***WARNING...BRIEF MENTION OF RAPE***
Outsiders
Nick and Patsy were the first to arrive and they delivered the two fuel tankers to Thomas Blevin's. He actually had working pumps still on his land that he had used for supplying his farm equipment and airplanes, and the fuel pumps were all powered by a generator. Nick had experience delivering fuel in the past so he knew the proper and safe methods for filling up the fuel tanks. Hopefully they would be able to go back in another few months and pick up another couple of tankers full of more petrol.
Once they were done unloading all the fuel Thomas would drive them back to their living quarters. Nick being a new member of the community had taken up residence close to where a majority of the single women were living as he felt like he might be able to help out more if he could keep an eye on them. Though the man seemed rough on the outside, he was a very kind and caring man who had lost three daughters at the onset of the apocalypse.
…
Daryl and Rick headed back up to the house just as Anna was answering a call from Joe on the radio. Joe had Glenn and Antonio at the compound and they had relayed the information regarding what had happened to Sasha and the believed sighting of Damien. Rick and Daryl immediately got in the truck and headed up to the Martinelli home to get more details and to discuss the rescue of Sasha.
As they arrived, so did a panicked Tyreese. The gentle giant was an emotional disaster after hearing word that the monster that had terrorized so many women three years earlier had kidnapped his sister. The thoughts of what he could and probably would do to Sasha weren't lost on anyone, especially Antonio.
Rick tried hard to keep the two men calm but was having very little success. Tyreese bellowed "I need guns and we need to go now, times wasting."
Antonio agreed but added "We need others to help as well, no telling what that fucking mad man has this time."
Rick then spoke "You both need to take a breath and calm down. We will go as soon as possible, but we need a plan. Do you even know where they took her?"
Silence.
Glenn spoke "Let's look at a map of the area and see if we can figure out where someone would set up a camp."
Less than a minute later Marty had a map laid out on the dining room table and the men were all gathered around it to get a feel for the area Sasha had been taken from. "Right here" Glenn said as he pointed to a spot on the map. "Pilot Mountain. It would be the perfect place to have a camp. It has a three hundred-sixty degree view of the entire area and you can see for miles. Hell we can see if from here on a clear day and it's forty two miles from here. If I was a betting man, I would think that would be where he would dig in, and it is close to the area they picked up Sasha."
Marty spoke "I know that area well. I know no one wants to hear this, but our best bet would be to wait until tomorrow night and go in under the cover of darkness. They will spot us if we go in the daylight and we aren't prepared to go in tonight."
Daryl then spoke "What about DC? We need to leave the morning after next."
Joe then spoke "We will make sure that we have two distinct teams. And security needs to be stepped up here. I'm actually surprised they haven't tried to come at us yet."
Rick then added, "Might not want to let the women know that Damien is out there. Might cause a lot of trauma in the group.
Marty agreed and they all agreed upon not mentioning that fact until they knew more.
…
Sasha was locked in a small closet in what she surmised used to be a visitor center. She had been blindfolded when they captured her, but so far no one had harmed her. She recognized the man who took her, but he didn't appear to recognize her. To be honest she was quite surprised that Damien was still alive after all these years, and still in a relatively close vicinity.
Sasha was sitting on the floor with her knees up to her chest just listening to the activity outside the door. She had no idea what time it was or how many people were in the building she was being held in. She hadn't heard anything but male voices, and that concerned her. What if these men hadn't seen any women in a while and they were looking to "pass her around" for their pleasure. The thought more than terrified her, but she refused to allow herself to dwell on that fear. Her main goal was to find a way to get out of her situation and get back to warn the others.
She had somehow managed to fall asleep but was woken up when the door to the closet was opened. She looked up and her eyes opened wide when she saw a face she recognized from the past. "Cesar Martinez?"
"Shhh…get up and follow me, I have to get you out of here before something you won't like will happen to you." He told her.
"Why are you helping me, weren't you with the Governor…?"
"I'll answer those questions later but we only have about ten minutes to get you out of here." He told her.
He pulled her a bit roughly by the arm and dragged her out of the building and to the woods, not bothering to stop to see how she was doing. When they hit the woods he found and old path that led down a rocky ledge. It was difficult to navigate at night, but they managed to make it to the bottom of the hill where an old truck was parked. He jumped in the truck and she stopped, questioning whether or not she should get in with him or not.
"Sasha get in the damn truck before they find you. Trust me, it won't go well for you or me if they do."
She sighed and got in the truck. He started if up and they headed away from the camp.
"Where are your people Sasha? Did Tyreese make it? I need to get you back to safety." He told her.
"What about you? How did you end up with that man? Do you even know who he is or what he did?" She inquired.
