Inside the bedroom that Daryl and I shared in Alexandria I found myself in a little predicament. The sheets were pooled around my waist and I laughed slightly. I was tangled into the sheets and Daryl knew it. He had left me here to hope that I wouldn't be able to get out. Forcing myself onto my side I tried to unwrap the white sheet from my bare legs and yelped loudly as I went tumbling from the bed and onto the hardwood floor. Damn, that hurt. In the bathroom I could hear Daryl laughing and I rolled my eyes. Little asshole. Leaving me like this. I weakly unwrapped myself from the sheets and tossed them back on the bed. Part of me wanted to slip under them again and pretend like I had nothing better to do but the smarter part of me knew that there was a big job to do today. What else is new?

I didn't know why I was surprised that there were things to do. It seemed like there was always something to do. But that wasn't new. I was used to that from the prison. Even though it had been months since I had last seen the gloomy building. It had been home, but now it was only ashes. Now Alexandria was home. Or at least, I was trying to make it home. I could hear the water running in the bathroom and I began to hum to myself as I fixed the sheets on the bed. It felt so peculiar. We were in the middle of the damn apocalypse and here I was making the bed. Things are so fucked up. Risking a glance out the window, the light was blinding but I saw that everyone was lined up, ready for the big plan today.

I wished that we didn't have to do this all today, but it was now or never. Inside a quarry a few miles from our little haven there were thousands of walkers that were risking breaking out at any moment. They were the reason that there were almost no walkers around Alexandria. That little quarry was probably the reason that Alexandria was able to be built. It was why this place was still standing. The job was simple. For Daryl, Abraham, Sasha, and myself that is. Sasha and Abraham were taking a car and Daryl and I would be on his bike. We would lead the walkers twenty miles in the opposite direction of Alexandria after we freed them from the quarry. From there we would speed up and take off back to the community, and the walkers would cease to be an issue. It was a simple plan, but when had things ever been simple for us? There were big risks for people to get hurt during this mission, but we had taken extra precaution to ensure that it wouldn't happen.

Daryl stepped out of the bathroom and I smirked, keeping my back to him. I knew that his eyes were traveling up and down my bare body. Since he had been an asshole and left me tangled up in the sheets, I would be an asshole and stand here, teasing him. I could only hope that Maggie or Glenn wouldn't come looking for us. Both of us had come close to being walked in on, but so far nothing had happened. I could only hope that things would continue to work out that way. Daryl came to stand behind me and I felt his warm body press up against mine. Although to my displeasure he was now clothed. His hands rested on my hip lightly and I grinned. "As much as I like seeing you like that we need to get going," he said to me and I laughed lightly. At least he was honest. I turned to face him and to Daryl's credit, his eyes never once left mine. I took a step closer to him and let my hand rest at his belt. He smirked at me and pushed my hand down, back to my side. "Maybe when we get back. Get dressed, girl," he told me and I scoffed.

That was so typical of Daryl. Even when he wanted to do something I knew that he wouldn't because he had his duty to do. Maybe I would have to get Merle to talk some sense into him. Now that was something that I would never had thought I would ever think. Merle was an idiot, and I was going to kill him if he kept teasing the Alexandrian girls. I was pretty sure the majority of them were terrified of him. "You sure that you don't want me to go kill walkers like this?" I asked, motioning down to my body. This time his eyes trailed over me and I fought a blush. He might be my husband but I was still nervous of him seeing me with nothing on. Maybe it was because he was the only guy that I had ever cared about. He laughed at me and shook his head, walking away slightly. "I mean, it could be a little freeing. Plus I'd get an awesome tan," I teased. Daryl walked back over to me with a hungry smirk in his eyes. I knew that I would get him with that. But just as he came down to kiss me, he shoved me roughly and I went tumbling back onto the bed, doing a little flip out on the other side. "Ah!" I squeaked as I hit the ground.

Daryl was laughing loudly and I sat up with a scowl. He wouldn't think it was so funny if I made him sleep on the couch tonight. God I felt like we were an old married couple. Although we did have half of that down. "That's what you get for being an asshole," he said and I rolled my eyes as I stood up. Brushing my hair back off of my face, I flicked Daryl off and he laughed. "I'll wait downstairs for you. Hurry the hell up, Rick is ready to go. The sooner we get this done the sooner we can all get back here," he said and I nodded.

He disappeared out the door and shut it behind him. I had hoped that he would stay and wait for me but it didn't really matter. Walking over to the dresser I slipped on a pair of underwear and went digging through my clothes. I pulled out a pair of tight jeans and slipped them on, wiggling into them slightly. Once they were sitting on my hips I went digging for a shirt. It would be warm outside but I knew that I would have to keep a little more covered up than usual. Just in case there was an accident with the bike. I had learned that lesson the hard way a few weeks ago. Daryl and I had been out on a run and the bike had slipped out from under us. I had cut up my leg pretty bad. At the bottom of the dresser there was a tight green shirt that had black patterns on the front of it. I pulled it on and placed a heavy vest over it, slipping my knives into it. I pulled on my black combat boots with the spikes on as well and slipped my grandfather's knife into them. On my back I slipped on my bow and arrows and I placed my gun in the holster on my thigh, debating one stuffing one down my pants. But it probably wasn't a good idea, I didn't want to have too much on me to slow myself down.

Once I was sure that I had everything I headed downstairs and saw that Maggie was in the kitchen. I grinned at her and walked over to the island that she was standing behind. Glenn had made sure that she wouldn't be going out on the run and I was glad that he did. For one, we had to have people here to defend Alexandria and for two, she was carrying precious cargo. Even though really no one else knew that part yet. I gave the girl a quick hug and pulled back slightly. "You ready to leave?" She asked me and I nodded. "Hey, things are going to be okay. You guys get those walkers out of there and then everything is back to normal. Rick is right, we have to get them out of here. They just pose a threat to us here, the safety that we've found," she told me and I nodded.

The worry was written on her face but I didn't blame her. Glenn would be going out there and so would most of her friends. Not that many of us were staying. But enough were, just so that Alexandria would still have some people that would be there to defend it. "You seem to be really talking up not worrying," I teased her slightly. She let a small smile cross her face for a moment before dropping her eyes. I knew that she was afraid of what was going to happen to her. I knew that she was afraid that she was going to end up like Lori. I didn't blame her. She had been one of the few to see her die giving birth. I couldn't imagine how much stress that put on her. Stress that was not good for her. I grabbed her hand tightly and gave her a small smile. "Maggie, things are going to be fine. Everything is going to be fine. I'm with you every step of the way. So is Glenn. We all are whenever you want to tell everyone else," I said to her. So far we were the only three that knew, but I knew that it wouldn't stay that way for long.

The woman nodded at me and smiled. I knew that she wasn't ready to tell anyone that she was pregnant but the time would be coming soon. There was only so much longer that she would be able to hide it. The day would come soon that we would lose her as help around Alexandria. She would have to stay back while we all fought to defend her. Just the way that it had been with Lori. Maggie held my hand tightly and I smiled at her. "You know, you're the first person that I told about this. Before Glenn too," she told me and I nodded. I was pretty sure that I was. She had gotten me to grab her a pregnancy test on a run and she had asked me to be there when she took it. When the two lines popped up I could remember seeing how shocked she was. There was a mix of horror and glee. "I just wanted you to be there when I found out. I always told Beth that she would be the first person to know if I was ever going to have a kid," Maggie said and I sighed.

Giving her a tight hug I kissed her on the cheek and backed off. I knew that it hurt her to not have her sister here anymore. It still hurt me that I had been with her in her last moments, I had known what she would do to Dawn, and I had still failed her. "Somewhere up there, she was the first person to know. She knew before me, Maggie. She might have even known before you. I guarantee she's smiling down on you. She's wishing you the best, just like I am," I told her and she smiled, tears glistening in her eyes. "You're going to make a great mother," I added on and she smiled, knowing that I was speaking the truth. She was amazing with Judith and she always would be. "And I will be an awesome aunt," I said with pride and Maggie laughed loudly. We both knew that I would be the honorary aunt to Maggie's child, being that the two of us were so close. "So speaking of, how is Little Rain doing?" I asked as I jokingly grabbed Maggie's stomach.

She laughed loudly and threw my arm off of her. We both grinned like mad and I smirked. I wouldn't want the kid to be names after me, it seemed like Rain was a name with bad luck. "I am not naming them after you," she told me and I pouted. Damn, she wouldn't even consider it. Maybe I could get her to name them Lil Asskicker. Daryl would love that. "And I wouldn't even trust you around them in the baby stages," she said and I scoffed. Come on people, I wasn't that bad with kids. "You would let them play with knives and guns. Probably teach them bad words too." Okay, maybe I was that bad with kids. She wasn't wrong.

Placing my hand over my chest, I puffed my chest out and lifted my nose into the sky. "That's what would make me an awesome aunt," I said and Maggie scoffed, shoving me to the side lightly. We both giggled for a moment before we silenced ourselves and I sighed. Like always, the fun could only last for so long. "Maybe you could name them Beth if it's a girl? Hershel if it's a boy?" I asked her and she nodded, giving a small smile. It was a cute idea but I wasn't sure if those names would be too painful for her to think about. "I think that Glenn would approve of that," I told her and she nodded. He had loved both Greene's, he would love those names.

Maggie smiled at me and leaned back against the counter. The coffee maker gave a small beep and Maggie poured herself a glass, letting me take a small sip. The drink was scalding but it was nice. Wasn't too often now that we got to have drinks like that. "I like that. For now I just have to focus on getting through this stupid plan," she said and I shook my head. I knew that she wasn't fond of the plan and I didn't blame her. This damn plan was suicide. If one thing went wrong there was a good chance that we would all die. It was a somber thought, but I was sure that we would lose at least one person doing this. Probably more. I was sure that Rick knew that too. "I know that we have to do it but I'm worried. You, Glenn, everyone is going to be out there. Just please be careful Rain, I don't know what I would do if I lost you," she told me and I smiled softly.

Besides Daryl, I knew that Maggie was the person that I was closest to. There were other people that I loved, well all of them really, but there were people that I was the closest with. And Maggie was one of those people. "I promise I'll be careful. And for as long as I can I'll try and keep an eye on Glenn too. But trust me, he'll be fine. He wants to see his family again," I told her and she smiled, looking down to her stomach. The kid might not be bigger than a Lima bean right now but I knew that Maggie already loved them. Just like I was sure that I would too once they were born. I glanced over her shoulder and saw Glenn walking up. Probably coming to say goodbye to his wife. "Speaking of the Devil," I muttered as he walked up to us. I hit him on the shoulder as he passed and gave him a small grin. "Hey daddy, good luck out there later. We're leaving soon, make the goodbye fast," I said and he nodded.

Without turning back I knew that Glenn was shaking his head at me. It seemed like that was what he was always doing when I was around. Daryl probably felt the same way. "Thanks Rain, always good to know that your sense of humor hasn't died," he called up and I laughed. I knew exactly how to grind on his nerves without making him hate me. It was something that I was great at, at least since the world had gone to shit. "I'll be out there soon and ready to go. Hey, you be careful out there too," Glenn called back to me and I nodded, giving him a small smile.

Silently, I made my way out of the house and up to the front of Alexandria. As I walked I saw Spencer, Deanna's other son. He was much better than Aiden, Spencer actually cared about our people. He was a little foolish and didn't think things through, but his heart was in the right place. But one day it was going to get him killed. He waved at me as I passed and I gave him a little nod. He had been trying to get me to teach him how to hunt but I had told him not until we cleared the walkers out of the quarry. We now knew how dangerous it was to go out there without a car or something to get away with if things went wrong. One day though I would teach him how to hunt. It felt a little silly though, me teaching him to do something. He was a big guy that was almost five years older than me.

Leaving Spencer's sight I headed up to the front of the community and saw that Daryl was sitting against his bike. He nodded at me when he saw me and leaned off of the bike, getting on. He moved forward for me to get on the back and I smiled at him. As I walked up he caught me around the waist, letting his fingers twist the ring on my finger. "You ready to get out of here?" He asked me and I scoffed. I would much rather lay in bed all day. Daryl laughed and shook his head. "Yeah, me either," he told me. I smiled at him and gave him a quick kiss before jumping onto the back of his bike. I brought my hands to wrap around his waist and I ran my hand under his shirt, over his hipbone. He grunted at me and shoved my hand off and I grinned.

Not a moment later Abraham and Sasha had come over to us in the car and we sat together at the front of the community. We knew that we would have to wait twenty minutes after Rick and the others blew the quarry to catch the herd. We headed out to the quarry after a few minutes and I sighed, sitting and waiting. Daryl was holding my hand tightly and I smiled at him. We had a relatively dangerous job. For twenty miles we would be leading the walkers away from Alexandria. One little mistake, going too slow, and we would be overrun with walkers. We all knew that we had to be careful. I knew that it wouldn't be long before we would get the walkers. I heard the blow from the quarry and felt the Earth shake. I jumped at the sudden noise and sighed. The walkers would be here any minute now. We were only about a minute away. Even back here I could hear the growls of the walkers and I knew that they were going to be on us within a minute. I glanced over at Sasha and Abraham and both people were nodding at me, letting me know that they were ready.

Daryl tapped me on the shoulder and I looked past him, seeing that there were more walkers than I had ever seen headed over to us. My God, there must have been a thousand of them. My eyes widened and my breath caught in my throat. We would have to be careful here. As the walkers got closer Daryl took off and we slowly headed to the twenty mile point. I sighed and turned back, seeing the walkers limping after us. God I would have to think of something else for a while. I shook my head and looked at Daryl's back, trying to block out the sound of the walkers. I wanted to talk to him but the roar of the engine was too loud. Plus I needed him to be able to focus right now. I thought about maybe napping too, but that was dangerous.

