"I wonder if the whole thing's legit." Michonne pondered as Rick settled down near her. The three of them were closer to Terminus than ever now, and Rick couldn't help but think about things as they were. Did any of the others see the posters for Terminus and make it there already? Would it be safe? Would there be other kids for Carl to hang out with? Was it even still there? Michonne's concern was one that hadn't taken the limelight but was thrust there as soon as she spoke of it. Whether Terminus was really a "safe haven" had yet to be seen.
A twig snapped in the vicinity. Though a sound like that would have gone unnoticed in days gone by, it was as loud as any gunshot now.
Rick and Michonne both whirled to face the noise, straining their ears for more. It could have been an animal, but that didn't dismiss the possibility of it being a person. It couldn't be a walker, or it would have made far more noise as it staggered through the moonlit woods. Michonne's hand flew to her katana, and as Rick stood, his hand jumped towards his gun as though there was a magnetic attraction between the two. They waited for a few seconds and heard nothing more. Rick turned his head, listening raptly to the sounds around him, hoping to find something unnatural. After a tentative moment of silence, he crouched back down beside Michonne.
"We let people in." Rick reasoned, still on edge from the twig's snap. Michonne turned to face him, regarding his statement. His eyes swept over the blue truck, wondering if Carl was already asleep. After they paused here, he had insisted that the boy get some rest. Carl posed no dispute to the suggestion; the days of traveling were getting to the fourteen year old. Rick had observed that after the events following the prison's attack, he and Carl seemed to get along better. They had a better understanding of each other.
"We did," Michonne countered, "But so did the Governor."
"Yeah, there's always the things n' we don't get to know until we know." Rick sighed. "Maybe this place isn't even there anymore." Just then, he heard a gun in his ears and felt it pressed to the side of his head. He froze up as a voice spoke.
"Oh dearie me." the unknown attacker said in what was almost a chuckle. Michonne lashed around to grab her katana but stopped as another figure came out of the darkness, a man wearing a dark colored bandana on his head. The second attacker kicked Michonne's katana out of her hands as three more men emerged from other sides of the dark forest, two of them with guns raised at Rick and Michonne. "You screwed up, asshole. You hear me? You screwed up."
Rick then noticed the third man walking towards the blue truck, a balding and rather pudgy man. He thought of his sleeping son and his face contorted into a slight scowl. So long as they didn't hurt Carl, he'd be okay. He wanted to yell at them to stop, wanted to stop that man from advancing on the truck, but he knew it would only draw their attention to the boy. He bit down lightly on his tongue, every muscle tense.
"Today's the day of reckoning, sir." said his attacker, a silver haired man with a mustache and beard. He was garbed in what looked like biker attire to Rick. "Restitution. A balancing of the whoooole damn universe." Michonne looked at the man and then to Rick with wide eyes. This was bad. Rick watched as the pudgy one slapped his hand against the window of the car, his insides burning as he watched his son almost jump up into a sitting position.
"Shit, and I was thinking of turning in for the night on New Years' eve." the gray-haired attacker sniggered. "Now who's gonna count down the ball drop with me, huh? Ten Mississippi, nine Mississippi, eight Mississippi." Rick watched as the man by the truck was staring in at Carl, a wicked smile on his face. Bastard, Rick thought, wishing that a walker would stagger out of the darkness to rip that ugly smile off his face.
"Joe!" a familiar voice rang through the dark. Rick's attacker looked up, astonished. The moment he saw the newcomer's weapon - a crossbow - he knew who it was. Daryl Dixon walked out before them, an unreadable look on his face that lapsed into one of realization as he saw Rick and Michonne. Rick stared at Daryl, feeling amazement. He'd addressed the attacker by name. Did he know them? Was he with them? Rick had confidence that Daryl wasn't part of this, that he couldn't be part of this. Not Daryl.
"Hold up." Daryl said in a much softer voice.
"You're stoppin' me on eight, Daryl." Joe shot back, sounding slightly vexed as Daryl advanced towards them.
"Just hold up."
"This is the guy that killed Lou, so we got nothin' to talk about." snapped one of the armed men.
"The thing about nowadays is that we got nothin' but time." Joe returned, "Say your piece, Daryl."
"These people," Daryl began, clearly on edge. "You gon' let them go. These are good people."
"Now I, I think Lou would disagree with you on that." Joe retorted, something treacherous entering his voice. Rick mentally screamed at Daryl to at least get Carl out of here and run. Rick knew that Carl would be okay if he had Daryl with him. "I'll of course have to speak for him n' all, 'cause your friend here strangled him in a bathroom.
"You want blood. I get it." Daryl countered back in a low voice. He put his things down, dropped his crossbow and outstretched his arms. "Take it from me, man. Come on." No, Rick couldn't let Daryl sacrifice himself. He couldn't. Daryl was his friend, Daryl was his brother. He couldn't live with himself if he let Daryl do this. He tensed his muscles, ready to spring into action the second they made a move against Daryl.
"This man killed our friend. You say he's good people. See that right there i-is a lie." Joe stammered in a voice that Rick was trying to read for emotions. Was that disappointment, betrayal, or possibly barely contained rage? Daryl's arms dropped. "It's a lie!" Just then, the armed pair moved in on Daryl. One of them struck him in the gut with the butt of his gun.
"No!" Rick bellowed, helpless to stop them. If he moved, Joe would blow his brains out. He was willing something to happen, something that would free him up to fight.
"Teach him fellas!" Joe ordered. "Teach him all the way!" One of them punched, catching Daryl on the face and knocking him against the truck. Rick's head shot to the other side of the car, where the pudgy marauder had opened the door and was grappling Carl, drawing him out of the truck and keeping a knife near the boy's neck.
