The Road to Nowhere

Chapter Fourteen: Into the Herd

WARNING: VIOLENCE AND LANGUAGE IN THIS CHAPTER

Here we are now.

Covered in walker guts.

Walking straight through the herd with ease. We walk with the flow of the herd on the street. I then hear Thomas whisper, "I-I'm scared."

Lucy pulls him over for a second and whispers back, "It's gonna be okay, Thomas. Just stay quiet, okay?"
Thomas nods.

Other than that, I'd say we're all pretty calm. I'm near Grace, who double checks to see if her long sleeve is smeared with guts. Jesse, Henry, and Anna are over to my right, and Tony and his friends are over to the left.

Lucy, Thomas, Matt, and Duncan are a little up ahead. If we want to make it through this, we have to stay together and not get lost.

The smell of the walkers is horrible like always, and all I hear are the groaning and snarling of the rotting corpses. The walkers don't even notice us, so it's been working perfectly so far. The sky is still gloomy, and we're really lucky it's not raining anymore. There's still puddles of rain here and there but it's not a problem.

As we continue down the street, I start to sense something.

Like something is about to happen.

I don't know exactly what it means.

Far up ahead, I see the woods. We're still a little far from our exit, but we'll make it. We have to.

I then whisper to everyone, "Okay, we're almost th-"

I am interrupted by a scream. Lisa's scream. I whip my head toward her to see what's happening. I then see why she screamed. Down by her left leg, a crippled walker chews on her ankle.

Then everyone else sees.

Lisa falls over, and another walker grabs her blonde hair and starts to dig into her neck with its teeth. She screams as other walkers join in.

"Lisa!", Tony shouts, running towards her. I grab his arm, pulling him back and I yell, "Tony! She's gone!"

"Fucking let go of me!", Tony screams at me, then he yanks his arm free, causing me to fall and hit my head against the curb. My vision becomes blurry and everything seems to get quiet.

I hear a lot of yelling, but then a few moments later it stops. I fight the dizziness, and I climb to my feet.

But I don't see anyone.

Where did they go? Did they leave me?

I glance over at the group of walkers eating Lisa's flesh. I get the urge to puke but I fight it.

I step onto the sidewalk and I hear a whimper. I look around to see where it came from, and then I see Thomas, crouching near a newspaper dispenser, crying.

"Thomas?", I whisper, "What are you doing here by yourself? Where's Lucy?"

Thomas just shakes his head rapidly, terrified. He looks up at me, and in his eyes...I see Anthony. A frightened, young pair of eyes. I'm not just gonna leave a six year old here, so I pick Thomas up and have him wrap his arms around my neck, his head buried into my shoulder.

"Okay, Thomas", I assure him, "Just close your eyes, and don't look at anything."

Carrying Thomas, I move through the herd to get to what looks like a restaurant across the street. I see a walker trying to get in. Did the group make it in there?

I pull out my knife with my free hand and quietly kill the lone walker. I try to open the door which is covered with wooden planks as if it's a barricade. Locked. I risk getting noticed by knocking on the door and quietly shouting, "Hey! Are you guys in there? It's me David. Thomas is with me."

My whispering starts to draw attention from a few walkers.

Shit.

Then my adrenaline starts to kick in. I start ferociously kicking at the door with all my strength. Each kick harder than the last.
"Let me. The fuck. In!"

I finally kick open the door, breaking the lock. Once I make it inside I quickly put Thomas down and shut the door.

Out of breath, I rest my hands on my knees. "David?!", I hear Grace exclaim. She runs over to me and asks, "Where were you?"

I'm about to answer her question, but then I look over at Lucy, who's grasping her arm.

On Lucy's left forearm was a walker bite.