— AROUND AN HOUR HAD PASSED after Zoe had been told about how Judith hasn't survived, and although the girl knew that she needed rest like her father was, but she just couldn't find it in herself to sleep, not when she knew who would plague her nightmares, and whom she would see when she closes her eyes. She knew that Rick could see how much the attack had affected her, he knew that there was mental injuries on top of her physical ones, but he just didn't know how to help her — he had left her to search through some of the room closets for some new clothes, as hers were covered head to toe in mud and blood, and he had unknowingly padded out in the room next to hers. Zoe had taken a seat next to the man after she had found some new clothes, still deep in his sleep, whilst she stared into a bliss and silently cried, not wanting to disturb her dad from his well needed rest, since he looked even worse than she did, and that was saying a lot. In all honesty, the girl was waiting for Carl and Michonne to get back from their supply run, because the only thing that Zoe wanted to do in this current moment, was hug her brother and never let go.

Glancing back at her father, Zoe sighed, envious of how peaceful the man looked in his nap, clearly not haunted by his actions and what he had done to survive, not like her. The girl knew that she did what she had to, that if she didn't kill that man, he would've killed her instead — it didn't make her feel any better, though, nothing could; she had taken another life, and nothing could change that, and nothing could justify it. Zoe remembered when her father had killed Shane, and how he felt after doing so, and it made the girl realise that she needed to push it aside to survive.. As the girl was trying to come up with ways on how she could get over her pain, her heart stopped beating completely when she heard mens voices booking from the street outside, instantly recognising the sounds and freezing, trying to piece together how the men had taken such a little time to catch up with her; she didn't know how long it had been since she had first arrived here, but she would have thought it would've given her some more time, but she was wrong..

Pushing herself up off of the bed, she rushed over to the window and slowly pushed back the curtain, seeing the group of men below, the same men whom had attacked her — instantly, the girl rushed back over to the bed and shook her father awake, the man snapping his eyes open in shock, having not expected to be woken up so suddenly. "Dad, it's them.. Get up." The girl whispered, shaking him again and pushing him off of the bed. As she did this, the group of men walked into the house, creating a ruckus downstairs as they argued amongst each other. Her breathing had hitched at the sound of one of the men stabbing the other, having clearly gotten into some disagreement, and she just knew that she and her father had no chance at fighting through them all.

Ricks eyes widened as he motioned his daughter to get behind him, the man rushing out into the hallway to see if they could get out, but there sounded to be too many, and he had given his gun to Carl. At his daughters words when she woke up, he knew that he wanted to kill them all for what they did to his little girl, but right now, they were at a severe disadvantage, and they just needed to get out. When one of the men began to climb up the stairs, Rick pushed Zoe back into the bedroom, the man peeking through the doorway and seeing the man walk into the room down the hall, clearly checking the place through and making sure that no one was in the house — Zoe had begun shaking so harshly besides him, that it was the only thing he could hear other than the men downstairs. The father ushered for his daughter to get under the bed, the only thing they really could do at the moment, and she instantly did so, crouching down and rolling under the bed, the man following after her after grabbing the book from the bed, so it looked like no one had been here.

Rick was trying to look strong in front of his daughter, but he couldn't help but shake, too, knowing that they were in a difficult situation that was going to be hard to get out of; the man rolled out to grab his water bottle, but the man in the other room had left, walking back into the hallway and causing Rick to quickly roll back in next to Zoe, hiding yet again. But as the man went into yet another room, he successfully grabbed the bottle, rolling back under the bed and finally hiding fully now that they had taken all of the evidence that they were even here, however, Zoe had changed clothes in the other bedroom, and the girl was trying not to cry when she realised that they might find them and know she's in here.. The girl couldn't help but grab her fathers hand and squeeze as the man entered their bedroom, stopping right in front of their bed and looking around, not knowing about the two Grimes' hiding underneath the bed, he seemed to be checking out the room as they stayed still and quiet, praying that he wouldn't check under the bed. And luckily, the man sat down on top of the bed, pushing down on the two Grimes', but luckily, they hadn't been caught.

