Episode 5 "Bloodshed Part Two"

Monroe:

"It all happened so fast… Part of the wall was weak and was ready to fall, I guess the herd from Gate City I told you about wasn't finished. Of all places it wound up there, but a small portion of it only...Sarah and I only left to the house for a couple hours, we were pretty drunk, most of what I remember is what happened after that. What was a fun night turned into hell on Earth… blood everywhere… Fires… screams… death…"

Fires raged across Monroe as Dex bolted down the street with his machete, people were trying to burn out the walkers. Nobody knew where this herd came from, they didn't realize it was a small portion of the one from Gate City, they didn't know the herd made its way down there. Dex and Sarah were searching for those in need there, searching for their friends. There was nobody in sight but they held onto hope that they would find someone at least. Sarah and Dex kept running and eventually saw someone lying on the ground, Sarah bolted over knowing it was Will, she saw he was in pain, Dex looked at the bite mark on his neck. "Sarah look." Sarah looked up to see the bite, she was broken instantly, Sarah knew he wouldn't make it but didn't want to leave him. Sarah picked Will up as they ran to the nearest house, once they got in they set Will down on the couch and made sure it was safe in there. Dex went to close the curtains and turn on the candles. Sarah kneeled over Will as she tried to feel for a pulse, he was gone.

Sarah started to breakdown and turned to Dex, "I couldn't even say goodbye… He was in pain and the last thing he saw was a walker take a chunk out of him… I failed... " Dex walked over slowly and before he could speak she got mad and was full of rage, "I promised them I would take care of him, keep him from having the same ending as them… I failed all because I wasn't there in time!" Dex looked at Will and knew he would turn soon. Sarah took a deep breath and grabbed her knife, she moved his hair out of his face as she began speaking with a tear falling to the corpse. "I'm sorry… I didn't mean for any of this to happen… I'll be alright, go be with mom, dad… Our unborn sibling… shit… They tried keeping that a secret but failed as always with that…" Sarah's attempt to make herself smile failed as she saw the lifeless body of her brother.

Sarah gripped the knife tight as she began to shake, she felt him begin to twitch a little bit, Dex walked up and tried to do it for her but she looked at him and told him not too. Sarah looked into his lifeless, pale eyes as he tried to bite her, Sarah took a deep breath and began to hear Will explaining comics to her in an annoying way, she remembered all those annoying things he did and realized she missed that. Eventually all she heard was the sound of the knife going through his skull slowly, she felt his hand fall to the floor as she closed. "Goodbye…" Sarah looked at Dex who was standing there, "we have to… we have to find the others, I can't lose anyone else… I can't…" Dex looked at Will and then at Sarah, "I would say yes but it's safe here, and you just lost someone very close to you, I can't risk bringing a pregnant woman out there, not there." Sarah looked at Dex with her eyes widened, "h...how did you know?" Dex chuckled, "I'm very perceptive, plus why else would you be putting on weight considering you are big on health." Sarah was still overwhelmed by it all, Dex kneeled in front of her and handed her his gun, "use this to protect yourself if needed, I'm gonna go get our friends. After this is all over, I have to finish what I set out to do, after that we can run away, go somewhere nice like we talked about back at the police station… Remember that night?" Sarah smiled finally as she responded, "we had it all planned out… That was our first kiss, never forgot that, such a beautiful night, I wish we could go back to that." Dex smiled and said, "we still can, you just have to hang in there for me." Sarah looked Dex in the eyes as they had one last kiss, hoping it wouldn't be their last.

Dex pulled away and walked to the door, he looked back at Sarah who was sitting by Will's body, she was broken, Dex knew that. He exited the house and ran through the streets, he never stopped until he found something. Dex was searching, he eventually saw Mia and Jack fighting off some walkers, Dex ran over and helped them finish the walkers off. Jack looked at Dex and said, "good to finally see you, everyone has either died or been evacuated to Willmington, the walkers will either be killed or burned here. It's just the three of us, Sarah, I think Will, as well as Knox who we last saw with Rachel, we've been trying to reach them but we can't from here. Lamar is somewhere I don't know where, this place is a mess!" Dex was really worried as he looked at Mia and Jack and said, "we need to get high up, we can use those small buildings there, I mean this place is literally half of a large town, we can use that to find Rachel and Knox, maybe Lamar too." Jack looked at him noticing he never mentioned Sarah and Will, Mia saw the look in Dex's eyes, "Aiden what the hell happened?!" Dex noticed she used his real name, "Will um… He didn't make it, Sarah took it pretty bad, she is safe at a house, I'm trying to get all of us there… She isn't doing too well, but nobody is at the moment." They heard a small explosion and ran there right away, they began to climb up a small building near them.

