Stray // Daryl Dixon

Until I Collapse

Mark and I sprinted towards the source of the crash, my heels slid to a halt on the tiled floor and I nearly slipped on the liquid seeping through the cracks of the tiles. Two frames of shelves holding wine bottles had toppled over, landing just on top of some stacked boxes in the next aisle. Underneath the frames lay Bob.

"What happened?" I asked as I ushered over to help pick up the first frame.

"I was moving fast, I drove right into the drinks," Bob responded, laughing in disbelief.

"What happened?" Glenn called out from a couple of aisles over, not yet reaching the scene.

"Everyone is fine! We're over in wine and beer!" Zach called out to them.

"You cut or anything?" Daryl asked.

"Nah, man. But my foot is caught underneath."

"Man, you lucked out. If this thing had come down on you the wrong way..." Tyreese said as we propped the first frame back up.

Just then the ceiling caved in just to the right of Bob, we all jumped back staring up at a walker that had fallen through, its intestines getting caught on one of the broken panels as it hung in mid-air. Glenn and Sasha finally reached where we were.

"Ugh, yeah, we should probably go now," Glenn stated the obvious as he stared up at the dangling walker.

"Bob's still stuck. Get him out of there," Daryl ushered, running back over to the second frame.

"We'll get the others," Michonne said before a second walker came darting through the ceiling, landing face down on the tile.

Another walker then went flying through the hole the first walker came from, knocking that one down in the process.

"Scar!" Mark shouted my name before I was toppled to the ground by him, knocking the wind out of my chest. Not even a second later a walker fell through and hit the ground right where I had been standing. He got off of me and helped me to my feet. None of us had any time to process what we should do next as more walkers continued to fall through the roof while the others got to their feet and began to swarm us. We were directly underneath the sinkhole.

Everyone began to disperse, running down the separate aisle to try and get away from the pack of walkers that surrounded them. There were too many, we had no choice but to use our guns. My ears rang with the number of shots that were being fired within the warehouse.

I ran around to the aisle to my right, sandwiched between two walkers. A woman came limping towards me, hunched over and dragging her leg at a speed I have never seen a walker move before. I raised my gun, blowing my bullet straight through her skull. I quickly spun around, shooting the second walker just as it reached out for me. Before I had time to take a breath, pieces of the ceiling crumbled down on top of me, sending a walker down with it and knocking me off my feet. I tried to scoot myself away from it as it pulled on my calves. Finally, I reached my gun on the ground above me and aimed it directly at its forehead. Hitting the trigger I heard a faint click, making my heart sink. I'm out of ammo.

Throwing my gun to the side, I managed to yank back one of my legs, stomped the walker's head to the side, and pushed it off my other leg. I nearly fell again when trying to get to my feet so quickly, my heart was in the pit of my stomach. They just kept coming, more and more descending from the ceiling. They were crowding me. I ran up a stacked tower of beer cases, just out of their reach, but I was stuck.

"Hey! Hey!" Bob yelled at us, still stuck underneath the frame.

Being distracted by Bob's cries for help I felt a walker's hand grasp onto my left ankle. I instantly looked down and used my right leg to kick the walker in the chest, away from it. My breath escaped my body when my back slammed down on the beer cases, the walker's grasp being so tight on its next meal that it took my foot right from underneath me.

"Red!" Daryl's voice rang in my ears as he called out to me.

That's when I saw it, laying on my back the sun beating down on my face from the gaping hole in the roof. Half of a helicopter teeter tottered through the hole, only a couple of metal bars and some steel panels that were still intact held it in place. That's why so many walkers were on the roof.

Daryl began to shoot the walkers around my tower of boxes before reaching out his hand for me to grab. He lifted me down, placing me back on my feet once again.

"We gotta get out of here!" I shouted as the helicopter creaked and one of the steel panels fell out of place echoing a heavy bang through the warehouse. The room began to get darker as the helicopter slipped further through the hole cutting off the sun's beam of light.

"Daryl! Scar! Go!" Glenn shouted at us as he shot down the walkers that continued to close in.

"We need to get Bob!" Daryl responded.

We rounded the frames back to where Bob lay. Zach was shooting down walkers just a few feet in front of him. I ran up behind Daryl, looking down to see Bob's fingers knuckle deep in a walker's eyes that had dragged itself towards him. Daryl reached down and heaved the walker back and stomped on its skull, the bone, shattering underneath his foot.

Zach ran over, helping Daryl lift the frame as I linked my arms with Bob's to help pull him out.

"More, more!" Bob instructed them as I pulled as hard as I could. Finally, Bob slid out, freeing his foot from the shelf.

"Come on, time to go!" Daryl shouted for us to move.

The helicopter was coming down, panels, wood, and metal bars dropping to the floor and on top of us.

"Let's go!" Let's go--"

Then we stopped, a blood-curdling shriek coming from behind us as we turned to run. I looked to see Zach sprawled out on his stomach, a walker tearing out his Achilles heel as he cried out for help.

"Zach!" Glenn screeched out before another panel collapsed down on the ground in front of us. The walker was at his neck now, using Zack's backpack to pull himself up. It sunk its teeth into the skin, ripping out the tendons in his neck.

"Go, go! We gotta go!" Tyreese shouted at us, pushing people along.

I could still hear his shouts for help as we ran. We were only halfway through the superstore when the helicopter collapsed through the roof, the thud of it pummeling into the floor bouncing off the walls. The screaming had finally stopped.