A/N: Here is Vatos Part II, slightly longer than the first part. Mostly Daryl again here, though I did squeeze in what I think Carol must have ben feeling around that time, which will be really important for Wildfire. Thank you for the kind reviews and feedback, it means a lot. :) Enjoy!
Chapter Four- Vatos Part II
Daryl was leaning against a desk, trying to get his head around what was being suggested. For the first time, he found himself on the same side as Rick when the deputy said "You're not doing this alone," addressing Glenn.
"Even I think it's a bad idea, and I don't even like you much," Daryl added, wondering if Glenn had a death wish.
"It's a good idea, okay?" Glenn pressed. "If you just hear me out. If we go out there in a group, we're slow, drawing attention," he started, and the logic made sense. "If I'm alone, I can move fast." He reached out and set up a little map of the surrounding area to show how good his plan was. "Look. That's the tank, five blocks from where we are now. That's the bag of guns. Here's the alley I dragged you into when we first met," he said, nodding to Rick. "That's where Daryl and I will go."
"Why me?" Daryl asked, half suspicious.
"Your crossbow is quieter than his gun," Glenn said, and again, the logic was perfectly clear. Glenn was in charge and he wasn't doubting himself.
"While Daryl waits here in the alley, I run up the street, grab the bag," he continued.
"But you've got us elsewhere?" Rick asked.
"You and T Dog, right. You'll be in this alley here," Glenn said, pinpointing a place on the map.
"Two blocks away, why?" Rick pushed.
"I may not be able to come back the same way. Walkers might cut me off. If that happens, I won't go back to Daryl. I'll go forward instead, all the way around to that alley where you guys are. Whichever direction I go, I got you in both places to cover me. Afterwards we'll all meet back here."
There was a few seconds of silence, and curiosity got the better of Daryl. "Hey kid. What you do before all this?" he asked.
"Delivered pizzas," Glenn said, "Why?"
Rick had been wondering himself where Glenn acquired his tactics, and he glanced sidelong at Daryl when the answer came. Daryl half shrugged and half nodded; it was the closest thing to respect Rick had ever seen from him. It was also the closest thing to respect Daryl had ever thought he could show to Glenn. Merle's constant taunts and jibes, jokes and mean banter had led him to think less of the others in the camp. He was beginning to realise that people like Glenn, Rick and T Dog had more to them than he had first thought.
Half an hour later, Glenn climbed down the ladder followed by Daryl, while Rick and T Dog departed for the other alley. Daryl was on high alert, and he found his respect for Glenn was growing. "You got some balls for a Chinaman," he muttered as he prepared to cover Glenn.
"I'm Korean," Glenn said flatly.
"Whatever," Daryl said. To him, in truth it made no difference. Glenn was about to do something that he wasn't entirely sure he'd do himself and that was worth a lot.
Daryl ducked behind a huge rubbish bin and kept an eye while Glenn moved to the gate and looked outside, before bolting, quiet and fast. Daryl could feel the tension building in his neck and back. He was on alert, so he easily heard the sounds behind him. In one swift movement, he was on his feet and aiming his crossbow at a skinny kid who had tried to sneak up on him.
"Woah, don't shoot me! What do you want?!" the kid yelped, scared.
"Looking for my brother, he's hurt real bad, you seen him?" Daryl asked, his mind still trying to find a space for Merle in the confusion. Fury jumped through him when the kid started yelling- loudly. "Shut up, you'll bring the geeks down on us! Answer me!" he demanded.
Glenn had managed to reach the guns almost unnoticed, and he headed back towards Daryl; he hadn't been cut off and he was thankful for that and he knew that Daryl would see any threats creeping up on him as he bolted back to the gates, his heart in his mouth.
"Answer me," Daryl insisted, but the kid just kept yelling. Daryl assumed he was trying to alert others, and he knew it was a risky move with the walkers everywhere. Determined to shut him up before they all got eaten, Daryl knocked him down with his crossbow, insisting that he shut up and trying to cover his mouth. He was willing to bet that Rick and T Dog had probably already heard the shouting.
Daryl was entirely caught of guard when two men arrived into the alley and rushed him. He took a swift kick and fell back. He tried to cover his head while they both bore down on him. He tried to fight back but they turned away from him quickly because Glenn had arrived back, guns over his shoulder, and he was frozen to the spot.
"That's it! That's the bag! Take it, take it!" one of them yelled, and they ran to Glenn. Daryl wasted no time, and grabbed his discarded crossbow. He took aim and fired, his arrow hitting home. He sat up and prepared to fire again, but they had grabbed Glenn and were pulling him into a car. He could see and hear Glenn roaring for help in front of him, but he knew there was absolutely nothing he could do.