"You leave him be!" Rick roared as rage flooded him. Rick tried to get up and was forced down by Joe, who kept the gun pointed to his head. Nothing mattered now but Carl. The pudgy man kept that knife close as he held the boy, shhing into Carl's hair with a perverted look on his face as Carl gasped, fear mirrored on the boy's face. Rick felt anguished that they had Carl, repulsed with the way this man was looking at his son.
"You'll get yours." the man with the bandana said as Michonne moved, keeping his gun on her. "You just wait your turn."
"Listen." Rick snarled hatefully. "It was me. It was just me."
"See, now that's right! That's not some damn lie. We can settle this, we're reasonable men." Joe cried. Rick's eyes fell on Daryl as he was beaten again. The crossbow wielder fell. "First, we're gonna beat Daryl to death. Then we'll have the girl. Then the boy. Then I'm gonna shoot you and then we'll be square." Rick scowled as Joe laughed and something deadly was filling Rick up. He was not going to let them "have" anyone. He watched as Carl was pressed down into the leaves, his balding attacker descending on him, holding down the writhing teenager.
"Let him go." Rick growled, a dull pang of pain overcoming him as he saw the fear on his young son's face.
"Stop your squirmin'." Carl's attacker grunted as he seized the boy's wrists, trying to pin him down. Carl thrashed about fearfully, standing no chance against the man, who was at least twice his mass. Rick's insides seared again as he saw the terror on Carl's face and in his voice as he tried flailing his arms. The balding assailant began to laugh, a laugh that fueled the fire of hatred in Rick as Carl floundered helplessly.
"Let him go." Rick reiterated, shaking with the strength of trying to cap his rage. Joe hooted gleefully and Rick acted in a split second, rearing his head back full force against Joe, who fired the gun out of surprise. Everything began to cloud with red and his ears rang. How dare they do this to him, to his friends, to his son? Rick slipped beyond the point of reason and whirled around as Joe was getting up, his fist connecting solidly with Joe's face. Joe returned the punch, knocking Rick over.
"I got him." Joe growled nastily, venom lacing his voice. "Oh it's going to be SO much worse now." He savagely kicked Rick, knocking the wind out of him. Rick sprawled in the leaves, hearing Carl's cries and watching Carl still writhe under his much larger adversary, who was laughing and shhing the boy with a lusty look on his face. Rick struggled to get up, seeing Daryl lying on the ground, still being beaten. He heard another gun discharge and a sharp slap as Michonne tried to enter the fight.
"Come on, get up!" Joe barked as Rick got to his knees weakly, slumping over. Daryl was shunted up against the truck again. "Come on, let's see what you got." Carl feebly tried to crawl away but was forced down by the balding man again, this time in a far more precarious position as his backside was facing his assailant. The man held Carl down by the face with a grubby hand, grinning and laughing merrily as he reached for the waistband of Carl's jeans…
"Leave him be!" Rick roared, stumbling into Joe, who wrapped his arms around Rick, preventing him from attacking again. He grimaced down at Rick, furious himself now. "The hell you gonna do now, sport?" Rick hesitated, breathing heavily. Things flashed through his mind, but one image stood out in particular. The snapping jaws of a walker as it tore flesh so effectively from a living body. Lines blurred. His eyes met Joe's neck and what happened next was harrowing to all…even to Rick himself.
Rick lunged forward, teeth bared as he sunk them as far and as deep into Joe's neck as he could. Joe cried out as Rick's teeth penetrated the delicate flesh of his neck. Rick employed as much pressure into his jaws as he could, feeling Joe's warm coppery blood enter his mouth as his teeth ripped off a chunk of Joe' throat. Tepid blood sprayed onto Rick as he reared back and brought the flesh off Joe's neck, spitting out the chunk of neck matter and the blood with revulsion as Joe's blood gushed out all over him. He'd hit Joe's jugular. Joe fell and it was not a scream that came from him, but a wet gurgle.
The realization of what had happened hit Rick for a moment and he paused, but what Rick had done provided the perfect disruption. Carl gaped at Rick with a dazed expression as his attacker rose off of him slightly, now looking fearful. Michonne's attacker stared at the moment in shock as well, which proved to be a fatal error on his part. Michonne grasped his hand and twisted, pointing the gun at his face and pulling the trigger. Daryl punched one of his attackers off as Michonne shot the other. Carl's attacker then saw how far south the situation was going and yanked Carl up to his feet, holding the knife to his neck as Michonne turned the gun on him.
"I'll kill him." The man spluttered. "I-I-I'll kill him!" He held the frightened fourteen year old in front of him, gripping the boy's blue hooded jacket tightly as Michonne glared at him.
"Let the boy go!" Michonne growled back as Daryl stomped on the head of his second attacker. Rick knife glided across Joe's stomach smoothly and left a slash in the flesh before he got up beside Michonne. He glared down Carl's attacker and felt such horrible fury and animosity towards this man, this man who had tried to rape his son and was now threatening to slaughter him.
"He's mine." Rick said in a dark snarl that was more animal than it was man. Carl's attacker caught one look of the blood-soaked Rick and he let go of Carl. Carl scrambled away from the man on his hands and knees, right into Michonne's comforting embrace. Michonne wrapped her arms around him protectively, cradling the boy she had come to love like her own.
"Stay back…please!" Carl's attacker blubbered before letting out a horrible scream of anguish as Rick drove the knife into the man's protuberant gut. Rick wrenched the knife in deeper, feeling it tearing away at the man's intestines. He gripped the man by his putrid face. The man fell to his knees as Rick drove the knife a notch deeper, yanking the blade out and thrusting it back in. Yanking the blade out and thrusting it back in as Daryl leaned against the car. Yanking the blade out and thrusting it back in in a perfect rhythm. Yanking the blade out and thrusting it back in.
It was over.