Notes: I will probably be adding in a couple extra days to the timeline to allow for some of Kaesta's back story to come out before shit really starts to hit the fan as the timeline from the TV series here is pretty quick paced.

Chapter 2: Captured

There was a throbbing pain pulsating at the back of her head. She squinted her eyes and tried to will it away but it just made it worse. She couldn't remember what had happened. Her head swam. It felt like she was moving, bobbing up and down. Wait, she was moving! Someone was carrying her, no, two people, they had her by under her arms. She tried to lift her head and groaned. It was too heavy, she let it fall back down.

"She's waking up," one of the men carrying her stated.

She felt a thud as she was unceremoniously dumped on the ground. There was a searing pain in her shoulder as her arms were wrenched behind her. "Pass me the cuffs," the other voice demanded. There was an audible click as they were fastened around each of her wrists. Her heart sank as she gathered herself enough to realize she'd been captured.

She forced herself to lift her head and open her eyes despite the near blinding pain from the hit she'd taken earlier. First she noticed the wooden walls, then above her a hay loft. She must be in the barn. She swung her head around and her eyes fell on the boy handcuffed and chained across the room.

"I don't believe it," Randall spoke, "hello Kay-sta," he over emphasized the syllables in her name. She blinked, trying to put two and two together and figure out what on earth the boy was doing here. "Fancy meeting you here." His sarcastic smirk made her want to vomit.

"You two know each other?" one of her captors demanded.

"Oh ya," Randall offered up just as the young woman had opened her mouth to speak. She closed it and stared incredulously across the room. "Kaesta and I here know each other. See she was with the same group as me, ya."

"I wasn't with them," she protested. "Not like he makes it sound."

"Oh really," she could already hear in her captors voice that he didn't believe a word she was saying. "Why don't you enlighten us then, tell us, what was it like? Just how do you know this piece of shit that shot at my partner and friends?"

"I...I..." Kaesta stammered. Everything was happening too fast her brain was having a hard time keeping up. She was starving, exhausted, and had suffered a head injury now to top it off. She closed her eyes and tried to gather her thoughts. When she opened them again the one who had been questioning her was standing back his arms crossed over his chest. He was an imposing man, dark in both his features and his demeanor. His head was shaved, and he had a menacing look about him.

Kaesta swallowed hard, wishing that she could be speaking to anyone else. The other man who had dragged Randall from the trunk, the one dressed as a police officer, stood silently near the door. She looked toward him, "It wasn't like he says," she tried, "I know him, he was there... but I'm not... I wasn't," she struggled with the words. "I wasn't part of their group. They picked me up on the highway when I was looking for supplies. I was their... hostage, not one of them. You have to believe me." She looked at the floor and the man standing in front of her scoffed.

"Don't believe her," Randall quickly chimed in. Both men turned to face him. "She, she's a good liar," he warned. "That's what she does you know. We found her on the highway, sure, that much is true. She practically begged us to take her with us. She seemed so helpless, you know. Vince wanted to leave her" he went on, "but me, I talked him into it. See I'd been on my own not so long ago. It was hard! Then I found them and they took me in... so I felt like I could relate to her. That's what she does, she finds ways to manipulate you. She's good, real good."

The police officer was puzzled. "So you took her in," he glanced from Randall to the young woman. "Why would she lie about that?"

"Because she killed him. She killed Vince," the boy blurted out. "I mean not right away of course, for a while she seemed ok," he went on. "Then she disappeared, she'd taken a bunch of our supplies and left my friend for dead." Randall paused and let out a deep sigh. "It was my fault, I talked him into picking her up. If not for me Vince would still be alive." His guilt and pain seemed genuine.

The young woman looked horrified. "I... I..." she stammered. "It wasn't like that," but she knew the battle was already lost.

"I think I've heard enough," the bald man stated. The police officer shook his head. They both turned to exit the barn. Kaesta didn't protest further, she knew it would be no use. After they had gone she just glared across the room at Randall.


"What'd I tell you, Rick?" Shane was agitated.

"I know, you said she's dangerous. I just have a hard time believing that."

Shane stared at his partner in wide-eyed disbelief. "Jesus man, she didn't even deny it. You heard her, 'it wasn't like that,' not 'I didn't kill anyone' or 'he's lying' or anything else you'd reasonably expect someone just falsely accused of murder to say." he paused.

"We don't have all the facts," Rick maintained.

"You know what needs to be done," Shane stated coolly.

Rick sighed. "We can't just make a decision like that. I need to think this over," he insisted.

By this time others were starting to gather outside to see what was going on.


Kaesta let out a deep sigh and leaned her head back against the pole. Her shoulders ached. She fidgeted and shifted her weight trying to adjust into a more comfortable position, or at least the allow the blood to flow a little freer. Handcuffed around the pole the way she was didn't leave her a lot of movement, unlike her counterpart across the room who could at least get up and walk around a bit on his chain.

