A/N: This is a short one, but it should be... suspenseful... I think... Ha! But anyway, thanks for the reviews :) Much obliged!
That Overused Horror Movie Line
Lacey yawned long and wide as she, along with Jo and Daryl, was guided away from the camp and near the shed where Randall was being held, yet again. She was running on 3 hours of sleep since she'd taken up a look out shift last night, even after Daryl and Jo had warned her against it, and currently, she was kicking herself for not listening to them. Even in the small amount of rest she got she had a nightmare- something strange though, different from the others. She was shaken from her recalling thoughts when they came to a halt with Rick and Shane standing a few feet away from the door, and the three of them standing like soldiers in front of them.
"We need someone who can get answers out of him." Rick finally spoke after a few minutes of silence, but to someone who lacked a proper amount of sleep, such as Lacey, felt like an annoying eternity. "By any means..." Rick added, and 'by any means' they were all very clear on what exactly he meant without anything further said.
No one made a move. It was obvious that neither he nor Shane were going to take part in this, since the offer was being put up the three of them. Lacey and Jo avoided eye contact with the others; Jo was a runner and Lacey was a fighter, but neither of them could step up and flat out torture someone... perhaps if one of their own had been captured or hurt, but... All was silent for a while until Daryl shifted on his feet, "I'll do it."
Rick nodded and clapped a hand on Daryl's shoulder, "Do you what you have to to get as much information as possible."
Daryl gave a nod and started for the shed while the rest headed back toward the camp. Lacey lingered though, watching him rest his crossbow against the side of the shed's wall before walking in and shutting the door behind him. She'd been unsure about the whole idea of their captive being tortured for information, but now she was very, very eager to know what Randall knew... not enough to watch him get beaten though.
"Coming, Lace?"
She turned to see Jo waiting for her, "Uh, no." she shook her head, "I'm just going to hang around..." she shrugged.
Jo nodded, but he could see the awkward stance in her features, she was split, "It's something we've got to do... for our and everyone's safety."
"I know," she looked to the ground, "I just wish... ya know, we didn't have to resort to it... I mean... we should be coming together- all the living against the dead."
He gave a solemn nod before continuing on away from the shed and back to the camp, taking it upon himself to steer the kids away from that area of the farm.
For a good hour she waited inside the stables, petting the horses and mummbling to herself. A couple of times she wondered if she should make sure the kid wasn't dead, but she was sure Daryl wouldn't go that far, he had good self control- sometimes. The door creaked open and slammed shut, Lacey sat up quickly, having resorted to sitting in the dirt, leaning against the outside wall of the stables, and ran over to him as he closed the lock.
"What'd he say?" she eagerly asked, but then she swore under her breath when she saw what sort of state his hand was in, "I should really clean this." she mummbled when she took his hand for a closer look.
"Said his group's made up of 30- men, women and children. Stocked in enough weapons to kill us all- twice." he ignored her medical suggestions and took his hand away from her grasp. The two started walking back to the camp, "Talked about how some of the men found a man and his two daughters- young girls... and, uhh..." he trailed off, not wanting to actually say it, but knowing that Lacey would understand. And she did.
"Girls..." Lacey shook her head, she couldn't believe what humanity had become over the past week, not that it wasn't any good to begin with before the apocalypse occurred. All sorts of unspeakable crimes were committed daily before, but even after with the new threat of living dead- the 'bad' people were still around. Not even the world's end could change inner workings of a bad person's mind (though it was very clear that a good person's mind could be lost quite easily in this world), it turned up the heat of her internal anger from a simmer to something of a roaring boil. She couldn't understand it. The main objective in this new world is to survive- just survive until it's over and then rebuild society and try to fall back into step like when things were normal.
But then, almost like a punch straight to the gut, nearly knocking the wind out of her- a thought occurred and she found herself running back toward the shed that contained their captive. "Lacey? Lacey!" Daryl was quick to follow, but her fingers worked quicker, putting the combination into the lock and pulling it free.
He caught up to her just as she pushed open the doors and stomped toward the slumped and badly beaten boy. She crouched down to his level and with all her strength wrenched the boy up by his collar and pushed him into the wall, "Girls? Young, defenseless, innocent girls? You sick motherfucker!" she was just about screaming into his battered face, and before the kid could even whimper her fist swung heavily into his stomach, replicating the sick feeling she'd had seconds ago when a particular lost girl had come to mind. He yelped loudly and crumbled back to the ground.