My thoughts wandered to the people in Alexandria and I thought about how Morgan was taking on this first mission outside the walls. He was an interesting man, Morgan. I knew that for nearly a year he had gone completely off the grid, after losing his son to his wife who had turned into a walker, a woman that he wasn't able to put down himself. Now he was all Zen and some kind of karate kid. I wasn't sure what had happened, but Morgan had told me that it was a man that he had met that had changed him. I knew he didn't mean romantic, he was not that type of guy. He had just met some man that wouldn't let him give up on himself. I would have loved to meet that man, but judging how Morgan had said nothing more about the man I assumed that he had met his end. That was probably why Morgan was here now. I hoped that he was settling in here and liking it, but I wasn't sure if he really liked the way that we ran things. He probably wanted everything to go nicely and wanted us never to hurt a living human, but that wasn't the way that we were. Not anymore. We couldn't afford to be that way after everything.

Sighing, I tried to move on to happier thoughts. Like the fact that we would be adding in a new group member sometimes soon. It was nice, it meant that Judith would have someone to play with as she grew up. I knew that Maggie was afraid that she would end up like Lori, but I kept telling her that she wouldn't. Lori had confided in me that she had already had problems with children. She had had plenty of problems delivering Carl. We knew that hers would be a tough birth from the start. The good thing about being here now was that it wasn't the prison. There was better security and we had an infirmary for her to go to when it was time. She would be alright. She would have to be alright. I didn't know what would happen to Glenn and me if she wasn't alright. Nothing good. But we had to keep thinking that Maggie would be alright, we had the medical supplies for it and we had plenty of women that had delivered children. Everything would be fine.

The other night I had thought about telling Daryl that Maggie was pregnant and that I was worried, but I knew that it was something that I would have to keep to myself. The news was not mine to deliver and I knew that Maggie would kill me if I told someone that she was pregnant before she did. It wasn't fair to her. I let my hands thread through Daryl's hair and I smiled. I could feel the grease built up but I loved the color of it now. It had darkened drastically since I had met him but I thought that it suited him more. I could tell that he had a small smirk on his face and I wondered if he was ever this confident as a kid. Even when I had first met him he had seemed confident of everything that he had done, but it wasn't quite the way that he was now. Maybe it was because of me. Or maybe it was because Merle had finally realized that Daryl was strong, not the little baby that he had always made his little brother out to be.

The walkie talkie that was on Daryl's shoulder began to chirp loudly and I listened in. It sounded like shouts and it sounded like orders were being yelled. I could tell that it was Rick's voice and I cocked my head. Had something happened to them? How was he back at Alexandria already? We were supposed to get there not long after him, but we were only at five miles. Had we been going slower than we were supposed to? The chirps continued for a moment and I could hear voices from people that I knew. Rick. Michonne. Morgan. Carol. Maggie. Rosita. Tara. Were they all okay? We had the walkers with us so what else was out there? There was no way that it was more walkers. Clearly it had been something big if Rick and the others had gone back early. I leaned into Daryl and put my mouth to his ear. "What the hell is going on back in Alexandria? Did everyone get back already? I mean is anyone even paying attention to the plan anymore?" I asked loudly.

Daryl had his hand on the bars and I reached over him to click the radio on so that he could talk. He thanked me quietly before motioning for me to move it closer to his mouth. He had to speak right into it or else Rick would only hear the roar of the bike engine. "Rick!" He yelled and I jumped. I hadn't been expecting him to be that loud.

My heart pounded as I waited for someone to yell back to us. The walkie that we were attached to would get us back to anyone, but it worked the best with Rick. It was the matching pair of the set. My arm was resting on Daryl's chest and I could feel that his heart was beating as loud as my own. We were both nervous for what was happening back home. "I'm here," Rick finally yelled.

I let out an audible breath and I could feel Daryl's chest contract soon. Besides Merle, I knew that Daryl counted Rick as family. I didn't blame him, I thought of Rick as a little bit of a father figure. Carl and Judith were lucky to have a father like him. Oh God, I hope they're both okay. I hope Maggie is okay. Maybe I should have stayed so that I could help keep her safe. Glenn would have had a mind at ease that way. Daryl motioned for me to click the walkie and I nodded. "What's going on back there?" He asked.

Once more the radio was silent for a moment and it killed me. I hated waiting like this. It just made me nervous that the wait to hear back might never end. But Rick was stronger than that. We both knew that. I glanced over and saw that Sasha and Abraham were listening to their radio as well, clearly also curious about what was going on. "Half of them broke off," Rick finally replied and I felt my heart drop. The walkers. What the hell? Why weren't they following us? We were a perfectly good meal and they had nothing in the other direction. "They're going toward Alexandria," Rick added and I felt my stomach lurch.

There's no way that they were heading towards Alexandria. They couldn't be. There was nothing that would lead them there. We had nothing for them there. The scents and noise wouldn't be enough to lead them towards our home, it wasn't enough. Something had to have happened. My heart was beating rapidly as I feared for my group members and Daryl's was as well. There were so many people there that I cared about. At least the walls would keep them safe. "Towards you?" Daryl asked Rick.

This time the walkie hissed with a response almost immediately. "We ran ahead," Rick said and I nodded. At least he, Michonne, and Morgan were not in the path of the herd. They would beat them back to the community. That was at least one good thing. "There's a horn or something. Loud, coming from the east. It's not stopping," Rick informed us and my eyebrows knitted.

A horn? How the hell was there a horn back there? It reminded me of the time that the alarms were set off at the prison by Andrew to lure in the walkers but I knew that there were no sirens back there. The closest thing that ew had to a horn was something like the fire alarms but those were way too quiet to attract any walkers. At least from a group of people that would make a nice meal. Daryl sat there for a moment and I wondered what he was thinking about. Probably hoping that everyone was safe for the time being. That the carnage could wait for a while. "I'm gonna gas it up, turn back. Rain and I can help out back there," he said and I cocked my head. What about this part of the plan?

We still would have Sasha and Abraham but I was worried that if we left we would draw off some of the walkers too. That would make three separate herds, a dangerous thing for us to do. It seemed that Rick knew it too. "We have it," he told us and I shook my head. No they didn't. This was way too many walkers to take down, no matter how many people we had back there. They were going to lose someone. But I knew that he was just trying to keep us out here. This was where we were needed right now. "You keep going. They're gonna need our help. Gotta keep the herd moving," he said and I nodded.

It wasn't the easy choice but it was the right one. We had to believe that everyone back in Alexandria would be able to take care of the herd that was passing by. They weren't all weak, they would be able to defend it. Or at least I hoped they would. "Not if it's going down, we don't," Daryl said into the walkie.

I waited for Rick to respond but when he didn't, I leaned a little closer to Daryl. I knew that he wanted to go back there and help, to feel useful, but it was far too dangerous. We risked making a bigger mess out of a n already big mess. Leaning slightly so that I could put my mouth to Daryl's ear, I grabbed his shoulders to keep my balance. The last thing I needed was falling off the bike. "The rest of that herd turns around, the bad back there gets worse," I told him and he stayed silent. Finally I was no longer sure that he had heard me. "Daryl?" I shouted over the loud engine of the motorcycle.

It was great that Aaron had found all of the parts for the new bike, and it was very nice after Daryl had lost Merle's bike when the prison had fallen, but this bike was so damn loud. It scared me sometimes that a walker might hear it and decided to get a little friendly with us. I knew that Daryl hated how loud it was too, but he loved his bike. There was no way that he would get rid of it. "Yeah, I heard you," he finally told me and I sighed. "We gotta keep moving, right?" He asked me before leaning over so that he could shout to Sasha and Abraham. "Hey, we gone five miles out yet?" He asked them.

I noticed that Abraham glanced over at the mile marker and did a quick calculation in his head. Okay so maybe he wasn't as unintelligent as I pegged him for when I first met him. I knew that the man wasn't stupid, but he also wasn't overly intelligent. But he made up for it with his personality. He was a fun person to be around. "Give or take some yardage. You got a reason for asking?" Abraham asked.

Daryl nodded at him and I sucked in a breath. I knew that whatever Daryl's plan was, it would not be something that I would like. They usually weren't, just the way that he normally didn't like my plans. Together we made good ones, but separately they almost always were bad. "Next intersection we're gonna spin around and go back," Daryl called out to the other pair.

The looks on both Abraham and Sasha's face were of shock. I didn't blame them. If we all spun around it meant that we would lead all of the walkers back to Alexandria. The exact reason that we were doing this whole plan in the first place. We couldn't risk leading the rest of the walkers back to the community, it would make things even worse for them. "The plan is to go fifteen more," Abraham yelled back to Daryl.

For a moment I thought that Daryl would agree and say that Abraham was right, that we had to keep pushing on and we would just hope that the best would happen back at Alexandria. Daryl finally shook his head and I sighed. This was wrong, we would put the entire plan in jeopardy. "Yeah, I'm gonna change that. Five's gonna have to work," he said and I slapped his side, but he ignored me.

Ever the reasonable man, Abraham shook his head and I could tell that he was debating spinning the wheel and cutting Daryl and I off. But that could kill us all. It certainly wasn't worth it. "The magic number's twenty. That's the mission," Abraham said and I knew that Daryl was doing his best to ignore the red head. "That's making sure they're off munching on infirm raccoon the rest of their undead lives instead of any of us," he called back and I grinned. He really did have an eloquent way of putting things.

Sasha shook her head at Daryl and I and I nodded at her, letting her know that I would try to get him to not do it. We all knew that this would not end well. "You want to go, we can't stop you," Sasha said and I whipped around to her. What the hell had she said that for? That was only helping the case that Daryl would go back. "But without you, they could stop us," she said and I sighed. Okay, maybe I overreacted a little bit. Daryl revved the engine loudly and I jumped when he pulled away from the crowd of walkers. "Daryl!" I heard Sasha yell behind us.

I turned back to see that Abraham was also hanging out of the window. I looked at him in panic and he gave me a pleading look, I knew that he was trying to get me to talk Daryl into turning back around. "Don't do it, man!" He yelled, but we were already gone. Daryl hopped onto the highway and I sighed. We couldn't do this. This was not a part of our plan. We had to go back there. I had to talk him out of this.

For a moment I thought about what to say for a moment and I sighed. I could only hope that I would be able to talk him into going back. I looked at the miles ticking by and I closed my eyes briefly. "Daryl, we have to go back there," I shouted to him and he turned back briefly. Taking another deep breath, I leaned into him. "Look, I know you want to go back there and make sure that everyone is okay. I do too. Trust me, I love them just as much as you do. I know that Merle is back there but we can't," I said, knowing that he wanted to make sure that his brother was okay. I wanted to know that he was okay too. I wanted to know that they were all okay. "We have to go back and help them. They could die if we leave them. Daryl, they will be alright back at home. They know how to fight people. But they cannot fight off this many walkers. If we want to help them, we have to go back to Abraham and Sasha. This is the right thing to do," I told him before dropping back into his seat.

It was a while before Daryl even made the slightest sound to let me know that he had heard me. I thought that he might ignore me, but finally he made the confirmation to let me know that he had indeed heard me. He nodded briefly and I thought that he would choose to not go back. We simply drove forward but I noticed that he had slowed down drastically. For nearly a half an hour we drove before I knew that I had gotten to him. I reached around and laid my hand on his thigh, letting him know that it was alright. He finally nodded at me and turned the bike around. I wobbled for a moment but Daryl had a hand on his thigh to keep me up.

Roaring down the highway I jumped slightly at the sudden noise that invaded my ear. I peered over Daryl's shoulder and saw that he had the odometer hovering just over one hundred. I gulped lightly, knowing that a fall at this speed could very well kill us. But Daryl knew his bikes and I knew that he wasn't going to let us fall. Especially not with me on it. He pressed the walkie on his shoulder and I smiled lightly. That's my husband. "That's twenty?" Daryl asked as we pulled back off of the highway and headed back to Sasha and Abraham.

The radio was silent for a moment and I took a breath in. I could see the walker herd off in the distance and I saw the car that Abraham and Sasha were in as well. We would just be beating the herd at the twenty mile marker and we would be able to head back to Alexandria and help defend it. "It will be," Sasha finally said over the radio and I smiled. "Six forty-two is a mile ahead. We gotta put distance between us and them before the turnoff," she said and I nodded. We couldn't run the risk of dragging them back to Alexandria before this.

It was only a moment before Abraham came back over the walkie as well. "So floor it," he told her with a chuckle and I smiled. I knew that Sasha had been having problems with herself since Bob and Tyreese had died and I completely understood. It was how I would feel if Daryl and Rick had died.

Daryl smirked at them as we pulled off to the side of the road and met up with the pair once more. Abraham gave me a wink and I smiled. I knew that he had trusted me to get Daryl turned around. It was something that our lives depended on. Daryl glanced over at the two of them and gave a nasty grin. "All right, try to keep up," he told the pair and I laughed. He knew that we could outrun them by miles.

Sasha seemed to know the same thing as well and she laughed loudly. Even Abraham was chuckling in the passenger seat. "Daryl, have you looked at this car?" She laughed and I smiled. She was right. It was this nasty little red car that looked like it was about to fall apart at the seams. But it was one of the cars that we had that worked and it was one of the only ones that wasn't in use for the rest of the plan. "Believe me, we want to get back there, too," she said and I nodded. We all wanted to know what was going on.

The engine of the bike revved underneath me and I smiled. It was time to find out what the hell had happened back home. The loud bang of a gun made me jump and nearly knock the bike off balance, but Daryl managed to steady it. I glanced over to see if Abraham or Sasha had fired it but they were both looking in shock. Glancing over their car I noticed that they were both speeding up and trying to head out of the path of the bullets that were now raining down on their car. "Daryl, move!" I shouted over the bullet fire and the roar of the engine. I glanced back fast enough to see another car coming up on us, but then the world went spinning.