Once they got to the top they quickly began to run over to where the explosions hit. They saw Rachel and Pastor Knox fighting walkers in the alley. Mia got their attention and her and Jack covered them while Dex ran to find out how to get them up there. "Hurry Dex we don't have time to waste!" Dex saw a ladder and immediately began to kick it, then he started to hit it with his machete, it wasn't budging, eventually Rachel ran out of ammo, Pastor Knox was scared. Mia and Jack noticed they just ran out, Dex looked at them and reached for his gun but realized he gave it to Sarah. "Hold on guys, hang in there! Dex come on now!" Rachel threw her gun at the walkers as she was backed into a wall, Knox was praying silently to himself, Rachel slowly closed her eyes as she accepted what was to come, Jack ran around the roof searching for something, he dug through an old box on the roof, while he was panicking he found a bullet and quickly loaded his gun. He ran to Dex and gave him the gun since he was already half way down the ladder. Dex aimed it and took a deep breath, eventually the ladder came loose when he shot the chains.

Dex watched as it fell down, Rachel turned to see it in front of her. Rachel was trying to get Pastor Knox to snap out of it as the walkers closed in slowly, "Rachel hurry now! Come the hell on!" the trio urged her and him to climb right away. "Knox come on, snap out of it, the ladder is down, we can get out of this, come on!" Knox heard the ladder slowly beginning to fall off the wall as it came loose. Rachel urged him to go first, he climbed up quickly, Rachel tailed behind. Once he reached the mid point the ladder came off and he panicked once he saw Rachel grab onto the remaining ladder, the bottom half fell into the herd. Rachel was holding on tightly as Knox struggled to try and grab her hand, Mia was freaking out trying to get her to keep going. Rachel was scared, Dex saw the fear of death she had, Rachel was stressing herself badly as Knox and the others tried getting the walkers away from the ladder. Mia looked at Rachel as Dex dove down there to grab her hand. Rachel looked at them and faintly said, "my hands… they are slipping… don't let me fall… don't let it happen please…" Mia looked at her and promised to save her. Rachel was hyperventilating, before they knew it all they heard was her screams as she fell. She was silenced as she smacked into the ground below, walkers wasted no time eating her.

Mia screamed her name as she broke into tears, Mia was broke by this as Dex stood up and didn't know what to think about all of this. Mia just sat there in pain as they all got ready to continue, Dex looked at Jack and got himself together slowly, "take them back to the house, it's the little wooden one, stands out, you know it?" Jack nodded his head as he walked past Dex, "stay safe out there, don't do anything that'll get you killed." Dex nodded as he took a deep breath. He slowly walked the opposite direction of the others as he jumped to the next rooftop, Dex was broken, all he heard were the voices of the dead. Dex pushed onward as he eventually made it to the courtyard in the center of Monroe. Dex climbed down the building and was spooked when he saw Lamar run to him, "Dex! I heard the screams, what just happened? Is everything alright?" Dex looked at him in the eyes and the look said it all to him, Dex looked at him and said, "have you seen Izzy?" Lamar looked at the corpse by the statue and said, "she got bit, didn't wanna turn." Dex kneeled in front of her corpse and put his hand on her shoulder, "you can rest now, you did good, you deserved so much better." He took her pistol and turned to Lamar, "what about anyone else?" Lamar looked at the schoolhouse by the statue and told Dex to follow him.

Once they got in Dex saw Noah, Luis sitting by their little fire, Dex looked at Luis and realized he didn't know how to tell him that his best friend was dead. Dex looked at all of them and said, "we have a house we are all at, I've gathered what I assume is the remaining people here, everyone else was evacuated, come, I'll take you there, from there we leave the walkers in this place, deal with them later." Luis got up and Noah followed as they agreed to go with Dex, Dex was happy to have gotten everyone together but was saddened to not be able to get anyone else.

The House:

Once inside the house Dex saw everyone sitting there, a blanket was over Will as Sarah stood up and looked outside, "they aren't coming, it's too dangerous, and we have too many wounds to be covering ourselves with infected guts, we need to do it the only way we can." Dex looked at her and agreed, the group all stood up and looked at each other, Noah looked at the door and said, "We're all that remains, we need to stick together, run like hell, try not to die." the group didn't oppose or have questions, they were just ready to get out of there. Dex slowly opened the door and they all got ready and once he counted to three they all took off, they were walking around, keeping an eye out for walkers, they all stuck close together, Sarah heard Knox begin to pray as he panicked, "stay quiet, there are too many walkers around, they can't see us through the smoke but they can hear us." Knox looked at her and broke away from the group, Sarah noticed that the others were getting out of sight, she didn't want to alert walkers so she ran to Knox.