"What are you doin'? I already got what we need!" Daryl pulled her away before the steel toe of her boot could connect with his head.
"Get off me!" she shouted and shook herself out of his grasp before grabbing the kid by his collar again to sit him up, "You and your men stumble upon a little blonde girl? Shoulder length hair? Freckles, blue shirt, carrying a rag doll? Hm? Did you! Is she in your group? Did you just stand by as they tore her innocent from her? Did you touch her?" she shoved him hard into the wall, knocking the back of his head against the wood heavily, that's when Daryl stepped back and understood. Her fist flew again, hitting his face in a spot that had been given a lot of previous attention from Daryl's hand. He cried out, but didn't respond.
"Have you seen her! Answer the goddamn question!" she shouted in his face and for a moment Daryl wondered if maybe she should've led the interrogation- she could definitely be terrifying at times.
"No! No! I didn't touch her! I never saw a girl like that! Never!"
She sighed in relief. Though there was a minor feeling of defeat. Sophia was still lost, she hadn't been seen... but that also meant if she was still alive she was concealing herself very well, and she wasn't in the care of murderers and rapists. She let go of him with one last shove, earning a groan from the beaten boy, "You're lucky... for now."
Lacey walked out of the shed and winced slightly as she flexed her hand, her knuckles smarted slightly, but the force of her punch hadn't busted the skin. Her hand flared with some redness, while Daryl's bleed- there was no room for complaints. Daryl locked up the shed again and the two started for camp, a minute of silence passing before she spoke up, "Where's Sam?"
"Target practice." he mummbled, and she nodded, an upspoken agreement betweent the two that they'd meet up at his camp after he told what information he had obtained. She veered off to the right while he continued straight...
"Hey!" Sam greeted with a smile, but that bright smile faltered after a second when she saw the sour look on Lacey's face, "Are you okay?"
Lacey looked to the girl, letting her bow hang from her grasp while her other hand held onto an arrow, she smirked smally, "Yeah, I'm fine. Do you still have those bandages in your pack?"
"Sure." Sam nodded and retrieved the things requested.
"You know what," Lacey looked toward the larger camp, "you hang on to those, I'm going to see if we have any volunteers today and see if Maggie is doing alright with Honey and Erin." and she started off at a jog toward the RV. She passed Daryl along the way, warning him not to touch his knuckles until she got back. She came to a slow when she passed Jo's tent and looked around for the man himself.
"'Ey, Lacey?"
She inwardly growled and rolled her eyes before turning to the person who called her name, "Yes, Shane?"
"Lemme talk to you for a minute." he jerked his head away from the camp and started walking in same direction. She puffed out a sigh and followed, walking a few feet behind him until they were near the barn. He stopped and turned, hands on his hips, with that arrogant cop air about him. She rolled her eyes when he looked away from her, past her, toward the trees.
He let out a sigh that implied he was exhausted, as if she were a rowdy child reeking havoc on the camp, but he still didn't say anything. This went on for minutes, and she was close to just walking away from this ridiculous display, but he finally spoke, "Listen... Rick and I don't think it's a good idea for you to go out today. What with the herd ya'll encountered yesterday and the threat of Randall's group findin' you, killin' you or even capturin' you, we just don't want you to risk it."
"Both of you are worried, or just Rick?" she wondered, but he didn't even blink at her comment. She continued, "We handled the herd just fine, and we've been running the risk of an unfriendly encounter for an entire week. We're careful and we know how to defend ourselves, so why don't you go play second in command like a good boy, and if Rick wants to tell me something, let him do so himself, and leave me the hell alone." she turned to make her leave, but a hand clamped heavily on her upper arm and tugged her back. She came nearly nose to nose with Shane, that look of madness in his eyes had never been more clear, and with the pain in her arm evergrowing from his tightening grip, she understood how Sam could be scared of him.
"Listen girl. You were fine before; doin' laundry an' changin' diapers, like a woman should. But since you stitched up Carl and your boyfriend, and were given that damn pointy stick you've been acting like queen bee. Startin' up a search party after the group has settled with the idea that that girl is definitely dead- creatin' false hope. You're endangerin' lives an' destroyin' this whole operation!" he hissed .
Her eyes were wide with confusion and fear, her fingers pulled and scratched at his wrist, but his hold wouldn't loosen, "Operation? What are you talking about?... And what about Andrea? Just because you fucked her she's alright in your books?"
