Beatrix
"What'd you find out?" Rick asks Daryl and I once we get back from our little scouting mission.
"It's overrun," Daryl grunts and I smack his very-healthy-arm. "What? It is. "
"True, but we came up with a plan to get in there and get the medical trailer out," I smile happily.
"We did?" Daryl looks confused.
"Yes, we did. Well, I did," I shrug and turn back to Rick. "There's a housing development behind the school, about eight miles away from here. I was thinking that we could draw the walkers over there long enough to get in there, get the trailer, and get out."
"That sounds a little risky," Rick says skeptically. "How would we even draw them over there?"
"Set a house on fire," I say as Rick's eyes widen.
"Beatrix, that's insane," Rick shakes his head.
"Yeah, but so is the thing," I whisper, knowing Daryl won't ask questions. "How's he doing?"
"He seems fine," Rick tells me before looking to Daryl. "What do you think?"
"She seems to want that trailer awful bad," Daryl nods his head and bites his thumbnail. "I say we go for it."
"We need to figure out a plan to get it done then," Rick agrees.
"I've got it covered," I say before handing Rick his gun back. "I thought about it on the ride back here."
"Well I'll gather the group. You can let us all know what we do then," Rick takes his gun and goes over to our little camp site.
"Thank you," I say to Daryl. "For backing me up on this."
"Ain't no problem," Daryl walks off to the rest of the group, standing a little ways away from them. I take that as my cue to walk over and stand beside of Rick.
"Beatrix got the idea to try and go to an abandoned high school," Rick motions to me. "To get a FEMA medical trailer. It's full of medical supplies that we could use, right, Beatrix?"
"Yes! Daryl went with me to look so he can vouch," I nod my head and begin to tell them about my plan. "So the school is overrun, but I have devised a plan to get in there and get out without any problem."
"Oh yeah, and what's that?" Andrea asks in a rude tone. If she would calm herself down I would get to the actual plan part.
"There's a housing development behind the school that we could lure all of the walkers to," I explain. "We could set one of the houses on fire and maybe throw in some fireworks to make some noise. Most of them should wander over to see what's happening, and we could easily take out the few that stay. It'll buy us enough time to hook the trailer up to a truck and bring it back here. And since we don't exactly have a truck that would haul it, we could stop by the highway and get one."
"So you're just going to give up looking for my baby girl to go get this stupid trailer?" Carol asks, looking astonished.
"We could double it as looking for her," I smile at her and cross my arms over my chest. "We'll comb the housing development for any signs of her."
"I'll take a horse out tomorrow and look around some more too," Daryl speaks up. Carol nods her head in appreciation and falls quiet again.
"How many people are you gonna need on this?" Shane asks, rubbing his head. It seems like all I've been doing today is answering questions.
"Just a couple on the development and however many it'll take to get the trailer," I push my hair behind my ear again. Between the humid air and the wind from the motorcycle, my hair is more than dry. "I figure you, Daryl, T-Dog, Rick and I could go to the school. Then Glenn and Andrea could take care of the house, if you guys are willing."
"Count me in," Andrea smiles. Just a few minutes ago she was mad about the whole thing. I don't understand her at all.
"Me too," T-Dog says.
"Glenn?" I look at him with hopeful eyes.
"If you really want me to, I'll go," Glenn reluctantly nods and I mouth him a thank you.
"I'll check with Hershel and see if he has any people to spare. We'll need all the help we can get," Rick nods and walks off toward the house.
"I'll run into town to see if I can find some lighter fluid to get it started," Daryl starts walking off to his bike and I follow him.
"I'm coming with you," I throw my leg over the seat after he's sat down. "We can head to the highway and get a bigger truck."
Daryl grunts and starts his bike up in response. I push my face against his back again and tightly wrap my arms around his waist. He was right, motorcycles are actually kind of fun to ride, but I just like smelling him. Not in a creepy way, but he smells good. Like how I imagine a typical man would smell: like the woods mixed with sweat. It doesn't smell bad on him though.
