𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐆𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑

𝟐𝐱𝟎𝟗

THE entirety of the predicament we were in was severe and intense. Yet, it is the end of the world. "Holy shit." Glenn muttered. "You all right?" Rick asked Glenn. "Yeah." He answered. Rick then looked at me, and I just nodded my head signaling I was okay. "Hershel?" Rick asked. To which Hershel just stood there in silence. He then looked at Rick and nodded his head as Rick nodded his head in unison. "We need to get the hell out of here." I said looking outside to see it pitch black out.

All three of them nodded in agreement as Rick went to grab Tony's gun. He did a good ole officer pat down and found bullets to the gun. We were walking toward the front of the bar and Glenn walked over to Dave's body and picked up his handgun. Then we heard a car approaching from outside the bar. "Car. Get down." Rick said hastily as we hid by the door. Glenn was looking around nervously. I grabbed his hand and told him I loved him. "Your gonna be fine. I've got you alright." I assured him. He turned to look at me and nodded me before squeezing my hand back.

We heard the engine shut off and feet hitting the gravel. The door had closed and we heard steps making their way toward the bar. "Dave? Tony? They said over here?" Man #1 questioned. "Yeah." Another man answered. "I'm telling you man, I heard shots." Another man said frantically. "I saw roamers two streets over. Might be more around here." Man #2 informed. "It's hot. We gotta get out of here." Man #1 stated. "Dave! Tony!" Man #3 exclaimed from outside the door. "Shut up, you idiot! You wanna attract 'em? Just stick close. We're gonna find 'em." Man #1 advised.

Hershel and I looked at each other uneasily. Something was gonna go wrong, I felt it in my gut. One walked closer to the door to the point you could hear the floor boards creak beneath his feet. "Dude, he said to stay close." Man #2 scolded. "Tony." Man #3 whispered waking around the perimeter. I had my daggers in my hand ready to throw, so I could cause a diversion and we could get the hell out of here.

We had been sitting on the floor to make sure that they wouldn't see our shadows through the windows. After we heard no sudden movements being made, Rick stood up and looked out the window. He then crouched back down and crawled over to where Hershel, Glenn and I had been sitting. "Why won't they leave?" Glenn whispered. "Would you?" Rick whispered. "We can't sit here any longer. Let's head out the back and make a run to car." Rick continued whispering while suggesting an escape plan.

We all nodded and were quietly making our way to the back until we heard a gun fire. We gasped and ran back to our hiding spot. Then we heard more gunfire. "What happened?" The man outside asked another man. "Roamers, I nailed 'em." The guy answered. "They disappeared but their car's still there. I cleared those buildings. You guys get this one?" Man #2 asked. Rick looked our way as we heard their conversation. These men were gonna come in here next.

"No." Man #3 answered. "Me neither." Man #1 answered. "We're looking for Dave and Tony and no one checks the damn bar?" Man #2 scolded. We all heard footsteps approaching back over to the bar and we all looked at each other frantically. Rick cocked his revolver and I held up the daggers in my hands in preparation. The guy opened the door and Glenn ran to door to block them from coming in. I could ring his skinny little neck right now. "What the hell?" I mouthed at him. "What?" Man #3 questioned. "Someone pushed it shut. There's someone in there." Man #2 answered. "Yo, is someone in there?!" Man #3 yelled. "Yo, if someone's in there, we don't want no trouble. We're just looking for our friends." He continued.

"What do we do?" Man #1 asked. "Bum rush the door?" Man #3 suggested. "No, we don't know how many are there. Just relax." Man #2 advised. "We don't want any trouble. We're just looking for our friends. If something happened, tell us. This place is crawling with corpses. If you can help us not get killed, I'd appreciate it." Man #2 continued as he yelled to get our attention.

I looked at Rick to see him eyeing Tony and Dave's bodies before looking back toward the floor. He wiped the beads of sweat forming on his head and contemplated what to do next. "Your bugging. I'm telling you nobody's in there. Someone guard the door. If they're in there, they might know where Dave and Tony are." One of the men advised. We heard footsteps departing away from the door.

"They drew on us!" Rick yelled suddenly. I rubbed my temples with my fingers and sighed. Hershel and I shook our heads in unison. Really Rick? You just had to open your mouth. Then we heard footsteps approaching back towards the door to the bar. "Dave and Tony in there? They alive?" Man #2 asked. "No." Rick answered. "They killed Dave and Tony." Man #2 told his companions. "Come on, man. Let's go." Man #1 urged. "No, I'm not leaving, I'm not telling Jane. I'm not gonna go back and tell them that Dave and Tony got shot by some assholes in a bar." Man #2 disagreed.

"Your friends drew on us! They gave us no choice! I'm sure we've all lost enough people, done things we wish we didn't have to, but it's like that now. You know that! So let's just chalk this up to what it was, wrong place, wrong-!" Rick's telling gut cut off as the men started firing their guns at the glass windows in the door. The glass was falling on top of Glenn and I crouched down above him. A shard of glass cut my forehead in the process but I disregarded the pain. We did not have time for this right now.

