Let Lori Shoot It

I decided it would waste time if I went down to take the gun from her so instead I shouted.

“C’mon Lori! You can shoot it, just carefully aim and fire! Hit the walker, not Maggie!” I shook my head, trying to get the thought out of her missing it.

Lori looked terrified. She held up the gun with shaking hands. Maggie was still yelling and struggling as the walker squeezed its way past the door to bite her. Lori aimed and a loud BANG! echoed throughout the basement, practically deafening everyone. My ears rung; I couldn’t hear hardly anything.

However, when I got my hearing back, all I heard was more screaming. My heart beat rose when I turned and stared at the walker. It was definitely dead; the bad news was that the bullet had gone through Maggie’s head and into the walker’s.

Lori dropped her gun and held her hands up to her mouth in shock. I couldn’t speak. I just watched Maggie’s body slide down the door with my jaw hanging open. I realized the door was still open so I mustered up what I had to make up the stairs. I tried not to step on Maggie, and shoved the walker out of the basement before shutting the door and locking it.

Beth and Patricia were crowding the steps hovering over Maggie’s body so that I couldn’t get past without tripping. So I sat on the top step and looked anywhere but at the girls in front of me. I heard Lori sobbing and whimpering, “I’m sorry… I didn’t… I wasn’t aiming for her… I… Oh God…”

I put my hands onto the step I was sitting on to force myself to take in deep breaths, but pulled back when I felt something wet soaking both palms. I looked at them in the light and saw that they were coated in blood.

My heart started to beat even faster and my chest rose and fell irrationally as I struggled to breathe. I tried to cry, but the hysteria from what had happened caused my body to go into shock. I was freaking the hell out. I followed the blood from my hands to the stair and saw that it was dripping down the staircase; pooling down each stair at a time. I looked from the stairs to Maggie; her left eye was open, but her right eye was a giant bloody hole.

I quickly looked away as my stomach started to churn. I had to get away from her, or I was going to be sick. I stumbled past Beth and Patricia who were still crowded around her body. My footsteps squished in the blood with each stair I descended down. When I finally got to the bottom, I ran into the corner by the vent and puked.

That’s when I noticed there were no more moans or groans coming from above. I listened as hard as I could, holding my breath both to keep myself from puking again and to figure out what was happening up there.

“We have to move the bodies.” The voice was faint.

“How are we going to tell them?” another voice hissed.

“I dunno.”

The voices slipped away. Luckily I had gotten my stomach to settle back down, but I didn’t know if it was going to stay like that for long.

I turned to Carl, Lori, and Carol. They were now huddled on the couch in each others arms.

“I think it’s safe…” I whispered.

But they didn’t move. So I took a deep breath before heading back up the stairs to open the door. It didn’t matter; because the door had already opened. The light from upstairs lit up the entire basement, illuminating three people at the top. It also lightened up the vivid scene on the stairs; the quarts of blood that trickled down the steps, Maggie’s dead body with her sister and friend hovering over it.

“Ma—MAGGIE?!” Glenn almost fell down as he scrambled down a couple of steps and joined the two women.

“Oh God!” I heard Andrea exclaim.

“What happened?” Rick was the third person at the door.

I told him everything; about Carl leaving, about Maggie going after him, about the walker grabbing her and about Lori shooting her by accident.

It was impossible to describe without breaking down.

Click for The End