Authour's note: I had a snow day today and this is what my brain came up with. I just really want to see Carol ride in on a horse and save everyone before riding off with her Pookie into the sunset.
Anyway, not mine! Just borrowing to keep myself sane during this lovely April blizzard!
"How long have you been in here?" Rick was staring in shock as Glenn walked out of the darkness of the train car.
"Couple of days?" Glenn seemed unsure, "they've fed us a few times, but every time they open the door there's about ten of them with guns."
"Have you seen anyone else?" Maggie's desperate plea cut through Daryl, "Beth went to get the kids and Sasha said that Tyreese was with the kids the last time she saw him, so I thought maybe they got out together."
"No," Daryl croaked, "she got out with me."
Maggie let out a sob and clung to Glenn as Daryl continued, "we was held up in this funeral home, got surrounded and I told her to run while I was fightin' em off. When I got outside, there was a car speedin' away," Daryl raised his head to look at Maggie, "she's just gone."
Sasha broke the silence, "So Tyreese is the only one who might've made it? I thought he would come here if he saw the signs," she let out a heavy sigh and slid down the wall to sit, "guess I wont know now."
"What about Carol?" Glenn's voice cut through the stillness and straight to Daryl, "I didn't see her when we were running, maybe she got the kids and Judith and got out?"
Rick looked pained, "she wasn't there. Carol didn't come back from our run," Glenn looked confused and Rick continued, "she killed Karen and David, I thought it best that she didn't come back."
No one knew what to say. Maggie and Daryl were the only two who knew and even they still couldn't believe it. Sasha looked like she was about to be sick. Carol had come to check on her, even brought her extra blankets and water when she came into quarantine. Karen must've been suffering horribly, that is the only way Sasha could believe that Carol would do this.
Rick continued, "We saw Judith's car seat," his voice broke and Carl just looked at the floor, "it was covered in blood."
Everyone, even the newcomers, bowed their heads at this. A bloody car seat was something everyone understood and the silence stretched as members began to sit on the floor of their new prison.
Abraham was the first to break the silence, "So, you're telling me that unless your brother, or your sister," he looked to Sasha and Maggie respectively, "or some killer lady comes bursting in here, then we're on our own, huh?" He looked around at his new group of survivors that would help him get to D.C, "Guess we better start thinking of a way outta this hellhole."
"Best watch your mouth," Daryl stepped forward a little, "she ain't no killer, they were dying already."
Rick placed his hand on his brother's chest to hold him back, though he knew Daryl wouldn't start a fight, and gave him a tired look, "Daryl, please."
Abraham put up his hands in mock surrender, "Sorry, archer, just sayin'. Now let's find a way outta here, alright?"
Rick nodded at the man, and after a quick round of proper introductions, they began to think about what the people of Terminus were up to and how they were going to escape a train car that was constantly watched by armed guards.
That's when they heard the screams. The pleas of "No!" and "Please don't!"
The cracks in the train car were too small to see much, but there were people with guns leading another person from the train car across the yard. A woman was screaming and the others were begging for her to be returned.
Then they heard Gareth's voice, "Open 'A' next!"
Carol and Tyreese had been travelling in relative silence since leaving the Grove. Tyreese was no longer plagued with the nightmares of a faceless figure murdering Karen, but Carol was now kept awake at night by images of Lizzie, Mika and Sophia flashing behind her eyes.
She always let Tyreese sleep a little longer because she knew that she didn't have a chance at finding peace during the night. He was still recovering from the slight infection on his arm and she hoped that Terminus had some form of medical care. Even if it was just some clean gauze or some antibacterial cream, she'd feel better.
"There it is," Tyreese's voice brought her out of her thoughts and she saw the factory-like building in the distance.
"We should scope out the place first," she held Judith a little tighter; "I don't want to take any chances."
Tyreese agreed immediately and they made a beeline for the cover of the woods. Carol saw tracks up ahead, one thing that Daryl had taught her over the years, and began to follow them.
That's when she saw the mound of dirt, "What the hell?" was the only thing she could make out as Tyreese uncovered a duffle bag full of guns and ammo.
"That's Ricks," Carol blanched.
Tyreese looked up as they heard a scream echo from inside the compound. They loaded up with the newfound weapons and moved towards the screams, but made sure to stay hidden by the trees.
They could see some abandoned train cars in a lot surrounded by a fence, and near the fence, on their side, they saw four people with guns standing guard.
"Do we take them out?" Tyreese whispered as they overheard the guards' reactions to the screaming woman.
Tyreese could see a young woman being taken from a train car and being dragged to some horrible fate, while these guards just stood and watched, and laughed, "damn, she's a screamer, they better slit her throat quick."
Then there was the most terrifying comment, "I hope Mary can cook her up fast, I'm starving."
Carol merely nodded and grabbed for a silencer that Carl had once made from a flashlight. She and Tyreese got as close as they could and used four well-placed shots to remove the threat, and get closer to the fence. They could see another person being hauled out of another train car and forcibly being dragged while screams from others were echoing all over the compound.
