Hi. First of all, thanks for the reviews on my first chapter. I really appreciate the support and enthusiasm you guys have for this story so far. Up until now, within the Walking Dead category, I've mostly only written stories centering around Glenn and Daryl. In fact, I think this is my sixth story in this fandom. Four of the others have been about Glenn and Daryl, mostly, and my really short one was about Daryl and Sophia. This is my first long Walking Dead story Glenn is absent from, so it's a little different than my usual multi-chapter Walking Dead stories. I never expected to want to write a long Walking Dead story without Glenn in it, but I kind of really love Jesus, and especially love the chemistry between Rick, Daryl, and Jesus, so I thought I'd give it a go. I'm glad people are enjoying it so far.
NOTE: This chapter jumps back to beginning at about the same time chapter 1 began, but follows Rick and Daryl. It will progress further than where chapter 1 ended, however, and this will probably be the only chapter that jumps back in time like that. Besides these two simultaneous chapters, most of the rest of the story should end up being chronological and non-overlapping time-wise. While I'm not usually a fan of retelling the same story over and over from different perspectives, I feel in this chapter at least, it's very relevant what Daryl and Rick were up to while Jesus was being confronted by Jack and his people. Since the characters were separated, there was no other way to tell Rick and Daryl's chapter one than to divide it into a separate chapter. The rest of the story won't be quite as repetitive, and once again, even this chapter will still make progress.
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Chapter 2
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"Felt like we was dealin' with a damn kid back there," Daryl growled in frustration as he leaned back in his seat, snapped off a chunk of stale Kit-Kat bar, and handed it to Rick.
Rick gladly accepted the chocolate and glanced in the side mirror as they drove slowly away from the man they'd just had to literally fight in order to keep the truck full of supplies they'd found. In the mirror's reflection, Rick could see that Paul, or Jesus, as the guy had called himself, was watching as the truck drove off. Rick could still see his facial expression, which seemed to convey a sort of sad pout.
"Think he'll be alright?" Rick wondered. As he drove off, he didn't necessarily feel right leaving the guy tied up on the ground like that. Of course, Paul seemed to be a pretty capable guy, but Rick had tied the ropes around the young man's wrists and ankles tight enough to ensure it would be difficult for him to escape very quickly. The man had already proven he was quick and capable, so Rick knew he had to tie him up fairly well in order to prevent him from trying anything more than he already had.
"He'll be fine," Daryl scoffed. "Why do you give a shit? He tried to steal this whole truck, and then he attacked us both when we finally caught up and confronted him. He's an asshole."
"Maybe it's not all it seems," Rick wondered. "We did find a whole truck stocked full of supplies like that... Someone must have left it there... And he didn't really get violent with us until he had to be."
"Had to be?" Daryl narrowed his eyes. "He never had to be violent. We wasn't gonna fight him, and he knew it. We just wanted our shit back."
Rick shrugged his shoulders and glanced back over at the mirror again, in time to see several figures emerging from the woods behind Jesus, who was still sitting on the ground where they'd left him. Rick slowed down the truck to a near-stop so he could keep an eye on whatever was going down behind them.
"What'd you stop for?" Daryl stirred in the passenger seat.
"You see that?" Rick nodded toward the mirror. Daryl looked out his window at the other side-mirror.
"Probably his friends," Daryl noted with a shrug.
Rick stared in the mirror and watched as a small group surrounded Jesus. None of them move to untie the other man. No one looked happy to see him. Rick shook his head. "Nah... I don't think so... Things look kinda tense."
"So, what?" Daryl rolled his eyes and leaned back in his seat. "Let's go."
With narrowed eyes, Rick continued to watch the scene unfold in the mirror's reflection. One of the men had squatted down next to the still-bound man Rick and Daryl had left along the road, and was patting him down, likely checking him for weapons, which he didn't have, since Rick and Daryl had taken the few knives the man had on him before they left him there. The guy proceeded to shove Jesus and then grab his arms in a grip that looked a bit painful.
"That guy just shoved him, Daryl, and it didn't look like the kind of playful shove you'd expect from a friend. We should make sure he's alright. We should go back." Rick glanced toward Daryl, knowing the other man wasn't going to like the idea.
Daryl stared at him, obviously annoyed. "This guy ain't your responsibility, Rick. He robbed us, and maybe now he's gettin' robbed himself. He deserves it. We drive back now, and I guarantee you one of two things is gonna happen - those guys are gonna kill us thinkin' we're friends with that Paul-Jesus whatever the hell his name is thief, or they're gonna kick our asses and steal the truck, because they're friends with 'im and now we're out numbered. Either way, I'd rather just keep going. That little son of a bitch ain't our problem."
