Author's Note: Thank you Lila-Renee, RedAlyk, and ReadWriteLove715 for your reviews. I'm sure I've said this a million times but they just push me to get chapters out sooner. They also force me to try even harder to make the chapters better. I've run out of things to virtually give you guys, well, except this new chapter(; Hope you guys like it!
Enjoy, xoxo
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE.
MONSTER.
"You're kidding, right?" Taylor let out an exasperated sigh, leaning against the hood of the car. Maggie slid out from the undercarriage and tried her best to shrug her shoulders, the pavement below her making it difficult.
"There's a leak in the gas line. That's why the engine keeps stalling." She gripped the shell of the car and scooted herself back under.
"So we're out of gas, in the middle of fucking nowhere?" Her arms stretched out around her, displaying the empty, endless road and fields around them.
"Spare us the theatrics," Cassidy chided with a roll of the eyes before climbing into the back seat and slamming the car door behind her.
"I really don't like her." Claire whispered, facing her back to the car.
"I don't think any of us do." Taylor replied with a small smile. She ducked down and bent herself until she could see her cousin still working on the line. "How much longer?"
"Who the hell knows? I don't have the right tools." Maggie let out a frustrated grunt.
"I didn't even know you knew about cars." The blonde stood up again, sitting on the hood of the car now. Claire followed her lead and sat next to her.
"Living in the farmlands you pick stuff up." The dismayed voice of the brunette called up to them.
"So..." after a long moment of awkward silence and grunts and groans from Maggie, Claire turned to Taylor. She began wringing her wrists nervously. "I have a question for you, and feel free to not answer, because I'm sure you're still not comfortable talking about it-"
"Claire," Taylor held her hand up with a smirk at the ravenette's nervous babbling, "just ask."
"Okay well... I know we're not like good friends or anything, barely acquaintances," she mused before continuing, "but I figured you know a lot about Rick. I mean, since you guys had sexual relations-" Taylor busted out laughing causing Claire to abruptly stop mid-sentence, but she couldn't help it. She didn't believe the myth of farm girls being so sheltered was true. She knew Maggie had escaped that a long time ago.
"I'm sorry," she held her hands up apologetically, "but what are we, fourteen?"
"Sorry, I just, I know it's awkward."
"It's fine, Rick and I are way past that. Just ask whatever you need to," she set her hand on Claire's shoulder lightly. "And I'll try to answer in the least possible awkward way." Claire began to tug at the ends of her hair which she seemed to do when agitated, but smiled anyway.
"I need to deter the sexual tension between us... because it's crazy." Claire's eyes pleaded with her to not mock her for the silly question she knew she was asking.
"Oh... okay. Um, have sex with him?"
"No!" She shrieked, "it's too soon. I don't want to rush things with him and ruin it."
"No offense Claire, but none of us really have a whole lot of guaranteed time lying around. Go ahead, be spontaneous. It's Rick for crying out loud. If things didn't work out, he wouldn't' try to humiliate you or anything." She rolled her eyes, thinking to herself, Jesus, I would know.
"I know, I know. I just... I'm not... I don't know, ready? When we're alone, what can I talk about to avoid it?" Claire was obviously taking the whole thing seriously, and Taylor felt bad for joking about it, but she didn't want her new-found friend to feel bad about the whole situation.
"Ummm, oh! Ask him about his penis." She grinned over at her, Claire shoving her shoulder lightly as the words came out.
"Shut up!"
"Okay, okay," Taylor stopped giggling long enough to take a deep breath and talk again. She went around the back to the trunk, popping it and taking the backpack with a few guns and smoke grenades in it. She slid it onto her shoulders and walked around to the side Maggie's legs were sticking out from. "I'm gonna walk back to the town."
"What?"
"I'm going to that town that was like a mile back. There was a garage, I'll grab a toolbox." She patted the metal of the car, a loud clink clink following.
"Fine... but..." she popped her head out, "take Claire with you. We should use the buddy system."
