Glenn and Tyreese crouched quietly in the bushes at the top of a hill overlooking the road below. Tecter, one of the snipers in the 2nd Mass, lay in the bushes next to them, looking down the scope of his massive .50 caliber sniper rifle.
The others carried the M4s they had brought from the prison, now with full loads of ammunition. Glenn looked down a pair of powerful binoculars at the road a few miles from the apartment complex that was serving as the unit's latest base of operations as they moved closer to the bunker.
"I see two of them coming down. Over there, by the bend next to the stoplight" He directed Tector's attention to two skitters moving stealthily down the road. The Espheni had been trying to pick up their trail since the battle at the prison, blanketing the area in small groups of skitters. They were easy prey for the human fighters, but it required constant counter-infiltration activity to ensure the 2nd Mass's position remained secret.
Tector adjusted the sight on his rifle. "Watch my back" he said to Tyreese. Tyreese fixed the bayonet onto his weapon and began watching the woods around them for walkers.
He squinted down the telescopic sight and pulled the trigger.
Wump. The muzzle flash kicked up a cloud of dust as the rifle fired. The round traveled through the air for a half second before blowing one of the skitters in two. The second one began running back around the bend and Tector fired again, splattering it into the pavement.
"Good shot" Glenn said admiringly.
"Well, I learned from the best" Tector said "I was a Marine before this"
He picked up the rifle and moved off down the hill. Glenn pressed the talk button on the radio he was carrying "Ambush is complete"
"Copy that" Tom's voice came back over the radio "Move back towards base and set up at rally point two, scouts have almost cleared the route ahead, we are going to move out in a few hours"
Meanwhile, Hal and Maggie rode down the road further south, it was deserted so far except for a handful of abandoned cars. Damaged and deserted strip malls lined the street, their windows mostly broken. A majority of the shops had clearly been looted. Their contents were spilled out all over the parking lots, piles of broken TVs and electronics, garbage, plastic bags, and other merchandise. They stopped by the burned out husk of a Seven Eleven.
"No sign of the Espheni" said Hal, he called in the route as clear.
Negan got out of the hatch and slid down the side of the turret onto the ground, as a handful of men who had been lying prone in the grass behind the tank stood up, aiming their rifles into the parking lot.
"We've been keep'in an eye on you for a while" he said to Blake, "The only reason we never told you whose boss was this little baby here" He patted the side of the tank "Now that she's mine, well, its time for you and the whole damn world to suck! My! Dick!"
"Drop your weapons!" Shouted one of the men from behind the fence "and kneel down with your hands behind your head! Now!"
The townspeople complied, putting their weapons down on the pavement. Rick, Daryl, and Michonne did the same.
"What do you want?" Blake asked coldly
"Well, seeing as I have the goods here I'm tempted to just take everything. But that wouldn't be very fair, now would it" He surveyed the group gleefully "seeing as I'm a fair guy, I'll just settle for two thirds"
"Two thirds of what?"
"Well, everything of course!" Negan chortled "Starting with those over there" he indicated the harnessed kids. "They're so funny looking with these things on their backs aren't they? We found a couple hauling scrap metal a awhile back, they're strong little buggers, and they'll do anything too"
"You touch them and I'll kill you!" Rick shouted
"Ooh big man" Negan laughed "Lucille doesn't like your attitude, but we can fix that" He cocked the baseball bat up over his shoulder and gave it a couple hard swings.
"Don't worry" He sneered at Rick "I'm not going to break your head. Just a couple of the kids over there"
He grabbed one of the harnessed kids by the arm, a young boy wearing a dirty jacket, and pulled him in front of the tank.
"Don't do this!" Rick said "You don't have to do this…"
"Well someone's got to teach you to behave" Negan laughed "Batter up!"
Automatic gunfire and shouting sounded from the woods across from the factory.
""What the fuck now!" Negan yelled at the men behind the fence "I'm busy!"
A pair of huge mechs stepped out of the wood line. They were larger than any Rick had seen before. Apart from their regular arms, they had a set of two long wing like extensions on their shoulders mounted with cannons. Heavy footsteps boomed across the field as the machines began running towards the humans at full speed, closing the distance quickly.
"Well what the hell!" Negan screamed "Shoot back you morons!"
The men behind the fence turned away from the parking lot and aimed their weapons at the advancing mechs, emptying their clips in a fury. The air whistled with rounds as the bullets ricocheted off the mechs armor plating.
Negan climbed back into the tank. "Blow these fuckers to pieces!" he shouted to the driver inside as he closed the hatch.