"Get back here, you sons of bitches!" he roared after the car, knowing that it would get him nowhere. He ran toward the gate and kept hollering, but eventually he had to accept the defeat and close the gate to prevent the walkers getting in. Furious, he rounded on the kid and rushed toward him.
'Woah woah woah! Stop it!" Rick yelled as he arrived with T Dog to see Daryl raging at a terrified looking kid.
"They took Glenn!" Daryl yelled. "This little bastard and his bastard homie friends! I'm gonna stomp your ass!" he fumed at the kid. In his head he wasn't too sure why he was o mad. It wasn't because he'd been hit because that hadn't bothered him in years. They hadn't taken the guns; the bag was right there in front of him. He was raging because he had a chance to cover Glenn and make sure he got from one spot to another safely. But Merle had been in his head the whole time. He was raging at himself. In the back of his mind, the thought occurred that his respect for Glenn had grown a hell of a lot in the past few hours; he was starting to like the Korean.
"We're cut off," T Dog said, snapping him out of his angry thinking.
"Get to the ladder, go!" Rick called, and Daryl followed on, pushing the boy in front of him.
Carol, Lori, Sophia and Carl were gathered around the rickety table trying to get some work done. Neither of the women wanted the kids to end up with no education, so they taught them as best they could, as often as possible.
Across the way, a calmer and relaxed Jim was tied to a tree. After a time, he called to Lori, to apologise for what had happened. "Sorry if I scared your boy, your little girl," he added, addressing Carol.
"You had sunstroke, nobody's blamin' ya," Lori said, and she found that she meant it.
"Not scared now, are ya?" Jim called to Sophia. Carol watched her as she looked up and across at Jim.
"No Sir," she said, sure of herself. Carol had expected her to be frightened of Jim, but he had only ever shown her kindness, and kindness was something her own father never gave her. Of course she wasn't going to be frightened of Jim's sunstroke. She had seen much, much worse in her short life. Carol found that thought very distressing, and she caught herself thinking, not for the first time, whether she had ever done right by Sophia.
"Your mom is right, sun just cooked my head is all," Jim called, interrupting her train of thought. He explained that he had dreamed the reason for digging, and he tried to reassure Carl that Rick would be back soon; that Rick would always come back for him. Carol watched Lori smile at that; she really valued the effort Jim was making to be reassuring and kind. Carol couldn't help but think that if Ed left, he would never come back, and she would be alone with Sophia. Earlier, she had been apologising to Ed in the hope of saving herself later pain, but she knew in her heart that if Ed were to vanish and she still had Sophia, she'd be fine and Sophia would probably end up happier. If she was still part of this camp and had these people around her, she'd be okay with Sophia. She was starting to daydream a bit, seeing a future of safety, imagining that Ed was gone.
She realised that it was a pointless daydream when she found herself thinking about safety. As a concept, it was ludicrous to think about any kind of safety. The world had ended; safety was a pipe dream. It existed for none of them. Again defeated, she looked up through the trees and breathed in and out a few times, trying to collect some solid thoughts. The sun was shining and the heat was still strong, but the shade of the trees and the leaves rustling sounded nice. They had picked a good spot and she was able to fool herself for just a few seconds that she wasn't quite as burdened as she always felt.
"Who wants to help me clean some fish, uh?" Shane called to the kids as he walked past, breaking her reverie.
"Sweet, come on Sophia!" Carl called, and the kids ran off after Shane.
"Stay with Carol!" Lori called to Carl. Carol sighed and got up to follow the kids. Lori had no idea what was going through her head, she reminded herself. Carol would have valued a little break, some quiet time to herself, but Lori wasn't to know that.
"Those men you were with. We need to know where they went," Rick stressed to the kid, Miguel.
'I ain't tellin' you nothing," he replied plainly.
"Jesus man, what the hell happened back there?" T Dog asked Daryl.- and not for the first time, which bothered Daryl. It wasn't like the details were going to change the more stupid questions he was asked.
"I told you! This little turd and his douchebag friends came outta nowhere and jumped me," Daryl said, still pacing back and forth. T Dog wasn't entirely sure if Daryl had the capacity to stand still at all, or whether moving prevented his temper from boiling over.
"Man, you're the one who jumped me. Screaming about trying to find his brother like it's my damn fault," Miguel said, derision in his voice.
"They took Glenn. Could have taken Merle too," Daryl growled.
"Merle? What kinda hick name is that? I wouldn't name my dog Merle," Miguel laughed. It took only an instant for him to realise that he had pushed it too far; Daryl was headed for him before he even knew it. Miguel got lucky because Rick had anticipated it and stopped him. "Daryl, back off!"
Furious again, Daryl stalked to the backpack and pulled out Merle's hand, still carefully wrapped. It was a spur of the moment decision, and he figured the kid needed and deserved a serious fright.