"Okay, we are officially fourteen years old." She rolled her eyes before signaling with her hand for Claire to come over. She dropped her voice to a whisper, "good luck with Cassidy." Maggie shook her head and mouthed 'fuck off' before crawling back under the car.
The two began walking down the road, getting a good distance before Taylor decided to pick up their conversation again.
"Alright, next time you guys are alone, try this-" Her words fell flat when a large, tan truck roared towards them. It came to a screeching halt just a few feet in front of their car, Maggie sliding out quickly when the noise startled her. Taylor's mind acted quickly, forcing her feet to run up the hill, pulling Claire with her. They both peered around the tree, watching the scene unfold carefully.
Maggie jumped to her feet, Cassidy slowly making her way out of the backseat. They both drew their guns, waiting for the driver to get out. Two boots fell simultaneously to the pavement, his well dressed frame slowly coming into view. The man slammed the door shut, grinning broadly at the two girls.
"Hello, ladies." His smile grew as his three passengers piled out of the car. Taylor's heart dropped as the last man made it out. Merle? If Merle was still there with them, then where the hell were Daryl, Michonne, and Rick?
"Who the hell are you?" Maggie shouted, cocking her gun and taking a few steps closer.
"Whoa, whoa!" The Governor held his hands up in the air as a sign of surrender before waving behind him for his men to drop their guns. All three did so obediently. Taylor only recognized Merle, the African American and Hispanic not seeming familiar at all. But she knew the leader, that eye patch, the smoothness that just seemed to roll off him. It had to be the Governor. She knew Maggie and Cassidy had to play their cards carefully now. They were outnumbered and had a psychopath staring them down.
"We mean you no harm," his smile turned crooked, and for a moment he seemed trustworthy; but Michonne had warned Taylor to not take the bait if she was unfortunate enough to come into contact with him. It made everything even worse that Taylor had never passed the warning onto Maggie, she figured she'd tackle that when they got closer to Woodbury. The decision certainly came back to bite her in the ass.
"Yeah sure," Maggie scoffed, still taking steps closer.
Maggie, stop. Taylor's eyes hardened as she tried her best to convey a subliminal message to her cousin who was in the dark about the situation.
"We can't trust these people," she whispered harshly to Cassidy. Her counterpart rolled her shoulders, keeping her eyes locked on the people in front of them.
"I know. That's why we can't go waving our guns at them, play it cool," her voice dropped even lower as her gun slowly fell, "they have us outnumbered."
"Well I'm not dealing with this shit!" Maggie charged forward only to have the quick hands of Martinez knock the gun away and grab both of her arms, locking them tightly behind her back. Shumpert didn't get the same fight from Cassidy, she handed the gun over and let him lead her to the truck with little protest. Maggie kicked and screamed the whole way until the Governor's fist connected with the side of her face, knocking her unconscious. Taylor bounded forward, seeing nothing but red at that moment. Luckily Claire had predicted this and held her back, keeping their hiding under cover.
"You can't go out there." Her voice was quiet, but a stern undertone to it. They couldn't be noticed lest they end up in that truck as well. Who the hell knew where Rick, Daryl, and Michonne where at this point to save them.
"They have Maggie!" Taylor whisper-shouted, shrugging roughly out of Claire's hands.
"Keep it together," Claire's eyes had the same harsh tone as her voice, "or we'll get captured too. " She nodded slowly, carefully coming to terms with the situation at hand.
"Let them go, we'll follow them."
"With what car? Ours is broken, remember?"
"We'll walk. We can follow the road." She peered over Taylor's shoulder with a defeated huff. The blonde noticed her staring and turned slightly to see what was bothering Claire. Merle and Martinez were cleaning their car out, taking all the weapons out of their trunk.
"Damn." Taylor shrugged her shoulders to signal at the knapsack, "at least we have these."
"Better than nothing." Both girls watched as they made off with their food, water, weapons, and group members, driving off back to Woodbury in a rush.
