HEART FOR BRAINS • the walking dead

042: escape

Gunfire rang out more frequently the longer they stayed in the room. Rio still didn't look up, his mind traveling to the butchered bodies. Rick, Glenn, Daryl and Bob scavenged the room, looking for anything that could be of use to them. Anything they could use to help their escape.

Daryl pried a pipe into Rio's hand before breaking another piece and holding it himself.

"If we run we can get by them."

'We run' Daryl signed to the boy, explaining what Rick was saying.

"We got to let those people out." Glenn objected. Rick gave him a blank look back and Glenn just shook his head. "That's still who we are. It's got to be."

Daryl changed what he told the boy. Rio just nodded along with whatever Glenn was saying, eyes still fixed on the floor.

Rick pushed open the door and they all ran to the nearest container. The attention was drawn to them the second they stepped outside. Daryl told Rio to keep back, saying he didn't need to hurt himself more. The boy stuck close to the group anyway, feeling safer that way. They all knocked down the approaching walkers and Glenn made a break to the red container.

He heaved the door open and a single man came sprinting out. He had long hair and a long beard and his clothes were ragged and dirty. The man screamed at Glenn.

"We're the same!" Glenn pushed him off and he latched onto Rick.

"We're them!"

"Back off!"

He broke into a laugh and Rick shoved him away. "We're the same."

The man didn't move, just standing still and laughing at what he'd said. A Walker came in from the side, sinking its teeth into his shoulder. He fell to the ground instantly, not putting up a fight or letting a scream slip as he was eaten.

"Come on."

Glenn went back, using a wooden plank he'd found to bash the head of the Walker and then the man. Daryl raced over, grabbing him by his shirt and pulling him to cover. The group stood against the red container, letting the flow of walkers pass them. They weren't spotted.

Bob walked over to the over end of the container, looking past the corner. "We got to double back." He shook his head despondently.

"A is that way." Rick gestured to the building behind them. "We go back, we don't know where we are."

"We don't really have a choice do we?" Daryl argued. He looked to the boy who was still standing unsteadily. 'We're going back in A'

'Why?'

'We have to'

"Wait here." Rick sighed. He ran off, in the opposite direction of A, sneaking behind cars and random fallen objects to get across.

Bob began to speak, telling Glenn that they had to follow Rick. Daryl and Glenn disagreed with him. Rio wandered off, a stray walker catching his eye. It was fast and it was heading towards Rick.

He turned back and tugged on Daryl's sleeve, pointing it out to the man. He hurried over just in time. The creature reached for Rick's shoulder as Daryl impaled it through the back of its head. The pair exchanged nods before watching the walkers drop one by one.

Rick shot forward as the last of terminus' group gunned down walkers. He slung his arm around the neck of the man that trailed behind, pulling him down to the ground. Rick stole the gun from him and shot down the rest of the group. Then he and Daryl ran back to the container.

Agonizing screams rang out as walkers tore into the neck of a woman and the leg of a man. A few others were slowly dying too.

"We're going to have to double back." Rick announced.