Future Ghosts • TWD

159. The Tunnel.

After getting through the piles of bodies, the group found that the entire tunnel was blocked off by a train. Roy and Gage disappeared from the group without a trace, taking all of the supplies with them Everyone seemed shocked, except for Rosie. She couldn't be surprised by anything bad Gage had done because he was already at the top of her asshole list. And, either way, they couldn't be surprised by anything else at all going wrong. Everything just seemed to always go wrong. 

The worst part was, though, that a massive group of walkers was following them through the tunnel. With the train blocking the way, they didn't exactly have an escape route, so they were essentially cornered. 

While some went to try and pry open the doors to the train, the others began fighting off the walkers. There were too many, though. They couldn't kill all of those walkers in time. So their only option was to climb over the train. 

"All the way up to the top! Go!" Daryl shouted to them all. 

Rosie was waiting for Ian to get all the way up on the roof of the train so that he could help her and Daryl get Dog up there, but just as Ian got up top and turned to help, Dog suddenly ran off, dodging and weaving between rocks. Without a second of hesitation, Rosie ran after him. And without a second of hesitation, Daryl ran after the both of them. 

For most of her life, Rosie had never struggled with claustrophobia, but climbing beneath that train, knowing that walkers could be after her, she couldn't get rid of the panicky feeling in her chest. She tried to ignore it, just following the sounds of Dog's feet padding against the cold, wet ground. 

"You stupid dog," she growled in frustration. Dog was one of the smartest dogs Rosie had ever seen in her entire life, and now he wanted to show off his stupidity? That was very, very unfortunate timing. 

When she got out from beneath the train, her clothes would be wet and dirty, and she would feel gross. At least Dog would still be alive, she supposed. After a little while, she lost sight of Dog, which made her feel quite terrified, but when she finally heard him bark again, she was overwhelmed with relief. Even better, though, Dog had found a little hole in the wall to climb through, so she would no longer have to army crawl beneath the train.

Just as Rosie was about to climb through that hole in the wall, though, her ankle was grabbed. She shrieked in fear and instinctively kicked whatever it was that was grabbing her. 

Whatever- or whoever, rather- she kicked let out a groan of pain. "Aye! Watch your foot, dumbass," Daryl grumbled, smacking Rosie's shoe. 

After letting out a breath of relief, Rosie pulled herself the rest of the way through the hole in the wall. "You scared me!" she huffed as she stood up, brushing as much of the dirt and grime off of herself as she possibly could. 

"I scared you? I didn't go runnin' off like an idiot," Daryl said. He used his crossbow to break through the hole in the hole in the wall in order to fit through himself. 

"You still woulda' run after Dog if I didn't," Rosie argued, crossing her arms.

"That's different," Daryl told her, brushing the grime off of himself, too. 

"No, it ain't."

"You ain't ever gonna get it until you have a kid of your own. If you ever wanna," Daryl told her. He slung his crossbow over his shoulder. "Which way'd he go?" he asked. 

"That way," Rosie answered, pointing down the dark tunnel. 

Daryl shined his flashlight through the new tunnel. Dog was running around and sniffing things. It looked like people had been living down there for a long time, but now it was completely empty. There were more ominous messages written about God and other things all over the walls. There were some dead bodies lying around, but there wasn't a single living person. There were also big murals all over the walls and Rosie would have thought they were cool if they didn't have very dark meanings to them.