of them to see. "They are consistent in appearance across manufacturers. The shit will be right. I will install said shit. Then the grid will be fully operational again."

I shoved the gun at his chest and as he hesitantly took it. Tara threw my backpack at me.

"So, you and Daryl, huh?" I looked up her abruptly. "I saw him go to your house and not leave till this morning, his clothing all ruffled." I looked away, blushing. "Oh, shit. Give me the details."

"Uh." I shook my head and went to walk away. She gripped my shoulders, smiling.

"It's an innocent question." Tara jogged after her. "Don't make me hurt you."

Turning around and walking backwards, Octavia laughed. "I'd like to see you try."

"That everything?" Glenn asked and Octavia nodded. "All right."

After saying goodbye to Charlie and Beth, the group jumped into the van.

"Seriously, what happened?" Tara asked her and just then, music echoed through the van.

"Great, another mix." Octavia shrugged, fake pouting at her as both Noah and Glenn chuckled at their childish antics.

"THAT'S it there?" Octavia asked as she nodded to the building they pulled up and parked next to. 

"That's the warehouse," Aiden told her as she pulled her holster on tighter on her thighs and twisted her rifle around her chest. "Looks like that door is our fastest way in and out." 

"We should know all the exits first," Octavia suggested. "So there's a plan if things go south." 

"Already got one," Nicholas said smugly. "It's called going out the front." 

Turning to the sound of the single walker heading for them, Octavia cocked her gun, aimed it, and shot the walker in the head, and it fell backwards, legs bent.

"Look at you with the aim." Aiden chuckled, looking her up and down.

"Octavia's right, we should do a perimeter check. Know our exits just in case," Glenn stated and they nodded in agreement, and the group split up to do exactly that.

Octavia went with Noah and Glenn, and when they made it around the building just as a walked stumbled at her.

She punched it square in the face in reflex and then kicked it knees, sending it to the ground. She brought her knee up, and hit it in the forehead, sending it backwards. She yanked out her dagger from it's sheathe before plunging it in the walkers head. She then yanked out the dagger from it's head and put it back in it's sheathe, not bothering to wipe it off.

"Octavia?" She looked up at Glenn who called out her name. "How'd you learn all of that?"

"My dad mostly. The rest, I learned from experience," she told him, shrugging slightly.

"What was your dad?" Noah asked, tilting his head slightly.

"He was in the military, so we moved around a lot," she simply explained, not bothered by the fact that someone finally wanted to get to know her.

"What about your mom?"

"Dead," she spoke, looking at them with a questioning gaze.

"How did she die?"

"Murdered, basically." Octavia shrugged as they made it around a corner.

"Wha—"

The sound of walkers thankfully grabbed each of their attention, and they quickly went up to a chained link fence that held dozens on dozens of walkers out in front of the building. 

"Well." Octavia sighed turning to Glenn. "We're not getting out the front."

PUSHING open the back door, Octavia pounded on it, and listened to the sound of it echoing through the dark building. "Give it another second," she said, "It's a big place, there could be some inside."

"So let's say they are." Aiden nodded to them both. "Let's move and be safe."

"All right." Octavia nodded and turned to Glenn who nodded. He followed behind her, guarding her back as she led the way with a flashlight on her gun.

They split, and Tara went down another aisle with Eugene, while the others followed Octavia.

Leading the way down with Glenn right at her side, Octavia stopped and held her hand up to Aiden and Noah. "They're stuck behind something," she whispered, listening to the walkers shoving against something metal in the distance.

"How do you know?" Aiden asked, looking around with his own gun and flashlight.

"I don't." She assured him, moving forward. "But they aren't here."

Turning the corner, Octavia aimed down the aisles next to them and called, "Clear."

A few seconds later, they walked down and seen the chain link fence inside holding back dozens of walkers that growled louder at the sight of them.

Seeing they were secure in there, she nodded and lowered her gun. "Clear."

"You know your stuff," Aiden claimed, looking over Octavia with lustful eyes.