He began snoring just seconds after his head hitting the pillow, and whilst Zoe couldn't move, being frozen to the spot, her father was looking around to figure out a way that they could get out of this. Rick was beginning to slide out from under the bed, when another man had ended up walking back into their room, Rick sliding right back under again as they carried on hiding, truly stuck in their situation. "Yo, guess what I found in the other room." The new man spoke up, Zoe recognising his voice from when she had been attacked, he was the one telling the guy to hurry up. "I found little blondies clothes, looks like she's been here." He informed the sleeping man, who had woken up upon his words.

"No shit." He laughed, as Rick glanced at Zoe to see that she was on the verge of tears; he slowly grabbed her hand and squeezed hard, showing the girl that he was here with him and nothing could happen to her now that he was around. The girl glanced over at him as he gave her a knowing look, Zoe closing her eyes and nodding subtly, trying to calm herself down. "I claimed the girl the second she killed Paddy, she's mine." He carried on, now standing up and glaring at the other man, Zoe squeezing her eyes shut as the last thing she wanted to hear was the two men arguing about who claimed her first.

"No you didn't, Paddy was my brother. That bitch is mine. And I'm gonna make her wish she'd never been born." The man who walked in, stated, the two quickly beginning to fight as punches were thrown, grunting was heard, and a thud was head in front of them when they saw the sleeping man land on the ground from being tripped up.

The man hadn't noticed the father and daughter hiding under the bed at first, not when the others hands were wrapped around his neck, trying to push down as much pressure as he could. With another punch landing on his face, he now had his face turned to Rick and Zoe, his eyes widening as he looked in between the two, most importantly, Zoe, who he recognised instantly. "Len, Len, stop!" He grunted, trying to say that the girl was hiding under the bed, "Stop, Len!" He yelled, his eyes wide as he looked at the two Grimes, pushing against the man on top of him.

But nothing worked, Len kept squeezing, "Hell, nah. That girl is mine." He grunted, as Zoe felt a tear fall down her cheek, watching as the man's life slowly faded from his eyes, then dying before Len jumped onto the bed, pushing down even harder on Rick and Zoe as they tried not to move. They didn't have any choice but to wait again, so the man on the bed could fall asleep and they could finally make their way out and get the hell out of dodge, but Zoe felt like she had been waiting for hours for the man to fall asleep, and it felt like torture.

Tapping the girls arm, Rick nodded his head, motioning for the girl to finally crawl out from under the bed now that he thought they were safe to do so — after a few seconds of slowly breathing in and out to calm herself down, Zoe nodded, slowly shuffling out, ducking her head to avoid the man's foot which had dropped even lower now that he had moved in his sleep. She stood up and helped her dad get out from under the bed, next, the two being as quiet as they could in fear that the sleeping man could wake up at any moment; standing up, Rick looked back down at the man in the bed, wanting to kill him for saying what he did about his daughter, but someone else sounded from downstairs, telling them to get their asses downstairs, slowly coming up to get them.
Rick pulled Zoe out into the hallway and into the doorway of another room, the man pushing the girl behind him as they slowly walked backwards again to make no noise, hearing the bouncing ball become even louder as the man walked up the stairs.

Unluckily for Rick and Zoe, the man in question headed straight in the same direction as them, bouncing his ball up and down again as he looked at the bookshelf, not knowing about the two people hiding. Dropping some things to the floor, the man walked onwards again, standing at the doorway to the room that Rick and Zoe were in, throwing the ball he had to the wall and catching it, the father and daughter standing incredibly still as they still hadn't been noticed — Zoe could feel her heartbeat in her chest, beating erratically as she closed her eyes yet again, praying to god that she and her father could get out of this alive and unharmed.
He walked away, Zoe releasing a sigh of relief as she then watched her dad try and open up the window for them to climb out of; even if she broke her legs trying to escape, she would do so, to get away from these men. With the window locked, Zoe began to have no hope that they were going to be able to get out of this house alive, especially since the others wouldn't open, either.

"Claim, claim, claim!" One of the men yelled downstairs, Len shouting back in annoyance that he was trying to sleep, "There's a woman shacking up here!" He yelled again, alerting the others in the group that they could claim another woman.

"Is it blondies clothes? Hers are up here, too." Len shouted, Rick and Zoe hearing him get off of the bed and begin to walk down the stairs, "If they're different woman, you claim her, I claim blondie." He spoke up as he walked down the hallway, Zoe now shivering with how scared she was that the men were passing around claims on women.