His eyes flashed with a new wave a fury, "I saved you once, I won't do it again. You stay in line, girl. You don't do anythin' without my say." he released her with a slight push, hoping she would stumble, but she didn't- she stood tall and glared up at him, "As if, prick."
He walked away, striding back towards camp with determination in his step. She shook her head at the sight, unbelieving of how far he'd actually fallen. She assessed the damage to her arm, pulling away her the sleeve of the button down that had belonged to Rob to see a slight redness encircle it. She sighed in irritaion, hoping that it wouldn't bruise, and noted that her patience with Shane had gone down a few pegs. Next time he was definitely getting a boot to the face. She shifted her sleeve back on and went in search of Rick, if he really didn't want her going out for the search today, she wanted to hear it straight from him...
"So we're not going?" Sam asked.
"We're not." Lacey affirmed, "Because Rick's concerned for our safety."
"That didn't stop us before... what about Sophia's safety?" the younger demanded slightly.
"I don't know," Lacey groaned, "it's dumb, but Rick's already having a hard time, figured we could cut him some slack..."
Sam made a 'hmph' sort of sound before leaning against a tree and looking toward the far, "Hey..." she leaned forward, "Who's that?"
Lacey followed her gaze and saw a small figure running their way. It could be one of two people, but judging by the faded pink shirt Lacey knew exactly who.
"Erin!" she called and started running through the tall grass to the girl, Sam followed quickly, the closer they grew the easier they could hear her little voice whimpering- she was crying.
"Erin, what's wrong? What happened?" Lacey pulled the girl up into her arms quickly, surveying what she could see of the girl for injuries, she couldn't help the first thought that came to mind: Shane. Going as far as to hurt her child to make his point clear? But there were no bruises on her, just a few scratches on her face from the few sharper blades of grass that managed to sting her as she ran.
"Carl and me, we went to the shed. He- he wanted to see the boy, and he told me to come with him, he said it would be cool. Bu-but I didn't want to, but he went in, and then Shane caught him an-and, he caught me too." Erin explained through gasps of breath, leaning her head against Lacey's shoulder and linking her arms tightly around her neck.
"Did he hurt you?" Lacey asked.
"No. No, I was just scared." her reply cam muffled as she buried her head a little further into Lacey's shoulder and held on a little tighter. Sam smirked at Lacey, and the blonde grinned smally, "Okay," she nodded and started for the farm, "Alright. Next time if I'm not here and you get scared, you'll run to Maggie, right? Or Amy?"
Erin nodded against her shoulder, "Good. Now why don't we check up on our little baby girl, huh?"
...
"So they're gonna kill him." Sam said as they sat around the fire. Lacey, Amy, Sam, Erin and Honey sat around the fire pit.
"The kid is a threat, so they're going to elminate the threat... that's what Rick said." Amy mummbled, "I'm not sure how I feel about it... Dale's going around trying to convince everyone that it isn't the right thing to do... and at sunset- soon- there's going to be a jury-like meeting in the house."
"Guilty by association is kind of harsh... but..." Lacey trailed off, Honey was on her lap putting her little fingers through her mother's new short hair, she was fascinated by it, mummbling 'Ma', 'Mama', 'Ma', while the others talked.
Sam adjusted in her seat, stretching her arms out before giving a shrug, "He could be lying. He could've been participating in those acts. And he obviously never stepped up and told them to stop... I don't know." she sighed, the sun was setting, and more and more of the group were making their way back to the farm, done with their daily work. Lacey and Sam felt absolutely lazy. "I'm sort of 80/20." Sam spoke up again, "I mean... I don't know. It's definitely not a call I could make, but I'd definitely feel safer he wasn't, you know, around anymore."
Lacey nodded. "What they're doing- what his group is doing, it isn't..." she shook her head and let out a sort of aggravated roar, causing Honey to giggle, which caused the other girls to giggle too, "I don't know! It's a difficult call to make when we don't have hard facts. Proof..." she rubbed a hand over her face, "But I do know if he touched any one of you... I'd lose it." she shook her head, and ran her fingers across her throat in a slicing manner.
"Well, it'll all be decided soon." Amy lifted herself from the chair, her sights set on something beyond Lacey, but before she could turn to look Jo moved past her chair and took Amy's hand.
"Time for jury duty." he sighed, glancing to his sister, "Still not ready to..." he nodded toward the house.
"Not quite. I'll just stay out here. You can take the girls, I'm sure Carl will need entertainment."
With that Erin took Amy's offered hand and Jo lifted Honey from Lacey's lap and into his arms, "See you after the verdict." he said jokingly and bounced his brow.