"Yeah, well, we were out there a long time," She told him, ignoring his compliment as she waved onwards. "There could be more."

"Let's get to work."

"THIS one here."

Octavia yanked out her dagger and cut it through the box that Eugene had pointed to. As she dug in it, throwing out the foam, she grabbed the device. "Found them," she spoke loud enough for them to hear.

The sound of silenced gun shots echoed through and Octavia turned to see Aiden firing at a walker heading towards him.

"It's got armor," Octavia called knowing exactly what he needed to do to kill it. "Let it come closer."

Cocking his head, Aiden informed them, "I got it." He pulled the trigger to hit it in the knees. As the walker dropped to the ground, Aiden kept firing his gun at it as Glenn's eyes scanned over its body and seen the grenade.

"Aiden, stop!"

But he fired his pistol once again and Octavia just felt the air rush from her lungs as her body flew through the air as the walker exploded right in front of her.

OCTAVIA jerked forward, coughing. She pushed her hair out of her face and looked around at the surroundings. She slowly slid up, her hand slipping on something wet. She reached over to her gun that still held the flashlight and looked down at her hand, finding blood.

Her eyes trailed over to her thigh only to see a gash. She growled before tanking off her flannel, ripped it in half, and then tied it tightly around her thigh, trying to stop the bleeding. She then clumsily stood up, groaning lightly.

The smoke filled the already dark warehouse and as she gasped for air, Octavia broke out into a coughing fit. 

"Oh, God." Nicholas cried in the distance. "Oh, God. He's dead." 

Octavia groaned and looked around and found her gun that had the flashlight attached to it, grabbed it, and aimed around her.

Looking around from the next aisle, Glenn shoved through the opening in the shelves and appeared in front of her. "O?"

Octavia coughed. "You good?" He nodded and she looked around the area. "Noah?" She called out, coughing roughly to try and get the feel of smoke out of her lungs. "Tara? Eugene?" 

At the sound of footsteps behind them, Glenn turned to see Noah blinded by their flashlight. "You good?" He asked lowering it. 

"Yeah." Noah nodded, looking over them to see Aiden stabbed through a fork lift near the exit door. "Cage is open. They're getting out." 

"We need to find—" 

"Here," Eugene yelled out desperately. "Over here." 

Pushing through, the three of them looked through and saw Tara unconscious on the ground with blood pooling out around her head. They were separated by fallen shelves.

"Is she breathing?" Octavia yelled to him, when he shook his head and shrugged, she grew stern. "Eugene!" 

"I —I can't tell from right here," Eugene told her truthfully, looking over the crashed down shelf between himself and their injured friend. 

"They're getting close," Noah called, listening to the sound of walkers closing in on them. 

"Walker!" Eugene yelled at them with nothing but terror on his voice and face. "Walker!"

"Eugene, it's yours!" Glenn shouted to him. "Take it out."

A few seconds later, Octavia heard him yell out and she literally jumped over the shelf, sliding to the other side, grabbed the walker that was on top of him, and slammed it's head down on a medal piece that was sticking out of the shelf.

She then bent down and pressed her fingers against Tara's blood covered neck. When she felt a pulse, she wrapped the girl's arm around her neck and pulled her up off the ground.

"HOW'S  she doing?" Glenn asked, turning to Octavia as she looked over Tara. 

"She has serious head trauma," Octavia told them, grabbing a piece of her shirt and ripping it off to wrap around the bleeding on Tara's skull. "She's losing blood way too fast." 

"How do we stop it?" Glenn asked her. 

"Med kit was in Aiden's pack." Nicholas shook his head running his hand over his face. "It got blown to hell. There's another one in the van." 

"She's on her way out," Octavia told them, feeling Tara's pulse growing weaker and weaker under her fingers. "We need to get her there." 

"All right, we'll get her there." Glenn nodded, looking at his Octavia with wide eyes. 

"Help!" Aiden's voice echoed through the entire warehouse. "Somebody!" 

