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Joe left Daryl's new room and closed the door after he had locked the end of Salem's chain around the pole in Daryl's room. Salem was sitting on the bed while Daryl stood in the middle of the room. She was staring at the floor while he watched her, an uneasy feeling settling in his stomach. He started to bite against the inside of his lips. Should he say something to her? Should she be talking? Should he do something? Daryl didn't have a lot of experience with women and how to handle them. A second later, Salem sighed, long and loudly as she raised her eyes to look at him.
" Do you want me to take my shirt off or just push my panties down?" She asked. Daryl frowned.
" What?" He asked. She started to roll her eyes but stopped, as if she was unsure of what his reaction to the movement would be.
" Do you want me to get undressed or just take my panties off?" Salem asked again.
" We ain't havin sex." Daryl expected his answer to her would relax her. He expected that it would sooth her and make her feel less scared or angry but that wasn't what he was seeing. Instead of being glad he wasn't going to rape her, because everything in Daryl knew she didn't want to sleep with him, a look of panic passed over her. She shot up and started to wring her hands together.
" If we don't have sex, Joe will take me out of here and make me sleep with someone else." She whispered.
" I don't have sex with girls against their will. I ain't a rapist." Daryl snapped. Her eyes shifted to the door before they went back to his face. She took a step towards him then froze as her breathing increased.
" He is listening at the door. If you really won't rape me, then let me trick him into thinking we are having sex so I won't have to go to him or the others." Salem begged in a whisper. Daryl frowned and looked over to the door before back at her. He walked over the door in his steady, silent way. He crouched down and looked through the crack at the door frame. He could see two shadows from Joe's shoes. Daryl stood up and turned around to look at Salem.
" Why is he listenin?" Daryl asked in a whisper.
" He wants to make sure I am doing whatever you want and he assumes you want sex." Salem whispered. Daryl walked over to the bed and placed his hands on the foot on the bed frame.
" I ain't a rapist." He hissed. Salem nodded slowly before an idea passed over her, making her smile. She climbed onto the bed and started to jump slowly. Daryl frowned as she jumped harder, hard enough that the bed started to creek and groan.
" You need to make some noise. Moan or groan or something so he thinks we are having sex." She whispered. Daryl frowned, making her stop. " Please, Daryl...please." She said as she shook her head. " I can't go to them tonight. I just can't." Daryl studied the desperation on her voice and the fear in her eyes. Two emotions Daryl understood better than most people. He sighed but nodded to her.
Salem offered him another smile and started to jump again. Daryl grunted, feeling embarrassed but understanding why he had to do it. If he didn't help her play this game, she would be abused and Daryl was done with people around him being abused. She kept her smile and he was struck by how pretty she looked. He grunted again, louder, his eyes following her as she jumped and the bed groaned.
They worked together to fool Joe, with Daryl grunting louder every few moments. She jumped faster and harder, over and over she jumped and he grunted until she whispered that they needed to finish it. She jumped once last time before she let herself fall straight onto the bed. Daryl followed her example by groaning loud and long. They stared at each other for a few seconds, with her smiling. She crawled across the bed quickly.
" Check to see if he's still there." She urged in a whisper. Daryl nodded before he turned around and hurried to the door. He dropped down to his knees and look under the door in time to see the shadows walking away. Daryl turned back around and stood up.
" He's gone." He said. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. She placed her hands where Daryl had had his moments before. She opened her eyes and rubbed her lips together.
" Thank you, Daryl. Thank you so much. You have no idea what this mean to me." Salem whispered. Daryl nodded because he did know what it meant. When he was younger, he would have given anything for someone to save him, even if it was just for one night. He walked back towards the middle of the room, pulling over the chair that was in the room with him. He flipped it around so he could sit down with the chair's back facing her. He let his arms cross over the back of the chair and his chin came to rest on top of his arms.
" He makes you sleep with them?" Daryl asked. Salem sat down with her back against the wall and her legs crossed over each other.
" Yeah." She dropped her eyes to the blanket before she soothed her hand over it, over and over again. " Every night he decides who has earned me. If he doesn't think any of them have then he takes me for himself."
" How do they earn you?" Daryl asked, making her shrug.
