WILDFIRE -Beth Greene

Shooting Straight

They were close to the road now, they have to be, Gwen reckons, they've been walking for nearly an hour now, "How long left?" Lori asked, voicing Gwen's thoughts.

"Not much. Maybe 100 yards as the crow flies."

"Too bad we're not crows." Andrea sighs, climbing over a fallen tree, "as the crow flies, my ass." Too late Gwen sees the lurker clambering towards the woman.

"Andrea, look out!" But she was to far away to hear her. Her screams fill the air as the walker tacklers her and has her on the ground.

No sooner are the group stumbling towards her than a knight in shining armour has swooped in, knocking the sucker down. Knight isn't really the right term, however, cowgirl is the accurate depiction. Horse, hat and all.

"Lori? Lori Grimes?" She looks around the group. How did she know Lori, Gwen Wonders and suddenly she isn't so sure about that shot being nothing bad after all.

"I'm Lori."

"Rick sent me. You gotta come now."

"What?"

"There's been an accident. Carl's been shot." Dread fills Gwen's stomach, "He's still alive, but you've gotta come now. Rick needs you. Just come."

Lori passes Jessie her bag a walks towards the stranger before she's stopped by Daryl, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. We don't know this girl. You can't get on that horse." Lori just ignores him.

"Rick said you had other on the highway, that big traffic snarl?"

"Uh-huh." Glenn answers, looking startled as the girl spoke to him.

"Backtrack to Fairburn Road.Two miles down is our farm. You'll see the mail box. The name is Greene." And with that they were gone, leaving the others in a shocked daze.

"Well shit."

They run the short way back to the road as fast as possible, "Hey! Dale, T-dog! Carls been in an accident. Shot. We gotta move."

Dale races to the side of the woods where the groups emerged from, "Shot? What do you mean shot?"

Glenn answers, "I don't know, Dale, I wasn't there. All I know is some chick road out of nowhere like Zorro on a horse and took Lori."

Dale turns to Daryl, now climbing over the railings, "You let her?"

"Climb down out of my asshole, man. Rick sent her."

"Yeah, she knew Lori and Carl's names and about you lot back up here." Gwen says, helping her sister over the side, onto the road.

Dale starts fussing over Andrea as Gwen heads to the side of the RV to find T-Dog and when she did, he did not look good.

"Hey, man." He looks up from his place on the floor and smiles at the girl, "want me to re-wrap those bandages, I can take a look for so painkillers in these rust buckets. There's gotta be something."

T-Dog just shakes his head, "Nah, there's nothing kid, trust me we've looked. Dale says I'm looking at a possible blood infection." He laughs a bit, "Can you believe that?"

She'd thought that herself but didn't wanna worry the man, Dale clearly did not think the same thing.

"It's all good, Dol, I'm al'ight." They're pulled into the main conversation at hand.

"I won't do it. We can't just leave." Carol says.

"Carol," Dale reasons, "the group is split. We're scattered and weak."

"What if she comes back and we're not here? It could happen."

Andrea nods, "if Sophia found her way back and we were gone, that would be awful."

"Some of us stay here, then." Jessica says, "make her a little set up for when she comes back." Carol shoots her a grateful look.

"We got to plan for this. I say tomorrow morning is soon enough to pull up stakes. Give us a chance to rig a bag sign, leave her some supplies. I'll hold here tonight, stay with the RV." Daryl offers, nodding his head.

"If the RV is staying, I am too." Dale says with no room for argument.

"We're good with that, too." Jessie nods, speaking for her and Gwen.

"I'm in." Andrea adds.

"Well if you're all staying then I'm-"

Dale shakes his head, "Not you Glenn. You're going."

"Me? Why is it always me?"

"You have to find this farm reconnect with our people and see what's going on. But most important, you have to get T-Dog there. This is not an option. That cut has gone from bad to worse. He has a very serious blood infection. Get him to that farm. See if they have antibiotics. Because if not, T-Dog will die, no joke." Glenn nods at this and Gwen steps forward.

"I'll go with you."

"It's okay, stay with your sister-"

"I'm a big girl, she wants to go, let her come." Jessie counters, Glenn nods at this and smiles at the younger girl.

Daryl comes back from where he was digging around his back, "Why'd you wait till now to say anything? Got my brothers stash. Crystal. X. Don't need that." Dale steps forward looking shocked, "Got some kick ass pain killers." He says, chucking them to Glenn.

"Doxycycline. Not the generic stuff neither. It's first class. Merle got the clap in occasion." Gwen guesses the 'in occasion' in question was pretty frequent but she has to admit, she did not have Daryl down as a drug dealer.

Gwen smiles a bit at Daryl's choice of words as Dale takes the pills from Glenn's hands and walks over to a rough looking T-Dog.

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