The scream of, "GLENN!" went through Carol like knives and she watched as the second person was dragged in the same direction as the first. A man was speaking from a rooftop, but neither Carol nor Tyreese could make out what he was saying, but they could make out Maggie's screams and that's when Carol knew that no one was leaving that yard alive.
Carol immediately placed Judith in the baby buggy strapped to her front and Tyreese placed a pair of headphones over the baby's ears before adding a hat. They had discovered that if they kept the noise to a minimum, Judith was happy to sleep the days away. Carol kept her on the front so she could enclose the little girl as much as possible if she had to run, and she really hoped she wouldn't have to run for her life today.
She and Tyreese had enough ammo to take out everyone in that yard, twice, and she knew that she was a damn good shot, but Tyreese was not.
Not many words passed between the two as they quickly divided up the guns and ammo. Their friends were somewhere in there. Rick had left the guns behind and she knew it was to ensure that he would have something to fight with if he needed to get out of their in a hurry.
Rick was well beyond blindly trusting people and so was she.
Tyreese was in place and with a nod, they began the assault on the people of Terminus.
Rick couldn't make out anything other than a woman being dragged, and then footsteps coming closer to their car.
"Everyone together, now!" Rick made sure Carl was behind him and the group moved to one side of the car just as the door was opened and a blinding light flooded the room.
Three men entered with guns and a woman waited outside, "we got a girl from the other one, grab us a boy this time."
The men first went to Eugene as he was nearest, but Abraham punched a guard in the face and he dropped to the floor. The other guard was too close, so Abe couldn't grab the gun, and then men moved to Glenn.
Glenn was keeping Maggie safely behind him, and as Rick and Daryl both jumped the guard, the men set off some deafening warning shots. Another two men entered when they realized that this car would not be as easy as the first and they grabbed Glenn to drag him outside. Maggie's screams were bouncing off of the walls and Daryl and Sasha held her back in fear that she would be shot.
There were still two men in the car when they heard the first shots and Rick feared the worst. He thought that the woman from the other car, and Glenn, were now dead, but then he heard Gareth yelling at his people to fire.
Someone was attacking from outside of Terminus and this was their chance to escape.
"Stay inside!" Rick was yelling at his group as the armed men left. They had left the door open in their hurry to help their friends and Rick feared that someone would leave and be caught in the crossfire.
Abraham had managed to get the knocked out soldier's gun in all of the commotion and stationed himself near the entrance just in case anyone tried to get in.
The shots continued and they heard Gareth screaming orders, "they're at the tree line! Fire where the guards shou-ugh!" Gareth was cut short and they heard others yelling in his place.
"I only see two! A man and a woman, but they have heavy cover, someone get outside the fence!" That man was shot down the minute he stopped speaking.
Glenn came running back into the car and immediately clung to a sobbing Maggie, "They've taken out almost the whole yard and the rest are retreating inside the buildings. We just need to get over the fence and we can escape into the woods."
"Hang on there, are you suggesting that we run towards the people who just shot up this place?" Abraham just laughed at the suicide mission.
"I don't think we have much choice, do you?" Rick knew that the people inside were bad, but he had no clue about those outside. It was time to take a chance and hopefully to not get shot.
Glenn looked around the small room, "so, we run?"
Daryl nodded, "we run and we take out as many of those bastards and we can. Grab any weapons they left lying around too."
The shots were dying down as most of the Termites had run back inside the factory, so the group made their break.
There were plenty of weapons to choose from when they saw the carnage outside of the train car, so they stocked up and began to run, "I hope these bastards realize we ain't the bad guys," Abraham lead the way to the fence and they began to go up and over as bullets passed over their heads.
"We got 'em on the run!" Carol yelled as she ensured that Judith was fully blocked by the large tree. She had taken a graze to her left arm and one to her left leg, but the adrenaline didn't let her feel the pain.
Tyreese had taken a shot to the shoulder, but it was a clean through-and-through, so he too kept going. Carol watched closely as Glenn ran back to the train car and hoped that they would make a run soon, she needed to see who else had made it out.
She needed to see if Daryl had made it out.
There were only a few of the Termites left, and Carol watched as a large man came out of the car first, followed by a large group of people. The hat was a dead giveaway, Carl was alive and Carol laughed and cried as she bent to give Judith a kiss on the head.
She shot a man who was peeking out from the factory door as her family, whether they wanted her or not, began to run across the yard and hop the fence. Tyreese was proving himself to be a better shot than she thought, and together they proved to be quite deadly.
The bullets stopped flying from the other side and their people were over the fence, so they backed off into the woods for better cover and to tend their wounds while they awaited the eventual reunion that was about to come.
"Get back to the tracks!" Daryl was bringing up the rear, making sure that everyone was alright. He noticed that one of the new girls, Tara, was limping, so he immediately scooped her up and began running.
They only stopped running when they could physically take no more. They collapsed inside the large tunnel where Maggie and Glenn had been reunited and discussed what to do next.
"Do we want to know who just saved our asses?" Daryl didn't know what to think. One minute they were pretty hopeless and now they were safe, well, relatively safe.
