The barn of blood and fire
Roaring engines, shrill whistles, Merle's filthy curses, the bandits' furious shouts-all that noise shattered the predawn silence and spread across the open wilderness.
In the darkness, scattered walkers roaming the wilderness stirred, turning their heads toward the source of the noise-Greene Farm.
Hoarse growls rose from all directions.
Dragging their feet, they began moving from the wilderness toward the farm.
Lynn's team had cleared the surrounding area, but the sustained noise still drew dozens of walkers, approaching from different directions.
Inside the farm's fences, Hershel's family was terrified.
On the main house's porch, Hershel stood pale-faced, trembling all over.
Maggie bit her lip and gripped her lever-action rifle, its muzzle wavering toward the figures chasing outside and the pickup's lights.
Beth clung to Patricia, unable to speak.
Jimmy and Otis held a pitchfork and a shotgun, despair written across their faces.
"Shoot! Stop them! Don't touch the barn!" Hershel shouted hoarsely, madness in his voice.
"Dad! We can't!" Maggie's voice shook. "There are too many of them! They've got a truck, too!"
She had seen the steel plates welded onto the back of the pickup and the weapons in the bandits' hands.
Amid the chaos, Merle made a sharp turn a dozen yards outside the fence.
He sprinted along the fence toward the barn, flinging empty shell casings against its thick doors with a clatter as he ran, taunting them with wild cries:
"Come on, you bastards! The goodies are in the barn! Come get 'em if you've got the balls! Scarface's RPG! The farm women! All waiting for you!"
The taunt sent the bandits into a frenzy.
"In the barn! After him! Don't let him get away!"
Tony roared from the pickup's passenger seat, his eyes bloodshot.
Dave had no time to stop them.
The pickup swerved sharply, tires screeching, and charged toward the barn, the bandits in its bed aiming their guns at it.
"No-!!" Hershel let out a despairing wail.
Crash-!
A tremendous impact!
The heavy, modified pickup slammed into the wooden doors on the side of the barn.
The doors shattered, splinters flew, and the barn shook.
The gunfire stopped for half a second.
Then-
"Grrgh-!"
"Raargh-!"
Countless inhuman howls erupted from the breach in the barn, drowning out every other sound.
Rotting figures poured through the broken doorway, dressed in tattered farm work clothes, plaid dresses, and a white coat-the veterinarian Annette... The "family" Hershel had "treasured," now walkers, lunged at the nearest living things-the pickup that had rammed the doors and the stunned bandits.
"Oh God..."
A bandit in the pickup bed had barely spoken.
The next second, the horde swallowed him.
Screams, snapping bones, and tearing bites mingled with the walkers' howls.
Several bandits beside the truck panicked and fired wildly, their shotgun rounds doing little against the dense horde at close range.
Skinny Monkey was knocked down, his throat bitten through.
Another bandit was seized and bitten by several walkers.
"Reverse! Fucking reverse!"
Tony screamed in terror, pounding on the driver.
The driver fumbled the truck into reverse and slammed on the gas.
The tires spun in the mud, smoking, but the truck was wedged in the doorframe and could barely move. More walkers climbed onto the hood and bed, their rotten hands reaching through the shattered windows to grab the people inside.
"Ah-!"
The driver's scream cut off as a walker outside the window sank its teeth into half his face.
With the barn doorway wide open, the walkers not only swarmed the pickup and bandits but began spreading in every direction.
Some surged toward the main house, while others headed toward Lynn's camp. The situation spiraled out of control.
Unlike the chaos on the farm, Lynn's camp was shocked but did not panic.
"Enemy attack! Walkers! Full alert!"
Davis's roar rang out immediately after the crash into the doors.
The camp sprang into action:
On the RV roof: Andrea, who was on lookout, steadied her rifle and opened fire first with a three-round burst.
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!
The heads of three walkers charging toward the camp burst apart.