"I know enough to know I don't want to be with him anymore. Came across him and his camp about three months ago. I've been wandering around for the past three and a half years, trying to find somewhere stable, at the time what he had to offer was better than anything else I had." Martinez admitted.
"Look I'm not exactly sure where we are right now, but we were near a state park west of here. Just head west, but I can't promise that they will accept you. The Governor did a lot of shit that still haunts us to this day, and you being his right hand man…"
"Fine, but I can at least bring you back and head on my way. There's a map in the glove box, see if you can find where we are going. We are just outside of Pilot Mountain on route 601" he told her.
…
It was close to six in the morning when everyone's radios crackled to life. It was Carl and he had watch duty the night before "Guy's come down to the gate now. Sasha is back and she is with one of the Governor's men."
Rick was the first to respond "Don't you mean Damien, Carl?"
"No, it's definitely one of the Governor's guys. I think his name is Martinez." Carl replied.
Daryl's voice then came over the radio, extra raspy from just waking up "Don't let him in, I'll be right there."
Daryl pulled on his boots and grabbed his crossbow, then jumped on the Gator and headed to the front gate. He was driving so fast that the Gator slid sideways when he stopped. When he jumped off to get to the gate he saw Sasha and Martinez standing casually on the other side waiting patiently for someone to open it up and let Sasha in. Sasha didn't look harmed or apprehensive and Daryl wasn't sure whether or not to trust the situation they were seeing at the gate. Rick showed up just a few minutes later and took over the conversation.
"Carl, open the gate and let Sasha in. Martinez, I'm gonna ask you to wait outside for a moment." He said.
Martinez nodded but didn't speak.
Sasha then spoke "Guys, he got me away from Damien. Risked his life doing so, I honestly don't think he is a threat."
The sound of Antonio and Tyreese's vehicle flying down the mountain distracted them. Antonio slid the vehicle to a stop and jumped out to grab his precious Sasha up into his arms. The Italian had a pure look of joy on his face as he found his lover unharmed and returned to him. "My beautiful, you are safe…but how?" He said as he looked at Martinez suspiciously.
Tyreese acknowledged Martinez with a nod. He knew that back in the day when He and Sasha had taken up residency at Woodbury that even though Martinez was in the Governor's inner circle he did seem to be reasonable. Martinez was more of a survivor than anything else, still struggling with the internal grief of losing his wife and two children.
They were all faced with a dilemma, what do they do with Martinez? He knew where the community was, and had been able to get through the eastern entrance because Sasha had been with him and knew the password that allowed entrance. He could bring Damien and his men right to them; but then again, Damien had been here and knew exactly where they were located. So for whatever reason, Damien had chosen not to attack them or seek vengeance. Maybe he was just biding his time.
Then again, Martinez did risk his life to save Sasha, and he had abandoned the Governor after Woodbury fell. He was an excellent fighter and his skills could be used in the community, but not knowing if they could trust him was the concern. Rick rubbed his chin and spoke "Let him in, I will take responsibility for him"
No one questioned Rick, and Carl opened the gate and let Martinez in. He followed Rick up the mountain to his home. Daryl opted to follow also as Antonio and Tyreese took Sasha home, happy to have the woman back. For some reason Martinez's arrival wasn't sending Daryl into the untrusting territory he usually went too with strangers. The two had bonded briefly when Rick and the Governor were in negotiations at the old feed mill more than three years earlier, and Daryl had determined then that Martinez wasn't that bad of a guy, just circumstances had left them on opposite sides of the fence. Hopefully Rick was making the right decision here, but he trusted that Rick would take care of the situation if he determined the man to be a threat. Rick would have no qualms at all of killing Martinez if his family was at risk.
…
Daryl had returned home after spending the last three hours at Rick's talking to Martinez. He had given them all the details concerning Damien and his new set up and both men felt he was trustworthy. It would take a little time before they would let Martinez wander the community alone, but Martinez had no issue in proving himself to them. They were all happy that Sasha had been returned and that they weren't going to have to send in a rescue party to bring her back, while also preparing to leave in the morning for DC.
When he got to the house he found Maggie and Beth visiting with Anna. Maggie looked happier than he had seen her in a long while and Beth was smiling brightly too. When Beth saw Daryl she ran over to give him a hug and whisper a "Thank you" in his ear for his helping with convincing Maggie to let her date Mark Mocksley. Daryl had spoken with Maggie the next morning after he had returned from his hunt and reassured Maggie that Mark was a good kid from a good family with the "right" kind of values. He didn't mention the part about Anna finding Mark and Beth screwing their brains out in his truck a few days earlier, not that Maggie would have any room to talk. Her and Glenn had been known to hump like rabbits at times in the earlier days as well.
