Five Minute Window
Chapter 28
Daryl woke up in a cold sweat. He had been having an extremely vivid dream about his father. Hadn't thought about that bastard in years, but he could never really shake that particular monkey all the way off his back. Since he knew there was little chance of him being able to get back to sleep, and it was looking like it was starting to get light out anyway, he rolled himself out of bed.
He had picked out the cell he was sleeping in for a particular reason. From his bed, if he laid the right way, he could see up and down almost the entire lower block of the prison. His original reason for choosing the cell was so he could see danger coming. But now he was using it for another less righteous purpose. To spy. Well maybe not spy exactly, but watch. He had seen RickyJo go into Michonne's cell last night. Which had been a relief. He would rather she came to his room with him, but if she was sleeping anywhere besides with his brother, Daryl considered it a small victory.
Daryl waited a while after she went in with Michonne. For Jessica to go to bed in her own cell and for things to settle down and for the residents of the prison to go to bed. He was planning on going to go down and talk to her. When he had been almost ready to make his move, he saw his brother had a similar idea. And that fucker was quicker on his feet than Daryl was too. Merle walked quietly down the block and leaned into Michonne's cell. He had a few quiet words with RickyJo that Daryl could not make out. Whatever he said to her she must have liked, because a few seconds later she left Michonne's cell and gone back to Merle's cell with him. She did not come back out.
Daryl tried not to listen, but he listened anyway. He did not hear them having sex. Thank god for small favors. But it still hurt to know she was in there all night. Sleeping in the same bed as him.
Walking down the metal steps, Daryl headed outside. He told himself he wasn't going to look inside Merle's cell when he passed by. But of course he did anyway. It was like a traffic accident. He just couldn't stop his head from turning to get a peek. The cell was empty. Neither of them were in there. That in itself was not alarming. He figured they were probably just outside having a smoke or pissing or something.
But when Daryl went outside, he found that area empty as well. Glenn and Maggie were on night watch. Which really meant no one was on watch, since all they did was hump like rabbits all night. With the yard full, they couldn't get down to the watch tower. So they had been taking watch on the fenced in catwalk. Daryl headed that way, spotting Glenn. The man was leaned back in a chair, snoring like a moose.
Daryl banged on the metal fence, making a loud racket. Glenn jumped up, knocking into a wooden pallet. It almost fell over on top of him, but he caught it with his hand.
"Seen ma brother?," Daryl asked him, "ya seen RickyJo?" Glenn stuttered and muttered. He finally just shook his head. Daryl stomped away, wondering why he even bothered to ask. It was obvious that Glenn had not seen anything all night. Good thing they weren't attacked during his watch, or they would all be dead.
Daryl headed back inside. This time he took a better look inside Merle's cell. Their shit was still in there. But the guns were gone. And not just their handguns, the rifles too. Wherever they went, they went packing. Daryl was starting to get more nervous. He had a bad feeling in his gut about this.
"Michonne," he said, no longer bothering to be quiet. The woman woke up reaching for her sword. Ready for a fight.
"Huh?," she asked once she saw there was no immediate threat and Daryl seemed to be yelling for no reason.
"You seen RickyJo?," he asked. The woman shook her head. But she also got out of bed like she was about to start helping him look. Toby came tumbling out of the top bunk, calling the dog to him.
"Where's my Aunt Ricky?," the kid asked. He looked worried. When Daryl told him he didn't know where the woman was Toby came flinging out of the cell howling like a wounded moose. That kid had a set of lungs on him that was for sure.
"AUNT RICKY! UNCLE MERLE!," Toby screamed at the top of his lungs. He started running around, flinging open curtains and throwing shit around. This racket soon had everyone tripping and stumbling out of their cells. Scratching their heads and trying to figure out what new horror had been bestoyed upon them. Jessica came out buttoning her pants up. From what the kid was screaming, she quickly figured out that the problem seemed to be that her cousin was missing. She added her voice to Toby's.
"RickyJo!," Jessica hollered, "where you at?" If she found out Merle did anything to her because of yesterday, she was going to kick him straight in his balls.
"HEY!," Rick hollered, trying to get everyone's attention. He took his gun and banged it on the metal bars of his cell.
"You seen my cousin?," Jessica asked him. He shook his head and held up the keys he had found dangling above his head.
"No, but I found these," he said. Daryl grabbed the keys from Rick's hand and took a good look at them. They were the extra keys for the armoured trucks at Woodbury. He threw them against the wall and started cussing.
"What, what is it?," Jessica asked him.
"Her and Merle, they fuckin' went after the governor by themselves," he yelled at her, like what was going on should be obvious to everyone by now. Why else would they take off with only their weapons unless they were about to jump someone. And who else would they possibly be going after besides that one eyed freak. This bullshit stunk of Merle. RickyJo would never have come up with such a half cocked plan.