"Oh, Jesus." Nicholas covered his mouth as they all turned to look through the windows of the office. 

"He's alive?" Glenn gasped in shock. 

"I checked him." Nicholas shook his head. "I — I thought—" 

"We've got to get him," Octavia said, moving around the table to grab her gun off the floor again. 

"It's gonna take at least four of us," Glenn said looking around at the others still standing. "We got that kind of time?" 

"We pull Aiden off there, we could kill him," Nicholas said shaking his head, clearly against this plan. 

"So you're saying we leave him?" Octavia asked, turning to him bitterly with narrowed eyes. 

"Go, save him," Eugene said loudly to them before looking down at Tara. "She'd do it. I know she would. I'll stay with her. I'll keep her safe, I assure you. I will." 

"All right, we'll knock 'em back." Glenn sighed and turned to Nicholas himself. "You still have that flare?" 

"Yeah." He nodded. 

"You fire the flare over the shelves. That'll draw some of them over. All right, we're gonna hit the rest hand to hand,"Glenn said before grabbing the door in his hands and looking at both Noah and Octavia, asking, "You ready?" 

"Yeah," they both said together before Glenn took a deep breath. 

"One, two, three." Glenn counted down before slamming the door open.

Octavia and Noah rushed through and threw their knifes — in O's case, a dagger — in the skulls of the walkers while Nicholas fired the flare off quickly. 

With no time to spare, the four of them rushed through the aisles of the warehouse and made it over to a conscious Aiden. 

"Hey, it's gonna be okay. We're gonna get you out of here," Octavia told him, looking over where he was stabbed through the side and the shoulder. "Everything's gonna be okay." 

"We need you to stay quiet, okay?" Glenn turned to him as Nicholas and Octavia helped hold him while Noah took watch. "Can you do that?" 

Nodding his head weakly, Aiden agreed and watched them all take a breath.

"Okay," Glenn told them. "One, two, three." 

The three of them grabbed a part of Aiden and pulled, which caused him to scream in excruciating pain.

"The flare," Noah shouted back over his shoulder to them. "It's burning out." 

"Come on!" Octavia yelled and took another breath. "Come on!"

"We're not gonna make this," Nicholas grunted as they attempted again and Aiden bit down to keep quiet. 

"Hey, yes, we are," Glenn said sternly to him. "But we need your help. You can do this." 

"Nick," Aiden sobbed weakly. "Nick, don't —don't leave me." 

"Okay." Nicholas took another breath and stepped froward ready to pull again. "Okay." 

"Three!" Octavia yelled, each of them pulling on his stuck body again just to end up dropping him back deeper. 

Panting because he knew it was a lost cause, Nicholas leaned forward and spoke softly to Aiden, "You left them. We both did. That's who we are," he said and started walking backwards. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." 

As he turned to run, Octavia grabbed after him, but stopped when Noah called loudly. "They're coming." 

Turning instantly, Glenn and Octavia moved to pull Aiden down by themselves.

"Okay, it was — it was us," Aiden said stopping them both from moving. "The others before. They didn't panic. We did. It was us." 

Over his gun shots, Noah yelled, "They're here!"

And Octavia went to rip Aiden down, but he shoved her and Glenn away from him. Seeing what he was doing, Glenn quickly grabbed Octavia with Noah's help and rushed her from the back of the warehouse just as the walkers slammed their fingers and jaws down onto Aiden—his screams filling the entire building. 

"Nicholas, stop!" Glenn yelled as they raced down the hallways and towards the front lobby of the building. 

"Hey!" Noah called too, seeing the lobby full of walkers. "You'll never make it. Heads up." 

Pulling her trigger, Octavia saw nothing coming out to hit the skull of the walker. She figured this was how she was going out, because of one coward running for his life.  "I'm out!" She screamed, using her gun, and began to bash walkers skull's in.

Grabbing the one behind her, Glenn slammed his pistol into it's skull and reached back to grab Octavia's hands. "Let's go!" He yelled, shoving her into the glass cubby of the rotating doors. Noah jumped in with them.

