My eyes widened as I stared at Wade. This guy had no idea who he was getting into it with. We had dealt with people like this before and we would deal with them again. That's just the way that it goes. "And if you can get your hands on a tanker, you're people our person wants to know. So let's get those side arms, shall we? Right now," Wade said with a little smile. My fists closed around my gun and I sighed. The last thing that I wanted was to be weaponless. There were a few guns in the truck but I was sure that they would find them. There was also a knife tucked into the back of my boot but there was no way that I could take out all of them with it. Not before they got me. "Thank you. Thank you," he half sung as he grabbed both Daryl and Sasha's weapons. He came up to me next and I sighed, grabbing my gun and slamming it forcefully into his hand. "Thank you, darling," he purred before walking off. Damn, I had been hoping that it would go off in his hand. Wade stopped in front of Abraham and waited. "If you have to eat shit, best not to nibble. Bite, chew, swallow, repeat. It goes quicker," he said. I sneered as Abraham finally gave up his gun. "Thank you."
Without bothering to check over the guns, Wade walked back to his men and handed a younger man the weapons. I watched as his greasy hands flitted over my gun and I growled. That thing meant a lot to me and there he was, destroying it. But it was better that they were focused on the guns than us. "Who are you people?" Damn in, Sasha. I could have figured something out.
Her question seemed to surprise Wade as he turned back to us and walked a little closer. My skin crawled as his eyes traveled over each of us, probably deciding on who to kill first. None of us if I had something to say about it. "I get the curiosity, but we have questions ourselves. And we'll be the ones asking them while we drive you back to wherever it is you call home," he said and I nodded. I had figured that he would want that much. People usually did. Although, they looked like they had a home somewhere too. I wondered if maybe they wanted to take a new one. Like my father had with the prison. "Take a gander at where you hang your hats. First, though, your shit. What have you got for us?" He asked.
I snorted and shook my head. They were completely daft if they really thought that we had brought a ton of stuff out here with us. They knew that we had a home out there, so why would they think that we had extra things? Daryl seemed to be thinking the same thing as me when he shook his head. "Yeah, you just took it," he told Wade and his men.
Smirking at Daryl, Wade turned from Sasha and walked over to my husband. My heart was thumping loudly as I watched him, praying that he would just leave Daryl out of it. I'd rather it be me that got shot than him. "Come on. I mean, can we not, okay? There's more. There is always more. Take my man to the back of the truck, start inside the back bumper, work your way to the front. Go," Wade said, pushing Daryl towards a heavy set man. I immediately darted towards them and the man grabbed me, but Wade called out. "No, not her. Leave her with me," he hissed, grabbing my arm and pushing me back to Abraham and Sasha. "Bite, chew, swallow, repeat," he growled at me.
I wanted nothing more than to take the knife out of my boot and cut off Wade's head, but I knew that it wasn't worth it. I'd be dead the second that they saw me move. I wasn't willing to risk it. But I was willing to distract them. People like this loved to talk. They loved to say one thing or another and make sure that their victims were scared. That was exactly what I had to do. Keep them talking so I could figure out a plan. "Who's Negan?" Abraham asked, helping me cause unknowingly.
It looked like Wade was about to say something, but I took the opportunity before he could say anything. "Nothing but a damn coward," I hissed, watching as Wade turned to look at me. His eyes lit up slightly and it unnerved me. "Look at this. He sends his henchmen to do his dirty work for him. I've already met a few of his men," I said. The light faded from Wade's eyes and it was replaced with more of a curious look. "Nothing more than a bunch of mindless pricks. They think that he offers protection. He just uses them as a front while he gets to sit back and watch these idiots do his bidding. Right?" I asked Wade, hoping that this wouldn't come back to bite me in the ass.
He laughed and looked down at my finger. I realized that the ring was sitting on it, standing out against the dirt and grime over the rest of me. He grinned and shook his head. "That's sweet. Let me guess, that's your man back there. Ain't it?" I merely stared at Wade, hoping that my glare would set him on fire. "Thought so. Ding, dong, Hell's bells. You count yourself lucky that I even let you finish. Maybe it's because I like watching those lips move," he told me and my stomach recoiled. "You see, usually we introduce ourselves by just popping one of you right off the bat," he told us and I gulped. I guess we could count ourselves lucky for that. "But you seem like reasonable people. Even you. I mean, you're sporting dress blues, for Christ's sake," He said, motioning to Abraham. "And, like I said, we're gonna drive you back to where you were. I mean, do you know how awkward it is carpooling with someone whose friend or friends you've just killed? Oof," he said, like it actually pained him. But I knew that it was just an act. It was always an act. "But I told you not to ask any questions. And then what does this ginger do? So that's that. I don't want you to get the wrong impression of me," Wade said as he took my gun and raised it to Abraham's head.