Everyone started yelling at once. Daryl was grabbing his shit up out of his cell like he was going to take off after them. Jessica was doing the same. Morgan was trying to talk her out of it. Rick was saying they should keep to the plan and go after the trucks. Glenn and Maggie were back and trying to figure out what the hell was going on. And Hershel was trying to make everyone calm down.
"Toby just took off with the dog and a gun that was bigger than him," Michonne yelled out above the noise.
"You just let him go?," Rick asked. The dark skinned woman threw her hands up in the air.
"I tried to stop him, that kid runs like a rat," she spit back. And since when had she become the designated rabid child babysitter around here. That kid took off like a bat straight out of hell. If she had tried to grab him, he probably would have bit her again. And she already had a huge bruise on her neck from the last time.
"Everyone sit down and shut up!," Hershel roared. He was no longer being polite, so that meant his quota for bullshit had been reached for the day. Or maybe he had seen his youngest daughter come flinging out of Rick's cell half dressed once Toby started howling and woke everyone up. It was hard to say.
Rick was stuck on the idea that they ought to follow through on the original plan. That was obviously what RickyJo wanted them to do or she would not have left the truck keys. Daryl was pacing back and forth. He was going to the meeting spot. No one was going to stop him. The problem was, Michonne was the only person that knew where the meeting spot was. Since no one had been planning to go there, the actual location of the spot had not seemed important until now.
"I'm going to get RickyJo," he finally told the woman, "you comin' or not?" Michonne was hard to read. But finally she nodded her head. Jessica said she was going with them. Which meant Morgan too. Which didn't leave Rick with much of a team to raid the town with. That did not make him happy. Some more arguing started up, but Hershel put a stop to it by pounding on the table with one of his crutches.
"Go get them first, then the raid," he said. Rick finally nodded. He still thought this was a bad idea. But he was badly outnumbered by a lot of people that had no interest in listening to him. Strangely enough he found himself wishing RickyJo was there. The idea felt weird kicking around in his mind, since a few days ago he would have given just about anything to get her and her whole crazy hillbilly family out of there. Maybe she wasn't so bad after all.
Glenn, Maggie, Carol and all the kids stayed at the prison with Hershel. Beth seemed unhappy about being including in this group. Especially since no one even asked her what she wanted to do. She would have rather gone with Rick. But who was she fooling. She was no fighter. And she supposed maybe here she could be of some use.
They took two cars. Michonne drove the front one since she knew where they were going. They had to drive around the long way, so it actually took longer to drive than it would have to walk straight through the woods. But this way they had the cars in case they needed to make a run for it.
They stopped about a half mile out, so whoever was left a the meeting spot wouldn't see them coming. Once they were out of the cars, Daryl decided to piss on staying with the others. He started running. Once he got close, he slowed down, staying close to the sides of the buildings. He was breathing hard and thinking again about how he really ought to quit smoking.
It was clear by the time Daryl got a good look at the place that whatever had been going on here was long past over. There were dead walkers lying around everywhere. And live ones, snacking down on the bodies of a few men that had died recently. But no sign of RickyJo or Merle.
"Merle!," Daryl called out, hoping the meal they were having was enough to keep the walkers occupied. One of the doors of a ratty looking building nearby swung open, almost scaring him to death. Merle popped his head out. As soon as Daryl saw his face, he knew something was wrong.
"Where's RickyJo?," Daryl asked. He took a few steps closer. Close enough to see that inside the small room, Toby was covered in blood and hugging a very dead looking dog to his chest. The kid looked close to hysterics.
"He took her," Merle said. He was about at his wits end. He and Toby didn't have any weapons. The place was crawling with walkers. And everytime he tried to drag Toby away from the dog, the kid started screaming like it was the end of his life. He couldn't drag a screaming kid though the woods. And it didn't feel right leaving Toby here alone. Merle had been hoping that Daryl and Rick were already at Woodbury. Like they planned.
"Who took her?," Daryl asked.
"The fuckin' governor," Merle screamed, "he took RickyJo!"
TWD
Daryl shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Morgan stayed with Toby. The rest of them were inside Woodbury. Stuck watching and waiting now because they were afraid they no longer had the element of surprise. The governor had RickyJo. And there was no telling how much information he had gotten out of her already. He might be expecting them at any moment. They might be walking straight into a trap.
He felt like they had been watching and waiting for a long time. Too long. Hiding in a room that was being used as a food supply locker. Must not be many hungry people around since no one had come or gone from the place since they got there.
"What the fuck are we waiting for?," Daryl asked. He had been hoping he might be able to spot RickyJo, but these people obviously had her stashed somewhere.