The tank's engine growled as it pivoted around to face the mechs. The tread lurched forward and the vehicle rolled off into the field.
"Lets go!" Rick shouted as the group picked up their weapons and herded the harnessed kids into the remaining Woodbury truck.
The tank fired at the mechs. It missed and the round detonated on a tree. The machines fired back with a barrage of rockets, ripping the tank, and Negan, to shreds in a huge fireball.
Martinez floored the pedal on the truck and drove off towards Woodbury.
Once the remaining humans were dead, the Overlord used a series of buttons on his chair to transmitted a stand down command to the mega mechs around the factory. They were operating at the maximum extent of their range.
Unless the relay at the terrestrial site could be finished the drones and mechs would be unable to receive a signal further south, which would hamper the pursuit of Tom Mason. Robotics were so clumsy and ancient, made of terrestrial materials and requiring radio signals and a million other things to function. This attack would delay their pursuit, but not for long.
Get another work party to the site immediately he commanded the skitter standing next to his throne.
Yes master it replied silently and scurried off into the bowels of the ship to dispatch more slaves, its legs clattering noisily.
He wished the Queen would allow them to engage the humans through the celestial realm. Then he would find Tom Mason, that impudent little human who had dared to lay hands on him, and plunge him into a fate worse than death.
Perhaps after the birth of the hybrid…
He watched an image of the truck speeding off through one of the many displays in the dark cathedral like room onboard his command ship. The humans in the truck were firing their weapons up into the air. He willed the Beamer transmitting the image to a higher altitude.
Waves of colorful psychic energy, visible only to him, extended into the ether, attaching to the ships controls and maneuvering it out of sight.
Next he reached out to the slaves on the truck, touching their minds one by one. With the harnesses on they were easy to see, and he could feel their minds drifting through the psychic dimension among the billions of others in his reach.
Abruptly, he reached out and connected with the one he had spoken to at the relay site, the one who could lead him to Tom.
Help us! Our guardian is dead, they killed him! It hurts… said the slave
Be silent the Overlord replied I will see through your eyes and hear through your ears, you will not speak to them and you will accompany them to Tom Mason
Yes, the human replied meekly
Captain Weaver traced the convoy's progress on the tattered topographical map showing the location of the nuclear missile silo. They were nearly on the marking.
"Lets hold up here people" he called into his radio
The 2nd Mass convoy came to a stop in the middle of the road. The land around them was clear and open with rolling hills and grass. No buildings off any kind marked the landscape. The vehicles pulled onto the shoulder in an alternating pattern, aiming their guns outward.
Tom opened the door to the command trailer, letting in a blast of hot humid air, he closed it quickly behind him as he stepped inside.
"Are you sure this is the right spot?" he asked
"As far as I can figure" Weaver said "The apartment complex we left was here" he indicated a dot on the map, "and we've come up the road about eighty miles, which should put us right next to it"
"There's nothing outside" Tom said, "Not even a tree"
"It'll probably be underground" Weaver said "I think you should take a small group and start searching the area for any sign of a tunnel or door of some kind"
Tom, Ben, and Matt formed a search party with several other 2nd Mass fighters. Dai and Anthony, a former BPD detective, came along with them. They surveyed the area around the convoy, working their way out in a semicircle on the right side of the road, there the entrance was supposed to be.
"I'm guessing that wherever the entrance was it was pretty well disguised" Anthony said, "Look out for anything that looks like an opening, it could be a trap door or made to look like an old mine shaft"
They continued through the oppressive heat, examining the ground for a long time "I don't see anything" Matt complained with a sigh when they were a fair distance from the vehicles "the map says we should have gone over it"
"If you're getting tired I can carry you back" Ben said
"I'm not tired, just hot" Matt replied rolling his eyes at his brother "and you're definitely not carrying me anywhere."
"It was just an offer" Ben said smiled "keep looking for the trap door then"
Matt banged on the ground with his boot "Nothing under here…"
"Hang on" Dai said suddenly, "that gives me an idea. If the entrance leads underground, then we might be able to detect it seismically"
"That could work" Tom said "but we don't have a seismic detector"
"Yes we do" Ben replied, tapping his ear
"You sure you could hear it?" Tom said
"Maybe"
Dai unclipped one of the grenades he was wearing on his bandoleer "This should do the trick"
He ran out several yards and pulled the pin out of the grenade, holding the safety handle down. "You ready?" he asked Ben
"Yup" Ben put his ear to the ground. "Everyone stay still"
The others laid down on the ground, waiting for the blast.
