Shattering glass and growling groans were the first things Aspen and Glenn heard as the two ran back to join the others on the first level of the store. Knowing that something was wrong with Aspen physically but not one-hundred percent what, Glenn was surprised by how easy she made it look to keep up with him and the others. He wasn't a slow guy and they weren't exactly a sluggish group, so she definitely got points from him on that subject in his book.

After reaching the main floor of the building, they were greeted with walkers breaking through the first wall of the front glass doors and Rick's gun drawn and pointed in the direction of the danger, his eyes following the barrel like an arrow. Andrea stood beside him, while Jacqui and Morales had beat them to their current destination. Each one of them sporting quite a terrified expression on their faces as a symphony of growls and grumbles vibrated the last remaining glass wall.

"What did you find down there?" Rick was the first to speak, his voice forced and strained in an attempt to sound calm.

"Not a way out. Sorry." Aspen apologized, even though saying she was sorry wasn't going to get them anywhere. The walker with the rock started pounding it against the second set of doors and a spiderweb of cracks branched out across its surface. Aspen took a step back in fright and Jacqui quickly put her hand on her shoulder to steady her.

"Well, we need to find a way..." Andrea stated the obvious. "Soon."

* * * * * * * * * * *

The thunder was loud in the distance, booming, blasting, rumbling like a war drum on the front lines. The clouds that accompanied the sound were just as threatening as they continued to approach. Aspen sat next to T-Dog across from Merle as everyone else hovered close to the edge of the roof. They were running out of time and their need for an escape route was growing more and more urgent. Their survival was on the line and the wire was slowly beginning to sever.

When they returned to the roof, Aspen was happy to see that Welsh had made a new friend. The puppy had somehow snatched T-Dog's black hat and he held the fabric in his jaws. His big brown ears flopped up and down with each galloping step across the rooftop and his brown eyes were large as saucers. T-Dog chuckled as Welsh ran around in circles, no doubt happy for the distraction.

"That construction site, those trucks- They always keep keys on hand." Rick observed through his borrowed binoculars and passed them to Morales. He looked as well, but then glanced over the brick railing at the streets below. The disappointment was undeniable.

"You'll never get past the walkers. There're just too many."

"Glenn got us out of that tank, though." Aspen said from her spot on the ground, sitting Indian-style with her back against the brick. "There has to be some possibility."

"Yeah, but they were feeding then. They were distracted." Glenn told the group. "Unless you have another horse stashed in your back pocket, there isn't much I can do here to help."

"Can't we distract them some other way?"

"Right, listen to Blondie. She's onto something." Merle's voice suddenly emerged from his pouting session. The cockiness was back, along with his pompous hick-swagger. "A diversion. Like on 'Hogan's Heroes'."

"God, give it a rest." Jacqui interrupted. Her tone practically dripped with annoyance and the depletion of her tolerance for the cuffed man. No one blamed her, everyone was sick of Merle. That much was obvious.

"They're drawn by sound, right?" Rick asked, hands on his hips and his face strained as he thought of an idea.

"Right, like dogs." Glenn confirmed. "They hear a sound, they come."

"What else?"

"Aside from hear you, they see you, smell you, and if they catch you, they eat you." Morales chimed in, hoping to be helpful. Rick raised an eyebrow and glanced over at Aspen. She hadn't known that much, either, and the shrug she gave him informed him that he made the right conclusion. She had been just as clueless as him in this case.

"They can tell us by smell?" Rick repeated.

"Can't you?" Asked Glenn. "They smell dead, we don't."

Slowly, a sigh escaped the college girl's lips and she stood up from the ground. She brushed off the dust from her pants and ran a hand over the top of her head, smoothing down the frizzy bumps and mumps along her scalp. "I have an idea, guys. But you have to promise me you won't think any less of me for bringing it up."

* * * * * * * * * *

It didn't take long to get all the supplies they needed from the store and drag one of the walker-bodies from the alley into the building. The corpse smelled terrible- the masks they'd taken from the store did a great job of keeping the gunk off their face, but didn't do justice when it came to the scents slopping off of the dead body and climbing with green claws into the air.

Emergency fire-ax in hand, Rick flipped the clear plastic visor down to cover his face and walked around the dead walker, kneeling down next to its stomach. Everyone else surrounded him clad in long white jackets and gloves, so that no matter how dirty they got, they wouldn't become contaminated. The Sheriff held the ax in the air and Andrea, Glenn, Jacqui, T-Dog, and Morales braced themselves for the impact. An impact that never came.

"Wait." Her gloved hand wrapped around the wooden base of the ax, stopping it mid-swing, inches from the body on the floor. Rick gave Aspen a curious glance before obeying her wishes and setting the head of the ax down against the cement floor. She took a deep breath, her hands shaky and nerves on edge, but did what she wanted to do.

Ever since she and Rick joined Glenn, Andrea, Morales, Jacqui, T-Dog, and Merle, it was plain to see that they'd lost at least a little of their humanity. Aspen didn't blame them, it would've been hard not to become numb to killing walkers day after day after day. To not see that a person's soul once resided inside that brain they've just crushed. Someone needed to remind them. Rick saw the look on her face and realized just what she was doing. What she was saying without any words. He nodded and she got to work.

The young woman searched the pockets of the body and found a wallet in his jeans. With a quick, yet slightly clumsy, jerk of her hands, she handed the wallet to the Sheriff and continued to search him while Rick opened up the small folded piece of sewn leather. Her fingers fumbled against the corpse's clothing for a minute or two before stopping and getting back to her feet. The room was thick with a feeling she couldn't identify, possibly pity, but she couldn't be sure. All she knew was that all eyes were on her and Rick as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and read the inside of the dead man's wallet.

"Wayne Dunlap." He announced to the group. He tightened his grip on her shoulders with one arm protectively. Rick Grimes had been to his fair-share of funerals. More than he'd like to admit. But, even within his long career as an enforcer of the law, this was definitely the strangest and possibly the most heart-breaking. Because he knew, deep down, that this would be one of the last funerals a walker would get.

Half of Earth's population at the very least was skulking around streets in a brainless stupor, eating each other. None of them would be getting the funeral they deserved, what they would've gotten if the world hadn't gone to hell. No one would be resting in cemeteries, no more funeral homes and mortuaries. Wayne Dunlap was the last one to come close to getting the respectful ceremony he deserved.

They all knew it.