"Wanna see what happened to the last guy that pissed me off?" he asked, his tone dangerous. Miguel looked at him, completely horrified when he dumped Merle's hand into his lap. Miguel jumped from his seat, his legs gave way and he fell into the corner, where Daryl leaned close into him. "Start with the feet this time," he spat. Rick pulled him off again, impatient and pissed off at how Daryl behaved. A thought struck him, and he decided to use Daryl's behaviour to gain an advantage. If Daryl was going to be a prize asshole, Rick would play the good cop and try to coax the information he needed from Miguel.
"Men you were with took our friend," he said softly to Miguel. "All we wanna do is talk to them, see if we can work something out."
"You sure you're up for this?" Rick asked T Dog a while later, as they stood outside
"Yeah," T Dog said, though really he was pretty far from sure about the whole thing.
"Okay."
"One wrong move, you get an arrow in the ass, just to let you know, Daryl growled at Miguel as they moved into the courtyard while T Dog departed them."
"G's gonna take the arrow outta my ass and shove it up yours. Just so you know," Miguel said, bravery rising now that he was closer to home. Daryl knew false bravado when he saw it; he was an expert at it himself, so he let it slide this time.
"G?" Rick asked.
"Guillermo. He's the man here," Miguel confirmed.
"Okay then. Let's go see Guillermo." Rick intoned. He wasn't looking forward to this at all.
They walked through the empty courtyard, Daryl looking in all directions. He had a bad feeling about this entire thing, and he jus couldn't shake it off. The doors started to move as they approached, and one man walked out. Daryl sized him up, but he wasn't going to lose focus on what was around him either.
"You okay little man?" he asked Miguel. It was clear to Daryl that this was cleaerly the infamous "G."
"That guy nearly cut off my feet," Miguel burst out.
"Cops do that?" Guillermo asked Rick, unfazed.
"Not him," Miguel said, "This redneck here! He cut off some dude's hand man, he showed it to me."
"Shut up!" Daryl barked, though he was secretly quite pleased that the moment had hit home with Miguel.
"Hey! That's the one right there, the one tat shot me in the ass with an arrow man!" a voice roared as the men Daryl shot came bounding out of the doors and pointing at Daryl, who was less than concerned.
"It's true? He wants Miguel's feet?" Guillermo asked Rick, ignoring the interruption. "That's pretty sick man," he said, still calm.
"We were hoping more for a calm discussion," Rick said, wary of the shouting.
"The hillbilly jones'd Felipe's little cousin, jumps on him, threatens to cut of his feet, Felipe gets an arrow in the ass. You want a calm discussion?" Guillermo said, incredulous. "You fascinate me," he finished, his voice still level.
"Heat of the moment. Mistakes were made. On both sides," Rick said, beginning to fel uneasy as others gathered around Guillermo.
"Who's that dude to you anyway? You don't look related," Guillermo asked, still polite.
"He's one of our group, more or less," Rick said reluctantly. "I'm sure you have a few like him."
"You got my brother in there?" Daryl cut in, repeating his mantra.
"Sorry, fresh out of white boys. But I got Asian. Interested?" Guillermo said. It was clear to Daryl that they really didn't have Merle. 'White boy' certainly wasn't how a person who knew Merle would describe him. 'Racist thug" might have done it, but 'white boy' wasn't quite there. Daryl listened to the rest of the conversation in silence. He heard Rick offer a simple trade: One man for another. He listened as Guillermo argued that his people had been attacked and required compensation. Daryl felt that was a little rich since they had beaten him and kidnapped Glenn, leaving their own man behind in the process. He might have fired an arrow into someone's ass, but he figured that the guy was lucky he still had his head.
He listened wordless as Guillermo made his last play: he wanted the guns. Daryl knew Rick was far from stupid. He knew he didn't have to interrupt this one, because he knew that Rick wasn't going to give up guns he had worked so hard to keep- especially not when they were so vital.
And he was right; Rick had no intention of giving up his weapons.
"What's to stop my people from unloading on you right now, and I take what's mine?" Guillermo asked, threatening softly.
"You could do that. Or not." Rick said. Daryl had been watching T Dog on and off for a few minutes so he knew exactly where the man was if the shit hit the fan. Rick gestured upwards and everyone's eyes followed his lead, seeing T Dog perched on the roof with a sniper rifle aimed right at Guillermo's head.
Guillermo was still calm. "I see two options. You come back with Miguel and my bag of guns, and everyone walks. Or you come back locked and loaded and we see which side spills more blood," he stated. His conditions made clear, he turned and followed his gang back inside. The doors closed. The courtyard went quiet. Daryl exhaled.
