A soft crackle from the general direction of their prisoner's back pocket caught everyone's attention. Carol locked eyes with Daryl who nodded and then she was bending down to retrieve a small walkie off the other man.

"Lucas, what's your status?"

"Come on man, if you found 'em you better not be doing anything till we get there."

"It won't count unless there's video, asshole."

"Where the fuck are you anyway."

The walkie died down after the last transmission and her brows furrowed. Was tempted to demand this Lucas person explain himself further, but Daryl only gestured for her to hand it to him and so she complied.

Watched as he took a deep breath and regarded their captive. "Tell 'em to meet you here. That you found us. You say it just like that and if I think you're speaking in code or trying to give 'em a signal she'll cut your damn balls off." He pointed at the knife hanging from her belt. "You see that? Sharp as fuck and she won't have any problem using it either."

Carol raised an eye brow at Lucas who swallowed hard and nodded his agreement before Daryl pressed down on the button. The words were said just as they'd been instructed and she sighed in relief when it was over. Then remembered they'd just encouraged the rest of their attackers to converge on their exact location and her stomach dropped.

"Daryl, what are we…"

He raised a hand, cutting her off and she understood. They couldn't discuss their plans here, in front of listening ears. She would just have to trust that he knew what he was doing and follow along until they were out of ear shot. And she did trust him. Had only met this man three days ago and yet she trusted him with her life and it didn't feel the tiniest bit strange until she started to over analyze it. Like she was doing right now in the middle of a hostage situation.

Daryl liberated the fallen crossbow that Lucas had dropped as he stumbled through the window and held it out to her. She took it without question and hefted the strap over her shoulder. It was lighter than Daryl's bow and she only hoped the band was easier to reset if she actually had to fire this thing and reload it. With more than one weapon on her person she felt considerably safer, which was probably an illusion. She could barely shoot an arrow into a tree barrel a mile wide, but Daryl didn't seem concerned that she would shoot him in the ass by mistake or something equally dangerous and embarrassing so she tried to relax and find those threads of confidence she had built during her shooting session with him.

She could do this. Had no choice in the matter anyway. Carol watched as Daryl duct taped their prisoner's mouth shut and calmly hit him over the head with his own bow, hard enough to knock him out completely.

"We gotta go. Now. They'll be comin' here and we need to make a wide arc and head for the station. If we're lucky we'll pass each other on the way and no one'll be the wiser."

She nodded and followed as he exited the boathouse and made for the woods. Remembered what he said about wanting to hunt the hunters and was suddenly only too relieved that he didn't actually want to kill four people tonight. Not only were the odds against them, even with weapons and a plan they would be outgunned, but she was pretty sure it stopped being self defense when you actively went looking for your targets.

He must have known that too and adjusted accordingly. As good as he was at survival, and she hadn't ever seen anyone better, he didn't seem like a killer. It was painfully obvious he didn't enjoy any of the violence they had to inflict tonight and she was glad for that because she didn't either. Could only cross her fingers and toes and hope to god that whoever was roaming the woods wasn't coming to the boathouse the same way they were exiting it.

They crept through the woods at a swift pace, uncontested, until she spotted the soft glow of the station up ahead. The power hadn't been cut there and it's light shone out across the space, illuminating the darker areas around them. It practically glowed like a beacon. Just waiting to there as a promise of salvation. Calling them in.

Daryl paused just outside the ring of light and they watched the building for several long moments, not spotting any movement in or around it and he signaled them forward at a dead run for the door. They didn't plow through it though, the temptation was there but he halted, his back against the rough wood with her on his other side and slowly eased it open. Entering first and pointing his bow should there be anyone waiting to welcome them.

There wasn't. The room was empty and she sighed in relief. Closed and locked the door behind them and watched as he made a beeline for the phone.

"Fuck." Tossed down the receiver no sooner than he'd picked it up and she could only assume it was dead. Which made sense. They would cut the phone line but leave the power up. Then when the mice entered the trap they'd be too busy dying to go for the radio in the corner.

Only they weren't dying just yet and there were no cats nearby laying in wait to snatch them up.

He tried the radio next, sending out a distress call and was rewarded with static. Flipped the channels at a rapid pace and got the same result on every single one. Her heart sank. Maybe no one was even out there to hear them call for help.

He must have seen the look on her face because he put the receiver down and came to stand a foot away from her, expression soft but firm. "Hey, don't think like that. Just because we didn't get a response don't mean no one heard it."

She nodded. "Ok. You're right. What do we do now though? They're bound to come back here when they find Lucas."

He smirked at her. "That's why I wanted to come here instead of just hightailin' it through the woods at random. Come on."

He lead her a few feet into the tiny living area of the station. There was a worn old sofa in the middle, an end table and an eclectic collection of chairs. His footsteps where heavier than usual and he even went so far as to stomp the wood boards a few times for good measure. She was about to ask him what he was doing when the floor creaked and moaned under his feet.

He reached down to the floor and his fingers wrapped around an old hardwood plank than had seen better days, a notch cut out of it just big enough to grab and when he did it pulled right up along with several other rows, revealing a small set of stairs to whatever waited below.

"Been forever since I was down here. They're supposed to use it to store extra supplies and they do but back when I was a kid the ranger used to hide his liquor here too. Was a mean drunk but damn did he have good taste in whiskey. Me and my brother and a few other kids would sneak down here at night and pilfer from his stash."

He told the story as they lowered themselves into the small storage area and closed the trap door behind them, his voice low and quiet. It was tiny. Only big enough hold a stack full of crates on one side and the stairs leading up on the other. Barely room for two people at all and she sucked in a shaky breath.

"Your teenage rebellion is serving us well right now." Her voice trembled just slightly and he frowned at her in the darkness. She could only just barely make his face out under the small bands of light streaming through the wood planks above them.