There was a hispanic man that seemed to be on some kind of guard. He that kept walking back and forth in front of the spot where Daryl and Rick were hiding. The man leaned against the window and lit up a smoke. Then suddenly he was tossing it to the ground. A woman ran up to him. She looked very upset and she was not making a lot of sense. The woman was crying and sobbing. But Daryl clearly heard RickyJo's name mentioned through the glass. Rick tried to grab him, but Daryl had enough. He darted out the door of the place with his bow up. He pointed it at the hispanic man. But he yelled at the woman.
"RickyJo! Where is she?," he asked. The woman was acting like a complete idiot. She was babbling on about blood and murder.
"You're Merle's brother," the hispanic man said. Daryl nodded. He wasn't sure if that was good or bad at this point. It must have been good, since the man stared at him for another second and then lowered his gun.
"The governor's got her in his apartment," Martinez said. He was almost relieved these people showed up. They had took their sweet ass time about getting here too.
RickyJo had always been nice to Martinez. She took care of that horrible little kid too. The one the governor had been ready to drive out and drop off somewhere he was such a nuisance. When they had the shit for it, RickyJo would invite him over for dinner and make him chile rellenos. They were not as good as the ones his wife used to make, but they weren't bad either. She was good people.
When they brought her back here, Martinez figured the governor just wanted to talk to her. Turn her back to their side and have her help them get rid of that other group. Then he had seen the outfit the man had laid out for her. Like she was a common whore. And the look on her face. It made him sick to think about it.
"This way," Martinez said. Rick and Daryl exchanged glances. Daryl figured if the guy was going to shoot him, he would have done it already. Plus he had seen something in his face when he said that shit about the governor having RickyJo in his apartment. Like he was upset about it.
They walked quickly down the sidewalk, heading inside the third building. Daryl charged ahead.
"Last door on the left," the hispanic man told him. Rick was telling Daryl to wait but he was done listening to that shit. The door was hanging open about an inch. Daryl kicked it the rest of the way in. He had his bow up, pointing it into the room. He took in the scene and quickly lowered it.
The man that used to be the governor was lying dead on the floor. There was a high heel shoe sticking out of what used to be his one remaining eye. There was blood everywhere, and purple flowers scattered around like someone had thrown a vase of them on the floor and broke it. Come to think of it the entire place looked trashed. And it didn't all look like it was from whatever struggle had gone on in the room either.
RickyJo was sitting at the table with her feet propped up on another chair. Dressed only in a black bra and a very skimpy pair of black lace panties. She was covered in blood. The blood was everywhere. On the table. Smeared down the chair she was sitting in. All over her breasts and there was a lot of it smeared down one side of her face and neck. She had a fancy looking crystal drinking glass in her hand, half full of what looked like liquor. Probably whiskey from the smell of it. There was a large decantur of it on the table next to her. From the glossy look on her face, Daryl guessed this was not her first glass.
RickyJo turned and looked at him. Then she took another healthy sip from the glass in her hand and went back to staring at the dead man on the floor. Daryl swung his bow onto his back and closed the distance between them. There was a lot of blood on her. So he started checking her over for injuries.
"Don't worry," she said, "most of the blood ain't mine." Her voice sounded strange. Hollow and flat. Like the look in her eyes. And she was slurring her words.
Martinez took one look at the scene inside the room and headed right back out into the hall to throw up. Daryl tried to take the glass from RickyJo's hand, but she had a damn death grip on the thing. She stunk, just absolutely reeked of alcohol. Mixed in with the smell of all the blood, it was making Daryl feel sick to his stomach.
"I'm still drinkin' that," she informed him.
"I think ya done had enough," Daryl told her. He gripped her wrist with one hand and pried the glass out of her hand with the other. He threw the glass across the room. She looked like she might grab for the bottle so he chucked that too.
Daryl wiggled his arms out of his leather jacket and put it around her shoulders. Now that he was closer he could see that one of her earlobes had been ripped almost completely off. That was why there was so much blood on that side of her face and neck. She made no move to dress herself, but she didn't fight when Daryl lifted her arms and shoved them inside the sleeves of his coat, dressing her like she was a child.
Rick kicked at the governor, making sure the man was all the way dead. He was. So Rick turned his attention to RickyJo. Besides being fall down drunk, she looked like she might be in shock. He snapped his fingers in front of her face a few times. Then he waved one of his fingers around in front of her. That seemed to get her attention because she looked up at him.
"Hi Rick," she said, like she had only just noticed that he was there. She looked down at the dead man again and then back up at Rick. Somewhere in her drunken mind it must have registered that he was a cop. Because she gripped his wrist with one hand. With the other she pointed down at Phillip's dead body like she was ready to tattle on him for what he did to her. "He. Shot. My. Dog."