"Why are we here?" I ask as I get off the bike. Daryl had cut the engine and parked in front of the local bar. "You aren't gonna get drunk are you?"
"Alcohol burns," he mumbles and walks through the door. He slings the bag off of his back that he pulled from one of the bags on his bike and begins throwing unopened bottles inside.
"Where could we get fireworks at?" I ask as I pick up a couple of bottles that I can carry in my arms.
"There should be a general store around here somewhere. They normally have the lower grade ones," Daryl slings the bag back onto his back and heads back out the door. I drop the bottles into one of the motorcycle bags and follow him into the other store.
"How much can we carry?" I ask, gathering up the largest fire works I can find.
"However much we need," he says, picking up a handful of Roman Candles. "Ya just gotta hold on long enough to get to the highway."
"Right," I mumble and follow him back out to his bike. We stuff as much as we can into the side bags, but I'm forced to hold the rest, which is the two bottles of booze I managed to grab. I wrap one arm around his waist and use the other to hold the bottles in place.
"You guys get everything?" Rick asks me as I jump out of the huge truck we stole from the highway. Though I wouldn't exactly call it stealing.
"Should have enough," Daryl hands Rick the bag he was carrying on his back. "Fireworks are in my side bags."
"I'll let Maggie and Glenn know," Rick nods and Daryl walks away.
"Maggie's going?" I question.
"Yeah, Otis is too. They volunteered to help us," Rick smiles and I go off to find Shane.
"Shane," I put a hand on his shoulder when I find him. "How are you feeling?"
"A little nauseous," he turns around to face me. "But you said that would be normal. Other than that, I'm fine."
"Good," I smile. "I hope this'll work."
"How exactly are we gonna know if it does?" He raises an eyebrow.
"You'll have to get bit," I look down. "But you would be completely fine. I wouldn't let it happen if I thought something would happen to you."
"I trust you, Beatrix. Just don't get me killed," Shane rubs his head and walks off.
"Alright, everyone got their guns and knives? Everyone knows their positions and jobs?" Our small group of nine all nod our heads at Rick. "Good. Glenn, you're head of your group. Do a quick sweep for Sophia before you light the fire. And make sure to get out of there as soon as it's lit."
"Got it," Glenn nods and walks off to the green car Shane got, with Andrea and Maggie following right behind him. Once they're all in the car, they drive off to get a head start on us.
"We better get moving," Rick pats the truck and hops into the driver's seat. Shane gets in the passenger seat with T-Dog and Otis getting into the back.
"C'mon," Daryl hops into the back of the truck and sits down.
I climb in after him and pull my knees up to my chest until we get to the school. Just like Daryl did, Rick stopped the truck a little bit away from the school so the walkers wouldn't hear the engine and get all riled up. Rick sends Shane and T-Dog up to keep an eye on the walkers to see if our plan works.
After about fifteen minutes of sitting in silence, we see fireworks starting to go up in the air, signaling that Glenn and his team have started the fire. Soon enough, we see a cloud of smoke hanging in the sky not too far away from where we were. Not too long after, Rick notices T-Dog in the distance waving his arms in a gesture for us to bring the truck up.
I stand up in the back of the truck while Rick drives forward to get a better look. From what I can tell, the walkers are making their way away from the school, but I can't exactly tell. Trying to get an even better view, I decide to stand on my tippy toes. Bad decision though, because as soon as I do, Rick drives over one of the speed bumps and I lose my balance and start falling sideways.
"Careful," Daryl mutters as he grabs my wrist and pulls me back to sit down.
"Thanks," I whisper and he grunts in response. The truck finally comes to a stop and Daryl and I both hop out.
"There's a few stragglers," Rick says as he pulls out his knife. "Most of the others are gone. We can take these down."
"We gotta make this quick, man," Shane says as he rubs his head. I quickly rush to his side and grab his arm as he starts to stumble around.
"Shane, you need to go sit in the truck," I whisper-yell.
"Beatrix, I'm fine. This needs to be done quickly," Shane shakes me off and walks back over to the trailer.
"Beatrix, I need you to guide me to the trailer's hookup," Rick says to me.
