"Hey Tara!" I smile as her and Father Gabriel walk into the infirmary.

"Hey Lauren, just came to get some asprin." She smiles and then looks behind my shoulder at Denise who is reading a medical book. "Hello." Tara says in a friendly way.

Denise looks up from the thick brown book. "What can I do for ya?" She sets it down and stands up.

"Just came to see if there was any asprin. I have a bit of a headache." Tara explains.

"You had the head injury correct?" Denise asks and orders Tara to sit on the table. "I might want to have a look at that. I'm the new doctor now and I guess you're my first actual patient. It's a good thing since I'm still learning and I can't really kill you with a headache."

"It might be a hematoma." Eugene butts in.

Denise looks concerned and scared, Tara notices and jumps in. "No, no, it's just a headache. It's nothing more I'm sure." She gives the evil eye to Eugene who stares blankly back.

"You can go Lauren, I got this....I hope." Denise slowley checks Tara, trying to make sure she doesn't miss anything.

"You sure?" I ask as I pull on my sweater.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow."

"See ya!" I wave and walk out the door.

I walk down the street and remember Rick asked me to stop by the house for parts for Daryl's bike since Carol would be there watching Judith and Carl and Daryl is off on a run.

I walk towards the house not too far from mine. One of the neighbors waved to me as she stood on the lawn, smoking a cigarette. I waved back, not knowing who she was really and rang the doorbell. Of course Carl answered it and rolled his eyes. It's been five days since we last spoke while I patched him up.

"Hey, I just came to get the parts for Daryl." I look at the ground while I speak.

"Yeah, come in. I have to grab them from upstairs." He walks off into the house. I enter and close the door. I patiently wait in the kitchen, making small talk with Carol who is baking a casserole.

She glances out the window and then stops, her smile fading. That's when I hear the screams and immediately grab for my axe. I sigh in frustration and am about to run outside to see what's happening when Carol stops me. "You. Stay here." She grabs her knife.

Carl comes running down the stairs with a machine gun. "They're coming from all around." He too is about to run outside.

"Stay here and protect Judith." She says and runs out the front door. For once it seems like Carl might listen.

He tosses me his revolver. "Make sure no one is getting in upstairs."

I take the stairs two at a time and slowly go through every room with the pistol in my hands. It reminds me of when we were on the road and had to clear houses. It's like my instincts kicked in and reminded me how it was done. Quietly and carefully.

I hear a door slam downstairs and run down to see if one of them got in. "Carl?" Panic laces ny voice. Are you-" I stop when I see Enid standing there with a ring of keys in her hand.

"I'm fine." Carl waves me off and then turns to Enid. "There's a thing called knocking." He chastises her.

She throws him the keys. "I wasted you to have these."

"What are these?" He looks at them.

"They're keys to every building here. I want you to keep them." She explains and stays put near the door.

"Why?" Carl looks up at her with confusion written all over his face.

"Because I came to say goodbye."

Carl takes a step towards her. "You can't go. It's safer in here than it is out there. Besides, we need to protect Judith."

What does he think I'm doing? I spin on my heal and walk back up the stairs to get away from the couple. But curiosity takes over and I end up sitting on the top of the stairs so I'm out of view and listen to them.

"I have to go, Carl." She says forcefully.

"Then stay just a little while until it dies down." Carl somewhat pleads. I secretly wish he'd let her leave.

I can hear the gun being set down in the floor and the keys lay on the floor with a thunk and some shuffling, indicating that they were sitting down on the floor. They sit there for a minute until Enid speaks.

"This place is too big to protect. There are too many blind spots, too many places people can get in without being seen. That's how we were able to..." She trails off. That last part seems a bit suspicious.

They fall back into silence. I hope they're enjoying their time together while the place is under attack.

I sit there a while and get bored. I feel like I should be out there helping instead of sitting with these two love birds. God! Now I know how my friends felt!

I get up and head to Judith's room first to make sure her window was locked. She looks up at me from her sitting position and gurgles with a smile in her face. If only she knew what was going on.

I silently leave the room and go to what I presume is Carl's room since it has his clothes in it. Something on his nightstand catches my eye and I slowly walk to the side of the bed and pick up the plastic star that was perched right on the edge near the bed.

It was the plastic sheriff's badge that I gave him at Father Gabriel's church. I can't believe he still has it and that it's on his nightstand.

I snap out of it and get up, tossing the badge on the messy dark blue comforter.

The window is located right next to the tree outside the side of the house, so it was easy to shimmy down it. I look to see if anyone is around before I jump down.

I land on the ground and remove Carl's gun from the waist of my jeans and point it out infront of me before I peek around the corner. Ron is being chased by a person welding an axe. Carl runs out with the machine gun and tries to fight the guy off. Eventually Carl fights the guy to the ground and Carl goes to shoot the man but the man grabs the gun.

I watch as the man's brains splatter on the ground when Carl pulls the trigger. Ron looks shocked at him while Carl looks unbothered. Carl and him exchange words and Ron looks at Enid who is standing in the doorway before running off.

Carl looks over at the corner and I press flat against the wall, hoping he didn't see me. I take off running through the neighbors back yard.

I almost run into a man who is chopping up a dead person on the ground, but luckily he was too busy laughing like a maniac that he didn't hear me come up on him. I point the gun to the back of his head and he stops. I sense when he is about to turn around because he slides the machete out of the guys mauled stohmach. I pull the trigger without a second thought and continue moving through the streets and backyards.

I hear someone call out for help and full on sprint towards the voice. Soon I have a person sprinting after me because he fires at me and nearly misses me. I zigzag while trying to get to the voice that screams for help. I jump behind a tree and fire at the man. I miss him at first but the second one hits him in the chest. I don't even bother to take in mind what I just did before taking off again.

My heart stops and my blood runs cold when I finally get to the screaming person.

A woman wearing the same clothes as the intruders points a knife right at Oscar's heart.

"No!" I yell and fire my gun, but she drives the knife into his heart right as the bullet hits her head. I run over to my friend. "No. No. No. No." I mutter as I drop down next to Oscar who stares at me with worried eyes. "Somebody help!" I yell to no one. I know I can't take the knife out or the blood will spill out faster.

He grabs the collar of my shirt and pulls me down so I can hear him. "Don't. Bother. Tell Zainab. That. I. Love her." His breathing becomes harder and I feel the tears roll down my face.

"We can get you to the infirmary. We can-" I stop when his chest falls one last time and the light goes out of his eyes.

I barely close his eyelids before a blasting horn goes off throughout the town.