I gasped as I realized that Daryl had had to turn the bike to avoid crashing into the car but that meant that it had sent us sprawling. The bike flew over the median and into the woods and I had to resist a scream. They couldn't know where we were. The tires of the bike were squealing as we went flying into the woods. The bike fell onto its side and I went flying off of the bike. My head impacted the ground first and I flipped over a few times, my entire body getting caught on branches and rocks. Finally, after what seemed like forever, I hit the ground one last time roughly and groaned at the pain that was shooting through me. Gunfire was still going off in the distance and I swallowed harshly. They were still after Abraham and Sasha. Please be okay guys.

The bike had gone silent and I panicked. Oh God, where was Daryl? I hadn't seen him once I was thrown off of the bike. There was a walker growling in the background and I groaned. Not right now. I pulled out one of my knives and crawled over to it, driving the knife into the walker's skull, through its jaw. It fell to the ground and I sighed. There was no blood on it so it hadn't gotten to Daryl. I heard a rough panting and I turned back. On the ground was Daryl and he was limping over to me. Over the silence I heard birds calling and I panted roughly as Daryl crawled over to me. He looked battered, but relatively uninjured. "Are you alright?" He asked me softly.

Nodding at him, I fell to the ground and groaned at the pain that shot through my tailbone. Oh yeah, that would be hurting for a while. "Yeah," I said after a moment, trying to blink the spots from my eyes. "What the hell was that about? Did you see anything, anyone that was shooting at us?" I asked him and he shook his head. I should have known that though, he was focused on the road and trying to keep us safe. I glanced up and saw that Daryl was bleeding from a wound in his head. "Hey you're bleeding. Let me take a look at that," I said.

Fawning over his wound, Daryl pushed me back and I grimaced at him. I wanted to make sure that he was okay. A head wound might not always look too mad but I knew that sometimes it was much more serious than it looked. Daryl waved me off and I sighed. "Rain I'm fine. Didn't see anything, just heard the shots and knew we needed to get the hell off the road. We need to find them, make sure that they're okay," he told me and I nodded. He pulled out the walkie but it looked crushed. It had probably broken when Daryl had fallen. "Sasha? Abraham, are you there?" He asked but was only met with silence. The static was hissing and I sighed, please let them be alive. Daryl hissed in pain when he moved forward and I grabbed his hand. "Girl I told you that I was fine," he snapped.

I rolled my eyes and opened my mouth to yell at him but I cut myself off when I heard a branch snap. Both Daryl and I stood and I watched as the trees rustled. It was a person. Maybe it was Sasha and Abraham. But the people that stepped out were no such people. It was two girls that looked a little older than me. Both were extremely skinny and I wondered if they were half starved. It looked like it. The younger one had short blonde hair and wore a blue button down. The other woman had long brown hair and was wearing a small spaghetti strapped shirt. She reminded me a little of Lori. "Stop right there! Who the hell are you?" Daryl yelled.

The girl with brown hair held her hand up and looked like she was just about ready to cry. Of course she now had a bow and crossbow pointed at her. "You found us, okay?" She said and I cocked my head. Found her? These were not the people that we were looking for. "Here we are. We earned what we took," she said and I nearly laughed. Clearly this was a case of mistaken identity. Maybe we would be able to run off without making anything even worse. A branch snapped behind us and I turned back before Daryl could. There was a loud thud and I jumped.

Daryl fell next to me and I gasped. "Daryl!" I yelled, dropping down to his side. I glanced up for a moment and saw that there was a man, probably six or seven years older than me, holding a gun. Asshole. He had hit Daryl with it. Not wanting him to know how much Daryl meant to me, I pulled one hand behind my back and slipped the ring off of my finger, dropping it into my pocket. I put my hand back to my bow and jumped up, aiming it at the man. "You better get the hell away from us or I swear to God I'll take your damn head off," I growled, not sure who to look at. "Back up!" I yelled, when I saw that the two girls were trying to advance on me while I wasn't looking. "I'm not blind. You two first," I said and they did as told. "Now you," I snarled at the man.

The man looked at me and I made sure that my bow was aimed at him. So far, he was the one that was on my shit list. He had damn near killed my husband. He was wearing a checkered shirt and had his blonde hair tied up in a hair tie. It looked like he was thin as well and I wondered how long these people had been out here for. "Come on now, we know who you are," he told me and I raised an eyebrow. He didn't know me, did he? I didn't think that I had ever met him. "We fought like hell to get out of there, I'm sure that you did too. But we ain't going back. Not now, not after everything," he said and I scoffed.

I had no idea who this asshole was. I had never met him and I had never fought to get out of anywhere. Only Terminus and that was hundreds of miles away. There was no way that this guy knew me. "Going back? Going back where? I don't think I'm part of your little group," I told him and he scoffed. Okay you little dick, then I won't be nice either. "You said something about earning what you took, what did you take?" I asked and they all looked at each other. So they didn't trust me, that's fine, I didn't trust them either. "Look, I get not wanting to tell people anything about yourselves but you run around trying to knock people out, it's not going to work well forever. Trust me," I said and the man nodded. "Now what are your names?" I asked them, hoping that we could solve this.

The man nodded at me and loved forward to take my hand. But I did not trust him. Instead I glared at him and he took the hint, backing off of me. "I'm D," he told me and I snorted. A guy that was trying to impress everyone that he meant. "Come on, you ever tell people your real name anymore?" He asked and I nodded, everyone knew that I was really Rain Blake- well Dixon. It was still odd to say. "This is Honey and Tina," he said, gesturing to the brunette first and the blonde next. "Now what about the two of you, you got names?" He asked, motioning down to the still body of Daryl.

I snarled at him and took a protective step closer to Daryl. They were not going to touch him while I was still here. "I'm Rain. This is Daryl," I said, motioning down to my still husband. I knew that he was still breathing though, I could see his chest rise and fall. "When he wakes up I promise you that you are gonna regret ever hitting him. He isn't the friendly type. Especially not to stupid fuckers like yourselves," I hissed.

D nodded at me and I could tell that he thought that he was smarter than me. But I knew that it wasn't true. He was nothing more than some idiot who had gotten involved in some fight, we had just been caught in the crossfire. That was when it hit me. Those people that we had crossed in front of, they were the ones that D and his friends thought that we were. And those people might have thought that we were D and the other two. What a day we were having so far. "You're outnumbered Rain, you really want to be saying things like that?" He asked me.

Laughing slightly, I shook my head. He was about to realize that I was much smarter than I looked. I always had been. It had shocked people for years. "I might be outnumbered but I'm not outsmarted. Your girls over there have no weapons," I said as I motioned back to them. "Two arrows through the skull would take them down easily. And you? I'd have this arrow through your eye before you could pull that trigger," I said to him and he smirked at me. He had no idea what I was capable of. "Come on, we've all grown up since the world went to shit. Some of us got smarter, others just got ballsy. Which one are you?" I asked with a grin.

For a moment D was silent but he eventually laughed and nodded at me. "Clever girl," he said and I nodded. He was going to find out sooner if he didn't step back and take his friends out of here. "You sure that you weren't with our people?" He asked me and I shook my head. Not that I was really sure if that was an actual question or not. "I'm sure that he would just love you. You actually remind me a little bit of him," he told me and I cocked an eyebrow. He who? "That's not a good thing," D told me when he was that I was thinking about it.

Knowing that D would not tell me who this mystery guy was unless I prodded him, I decided to give in to his little game. "He? Who is he?" I said and D shook his head. I looked back to Honey and Tina to see if they would answer me, but they both shook their heads as well. Damn, this guy must have been bad if they feared even his name. Maybe he was Voldemort. "This man that you're running from I assume. Trust me, I know how it feels to run from someone. We've met up with some bad people, the problem is that running doesn't work. It never does. Sooner or later they will find you," I told D, hoping that he would see to reason and tell me who this guy was. "And these people don't seem like the type that want to sit and talk it out," I said, remembering that they had shot at us, completely unprompted.

For a while, D was silent. I thought that he might not tell me anything and I sighed. Besides threats, there was nothing else that I could say to them. "He's the leader of the people that we used to be with," he told me and I nodded. That much I had figured. "The Saviors," he said and I laughed. It was good that we were getting somewhere but that was such a stupid name for a group. We normally names groups based on where they were from. Like Daryl, Merle, Glenn, Carol, Carl, Rick, and I were from the Atlanta group. "Don't laugh, he really does save people. He makes you feel like you're at home. He's so strong, he can defend you from anything and then he just changes," he said and I nodded. He sounded like my father. But my father was burning in hell. Just where he belonged. "He starts to show you who he really is," he said and I nodded.

We had all known far too many people that had been like that. It seemed like the entire world was like that now. Even we were probably a little like that. It was hard not to be like that with the things that we all had to do. "You have no idea how familiar that sounds. He's just like every other coward that came out when the world changed," I hissed and D nodded at me. So maybe we were getting somewhere. "So what's this man's name?" I asked, hoping that I would know who we were going up against.

D shook his head and I sighed. Forward one step and back two. They were so afraid of this guy that they weren't even going to tell me his name. Of course, we didn't trust each other at all. Both D and I still had our weapons pointed at each other. Not that either one of us looked like we were going to fire at the other. We still had questions. "I don't think you want to know his name. If life is good to you, you should hope that you never have to hear his name," he told me and I scoffed. When was life ever good to me? "Give me the arrows," he told me and I scoffed. No way. He dropped his gun down to Daryl and I gulped. Sighing, I knew that I would have to do it. It meant keeping Daryl alive. I took the arrow off of the bow and placed it in the quiver, handing it over to D. He took it and motioned to the bow. "The bow too," he said as I handed it over. "Now the gun, nice and slow," he said and I nodded. Hopefully he would miss the knife in my boot. It wasn't really visible. "And the knife in your boot," he told me and I scoffed. Damn it. "Thought that I would miss that huh? Come on, you willing to risk his life to keep your things?" He asked me when I didn't hand it over. Finally I scoffed and gave the knife up. "Thank you. Keep this trained on her," D said as he handed my gun off to Honey. "Finger off the trigger. For now," he added.

Part of me was glad that he had told her that. She looked like the type to pop off a shot whenever something loud happened. I didn't want to get shot again. I was nearing ten times or something like that. The fact that I didn't know was sad. "Glad to know that you trust me so much," I snarled and D nodded at me with a little smile. "You know I'm going to get that back and you won't like it when I do," I said, motioning back to the bow that he now had on his back. "Hey get the hell away from him!" I yelled as D walked over to Daryl.

He jumped back and pushed me off of him, the gun in his hand now at my forehead. D shook his head at me and I stood back a little, still close enough to stop him if he tried anything. "Relax, I'm only helping him up," he said and I glared. Yeah right. "Come on, we aren't completely heartless. I hurt your man so now I'm going to help him. You can respect that, right Rain?" He asked me and I nodded. "So tell me, you seem extremely protective of him. What is he to you? More than just a group member, right?" He asked me and I stiffened.

If they knew that he was my husband they could use it against me. There was no way that I would let them do that. I would have to tell them that he was only a friend. "Would it matter if he was anything more to me than a group member?" I sneered and D smirked at me. Oh yeah, I had to lie. "He's my friend," I said, noticing the little twinge in my heart when I called Daryl only my friend. "I've known him almost since the beginning. We've been through a lot together. We aren't anything like you are with your little Honey," I said and D gaped at me. I smirked and shook my head. I had seen the way that he had caressed her hand when he had given her the gun. "Don't look at me like that. I know that the two of you are married. I can see the way that she looks at you. Like she's grateful for what you've done for her and she loves you, but she's scared. What have you done to scare her?" I asked, a little glint in my eyes. I hoped that I hurt him. Just the way that I had been hurt. "Maybe push her too far, do something that she can never forgive you-" I began.

Before I could finish my thought, a blinding pain went through my head. Damn it, D had hit me in the eye. I suppose that I had deserved it though. It wasn't too bad though, I had been hit by people much stronger than him and much worse things had been done to me. A black eye was nothing. "You want another one like that?" He asked me and I scoffed. "Best shut the hell up. I only did for her what I did because I love her. I saved her. She isn't afraid of me, she's afraid of him. You should be too," he added softly at the end.

I was on my ass in the dirt and I rolled my eyes. There goes my clean clothes. I should have figured. I seemed to not be able to go more than a day without ruining my clothes. The woman with short blonde hair walked up to me and I sneered at her. Even though she was the only one that hadn't said anything since I had met her did not mean that I liked or trusted her. "Are you alright?" She asked me as she reached out to my arm.

Shoving her back roughly, I noticed that I had knocked her into the dirt. She jumped roughly in surprise and I rolled my eyes. Little bitch. Maybe your leader had every right to be an ass to you guys. You had to be tough in this world. And being tough was different than pretending to be brave. "Get the hell away from me," I hissed before standing up and moving to face D. "You better hope that I don't get any of that stuff back," I told him as I motioned to the weapons that he had strapped onto him. I noticed that he had Daryl's crossbow too and I grimaced. He would not be happy about that when he woke up. "I promise that you'll regret ever showing me your faces," I growled and D glared back at me. His confident smirk was long gone.

As we walked I groaned when D ran a rope around my wrists. Daryl had them on him too and I sighed. This was not going well for us. For a while we walked before D finally motioned for Honey and Tina to stop. They both were panting heavily and looked on the verge of collapsing. Not to mention that they were dripping with sweat. I rolled my eyes and dropped onto a log, next to where Daryl was now laid down. I was perfectly fine, especially since the sun was set for a long time now. Bitches. It was a wonder that they weren't both dead. I guess that this man had been the one to keep them all alive. "We stop here for now. We're far enough for now that we'll be safe. We can stop for the night," D said and I nodded. Part of me was curious to meet this guy, but a bigger part of me wanted nothing to do with him. "Give him a chance to rest up too. Sit with your friend, make sure that he's okay," D said to me and I flicked him off, not that he could see me.