" Different ways. Sometimes it's because they took down a certain number of dead. Sometimes it's based on the amount of food they hunt and kill. Sometimes it's based on what was found when they were looting things." Salem said. She pulled at a string on the comforter, doing anything to keep from looking at him.
" You ain't tried to leave?" Daryl asked. That did earn Daryl a look. She lifted her leg and gave it a shake, maknig the long chain rattle.
" Only Joe has a key and he never leaves it anywhere that I could get it." She said as she let her leg come to rest on the bed again.
" Where's your family? He kill them?" Daryl asked. She dropped her eyes again and started to pick at the threads on the blanket.
" He killed my dad. It was just my dad and I living here when they came. My brothers had went out to get us supplies a long time ago and they just never came back." She said. She let out a long sigh and swept her eyes around the room. " This was Travis' room." She said softly.
" You and your dad fix this place up?" Daryl asked. He needed to get the conversation off the idea of losing brothers. He still wasn't completely over the death of his own brother.
" My dad and my brothers did when I was young. My mom died of cancer and my dad didn't want to stay in the house she passed in so we moved in here. He fixed it up for this back part had our bedrooms and there is the kitchen, bathroom and dining room and the front half was where he ran his business." Salem filled in.
" How they find you?" Daryl asked. Salem looked back to the blanket again.
" They showed up here one day. My dad offered them a place to stay because until then, we thought we were the only living people left. I think we were just too excited to see them to really LOOK at them, if that makes sense. They were here for three days before Joe had Len shoot my dad in the head in front of me. Joe hit me in the back of the head with something and I passed out. When I woke up, I was chained." She swallowed, briefly met Daryl's eyes before she closed her eyes. " That had to have been...a few months ago or so." She looked at him again and shrugged.
" You ain't left here since?" Daryl asked.
" No. They never let me leave the building. If I have to go in a room and the chain isn't long enough for me to reach it, Joe undoes the lock then locks the chain back up on the pole closest to the room I need to be in. He comes into the bathroom and watches while I shower. He shaves my legs for me too because he said men like soft legs and he doesn't want me to get any ideas about killing myself."
Daryl nodded. He knew everything she was saying was the truth. Daryl knew right from the get go what type of men Joe and his gang were. They weren't men made by this world, men that had been forced to go against themselves to survive. They were men of the old world who used the new world to indulged in their dark wants and needs. They were men like Daryl's dad had been, men like Merle had been. Even if Daryl hadn't recognized how they were, the fact that Joe made Salem offer herself to him told him everything Daryl needed to know.
Joe tried to come off as caring but tough. He tried to come off like he worked hard to take care of his boys and Salem. That he protected them and provided for them but Daryl had known that all a front. Joe ruled them. Len and some of the others might try and come off as uncontrollable dogs, Daryl knew Joe was the one who was ruthless. And he knew the others knew it too. Daryl knew what the boys had to know...that if any one of them tried to go against Joe, tried to take over, Joe would kill them.
No, Joe wasn't tricking Daryl in the type of man he was. Hearing Salem's story only confirmed what Daryl already knew. He had to get away from them and fast. Daryl had went with Joe because he hadn't had a choice. It had been either go with them or be killed. Daryl wasn't ready to die, not yet. And now, Daryl was glad he had given up to them and followed. He hadn't been able to save Beth. He hadn't been able to help the others but he could help Salem. He could save her, or die trying. He just needed to figure out how he was going to get her unchained and both of them out of the warehouse.
" You're not like them, are you?" Salem asked, pulling Daryl out of his thoughts. He frowned and shook his head. " Then why are you with them?" Daryl cleared his throat and sat up straight.
" It was either come with them or get killed." He answered honestly. " I ain't ready to die just yet."
" Will you stay or try and leave?" She asked.
" Guess I'll stay for a bit." Daryl said. He wasn't going to tell her everything, not just yet. He needed to figure out if Joe had Salem under his thumb. If Daryl told her he was planning on leaving, she may turn around and tell Joe, getting Daryl killed. Just because Joe was using Salem and keeping her chained up, didn't mean Salem wasn't loyal to him in same way. Daryl hated his dad for how he tried him but that didn't mean he would have let anyone hurt the man.
" You shouldn't." Salem said softly, shaking her head slowly.
" And why's that?" Daryl asked.
