Karma's a bitch {Daryl Dixon}

73 || Trapped

I help people load walkers onto carts and drag them away.

"Open the gate!" someone yells from outside the walls

I stop what I'm doing and I rush towards the gate.

"Open the gate!" they yell again.

By now it's clear to say it's Rick yelling. The sound of walkers floods the area as snarls and growls grow louder.

"Deanna what's going on?!" I yell up at her.

She is standing on one of the gate posts.

"Open the gate now!" Rick yells as he approaches the gate with half the herd on his trail

"Karma, the gate!" she yells in panic

I throw open the gate along with Michonne and Maggie. Rick pushes a walker away but falls while doing so. He picks himself up and jumps through the opening as we close the gate.

Walkers start pushing against the gate trying to reach us. I close the second part of the gate and turn to Rick

Thousands of walkers push against the wall desperately trying to get inside. People gather around fearing the walkers outside.

I help Tobin put up extra support so the walkers can't get in as easily. I pick up a big metal pole and push it against the wall, then ramming it into the ground.

Rick walks up and stands before us with his back to the wall.

"You can hear it. Some of you saw it. They got back here, half of them. Still enough to surround us 20 deep. Look, I know you're scared. Oh, haven't seen anything like this. You haven't been through anything like this. But we're safe for now. The panel the truck hit seems intact. We reinforced it just in case. Either way, the wall's gonna hold together. Can you? The others."

Everyone looks around in fear and panic. They don't believe Rick when he tells them it's going to be ok.

"They're gonna be back," Rosita says

"Daryl, Abraham, Sasha, they have vehicles. They're gonna lead them away, just like the others. And Glenn and Nicholas are gonna walk through the front gate after. Karma came back just to make sure you were safe. I didn't want her to go, but she did anyway. And she's going to make sure we stay safe." He says

People start to turn their attention over to me

"They know what they're doing and we know what we need to do. We keep noise to a minimum. Pull our blinds at night. Even better, keep the lights out. We try to make this place as quiet as a graveyard, see if they move on."

"This place is a graveyard." A woman says

"The quarry broke open. And those walkers were heading this way." Arron says stepping forward

"All of them. The plan that Rick put into place stopped that from happening. He got half of them away. I was out there recruiting with Daryl. I wanted to try to get into a cannery and scavenge, and Daryl wanted to keep looking for people. We did what I wanted...and we wound up in a trap set by those people.  And I lost my pack. They must have followed our tracks. Those people who attacked us... they found their way back here because of me." Aaron says

"There'll be more to talk about," Rick says

"Deanna?" Tobin asks

She walks off towards the houses seemingly scared.

I walk away and put a dead body over my shoulder. As I'm walking over to the graveyard I see people raiding the pantry.

"Why don't you make sure the gate is closed, Spencer." One man says

"Yeah. That was me. I did that. But that truck outside the walls, It'd be inside if that wasn't for me. I did that, too. If I didn't, maybe we wouldn't be talking right now."

"Where were you, Bruce?" I ask, stepping forward.

"Doing this will start us down a road where nothing matters. We're no one else matters. And then we'll all look back at this moment right now as when we destroyed this place." Spencer finishes

"We all lost people. Everyone did. Even me. I left Daryl with a pack of possibly thousands of walkers, just to save you, people. Who knows he may be dead too. But if he is, I'm still not letting you people lose your humanity to some walkers." I tell them

People look down ashamed and start putting cans and jars of food down. Spencer and I turn around to see Deanna smiling approvingly.

As I keep walking I see Carl and a few other kids writing names on one of the walls. All of which we lost.

Carl's writes Glenn's name on the wall. I stare in disbelief and continue walking ashamed.

I finally make it to the graveyard. No one is there but dead bodies laying, wrapped in tarps on the ground.

I throw the body onto the floor. I put my hands over my face ashamed.

'I just left him there. Now he could be dead because of me.'

My eyes start to tear up. I curl up on the ground next to a blank tomb and rest my head on my knees. I blink back the tears and close my eyes, drifting to sleep.

By now it's night time and I finally wake up. Almost everyone went to sleep and I sit there alone by a blank tombstone.

I pick up the empty and carve his name into the tombstone through tears. As I finish the tombstone I wipe the tears away.

I get up and walk over to my training house. As soon as I get in there I lock the door and close the blinds.

I take out all my anger on the punching bag. I take out my knife and start stabbing a pillow over and over. The cotton going everywhere.

I slam my back against a wall and slowly slide down. Covering my face with my hands.