They all sat together and I groaned when they started a fire. They wanted to hide from this guy but they were stupid enough to make a fire? Damn, no wonder he wanted to kill them. They were fucking morons. If I died because of them, I was going to be seriously pissed. I heard Honey speak up and I looked over to the brunette woman. "So who do you think that they are?" She asked D and I laughed. Serial killers. Of course, that was half true. "I mean she says that she has no idea who he is but they both look like they could have come from him," Honey said and I rolled my eyes. We kind of all looked the same now. We were ragged and dirty. Idiot.

D shook his head and glanced back at me. I sneered at him but it was so dark that I was pretty sure that he couldn't see me. Instead he looked back at his friends and I scoffed. "It's possible that they could have not been at the main center," he told me and I cocked my head. These people were in more than one place? Awesome. At least we would know that there was another threat out there once Daryl and I got out of this place. And we would. We always got out of things like this. "Maybe they never even knew him. Probably just some more soldiers from one of the outposts. He probably hates them, too," he said and I scoffed. He was so underestimating us.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that Daryl had moved slightly. I dropped down next to him and moved his head so that it was resting on my lap. I was sure that I was getting close to revealing that we were more than friends but I didn't care. He had been out for hours and I wanted to make sure that those assholes hadn't done any lasting damage. His eyes flickered open and I gave him a bright smile. "Rain," he breathed out and I laughed.

I had his head held gently in my lap and I brushed his hair out of his face. His eyes slipped back closed and I frowned. No, he was awake damn it. "Daryl?" I asked but there was no response. I sighed, knowing that he was back in unconsciousness but I continued to talk to him. "Hey Daryl, you're okay. Come on look at me. Wake up, please," I begged but he stayed completely still. I guess this was what I got for giving him all the death scares. "I'm here, I'm not leaving you. We'll be okay," I promised quietly.

D called out to me and I rolled my eyes. What the hell could he possibly want from me right now? Couldn't they just all go to bed so that I could kill them all and get Daryl the hell out of here? That would make things so much easier. I would love that. "You know there aren't many people who still actually use a bow and arrow," D told me and I nodded. Thanks idiot, I know that. There aren't really that many people left to learn how anyways. Now either die or leave me alone. "It's good though. Silent. Doesn't attract them. This is a nice bow, Rain," he told me and I grimaced. It was, until your grimy little hands got all over it. "Where did you get one of these?" He asked me.

I wasn't really sure where it had come from, but a sudden possessiveness of the bow came over me and I got the sudden urge to run up and knock his head off with it. Maybe it was because it was from one of the few good memories I had of my parents. "None of your damn business is where I got it," I snapped at him and he glared at me. You punched me asshole, don't get all prissy about my attitude. "If you'd like though, I can give you a demonstration of how to use it. Up close and personal. I promise you'll love it," I said sweetly.

D whistled loudly and I rolled my eyes. Come on people, it's a miracle that you all lived this long. I guess they had Voldemort to thank. Yeah, I think that was what I was going to call him for now. Hopefully forever. I didn't like D but I did believe him, I never wanted to meet this man. "You got a mouth on you. If you ever meet him, you may want to learn to keep it shut. He'll like that mouth of yours and I promise that you won't like what he'd use it for," he told me and my skin began to crawl. Not that again. I had gone a long time without something like that and I would like to keep it that way. The only person that I wanted touching me like that was my husband. "I like your friend's crossbow. I've seen more people using these, but they usually aren't this well taken care of," he said.

Every part of me wanted to run up and take Daryl's crossbow back before putting a bolt in every one of their eyes. But that wouldn't help me. I could overpower one of them but not all three of them. Plus, not each one of them was armed. I would have nothing but my raw strength to use to my advantage. That might work, but it was a long shot and I wasn't ready for another bullet hole in me. Maybe in a few months I'd be up for it again. I was beginning to get a little fond of the, holy shit I think my limb is falling off, feeling. "You know how to use one?" Honey asked her husband and I rolled my eyes. Probably not.

D nodded at her and I laughed. He might claim to know how to use one but I doubted that he knew how to use one well. Even I wasn't that good with the crossbow. They were something that took a lot of practice and patience. It was kind of the same thing with the longbow. "Yeah. Never liked using them to hunt. But they're pretty efficient for silent hunters. Good for use around deer, doesn't startle them off if you miss," he said and I nodded. He wasn't wrong but anything would startle them. Even a change in the wind from a little bolt. "You're a southerner aren't you, Rain?" D asked me and I glanced up in surprise. I'm your worst nightmare.

Scoffing brightly I shook my head and turned slightly to look at D and his two female companions. Why the hell would he even care if I was a southerner? "I wonder how you could tell," I snapped and D shrunk back slightly. It was easy to tell that both Daryl and I were from the south. He had a rough southern accent that screamed that he was from somewhere in the Deep South. Me on the other hand, I had more of a light lilt to my voice that hinted that I was from the south, but nowhere too pronounced. That was where my background from South Florida came into play. "What do you care? Make any difference?" I asked him, not really caring what he had to say.

Even though my back was to him, I knew that he was looking over me with curious eyes. It seemed like they hadn't met any new people in a while, and maybe they had expected me to roll over and go with what they wanted. Oh how wrong they were. "Come on now, don't be like that," D told me and I rolled my eyes. Well, the one that wasn't swollen shut. Part of me hoped that one day I would be able to teach Maggie's kid to be the ultimate bad ass. She would just have to forgive me. "Where are you from?" Hell. "What brings you up to Virginia?" A lie. "Just trying to make conversation. No point in sitting here and staring at each other all night, waiting for one of us to make the next move," he told me and I whirled around on him.

It was clear that I had surprised him when he jumped back and his hand went to one of the guns. Go ahead and shoot me, I seem to have an immunity to it. Although that probably was not a wise thing to tell him. He might be willing to test that out. "You attacked the two of us. Unprompted. We would have left you guys alone and moved on. We aren't the types to attack people," I hissed. It might not have been the exact truth, but it was close enough. We weren't saints, but we were good enough. Good enough to ensure that we would live in this world without becoming monsters. "I assume that you're running from someone. I think that those people mistook us for you. We were shot at, that's why we were in the woods in the first place," I said, not sure what that had to do with anything.

He was silent for a moment and I waited for him to say something. He wasn't innately bad, I could tell that. It seemed like he was just willing to do anything to protect his wife and their friend. I completely understood that. The only thing that I didn't understand was why they were being damn idiots about the entire thing. They should have knocked us both out and stolen our weapons before running off to never have to deal with us. They clearly weren't very intelligent. "Fine then, have it your way. We can sit here and not even try to trust each other. Wait until your friend wakes up and then we'll see how this all goes," he said and I scoffed. Even worse than with me.

Daryl was relatively level headed, but that was with us. Not with a bunch of strangers that had knocked him out and given his wife a black eye. "Are we going to get out of here soon?" I heard Honey ask and I glanced up at her. She looked nervous, like something was going to come out and kill her. Completely reasonable. "He's too close to us. We aren't far from the main camp. Please D, let's go. This is a bad idea to stay here," she said and I nodded. Yes, let's take a leisurely stroll through the woods at night with walkers and people that want to kill you. That sounds like a fabulous idea. "Just let them go. They have nothing to do with any of this. Let them get back to their friends," she said and I grinned. So one of them had sense at least.

Glancing over my shoulder I saw that D was shaking his head at her, grabbing her shoulder tightly. Tina was watching from a short distance and I wondered if something was wrong with her. She had seemed a little mousy and pale. She looked sick actually. I really wasn't in the mood to get sick again, the last time had left me wishing that I was dead. That had hurt like hell. "We can't just let them go. We still don't know who they are. Not really. That's why we keep a close eye on them for now," he told her and I scoffed. They had no idea that I was telling the truth about everything except the fact that Daryl was not just a friend. "We pick up Patty and we're gone, okay?" He said and I perked up a little. So they were looking for someone. Yeah, that sucked. "This is the last day we gotta live like this. Get some rest. You too, Rain," D said after a moment, like it was an afterthought.

He turned over to me with a little grin and I shook my head. We are not friends you little prick so do not smile at me. "Fuck you," I hissed before turning from him. For a moment I thought that I might hear a bolt or bullet but nothing ever came. Oh good, I was pretty sure that Daryl wouldn't take well to waking up with me being dead. I slowly slunk to the ground and laid close to where Daryl was passed out. I had seen him moving around a little while the three new people were talking between themselves but I hadn't said anything else to him. He was in the drowsy stage and it would be almost useless to talk to him. I would only be getting my hopes up before he would fall back asleep for a few more hours.

As I laid on my back I wondered what was going on back in Alexandria. It was the not knowing that was driving me crazy. Anything could be happening right now. Hell, they could all be dead. No, I couldn't believe that. They were all okay, they would just have to figure out how to lure the walkers away. Maybe Sasha, Abraham, Daryl and I could do that once we got out of this and got back to them. Sighing deeply, I let my hand wander over Daryl's thigh. We are going to get out of this, don't worry. I'm going to do what you would want me to do. What you taught me to do. I slowly shut my eyes and sighed. This was going to be a long night.

The next morning I shot up at the hands that were suddenly grabbing me. I shoved the person back and I saw that it was Honey. "Hey, get the hell off of me!" I screamed at her and she scrambled back in the dirt. Tina grabbed her and the pair backed away from me. Seething already, I looked to go find where D was. To my surprise, even though I shouldn't have been, I saw that he was leaning down in front of Daryl. He had his gun is his hand and I gasped. Oh no, no one threatened my husband with a gun except for me. "Leave him alone!" I yelped as I jumped over to D.

Thinking back on it, I should not have yelled before trying to go do something. D saw me coming and he managed to fight me off. "Damn Rain, calm down," he grunted as he shoved me back, but I was not giving up. Damn him, I wanted out of the fucking forest. I wanted to go back to Alexandria and make sure my family and friends were not dead. "Hey! You looking to get him killed?" D asked me as he held the gun up to Daryl's head. Not wanting to test his patience, I dropped to the ground and sighed. I was definitely not wanting to risk Daryl's life. "Good. Get up," D called to Daryl as he kicked his leg. "Hey, get up," D snarled as he cocked the gun and pointed it at my husband's face. Daryl's eyes slowly opened and he let a dark glare over his face when he looked at D. Oh yeah, he was angry just like I had thought that he was going to be. Wait until he sees me. "We're moving. Here's the deal. You don't say shit and I don't kill you. Or your little friend," D said as he turned the gun to me.

It seemed that Daryl suddenly remembered that I had been with him when he looked over at me and gasped. Ignoring the gun that was trained on his forehead, he launched past D and grabbed me. His fingers fell over my black eye and I twitched slightly. The stupid bruise hurt more than the actual hit had. "Rain, what the hell happened to you? Are you alright?" He asked me. I motioned up to D and gave a little nod. I was fine, just happy that he was alright. Daryl turned back on D and I took a breath. Here it comes. "Look here asshole, if you every lay your hands on my wife again, I'll rip yours off," he snarled, angrier than I had seen in a long time.

My cheeks heated slightly as I realized just how defensive he was of me. Not that it bothered me one bit, it was nice to see someone that cared that much about me. I had a very curious placement of romance. But that was when it hit me. Daryl had just admitted that we were married. Damn it. There was no giving up anything more, we had just told them everything that they needed to hover over us. I had hoped that D hadn't noticed, but he clearly had. "Just friends, huh?" He asked me with a smirk and I snarled. I looked over at Daryl and saw that he was piecing it together. He seemed to finally realize what had happened and he looked over at me with a stupid look on his face. Yep, you know you're in trouble when we get out of this. "I knew that you looked at him like someone more than friends would. Good, gives me a better bargaining chip," D said confidently and I rolled my eyes. I hoped that Honey would like her husband a few inches shorter because I was going to be sure to cut him down to size. "Don't worry, she's fine. And she will continue to be fine as long as you cooperate," D told Daryl flippantly.

Scoffing loudly, I received a little jab in the ribs from Daryl. I knew that this was the wrong time to be doing anything like I had done last night but I couldn't help it. He was just a damn moron. That arrow is going up your ass when I get it back. "We ain't who you think," Daryl told them.

I sucked in a breath when D cocked the hammer on the gun. I knew that he wouldn't fire it but it didn't help the little skip that my heart did when I saw someone holding up a loaded gun to my husband's face. "Say something else," D warned and Daryl made the smart decision to stay silent. Better him than me, I probably wouldn't have been so smart. "Go ahead. Follow them," he told us and we did as told. It wasn't for more than ten minutes that we had been walking when D popped up at our sides, holding a water bottle out to us. "Here, drink the rest," he told us and I scoffed, pushing it from me. I wasn't about to die in this world from poisoned water.

It seemed that Honey wasn't very fond on us having it either. She grabbed the bottle back from her husband and I cocked an eyebrow. So was she finally growing a backbone of her own? How sweet of her. She pushed it into her husband's chest and I briefly wondered if they had been married before or after this all went down. Probably before. "We should save it," she told him.

So maybe it wasn't poisoned if she was arguing that they should save the water. Then maybe on the other hand I would take some of that. I had not had anything to drink in twenty four hours, the last thing being the small drink of coffee that I had stolen from Maggie. Oh God, I prayed that she was still alive. Glenn too. I hadn't heard anything from them since we had left. Of course, they probably hadn't been anywhere near the radios. "We'll find some more. Drink," he told Daryl and I scoffed once more. So much for ladies first. "You're supposed to stay hydrated. It all works together," D said and I sneered at him. Because they'd done so well at working with us.

Daryl seemed to join in on my thoughts that these people didn't exactly practice what they preached. "Yeah, it does," he said before he took a sip. It was hardly anything but I knew that he was hoping that it was enough to get D to leave him alone. He then handed the bottle to me, but I shook it away. Daryl sighed but knew that I was not going to be taking anything from these people. Not after the annoying day that I had gone through with them yesterday. D then handed it to me and I rolled my eyes.

