The steel tip of a cowgirl boot gently nudged Daryl's side. Bright sunlight filtered through the window of the loft. Daryl sat up hastily and brushed the straw out of his hair, or, at least, what was left of his hair.
"We were afraid you'd snuck off back to Alexandria," Tammy said.
"No, ma'am."
"We're having breakfast, and then we're getting in position. Might be hours before they get here, but we want to be ready."
Breakfast was scrambled eggs and peaches topped with fresh, homemade cottage cheese washed down by rich coffee with a hint of heavy cream. It wouldn't be a bad last meal, if it came to that. Daryl ate at the dining room table again, with Tex and Tammy on each end, though this time the doctor had been replaced by the chemist and Jackson had been replaced by Malik. He couldn't quite figure out what the governing structure was here. As far as Daryl could tell, Tex and Tammy were in charge. Tex was the official leader but the man let Tammy pull his strings a lot of the time. They both leaned heavily on Isaac's advice, and Jackson and Malik seemed to be often at their sides as well, but they didn't appear to have a formal Council of any kind.
"You're going to be in the deer blind nearest the trucks with me," Tex told Daryl.
"A'right."
"I should be there with you," Tammy told her husband. "I want to be close to the action."
"I want you back nearer the ranch," Tex told her, "in the deer blind across from the gate."
"I'm every bit a good a shot as you are, babe."
"I know," Tex said. "And that's why I want you near the ranch. To protect our people."
"Admit it. You just don't want me near the action."
"Tammy..." Tex leaned over his plate. "I don't want to have to say this bluntly, but if the Saviors make it to the gates, that likely means I'm dead. You're going to need to be in charge of this ranch. Some of the other people here know how to work on a ranch, but none of them know how to run one."
"Then why don't you stay in the blind across from the gate?"
Tex sat back. "I'd never forgive myself if I put you on the front lines and you died while I lived. Please. Give me this one thing, darlin'."
"Fine." Tami stabbed her fork at the last of her scrambled eggs.
[*]
The snipers assumed their positions, some at the ranch, and some near the trucks. There were shooters in the two watchtowers, in the three deer blinds, on the roof of the ranch house, and in the loft of the barn.
The bomb-laden trucks were parked in the roadway and made to look broken down, one with a flat tire, the other with its hood open.
More armed men and women lined up behind the ranch's barricades.
Buckets full of water and fire extinguishers lined the porch of the main house, ready to put out fires from RPGs if necessary.
The younger children and feebler old people disappeared into the cellar.
And then they waited.
Daryl and Tex waited in the deer blind nearest the trucks. Several yards from them was another blind where Jackson waited. Isaac lay flat on his stomach in the tall grass in the ditch at the side of the road.
They waited for hours, switching out for bathroom breaks.
They waited through dinner and were brought plates of food by teenage messenger boys.
They waited as the sun set, and they waited as the stars came out.
They waited, taking turns to nap, through the night.
They waited as the sun rose the next morning.
They waited, and they waited...but no one came.
[*]
"This is damn anti-climatic," Tex muttered.
"Maybe they know what we did, and they're going to wait a few days to try to take us by surprise," Isaac suggested. Daryl and Tex had climbed out of their blind to confer with Isaac among the trees.
"You mean maybe they're gathering their entire army?" Tex asked. "I said we should have struck first!"
"You agreed this was the best plan," Isaac reminded him.
Tex sighed.
"Need to send a scout," Daryl told them. "Maybe they's gearin' up for a big attack. Or maybe, with the head chopped off, there's mutiny. I don't think all them Saviors exactly loved Negan. Maybe, with him gone, they don't even want to slaughter y'all."
"You really believe that?" Tex asked skeptically.
"That man Dwight, Negan's right hand? He tried to leave once, but he came back. He came back and Negan took his wife, broke him down. Dwight did the master's bidding, but..." Daryl shook his head.
"How much loyalty can a man have to a man who took his wife?" Tex asked.
"Exactly."
