15: The Bar in Town

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Elle's P.O.V.ย 

I woke up to see I was in a very familiar bed. I sat up and a rag fell on my lap. I got out of bed and walked to the kitchen. I saw nobody, so I went upstairs where I heard voices.ย 

"What's going on?" I asked seeing Maggie was holding a flask.

"You feel okay?" She asked.

"I feel fine. What's going on?" I repeated.

"Beth went into shock, and Daddy is the only one who knows how to help her." She explained briefly.

"We think he went into town to grab a drink or two." Rick said. He and Glenn decided they had to go to Hatlin's bar, because Maggie said it was the closest. I grabbed a shotgun and an axe. I started to follow them.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Rick asked.ย 

"What does it look like?" I retorted. We saw Maggie and Glenn talking, it looked serious.

"You're not coming with." He tried.

"You're not stopping me." I crossed my arms.

"You think Glenn is okay with this?" He asked cocking his head.

"I think, Glenn isn't in charge of me." I said opening the door to the car. Rick gave up.

"Fine, but you do as you're told." He said pointing sternly at me. I nodded. We sat in the car waiting. I finally decided we had waitedย long enough.ย 

"Let's go Romeo!" I yelled to Glenn through the window. I saw him awkwardly make his way towards the car. Maggie had an unreadable look on her face. Glenn got in the passenger seat and I sat in the middle of the back, putting my feet on the center console.ย 

"Romeo?" Glenn asked breaking the silence.

"Uh huh." I said fixing the hat on my head. Rick chuckled.ย 

"Looked like a pretty serious talk. You and Maggie." Rick said. I blocked out their conversation as we drove down the long road. There were empty fields, the grass dead and not ready for the winter approaching. I was playing with the strings on my ripped jeans when Glenn said something that sparked my interest.

"Maggie said she loved me." He said. I let out a laugh.

"What's wrong with that?" Rick asked.

"Did you say it back?" I asked. Glenn gave a look that said no. "Wow. Do you love her?" I added.

"I think it's just a rush of emotions. She just went through a huge loss." Glenn tried reasoning.

"I think Maggie is smart enough to know how she feels." Rick responded. I agreed with him. After another few minutes of driving, we arrived. We parked the car and got out with our weapons ready in case something came out at us. Rick opened the door to the bar named "Hatlin's." The little bell at the top let out a small ring, announcing our presence. Sure enough, we saw Hershel sitting at the bar island, with a glass of scotch.ย 

"Hershel." Rick said.

"Rick. Who's with you?" He asked.

"Elle and Glenn." Rick replied.

"Maggie send him?" Hershel asked, referring to Maggie's significant other.ย 

"No, he volunteered." Rick answered.ย 

"Hes good like that." I added. Hershel nodded.

"Look, you need to come home. Beth is in some sort of shock. She needs you." Rick explained.

"She needs her mother. I kept her hopes up, she never was able to grieve. I took that away from her, I realize that now." He said before taking a sip. We all walked over to Hershel's side. I took the glass from his hands while Glenn took the bottle. I looked out the window to see it was dark out. We still had the drive back to the farm ahead of us.ย We heard the bell ring again. I cocked my shotgun to see two men enter.

"You're alive." The tall one exclaimed.ย 

"That we are. One step closer and you won't be." I threatened as they had their guns up. They smirked. "Don't test me." They put their guns down. Rick gave me a nod, signaling me to do the same. I was hesitant, but complied.ย 

"I'm Dave, this is Tony." He introduced.

"Rick. This is Hershel, Glenn, and Elle." Rick said pointing at each ofย us.ย 
Our last encounter with survivors resulted in Glenn almost being fed to chihuahuas. So I was being very cautious about our new acquaintance. Rick could see my worry. I kept my gun ready to shoot, incase they tried anything. Rick started making conversation. Is this guy serious? I looked around the bar and saw a dart board. I grabbed the darts and started throwing them, hearing the small thumpย they made when they impaled the target. They turned to me.

"We're having a conversation." Dave told me.

"Cool." I said before throwing another dart, making a bullseye.ย 

"The darts are distracting." He continued. I looked at Rick and he was getting annoyed with these guys too.

"That sucks." I retorted.

"Elle." Rick said quietly, yet sternly. I rolled my eyes and fixed the hat on my head before putting the darts on the counter.ย 

"What brings you folks down south?" I asked remembering they said they came from Philadelphia.ย 

"Heard rumors about ferry's taking people to the islands. We originally wanted to go to DC, but we couldn't get close with all the traffic." Tony explained. I scoffed.ย 

"Ferry's taking people to islands. That's just another pipe dream." I said sitting on a bar stool. Glenn was just quiet in the back with Hershel.ย 

"We're trying to get to Nebraska." Dave added.

"Why Nebraska?" Rick asked.ย 

"Ya know, fields, lots of space."

"Makes sense." I agreed. It did. If there were walkers, you could get away easily. We heard something thump in the back. I thought it was Glenn, but he was surprised too. "I'll go check it out." I said. I took my axe out of its holster and slowly made my way to the door. I opened it and a walker came limping out. As it walked towards me, I easily sliced the top of its head off. I wiped the blood on the walkers clothes and put the axe back in my holster.

"What?" I asked when I saw the 2 men staring at me.