"I say we keep moving," Sasha was breathing heavily, "we need to rest a bit, but the minute we can, we start running again."
"Those people will come after us," Tara was clutching a knife that she had picked up from a dead woman, "I don't know what they were going to do, and I never want to find out."
"We need to get the guns," Michonne had been pretty silent throughout this entire ordeal. She had been staying very close to Carl and was watching his every move.
"Shit," Rick looked back towards the woods, "we buried a duffle bag of guns in the woods before we entered Terminus, just in case."
"Ok, so let's get back there asap and stock up," Daryl got up and moved towards the mouth of the tunnel just as welcomed voice came from outside.
"I don't think you should be going anywhere right now, Pookie," Carol, with Judith safely strapped to her front, and one arm holding her wound appeared at the entrance to the tunnel.
"You guys are dead on your feet, relax a bit," Tyreese chuckled as Sasha yelled and launched herself to standing position.
"Who the fuck are you?" Abraham was nearest to the opening and immediately had his gun pointed in their direction.
"We're the people who just save your asses," Carol was weary of the stranger and clutched Judith closer.
"Put it down, Abraham!" Sasha was on her feet and running full speed to Tyreese who caught her in his arms with a hearty laugh, "this is my brother!" Tyreese winced as the pain shot through his shoulder, but refused to let his sister go.
"Well I'll be damned, you people are the luckiest sons-of-bitches I've ever seen," Abe lowered his gun and moved back to sit next to Rosita.
"Carol?" Daryl voice drew her attention away from Sasha and Tyreese to the man that she had missed the most. He was in hard shape and all she wanted to do was run to him and clean up the cuts on his face, but first she had a little girl to take care of.
"Got a little girl here who has missed her Dad and big brother an awful lot," Carol could feel the happy tears starting to run down her face as she stared at the man who had left her alone.
Rick Grimes was clutching his son to his chest and both men had been staring at her since she first spoke. He didn't believe it; Judith was alive and right in front of him.
"Carol?" Rick took a step forward and then broke into a short sprint until he was right in front of her, "is it—it can't be-Judith?"
Carol gently lifted Judy from her carrier and held her towards Rick, "I know you don't want me anywhere near your kids, and I respect that, but I had to keep her safe, I told Lori that I'd keep her safe, so I came back—I'm sorry, Rick."
Carl immediately took Judith and began showering her with kisses as Rick grabbed the woman in front of him and crushed her in a hug, "I'm sorry," he was sobbing and repeating the words "sorry" and "thank you," over and over.
"I know what you have to do now," Rick was starting to hurt her as he grabbed her arms, "I know you did it to help us survive. I'm sorry, Carol."
Carol slowly looked around at the people in the tunnel and then back to the man in front of her, "There's nothing to forgive, Rick. I know why you did it and I would leave again if the group wanted me to."
"Hell no you wont," Daryl Dixon stepped forward as Rick fell to the floor to encompass his children, "you aint going anywhere, understand?"
Daryl crushed her to him in a hug and in a move that surprised everyone; he placed his lips to hers and kissed her desperately. Carol was a little shocked, but responded in kind. She hadn't kissed him since the night he left on his run for medicine and she missed everything about him.
When they broke apart she smirked up at him, "You're sounding a little bossy there, Pookie," a loud laugh drew their attention to the fact that others were still present.
"Well damn, archer, didn't know she was your woman!" Abraham, Rosita and Eugene had just introduced themselves to Tyreese and were now coming to do the same to Carol, "yer one hell of a shot little lady," then laughing at Daryl he added, "pookie, huh?"
Daryl just growled and took Carol's hand and moved them to sit near the wall when he noticed that she was limping a little, "You ok?"
"Just a graze, got one on my arm too, nothing major," she looked around to see Sasha, Bob and a girl she hadn't met yet, tending the Tyreese's wound. Rick and Carl were still on the floor in complete disbelief that Judith was still alive and the new trio was talking with Glenn and Maggie.
"I was going to come for ya," Daryl removed her cardigan and inspected her wound, "we went to tell Tyreese and the Governor attacked, didn't even get the chance."
"I told him," Carol admitted, "I gave him my gun, told him to do whatever he needed, but he forgave me," the tears began again, "I did it to stop their suffering and to give us a chance."
Daryl just kissed her on the forehead and started to patch her up while they swapped stories about their journeys since the fall of the prison. He was shocked when she told him of Lizzie and Mika and she was devastated to hear that Beth was missing. She didn't think she could take the death of another child, but they would find her, as Abe said, they're lucky sons-of-bitches.
"Let's take the night," Rosita was looking at the little groups around the tunnel, "we're all dead on our feet. We need some rest or we will be useless when they do come."
"I'll take first watch with whoever," Tara moved to the entrance as others began to settle down.
Carol was about to volunteer when Daryl cut her off, "you got bags under your bags, woman. You are going to sleep, now."
He lay down and pulled her close as Abe and Bob went with Tara, "comfy? Cause I ain't letting you go for a long time."
Carol felt like this was the first night since the prison that she might get some real sleep, and she knew it was because she was back in his arms again, "better not."