"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph," Claire let out a sigh of relief. "Why did it take so long to get here?" She glanced around the tree, spotting the gates of the town, two familiar faces standing guard on top.
"Because you stopped every five minutes to bitch about it taking so long," Taylor replied with a small smirk. She let the bag slide off her shoulders to the ground with a plop. She rifled through it and handed Claire two guns, keeping two for herself. She pulled out a knife and strapped it to her boot, Claire giving her a side glance at this.
"You use knives?"
"I have to be good at something," she told her quietly when she noticed the spotlight creeping towards them. They both held their breath as it passed them and shut back off.
"You're no good with guns?" Claire's gray eyes widened, "I gotta be honest... that doesn't make me feel any better about this."
"I'm not awful." Taylor scoffed at the stab to her pride. "I just have always been better with knives, I hounded Daryl until he started helping me practice to get even better."
"It doesn't sound useful..." Claire's eyes guided back up to the men standing guard, Taylor's eyes following slowly after.
"I bet I could throw this and hit one of them square in the forehead."
"Oh please," Claire secured her guns and looked back at her partner with a tiny smile. "Prove it."
"No..." she sighed and strapped her guns in as well, keeping the smoke grenades in her bag before putting it back on her shoulders. "Because that would be stupid. Let's make that a rule, don't do anything stupid."
"Of course," Claire smiled wickedly before taking off towards the opposite side of the gate, the blinding light flashing on quickly and trailing after her.
"Claire!" Taylor whispered as loud as possible, but keeping it quiet enough that the guards wouldn't hear her. She looked down at the ground, cursing under her breath. "That was pretty damn stupid..." Taylor was mentally going through the motions of being abandoned, terror that one of them would get captured, when something hit her. The guards were both gone, they had chased after Claire. So maybe Claire was a genius, a genius that gave her an opening to get into Woodbury undetected.
"Thank you dummy." She mumbled as she snuck up to the border, slipping through a break in the fence. It was painful due to the hole being small, her shirt and jeans got caught, ripping slightly in a few spots, a maroon liquid starting to bleed through her clothes. She didn't have time to worry about the bleeding though, the guards could be back any second. Like clockwork Merle rounded the corner with the one she thought Michonne had called Martinez. They dragged Claire, kicking and screaming just like Maggie, towards the center of the town.
"Shit," Taylor muttered, pressing herself against the building that was closest to the gate. Another one of the Governor's men climbed up to the spotlight, turning it on and scanning the woods before shutting it off and using the scope of his gun for another sweep of the area. Apparently he came up empty-handed because he sat back down in the chair and titled his hat over his eyes, probably sleeping.
Her heart was hammering in her chest, crushing her ribs and lungs in the process. She couldn't believe it, she was in Woodbury. She was also alone, it was starting to seem like an 'up the creek without a paddle' situation.
"Shumpert!" She jumped back against the wall again, trying to morph into the brick behind her. She watched as the man he called Shumpert jumped visibly in his seat, the hat falling to the floor. The Governor stood with his hands on his hips, looking as pissed as she imagined he could look, he had to know Claire wouldn't come alone. Like he was reading her mind he spoke authoritatively again, "keep an eye out there! Don't half-ass it, either. I mean, keep WATCH." He stormed away after finishing his scolding of his trooper. Shumpert said inaudible things under his breath before sitting back down and relaxing, apparently he didn't take the Governor's warning seriously. That must mean he knew he would be too preoccupied to check on him again; which was a good thing, right?
A nervous knot began to settle uncomfortably in her stomach. She tried to steady her shaky breathing, unable to focus on anything other than Maggie and Claire being tortured the way Michonne had described. As she slid behind the houses, she tried her best to follow the Governor's path. She was only able to see through the alleys between each house, making her have to turn to a sprint when he was getting too far away. She doubled over to catch her breath, watching as he went behind a tall, industrial looking building.
"What the...?" Taylor shook her head and crept around the last house, making a mad dash across the dark street to get on the Governor's trail again. Where was he going anyway? She was hoping dearly that he would lead her to all of her friends.