"Fire in the hole!" Dai shouted as he threw the grenade as far as he could and ducked for cover.
The grenade detonated, shooting a plume of dirt into the air with a loud bang.
"I got it!" Ben said excitedly, standing up "Its somewhere over there" he pointed towards a small gully.
The group walked over and began probing the ground.
"Yup, here it is" Anthony said
A large rusty metal handle poked up through the dirt. Anthony grabbed onto it and began pulling as hard as he could "This thing wont budge" he groaned. Ben stepped over and grabbed hold of it.
They pulled up a heavy steel plate which swung open on rusty hinges with a loud squeaking sound. Underneath it was a hole lined with concrete, about five feet deep, at the bottom of the hole was a massive rectangular metal door, like the front of a safe, with a handle on the bottom next to a keypad. It appeared in good shape.
"We found it" Tom radioed to Weaver.
Weaver arrived a short while later, along with Glenn and several others. He jumped into the hole, standing over the metal door.
"Now lets see if this was worth the trip down here" he said "I hope this thing still has power"
He opened the half burned folder and removed the page with the codes.
"It says here that the code was changed every couple days, this paper lists the codes ahead of time up to three days, including the day the Espheni hit Earth"
Tom climbed into the hole with him. "So which one do we use?" he asked "I'm guessing whoever was manning this thing had this same schedule, so the last code would be the one, if they never received a new copy"
"What happens if we get it wrong?" Matt asked, worried
"I don't know" Weaver said, "I'm guessing it'll move to some kind of emergency code, in which case we're screwed"
"Well. Here goes nothing" He selected the last code on the list and typed in the long sequence of digits.
After a tense moment, the door made a grinding sound.
"I think we did it" Weaver said, grabbing the handle and pulling it open "this thing's heavy"
The six inch thick steel door lifted out of the ground like a hatch, revealing a metal staircase going down into the earth. Cold air blew from the dark shaft, there were no lights.
"Hello!" Weaver called into the darkness. There was no answer.
"Ok" he said, picking up the folder and pulling a flashlight out of his belt "Lets go"
The remaining truck sped along the country road towards Woodbury with Martinez and Blake in the cab, the bed was stuffed with townspeople and harnessed kids.
Rick examined Carl's harness "We've got to get this thing off of him!" He said to Michonne
"I don't think you want to do that just yet" said one of the townspeople, a dark haired man with glasses named Milton. Rick recognized him from their previous encounter with Woodbury.
"These things look surgically attached, if you try to pull it out by force you might cause internal bleeding"
"That's a chance we'll have to take" Rick said darkly "I can't leave him like this"
The truck pulled in through the barricade around Woodbury and the survivors piled out as those who had stayed behind crowded around. A pair of cars were waiting on the other side.
"Everyone listen up!" Blake shouted
The crowd quieted down. "Rick and I have some unfinished business, we will be back soon, Andrea is in charge until I get back"
Blake opened the trunk of the second car, "Weapons!" he demanded, pointing inside.
"No way in hell!" Rick said, drawing his revolver.
Blake moved like lightening, snatching Carl and wrapping an arm around his neck.
"Let him go!" Rick shouted as he and Michonne pointed their weapons at the Governor.
The guards on the barricade pointed their rifles down at them as the crowd began to scatter. Daryl limped over to Rick's side.
"I don't want to hurt any of you!" Blake said "See, I don't even have my gun out! Don't be stupid, just put your weapons in the trunk and he can ride with you. I've been straight with you so far Rick, we can talk this out reasonably"
Rick thought for a second, then put his hands up, and placed the revolver in the trunk. Michonne still pointed her rifle at Blake.
"Come on Michonne" Rick said, "We don't have a choice here. Just trust me"
Michonne lowered her weapon slowly and put it in the trunk, Daryl did the same.
"Smart" Blake said. He motioned for Rick and the others to get in the car.
Rick got in the drivers seat and Daryl got into the back. He groaned as he rested against the seat, feeling the bandages along his chest "This is going to take some time before I'm at a hundred percent" Michonne sat next to him.
"Let him go!" Rick yelled out the window at Blake.
"I'm afraid I can't do that Rick" He smirked, he dragged Carl around the back of the car and shut the trunk, then shoved him into the passenger's seat.
"You son of a bitch!" Rick shouted, opening the car door.
"Sit back down!" Blake snapped, drawing his pistol and placing it against Carl's temple.
Rick collapsed back into the driver's seat.
"Now drive!" Blake yelled to Rick, then to the men on the barricade "Get out of our way!"