Beth and Maggie left shortly thereafter, and before Daryl knew what was happening, Anna was a sobbing mess. Shit. As much as Daryl tried, he just never could become comfortable with comforting people. He took a deep breath and pulled her into a hug "What is it baby?" he asked.
Anna looked up at him with her big brown eyes "Maggie's pregnant."
"What? Why are you so upset?" He asked, then he remembered "Oh."
"Daryl I want another child. I know it's selfish to ask you this, but would you please consider it. We can start trying again when you return from DC, things should be easier for you then."
Daryl rubbed his hands over his face and thought about what Anna had just proposed to him. When she had become pregnant with Michael, they weren't trying, it just happened. Now sex was going to become more than just a way to be close to each other, it was going to have an obsessive end game and he wasn't sure he wanted to trivialize their intimacy. What was wrong with him? He knew it was fear of losing another baby. But on the other hand, they were bringing back a real physician. "OK, we will try again" he told her. The smile that came across her face let him know he had made the right decision. Maybe this time they would be lucky.
…
Daryl and Rick had loaded all of the meat into the back of Rick's truck and were taking it to the different parts of the community to deliver it to everyone. When they arrived at the area where most of the single women were staying chaos was wreaking havoc and Daryl and Rick were quick to try to figure out what was going on. Paige Adams ran immediately over to Rick "Weren't you a Sheriff in your previous life?" She asked.
A bit confused by her question he asked "Yes I was, but why are you asking?"
"Someone broke into one of the houses last night and raped two of the four women living there. He had a knife and didn't speak a word. Everyone is freaking out because we don't know who it is that committed the rape, we just know it is one of "us", someone in our own community."
Daryl gave Rick a look "This ain't good. We are going to need to step up patrols here where the women live. I ain't feeling too good about us leaving tomorrow now."
Rick began to speak "Ladies, We aren't going to let this slide. Tonight I need all of you to make sure that all your doors and windows are locked, and that all of you are armed. I would recommend that you start keeping twenty four-hour watch shifts to make sure no one is left vulnerable. I will get some more men to come down and help with the watch shifts."
One of the women spoke "More men? How do we know we can trust them and they aren't the one's doing this?"
"It just doesn't add up that it would be one of our local guys, think about it, for three years they could have done this, and nothing has happened. I'm not sure how or why, but I think there has been a breech somewhere and we have some outsiders inside our walls." Rick said.
Daryl began to speak when he was suddenly over come with the same damn nagging cough, he fought through the coughing convulsions to manage to get out "I will check the area…" cough "right"…cough "now".
Rick looked a bit concerned at Daryl's latest coughing fit. He had known Daryl had been a heavy smoker in the past, but also knew that with the limited supplies of Tobacco, Daryl hadn't really smoked much in the past few years with the exception of an occasional cigar with Joe and Marty. He wondered if Daryl was getting sick and not telling anyone so that he could go on the trip to DC. Knowing Daryl though, Rick wouldn't question him about it unless it became worse.
Daryl seemed to quickly recover from his coughing spasms and took off towards the perimeter of the area. Rick followed and within thirty minutes they found a breach in the makeshift wall that had been put up. There were footprints that led to the creek and disappeared. There appeared to be around seven large size boot prints that alerted both men. From the looks of the tracks, they were at least a week old.
"There is someone else inside our walls" Daryl said.
Rick nodded "We need to let Marty know immediately and get more of our men down in this area."
Daryl then spoke "I think now is as good of time as any to see if Martinez is ready to step up."
"Agreed. We can have Tyreese, Antonio, and Martinez help out with securing things down here while we are gone. Everyone needs to be on high alert until we can find these fuckers" Rick told him.
They walked a few feet more and Daryl stopped "Fuck me." He said.
"What is it?"
Daryl picked up a Broken Arrow off the ground "This one isn't mine, but whoever is here has a silent weapon as well. I'm not liking this at all Rick. We need to get back now and get a plan going immediately."
…
What Rick and Daryl didn't know was that the intruders were observing them. One of the men spoke up "I claim the crossbow".
So I think you know who the intruders are...how do you think Daryl and Rick feel about leaving the area now?
Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Next chapter is the trip to DC. So what do you think about Anna and Daryl trying again for a baby? Like I mentioned, they hadn't really tried before, it just happened. Now they are going to be actively trying. Hopefully things will work out for them.
Please leave me a REVIEW, they are a GReAT source of inspiration.
Have a wonderful Sunday, and OCTOBER please hurry up and come visit us!
Thanks
Missy
XXOO
