Wow, I woke up at 3 a.m. and checked my email. I was astonished at the response the last chapter got, you guys amaze me. So I stayed up the rest of the night to write this chapter for you! So many people are really GETTING this story. I kept checking my followers and favoriters, thinking I was going to lose people left and right. But you all are realizing how DEEP the connection Daryl and Amber have. And know, this fic isn't ending when they leave this office building, we got at least ten chapters to go after that. Don't hate me okay? I am one of those people that believes that people who have experienced the lowest of lows can truly appreciate the highest of highs in life.
Also, the hero can't always get there in just the nick of time to prevent ANY damage being done, no matter how much we ALL want him to, me included. The true hero sticks around after the damage is done, helping the damaged to heal...
Amber was sitting on the dock back on the pond, feet dangling in the water. It was so hot, the only noise the dry buzz of cicadas.
Oh God, it hurts...
Daryl sat by her, his own boots off and feet in the water. She turned to look at him and he gave her one of those smirks, like when he wants to smile but is too shy to. She loves him so much her heart hurts.
It hurts everywhere, her wrists, her face, but between her legs most of all.
Daryl's rough hand tangles with hers for a moment before he brings it to his lips slowly, his eyes asking if this is okay. She smiles her answer. He drops a kiss on her knuckles before putting their hands back on the hot weathered wood between them. He asks "Ya remember?"
The jolts push her forward until her hips buckle and she slides forward, face scraping against the carpet again.
"Yeah, I remember. I love you too." She does, so much. He's not perfect, but he's perfect for HER and that's enough. His smile turns sad then. "I'm comin for ya."
She can't breathe, the weight on her is crushing her as Philip pants grossly in her ear.
"I know you are. It hurts though..." her voice sounds strangely calm. Daryl nods and she sees his eyes swim with tears for the first time ever. "I'm so sorry, I'm tryin...We're tryin...just hold on...fight..."
Suddenly Amber can breathe again as he rolls off and to the side. She can hear Kaye crying, saying "no" over and over. She takes a chance, reaching down to pull her jeans up. When the fabric contacts her crotch it sets it on fire again and she feels blood sticky on her thighs. She knew anyway.
Amber does the button and zipper, wanting to get as much between her and that monster as she can. He sighs next to her and then sits up for a second, smiling down at her and stroking her hair. For the first time in her life, she has the urge to shave her head.
Then Philip stands, still with that lazy smile, like he just had the time of his life. She wants to kill him herself, not wait on someone else. Have to move now, while he's not expecting it. Her boot comes up and she jams it between his legs, right into the offending member. His look of surprise and agony gives her deep satisfaction. Kaye screams when she sees what she has done, but Philip is speechless, falling hunched over to his knees clutching at himself. His gun in holstered on his left, perfect, so she lunges for it, handcuffs still dangling off one bloody wrist. She wraps her fingers around the handle but the blood makes her fingers slippery and she can't find purchase. Then he has her forearms in his hands and she knows it's over.
"You FUCKING BITCH!" His fist makes contact with her face and the pain is exquisite, sharp as a razor blade as she feels a bone crunch below her eye. "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, YOU STUPID WHORE!" He hits her twice more, the force bouncing her head against the floor under it. She can't see out of her right eye and now her face is slippery like her thighs. She feels her grip on being awake start to falter, just like her grip on the gun.
hold on...fight...I'm comin...
She snaps her one working eye back open as Philip stands back up. Kaye isn't screaming anymore, she's stripped her voice, she can only croak as she pulls at her cuffs, blood running down her arms now too.
"HEARD YOU LIKE TO DANCE, LET'S FIX THAT." His boot comes down on her knee and there is no way she can let go of reality now. The agony that hits her leg is like nothing she has experienced before, she can feel tendons ripping away from their moorings. He does it again and she feels a bone shift unnaturally in the white hot lighting that has replaced her knee. She turns her head to vomit onto the carpet next to her. One more time his boot comes down and there is a snap, now her lower leg doesn't look...right, anymore. The angle is all wrong and just looking at it makes the room spin around her, rather than the pain.
Philip stands up straight suddenly, head cocked as if listening. The look on his face says something's wrong. Amber hears it now too, the firecracker pop of gunfire, as familiar as her grandmother's perfume, coming from below them. It must be too much, or maybe it's coming from the wrong place because he has forgotten his goal of stomping her to death.
