Tiptoe Through the Tulips

His fist smacked my back, the wind was forced from my lungs and I coughed, still trying to laugh as I desperately inhaled air.

“The..the thing is” I choked out, nose still pressed against the cemented floor, “It’s not even fucking funny is it?” I paused, another set of coughs burning my throat, “And that’s what makes it fucking hilarious.”

He growled and his weight left my back, I inhaled deeply before I was quickly turned over, once again slammed on my back, hissing slightly as I felt a loose stone cut my shoulder blade. I turned my head, the other two men were a few foot away, conferring about something, one I noticed had a nice bruise forming on the right side of his face and I bit my lip as a grin spread across my face.

“That’s not very nice...” I teased, watching as ‘Jack’ glared at me again, his jaw tense, “I thought we were all friends here?” He ground his jaw, moving so he was straddling me and leaning his face towards mine again.

“What the fuck is so funny?”
Nothing, this was all so pitifully unfunny it was hilarious.
I’m completely loosing it.
No time like the present though ‘ay.

I was scared out of my wits.
Literally.

“What do you think you’re achieving by doing this?” I asked, his eyes flooded with confusion before quickly turning hard again, he shook his head before standing, a hard kick to my ribs made spots flash in my vision as I heard his footsteps heading away from me.

I didn’t even attempt to stand, my bravado was fading, that false indifference.

They were going to kill me, either completely, or I would become a walker, a soulless monster desperate to kill and eat.
I would rather die than become one.

Tears pooled in my eyes again, how was this fair? I had spent the last five months since the outburst running, always trying to keep others alive as well as myself. I had to watch my best friend kill himself, people I cared about dying.

They wouldn’t come back for me once they realised. They would be stupid too. Rick would demand they didn’t.
A selfish bit of me wishing Daryl would have come back anyway, even at such a huge risk to himself, that he would just appear, save me. That we would find somewhere safe where we could just be together.

Such stupid thoughts.
Fairytales.

The men were shouting again, the same one as before trying to convince the others to stop wasting time, to just take me to die now. The others definitely weren’t ‘done’ with me, I shuddered when I realised what that could mean. They were about ten foot from me, I twitched my legs, my knee was still burning.

I wouldn’t even make it a couple of metres away.

I closed my eyes, trying to calm myself down. Fuck this giving up nonsense, I was Ariella Valestro.
One of my brothers had said once, that we Valestro's are “hard fuckers”, ha. It was his way of trying to make himself look tougher, stop himself from crying over the ankle he had just broken falling off a bike.

The memories like that are worth fighting for.
I’m not going to give up.

The shouting dragged me out of my memories, back to reality, back to the damp, cold concrete scratching my back, the aching coming from most of my body.
The larger man, this ‘Jack’ stalked over to me again, screaming how he would teach us all a lesson if need be, the hairs on my neck stood up and I felt my whole body tense.

He didn’t touch me though, instead grabbing a shotgun that was just metres from where I lay.
Stupid, stupid. I should have seen the fucking gun.

He walked back and the shouting became merged, their three voices blending. Until a shot was fired and it went silent. They had shot the one who wanted to leave, the only one who seemed to have an ounce of sanity.

They marched over, the gun lay next to the body, even from my low spot I could see the blood pooling around his head, splatters of blood and brain on the alley wall close behind him.

I felt sick.

“I am done fucking around.” Jack said, once again close to where I lay, I struggled as his hand went over my mouth, two fingers pinching my nose so I couldn’t breathe. “You can scream all you want darling. Ent nobody gives a fuck that can hear you.” I felt my eyes widen as his hands travelled down my body.

Oh god not this, please, anything but this again.
I writhed, my begging of him to stop thick with sobs, the younger one, still a teenager was by my head again, he grabbed my arms, holding me to the ground.

“Please don’t, don’t!” I cried, pitifully fighting against him as my shorts and underwear were pulled down my shaking legs, “ Stop!” I screamed, before the younger one shoved his hand over my mouth muffling my screams.

I fell silent eventually, letting him have his way. Tears dripped onto the other man’s hand, escaping my scrunched up eyes, everything thrust hurt, like a dagger being forced through me. A few minutes later he stopped, breathing heavily, the hand was loosened from my mouth and went back to my hands as I gasped, trying to cross my legs to cover my dignity and I tried to fight back the sobs.

A noise caught my attention and I turned my head in the direction of the alley, the two men were distracted, apparently it was the teenagers go next.

Bile was high in my throat, acid burning.

Another noise, I forced my eyes to focus, it was him. The stranger from the pharmacy.
He held his finger to his lips, reaching for the gun on the ground. Jack stood, pulling his ragged jeans up, his back to the stranger.
He aimed the gun, pointing it straight at his head, I shut my eyes waiting for the shot.

BANG, followed again soon after the noise of the body slamming against the ground, BANG.