-Riley-

I had only killed one human before - deliberately, at least - and that kill had certainly dented my mentality. Simon had been a horrible man, with questionable sanity and a dangerous bloodlust, but I was unsure if I would have killed him were it not for the fact that he was the squeeze of a trigger away from killing my boyfriend.

The manner in which I had killed him only further served to shake me up - I would never before have imagined reaching a stage of anger in which I was willing to pulverize another human being, and in doing so I feared I was becoming the very man I had just killed.

That human had deserved death, but as I said before, I would still not have killed him were it not for the situation I was forced into. 

Now, I was facing another man who presumably deserved death - after all, he was a member of Negan's band of ruthless and brutal survivors. Hell, the letter 'S' that signified his allegiance on his body armor was even painted in walker blood!

There was no doubt about it: this man was no better than the undead that shambled about in the distance, but in spite of this, I did not want to kill him.

He wasn't threatening Carl. He hadn't held my former group at gunpoint and shot my boyfriend's father off a bridge. He was nothing more than an average grunt, and he hadn't evoked the anger that Simon had, and I felt generally guilty as Carol, Carl and I crept silently toward him.

He was clearly unsettled by the chorus of gurgles that resonated from the forest, brought about by the deafening noise generated by the Saviors' far from subtle vehicles. The occasional gunshot pierced the silence, causing both us and the guard to jolt in surprise.

"What the hell's going on in that forest?" the guard inquired through a walkie-talkie, placing his spare hand on the pistol holstered to his belt, "sounds like a God damned lurker choir in there."

Laughing at his own joke, the guard awaited a response, which never came.

"Hey," he urged, now half-yelling as he became anxious, "Joey! I said what's going in there?" 

Once again, the nervous soldier encountered nothing but static from his radio, as the groans of the undead echoed both through the device's speaker and the forest itself. 

"Ah shit," he began to visibly panic, pacing back and forth around the vehicle. The three of us were only about 50 yards away from the unaware guard now, but his anxious and unsettled state would render a stealth approach much more difficult.

"To hell with it," the guard concluded to himself, dropping the walkie-talkie and drawing the first of his two pistols as he began to traipse into the forest, abandoning the two vehicles he was tasked with protecting. This would be helpful, were it not for the fact that the guard walked toward us...

We hoped to ourselves that he would walk within range of Carol's elongated blade, allowing us to kill him without attracting the unwanted attention of the nearby undead. This hope was foiled, however, when he paused about two meters away from our position, finally managing to identify us from the surrounding foliage.

His eyes widened in disbelief, and as he contemplated for a split-second how to react, Carol stole the opportunity to pounce forward with her blade, raising it up in the air before thrusting down with both hands clutching the handle.

Prioritizing defence over offence, the guard raised the arm in which he clutched his gun before his face to prevent a fatal strike. The sword connected with his arm, which would have been completely severed were it not for his riot gear - instead, it became embedded in his armor, causing him to involuntarily fire his weapon at a nearby tree. 

Splinters of bark from the tree showered into their faces, giving the soldier the opportunity to deliver a surprise uppercut - fortunately, due to his disorientated state, the guard's blow barely connected, but it was strong and unexpected enough to knock Carol back and cause her to release her grip on the katana. 

In this split-second, both Carl and I had been too stunned to react, but now a friend was in peril and we had the only firearm capable of freeing her from this danger.

Carl took aim with the large hunting rifle and pulled the trigger without hesitation, but he had clearly not used a rifle of this calibre before and the unanticipated recoil of the weapon was strong enough to send him sprawling backwards.

The bullet impacted successfully, albeit not fatally, against the guard's left shoulder. He yelled out in pain, stumbling backwards in agony and accidentally dropping his pistol as the round passed clean through both his frontal and rear body armor. 

Carol recovered from the guard's unexpected uppercut, a small amount of blood dripping from her lower lip, and picked up the katana that had been dropped in the scuffle. 

However, we had all forgot about the second pistol that had been thrown to him by his comrade, which suddenly clicked as it was loaded and raised by the wounded soldier, who aimed at it Carol as she halted in her tracks.

"D-Don't... Don't move!" the guard stammered, his voice hindered by pain and terror.

"Just let us take one of these cars, and we won't kill you," Carol urged, breathing heavily following the fight, as the adrenaline slowly drained from the three of us.

I glanced back at Carl, who hauled himself back to his feet following the unanticipated recoil, massaging his wounded shoulder following the sudden injury and resting the hunting rifle on his uninjured one.

"O-Okay... Take... Take one of the cars - just... just don't kill me... Take whatever you want, just don't..." the guard fumbled his words repeatedly, clearly becoming delirious as a result of the fierce pain.

Carol obliged, lowering the katana slightly and motioning for Carl and I to walk forwards. We traipsed uncertainly forward, with Carl holding the rifle parallel to his hips in preperation to retaliate should the guard attempt a surprise attack.

The guard hauled himself forward, proceeding to rest against a tall, foreboding tree, accompanied with a grunt of pain.

Carol randomly selected the vehicle on the right hand side, and opened the vast, barbed wire-rimmed door with a forceful shove.

"Carl, you get in first," she instructed, glancing suspiciously back at the Savior guard as the young Grimes clambered welcomely into the safety of the heavily armored vehicle. Carol then followed after, sitting herself as comfortably as possible into the driver's seat. I prepared to follow after, when suddenly a gunshot struck the door just millimeters from my hand.

I yelped in shock, instinctively releasing my grip on the door and diving back behind the protection of the other stationary vehicle's armour.

Apparently the devious Savior had changed his mind about simply letting us steal his vehicle, and clearly felt some sort of obligation to his comrades, proceeding to fire another bullet which shattered the windshield of the car, narrowly missing Carol's head.

She responded swiftly and unexpectedly, slamming her foot onto the vehicle's pedal and crouching behind the dashboard to shield herself from another trio of bullets as the car roared forward, unhindered by the shots, and ploughed directly into the guard.

The scream of pain was an extremely short yet anguished one, ending abruptly as a jet of blood spurted up against the trunk of the tree that the guard once rested against.

"Get in," Carol instructed to me emotionlessly, reversing the vehicle to park beside me as I rose unsteadily to my feet. I did not have time to contemplate the fact that this was the second time I had participated willingly in the killing of a fellow human as I scrambled into the ravaged car.

We're going through all of this to try and save Michonne... when we don't even know if she's alive...

---

What did you think to that one?

I, personally, am pretty proud of it. I'm not too good at writing hectic fight scenes, and I think this one and the fight against Simon in the first book are the only ones I've written to date.

Just so you know, I'm quite sure this series will be a trilogy, since I have too many ideas in my head to put into this story alone, so even when this book ends you'll still have more to look forward to ;)

Just thought you 'ought to know. Anyways, I hope you liked it, and more will come soon.