"You ain't goin' in?" a new voice, seeming to come out of no where caused Lacey to visibly jump in her seat. "Jesus!" she squeaked and turned to see Daryl striding her way, "No... Whatever decision you make have it go twice, once for me." she looked up at him, tucking her legs beneath her and running a hand through her hair, even though it was shorter, Honey had still managed to tangle it up.
"Alright." he nodded and, to her surprise, leaned down and caught her lips with his in a short kiss, then kissed her forehead before walking off toward the house. She tried to keep the shocked expression away from her face, but he had just kissed her, twice, in front of Sam- who was had a smug look on her face.
"You going?" Lacey asked quickly after clearing her throat awkwardly.
"No," she shook her head, still smirking, "I'll stay with you."
The sun was quickly setting, and for 5 minutes the two sat together in silence, Lacey's legs began to get restless though, and soon became untucked. With her feet on the ground her knees started to bounce and she appeared a little more than anxious, "Ya know, I feel so useless just sitting around all day. I don't understand why we had to stay here today, I mean, we're wasting precious searching time..." she paused and glanced toward the house, jury duty was still in session, how long it would go on was indefinite, she looked back to Sam, "Wha'dya say? We go out there and search until it's darkdark, sleep up in the trees and at first light we keep searching, no ground lost, no time lost."
Sam looked from Lacey to the grass, "Hm..."
"You still my wingman?" Lacey smirked.
Sam nodded, a matching smirk growing on her face.
"Alright, let's bring Sophia home."
"Let's go." Sam stood and put a hand out to help Lacey up.
The girls moved quickly. With Lacey's suggestion Sam scribbled a note and left it under Jo's pillow. The more time it took them to find out where they were the less likely they were to go out and try to find them. They could work in peace and pay for the consequences later. They grabbed their gear and double checked their surroundings before starting for the trees at a run. When they were a quarter of a mile within the quickly darkening forest they slowed to a walk to catch their breath.
"Okay." Lacey breathed and took a sip of water from her canteen, "Here's the idea. Every couple of miles or so we'll shout for her, she'll hear our voices and come running."
"Walkers'll hear us too."
"Yes, and we'll take care of them. We pick off the dead population little by little, Sophia's found, we sleep a little easier at night. It's simple. 10 minutes we do out first call out, we wait 5 minutes for Sophia, take care of the bags of bones if they show up, then we keep moving. Then we'll do it again after another mile or so."
"It's madness... but it just might work... besides, what other strategy do we have?"
"Exactly."
"And going around quietly hasn't seemed to have done the trick. So why not go opposite."
"If only we had some fireworks." Lacey chuckled. The two laughed before getting down to buisness.
They practiced their new strategy for the next hour, darkness consumed them quickly and they had no choice but to stop the search- they could barely see 3 feet in front of them. So they decided to retire for the night. Sam scoped out the trees around them as best she could through the minimal moonlight offered through heavy branches. "This one. Shouldn't be difficult to climb; high, thick branches. And if we end up accumulating some friends tomorrow morning I can take them out easy."
"Alright." Lacey agreed and squinted through the darkness to see Sam starting to climb, but then almost fell a second later. A loud, echoing crack in the air caused both of them to jump.
"What was that?" Sam wondered quietly.
"Gun shot." Lacey mummbled, a chill ran through her when she remembered the last time she was among the wilderness and heard that sound, Carl was shot then... But they weren't careless with their guns, they never were, and that shot had simply been an accident, so why now?
"Should we go back?" the younger girl whispered.
"No," Lacey shook her head, "It was only one shot. What ever it was, we'll find out when we go back. And we'd never be able to navigate these woods right now."
"Right." Sam nodded and started up the tree again.
"Uh, Sam? Gonna need a little help." Lacey mummbled.
Sam glanced down, "Put your feet where mine go and grab where I grab." she explained and went a little slower, peeking down to make sure Lacey was doing okay.
"Alright. The branch on the left you're almost up to, climb onto it, that's yours." Sam instructed.
"Where are you going?" Lacey grunted as she hauled herself onto the branch.
"Just to the one a little higher than yours." Sam breathed as she settled onto the branch, "You're not scared of heights, are you?"
Lacey scoffed, "Listen here, Little Sis, I used to live in a penthouse, on the 52nd floor. Heights aren't a problem with me."
Sam snorted.
"But uhmm," Lacey started slowly, "I haven't exactly slept on a branch before. How high are we?"
"20 feet maybe."