The Demons are here, and it sounds like they are raising hell.
Philip looks down at her just before jerking her up by her hair, then working his arm under one of hers and over a shoulder so he can drag her. Amber tries to say something to Kaye, who is still panicking in her bonds, body slamming into the wall as she fights a fruitless fight against iron. But her mouth is full of blood and by the time she spits it out he has her at the door, opening it with his free hand. The gunfire is suddenly louder, sounding so close and so far away at the same time. She recognizes her one second of opportunity.
fight...I'm comin...
Amber sucks in a lungful of air as she is dragged backwards and screams with everything she has, the one word that has kept her tethered to this world the whole night.
"DARYL!"
TWDAUTWDAUTWDAUTWDAUTWDAUTWDAUTWDAUTWDAU
Getting from the back loading dock doors to the side entrance was the easy part. They moved with almost complete military efficiency. Barry led, with Norm and Daryl next, Merle behind Daryl's back followed by the others. They only met a couple of Le Mechant wandering in the halls, the vast majority of their manpower must have been concentrated at the ambush.
Pompous bastards.
The ones they did run into didn't even have time to make a sound. The first got Barry's knife to his throat and the next two got arrows in the eye. As he passed the bodies, Norm would reach down, not even faltering his step as he jerked the bolt loose before handing it back over his shoulder to Daryl. The hunter only had one thing running through his mind the whole time.
I'm comin, sweet girl...hold on...fight...
They finally advanced close to the ambush sight and Barry stopped them, pushing his head around a corner to confirm. He turned back to his men and nodded, they were in the right place. His hand flashed out three times, five fingers, five fingers, then two. Twelve to their seven. Then he looked at Norm and held three fingers down, making the letter 'M'. Norm's eyes narrowed, body tensed as he silently mouthed two words.
"He's mine."
Everyone nodded, not having to ask who he was referring to.
Martinez.
Barry pointed to Daryl, Merle and Norm and then at the flight of steps that ascended to the second floor across from them. He wanted them to cross the hall and take cover on the landing, giving them the advantage of height as well as cover. The only problem was they would be totally exposed when they crossed over the hall, open to the men eighty feet down the long hallway. Norm stepped forward, glancing down the hallway for a second before slipping across the hall. He moved silently and everyone held their breath, waiting for the report of a gun to tell them he had been spotted. It never came. Merle peeked around the corner, gun drawn, and pulled back to smirk at Daryl before joining Norm. Then it was Daryl's turn and he found out why his brother had smirked. All the Le Mechant men were focused on the door in front of them, expecting Leon to lead the Demon's into the trap and no one was watching behind them. Daryl could have cartwheeled across the hall and they wouldn't have noticed.
Fucking idiots.
Two seconds later he joined his brother and Merle on the landing. Barry nodded at him, Tyreese and the other's taking shooters stances beside him. It would be on Daryl's shot, he would take out the one closest to the door and then as many others as he could in the confusion. Merle lay on the landing next to Daryl's boots, sighting down the sniper rifle. Only when they figured out where the arrows were coming from and started to turn would the Demon's shoot. Once a shot was fired everyone in the building would know they were there, including whoever was with the women.
Daryl shouldered the bow and heard Norm take in a sharp breath. He looked more intensely down the hall and saw what had Norm frozen in place. The dark skinned man in the middle, he looked like he was in charge and must have been the Martinez he had heard so much about. His hands were covered in blood up to the elbow. Daryl reached a hand out to Norm, wanting to make sure he was ready to go. Before he could make contact Norm jerked his head up and then pointed down the hall.
Do it!
Daryl brought the bow up again and sighted the shot, the farthest man out, closest to the door. The men looked bored, lazy. This was going to be like shooting fish in a barrel, out numbered or not.
He took out two before any of them realized enough in the confusion to look back down the hall. Martinez fired first, his shot spraying chips of sheetrock in Daryl's face as he spun back under the cover of the wall next to the landing. Then it was a chaos of gunfire from both sides, Merle's rifle exploding at his feet and Norm's Desert Eagle next to them. He sighted the bow down the hall again and this time missed, the arrow whizzing to bounce away past his target.
"FUCK!"