Across the way from the decaying building she saw a flash of two men, his guards? She pressed herself tightly against the dumpster extracting her knife from its sheath, inhaling and exhaling as slowly as possible to keep herself from fainting out of sheer terror. She dropped the knapsack next to her, she couldn't risk the extra weight if she truly had to run for her life. She stood up gradually, the two men's faces coming into the low light that the building was casting off. Her face broke into a huge grin, her arms automatically flying into the air to flag them down.
"Rick! Daryl-" Her calls were cut short when a body tackled her to the ground, shoving her behind the dumpster, forcing her to slam her head on the thick metal. Her knife flew out of her hand, sliding underneath the dumpster. She shook the blurry black spots away, looking up to see a smugly grinning face. Cassidy sat on top of her now, her gun pointed to her temple, her smirk growing wider as the fear flashed in Taylor's eyes.
"Cassidy?" She tried to back up but Cassidy clicked the trigger.
"Ah, ah, ah," she pressed the cold metal directly to her flesh, "wouldn't want me to blow away that pretty little head of yours, would you?"
"Why?" She managed to squeak out, the thought of her life ending taking her whole body over.
"Oh Taylor, poor, naive, Taylor. You took everybody from me! Rick, Daryl, Rob-"
"I fucking hate Rob!" She protested, "and you took Rick from me."
"Don't get sassy with me," she slapped her across the face, a bright red hand print taking its place. "I'm the one with the gun, remember?" She spat angrily. "Rob and Rick? Nothing to me, Daryl, not that much either, but... just seeing you like a heartbroken puppy... that made me happy."
"I never did anything to you," she struggled under her weight again, Cassidy was lean muscle, having a good twenty pounds on Taylor's small frame.
"Have you ever just met someone and instantly hated them?" Yeah, you, Taylor thought bitterly, but decided against saying it aloud. The girl had a point, she was the one with a gun pointed at her head. "Yeah well, you were one of them. And this is a dog eat dog world, you should have taken me out a long time ago." She saw her face fall with the realization, "of course you would never do that, would you? You and Rick are born from the same breed, pathetic. Always trying to save people. No... to live in this world you need to have that instinct, kill or be killed."
"How did you even get away from the Governor?" Taylor made a mental plan to try and buy herself some time, divert the attention until she could come up with a real plan. Cassidy seemed to love talking about herself anyway.
"Simple." Cassidy wiped her lips with her free, "I just gave the boys what they wanted."
"You're disgusting."
"Oh the saint Taylor has spoken! Like you've never done anything? Acting all high and mighty when we all know how it is. Good girls are bad girls that don't get caught. Who else in the group have you fucked? Glenn-"
"Just shoot me already, god." Taylor hadn't meant to say it, she was thinking it and it seemed to just slip out. She instantly regretted it.
"As you wish," her lips twisted up into a devious snarl, her finger only stopping short when both girls heard a growl from behind them. Cassidy twisted around and jumped up to her feet to kill the oncoming walker, giving Taylor enough time to snatch the knife from under the dumpster. After the walker was shot Cassidy turned back around and ran over, stepping on Taylor's wrist with her whole weight.
"Drop it!" She thought she heard a bone crack, and a sickening, almost Governor-like smile graced her lips. Taylor's hand went limp, letting the knife fall. Cassidy acted quickly to kick it away and far out of reach. She dropped to her knees, putting the gun back in its holster.
"I don't think I'll shoot you. I want something more personal." Taylor was too busy nursing her throbbing wrist to get away, she tried backing into the wall when Cassidy pranced, holding her down again, her hands wrapping around her throat. Her eyes went wide with excitement as Taylor struggled to claw at her face and hands, choking to get air into her lungs. The blonde tried to roll away for her knife, making Cassidy's hands clamp down harder like an angry pitbull. As her last few breaths rolled out, blood suddenly splattered her face.