Smacking the bottle, I watched as it went flying from D's hand and he probably was restraining himself from reaching out and giving me another black eye to match. I knew that I was being annoying and hard to deal with but they had earned it. Maybe they should have left me alone and nothing like this would have happened to either one of our little groups. "Get that damn thing out of my face," I hissed at him and I could practically see the smoke rising from the top of his head. Aw, the poor little guy was angry with me. Good. "I don't want anything from you. I'd rather die from dehydration than take your handout," I sneered at him and he shook his head. "Go to hell," I added, even though it had kind of been the subtext of my little speech.

To his credit, D had incredible restraint as he handed me back the water bottle and forced it into my hand. He tried to get me to drink it once more and I opened my mouth to ask him if he was as deaf as he was stupid but he beat me to it. "Have it," he said, clearly ending any chance we had for conversation. "We don't need you falling down. Drink," he said and I scoffed. I dropped the bottle and I knew that behind me, Tina had leaned down to grab it. Yeah, that's all that you're good for princess. No, that was the name that Merle gave me. Bitch. There, that was better fitting. "They find us, maybe we give you to them, they let us call it even," he said and I shook my head. No, we weren't Harry Potter, Voldemort wouldn't want us. God, I cracked myself up. Okay, maybe I should have taken the water, I was sure that I was starting to go a little crazy. "You see, we're reasonable people. Everybody's got their code. You feel you gotta kneel, that's fair enough. We don't," he said and I scoffed. Kneeling? I don't think so. It sounded like they were the ones that had kneeled for so long. "Let's go," D said, pointing the gun at my back.

As we walked I noticed that my vision was beginning to swirl around me. Maybe I should have taken some of that water. Oh well, I was sure that I would be just fine. We weren't going to be with these assholes much longer. "I can't believe we're back," Tina said and I cocked my eyebrow. Back where? This was the damn woods. I glanced up from the ground and realized what she was talking about. The entire portion of the woods was charred, like it had been burned to a crisp. What the hell? Was this something that their leader had done?

I glanced over at Daryl and saw that he was looking over the woods with the same face that I was. Something was incredibly wrong with these people. D shook his head at her and continued to walk, shoving me lightly. I thought about stomping on his foot, but decided against it. That probably wouldn't make things any better. "It's not home anymore, but it's better than where we were. This is a pit stop. We pick up Patty, nothing more than that," he told them and I shook my head. And let us go, dickwad.

Honey glanced up to D and I shook my head. She looked shocked at this place too. So maybe they hadn't known each other from before the outbreak. Maybe I wasn't quite as smart as I thought I was. Oh please, I was at least smarter than these assholes. "How'd you do it?" She asked D and I rolled my eyes. Typically a lot of gas and a lighter. That was how we lit the barn on fire. Looking back on it that had been a stupid plan. We could have damn well burned to death. Of course, I didn't have many good plans that day. There was a little twinge in my hand and I shook my head. "You saw where we left the truck?" She asked him and my eyes lit up. Genius, tell us more about this truck, why don't you?

D nodded his head and looked down at the ground. "Mm-hmm. We opened the valve and drove all the way in from Farmview Road. Ran from the tree line till we got to the pavement," he informed her and I cocked my head. That sounded almost like the road that the Greene farm had been on. Part of me was glad that Maggie hadn't been around to hear that. "Lit up a matchbook from the Sweetwater and dropped it in on the trail," he continued and I tensed when I heard a walker growling. Wherever they were, they weren't far. "Then we just ran for the car. Got in and the dead ones were there. They were beating on the hood, and then- and then boom! Knocked 'em on their asses and I took an axe to each one. Then we just watched it go up. No more moans, no more of that wailing. It was just the fire, just burning them all away," he told her and my mouth dropped open. He had done all of this?

It was obvious that Daryl was as shocked as I was. Knowing that there was no point in keeping up the charade any more, I dug into my back pocket and awkwardly slipped my ring back on. Tina was watching me closely and I thought about what it would have been like if we hadn't crossed paths with them. Probably a lot better, we would have been able to know for a fact that Abraham and Sasha, and everyone else, was still alive. But I knew they were still alive. They were like me, too tough to die. "You did all this?" Daryl asked and I was startled from my thoughts.

D seemed to have been in his own world too and was startled out of his thoughts as well. "It was right at the start," he said. That surprised me, I would have thought that things would start to grow back by now. But that would make sense, they had burned everything down to the roots. "Everything stopped- the TV, the radio. We were here. The forest was full of them. And the other ones in town, they were drawn to it. They just walked right into the flames. We got most of them," he said and I nodded. That was actually reasonably intelligent. "Thought we ended it for us, and she was in DC." She, who? "We thought everyone was fighting them wherever they were. Yeah, we thought that was what everybody was doing. Fighting it. That we'd all win together. We were stupid," he said and I laughed.

Finally! They realized what I had been saying from the moment that I met them. But I did understand what he was saying, he thought that with everyone left we could fight the walkers. He had no idea that so few people were left. And so few of them knew how to fight the walkers. I had come to the conclusion that if the world ever went back to normal, I would die long before then. "Y'all don't think you're being stupid right now?" Daryl asked and I laughed loudly.

Just as I did though, D clicked the hammer on my gun and pointed it at Daryl's head. Naturally, since I had more balls then brain, I stepped in front of the gun. D smiled and lowered it so that it was now pointing at my head. "Faithful wife you got here, Daryl. You'd die for her and she'd die for you," he said and Daryl growled. He threw me out of the way and I stumbled back a little. "Are you saying I should kill you? I mean it, are you gonna try and pull something on us?" He asked and I smirked at the ground. Of course. "Are we just being thick here by not removing all doubt?" What do you think? "Right now, by me not pulling this trigger, is that a mistake?" Yes. "I'm serious. I really wanna know," he said.

Daryl sighed and moved forward slightly. I stayed close to him, hoping that whatever he was about to say, it wouldn't push D too far. "You made a choice to kill for someone else, to have them own you for a roof over your head and three squares, so maybe I'm not considering all aspects here," he said and I nodded.

For a moment, I saw a flicker of something in D's eyes. Was it sympathy? Did he actually feel bad for trapping us and threatening to kill us? Probably not, not if he was with this guy from the beginning. "You tell me, am I being stupid?" He asked Daryl. It took all of my self-control that I had left not to laugh.

Daryl, it seemed, had better control than I did. "No," Daryl said and I could tell that it was paining him to try and play nice with these people. But it might be the one way that we get out of this alive. And alive was important. "Look, we got somewhere to be," he added and I glanced up. He was trying to bargain with these people. "We can make a deal. I can help you out," he said and I glared at him. We can help them over a cliff, damn it.

D shook his head and I watched the way that he held my gun. His finger nail that was picking at the design on the frame of my gun and I hissed lightly. You idiot, that thing cost a lot of money. Not that I paid for it, but the principle is still there. "You're one of them," he said softly and I scoffed.

Not able to control it any longer, I jumped in front of D and wished more than anything else that my hands were free. He could use a big slap in the face, they all could. They had no idea how to live in this world. Rule number one, try not to piss armed people off. Okay, so maybe I don't take my own advice. "You really are fucking stupid, aren't you?" I hissed and D recoiled slightly. He was afraid of me. Good. "Don't you get it? We aren't with these damn Savior people," I groaned. I wasn't even from here! None of us were. "We're a married couple trying to survive, just like the two of you," I said, motioning between D and Honey.

Behind me, I could tell that Daryl was trying to suppress a grin. He always had liked it when I got a little angry at people. D turned to Daryl with a grin on his face and I rolled my eyes. "Sweet girl, I see why you married her," he told Daryl and I noticed my husband's fists ball slightly. "Keep her away from him. You're hurt and you're alone and you'd say anything. We should've never trusted you people to begin with," D said and I rolled my eyes. Deaf and stupid. "Go on. Keep moving," he told us and I sighed. More walking? Please no. I just got thrown from a bike yesterday and I was still sore from it. We continued to walk for a few minutes when we came up on an old parking lot, filled with walkers. Wow, how surprising. "Son of a bitch," D groaned and I looked over at him. "Patty," he said sadly.

For a moment, I actually felt bad for the small group. I knew how horrible it was to lose a group member. But suddenly I remembered what they had done to us and I grinned. I'd be more than happy to arrange for them to meet with her once more. "She could be-" Tina started before being cut off by Honey.

"No, she's gone," Honey said as she let out a deep breath. The trio all stood together, looking down on the lot with long faces. I wasn't sure what it was, but suddenly I felt a little awkward. I shuffled my feet together for a moment and looked to Daryl. He was clearly uncomfortable too.

Part of me wanted to say something to them, tell them that I understood and that things would get better, but they didn't deserve to hear that. Plus they thought that we were some psychotic people that they used to be with. Whatever. Their loss. We were awesome people. "Then we make another plan," D said and I looked up. Oh yeah, this ought to be good. "Yeah, we get out of here, that's the plan. Then that's the plan," he said.

I barked out a little laugh and I saw that D turned an angry glare at me. Oh come on dude, what a shitty plan. Even I could come up with better plans then that. Tina turned her guilty face to her friends and I cocked my head. What did she feel so bad about? "You guys didn't have to do this for me," she said.

Do what? Run away? The looked like they had all been wanting to get away from that guy pretty badly. But maybe not, maybe she had just planted the seed. Honey placed her hand on Tina's back and I saw that the girl wobbled slightly. Maybe she was as dehydrated as I was. But she had been drinking water, so what the hell was her problem? "It was the right thing for all of us," Honey soothed her friend.

Tina turned to her friend and shook her head. "This was the right thing?" She asked and I scoffed. Sometimes nothing was the right thing to do, you just had to take a chance. "Even if just you guys went back now, if you just told them that it was me-" she started before being cut off by Honey once more.

Well that was rude. "No, we'll find a way," she told her friend and I nodded. At least she cared about her friend enough to keep going with her. Still not good enough to make these people better in my eyes.

D was looking at the two women and I noticed that he looked torn. Part of him looked like he wanted to turn back, where he knew that he would be safe. But the bigger part of him had that determined look that I had seen in my own eyes too many times. "Just think about it," Tina said softly.

After what seemed like forever, D walked forward and placed his hand on Honey's shoulder. He wasn't looking at her though, his focus was on Tina. "No," he said and I nodded. At least he still cared about her enough. "Look, maybe we don't get as far, but we'll get- hey!" He shouted. My eyes widened in shock as I saw Tina collapse to the ground and I sucked in a breath. I knew that she looked like she was about to pass out. But what was wrong with her? "Hey, hey, hey! Tina, hey!" D yelled as he shook the blonde haired woman.

Honey was leaning over the girl and I watched in a little daze. I could see that Tina's chest was still rising and falling, and her eyes were rolling to the back of her head. Oh, that's gross. "Hey, baby sister, look at me," Honey said to Tina's limp form and one of my eyebrows rose. Sister? So that was why they didn't want to leave her or give her up. She wasn't just a friend, she was family. I could respect that.

My daze was cut short suddenly when I noticed that Daryl had darted to where D had left the bag that had our weapons in it and ran off. "Rain, run!" He yelled and I was suddenly pulled from my trance. Good thinking, since I was being stupid and standing there like a statue.

Daryl grabbed onto my belt loop, pulling me forward, but in only a moment I had him outrun. Daryl was fast, but he was nowhere near as fast as me. Glenn and I were still the fastest people in our group. Well, now that we had the Alexandrian's, Spencer was pretty fast too. "Hey, stop! No!" I heard D yelled and I rolled my eyes. Like hell we were going to stop. I heard a shot go off and I rolled my eyes, he was trying to shoot me with my own gun. That was fucked up. "Don't! We need that, please!" He continued to yell but I rolled my eyes once more. No you don't. You need a brain is what you need. Daryl and I continued to run and I felt the world spinning slowly. I really needed water now, I hoped that they had some in that bag.

I could no longer hear the three that we had left behind and I knew that they hadn't bothered to chase us. They were busy with Tina. "Get down," Daryl hissed at me as he grabbed my pants and dragged me to the ground. I fell roughly and coughed a little, stunned that he hadn't even given me a warning. He slipped the walkie talkie out of his vest and I watched. We were both panting heavily, but Daryl was smart enough to know that we had to get in contact with someone, and now. "Sasha, Abraham, are you there?" He asked, but the static hissing was the only thing that we got in response. There was a slow growling from a walker and I rolled my eyes. That was so typical. The walker snarled as it walked up to us and Daryl tore his bindings, opening the duffel bag, and pulling out his crossbow to shoot the walker down. Once the walker was dead he dropped back besides me, panting heavily.

I scooted in closer to him, my hands bound still. "That was good thinking to get out of there right then," I told him and he nodded. He was clearly tired from the run, but we both were. We had been terrified that they might shoot us as we ran. "Come here, let's get these damn things off," I told him and he nodded, slipping me from my binds easily and letting me turn back to him. Not bothering to look if anything was in the area, I jumped forward and was caught by Daryl. He laughed as I leaned into him and kissed him roughly. He held me tightly, his hand brushing my lower back and pulling me flush against him. His hands were digging into my hips, but it didn't bother me. We were safe, and that was all that mattered.

Finally, he pushed me back and I smiled at him. I was sure that my lips were swollen from the kiss, just like his were. "Good kiss for just friends," he told me and I laughed, shoving him lightly. His hands traced my eye for a moment but I shook him off. There were more important things to be worrying about right now. "The hell do you think is in this bag that they wanted so badly?" He asked, motioning to the bag that we had swiped.

I shrugged and grabbed my bow that was sitting on top, throwing it and my arrows over my shoulder. "Open it, let's find out," I said and he nodded. I no longer had my gun, but I did have my knives back. I stuffed my large knife into my boot once more and put my throwing knives into the inside of my vest, just in case. Once all of my weapons were back on me, I glanced down and noticed that there was a cooler inside. Uh, that was an interesting thing to be toting around in the apocalypse. "A cooler? What the hell did they need a cooler for? Couldn't they have just taken dried food and dealt with it?" I asked Daryl and he shrugged, opening the lid. That was when I saw it. There wasn't food in there. Not in the slightest. "Shit, that isn't food. It's insulin," I said and Daryl cocked his head at me. "Tina is a diabetic, that's why she just passed out. They hadn't gotten any insulin to her recently," I said.