" There used to be more guys here but Joe either killed them or had them killed by the others. If anyone goes against him or questions him or pisses him off, they are dead. The other guys are scared of him. He's just awful." She said. Daryl nodded. She was confirming just what he thought. " And you don't strike me as someone who takes orders well. Watch your back, Daryl."
" Why you warnin me like that?" Daryl asked. Salem shifted her position, drawing her legs up to her chest to wrap her arms around them.
" Because you're not raping me." She said as they stared at each other. Daryl swallowed as he took in the pained expression on her face. His mind was made up. He would get them out of there, even if she didn't want to leave, even if for whatever reason, Salem was loyal to Joe.
" Should get some sleep." Daryl muttered as he started to stand. Salem nodded, dropping her legs down so she could also stand up.
" Yeah. There are two blankets on the bed, can I just have one? I'll sleep in the corner but sometimes it gets chilly in here at night." Salem said, making Daryl frown again.
" You ain't takin the floor. Give me the blanket and the extra pillow. I'll sleep on the floor." Daryl said.
" Really?!" Salem smiled excitedly, showing Daryl more than she knew just how badly Joe and the gang had been treating her. She was passed along them like a reward, raped and made to do God knew what else and they made her sleep on the floor. She wasn't allowed any privacy either, with Joe watching her shower and shaving her legs for her...
" Yeah." Daryl said.
She quickly got off the bed and ripped one of the blankets off the bed. She grabbed one of the pillows and whipped around. She stared at Daryl for a few seconds, as if she wasn't convinced that he wasn't going to chance his mind and rape her, or make her do other things. She held her breath as she handed him the pillow first.
" I ain't gonna touch you." Daryl said quietly. Salem nodded slowly before she handed over the blanket next.
" Okay." She said.
Daryl moved across the room, as far from her as he could get. He laid the pillow down then laid on the floor, on his back. His cross bow was sitting beside him, along with his knife. Daryl held the blanket against him as he frowned, thinking about everything he had learned from Salem. He spared her a glance, finding the girl curled up facing the wall. Daryl sighed and looked back to the ceiling.
Salem rolled over to stare at the newest member of Joe's group. The light was still on, as neither one moved to turn it out. She because she didn't trust Daryl and if he was going to attack her, she wanted to see it coming. She wasn't sure why Daryl didn't turn it off. She stuffed her hands under her brother's pillow, missing her family more than ever. She hadn't let herself think about her brothers in so long. Thinking about them made her think of her dad and that just brought fresh wounds to the surface for her. She refused to cry anymore. She wasn't going to cry in front of any of them anymore. It didn't help her, if anything, they used her tears against her.
Suddenly, Daryl threw the blankets off him, making her jump up and shrink against the wall. He frowned and shook his head at her, telling her nothing. She flatted her hands against the wall at her sides, ready to try and defend herself against him, if needed. Just because the others raped her didn't mean she just let it happen and never fought back.
Salem watched as he walked over to the dresser that held some of her brother's things. He placed his shoulder against the dresser and began to push. He kept his tight frown as the dresser started to slide against the floor. Salem breathing and felt herself started to relax. She placed away from the wall and watched him as he started at the floor and moved the dresser.
" What are you doing?" She asked.
" Make sure no one sneaks up on us in the night." Daryl grunted out.
Salem scrambled up quickly. She hurried across the room, making Daryl pause. He stood up straight to watch as she came to his side. She gave him a curt nod before putting her whole side against the dresser. Daryl moved over enough to give her more room and together, they pushed the heave dresser over until it was standing right in front of the door. Salem turned and looked at up him.
" Any of them try and come in, we'll hear them." He said. " Walkers get in the warehouse, we'll be able to hide in here without them findin us."
" Okay." Salem said, nodding again at him. She sighed and bit down into her bottom lip. " I'm sorry. When you got up so quickly..."
" Told you, I ain't a rapist. Rape ain't sumthin I ever did or ever will do." Daryl said.
" I know. I'm sorry." Salem said. Daryl couldn't be mad at her for thinking he had changed his mind. This was her world now. All she knew now was men forcing themselves on her. " Goodnight, Daryl." She said.
After she crawled into the bed and made herself comfortable again, Daryl turned the light off then made his way back to his make shift bed.