"Oh, that'll be a fun fall." Lacey chuckled sarcastically.
"You're not gonna fall." Sam laughed and Lacey felt something brush against her right shoulder, she couldn't identify it through the darkness, but after it tapped her with individual digits she realized it was Sam's hand. She clasped her hand around hers and Sam gave her a reassuring squeeze, "I won't let you."
With that thought in mind Lacey felt a little better, but sleep was still hard to come by. At most she ventured she got a grand total of 3 hours of sleep (again), and probably the 41st time her eyes shot open from the fear she was slipping she found she could see colors, rather than the inky black that night brought. It was still pretty dark, but it was first light- it was time to get up.
She glanced up, her hand was still clasped with Sam's and the girl was snoozing easily. Glancing downward she saw the ground was free of walkers. She gave Sam's hand a gentle tug and the girl woke instantly, "Time to go?" she wondered in a half tired voice.
Lacey nodded and scanned the area once more before deciding they should make their descent.
"Look and listen." Lacey mummbled, it was still clear, but just as soon as she started to adjust to tell Sam to go first she saw the slight movement. The lazy aimless amble. She tapped Sam and pointed toward it, "Can you get a good shot?"
"Maybe. If it was closer I could get it for sure."
"Say no more." Lacey smiled and let out cat call like whistle.
Sam laughed as she shook her head at Lacey's ridiculousness, but it still worked. The walker stopped and turned to where it thought the sound had come from and started shuffling their way.
Lacey kept her eyes on the dead thing while Sam took aim. 40 feet from the tree, 30 feet, 25...
The arrow soared past Lacey and in just a blink the arrow was through the walkers eye and it crumbled.
"Nice shot." Lacey grinned.
"Learned from the best." Sam shrugged and pulled all her gear on before making the climb down the tree. When she got down she instructed Lacey's footing until she was on the ground again, the older girl shook out her limbs and cracked her neck, "Definitely not my favorite activity or resting place."
Sam just smiled smally and approached the dead walker and put her shoe against its head before pulling the arrow out. "Ugh." she grumbled at the grotesque sound it made and wiped the gore off the arrow before putting back into the quiver.
"Let's get started."
They wandered and shouted for a few hours before pulling breakfast from their bags, walking, searching and eating.
"Maybe we should split up."
"Cue the line that gets everyone killed in every horror movie ever made."
"We could cover more ground." Sam chuckled.
"We stick together." Lacey stated.
"What about just 10 feet away. Still in your sight?"
"You're crossing the line, sister."
"Hey, I'm just going with the 'opposite of safe' strategy you seem to be favoring these days." Sam put her hands up in front of her in defense. Lacey stopped and looked at her, and gave a glare at the miniature smirk that was pulling at Sam's mouth.
"10 feet. 20 max." Lacey sighed, "And take this." she untied the red clothe from her belt loop and handed Sam her knife.
Sam took it and unsheathed it. Lacey said, "Don't hesistate to scream."
"You too." Sam nodded, sheathing the knife and started away from Lacey.
"5 minutes 'til the next shout out." she informed the girl...
Lacey's ears felt like they were hearing a deafening ringing, it was so quiet that the occassional caw from a bird, or twig snapping beneath her own foot sounded like it was amplified tenfold. Her heart raced, but it normally did whenever she was encased in the woods- all of the trees, so similar and surrounding, it put her ill at ease. 'Give me a bustling city any day', she thought, and flinched a second later when a fallen leaf's path made a special turn in its course to the ground to brush against her forehead. She glared at the leaf for a moment before taking a deep breath and starting the shout out, "SOPHIA!" She called the girls name three more times, her voice becoming slightly hoarse with each call. She stopped after the fifth call and took a swig of water from her bottle. "Sam?" she didn't shout as loudly, knowing the girl wouldn't- shouldn't be far away enough to require shouting.
In the distance, the sound of a scream, the sound of running. She drew her sword and started at full blown sprint through the thick trees in the direction Sam had wandered, "Sam!"
Her heart beat its very fastest, pounding against her ribs and filling up her ears, but even through the rapid beats she could hear it, the shriek, "Lacey!" the amount of fear contained in Sam's voice was something she hadn't heard since the girl first stumbled through the bushes and flung her arms around her along with 4 other little bodies. She wasn't just scared- she was terrified...
Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead.
A/N: I am aware of how very stupid Lacey's little plan is, but it's last resort, and it obviously has raised some severe consequences, going by the way Sam screamed...