Taylor sucked in deeply, sitting up against the wall and wiping her face with her free hand. She let out a few strangled breaths, pushing Cassidy's lifeless corpse away with her feet. She looked up to thank her savior and found herself laughing at the ridiculousness of it.
"Thanks..." her voice was quiet, still trying to recover after almost having the life strangled out of her. He extended his good hand, helping her to her feet with a smirk.
"No problem, liddle blondie."
"Whattaya mean 'e got caught?!" Merle was seething, up in Office Friendly's face. Michonne stepped between the two men with her fingers to her lips, reminding them that they needed to be quiet.
After he was done saving her life, Taylor lead Merle over to where she had seen Rick and Daryl. Unfortunately, only Rick and Michonne were found hiding in the shadows, Daryl nowhere in sight.
"It seemed like he did it on purpose," Michonne started, giving Merle a death glare when he tried to interrupt her. "We were getting chased by some of your friends, he let himself slow up, probably thinking if he got caught he'd be taken to you."
"Sounds like something he'd do," Taylor crossed her arms under her chest, annoyed that she'd come all this way, Merle was right here, and Daryl got his ass captured.
"Dumbass." Merle rolled his eyes and jerked his thumb towards Taylor, "means I saved tis bitch fer nothin'."
"Hey-" Rick stepped up to him, ready to defend her honor when she shook her head and placed a hand on Rick's shoulder.
"It's fine, I wouldn't expect anything less from him." She gave him a shrew stare, a small smile creeping on her lips... he had saved her life. "It's a compliment coming from him." Merle nodded in agreement, looking over his shoulders to keep watch for his fellow guards.
"What's the plan?" Michonne sheathed her sword, looking between her three counterparts.
"The Governor doesn't know Merle is with us..." Rick started, "let's keep it that way."
"What if I make a distraction? Then you guys could get in the building undetected."
"How?" Michonne was skeptical, giving her an unconvinced stare.
"I get caught... on purpose." She through the idea out, hoping they would go for it, but knowing the chances were slim. Rick scoffed and Michonne shook her head, the dreads flowing with it.
"Too risky." She whispered.
"No it's not. I make noise out here, they all come out, I run, they chase. Bam. You're in." She smiled triumphantly at her plan. "You guys can find the room they're in-"
"Wrongo." Merle interjected, putting his hand up to stop her from talking. "They're each in their own room. Daryl's prolly in a differnt one too."
"Okay, you guys get in and find them, take out the guards. I'll demand to see the Governor so he won't be a problem... I'm sure they'll oblige." Merle couldn't hold back a chuckle, looking her up and down.
"Yeah, he ain't gon' refuse you girl." His words made Rick feel slightly nauseous, and even more against this ridiculous plan she'd concocted.
"I don't like this. At all." Rick was putting his foot down, or trying to anyway, Merle wasn't really helping matters.
"Then it's settled, you three get them first. Then come for me. If we get separated afterwards, we'll meet back at the prison." Taylor ignored Rick's comment and handed him the knapsack of guns and smoke bombs. He gave her a sympathetic smile, wishing she wouldn't do this. This was not the way he liked to go about things and he considered her a good friend. She turned to Merle and her tone switched to serious, handing him a single smoke grenade.
"What's this fer?" He examined it closely, deducing that it was a smoke grenade.
"Just in case you get in a bind," she gave him a soft smile again. They may have not gotten along, but besides saving her ass, he was also Daryl's brother. And she promised Daryl to get him back. Her eyes narrowed now, "wait until the last possible second to release whoever you're holding."
"The girl wit tha black hair."
"Claire?" He nodded to show she was correct. "Okay, well hold Claire until Rick and Michonne get you. The Governor... his men... nobody can know you're leaving."
"Ya act like 'im a fuckin' idiot! I run this shit liddle blondie," he patted her head softly, causing her to roll her eyes at him. "Ya juss do what ya gotta do in there." After Michonne and Rick begrudgingly left to go to their positions by the doors, Merle gave her a stern look. "Don' let 'em git too close to ya." He snickered quietly and winked at her. "Baby brother won't be havin' none a' that."