Time seemed to drag on endlessly. Realistically she knew little had passed compared to how it felt. Dread, fear, not knowing - those were the culprits. She gently traced designs in the dirt on the floor with her big toe. Every now and then she'd bump or move her foot the wrong way and have to bite her lip to stop herself hollering out in pain. Putting off looking at them was doing her no good, but she wasn't in much of a hurry seeing as she couldn't do anything so long as she was stuck here either.

While she appeared to be absent-mindedly passing the time, she watched Randall out of the corner of her eye. He didn't look too bad off. Without a doubt he was scared as hell. However, so far as she could tell he hadn't been treated too badly. The only visible injury he had was a wound to his leg, which appeared well taken care of.

Maybe things weren't as bad as she'd figured. Besides, at least she could be thankful that she would not be spending another night out in the cold and wet. If nothing else, there were always little things to help her hang on to hope until she could find a way to escape. A small smile crossed her lips and she relaxed a bit.

"Shane's going to kill you, you know," the boy's voice blurted from across the room breaking the silence that had been stewing between them.

Startled by the sudden sound, Kaesta looked up straight at Randall. "What did you say?" Surely she had misheard.

"He's going to kill you," he repeated matter-of-factly.

Narrowing her eyes, Kaesta demanded, "Who is?"

"Shane."

"Which one is Shane?" Randall looked at her curiously. She glared back and tried again, "Which one is Shane?" He still just stared at her, trying to piece together what might be going on in that head of hers. Had he just been told that someone was going to do him in, he'd be asking why, or how they knew. Hell, he'd be visibly upset. She didn't even look overly worried.

Exasperated, she opened her mouth to ask yet again when Randall finally spoke up, "He's the asshole with the shaved head."

"Figured as much," Kaesta said nonchalantly.

"What is wrong with you?" He found her calmness unsettling. She said nothing. "They were going to let me go," he confessed. "Rick, well he..."

"Rick, that the police officer?" The young woman interrupted.

"Yeah. Rick, he's the police officer. Not a bad guy, really. You see, he wanted to drive me out, cut me loose. But we got attacked by them Walkers, didn't quite work out like he planned. had to bring me back here, see."

Randall was starting to ramble, the way he did when he got nervous. Kaesta just sat quietly and listened to him tell his story. He told her about how Rick had brought him back to the farm after he'd been abandoned by his group. Shane had wanted to kill him from the start. He was pissed that Rick had brought him back, believing he was a threat. None the less, Rick had saved his life and Hershel, the guy whom the farm apparently belonged to, had fixed up his leg.

When Randall was done reiterating the events of the past week Kaesta said nothing for a long while, just looked at him. "Look, I'd understand if you don't believe me," he offered. "I know you got no reason to believe anything I say especially after..." he trailed off and took a deep breath, "but I am telling you the truth."

"I believe you." After a long pause, she quietly spoke again, "That's why you told them I killed Vincent and ran off with the supplies. So that they would believe I was the threat." Randall was a coward, not malicious as some, but weak and spineless. Inside Kaesta seethed, but maintained her cool demeanor.

It was an observation. She wasn't angry. Her detachment made Randall increasingly uneasy. "What is wrong with you?" He asked for the second time. "Do you want to die or something?" When he said it he hadn't meant it, but as soon as it escaped his lips it dawned on him. He swallowed hard, not knowing what to say next.

Kaesta sat dumbfounded, not knowing how to answer. Even a few days ago she would have answered unequivocally yes. In fact she had begged for it, she had pleaded with a God she had never believed in and tried to make deals with the universe. Yet, given the chance, she ran. She struggled to survive; she pushed herself past her limits. She supposed that was only human nature, or rather the nature of any living creature, to keep on keeping on, to survive. Nothing more than a simple, basic instinct, she thought.

The awkward silence that had fallen between the was interrupted when the barn door opened. Expecting to see Shane, her supposed executioner, she looked up only to see an unfamiliar man standing in the doorway. He was average height, but solid. Kaesta cursed her stature, knowing she hadn't a hope of overpowering him to escape even if she could convince him to undo the cuffs. He scowled at them both from where he stood, a deep hatred contorted his features. In a different life, she could have found his rough, rugged appearance attractive, maybe even handsome. But standing there in his jeans and sleeveless shirt not saying a word, Kaesta would only describe him as intimidating, ugly and vile. Which, she reasoned, was probably what he was going for. Her heart beat like it had when she'd been fleeing through the woods, except this time instead of feeling like it would burst from her chest she felt more as if her entire body and soul might implode in on itself.

Kaesta swallowed everything she was feeling and turned to Randall who seemed to be acquainted at least to some degree with who was who around the farm. "Who's this then?" she asked hoping her voice wouldn't falter. Randall said nothing and simply shook his head in warning.