"They could be miles away by now." Another men huffed in annoyance, "This one's washed her shirt, though, what's blondies clothes looking like? Could we catch up with her?" He asked, already trying to think of a plan to catch the girl again like their group member had failed to do.

"If she's washed her shirt, they're probably meaning to come back, we can lay claim then, man." Len said, Rick grabbing a trophy from besides them as he looked into the hallway first, disgust clear in his features at how these men were talking about Zoe and Michonne.

When they finally went downstairs, Rick went into their bedroom to get the man's gun, Zoe waiting at the side as he did, but watching him come back into view and push her into the room behind them when they heard yet another guy walk up the stairs. Zoe froze when she looked to the side, seeing yet another man in the same very room they had rushed into; the girl tapped Rick, who instantly went into fight mode, shoving the trophy into the man's stomach the second he stood up, trying to be as silent as possible whilst doing so, but when they were flying around all over the place, they were making way too much noise. The girl didn't want to think about what she was about to do, instead, she just did it. Seeing the man go to grab a pair of scissors, Zoe beat him to it, shoving the blade into the man's neck as Rick held him, the guy instantly beginning to bleed out as her father stripped his body for his gun, aiming it at the door whilst he breathed heavily after the struggle he had just had.

Zoe had killed another, but neither of them could dwell on the subject as they needed to keep their head in the game and get out; so, as Rick was grabbing things off of the man's body, Zoe opened up the window, sighing in relief when it slid open easily, and looking back at her father with a hopeful look. Zoe climbed out as her father took the man's jacket, following his daughter out shortly after as they now stood on the balcony roof, the girl knowing that she was about to have a harder time jumping off than her father was, but none the less, crouched down and waited for her dad to put on the stolen jacket and have a look at the distance from them to the ground. Rick gave her a look, saying that he would go first and catch her when she jumps down, and she nodded, waiting on the roof as the man jumped down and landed as quietly as he could, looking back up at the girl as she began to do the same, making a little more noise than her father, but landing in his arms and crouching down as they listened out to see if they were heard.

Zoe ran forwards first, down the stairs and round the side of the house, knowing that all of the men were in the house, before stopping at the front, hearing the front door open and shut again, the hall bouncing yet again. Right now, Zoe was going to follow behind every movement her father made, knowing that he was better off when it came to figuring out a plan — so they waited again as the man upstairs took a seat on the fence, eating out a can of food as Rick saw Carl and Michonne walking in the distance. He was about to act on it, and kill the man above them, when a walker shouting in the background and a gun shot interrupted his plan, the man now walking back into the house in annoyance as Zoe wiped her forehead to rid the sweat that had begun to form.
Rick grabbed his daughters hand and pulled her along as he knew this was their chance to get the hell out of here, and she followed instantly, the two now sprinting towards Carl and Michonne as they looked shocked to see the young Grimes' girl alive. "Go, go! Later!" Rick ushered, pushing everyone away as telling and gunshots were heard in the distance.

And right now, as much as Zoe wanted to have a nice reunion with her brother and Michonne, she knew that they had to get out of here, even with the tears growing in Carl's eyes as he looked up at his sister, the girl ran forwards, eventually grabbing his hand and squeezing tight, ensuring him that she was okay, that she was with him and they weren't going to be split up again..
The second they reached the train tracks and knew that they were a safe distance away from the men back at the house, Carl launched himself into his sisters arms, the girl holding him right as tears fell from her eyes. "You're alive." Carl mumbled into her chest, not wanting to let go, "We thought you died." He told her, remembering how he felt when they thought the girl was dead, and never wanting to feel that again, "How did you find us?" He asked, finally pulling away as they began walking again, the boy never letting the girls hand go.

Zoe returned Michonne's smile as she was pulled along by Carl, "I guess fate brought me to you." She replied, wishing that it were the case — she wasn't going to tell him about the group of men and what she had to do, she couldn't stand the thought of him looking at her any differently, especially now that she had killed two, the other to save her fathers life. Letting go of his hand, she rested her arm over the boys shoulder, tapping his hat playfully as she did so, about to sofas up again, when they paused, seeing a sign on the wall next to them.

"What do you think?" Michonne asked, looking towards Rick for an answer, as did Zoe and Carl.

"Let's go." Rick told the three of them, knowing that it was the best option they all had.

So they did, reading the sign and the map, and following along the train tracks, praying for sanctuary.