Rick sighed, which caught Daryl's attention. The other man looked at him with a raised eyebrow as Rick continued. "I've had chances to help people recently - people who were probably innocent," Rick explained, "and I didn't want to risk getting into something, so I let them die. People I didn't know. People who'd never done anything to me. I let them die, and a part of me feels guilty for not doing something when I could have. I can't take that that back. Those people are dead, and I have to live with knowing I could have saved them and chose not to. I'll live with that forever. We let some people in to our group. Hell, people let us into theirs. If we can't give people he benefit of the doubt..." Rick shook his head as he thought about his past misdeeds. "I don't want to be that kind of person, Daryl. The kind of person who sees someone else in trouble and just drives on because they aren't my problem."
"This guy isn't innocent, Rick." Daryl gestured behind them and looked back into the mirror. "We already gave him a chance, and he fucked us over."
"He didn't do anything bad enough that we should just leave him to whatever these guys have planned. At the very least, we should park the truck out of sight, and double back through the woods. Sneak up on them, see what they're talking about, make sure Paul isn't in any danger. If he seems like he's friends with them, we'll go. But if they seem like they're dangerous, and he's not part of their group, we can't just leave him."
Daryl shook his head and breathed out a frustrated breath. "Fine," he finally agreed.
Rick smiled slightly and drove the truck until they reached a crossroad. He turned, drove until they couldn't see Paul or the mystery men any longer, parked the truck, locked it, and began making their way carefully through the woods and back toward where they'd left their new acquaintance.
It had been Rick's plan to sneak through the woods so quietly that they'd be able to hide behind a tree or bush and simply listen and watch the conversation out on the road. But as soon as they drew near the spot where they'd left the younger man tied up along the road, things quickly began to seem more serious.
Rick could hear a scuffle, along with angry, threatening voices. None of them sounded like Paul's. He glanced toward Daryl and took out his gun as Daryl did the same. "We'll play along with whatever we need to until we get this sorted out," Rick instructed. "We don't have ties on either side, so as far as any of them know, we could go either way, but we're out numbered, so we've gotta play nice. Don't shoot unless you have to. We don't know if they're armed, and there are lot more of them than us."
Daryl nodded and the two quickened their pace. If Rick had to guess, he'd imagine Paul had pulled the same stunt he'd pulled on Rick and Daryl on these guys. But instead of letting it go, these guys wanted to get back at the thief.
When they got close enough to see what was going on, Rick saw that Paul was completely surrounded by seven men. A few of them were holding onto him while one stood in front of him, looking down at him and laughing. Paul didn't look well. From where Rick stood, he could see the younger man had taken quite a beating already. He had a cut below his eye and his head hung slightly forward, with his long hair hanging down partially in his eyes. Paul's breathing was labored and he looked like he could easily fall over if his aggressors weren't holding him in place.
There was no chance of sneaking up on seven men and successfully getting Paul out of this, so Rick elected to simply exit the woods calmly instead, followed by Daryl.
"We've got company," one of the men surrounding Paul spoke to another as he spotted Rick and Daryl.
Paul looked up and met Rick's eyes for a moment. He looked exhausted, uncertain, and hurt as he stared toward Rick with an almost pleading look in his pale eyes.
"Don't do that here, Matt," Rick heard one of the men tell another in a somewhat low voice.
The guy standing in front of Jesus glanced over his shoulder toward Rick and Daryl briefly before looking back down at the smaller man on his knees, leaning down closer to him, gripping his face in a large hand, and whispering something that Rick couldn't hear.
Rick noticed whatever the man had said caused Jesus to pull away from his tormentor the few inches the other men's hands still gripping his arms and shoulders would allow him to.
"You guys all doing alright?" Rick glanced from Paul to one of the others and than briefly back at Paul again, who looked almost disappointed now. It was Rick's intent to not show that he had any issue with these men, and Paul must have believed his facade, because the younger man looked legitimately hurt by Rick's indifferent word choice. Of course, he would have never had any reason to expect anything more from Rick than indifference, so he couldn't have been too disappointed.
"You know this guy?" One of the other men spoke up, gesturing down at Paul. "You the ones who tied him up for us?"
Rick nodded slightly. "We don't know him, really. We ran into him. Didn't know if he was a threat, so we left him tied up here... So he couldn't follow us."
One of the men standing off to the side laughed, "He's a slippery little prick, ain't he? It's not enough to just leave him and drive off. You gotta actually tie him down or beat him into submission before it's safe to assume he won't follow you, huh? He steal from you?"
"Tried," Daryl spoke from a few steps away from Rick's side.
"So you know how he is. He did more than try to steal from us," The other man explained. "He stole some very important supplies from us, and got away with it. But not anymore. He's gonna pay for his crimes now. That's fair, right?" He glanced toward Rick. "What are your guys's names?"