The men opened the gate and Rick began driving south, the Governor following behind with Carl.
The narrow metal stairway led a long way down into the tunnel, illuminated only by the flashlight beams of the 2nd Mass as they descended carefully. Eventually the stairs ended in a wide tunnel made of concrete archways, the air was cold and damp.
Weaver shined his flashlight around, looking for a light switch, he found a large bank of switches and began turning them on one at a time.
Lines of incandescent lights on the ceiling turned on, illuminating the passage in a yellow glow.
Weaver switched off his flashlight and looked around. The concrete tunnel ran for several yards underground before ending at a huge metal door, painted green and with a small window, there was no handle.
"It looks like this place must have had some kind of emergency generator" Tom said
"Maybe there's survivors down here" Glenn wondered
"It would make sense" Tom replied, "These silos were built to withstand a direct hit from a nuclear bomb and supply the inhabitants for months at a time"
He examined the massive metal door. "I'm guessing this is built to open only from the inside" he said
"Hello! Hello!" He called banging the butt of his AK47 on the door with a dull thunking sound. There was no answer from inside. He shined his flashlight through the small window, then jumped back as a walker dressed in a decaying Airforce uniform slammed its head into the other side, gnawing silently at the light from behind the thick glass.
"Well, I guess that answers our question" Weaver said
"That door's a foot of solid steel" Tom said, "We'll have to find another way in"
"We can't tunnel through solid rock" Weaver replied, disappointed.
"We may not have to" Tom said with a burst of inspiration, "These are false floors"
"What do you mean?"
He walked over to the wall of the tunnel and pointed to a thick strip of rubber, around six inches thick, running along the edge of the wall.
"Nuclear bunkers made in the 60s were often built with the floors sitting on top of huge springs, to allow them to absorb shock during an attack. That means that if we can get underneath this concrete block, we may be able to place a charge under the door and blow our into and out of the next room" Tom suggested "It won't be easy, though, these floors are built with concrete mixed with epoxy"
"Well" Weaver said "Easy or not it may be our only chance to get past the door"
He turned to Glenn and Dai "Go get some picks and as much C4 as you can carry"
"You may not need to make a big hole" Matt said
"No" Tom replied "Out of the question"
"Come on" Matt said, "You know none of you will fit under there, and you said yourself the floor is really hard to dig through. Please, I want to help!"
"He might be right Tom" Weaver said "We'll be careful"
Glenn and Dai returned with the picks and a backpack filled with explosives.
"Ok everyone" Weaver said "Lets get to work"
Ben and Anthony grabbed the picks and started chipping away against the edge of the floor, tearing up the rubber and knocking little bits of concrete off the edge.
"This is going to take a while" Ben said
"We just need it wide enough to for Matt to get in" Weaver said to Tom, "I'll make sure he's safe. You know you can count on that."
"Yes I do Dan" Tom said, patting him on the back.
Rick drove the car down the dark highway as the sun set, glancing back obsessively in the mirror towards the car Blake was tailing him in.
"Can you see them?" he asked Michonne again, "Is he ok?"
"Yes" Michonne said "He won't do anything to him now, he needs him alive"
"I'm going to kill him" Rick said resolutely "I'm going to kill him and I'm going to do it slow"
"I'll help" Daryl said from the back "the bastard"
"We can't do that" Michonne replied.
"What do you mean?" Daryl growled
"It's not us" she said "we don't kill in cold blood"
"You know what he is" Rick said "You know what he'll do if we don't. We'll get Carl back, and then we'll kill him."
They drove on in silence for a while.
"Watch out!" Michonne shouted
A large truck shot out across the road and blocked the avenue.
Rick slammed on the brakes and the car screeched to a halt, throwing him into the steering wheel. The second car stopped hard behind him.
A bright spotlight shined out of the truck into the road and onto the windshield of the car.
"Come out of the vehicle slowly with your hands up" a male voice on a megaphone shouted.
Rick stepped out of the car, with his hands in the air, Michonne and Daryl did the same.
Blake got out of the car behind them carrying his pistol.
"Drop it!" the man on the megaphone shouted, Blake laid the gun down on the ground slowly.
A line of soldiers carrying rifles emerged from the darkness around the road and surrounded the cars.
"Rick?"
Glenn stepped into the spotlight, wearing camouflaged fatigues and carrying an M4. He stared at Rick in shock.
"Glenn!" Rick exclaimed
"Its OK!" Glenn shouted to the other fighters "I know them, they're good people!"
The 2nd Mass members lowered their weapons as Glenn drew Rick into a strong embrace.