Behind the jeep: T-Dog and Dale pulled away the tarp and quickly mounted the M2 heavy machine gun on the hood.
Dale worked the charging handle, and T-Dog fed in the ammunition belt.
At the camp perimeter: Shane's shotgun thundered, blasting apart two walkers.
Daryl's crossbow bolt flew, burying itself in a walker's eye socket.
In the central area: Davis stood in front of the straw bedding, firing his shotgun steadily, dropping a walker with every shot.
Glenn and Min-seon kept Rick, Lori, Carl, Carol, and Sophia between them, their pistols pointed outward.
Lynn: standing behind the campfire, unusually calm.
He had not fired his assault rifle. His gaze swept the entire scene: the barn walkers, the horde locked in struggle, the walkers closing in from the wilderness, the figures in the main house's lights, and the struggling pickup.
"Davis! Suppress the barn entrance! Slow the horde!"
"Andrea! Clear the ones near camp! Save your ammo!"
"T-Dog! Dale! Get the heavy machine gun ready! Wait for my order to fire on the horde heading toward the main house!"
"Shane! Daryl! Clear the stragglers around the perimeter!"
"Glenn! Min-seon! Hold the center! Protect everyone!"
His orders were clear and cold.
"Understood!"
"Copy!"
The replies were short and forceful.
Gunshots, crossbow twangs, and shotgun blasts mingled, holding back the walkers at the camp for the moment.
The heavy machine gun's muzzle swung toward the walkers charging at the main house.
The farm's main house was a scene of hell.
Watching his "family," now monsters, devour the bandits and lunge toward the house, Hershel collapsed, tears streaming down his aged face as he muttered, "No... Annette... Otis... how could this..."
"Dad!"
Maggie screamed as she dragged him.
A female walker in a torn dress-Annette-lunged beneath the steps with a howl, grabbing the railing.
Beth screamed.
Jimmy raised his shotgun at "Annette" below the steps, his hands shaking badly.
"Miss Maggie... I..."
"Move!"
Patricia screamed and grabbed the pitchfork Jimmy had dropped, stabbing wildly at "Annette."
Squish!
The pitchfork pierced the rotting body, but the wound was not fatal.
"Annette" seized the wooden shaft, pulling Patricia down screaming.
"Patricia!"
Jimmy's eyes reddened. He dropped his gun and lunged toward her.
A walker slammed into him from the side, knocking him down.
"Ah-!" Both screamed.
At the critical moment!
"T-Dog! Open fire!"
Lynn's order came over the radio.
Brrrr-!!!
The M2 heavy machine gun erupted with a roar like tearing cloth, pouring 12.7 mm rounds beneath the steps.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-!
Under the concentrated fire, the walkers beneath the steps, including those biting Jimmy and Patricia and "Annette" gripping the pitchfork, were instantly torn apart. Severed limbs and foul blood flew, and splinters burst from the stair railing.
The firepower relieved the siege for the moment, but also splashed foul blood all over the faces of Maggie, Beth, and Hershel, whom they had just hauled up.
Amid the chaos, the modified pickup finally broke free of the doorframe, its body covered in scratches and foul blood, its hood smoking as it reversed wildly, trying to escape.
Tony leaned halfway out of the passenger window, cursing incoherently toward Lynn's camp. "It was you! You did this! Even when I'm a ghost, I'll-"
Pfft!
A faint, muffled sound.
Tony's curses stopped. A bloody hole appeared between his brows, the back of his head burst open, and he slumped back into his seat.
A faint glint flashed in the shadows of the distant oak grove.
The Jackal's electronic eye moved behind the scope, the crosshairs locking onto Dave as he directed the escape.
The howls of the horde, gunfire, whining engines, and human screams mingled on the burning farm.
The flames from the barn lit the swaying walkers and the terrified or cold faces of the survivors.
Lynn stood at the edge of camp, watching the chaos.
Hershel's family was exposed at the center of the horde, and the mission to save them had entered its bloodiest phase.