Burning Red
"Sure you're up for this?" Rick asks.
"Yeah," T-Dog answers readying his rifle and heading to his post.
"One wrong move, you get an arrow in the ass. Just so you know." Daryl threatens the kid.
"G's gonna take that arrow out of my ass and shove up your. Just so you know." He retorts and Natasha has to resist the urge to roll her eyes. Even in a different universe she can't seem to escape the Clint and Stark like banter.
"G?" Rick questions.
"Guillermo. He's the man here."
"Okay then," Rick cocks his gun. "Let's go see Guillermo."
They make their way to the doors of what looks to be a rundown stone warehouse. It's a bit difficult to tell from the outside. Everything surrounding them is either in ruins or had over grown shrubs and plants blocking their full view.
The doors open slowly, letting sunlight shin into the darken place, illuminating the first figure that steps out.
"You okay, little man?" The man, presumably Guillermo, asks.
"They're gonna cut off my feet, Carnal."
The man raises a brow, "Cops do that?"
"Not him." He turns back, pointing at Daryl. "This redneck puto here and the red head. He cut off some dude's hand, man. He showed t to me."
"Shut up." Daryl barks.
"Hey, that's that vato right there, homes." Another man comes out, limping and clutching at his backside with a gun in his other hand. It's the same man from back at the alley "He shot me in the ass with an arrow."
"Chill man, chill." Guillermo waves the other man back. "This true? He wants Miguelito's feet? That's pretty sick, man."
"We were hoping more for a calm discussion." Rick tells him but the air is still tense. They don't know what these people are capable of.
"That hillbilly jumps Felipe's little cousin, beat on him, threatens to cut off his feet, Felipe gets an arrow in the ass and you want a calm discussion? You fascinate me."
"Heat of the moment. Mistakes were made on both sides."
"Who's that dude to you anyway? You don't look related." Guillermo questions Rick.
"He's one of our group, more or less. I'm sure you have a few like him." Rick says looking back towards the doors.
"You got my brother in there?" Daryl asks walking forward, his bow as ready as ever.
"Sorry, we're fresh out of white boys. But I've got Asian you interested?" Guillermo sounds like he's asking for a trade. Natasha narrows her eyes.
"I've have one of yours, you have one of mine. Sounds like an even trade."
"Don't sound even to me." This guy is sure pushing his luck. If Natasha had been on her own she would have already infiltrated the building and found Glenn, she didn't tend to like working in groups. Things tended to get messy.
"G, come on, man." Miguel says in disbelief but it comes out sounding more like a question.
"My people got attacked. Where's the compensation for their pain and suffering."
"Maybe if your people knew by now to not cause such a ruckus we wouldn't have had to take care of them."
Guillermo ignores her, "More to the point, where's my bag of guns?"
"Guns?"
"The bag Miguel saw in the street. The bag Felipe and Jorge were going back to get. That bag of guns."
"You're mistaken."
Guillermo shakes his head, "I don't think so."
"About it being yours. It's my bag of guns." Rick tells him.
"The bag was in the street. Anybody could around and say it was theirs. What's going to stop me from letting my people unload on you right here and now?"
"You could do that." Rick looks up in the direction T-dog is to let him see what he has planned. T-Dog has his gun aimed for Guillermo's head. "Or not."
Guillermo smirks, "Oye."
They look up towards the roof. Glenn is being led towards the edge by another two men with a bag over his head. Threatening to let him fall.
"I see two options, you come back with Miguel and my bag of guns, and everybody walks. Or you come back locked and loaded; we'll see which side spills more blood.
They go back to their hideout with heavy heads.
"Them guns are worth more than gold. Gold won't protect your family or put food on the table. You wanna risk all that for that kid?" Daryl asks not seeing a way for them to keep both the guns and get Glenn back. Or at least doesn't want to.
"If I knew we'd get Glenn back, I might agree. But you think that that vato across the way is just going to hand him over?"
"I think he's all talk and no walk." Natasha says getting up from her seat to meat Rick's eye. "But these are desperate times; we can't be too sure, can we?"
"You callin' G a liar?"
"Are you a part of this?" Daryl hollers at Miguel before smacking him across the head. "You want to hold onto your teeth?"
"Question is, do you trust that man's word?"
Daryl cuts him off, "No, question is what are you willing to bet on it? Could be more than them guns. Could be your life. Glenn worth that to you?"
Rick finishes loading his gun and sets it in his holster before looking back at Daryl. "What life I have I owe to him. I was nobody to Glenn, just some idiot stuck in a tank. He could have walked away, but he didn't. Neither will I."
"So you're gonna hands the gun over?" Daryl asks.
"I didn't say that. There's nothing keeping you three here. You should get out, head back to camp."
"And tell your family what?" T-Dog inquires rubbing his head like he has a headache.
"You're not going alone. What would you do if you got stuck somewhere again?" Natasha jokes as she makes sure her guns have enough rounds.
They go back, Miguel in front with the gag over his mouth and a gun pointed at his back. The warehouse is dark and crowded with men and car gear.
"I see my guns, but they're not all in the bag." G stares down at Rick.
"That's because they're not yours. I thought I mentioned that."
"Let's just shoot these fools right now, ese."It's the same one as before, arrow in the ass man. "All right? Unload on their, asses' man."
Natasha studies the men in the room carefully, there is sweat running down their brows and not just from the heat. Some of them are antsy, their fingers gripping their guns too tightly and the rest just shaking. Most of the men in the room are darting their eyes nervously around the room. Natasha mentally shakes her head. These are no gang bangers, just some big men trying to put on the allusion that they are. It's clever but not good enough for her not to notice.
"I don't think you fully appreciate the gravity of the situation."