Rick then fired his gun out the door and shot towards the men outside. "Get outta here! Go!" Rick shouted at us. "No! Your coming with us! We're not leaving you alone in the bar!" I yelled over the gun fire. Hershel and Glenn ran to the back of the bar as the glass was shattering. I ran to the back of the bar with Glenn and Hershel. Glenn was behind another wall and so was Hershel. I was under a table. The gun fire had stopped, as it did we all looked at each other wearily and visibly breathing heavily. Whelp we were definitely going to be late for dinner.

Rick was reloading his revolver. "Hey! We all know this is not gonna end well! There's nothing in it for any of us! You guys just-just back off, no one else gets hurt!" Rick warned. We heard a bottle rattle from the back and Glenn held the gun to his chest tightly. Rick tilted his head, subtly asking Glenn to check the back. I was watching Glenn intently. I was not letting him get shot. I heard the shot gun go off where Glenn had been and I ran to the basement in the bar.

"Glenn! Glenn!" Rick yelled frantically. I stood by Glenn who looked visibly shaken up. "Are you okay?" I asked in concern. "I'm alright." He told me, yet I could see he was lying. "He's alright!" I yelled to ease Rick's nerves. Glenn stood by the door and cocked his shotgun. I still had my daggers and my sword. I know I know, why the hell would you bring knives to a gun fight Ara? I've just always been better with them, plus I could easily kill someone with it and quietly.

I stood on the other side of the door, just in case. We heard footsteps behind us and Glenn raised his gun while I had up my daggers only to see Hershel. He put his hand up and pushed the shot gun away from him. "Sorry. Sorry." Glenn apologized while exhaling in relief. "Rick wants you guys to try for the car." Hershel told us. "What about him?" I asked as Glenn asked "Try?"

"He'll be right behind us and you'll both try and succeed. I'll cover you both." Hershel assured us sternly. "This plan is shit." I uttered. "That's a great plan." Glenn agreed sarcastically before turning around to face the broken window. Glenn slowly opened the double doors. He had the shot gun firmly in his hand. Hershel was standing behind us with the handgun against his chest. Glenn and I looked both ways before we walked out cautiously together.

Then gunshots went off and one hit me in the abdomen. I clutched my stomach in pain as I heard Hershel shoot the guy down. Glenn had made it behind the trash can. I staggered behind him. "Glenn." I breathed out. He turned around and looked at me. He then trailed his eyes to my stomach and looked at all the blood. "No no no no no. Your okay, your okay." He uttered frantically before pressing against the gun shot wound tightly to try and stop the bleeding.

He ripped a long strip of his shirt and tied a tourniquet above the wound and tightened to the best of his ability. The adrenaline in my body had been pumped up to a thousand. I felt numb and the red warm liquid felt wet and kind of sticky against my fingers. I felt this buzzing in my ear, sort of like this alarm clock going off in my head and I can't hit snooze or stop. Luckily, the adrenaline was still pumping through my veins, because if it hadn't I'd be writhing in agony.

The other guy that Hershel shot had been groaning loudly. I heard footsteps approaching quickly from inside the bar had assumed it was Rick. "Hershel! Hershel! Ara's been shot!" Glenn shouted fearfully and Rick ran over. "Ara!" Rick whisper-shouted. "Hey there ranger." I let out in a raspy tone. "We've gotta get her back to the farm. She can't be out here any longer!" Glenn whispered frantically. "Are you hit?" Rick asked Glenn. "No. No. Just her." Glenn told him. Glenn had been holding me in his arms and made sure I was staying awake behind the dumpster.

Rick then sat down by us and looked at my fatigue filled expression and Glenn's panicked one. "It's alright. The car's right there. We're gonna make sure we get her there." Rick reassured my brother. "Okay." Glenn breathed out. "We're almost home. You good?" Rick asked my brother. "I'm just worried about her." Glenn told him referring to me.

All the commotion I blocked out. I heard the faint gun shots but I hadn't heard much. I felt the blood in between my fingers, making them stick together. The roof of my mouth had felt dry and cracked. The pain had began to set in and it hit me like truck. The hot searing pain felt like a heated knife cutting into my skin. I had felt it all at once, over all surrounding sounds void of pertinence. It had been intense and fast acting. Remind me to never get shot again. Now I know how Carl felt.

I had been lifted off the ground and led to the car. As soon as the door shut, I saw through my glassy clouded vision that Hershel and Glenn ran to go check something out. I had tried to overcome the need to close my eyes and sleep. It had reminded me of that one time my sisters and I were staying up and watching a bunch of movies. We had made a bet to see which one of us could stay up the longest. I had definitely lost. I was so exhausted, I had remembered my eyelids growing heavy and sleep taking over me. I felt that same exhaustion and drowsiness overcome me. The dark black spots had clouded my vision.

Maybe this was a good thing, this new world was eventually gonna beat me, at least I got to tap out early. I closed my eyes and let out a long breath. Sleep never felt so good.

Gotta love cliffhangers am I right? Is my girl dead? Is she not dead? How does Daryl feel about this? This season is almost over and I am soooo excited. Season 3 and 4 were two of my most favorite seasons. Everyone was in their murder phases in seasons 3, 4, and 5. I've got really good plans for this series. Anywho this one was short mainly because my girl got shot...but the next one will be longer. See you guys next time and love you 3000.