Well at least I got my answer on why she had passed out. She hadn't been dehydrated, she had merely had too low of blood sugar. Daryl looked at me and I glanced back at him. "Will she die without it?" He asked me. Clearly he had never taken any health classes. Shocker.

I shook my head, not really sure. I didn't have diabetes so I wasn't sure how the whole thing worked. I had a very basic understanding of these things, but that wasn't very much to go on. "Hard to say, really. I haven't known that many diabetics in my life. As far as I know she will be okay for a while but they have to get some to her soon," I said and he nodded. "Doesn't matter though, they aren't our people. Come on, we have to find Sasha and Abraham," I muttered as I stood waiting for him to join me. "Daryl?" I asked when I saw that his focus was on the insulin inside of the cooler. Oh please no. This is not anything that we need to be concerning ourselves with. "Oh God, I know that look. We cannot go back there," I said to him, stressing my words.

Daryl seemed to be torn and I knew how he felt. Tina had been nice to me, but there was nothing that I wanted to do with these people anymore. It was unfortunate, but shit like this happens. This world isn't made for people like Tina. This might be kinder for her. "Rain, she could die," Daryl said and I scoffed. They had been perfectly content to kill both Daryl and I. Okay maybe not Tina, but D had. "All because I took the bag when I ran. Would it really be fair to let her die like that?" He asked me and I felt my heart tug. I knew that he was right, but I didn't want to risk it. It was too much to risk. "They're friends. They're family. Just like our group," he told me.

Suddenly a flash of anger shot through me. He was thinking about their family, but he was not thinking about ours. "But they aren't our group!" I yelled and Daryl remained still. He knew that this was the right thing to do, and he knew that he was slowly getting me to fold on this. "They hit you over the head, threatened to shoot us both. They took our weapons too. That asshole hit me in the eye," I said and I saw the slight anger flash over his features. "It's very sad that she's going to die but it doesn't matter. It doesn't affect us. She's going to die sooner or later, they'll run out of it eventually," I said softly.

It was true, but that didn't make what I had just said any less cruel. It seemed like every day I was getting colder. It was a scary thought, but I knew that it was happening to everyone. We just had to make sure that we didn't go completely cold. "This does affect us," he told me, grabbing my hand and holding it in his lap. "If we walk away from them then we may as well have killed her ourselves," he said and I shook my head. That wasn't something that we could think about right now. "I saw how hesitant she was the entire time. Remember after Carl shot that kid back at the prison?" He asked me and I nodded. Yeah, his name was Brody or something. Sasha had told me that. "You told me he had gone cold. I will not watch you turn cold," he said.

The pain in his eyes was clear and I knew that he was torn over this too. He didn't want to do it, but he knew that it was the right thing to do. I looked for another argument, anything that might talk him out of it, but there was nothing. Damn it. Finally I nodded at him, hating that he was right. "Alright, fine. We go back there and we give it to them. Then we turn around and we leave. Got it?" I asked him and he nodded. "I can't believe I let you talk me into doing this," I muttered as we walked.

We hadn't run far from the three and I knew that it would only take us a few minutes to get back. As we walked I noticed that the area was extremely void of walkers. Of course they had killed everything in here. It was smart, but it also meant that there were no hiding spots. After a few minutes, I saw that we had come back up on the group and I trained my arrow on them, at the same time that Daryl had trained his crossbow on them. "Drop the gun," Daryl ordered and D turned back quickly. He looked shocked that we were behind him, but somewhat grateful too. "Drop it. Give it to her," he said and I nodded. D walked over to me with the gun and I snatched it back, driving it into my holster. "We came all this way. What you got for the duffel?" He asked and they all remained silent. "You put us through too much shit just to give it back. Principle of the thing. What you got besides this gun?" He asked once more.

D shook his hand and held up two empty palms. "Nothing," he said and I cocked my head. They seriously had nothing except for a stolen gun? That was pretty pathetic. I guess they had wanted to get out of that place as quickly as possible. But that was stupid. They could starve.

Daryl shook his head and took a step closer to D. I saw his Adam's apple bob and I laughed, he was nervous. Of course, that wasn't extremely surprising. "What was that thing you were carving?" Daryl asked D and I cocked my head. He had been carving something? Damn, I was seriously off my game today.

D pulled a little wooden figure out of his pocket and I scowled at it. He was willing to risk his life for that thing? It was a piece of junk. "My grandfather taught me how-" D began to explain before Daryl cut him off.

"Don't care," he snapped and I smirked. Of course we didn't care about a stupid wooden doll. "It'll do," he said before taking the figurine from D and stuffing it in his pocket. He dropped the insulin bag next to the trio and nodded for D to take it. We backed off slightly and I waited for him to move forward. But he never did. He evidently thought that this was a trap. No it wasn't, but it should be. "Take it. It's all there. Good luck. You're gonna need it," Daryl said and I nodded. This was it. Everything had gone fine and we were going to leave now. For once things were going as planned. But like nature was reading my thoughts, the trees began to rattle and I nearly screamed as a truck came barreling through the woods, screeching to a halt in front of his. The truck door opened and I was dragged off to the side by Daryl. "Get the hell over here," he hissed at me as he hid us underneath a bush that seemed to be growing back from the fire.

The truck door closed and I leaned out slightly to see what was going on. D had taken a protective stance in front of Tina and Honey as a man jumped out of the high set truck. I couldn't see much of him, other than he was tall and had slightly grey hair. He was white and a little older, maybe around Merle's age or a little younger. "Let's end this. It's ours," he snarled and I took a deep breath. These were the people, the Saviors that they were running from.

Daryl's arm was around me and I slunk into him slightly. The last thing we needed was for this man to spot us. I couldn't help but to wonder if maybe he was the one that led these people. If he was the one that they were so afraid of. But judging by the defiant look in D's eyes, I could tell that it wasn't him. He was just a lackey. "We earned what we took," D said and I cocked my head. What the hell had they taken?

The man crossed in front of us and I could see that he was now directly in front of the bushes that we were hiding in. Oh for the love of God, just kill them and go. "You're gonna return what you took. You're gonna pay for the gas it took to come out here and for all the time these men took out," he said and I scoffed. That was a stupid system. "It's over. You know the rules," he called.

D shook his head and advanced slightly on the older man, and to his credit, the man didn't move. Of course, he had a little mini army and D was not armed. He had no reason to back off. "Your rules are batshit!" D yelled and I rolled my eyes. That was exactly how I had felt all day so far. This entire day was batshit. "We're not going back, Wade," he said and I nodded. So his name was Wade. Well that made things a little easier. "We're done kneeling!" He yelled out.

Wade merely laughed and I felt my skin crawl at his laugh. Yep, I had heard people with laughs like that before and they were never good. "Don't change the subject, asshole," he said with a little whistle. At that, the truck engine started and the trio were off like a bullet. Once more, Wade laughed and I sucked a breath in. He wanted this, he wanted the chase. The trees began to snap as the truck began to chase after them through the woods, knocking down the weak trees that were in its path. Not good.

Daryl pulled me up from the ground and I stumbled slightly as he chased after D. What the hell was he doing? The Saviors were in that direction, and home was in the other! We quickly caught up with the trio and Daryl managed to catch D's eyes, without startling him. "Come on. Hey, that way. Come on," Daryl hissed as we went running through the woods, hoping to hell that we would lose the Saviors. If by any chance we got out of this, I was going to kill Daryl. "Go, go, go. Go. Get up," he called as he pushed the three up behind a large boulder. Another tree snapped as the truck got closer and I groaned. This was not the way that I wanted this day to go. "Hey. Take it," Daryl said to D before handing him the gun. I opened my mouth to yell at Daryl, but one look told me that he was not in the mood. "Zip it girl, we need to get the hell out of here," he hissed at me.

Still though, I wanted to tell him what a bad idea it was. Maybe this was all a set up. But before I could say anything the static hiss of a walkie shut me up. One of them was right on the other side of the rock. The man had his walkie on and I could hear Wade speaking on the other end. "Eyes open. You cover your quadrant. Go to alpha channel," he said and I cocked my head. Military wannabees huh? There was a soft growling and I looked over to Daryl. A walker, now? Seriously?

Daryl nodded for me to follow him and I did, but just as D went to follow us too, Daryl motioned for him to stay back. Oh great, so we get to risk our lives for them? As we walked I heard Tina call Honey Sher and I cocked my head. They had lied about their names? Why would they do that? The man was a little heavier set and looked about Daryl's age. I caught sight of the walker and poked Daryl. He nodded and started to walk towards it, just enough to catch its attention. He slowly walked back, making sure that it was following us and I nearly laughed. They were just like dogs. Stupid, man eating dogs. The male walker that had been burnt to a crisp followed us and I kept my mouth shut, hoping the man was slow. Daryl and I led the walker around the back of the tree that the man was standing by before Daryl grabbed my arm and pulled me back behind the rock forcefully. I fell onto my back and was slightly surprised when D was the one to help me up.

Not bothering to say anything, I looked out past the rock and watched as the man walked slowly around where we were hiding. Come on walker, just a little faster. There was something I never thought that I would say. The man was mumbling softly to himself and I nodded. That would just draw the walker closer to him. The bush behind him rustled slightly and the man turned back, but it was too late. The walker jumped out and tackled the man against another rock, biting down on his arm. The man began to scream and I grimaced. Come on dude, shut up. "Wade, I'm bit! Wade, I'm bit!" He screamed and I jumped as Wade came tearing out of the bushes. Well, at least he hadn't seen us. He shot the walker down and I nodded. "Take it off me," he begged the older man.

Ah, so they knew the amputation trick as well. I should have figured that they would though. It had been nearly two years since the world had gone to shit, I should have figured that someone else would have figured out that the infection would stop with amputation if they did it soon enough too. "Damn it," he sighed as he saw the extent of the bite wound.

"Do it! Just take it off!" The man screamed desperately at Wade. He had every right to, I was sure that it hurt and he needed to be taking it off soon, before the infection set in and it was too late.

Wade nodded at the man and I watched as he held up a knife. It was sharp and glinted in the sunlight. "I'll get your watch after," he said and I snickered lightly. Well at least he had a little sense of humor. That was better than nothing. He brought the knife down and I grimaced. Oh gross. No matter how many times I saw people taking limbs off, it would always bother me. It was so nasty. And bloody and painful too. The man screamed as Wade took off the limb and began to cry when his hand fell limply to the ground. Hope he was a lefty. Wade brought his hand up to his walkie and I listened in. "All right, that's it. Time to go home,' he said and I sighed. Thank God, they were finally going to give up. "Cam got a boo-boo," he said.

Very cute, I'm sure that he appreciated that. Cam looked like he was about to pass out though and I was sure that he didn't care about anything right now. Not that I could blame him. I was sure that it was scary to be bitten by a walker. "Are you sure?" The man on the radio asked.

Wade snorted slightly and looked down to where the stump that was now Cam's hand was and laughed lightly. "Oh, yeah. He only wanted to take this so far. And he only wants ass that's willing, you know?" He asked and I paled. There were far too many people these days that didn't care if they were willing, and he seemed like that type. Cam continued to sob as Wade dragged him off. "Come on, Cam. Let's walk it off," he said.

We were all silent for a little while until we were sure that the Saviors were gone. Once they were, I sighed deeply and made my way out of the rock, hoping that they weren't just hiding somewhere. But when I saw that they were gone, I sighed deeply. Somehow that stupid plan had worked. "We thought you were with them," D said and I rolled my eyes. Well duh, we kind of told you that a million times. "We knock you over the head, tie you up, threaten to kill you and your wife," he said and I grimaced. Was he asking for me to kill him? "Why the hell did you come back?" He asked the two of us.

Daryl looked like he wasn't sure what to say so I decided to jump in. "I sure as hell didn't want to come back," I said and D rolled his eyes at me. Go ahead, we were the ones that only saved your life. Should have let you all die. "He talked me into it. As far as I'm concerned if I ever see any of you ever again, I'm gonna blow your damn brains out," I hissed, hoping that my threat was enough to tell them that I was serious.

Daryl sighed at me and shook his head. He had probably hoped that I was going to be nicer about it, but when had he ever known me to be nice? "Maybe I'm stupid, too," he said and I nodded. Right now he was being a huge idiot. "She's right though," he said and I smirked. Good, so he wasn't being that stupid. "So you knew 'em? Still you thought I was one of them?" He asked D and I glanced up.

For the first time since I had known him, I saw a little weakness come out of D. He was afraid of these people. He was genuinely afraid of them. I mean, I had been unnerved by Woodbury, Terminus, the people at Grady Memorial and Alexandria. But I had never been truly afraid of them. Why were they so afraid of these Saviors? What had they done? "Where we were- we were there since the beginning. We still didn't know everyone. Back when we were first threw in with them, it was as good as a place as any. Then things got harder, people got harder," he said and I nodded. That sounded about normal. "Human nature kicked in and it became a truly unique kind of shitshow. People will trade anything for safety, for knowing that they're safe. Everything. So they got nothing left except just existing," he said and I cocked my head. Human trading? Is that what he meant?

For a moment, I nodded at D feeling a little twinge of sympathy. I knew that these things were hard. I knew that life was hard. It was like Jenner had once said, back at the CDC. It was a short, hard life and a brutal death. But that seemed like an eternity ago, something out of a dream. "Hey, nobody's safe anymore. Can't promise people that anyhow," Daryl said to D and I nodded.

I saw that his hand was on the blonde haired man's shoulder and I shook my head. Were we actually starting to sympathize with these people? We had saved them, we were on decent terms, but that did not make us friends by any stretch of the imagination. "You could promise the people who want to hear it," D said.