"You have your man, I want mine." Rick pushes the boy forward.
"I'm gonna chop up you boy. Feed him to my dogs. They're the evilest nastiest man-eating bitches you ever saw." Natasha rolls her eyes, wondering if he knew how thick he was laying it on. "I picked them up from Satan at a yard sale. Are you deaf?"
"My hearing's fine. You said come locked and loaded, we're here." Rick cocks his gun and so do the rest of the men in the room. It's time to say something before it gets ugly.
"They're bluffing."
Rick doesn't take his eyes of their leader but he does incline his head slightly towards her. "What?"
The leader, Guillermo, tightens his hands into a fist and his face hardens as he throws Natasha a quick look. Before Natasha can say anything else, a small old woman comes out from the back of the room.
"Felipe! Felipe!"
"Abuela, go back with the others-now." Felipe demands turning his head to her.
"Get that old lady out of the line of fire!" Daryl shouts.
"Abuela, listen to your mijo, okay?" G tells the woman in a much gentler tone. "This is not the place to be right now."
"Mr. Gilbert," She cries. "Is having trouble breathing. He needs his asthma stuff."
"Felipe, go take care of it, okay? And take your grandmother with you!"
"Who are those people?" The old woman asks point at them as she marches towards Rick. "Don't you take him."
"Ma'am?"
"Felipe's a good boy. He have his trouble but he pull himself together. We need him here." She begs.
"Ma'ma, I'm not here to arrest your grandson."
"Then what do you want him for?"
"He's..."Ricks hesitates in order to come up with an answer."Helping us find a missing person. A fella named Glenn."
"The Asian boy?" She smiles kindly and grabs onto Rick's arm, leading him out of the room. "He's with Mr. Gilbert."
They follow her through the building and up the ways until they reach a cafeteria like room. A small group is huddled on all sides of an elderly man sitting in a chair, Glenn being one of them.
"What the hell is this?"
"An asthma attack," Glenn answers Rick not even bothering to look at him at first.
Couldn't get his breath all of the sudden."
"I thought you were being eaten by dogs, man." T-Dog tells him dumbstruck.
Three small dogs bark from a little dog bed in the corner. Rick let outs a frustrated sigh and turns to G. "Could I have a word with you?" He backs him away from the others. "You're the dumbest son of a bitch I ever met. We walked in there ready to kill every last one of you."
"Well, I'm glad it didn't go down that way."
"If it had, that blood would be on my hands."Rick growls out.
"Mine too. We'd have fought back. Wouldn't be the first time we've had to. Protect the food, the medicine-what's left of it."
They leave the old folks home with fewer guns than they came in with. Daryl is complaining about giving them away and things only seem to get worse. The group stops in their tracks and stare in mild shock. The van was gone.
"Oh my God."
"Where's the hell's our van?"
"We left it right there. Who would take it? Glenn asks flabbergasted.
"Merle."
Daryl sighs and wipes the sweat from his brow. "He's gonna be takin' some vengeance back to camp."
"Well, we better start walking." Natasha starts heading towards the direction they came from originally. "We gotta beat the sun, it'll be dark soon."
Glenn jogs up to her side and mutters. "Maybe we'll find Merle crashed in a ditch."
"Hey, don't you be talking 'bout my brother!"
"You should learn to be quieter, Dixon. It might come in hand in the near future."
Sweat dripped down their face as they jogged up the incline to camp. It was near the dark, the sun was in its last few minutes of setting. There was only the sound of their feet hitting the road, slight panting from running out of breath, and the whisper of the wind rustling the small bushes and trees.
"How far do we have left to go?" Glenn asked between breaths.
"We should be there in a couple minutes as long as we keep at this pace." Rick pushed out.
It was the high pitched scream that broke the silence; it sent a chill up their spines. Then there was more screams, calling for help and telling people to run. Gun shots drowned out the screams before the sound started to blend together. It rang through their ears like a haunting melody.
"Help!"
"Oh my God." Another gunshot.
They ran at full speed the tiredness they had felt before seemed to melt away only to be replaced by the rushing of adrenaline.
"Go! Go!" T-Dog yelled urging them to move faster.
"Get to the R.V.! Go!"
"Get up! Go, now!"
The camp was a war zone.
Rick ran after his family, shooting off rounds to keep the Walkers away. Natasha shot at the Walker making a bee line towards Andrea. The other woman hadn't even noticed just stayed crouched over on the ground. Daryl's rifle fired off right next to her ear, another Walker fell to the ground only a few feet away. Natasha sends her foot flying into another Walkers stomach, knocking it over, to keep it from getting to close. She hears another growl behind her and spins around, sending a lone bullet in the head of another one. They were everywhere, chasing and clawing at people until they screamed loud enough and crumpled to the floor. It was madness.
"Natasha, to your left!"
Natasha turns quickly before sending another bullet into skull of a young looking female walker.
"Baby! Carl!"
"Dad!" Rick's boy came flying into his arms like a rocket. His tear-streaked face shined in the moonlight and his sobs were drowned out before anyone can hear them.
"Amy!" Andrea wailed shaking the body of her fallen sister. Hers sobs grew louder until her voice was lost and she just broke down dry sobbing.
There was nothing they do. She was gone.
A/N: Okay, okay. After this chapter the story will be centering a lot more around Natasha. Also, just in case any of who were left wondering why the chapters weren't directly around Natasha it's because she still doesn't know these people and she's trying to stay in the background as much as she can. But I promise this is the chapter that will start forcing her to make somewhat friends with the group in the upcoming chapters. Like the next one! (Because Darla will kill me if it takes to long.) So tell me what you think and what you like and hated and what I should definitely work on.