"What-" Before she could even ask what he was talking about he was gone, a flash back into the factory through a side door. She watched closely from behind the tree, Merle nodded to a guard when the door opened and passed through without a problem. That was a good sign, they weren't questioning his disappearance. Taylor took a few deep breaths, keeping her eyes locked on Michonne for any type of signal for her to go. Rick's gun came out of its holster, Michonne's katana slid out of its sheath and her arm waved in the air. Taylor brushed the ends of the ponytail out of her face and took one last longing glance back to the woods, she could run. Run away from it all, and leave everyone to fend for themselves. But Cassidy was right, she was right, she was always trying to save people. She couldn't turn away, knowing that this probably wouldn't be easy.
Her legs were sprinting towards the front of the building before she could even comprehend it happening. She didn't remember when she stopped thinking and started running, she just did. She stood in front of the doors, whipping them open until two guards spotted her.
"Get her!" The one called to the other, both tripping over their feet to chase after her. So far, so good, she thought excitedly as she ran back towards the town, stopping for the briefest of seconds to pick her knife up by Cassidy's corpse. She glanced over her shoulder to see them after her, she still had time to run.
Rick and Michonne watched from behind the doors, peering around to see both guards following the plan exactly, chasing after Taylor far away from the building. They gave each other a quick nod before entering the doors, the hallways long and winding. Rick held his pistol square in front of him, ready to shoot at any sound. Michonne held her Katana close to her body, also on edge, every pour vibrating and ready to slice a body part. They turned a corner, then another, and another in what seemed like an endless cycle. In the backs of their minds they wandered if Taylor had been caught yet. That was the plan, but they hadn't discussed how long to take, something that now seemed important. They had climbed a set of stairs and turned down another hall when they heard a muffled whimper.
They exchanged a worried glance when they heard footsteps approaching from the room, both stealthily ducking into the first door beside them. They watched through a small crack as two of the henchmen began dragging Maggie towards the stairs.
"Boss said he wants her in the room the redneck too," neither Rick nor Michonne liked the way he said the words, panic filling them both. They could easily take out both of these men, but if the Governor didn't get her it would be an obvious red flag. They waited until the footfalls on the steps stopped echoing and tip-toed down them. They saw a flash of the men and Maggie go down another hallway, hot on their tails they mimicked their motions and went down the same one. Michonne peered around the corner and jumped back, pressed against the wall. She gave Rick a nod to take a glance of his own. He did so and came back abruptly. They shook their heads at each other, realizing this was going to be harder than expected. The three men stood outside the door, all holding machine guns and ready to kill looks on their faces.
Taylor was feeling pretty good, she had a decent lead on them. She kept running until her heart and lungs felt like they were going to explode. She gave one last glance to see them being left in the dust, only to turn around and see a figure blocking her path ahead, she wasn't sure what to do. Was it a walker? A person? She couldn't be sure but didn't have time to take chances, she stopped for half a second to aim her knife before throwing it with as much accuracy as the dim lighting would allow. She should have known she would miss.
Well, miss the head shot.
The person let out a bellowing, almost tribal yell as the knife pierced into their shoulder. The body stiffened, ripping the knife from their shoulder with a guttural cry, Taylor stood stalk. still too shocked to move. Before she could start to run again two pairs of strong arms wrapped around both of hers. She had been distracted for too long, they got her. She began to kick and scream wildly, trying to free herself from their iron grip. They dragged her forward to the person she had knifed. They dropped her in front of him.
She looked up into the sinister, grinning face. A snotty, blonde very recognizable woman standing next to him with crossed arms and an equally sinister smile.
His arms gripped hers tightly, the eye that wasn't hidden behind the eye-patch flashed deviously. Taylor squirmed in his arms, trying desperately to get away from the horrific couple. This only made him happier. He looked down at his freshly bleeding wound, then back at her.
"Oh... we're going to have fun with you."