"You all right?"

She nodded. "I'm fine."

"Don't look fine."

She sighed. "I don't like small spaces, ok. Never have. And this one is pretty damn small."

"You ain't gonna throw up are you?"

She laughed a little at that, but was mindful of keeping it a soft sound and not a full on nervous bout. "No. That's not usually a symptom of claustrophobia. I'll be ok."

"Just remember we're safer down here than we are up there."

Carol nodded to him even though she was pretty sure he couldn't see her clearly enough, but she was out of words at the moment and could only seem to focus on the four dirt walls closing in on them at a rapid pace. Tried to slow her breathing enough that she wouldn't end up hyperventilating.

It was fine. She was fine.

Of all the things she'd seen and done tonight this was by far the least offensive on the entire list. She should be happy to be in this tiny, cramped, itty bitty space with him and not up there like a sitting duck for whoever came back.

It was fine.

When she felt his hand on her arm she nearly jumped out of her skin. "Easy, you're gonna shake yourself into a seizure. Come're."

He pulled her against his side, which wasn't hard at all considering they were barely a few inches apart already and she went willingly. Fitting herself against his ribs as he ran his hand up and down her arm in slow repetitions.

"Ain't gonna be in here long. They can't stay forever. We're safe here."

She shivered. The last time she'd been somewhere like this Ed had locked her in the crawl space under their first house. Southern homes didn't often have basements, something about the ground not being dry enough or deep enough or some such thing, she wasn't sure, but they did have crawl spaces. This particular one was big enough to hold a water heater and nothing else. Only accessible from the outside it was cold and dank and she spent an entire night in there curled up alone, panicking at every sound and every brush of a bug over her skin.

They'd had a repair man out earlier that day to fix the water heater and Ed was convinced she was flirting with him when she took his card and smiled. She hadn't even said anything, but the repair man smiled back and tipped his baseball cap to her like it was a top hat and that was all it took. When night fell he drug her out there, tossed her in the small opening of the crawl space and locked the door behind her. Told her to use her time to think about what she'd done and that she would be wise not to try and fuck anyone else that came into their house.

The memory of that night frayed at her nerves, encircling her lungs and squeezing and she tightened her fingers around Daryl's shirt, twisting the fabric between them and pressing the side of her face into his chest. Tried to remember that she wasn't back there, in that crawl space. She was with Daryl and she was safe and he wasn't going to leave her down here by herself.

His other arm snaked around her and his hold became more firm. "You're all right. Try and relax."

"I promise I'm not usually such a mess."

"When someone's got a fear of somethin' it's usually for a reason."

When she didn't move to answer further he spoke into her hair, his tone lower with a slight hint of self deprecation. "I'm afraid of birds. Crows to be exact."

She snorted. Didn't even mean to do it but it escaped her before she could wrangle it back in and he huffed at her.

"Hey now, don't make fun. Them sons of bitches are serious."

She smirked into his chest. "Sorry, sorry, go on. Why are you afraid of crows?"

"I was maybe thirteen years old and me and Merle were playing with a football in this park. Just tossin' it around and whatnot. I aimed for Merle but threw wide and hit this crows nest. All the eggs fell out, was a damn mess. Well the momma bird must saw the whole thing because she came flying outta nowhere and starts trying to peck me to death. Then a bunch of others follow her and soon I got a flock of 'em chasin' me around and Merle is laughing his ass off like the asshole he is and just watchin' it. They didn't go after him at all. Read on the internet that they're smart as fuck and they take revenge…I ain't joking about this….it's a thing. Anyway, those fuckers chased me all the way home. Still get a shiver when I see 'em now."

"That's…horrifying."

"Damn right it was. Barely survived it."

She snorted again and he tightened his hold on her reflexively in response. She suspected, though she had no proof, that if he wanted to he could have found a more serious, more devastating story to commiserate with but she was instantly grateful that he chose something less disturbing and more amusing because her breathing had returned to normal and the walls weren't closing in on them quite so fast anymore.

The sounds of a door opening and closing and footsteps scuffing the floor above their heads silenced any further conversation and they sat still as stone, listening to the exchange that was currently taking place.

"We should just go, we got enough by now."

"You don't know that."

"We don't even know where these last two went. They could be miles away. The longer we fuck around in these goddamn woods the easier it's gonna be to get caught. They could've gotten to the main road…could be callin' someone."

"You listen to me, we ain't leaving them alive. They got two of us and knocked out Lucas and they've seen his face. They're here, they're fucking close and if we let 'em live it won't take but a minute for the cops to put the pieces together. You wanna spend the rest of your shit life in jail, asshole?"

"No.."

"Then you go get the fucking truck and bring it around. We need to up our game."

The conversation died down and one pair of footsteps exited the station while the other one paced the space above them. This could be the chance they've been waiting for and Daryl knew it too because he nodded down at her in silent reply.

They needed to take that truck. How she wasn't sure yet, but it didn't sound like anyone up there was leaving any time soon and if there was a working vehicle nearby they had to take the risk and go for it. It didn't take long for the sound of tires on gravel to get stronger and stronger and then the remaining person was walking outside too.

"We need that damn truck. Stay here, sounds like there's only two of 'em outside. I may be able to take 'em by surprise."

"What? I'm not staying here."

"It ain't safe, don't want you to…"

Anything he would have said after that was cut off by an ominous sound. Engines revved, not one but two of them, and they sounded distinctly smaller than a truck. Her eyes widened when she realized what they were hearing.

No one up there was taking the truck after all. It would likely be waiting for them in the driveway and they could stroll right up and steal it at their leisure. Provided they weren't spotted by the men on ATVs.