He took a deep breath, washing away the panic that was rising up as he reloaded. Merle's rifle roared again and he saw a man's head explode next to Martinez. Norm took one. Barry's side was holding their own, bringing down three so far. Then Daryl saw Barry jerk back, the shoulder of his vest blown open and blood pouring out. Tyreese grabbed him by the collar and pulled him behind him and out of the line of fire before taking his place at the corner.
Martinez grabbed another smaller man and used him as cover to get to a emergency stairwell door to the side. Norm hesitated in indecision, whether to stand and fire or take off up their own staircase to cut him off. Daryl let another arrow loose and it flew true this time. Now there were only four left at the end of the hall. There was a momentary lapse in the gunfire and he heard it.
He heard her.
"DARYL!"
He whirled around, looking wide eyed up the staircase behind them. Norm did too and then Daryl felt Merle kick him in the ankle to get his attention.
"GO! BOTH A YA! WE GOT THESE PUSSIES!"
Daryl and Norm charged up the stairs, not bothering to even look back at the waining firefight behind them. The ran out onto the second floor landing and Daryl froze out of hunter's instinct, ears tuning in any noise they could. Norm went to run around him, then stopped to open his mouth. Daryl silenced him with a hand held up and then a finger held to his lips. Norm under stood and waited even though his whole body was vibrating with adrenalin. Daryl closed his eyes, listening.
I'm comin, girl...hold on...
He heard it, a heavy door shutting hard above them. His eyes popped open and he turned back up the stairwell.
"Come one, they're on up!"
He sprinted up them, Norm right on his heels. They stumbled out on the third floor and their was no guessing which door to take. One at the middle of the hallway, fifty feet down, was flung open and there was a harsh rasping noise coming from inside. Neither noticed that the gunfire had just stopped below them.
They ran to the door, Daryl pulling slightly ahead. He didn't recognize the person hanging from the wall for a second there was so much blood. But then Norm whizzed by him, not hesitating.
"NO! KAYE!"
He was on her, one arm around her waist, holding her up between him and the wall while the other pulled futilely at the iron ring she was pinned to. Daryl ran over, throwing the strap of the bow over his shoulder and pulling the Desert Eagle from his waistband. He grabbed the wrist Norm was pulling at the ring with.
"Ain't gonna work! Cover her and I'll shoot the lock!"
Norm pulled Kaye's head down into his chest and covered her arms and hands with his own as best he could, his fingers clasped over hers and away from the lock. Daryl pointed the gun at the lock, the angle up and away from Norm and Kaye. The report was loud in the office and splinters flew as the bullet was buried in the wall. The metal split in two and then Norm unthreaded the cuffs, sinking to the floor with his wife. She looked up at Daryl.
"Go...that way..." she rasped out, nodding to the right of the door. Daryl was out the door then, less then ten feet down the hall when he found the blood. He crouched in the floor, touching his fingertips to the red stain. It was fresh, not even sticky.
Two minutes, he was less than two minutes behind them. He followed the blood trail, his stomach clenching the more he read it. Further down the hall there was a larger patch, as big as his hand. Then he looked up and saw six (exactly six, he would remember this for the rest of his life) drops spattered on the wall.
The son of a bitch had hit her, with something hard, probably the butt of his gun. This was where Amber had screamed and he shut her up. That was the moment Daryl turned back into the cold hunter from earlier, those six crimson drops flipping a switch in his head. He had a trail to read, the most important of his life.
Daryl looked back down and then on up the hall. The blood was hers, of course. He was dragging her and there was something wrong with one of her legs. He had followed enough crippled animals through the woods to know the sign of a foot being dragged. Amber was still awake though, she was using her good leg, pushing off every so often, as she was pulled backwards.
Hold on...I'm comin, sweet girl...
Daryl followed the drips around a corner and ten more feet when they turned to the right into an alcove that led to a shadowed set of four steps. At the top of the steps was a red door, a simple sign designating it "Roof Entrance Only".
Daryl shoved the gun in it's place in the waist band of his jeans and pulled the bow around to load it. He started to kick the door open but stopped, choosing to press it open slowly, only enough to slip through into the humid Georgia summer night air.
This Demon was ready to add one to hell's population, even as he snatched his angel away from the gates of heaven.
Hold on, sweet girl...I'm comin...