Dead Man Walking | Rick Grimes

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"Rick!" I screamed through the walkie-talkie, my anxiety spiking as I was met with radio silence. Finally, after a few minutes of trying, Rick's voice came through again.

"I'm here, sweetheart," I breathed a breath of relief and lifted the walkie high enough for Daryl to hear.

"What's going on back there?" I asked, my voice coming out shaky.

"Half of them broke off," Rick explained, his walkie cut out a few times, "They're going towards Alexandria," I looked into the car and saw the confused look Abraham had on his face as he lifted the walkie to his mouth.

"Towards you?" His voice ran through the walkie.

"We ran ahead," Rick explained, breathless, "There's a horn or something loud coming from the east. It's not stopping." Daryl extended his hand over his shoulder, asking for the walkie. I handed it to him and pressed against him as much as possible to hear what was being said.

"I'm gonna gas it up, turn back," Daryl said into the walkie.

"No," Rick called out, "We have it. You keep going."

"They're gonna need our help!" Daryl retorted.

"Gotta keep the herd moving!" Rick said, obviously out of breath.

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

"The rest of that herd turns around, and the bad back there gets worse," Daryl stayed silent, thinking it over. I tightened my grip on him and nodded, knowing Rick was right.

"He's right, Daryl," I told the man, "We have to keep going. Rick will handle this!" The walkie buzzed once more as Rick called out for Daryl.

"Yeah?" Daryl answered, his voice loud.

"Take care of June for me," Daryl grunted and gently tapped my thigh, the walkie buzzing as static came through. I tightened my grip against Daryl, hoping that everything would be okay in the end. Unfortunately, we can't just turn around; we have the remainder of the herd following us. If we turn around, we risk bringing this herd back to Alexandria—I can't let that happen. Daryl revved his engine and pulled closer to Abraham and Sasha's car.

"Hey, we gone out five miles yet?" Daryl shouted over the loud growls emitting behind us.

"Give or take some yardage," Abraham shouted back, "You got a reason for asking?" Yeah, why is he asking?

"Next intersection, we're gonna spin around and go back!" Daryl shouted. Wait what? The plan is to go an entire twenty miles! We can't just abandon the plan! Five miles is still close enough to Alexandria!

"The plan is to go 15 more!" Sasha shouted from behind the wheel.

"Yeah, I'm gonna change that. Five's gonna have to work," Daryl shouted back.

"No," I said, earning his attention, "Five is still too close to the community!"

"Little Red's right!" Abraham agreed, "The magic number's 20. That's the mission. That's making sure they're off munching on infirm raccoons the rest of their undead lives instead of any of us."

"You wanna go? We can't stop you," Sasha nodded, "But without you, they could stop us," I tapped Daryl's side and shook my head, hoping that he would remain on course. Instead, Daryl sighed and flashed me a sorry frown as he looked at Abraham and Sasha.

"Nah, I got faith in you," He said as he started to speed ahead. I held on tighter and screamed his name, hoping he would stop. Instead, he shook his head again and kept flying forward, his back rigid against me. I held on tightly, knowing there was nothing I could say to make him stop. A part of me wished I would've climbed off the bike and joined Sasha and Abraham in the car—I can't just abandon our plan! But the other part of me is dying to get back to Alexandria. Carl, Selena, and Judith are there! I need to be there to protect them. I fought with myself mentally for the longest time, realizing we were nearing the community. We were at least a good two miles away.