"How?" he said to the three of them "We thought...I mean…back at the prison, we saw the explosion!"
"We did too" Rick said "We tracked Carl and Patrick into the woods, they leveled the prison, we thought you were gone…"
"We made it out" Glenn said, "I didn't want to go, but Hershel took off anyway"
"It's OK" Rick said "I would have done the same"
"Carl and Patrick are with you!"
"Carl is…" Rick said "He's in the car back there, he needs help"
Glenn and Rick sprinted towards the rear vehicle. Glenn stopped up short when he spotted the Governor, handcuffed and restrained by Tector.
"You! What are you doing here!" he shouted, leveling his rifle at Blake
"Whoa cool it!" Tector said, motioning for Glenn to stand down.
"You don't know who that is!" Glenn shouted "You don't know what he is!"
Blake grinned ominously back at him.
"We'll deal with him later" Rick said, lowering the muzzle of Glenn's rifle with this hand "Just help me get Carl"
"My god!" Glenn said, looking at Carl "What happened to you?"
He stared at Rick when the boy didn't reply. "Did he…"
"No" Rick said "It wasn't Blake, it was someone, something, worse. We need to get him to the doctor"
Glenn and Rick got into the car and drove off down the road towards the medical bus.
Dr. Glass ran out of the vehicle as they pulled up.
"What's doing on?" she said when she spotted Rick "who's this?"
"He's with me!" Glenn said "his son needs help!"
"Get him inside!"
Dr. Glass cleared off a table.
"Lay him down on here" she said "We need to get this harness off him right now"
Rick and Glenn maneuvered Carl onto the table, face down.
Dr. Glass reached into one of the many compartments in the bus and retrieved a blowtorch.
"What are you going to do with that!" Rick asked
"You are going to do what I tell you" she said, reaching for an IV bag full of fluid and handing it to Glenn "hold this up high" she ran out a short line and hastily fastened a needle to the end "just keep it flowing"
She stabbed the needle into Carl's wrist. "It's morphine" she explained to Rick "It'll keep him from going into shock"
Tom and Weaver entered into the bus.
"Rick!" Tom said
"Hello Tom" Rick replied
"I thought…?"
"I know, we all did" Dr. Glass said "Right now we need to get this off"
Carl stiffened on the table and turned his head slightly "Tom Mason" he said in a hoarse monotone voice.
"Shit!" Weaver yelled at Rick "You brought him here with an active harness!"
"I didn't know what else to do!" Rick shouted advancing towards him "I had no where else to go!"
"Do you know what you just did!" Weaver screamed at Rick, pushing up against him.
"Both of you!" Dr. Glass said "Shut up and pull!"
Rick, Tom, and Weaver grabbed hold of the harness and pulled up, lifting it up slightly off Carl. It was connected by long thin spines, stuck deep into his back.
A smell like burning rubber filled the air as Dr. Glass turned on the torch and began cutting away at the spines one by one.
The harness let out a quiet squealing noise as it began to pull loose.
"Jesus.." Glenn said, disgusted "That thing's alive!"
"Not for long" Dr. Glass said as she cut the last spine loose.
Tom grabbed the free harness and threw it outside the bus, then stamped on it until it stopped squealing.
"What do we do now?" Rick asked
"Now we wait" Dr. Glass said "Sometimes this takes a while"
A short while later, Carl began blinking slowly. He licked his lips and then turned his head to the side, looking at Rick. His eyes had life in them again.
"Dad…?" he said in a hoarse whisper
"Yes, I'm here." Rick said gently "I've got you"
Carl rolled gingerly onto his side.
"Oww" he groaned, rubbing his eyes "What happened?"
He started coughing hard and Dr. Glass appeared with a canteen
"Here" she handed it to him, helping him sit up.
Carl grabbed the canteen with both hands and began drinking in large gulps. "I'm so thirsty"
He looked around the bus, then at Rick and the others.
"What happened?" he asked "where are my clothes? Owwwww…" he grabbed at his side.
"Better take it slowly with the water" Dr. Glass said "You've been dehydrated for a while"
Memories flooded back to him, Pope, the girl in the woods, the Overlord.
"Dad" he said, looking at Rick with fear in his eyes "I'm sorry, I told them, I talked"
"Told who what?" Rick said
"It hurt so bad, I couldn't help it…"
"Who did you talk to?" Weaver demanded
"The enemy" Carl said "I told them about the silo, about the nukes. They're coming, they're going to destroy you this time. You're all in danger"
End Chapter Seven