Graveyard Whispering

We were teetering on life and death. One misstep, one quick pause, one glance backwards, one scrape of my foot on the pavement, and our time on this earth could be done. I could feel my body wanting to quit on me, my bones screaming at me to stop. The balls of my feet felt bruised, the open blisters on the back of my heels rubbing against my boot and peeling wider with every step, my knees ached from the overdramatic steps I took to ensure I did not trip. I did what I knew I shouldn't, I looked behind me. The herd was only meters behind us, coming in towards us at all angles. There were just so many. Our only option was to abandon the RV and run to safety, run to Alexandria. The only way for Rick and I to stay alive was to lead the herd right back to our front doors.

We spent the mile run down Redding weaving through bodies of walkers. We had no time to waste our energy on killing them, we only had enough time to place one foot in front of the other. My heel slid across the pavement as we turned the corner off of Redding, my eyes landing on the high-standing gates of Alexandria down the road. It felt like we were put into slow motion, unable to get to the gates fast enough. Hundreds of walkers screaming behind us, more stragglers stepping in our path to safety. My head knocked to my right, seeing one walker step down from the sidewalk, reaching out for me as we approached. I stepped to the left, not slowing my pace as I leaned my body away from the walker's arms reach and slipped past it. This was our only tactic, leaving the herd hot on our heels.

"Open the gate!" Rick shouted at the top of his lungs. We had a clear view of Alexandria now, seeing a few people standing up on watch. Their bodies froze when looking down at us, the sheer velocity of the herd staggering behind us stealing the air straight from their lungs.

"Open the gate now!" I yelled out, seeing Deanna stunned at the top of the perch.

Finally, the protective mesh of the gate slid open, revealing Maggie, Tobin, and Michonne. Michonne put her weight into it as she pulled the bars of the gate open. My legs felt like jelly now, unsure if they'd crumble beneath me at any moment I pushed myself into an even faster sprint. I looked to my left, seeing Rick, body the last walker in our way with his shoulder, knocking it and himself to the ground. I bit my tongue, drawing blood as I slid on the pavement to stop to help him. Rick was on his feet in a split second and so were the walkers on us. Eight arms reached out towards us, as the gate only sat meters away. I drew my crowbar from my belt, hitting one walker across the jaw and to the floor to create an opening in the swarm. Rick and I both lunge behind the doorway, Michonne slamming it shut behind us.

My knees and elbows scraped the pavement as my body finally gave out on me, knowing that I was safe for now. I flipped onto my back, heaving in breaths of air like I never had before as I watched the herd slam against the metal gate. They squeezed their arms through the bars, reaching out for those of us sheltered on the inside. Michonne closed the mesh-covered chain link fence, locking them out and inevitably locking us in.

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Rick, Michonne, Carol, and I stood in a group, sheltered on the side of one of the houses. Carol and Michonne were filling us in on exactly what had happened. Rick and I weren't sure what we'd come home to, but it was worse than we thought. More than half of the town lay littered in the street, the same scene we saw back in Noah's neighbourhood. Although, Alexandria put up a good fight. Even though we lost a lot, the strong ones survived.

"They climbed the walls to get in," Carol explained, "Broke into peoples houses, took some people prisoner before they killed them in the street. They cut off their limbs, they burned them alive. They tried to drive a truck through the front gate. Spencer managed to hit the driver though, but the truck still went right into the clock tower."

"We'll have to build that part of the wall up. Keep it as sturdy as possible. If that tower goes down, it's taking that wall with it," Rick nodded his head as we all looked over at the top of the clock tower. It already started to lean towards our wall.

"There's something else," Carol said, looking directly at Rick. "They didn't have any guns. I made sure to get to the armoury before any of them did and block it off. That was the only reason our people were able to fight back against them."

"That's good," Rick nodded his head, "You did good, Carol."

Carol's face then went hard, she was angry, "Morgan wouldn't kill them. I think he let some of them go," she confessed.

Rick looked over at me, both of us knowing very well that her predictions were true. The Wolves he let go of were the same ones that attacked us. The same men that shot at us with a gun plucked from the hands of an Alexandrian they had killed.

"We'll talk to him," Rick reassured her.

"What happened out there?" I then asked Michonne. "Glenn radioed us saying he was setting a fire, but we never saw any smoke."

"The town was overrun. He split off with Nicholas. He had this idea that… if he lit a fire, it would stop the walkers from coming here. I tried to go instead. I wanted to," Michonne answered. She then sighed heavily, "The fire never got lit. We had to keep going though. He said if he got stuck, he would find a way to send a signal."