Rick hesitated, but figured there was no harm in offering a name. "Rick," He answered.
"Daryl," Offered Daryl.
"I'm Jack," The other man announced. "And these are my people, Scott, Matt, Ciaran, Marcus, Dylan, and Will," he offered, gesturing toward each of the men surrounding Paul. "And of course you've met our little friend, here... Jesus."
Rick forced a tight-lipped smile. "So, looks like you knocked him around pretty good."
"We're not done with him yet," Matt spoke up. He had been standing in front of Paul, looking down at him as a few of the others held the captive man down on his knees. When Matt turned around, Rick noticed the man was re-bucking his belt. Considering Paul was on his knees, at eye-level with Matt's crotch, and Matt was standing directly in front of him when Rick and Daryl had arrived, it didn't seem like whatever the man had planned was anything less than sexual assault.
Rick hesitated as he glanced back toward Paul, who was still breathing heavy, uneven breaths, but was no longer looking in Rick's direction. Instead, he stared down at his own hands which were still bound in front of him. His arms were shaking and he was slumped forward slightly. Jack's men still held him upright by his upper arms.
"Don't you think he's had enough," Rick gestured toward the younger man.
"Looks like he's ready to pass out already," Daryl added. "At this point you can just leave 'im and let the walkers finish the job."
"What do you think, Jesus," Jack kicked the man's leg and laughed when Paul didn't respond. "You ready to be let go? Was this sufficient punishment? Hm? What do you think?"
"He ain't gonna answer you," Scott, who was standing behind Paul and gripping his shoulders noted. "He's playin' some sort of little game where he's too good to talk to us now. First he steals from us; then he acts like he's mute, but we all know you can talk." Scott squeezed Paul's shoulders. "You certainly had a lot to say before."
"Well, I think you hurt him too much, man," Daryl noted. "He seems like he's gonna faint. You can't expect him to say much when he's fighting just to stay conscious. How 'bout you give 'im a break."
"Is that what it is?" Matt turned toward Paul and put his hands on the kneeling man's shoulders. "You won't talk to me because you're too hurt? Let go of him, guys."
The other men complied so that Matt alone was holding Paul up, preventing him from falling over onto the road. But Matt didn't seem interested in holding him up for long. Within a few seconds, he shoved Paul, hard, so that the younger man landed against the asphalt, catching himself with his bound hands and promptly crying out a pained hiss before allowing himself to collapse against the ground.
When Matt reached down toward him, Paul lashed out, kicking Matt's legs and punching him against the chest with his bound hands, obviously trying to suppress another pained cry when his hands connected with the other man's chest. Rick winced as he was unsure how he could possibly stand up for Paul without making things worse. It was quite apparent that the young man's arm was hurt, judging by the pain he was obviously feeling every time he moved the limb.
Matt punched the younger man harshly across the face and then stood and kicked him in the ribs. Paul remained still, lying on the ground and breathing heavy, pained breaths.
"Enough, Matt," Jack finally spoke up again. He looked toward Rick and Daryl. "We're taking this guy with us. I wanted to teach him a lesson, but my boys went a little wild on him before I really got a proper chance to do so. If you two have something to get back at him for, you're welcome to join us. We're walking until we find a house to set up camp in. But if you're just gonna keep telling us to go easy on him, you can get the fuck out right now."
Rick nodded. "Let me talk it over with my friend," He requested. He put his hand on Daryl's arm and led him a few steps away so that their whispers could not be overheard.
"Maybe you're right," Daryl spoke in a soft voice as he glanced over Rick's shoulder at Jesus, who remained on the ground where Matt had left him. "We leave him with these guys and he's gonna wind up dead for sure. Maybe we'll go along with them until we find a way out, save this sorry prick's life, and then cut 'im loose and hope to never see him again."
"I'm pretty sure his arm is broken, and I don't know if he'd make it far on his own. We should take him back to Alexandria. We'll get him back to Denise and go from there. Maybe he's not the most trustworthy guy we've met, but he's clearly no killer. I'd rather be robbed than let an innocent man get beaten to death by these people," Rick rationalized.
"What'll be, men?" Jack asked. "I don't have all day."
"We'll come along," Rick nodded toward Jack. He looked down at Jesus, who was lying on the ground, breathing in shaking, ragged breaths. In the most sinister, cruel tone Rick could muster, he added, "This guy's gonna have to learn his lesson the hard way."
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Hopefully I've succeeded in explaining that Rick and Daryl are totally pretending when they claim to not have any issue with Jack or his friends beating up Jesus. They feel this is their best chance at finding the right moment to help Jesus out of this, but of course, Jesus might very well not be fully aware of Rick and Daryl's intentions quite yet.
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