Part of me thought about saying something to him, but I was distracted by Tina dashing forward. We were coming up on what looked like a melted greenhouse. Clearly it had been one of the things that D and Sherry had destroyed in their fire. There were walkers all over the ground and I gulped deeply. It reminded me of the tomb s in the prison. Where Hershel had lost his leg. Where I had learned to be careful around all walkers. Even the ones that looked dead. Tina was sitting at the side of two walkers and I knew immediately, she had known these people. "Hey, Tina, hold up," Honey called to her sister. Well, Sherry guess, but Honey was easier.

Both Honey and D went running forward, but they stopped before walking into what had once been the greenhouse. They looked extremely uncomfortable and I didn't blame them. It looked like they had been the reason that their friends had died. Yeah, I knew how that felt. But I had been right there when it had happened. They had at least been ignorant to it. "Carla and Delly. That's them," Tina said softly.

Honey looked over to me and I cocked my head at her. What was she expecting me to do? "Me and Tina used to babysit them when they were kids," she told me and my glare fell. Oh. She didn't want me to do anything. She was just trying to tell me who these people were. They were kids. Well, not anymore. They looked like they had been teenagers, maybe close to my age. But they would always be kids to Tina and Honey. I knew how they felt. I still faulted myself for Penny's death. "Everyone said that they went out north when it all started. We didn't know," she said softly and I placed my hand on her arm. I knew exactly what this was like.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Daryl was looking at me with a somewhat shocked face. I rolled my eyes at him. Hey, every once in a while I had a heart! Tina was rustling around in the debris and I watched her closely. She could easily get caught on something in there. "I did this. We did this," she cried lightly. Maybe we should leave her to mourn for a little while. Just as I turned my back though, I heard the all telling growl of a walker. I turned to run back to Tina, and I screamed out for her to run. The people that she had once known were reanimating and attempting to break through the glass to get to her. Tina screamed and jumped up, but she was too late. The walker bit down on her neck and I grimaced. There was no saving that.

Daryl and I sprinted forward and were able to take out the two walkers quickly, but it was too late for Tina. I stood back and watched as Honey fell to her sister's side and D fell in behind them. Honey was holding her sister and crying loudly. "I'm sorry!" She yelled as Tina coughed roughly. She had to hurry. Tina would not be with us much longer. "I'm so sorry, baby. We had to try. We had to try. We had to," she said through her thick tears. "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. I'm-" Honey continued to apologize before Tina cut her off. But I never got to hear what she said.

Daryl pulled me off to the side and I raised an eyebrow at him. I thought that he would be telling me that we needed to do something about Tina, but it turned out that it was not at all what he wanted. "Rain, we have to do something with them," he said and I shook my head. Oh no, I knew what he wanted and oh no. "We let them out of this and they more than likely get trapped by the other group that they were with. You know what we have to do," he told me and I shook my head. Did that hit to his head rattle something loose?

Shaking my head at Daryl, I grabbed his hand. I could see that D was digging a grave behind us and Honey was holding her sister's corpse. I was about to call out and tell her that she had to do something about her, but she was already on top of it. I turned away, feeling like it wasn't my business to be watching that. "Daryl, these people nearly killed us. I get it, they thought that we were with them but who the hell cares?" I asked him and he scoffed. "You really want them in a house next to us. To me?" I asked and I saw his eyes soften. "To Judith?" I asked once more, knowing that it would be harder for him to risk the baby's life. "I don't think that letting them come back with us is a good idea. Plus what happens if we lead their people back to us? We could kill everyone in Alexandria," I said, knowing that it was a good concern for either one of us to have.

For a moment, I thought that I had gotten through to him, but Daryl shook his head and I sighed. Damn it, why was he so hard headed? "Would you want to be given a chance if you were them?" He said and I sighed. Please don't do this. "They're scared, Rain. They thought that we were here to kill them. You would have done the same thing." Okay so maybe that was true, but I was smarter than they were. "At least let me ask them the questions. Alright?" He asked and I nodded, giving him my consent. Hopefully they would fuck up their answers. "Hey," Daryl called as D finished dropping Tina into a grave. Daryl began to help burying her and I stood off to the side. I wasn't that fond of the girl. "How many walkers you killed?" Daryl asked and D looked at him like he had lost his mind. "Just answer the question," he scoffed.

D stood there for a moment and seemed to think. That one usually tripped people up. Our most common answer was I don't know. There really wasn't a right answer for this was. It was just to see what people said, to see if they could defend themselves. "A lot. A couple dozen at least," he said and I scoffed. That was a lot to him? He noticed my laugh and looked over to me with a roll of the eyes. "Hey not all of us can be Lara Croft. I mean damn, give you the dark hair and you could be her," he told me and I grinned. He wasn't wrong.

Daryl glared at D for a moment and I knew that no matter what, he would never be fond of D being anywhere near me. Not since he had given me a black eye. "How many people you killed?" He asked and I saw D's eyes go wide. Yeah, that one usually threw people. Those answers were where things usually started to either get really good or really bad. It ashamed me to say that my answer would have been I don't know.

"None," D said and I scoffed loudly. If these people were so horrible, how had they gotten away with never killing anyone? "Don't believe me?" D asked me.

Of course I don't believe you. "You nearly killed us," I argued.

"Why?" Daryl asked, diffusing the tension between D and I.

It was clear that D did not understand why we were asking them all of these questions. Of course, people usually didn't. "Why haven't I killed anybody?" He asked for clarification and we nodded. Are you deaf? "Because if I did, there'd be no going back. There'd be no going back to how things were. I'm from a place where people are still like they were more or less, better or worse," he said and I found myself nodding. That was actually a good answer. It was the kind of answer that we looked for. Well, shit.

Daryl turned to me and pulled me off to the side. I knew that I had lost this one but he was going to try and get me to side with him still. He wanted to make sure that he had my consent before he just brought someone back. God, I wished that Aaron was here to talk Daryl out of this. But I had a bad feeling that he would like these people too. "They're good people, Rain. They're just afraid. Those are exactly the answers that we look for in new people to bring to Alexandria. They'll be safe there too," he told me and I shook my head desperately.

I would argue with him all day over this but I knew that it would be dark in a few hours and we couldn't risk getting caught out here in the dark. Especially not if those Saviors came back. Especially not if they were with their leader. Maybe I would just have to bite the bullet on this one and agree with him. "You really think that it's a good idea to let them in there?" I asked him and he nodded. "Fine, just this once I'll listen. We let them come back with us but we have to go find Sasha and Abraham," I said, letting Daryl know that there was no room for argument. "These people be damned, they are our priority," I said harshly.

Daryl nodded at me and I was glad that I didn't at least have to fight with him on this one. "They still are. We find them and we get back home," he said and I nodded. That was what we needed right now. "See how the plan worked out without us driving the walkers away," he said and I nodded. "We can walk it from here. Till we meet up with our friends," Daryl said to the pair as we walked off. I sighed, knowing where we were headed. To the bike. We actually weren't far. We had gone in almost a complete circle. We stopped at where Daryl had buried the bike under leaves and I smiled at the sight of it. Damn, it was good to be back here. But it was not good to be back here with them. No matter what, I would never trust them. Not completely. Not after what they had done for us. Daryl pulled the bike up and grunted lightly. "They got a car. You can ride with them," he said and Honey nodded.

D looked over the bike and gave it an approving nod. Well at least he didn't say something about it being a piece of junk or anything like that. I knew that saying something like that would not have gone over well. "How many friends you say there were?" D asked and my eyes narrowed. Why the hell was he asking?

Daryl didn't seem to get the little additional question behind the question. Could we overpower them? "I didn't. There's two of 'em," he said and I shook my head. You idiot, you should have said like, six.

"Where are they? D asked and my eyes narrowed even farther. I was liking this less and less every second. Daryl motioned for Honey to get on the bike and she did. She noticed my angry glare and she looked away from me. Yeah, you better run. Bitch. D on the other hand stood off to the side and continued to chat with Daryl, oblivious to the two women in their lives.

For a moment he was silent and I hoped that Daryl was seeing what was wrong here too. But naturally he wasn't. He was only waiting. "We're gonna find out," he said.

"How do you know they even got away?" D asked and I growled. Because they were tough. They were strong. That's how we know that they're alive and well. They're just waiting for us. It's Sasha and Abraham, both tough as nails. "That they didn't get taken?" D added on and I glared.

Finally it seemed that Daryl didn't like D's answer either. "I don't," he growled and I hoped that the trust here was broken. Before I could notice that he was doing anything, D held up the gun that Daryl had given him and cocked the hammer, right in Daryl's face. I went to bring up my bow, but D knew what was going on. He pointed it at me briefly, and then back at Daryl. He knew that he was calling the shots here. Daryl, I hate you. "Oh, damn it," he said and I nearly screamed. Why did no one listen to me? I was so smart.

Honey at least had the decency to look like she felt bad as D hopped onto the back of the bike. Oh no, don't look at me like that. Kill your husband and then maybe we can talk. Until then, you are at the top of my shit list. "I'm sorry," she said and I scoffed. No, not yet you aren't. When I see you again, then you'll be sorry.

D turned back to us and he motioned for Daryl first, keeping the gun trained on him, but looking back at me. "Give her the crossbow," he said to Daryl. He didn't listen and I grinned at him. So instead, D turned to me. "And you, give her the bow and the arrows," he said, keeping the gun on Daryl. I had to do it, I wasn't willing to risk Daryl's life. "Come on now. It ain't that hard sweetheart," he said and I growled. He motioned for my grandfather's knife as well and I sighed. I went to hand him the throwing knife that he saw sticking out of my vest but he shook his head at me with a laugh. "Keep the knife. You'll need it," he said. Aren't you generous?

I held the knife in my hand, but it was small. There was nothing that I could do with it that wouldn't end up with Daryl and I both dead. So I had to only use it for a threat. "You know I'm gonna save this one," I said and D cocked his eyebrow. "Next time I use it, it's gonna be on you," I said, pointing the blade to him. "I'm gonna take your eye, then maybe your hand. A toe or two. One way or another you're going to wish that you were dead. You're gonna wish that your little group had been the ones to find you," I threatened.

Fear flashed through Honey's eyes but D remained unfazed. Underestimate me, oh please do that. It will only make my revenge that much better. "So this is how it goes. You gonna go back?" Daryl asked and I saw that D's face fell slightly. "You gonna be safe?" He continued.

D shook his head at us and pointed the gun to the both of us before settling it on me. Really? That just figured that I would be the one that he would want to shoot. Go ahead, I can add it to the other gunshot wounds that I had on me. "Shut up. The both of you," he said and I scowled. That wasn't very nice. "And you little girl, you best wish that he never finds you," he said and I scowled. "You'll be his favorite. He picks his pets and he makes them wish that they were dead. Don't become one of them," he warned me and I blanched. No, I had been a plaything to too many people, I would never be his. I would be no one's.

Daryl scowled and I could practically feel the anger radiating off of him. Since the whole situation with Mitch, I had noticed that he was much more protective with anything that had to do with another man looking at me. But I was grateful for that. "Ain't nowhere safe no more," Daryl said.

D scowled at him and shook his head. "Give her the crossbow," he ordered once more. Daryl stood with it still on his back and I smiled. Good. "Come on, do I have to say it again?" He groaned before moving the gun onto me once more. "You want your wife with a bullet in her brain?" He asked and I noticed that Daryl began to remove the weapon. Damn it. I should have known that he wanted to make sure that I was safe. "You gonna kneel?" D asked as Daryl handed the crossbow over to Honey and she strapped it on herself. The engine of the bike started and I hoped that the pair would fall and die. Please God, come on. Grant me one wish?

Honey looked back at us in sorrow and she tossed a little white patch at Daryl. His arm was bleeding lightly and I scowled at her. It was far too late for her to be saying or doing anything to gain our favor back. "Patch yourself up. We're sorry," she said softly and I glared.

"You're gonna be," Daryl said before the pair revved the engine once more and headed off. Before they were too far, I grabbed my knife tightly and threw it. The knife skimmed over Honey's arm and I heard her yelp before it went falling to the ground. I thought that they might turn back and try to shoot me, but they just kept going, Honey looking back at me with wide eyes. Sweetheart, you're lucky that I missed.

The pair sped off and I rolled my eyes as we were left alone once more. "Fuck, I was so close," I grunted before running off to grab my knife and walking back over to Daryl. His eyes were still planted in the spot that the bike had just been in, and I knew that he felt guilty. "Hey, are you alright?" I asked and Daryl nodded. He grabbed the package to wipe himself off with, but I took over. "Here, let me take care of it," I said as I ran it over his strong arm. "You know the expression happy wife, happy life?" I asked him and he looked over at me with a small nod. "Next time I tell you not to trust someone. Don't trust them. Please, it makes everything so much easier," I said and he scoffed.

He muttered a few curses under his breath and I decided to not push it. He was angry and I knew that sometimes he said things that he didn't mean when he was upset. And that was nothing that I wanted to hear right now. I just wanted to get the hell out of here. "We need to get out of here and find Abraham and Sasha. They're probably waiting for us to find them. Shit, they might think that we're dead," he told me and I nodded. That was priority number one. Dumb and dumber could wait. "Keep quiet, we don't know how many people of theirs are out here," he said and I nodded.

We started to walk out to the road and I sighed. This was not the way that I had thought that this would end. Actually it was exactly the way that I had thought this would end, I had just hoped that I was wrong. "I think we already know that there are quite a few," I said softly and Daryl nodded. "When we get back we need to warn Rick and the others about these Saviors. They have to know that we have a new threat out here," I said and Daryl agreed softly. "God, it seems like every time we find a safe place someone has to come and fuck it up," I growled.

