𝘼lexandria had dissolved into chaos. Night had fallen. There were walkers everywhere. Inside the walls, surrounding the place. There was no way to get around them. All that Adalyn could hear was growling, growling and screaming coming from inside.
Maggie was on the guard post. Adalyn could see it shaking and could only imagine how many walkers were trying to get at her. She stayed low, trying to keep her weight distributed evenly as the platform rocked and jerked.
Adalyn could only stand and watch from on top of the truck, she was useless with her arm. Enid climbed up the wall, moving toward the guard post, balancing. Below, Glenn was shooting walkers at random, shouting as he kept their attention. Maggie fumbled for her gun, firing once before it clicked empty. "Shit," she muttered.
She turned to shouting, begging for him to join her and Enid. And then her shouts were panicked as the herd closed in on him, closing him from view.
Sasha and Abraham started to fire into the herd. Glenn ducked away from the stream of bullets, looking up only when the walkers were dealt with. "Can you get the gate?" Abraham shouted down to him. "Appreciate it, pal."
He continued on his rampage, clearing a path to the gate. Glenn got it open, and Sasha and Abraham helped Maggie and Enid down from their precarious position.
Adalyn jumped down from the truck, meeting Glenn's eyes. "Where is everybody?" she asked.
He shook his head. "Go to the church," he told her. "You're hurt. You'll be safer there."
"I want to help," she stated.
"You don't even have a gun."
She let out a sharp breath. "Give me yours," she said. "Stick with Daryl. I'll take care of myself."
"I'm almost out of bullets."
"I'll get to the armory if I need to. And if you don't give it to me, I'm going out there anyway."
The pain in her arm was forgotten as Glenn handed over his gun. And then she was moving.
The knife at her hip rarely got any use unless she needed to be quiet. Tonight, it was her saving grace. She slashed and hacked away at any walkers that got in her path. They fell quickly, coating her in blood. That was useful, really. She continued on without notice after a time as the blood covered her, making her smell like one of them, hiding her identity.
Glenn had been right. There definitely weren't many bullets left. They were gone quickly, leaving Adalyn with nothing but her knife, her adrenaline, and her will to live.
"Rick!" she was shouting, frenzied as she looked through the fray. "Carl! Michonne!"
They had to be there somewhere. They had to be all right. If they weren't, Adalyn wasn't sure what she would do with herself. "Rosita! Eugene!"
A walker caught her by the bad arm, earning a horrible cry of pain before she spun around, sinking her knife into its skull. "Tara! Carol! Gabriel!"
With every word, she could feel sobs wracking her throat, feel tears rolling down her cheeks. They had to be okay. They had survived so much. This couldn't be how they went out. "Anyone! Please!"
In the distance, she saw the lake go up in flames.
The walkers around her turned to look at the bright flames, mesmerized. They walked toward it as one. Adalyn dealt with any that she passed as she moved closer to the center of town.
Walkers were falling into the lake, burning in seconds. Adalyn continued on. She wasn't going to stop until she saw a familiar face. "Rick!"
"Addy!"
And there he was. In the middle of it all, still fighting, still going. His eyes went wide at the sight of her. She ran to join him, sobbing madly. The fight wasn't over yet, but she had found him, and for now, that was all she needed. "You're alive," she said, her voice strained. "Oh, thank God you're alive."
His eyes were filled with the start of tears as he took hold of her free hand. He kept a tight hold of her as they continued on through the herd, killing anything that got in their way.
By the time morning came, dead walkers were littering the streets. Everyone gathered at Rick's house to assess the damages.
Deanna was gone. Jessie. Ron. Sam. Nicholas had killed himself before he and Glenn's group had even made it back to Alexandria. The actual guard tower had collapsed in the chaos.
Carl had lost an eye, for Christ's sake.
Everyone was quiet, blood-covered, traumatized, really, from the night's events. Denise was dealing with the wounded, stitching up Daryl's back, getting Adalyn's arm fixed up in a splint, changing the bandages on Carl's eye to prevent infection.
Michonne sat beside Adalyn, watching Judith as she grabbed at Adalyn's cast. Adalyn chuckled, taking hold of the infant's hand, feeling Judith's tiny fingers in her own. "Can't touch that, little one," she said. "I've got a boo-boo."
Michonne managed a weak chuckle at that. "How you feeling?" she asked.
Adalyn shrugged. "I'm pretty sure the only reason I'm still alive after last night is adrenaline," she answered. "I'll crash at some point. Sleep for a week. That good, or no?"
Michonne was the one who shrugged now. "Rick was looking for you before it got really bad. He hadn't gotten word from your group. He thought you'd gotten yourselves into trouble."
"Trouble found me and Daryl first," Adalyn answered with a sigh. "These people got us. Took my gun, took Daryl's crossbow and bike. They were with a group, trying to run away. We were gonna bring 'em back here, but they turned on us. On the road, there was another group. They tried to take our shit. Said they were working with a guy named Negan. Let's hope he takes kindly to Daryl blowing them all to high Heaven."
"I don't know if anyone would take kindly to that," Michonne answered.
Adalyn sighed. "It'll be fine. We'll deal with it. We'll figure it out, somehow. We always figure it out."
She moved to pick up Judith, feeling a jolt of pain in her arm. She ignored it, however, bringing a smile to her face. "I missed you, little one. Did you miss me?"
Judith stared at her, smiling back.