Nicholas launched himself on the other side of them and panted with walkers trying to get in on both sides.

Keeping their hands up against the glass to keep the doors from moving, they were all panting heavily.

"Idiot!" Octavia screamed at Nicholas who was on the other side of them. 

"Hey, maybe — maybe we can shoot our way past them," Nicholas yelled over the pounding and growls of the walkers surrounding them. "You guys still have guns." 

"And you have the ammo!" Glenn snapped back at him with nothing but anger in his voice.

"We've got to do something, man. We're gonna die in here."

"No duh, Sherlock!" Octavia shouted at him, her thigh stinging as she was putting too much pressure on it.

Just then, a horn went off and a van was seen. It stopped right behind the walkers. Just as the walkers moved out of their sight, they saw Eugene driving.

Octavia chuckled a little as the walkers on the outside started following him.

And that was when she realized something. They still couldn't get out without one of the doors being faced towards the walkers and that way, they would end up dead.

"I need you both—" Octavia started, gaining a plan in her head. "Hey!" She pounded on the glass. "Nicholas!" She gained his attention. "I need you and Noah to keep the door steady, okay?" They nodded. "Glenn and I'll break the glass." She grabbed the gun as Glenn grabbed his empty rifle. "We get out, you push out. We get the rifle and we're good. Okay?" She asked as she noticed him panicking. "Okay!?"

Glenn and Octavia took a breath and slammed their guns against the glass, causing the doors to push forward and Nicholas' side to have an opening against him.

"No! No, stop!" Nicholas screamed, trying to pull it shut again as the walkers reached inside. "It's not safe!"

"This is the only way!" Octavia screamed back at him, holding her side so Glenn could try again. "Hold it steady!"

"No, it's not gonna break!"

"It will." Noah nodded to him on the other side. "We can hold it. We can. Trust me, okay?"

"Count of three," Glenn told them.

Octavia nodded, holding her hands firmly against the glass to where her skin was becoming white with the pressure.

"One, two—"

"No!" Nicholas screamed again and shoved his body against the opposite side of the doors. He was trying to get out which only let Octavia and Noah closer to the walker's on the other side.

"Hey! Nicholas!" Glenn screamed seeing him pushing farther and farther through. "Nicholas, don't! Nicholas!"

"Son of a bitch!" Octavia screamed at the top of her lungs as she watched him throw his bag through the doors and then shoved his entire body through. "Hey, don't do it!" But as he cleared it, the doors shoved open and the walkers reached inside. "No!"

Dropping to the ground, Octavia felt the hands on her legs and she screamed while holding tightly onto Noah who was being dragged away from her by the walkers.

"Don't let go!" Noah begged them, looking into Octavia's eyes before she felt him sliding away from her.

"Noah! Noah!" She screamed with Glenn matching her panic. He was yanked from her and Glenn quickly pulled her away from the walkers as the doors slammed on them.

In a few seconds, Noah was then shoved against the glass and Octavia screamed at the top of her lungs. "No!"

Just as the walker's ripped into his flesh and pulled his face apart right in front of them. Octavia sobbed uncontrollably as Noah's screams died down and the blood sprayed over the glass.

AS they made it to the van, Octavia yanked Nicholas out of the van and threw him to the ground. She then bent down and started punching him, over and over again until her hands went numb.

"You stupid son of a bitch!" She yelled out, standing up and kicked him in the gut. "He was just a fucking kid." She kicked him again and again until her leg — the one with the gash on it — gave out on her, and she fell to the ground, tears falling down her face.

Octavia looked down at her hands, seeing blood covering them. Her knuckles were slightly bruised and as she looked down at Nicholas's unconscious body, she screamed out in rage and sadness.

"Help me get him in the back," Glenn spoke up. "Let's leave Octavia for a second."

"Where's Noah?" Eugene asked which made more sobs escape Octavia's body.

Nobody else said anything.