Instead of just nodding at me like I thought that it would, he actually spoke. "First it was Woodbury, then Terminus, and the Grady Memorial people, now these assholes," he said and I nodded. And it wasn't just them, there were plenty of other little people in between. "But it doesn't matter, every time we find a way out of this," he said and I scoffed. This time it seemed different. "Hey, look at me," Daryl ordered and I looked up. "These people will never hurt you. No matter what Rain, I will protect you until the end. I love you," he told me.

The scowl that had seemed to be glued onto my face fell and I smiled at him. There was the man that I had married. Sort of. "I love you too," I told him and I leaned in for a kiss. "Just know that you aren't the only one determined to protect the other. I'd die for you, you know that. Hell, these people almost killed me because I was too stubborn to move away from you," I said with a little laugh.

Daryl shook his head at me and I looked over at him. What did I say? "It's shit like that that scares me, girl. You don't think before you do anything," he said and I sighed. He was right, I had to start thinking more. "Maybe that's why I fell in love with you. Maybe that's why Merle likes you," he said and I laughed. I was pretty fond of Merle too. He was a good guy, when he wanted to be. "Rain?" Daryl asked me and I hummed, glancing up at him. "You asked me once if I wanted to have a family. If I would ever want kids," he said and I blushed.

Well that had not been where I had thought that this was going. Maybe he just wanted to say anything to not think about what had just happened. "Hey, don't worry about that. It- it was just something stupid that I was thinking about," I stuttered, feeling a little awkward. "I guess it was just because I saw Judith and how happy Rick and Carl were and I thought that Maggie and Glenn were on their way to a family and-" I babbled until Daryl cut me off.

"Yes," he said and I stopped short. What had he just said? Wait, what were we even talking about here? Not kids, he didn't want kids. Nah, he had gone on to something else while I was being an idiot. "I never wanted kids. I always thought that I would make a rotten father," he said and I sighed. He would be a wonderful father. "I didn't want to end up like my father. But then I thought about it. Maybe it was just that I never had a person that I was willing to give it a try with. I never met someone that I loved. Not until you," he said and I melted a little. "Rain, if you want kids... We can think about it," he said so low that I almost had missed it.

My heart was beating erratically and I hoped that he couldn't hear it. It was pounding in my ears as I tried to calm myself down. Did he really want to maybe have kids? "I don't know. I mean I never wanted them either. I thought that I didn't have the time and there was no one that I had any feelings for," I said honestly. "But then I met you and some part of me fell in love with you from the moment that I met you," I said honestly and he laughed. Of course we had screamed at each other when we had first met each other, but I had always thought that he was attractive. "You're the only person that I ever even considered it with. I mean I see the way that you look at Judith. You love her. I do too," I said and he smiled.

We hit the road and I watched the cars that we were passing. One of these were bound to work and get us back to Sasha and Abraham. "I'll tell you what, when we get rid of these people, when we make Alexandria safe again, we'll talk more about it," he told me as he grabbed my hand. I smiled at him and nodded. "We can make the family that neither one of us got to have," he said.

"I can take that deal. And don't feel like you have to, if you don't want kids, it's okay," I told him and he nodded. This was good, there was no pressure on either of us. As we walked I noticed a large grey truck and it seemed that Daryl saw it too. I motioned over to it and he nodded at me. As we walked around it, Daryl pried the door open and I checked the back. As I was about to walk back up, I spotted the plate and shook my head. "Hey check it out," I called and Daryl came waltzing back. "Maybe our luck is turning. PATTY002. I'll be damned. Patty wasn't a person, it was a fucking truck," I said and Daryl scoffed loudly. It had thrown us both. "I guess I get why they did it though, they wanted to throw us off," I said and he nodded at me, pulling me to the passenger door.

He threw the doors open and shoved me inside. Impatient little asshole. I was working on it. "Come on, girl. We can get the hell out of here and find Sasha and Abraham. They can't be too far, they knew that we got grounded pretty fast," he said and I nodded. I knew that the tires had been blown out on their car almost immediately.

I nodded at him and jumped into the truck, settling into my seat. Daryl hopped into the driver seat a moment later and threw the door closed behind him. "You're right, there's a business district not far from here. We should try there," I said and Daryl nodded. He threw the car into drive and floored the pedal, the engine roaring in protest. Daryl backed off the gas and I laughed. "Whoa, easy there Tiger. I know that you like this baby but take it slow. Gotta ease her into it," I teased him and we both laughed.

A little slower this time, we took off once more and I leaned against the window. I hoped that wherever they were, they weren't far. We had been out here for too long and I wanted to get back home. It was imperative that we got back to Alexandria and made sure that everyone was still alive. We were not going to be the last two standing. Daryl roared down the highway but slowed down as we got into the business district. Chances were, if they were here they would have left a sign for us to find. It would be obvious but not blatantly. We just had to keep our eyes open. We were both watching the dies of the streets, waiting to see where they were hiding out.

Suddenly my eyes caught something out of place. "Daryl stop!" I shouted and he slammed to a halt, glaring at me. I was sure that he was about to yell at me but I help up a hand. Right on the door of a building, Dixon was written in large black print. I knew that hand. It was Sasha. "Shut up and look you big idiot. That has to be them, I recognize Sasha's handwriting," I told him and he nodded. "They must have stopped here and waited for us. There's the car. Damn thing looks shot to shit," I said sadly. But on the bright side, we did have the truck. And that word meant that they were still alive, just waiting for us.

Daryl nodded at me and hopped out of the truck, smacking the side of her as we headed to the door of the store. "Good thing we found ole Patty here. Maybe next time we see those assholes I'll run them into the damn ground with her," he said and I laughed.

The two of us made our way into the room and I pushed the door closed behind us. "Sasha? Abraham? Are you guys here?" I whispered, not wanting to alert anything other than the two of our group members. "It's Rain and Daryl. We're alone," I said before hearing a small clink at the back of the store. Something was back there. Hopefully it was them. "Hey Daryl, I heard something back there. I think they might be hiding in the back," I said and he nodded. But just as we made our way into the back, I saw a head of bright red hair and I launched myself forward and into waiting arms. "Abraham! Thank God you're alright. Both of you," I said when I saw Sasha.

Abraham smiled at me and let me drop from his arms slowly. I hugged Sasha and then stepped back to look over the pair. Other than being a little rattled, they looked alright. "Damn girl, the two of you get in a fistfight or something while y'all were out there?" Abraham asked me when he finally looked over the two of us. "He making moves on some sweet walker?" He asked me and I laughed.

Daryl grunted and I smiled. That was a good one, I might have to use that with Glenn and Maggie some day. "Very funny," I smiled before getting serious. "We need to get out of here and back to Alexandria. There are some words we need to have with Rick. Starting with this shitty plan. I don't think anything went right," I said and they both nodded. "We got some company and they aren't friendly," I informed them.

I saw Sasha's head pop up and she gave me a hard stare, like she was making sure that I was who I said I was. Did she not believe me? "What do you mean company? You guys run into someone out there?" She asked me and I scoffed. No, Daryl was the one that punched me in the eye.

I nodded at her and motioned down to the rest of my body. "Yeah, that's where this is all from. We had just been run off the road when these two girls showed up telling us that they had earned what they took. They thought we were from this group, the Saviors," I said and both sets of eyebrows went up. Yeah, I thought that it was stupid too. "Apparently the leader ain't too friendly. The guy came jumping out of the bushes and knocked Daryl unconscious. I had a few words with him. Long story short, they started to prove themselves to us after a while but then they turned their back on us. One of the girls didn't make it but the couple did," I said and they nodded.

Abraham went to check me over but I shook my head at him. I was fine for now and we had much bigger problems at hand. "These people are all around here?" He asked us and we nodded. "Where's the rest of your stuff?" He asked and I grunted. Ask tall, dark, and stupid.

Daryl knew that I wasn't going to explain that one so he took over, pushing us slowly towards the exit of the building. We had to get going. "Yeah and they ain't looking to make friends. We ran into a few of them. We need to get out of here and warn everyone," he said and they both nodded, hurrying slightly to the exit. "Assholes took it, only left us both with knives. I'll be sure to get it back the next time that we see them," he said and they nodded.

Sasha grabbed our backs and began to shove us a little faster. Girl, I just got thrown off a bike, give me a second. "Then let's get the hell out of here. We find out where the walkers went and then we get back to Alexandria. There's a new threat," she said and I nodded.

We all went running to the truck and everyone hopped in quickly. It astounded me how fast that we had moved. We were all in the truck and Daryl was already well on his way to Alexandria. But as Sasha and I watched the road, he fiddled with the radio. "Rick, you copy?" Daryl asked but nothing happened. The walkie just hissed and I sighed. Someone was still alive, they had to be. "Anybody?" He asked one more time, but the radio was still silent. Finally a garbled voice came through and everyone was shocked, someone was there. Who the hell was it though? "Say it again?" Daryl asked. "Help," the voice called before it went silent.

Daryl was screwing around, trying to get the voice back to ask who it was, but I knew who it was. "That was Eugene," I said and they all turned to me. That was his voice. I knew it. There was no denying that. It was good though, that meant that someone was still alive. But he had said help, so what was going on? There had to be more than walkers, something was seriously wrong. "I know it. They're in trouble, something is happening. Screw taking care of the walkers, we have to get back there," I said and I noticed that everyone was nodding. Our family was number one priority. "We have to help them."

"Daryl," Sasha called and I glanced up. In the middle of the road were six men that were sitting on bikes. They did not look friendly. In fact, they looked familiar. Oh my God, that was Wade. That was the man that was one of the Saviors. These were the people that we should be running from.

He nodded and I sucked in a breath. "Yeah I see," he said but showed no indication of slowing down in the slightest. Good, run them over. Kill them all.

Not bothering to look back at the two that were sitting in the back seat, I began to inform them on who our new companions were. "That's them," I said and I noticed that Sasha took in a breath. "I guess those are the Saviors that they were talking about. That's Wade, up at the front," I told Daryl and he nodded. "Do you think they have this leader with them?" I asked him and he shook his head.

Abraham leaned forward so that he was dangling over my shoulder. "These are the people that you were talking about?" He asked me and I nodded. "What in the holy shit? Should we run them over or something?" He asked but Daryl slowed to a stop and waited in front of the menacing group.

Wade dropped his hands and smiled at the four of us. Oh I did not like that smile. Not one little bit. "Why don't you come on out? Join us in the road," he said and we all nodded to each other. This could go bad if we resisted. But still, we didn't move. Wade's eyes locked on Daryl and I and I took in a breath. Maybe he didn't know us. "Ah, nice to see the two of you again. I see you lost Dwight and Sherry," he said and I sighed. Damn it, he did know us. But now I knew that D was really Dwight and Honey was really Sherry. These people were fucked up. "You know if you want to resist try something. I mean, it's a choice I guess. We will end your asses. Split you right in two. Straight through to the sinuses," he said and my bones chilled. Not good. "So come on," he said and we all nodded, jumping out of the truck and slamming the doors behind us. "Ah it's great, going well right out of the gate. Now step two, hand over your weapons," he said.

Daryl, and the rest of us, narrowed our eyes. "Why should we?" He growled.

Wade smiled and shook his head. It was like we were all old friends discussing the weather, not people that were thinking about killing each other. He was far too casual for my liking. It just spelled bad news. "Well they're not yours," he told us with a little laugh.

"What?" Abraham hissed.

Wade smiled at us once more and motioned back to the truck. "See, your weapons, your truck, the fuel in your truck. If you got mints in your glove compartment, porn underneath the seat, change in the seats, hell, the seats themselves. The floor mats, your maps, the little stash of emergency napkins you got there in the console. None of those things are yours anymore," he said and I snarled. Like hell we were giving that up.

Sasha glared as well and crossed her hands over her chest and cocking a hip. Please be nice Sasha, this was not going to go well if anyone did anything stupid. "Whose are they?" She asked with a little snarl.

It seemed that the smile never faltered from Wade's lips. I didn't know the name of the leader but I knew that he was the one who was claiming all of our things. He was the one that I was sure that we were going to meet. He was our new enemy. He was the one that we now had to fill our nightmares. He was the man that I apparently never wanted to meet. "Your property now belongs to Negan." Negan. The Devil.

A/N: Hey guys! Sorry if the dialogue is off a little, (I have a website for what they say but it doesn't tell me who says what) but I was having a hard time remembering who said what in this episode. I think I was pretty close though! I actually had to watch that last scene to remember what was said. Now, I know there was a little extra dialogue with Wade, but I did that on purpose. This is the only update I could really put together for the back half of season 6 because Daryl really wasn't in it that much, so I made it super long! Twenty seven thousand words. So I have to admit that I really kind of lost my motivation for this story for a while which explained the lack of updating. I'm so sorry about that! You all who have stuck with me are fantastic! Those who wanted the lemon for Daryl and Rain, I will make a separate story that contains the chapters that would have had lemons. It will have the entire chapter in it, however the lemon will be added in. I'll let you all know when I have that published. The first one will be all the way back at the prison before Rain goes out to help Glenn and Maggie on the run for baby formula. Seems forever ago doesn't it? And yay for Negan being introduced! Sort of. I love to hate him. Anyways, that's all that I have to say for now! I love you guys and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter! Let me know if you like how Rain is continuing to develop. Hope you guys had a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! As always thank you everyone for the follows and favorites! And a huge thank you to galwidanatitud, sweetkitty, elisamiller93, EastDenise, Emi, sarahmichellegellarfan1, hayleyjune13 and MinHorseMeadow for your reviews! Until next time- A

A/N #2: One last thing! For those who have read the comics you should know that Negan is extremely profane. For those who have not, it's pretty much the F-word every other sentence. Now the show will not be able to show him like that. Censorship and bullshit. Now I love that Negan, it makes him even worse of a person to me. I will probably alter him slightly when he comes into the show, make him a little more like his comic counterpart. Just letting everyone know. Also, anyone who is a fan of Supernatural, Negan will be played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, he played Sam and Dean's father! Super cool! Review guys! Alright now I'll leave you all alone.