"Got it," I nod my head while he gets into the truck and starts backing it up.
I wave my hands, showing him which way to cut the wheel until he's finally lined up with the trailer hookup. T-Dog, Shane, and Rick rush to the hookups and begin to get the trailer attached to the truck. Daryl and Otis are busy taking out the few walkers still left here. I stand there feeling helpless beacuse there's nothing for me to do. There was really no point in me being here, but I am, so I decide to attempt to help Daryl and Otis.
"Back the hell up, Beatrix. You're gonna get yourself killed," Daryl yells at me as I stand beside of him.
"I'll be fine," I roll my eyes and turn to my left to see Otis fighting off a walker. It's closing in on the left side of his neck and he can't seem to push it off. Knowing I'll be no help at all, I smack Daryl's very-healthy-arm, "Daryl, look!"
"Shit," he mutters and reloads his crossbow, shooting an arrow straight through the walker's skull. Otis lets out a yell and drops to his knees, pulling the walker with him. Daryl continues with the other walkers while I rush to Otis' side.
"Otis, what- oh my God," I put my hand over my mouth and fall down in front of him. Daryl's arrow had went clean through the walker's head and straight through Otis' nose, still completely inside of both of them.
"Get it out," Otis says as he grabs my hands and pushes them to his nose.
"I can't remove it," I shake my head and attempt to calm him down. "It'll risk bleeding and we don't need that right now."
"Do something!" He sighs in desperation and I try to think quickly.
Despite how grossed out I am, I call for Daryl to come over to me. He lets out a string of curse words when he sees Otis, but I don't even acknowledge them when I order him to pull the walker off the end of the arrow while I hold it still in his nose. My left hand keeps his face still and my right holds the arrow as still as I can while Daryl rips the walker off the end.
"We need to get you into the truck. Now," I help Otis to his feet and manage to get him into the back seat of the truck.
"Lucky me, right?" He tries to joke, but it falls flat. I keep hold of the arrow, not letting it move too much. Even though it's just in his nose, it could completely shatter the cartilage.
"What happened?" Rick frantically asks as he slides into the driver's seat and T-Dog gets shotgun.
"Crossbow accident," I mumble, keeping my focus on Otis' nose.
"He okay?" Rick starts driving out of this place with the trailer hooked up and Shane and Daryl in the truck bed.
"I'm fine," Otis starts to nod, but I stop him.
"No speaking. Don't move your head," I order before directing my attention to Rick. "Our plan worked!"
"It did," he smiles into the rear view mirror while trying to get back to the farm as quickly as possible.
"What the hell happened?" Hershel asks as I approach the farm house with Otis.
"Daryl accidentally shot him," I shake my head and get Otis into the living room. Maggie notices the scene and runs off to bring me my supplies.
"The one with the crossbow?" Hershel demands, seeming rather angry.
"Yes," I reply, calmly. Maggie returns with my things and I get to work on Otis' nose.
"I want him off my land," Hershel states.
"He saved my life," Otis says and I shush him.
"He did," I nod. "Walker was trying to get at his neck and Daryl shot it. The arrow just happened to pass through Otis' nose on the way."
"That doesn't-"
"I shot the kid," Otis speaks up again. "And he shot me. We're even now. No need to make them leave."
"Can we discuss this after I get the arrow out of his nose?" I ask and everyone shuts up.
"I didn't do a damn thing wrong," Daryl shouts.
"Daryl, you did kind of shoot an arrow through his nose," I sigh.
"Didn't do it intentionally," he grunts and wipes the sweat off of his face.
"Yes, Daryl, I know," I place a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugs it off.
"Bastard should be greatful that I saved his life," he continues yelling.
"He is. Hershel just isn't too happy right now, but it'll be okay," I try to calm him down. It doesn't work. "Just don't go around him for a while. He wanted you gone, but Rick and I talked him out of it."
"Whatever," he sighs and lays down.
"On the bright side," I smile. "We got my trailer!"
"I still don't want that other damn pole," he shakes his head and turns his back towards me.
"You'll come around," I say before falling asleep.
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