Tex took off his cowboy hat and scratched his head. "Well this Dwight fellow may not have loved Negan, but he obviously loves to survive more than he loves his wife." He settled the hat back on his head. "Otherwise, she never would have been taken except over his dead body."
Daryl couldn't disagree with that.
"So if survival is what Dwight loves most in the world," Tex said, "We've got to ask ourselves - what's his next move to survive?"
"Make peace with the people who took out twenty-two saviors in twenty-two seconds?" Isaac suggested.
"So are we sending a scout, or a peace party?" Tex asked.
"I say we send a scout first," Isaac replied. "See what we're dealing with before we walk in the lion's den with nothing but an olive branch."
"I'll go," Daryl volunteered. "Y'all need to defend yer people here, in case they show. I know where the base is, and I know its layout, more or less. Worse that happens if they find me is they think I escaped. They don't have to know I was with y'all."
"No," Tex said. "I want my own man in there, so Isaac's going with you. He's the most stealth man I've got. Besides, no one should go it alone. If one of you is killed, maybe the other can get word back. In fact, take Hugo, too."
Daryl had no idea who Hugo was. He hadn't been introduced to any such man yet.
"Take the Secret Service C.A.T van," said Jackson, emerging from between two trees. "It's armor-plated, in case you run into trouble on the way there or the way back."
Isaac nodded.
[*]
The left Jackson and another shooter on watch near the trucks and hiked back to the ranch to tell Tammy the plan and pack up for the scouting trip. When they neared the hidden deer blind, they heard a sudden snap, followed by a shout and a loud crashing sound. Tex ran into the woods, followed closely by Isaac. Daryl jogged after them.
Tex fell to his knees before his wife, who was pinned beneath an enormous tree branch. Daryl looked up and saw the decaying wood where it had broken off from the tree above. The thing had taken down half the deer blind with it. Tammy screamed, and that was when Daryl saw the thick, jagged, pointy stick piercing her right side. Dark red blood spilled out around the open wound.
"Fuck it!" Tex shouted. "Isaac! Get the doctor!"
Isaac ran off to the ranch while Tammy's screams quieted to moans and then finally words. "Goddamn it hurts."
Tex put a hand on her shoulder. "Shhh...Doctor's comin', darlin'. Hold on."
"Think I broke my back. Oh fuck it hurts!" She craned her neck and looked down at her side where the branch pierced through. "Why's there so much blood?" She blinked and closed her eyes.
"Tammy?" Tex said anxiously. "Tammy, darlin' you conscious?"
He received no response. He put an ear to her mouth and sighed in relief. He stood and looked worriedly through the trees. "Where the fuck's that doctor?" He paced. "I should have taken this blind, like she asked me to."
"You was tryin' to keep her safe," Daryl said.
Tex took off his hat and threw it angrily at a nearby tree. "Fuck it all!"
When the doctor arrived, along with some other man and a stretcher, the men used all their strength to lift the fallen tree branch off of Tammy. The doctor told Isaac to cut off the jagged growth that was lodged in her side. Then she poured alcohol on the wound and eased the stick out. Tammy regained consciousness and screamed.
"It's pretty bad," the doctor said as she and Tex lifted her onto the stretcher. "Let's get her to the infirmary."
Daryl and Isaac carried the stretcher. The infirmary was in the smallest of the guest houses, which had been converted for medical use. It appeared the doctor and her husband lived and slept there as well. "I'm going to need more antibiotic," the doctor said. "To make sure she doesn't get a bad infection. We're out."
"Hilltop probably has antibiotic," Daryl suggested. "Would probably trade you for guns or ammo."
"Then take me there," Tex insisted. "Take me to the Hilltop."
"We'll go," Isaac told him. "You need to stay here with her, and to defend the ranch if the Saviors do end up attacking. Daryl and Hugo and I will go to the Hilltop after we scout out the Sanctuary. And then we'll bring the medicine back here."
Tex nodded. He looked down at his unconscious wife. "Be quick about it."