"Uhm, Rick," I trailed off, my eyes now landing on the remaining members of the town standing huddled by the weak side of the wall, clearly terrified. Rick pushed past us towards the group, we followed behind him to see what the hell was going on.

"You can hear it," Rick called out, grabbing their attention as he walked into the middle of the group. "Some of you saw it. They got back here, half of them. Still enough to surround us twenty deep. Look, I know you're scared. You haven't seen anything like this. You haven't been through anything like this. But we're safe for now," he tried to explain it to them, calm them. "The panel the truck hit seems intact. We keep reinforcing it just in case. Either way, the wall's gonna hold together. Can you? The others, they're gonna be back."

"They're gonna be back," Rosita was the first one to agree. I looked over at her, the state she was in telling me that she put up a good fight against the Wolves. Her hair fell loosely out of her ponytail, blood splattered across her chest and smeared across her face.

"Daryl, Abraham, Sasha, they have vehicles. They're gonna lead 'em away, just like the others. And Glenn and Nicholas are gonna walk back through the front gate after. 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'll try to make this place as quiet as a graveyard, see if they move on."

"This place is a graveyard," Francine cut him off. There was silence among everyone, even Rick. Rick nodded his head slightly at Francine, not knowing what to say. She wasn't wrong, that is exactly what Alexandria felt like right now.

"The quarry broke open and those walkers were heading this way. All of them," Aaron spoke up, walking into the middle of the circle to stand up for Rick. "The plan that Rick put into place stopped that from happening. He got half of them away." Aaron paused, his face contorting like he was contemplating on whether or not he wanted to say what he was about to say. "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've followed our tracks. Those people who attacked us… they found their way back here because of me." Aaron confessed.

I watched as Deanna walked away from the group, her face and body language in a clear state of shock. I rubbed my hand on my forehead. This situation was no one person's fault, but the realization that Aaron had just done one thing differently could have changed the entire outcome of this day. The feeling was gut-wrenching.

The group began to disperse once Deanna had walked away. I walked up to Rosita, the question I was terrified to ask clouding anything else right now. When Rick and I got back behind the walls, seeing all the bodies scattered across the pavement, soaked in a pool of their own blood I became numb. Then Carol pulled us to the side to have a talk and I thought if I avoided finding out then my worst fear wouldn't become real. But, now the very thought of it was beginning to eat me alive.

"W--where's Linc?" I asked her quietly. My voice shook uncontrollably. Rosita was not a soft nor delicate person, she was hard and straight to the point. So when she didn't say a word, but grabbed my hand and lead me down the road I was petrified. I was holding back tears at the thought of her leading me towards our cemetery where they already had him buried. But, when we passed the pathway towards the cemetery I could feel the breath I was holding released from my lungs.

She brought me into one of our houses, motioning for me to go up to their room. Finally, a small smile crept onto her face slightly. I wanted to kill her for making me think otherwise, but instead, I sprinted up the staircase. I pushed open the door, seeing him laid out on the bed, a bandage wrapped around his left arm.

"You scared the shit out of me," I said, partly laughing and crying as I walked over to his side. He was already getting up from his spot, just as relieved to see me home and alive as well. He wrapped his good arm around the back of my neck in a hug, towering over me.

"Son of a bitch sliced my arm open with an axe," he cursed. "Thank god the women in this town know what they are doing," he laughed, "Rosita shot him point-blank when she saw that."

"I'd never thought I'd see the day that you'd settle down," I wiped the tears from my eyes, "let alone with a chick that is tougher than you are," I chuckled.

His face then went serious, "How is it out there?"

I sighed, "Not good," I answered truthfully.

"I can hear the walkers from here. They made it back?"

"Half of them did."

"Is Daryl back yet?" he asked, knowing very well how I was feeling. I knew very well that Daryl, Abraham, and Sasha were probably in the safest position right now. Even though they had a herd of walkers on their trail, they also had vehicles, they had the open road. But, that still didn't keep my mind at ease. A number of things could still go wrong and now that it was drawing late into the evening they should be back by now. That same feeling arose that I feared at the prison all those months back, sitting at home twiddling my thumbs waiting, having no control.

"No," I murmured out, taking a seat on the side of his bed.

"He'll be back, Scar," Linc said, placing his right hand on my shoulder.

I sighed, not addressing his comfort, "I have to go do something useful. You rest," I said, getting back onto my feet.

"Scar--"

"Lincoln, I fine," I said, shutting him up.

I turned on my heel to leave the room when I saw Rick standing in the doorway. He nodded his head at Lincoln to say hi before looking right at me. "Come on, we're gonna talk to Morgan."