Sunshine

21.

We all huddled around Rick as he used wire cutters to cut open the fence.

"Watch the backside." Hershel said as he was about to go through the fence, Rick holding it open. I stayed in the circle with Lori, Beth, Carol, and Carl watching out for walkers. I motioned for them to go through, keeping back with T-Dog watching for walkers. When everyone was through I heard Rick say my name, I nodded and then went through to the others.

Daryl and Glenn closed the wire together with a cable rope, I walked with Rick on the edge of the fence. Then we all started to run keeping an eye out until we reached the main gate. The sight was both satisfying but also terrifying. Walkers filled the court yard, some have noticed while other remained clueless.

"It's perfect." Rick whispered to himself which I'm pretty sure I was the only one who picked it up, he then turned towards Daryl and I and spoke up, "If we can shut that gate, prevent more from filling the yard, we can pick off these walkers. We'll take the field by tonight." Everyone was paying attention, I looked over at Daryl who's eyes were already on me. He gave me a shrug and then I looked back at Rick, "how will we shut the gate?"

I motioned towards the far gate at the other side of the courtyard that separated the cell blocks from the actual field. It was a long run full of walkers, it was basically a...

"Suicide run." Maggie finished my thought as I turned my head to see Glenn offering his quickness to the group.

Rick quickly shut that down by stepping in as the true leader, "no. You, Maggie and Beth draw as many as you can over there" he motions towards a spot along the fence, "pop them through the fence." He finished and then turned towards Daryl and I.

"Daryl, Sunshine, go back to the other tower. Carol, you've become a pretty good shot, take your time, we don't have a lot of ammo to waste." He nodded towards us, we nodded.

"Hershel, you and Carl, take this tower."

And just like that, we all made our way towards our given posts. I ran besides Daryl as we quickly made it up the steps. Carol following closely behind. I stood by Carol, Daryl on the other side of the tower. I held my gun up high and watched as Rick made his way through the crowd. I kept putting down walkers, but stopped when I noticed Carol accidentally shoot by his foot.

"Sorry!" She yelled, a smirk formed my lips as I kept a steady eye on my targets. A walker was starting to get a little to close to Rick, I lined up my aim and shot the walker but at the same time, an arrow hit the skull sending it to the ground. I chuckled and glanced at him. He already wore a smirk.

Finally Rick made it to the gate, I kept my eyes on the walkers killing the ones I could reach. That's when I heard Daryl yell, "he did it, light it up!" And that's when everyone including the ones working the fence started to shoot walkers and one by one they all fell to the ground. After the last one fell, a feeling of relief poured through me. This was the first win we've had in months, and it felt damn good.

•••

The night time didn't feel as scary right now. We all sat on the grass, a fire crackling as we talked and ate some food that Daryl hunted earlier. I sat beside Maggie, who was leaning on Glenn. Hershel on the other side of me. I tried not to look but I caught myself checking on Daryl every couple of minutes, he sat on top of a flipped over car on "watch duty."

I felt a nudge and looked over to see Maggie looking at me with a weird look on her face. I raised my eyebrow and said a little too defensively, "what?" She just looked between me and where my eyes just were and said, "go talk to him and stop beating yourself up over the whole James situation." She tried to convince me but I just shook my head.