New Beginnings

Cherry ran as fast as her feet could carry her as more gunshots rang out into the air, Daryl close to her heel as they both ran through the prison to get to the yard. “What the fuck is going on?” Cherry shouted, grabbing a gun that was carelessly left lying around, praying to any God above that it still had ammo. Her other hand clung tightly to her ice-pick, and Daryl loaded his crossbow with arrows, ready to shoot.

Cherry ran out into the yard, seeing the total carnage that the prison had turned into. “Fuck.” She whispered, eyeing the fences to make sure everything was secure, when she spotted three men climbing the fence. “No fucking chance.” She laughed, aiming her gun at one. “Daryl, you get one, I get one. I’ll meet the other bastard in the middle.” She said, and Daryl nodded, shooting an arrow with steady hands, telling Cherry that he was used to this.

Cherry ran forward, firing the gun as she did, the bullet hitting the man’s shoulder, causing him and the other man who Daryl shot to fall off the fence. Cherry started to climb the fence, despite hearing Evelyn’s cries of disagreement, and remained just a few inches lower of the third perpetrator. “You little bastard.” She hissed, keeping a tight grip of her ice-pick. “I’m not going to let you hurt any of these fucking people.” She got to the top and held on tightly, using her fingers to grab the man by the collar. As she did, she rammed her ice pick into his skull, before pulling it out and throwing him off the fence, hearing a sickening thud as he hit the ground.

Cherry climbed back down, to Evelyn and Rick, who were being careful of where and who to shoot, wasting no ammo, and Daryl, who wielded his crossbow, ready for any ambush. “Are you fucking crazy?” Evelyn screamed at Cherry, who merely shrugged her best friend off, cleaning her ice-pick on her shirt.

“Cherry, move!” Rick instructed, but it was too late. Another gunshot, and this time, the bullet didn’t miss as it went straight into Cherry’s upper arm, causing her to yell in pain.

“Fuck!” She screamed, aiming her gun at the man, not even thinking about her injury, who was now visible through the forestry, but Daryl pushed her out of the way and shot his crossbow, getting the man right between the eyes. Cherry handed Evelyn her gun, and she turned to look at Daryl, who was looking at her. She smiled in gratitude, but Daryl merely nodded curtly.

Rick’s shout caused them both to snap out of their little world. Cherry ran over to Rick, who had just ran out of ammo. “What do we do?” She asked, as the gunfire seemed to cease.

“They could be anywhere.” Rick said. “We surrender. We stock up on ammo, we take these guys out if they want to try again.” Cherry and Evelyn both nodded as things went quiet. Those who were hiding came out, and Glenn ran right over to Maggie, who lay on the ground unconscious.

“She was hit in the waist.” He said, inspecting his wife over. “We gotta get her inside.”

“Cherry, you okay?” Evelyn asked, inspecting her friend’s arm.

“I’m okay.” Cherry promised as Glenn lifted Maggie into a fireman’s lift. “Just a little sore, that’s all.”

“I think you’ve earned yourselves another night here.” Rick said, putting a hand on Evelyn’s shoulder. “Your group can stay again tonight, thank you for all of your help.”

Cherry nodded. “You got it.” She laughed, walking inside with Glenn to tell the group the good news.