"What the hell?! You're going to get us killed!" Knox looked at her and said out loud, "I was too weak to stop Mel from dying, too weak to make sure Rachel didn't die, I was too weak to face my fears and fix the hole in the wall I created. I caused all of this, this is my fault, I'm the reason so many died." Sarah looked at him and her attitude changed fast, "it's because of you Will is dead, and so many others?" Sarah gripped her gun and aimed it at his head, she was angry at him, Knox fell to his knees, Sarah looked at the walkers walking to them, "I should put a bullet in you for what you did." Knox grabbed the gun and held it to his head, "please…" Sarah looked at him and pulled the gun away, "no, I want you to feel what Will felt, pain, agony, I want you to see your end alone like he did." Sarah saw him break down, she was so angry at him but part of her wanted to still save him since it's who she was. Sarah looked at him and before she could pull him up from the ground he looked at the walkers in the distance then at her, "I've given up already, I'm at peace with it all, I'm ready to return home, I've caused enough damage already, let me do some good for once and keep the walkers off of you while you get away." Before Sarah could speak he threw a bottle on the ground, "GO! RUN!" Sarah hesitated but they got too close, she ran the other direction as she heard his screams get quieter and quieter.

Sarah eventually ran into Dex who was looking for her, "Sarah come on we need to hurry!" Sarah and Dex ran as fast as they could as they were searching for the exit. They got out of the smoke and eventually got to the front gate, they ran through and closed it behind them with walkers banging on it. Dex looked at Sarah and said, "the others are on the way home, I heard his screams what happened?" Sarah looked at the ash floating around, "he gave up…" Dex signaled for her to come with him. They walked down the empty street and through the woods, they just kept walking, it was getting late so they decided to sleep in the old building they met in. Once they entered Dex looked around and turned the lights on. Sarah looked around and saw the old family photo she had there, she picked it up and saw Will and her parents on it, a tear fell on Will as she put it down. "It all happened so fast, so many people died, Rachel, Izzy, the list goes on, there used to be so many of us, now very few of us are actually still here." Dex looked at her and took a deep breath, "This world keeps taking from us, and all we can do about it is just to sit there and wait our turn."

Sarah looked at the smoke in the distance and put her hand on the window over her and Will's old hand prints, That's the second time Monroe fell, I'm not sure I can go back." Dex looked at the moon up in the sky and said to her, "let's just get some sleep okay… " Sarah glanced over at him and through the tears she said, "I'm not sure I can sleep right now, I'll keep watch." Dex looked at her and said, "I won't too… Lets just sit on the roof, forget about it all and… Well lets just enjoy the time we have left until its our turn to join the dead." Sarah nodded as they walked to the ladder and climbed up to the roof. Sarah sat down beside Dex as they watched the sky, they sat there not saying a word, just listening to the silence as the birds chirped and the fire settled, the sound of death was all that remained as they drifted away slowly. In the morning Dex and Sarah entered Wilmington slowly to see everyone gathered around alive, they were hit hard by this but they all still remained hopeful for the future. But Dex knew he had to go soon.

Present:

"That's all that happened for the most part... A lot has happened, I'm not sure I can continue but for those people I have to keep fighting… Until my time arrives." Riley looked ahead, "seems like so much has happened since the Compound… We will rebuild though, this isn't the end, not yet, I'm hopeful for the future." Dex looked at the footprints in the mud on the ground, "it seems like we're just behind the herd, the one from Gate City, the rest have made it, we have to wipe it out now before it destroys us all." Riley looked ahead at the sign that points them to the town near Wilmington, "then we do it together." Marcus cleaned his knife off and said, "I'm sticking around for this one last fight." Dex looked at Kate who was sleeping on the bench, he felt bad she had to go through all of that. They sped up and eventually came across Jack who was shocked to come across Dex.

"Holy shit!" Jack ran up as Dex helped him up, the wagon continued, Riley gave control to Marcus as she turned around to look at Jack. "Good to see you Jack." Jack looked at her and hugged her tight, "I Knew I saw you guys when I was scouting around, you hear about the herd?" Dex looked at him and said, "yeah we are gonna have to end it once and for all, this herd has taken so much from us, it's time we fight back on our own turf." Jack looked ahead to see Sarah standing on the guard post, once she spotted Dex she ran over to open the gate, Dex ran over full speed as they hugged tightly, not letting go, "I thought I lost you… Did you find them?" Dex looked over at Kate who was petting Coco by the gate, "I found someone, my sister Kate." Sarah looked at him knowing that meant his parents were dead, "I'm sorry about your parents." Dex looked at her and told her not to feel bad, "they gave up in the end, I guess someone has to look after Kate now… But all of this can wait we have a herd on the way, it's the big one, not the little one from Monroe… The same from Gate City, we need to get ready for this, this is it, the final fight, after this the future begins... " Sarah smiled at him as people got out and began mingling, the herd was only a few hours away and was getting close, they need to hurry, time is running out and their lives depend on it all.