"Never seen a kid do that before." Dave said.

"You ever seen a kid beat another one senseless and get arrested for it?ย I did that too." I smirked. I realized Hershel had never heard about that. I looked at him, and he wasn't even paying attention. Whew. I grabbed some glasses from behind the counter. "I was only in juvie for a month, then the world went to shit." I said pouring some scotch in a glass for Rick. He took a sip.

"That your car out front?" Dave asked. We nodded. "We're living in ours. Where's all your gear? You guys holed up somewhere?" He added.ย 

"No." Rick lied. "We were planning on going to Fort Benning." He said.

"Lost cause. We saw the place, overrun." Tony told us.

"Of course it is. What else is new?" I complained.ย 

"You guys clean up nice. I bet you have an apartment, or a store, a farm maybe?" Dave asked. I saw Glenn tense in the corner of my eye. "How big is the land?"

"Not big enough to take more people in. We have a whole group." Hershel piped up.ย 

"Awe, you can take in a few more of our boys though, right Hershel?" Dave smirked.

"I guess Hershel's answer somehow wasn't clear enough. So lemme dumb it down for you. No." I growled.

"Girl's got a temper." He observed.

"You don't wanna know what happens when I get angry." I said grabbing my shotgun off the counter. Rick gave me a warning look. Dave hopped behind the other counter and grabbed more alcohol.ย 

"Where are we supposed to go?" Tony asked.

"I hear Nebraska's nice." I smiled.

"Nebraska, this kid." Dave chuckled. I held my gun tighter.

"No need for guns. Here." He said. We watched as he put his hand gun on the counter in surrender. I looked at Rick. He gave a quick nod as I pulled the trigger, killing Dave. Rick fired at Tony. We just killed people.ย 

"Did we just--?" I asked.

"Yeah, we did. We should leave before they're boys come looking for the gunshots." Rick said. We all got up and ready to go. My hand reached for the doorknob when we saw headlights.ย 
"Down." Rick whispered. We all crouched behind the boarded windows. We listened as we heard the car doors open, then close.

"You sure they went in this direction?" A man asked.

"I'm sure. We need to find them before the dead surround us." Another man said. We could hear them walking. After a few minutes, they were about to leave.

"You looked everywhere?" The first man asked.ย 

"Exceptย  there." The second man said. The bar.ย 

"We're talking about Dave and Tony, and nobody thought to check the damn bar?!" A third man asked. They went to open the door, but Glenn quickly jumped in front of it, closing it. I glared at him.ย 

"Someone just closed the door. Aye, is someone on there? We're not looking for trouble, just our friends. You seen em?" Someone shouted. I took a deep breath. Rick put a finger up to his mouth, signaling us to stay quiet.ย 

"Come on man, nobody's there."ย 

"Did you killย  Dave and Tony? Let us know now before we get surrounded. We just wanna know." A man begged.ย 

"They pulled on us! They had it coming!" Rick yelled. Was Rick going crazy today? Is he on drugs? It was the scotch wasn't it? One sip made his brain twist. I rolled my eyes. The rest of the conversation, I kinda zoned out. But I was awaken from my thoughts by gunfire.ย "Go out the back." Rick quietly urged. We ran while still ducking. I opened the back door with Glenn and Hershel behind me. We were in an alley.

"Rick says to try and go for the car." Hershel told us.

"Try?" Glenn freaked out.ย 

"Yes, and you'll make it. Both of you." Hershel said. I looked at him like he was crazy. He just nodded. We were gonna run but I bullet landed right in front of my feet. Glenn fellย behind a dumpster when another shot rang out.ย 

"Glenn!" I said. Rick came out.ย 

"Is he okay?" He asked.ย 

"I don't know." I said keeping an eye on the roof. Glenn slowly got up. He's alive. We ran down the alley to see the 3 men get in a car because walkers started coming out.ย 

"Come on, just jump!" One yelled. A kid who looked to be 20, jumped off the roof. We beard his yells of pain as the guys just left him. "Sorry!" They yelled. We started going for the car. We could hear the kid crying. I looked to see his leg impaled on the metal fence. We decided to try and help him.

"His muscle is shredded, his leg isn't gonna come off in one piece." Hershel told us. Glenn started killing walkers.ย 

"We cut it off?" I asked.

"No, please don't cut off my leg!" The kid cried.ย 

"Elle, your axe is pretty sharp." Rick claimed. I took my axe out. The kid started yelling at us to stop.

"Shut up!" Glenn yelled at him. Hershel tied the kid's leg off to slow the blood flow. "Rick, the walkers are getting too close!" Glenn warned us.ย 

"We won't get it off in time." Hershel said. He was implying that we leave him. I agree.ย 

"Don't leave me man!" The kid cried.ย 
"Rick!" Glenn shouted. The walkers were closing in.

"Elle, give me a hand." Rick told me. I grabbed the bottom of the kids shoe, and Rick grabbed the bottom of his leg. On the count of three, we pushed his leg up. The kid screamed. We brought him to the car as he passed out.

"Blindfold and tie him." Rick instructed as he closed the driver's door. I did as I was told. The drive home was quiet. I cant believe what happened tonight.ย 

We saved a kid who shot at us.

We were almost killed in a bar.

I shot a person. A living, breathing, very much alive, person...

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Old McDonald had a farm...

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