Stray // Daryl Dixon

It Only Gets Much Worse

It felt like someone was splitting the centre of my head open with a dull knife. A blade zig-zagging down my scalp to crack open my skull in two. I coughed on the air, a cloud of smoke getting sucked into my lungs as my eyes adjusted to the dim light of the warehouse.

"Here, let me help you," I could hear Glenn's voice from above me as I propped myself up on my elbows. He placed his hand on my arm, gently pulling me to my feet.

"Oh my God, oh God," Nicholas exhaled as he coughed, "he's dead."

Glenn turned his flashlight in Nicholas' direction, the shelving unit completely crumbled to the ground now. We scanned the room when the light finally landed on Aiden against the back wall, a metal bar impaled through his left shoulder, holding him up. I felt dizzy. Then the groans came, the blast damaging the cage the walkers had been trapped behind.

"Noah? Tara? Eugene?" Glenn called out.

I clicked on my flashlight, looking around for them. I jumped when I spun on my heel, Noah appearing directly behind me. Dust and soot coated his face and his eyes squinted shut when the light hit him.

"You guys good?" he asked.

"Yeah. But the cage is open. They're getting out," Glenn answered.

"We need to find--"

"Over here!" Eugene's voice echoed through the room.

We followed his voice as he yelled out for us. We stepped over the shelving units that had been knocked down from the explosion, reaching the last unit to still remain intact. Eugene and Tara were on the other side. We peered through the boxes, our flashlights landing on Tara lying unconscious on the group from a pretty severe head wound. Blood coated the cement around her.

"Eugene is she breathing?" I yelled over to him. His face was whittled with worry and fright. He stuttered on his words unable to formulate a sentence. "Eugene!"

"I don't know! I think so!" he shouted back, panicked.

"They're getting close!" Nicholas called out to us.

Boxes, heavy boxes lay sprawled out everywhere cutting us off from getting through to Eugene and Tara quickly. I could hear the walkers closing in on us and we needed to think of something fast. I needed to think of something fast.

"Okay Glenn, Noah, move these boxes apart and get us through," I ordered, "Eugene you pick up Tara and everyone get in that office right now!" I yelled out, loud enough so Nicholas would hear me as he ran over.

Walkers appeared behind us as they followed Nicholas over. I turned on my heel, shooting them down as Nicholas pushed past me to get through the hole in the boxes Glenn and Noah had made. I back-stepped as I shot down the walkers I could get an easy aim on, eliminating as many as possible before I squeezed through the space myself. I slammed the office door behind me, knowing this was only a temporary safe haven. It would only be a matter of time before the walkers made their way around the aisles and back over to us, trapping us in.

"How is she doing?" Glenn asked. Eugene had laid Tara down on the office table, a pool of blood already seeping around her hair.

"She has serious head trauma. She's losing blood fast," Eugene informed us.

"How do we stop it?" Noah asked.

We all jumped when the walkers already reached us, slamming their hands up against the windows and chomping at the glass.

"Med kit was in Aiden's pack. It got blown to hell," Nicholas answered.

"There's another one in the van," Glenn said.