My heart leaped into my throat and I took a step in front of Abraham. I thought that maybe Wade would shove me out of his way but he merely smirked, dropping his finger to the trigger. My heart was pounding rapidly as I stared Wade down. "Wait. Wait," I heard Sasha say and I let out a breath. Thank you. "You don't have to do this," she pleaded desperately.
Scoffing loudly at Sasha, Wade shook his head. This wasn't looking very good for me. At least I had a nice life. Maybe Maggie really would name the baby Rain Jr now. "Shut up. I am talking to the man," Wade said, motioning around me to Abraham. Talking? He was just threatening to kill us. He probably was still going to kill us if we didn't think of a way out of this. And soon. "I'm not gonna kill you," Wade said and I nearly grinned. That was music to my ears. "Wait, wait. You know what? Yes, I am," he said. I heard him click off the safety and I closed my eyes. Just before he could pull the trigger though, a huge explosion sounded and I was knocked to the ground.
In the distance I could hear Daryl call my name and I groaned. Was I dead? Or was that real? My eyes slowly opened and I stared at the mess that had once been Wade and his men. It was a gruesome sight, but I would rather it be them than us. The men were blown to pieces with blood splattered all across the road. And me too. I stared at the spot that Wade had been standing in not a moment before and leaned over, grabbing my gun from the blood puddle. "Goodbye Wade," I muttered. Turning back, I saw that Daryl was standing with the RPG that Abraham had found in his arms. I smiled and walked over to him, grabbing him in a tight embrace. "I knew there was a reason that I married you," I told him, earning laughs from my group members. I pulled back from Daryl and saw a little trickle of blood. "Are you alright?" I asked nervously.
Daryl nodded at me and I sighed. Even if he were injured he wouldn't have told me. "Son of a bitch was tougher than he looked," he said and I nodded. I quickly glanced to the back of the truck and saw the man that had taken Daryl, laying on the road, face down. "What about you? Are you alright?" Daryl asked me and I nodded. A little shaken up, but I was fine.
A moment later we were joined by Abraham and Sasha, the two both looking about as nervous as I did. My heart began to beat rapidly once more as I realized the danger that we had put ourselves in. That explosion was damn loud. We were probably drawing walkers and humans to us. That was bad. The walkers were always a problem, and now people were too. We had to make sure to get out of here before some more of Negan's men came to pay us a visit. "Did he cut you?" Sasha asked as she caught sight of Daryl's shoulder.
He shrugged and I rolled my eyes. That was typical Daryl. Even if he was in more pain than humanly possible to take, he would never admit it. But I did know that the cut was tiny and, if anything, it probably just stung a little. He would be fine. He would just need a pad on it for a few days. It wasn't even deep enough to justify stitches. "A little. What a bunch of assholes," Daryl said.
Smiling slightly, I nodded. Abraham scoffed behind me and I turned back with a laugh. I could tell that he felt bad that I had nearly been shot earlier but I shrugged it off. It wouldn't be the first time. Besides, most of my group knew that I was willing to die for them. I always would be. They were the family that I had never had. "Let's get you fixed up at home," Sasha told Daryl.
"Yes, ma'am," he said and I smiled, pulling Daryl into a quick kiss. He wrapped his arms around me and I laughed into his mouth as Abraham made kissy noises in the background. As I had expected, Daryl pulled away from me, letting his hair cover up the light blush that was dusted over his cheeks. I really needed to get Jessie to cut his hair. It was ridiculously long. I couldn't believe that he could even see.
As we headed back to the truck I grabbed the weapons that had been taken from us, along with the functional weapons that Wade's men had previously owned. They were good guns. They were lucky that they had ever been able to come across these. And keep them. Most of the guns that we had gotten from Rick's bag, way back in Atlanta, were long gone by now. Walking past the men I noticed that a piece of Wade's corpse was on the ground, laying right in front of Abraham. "Nibble on that," he said and I laughed, placing my hand on his back and pushing him forward.
Once we were all back in the car and on our way I sighed. We were a ways off from Alexandria but that didn't matter. Soon enough we would be reunited with our people. I sighed and took in breath. We had to let Sasha and Abraham know that these people were more than just those few. "These people. They're the second group of them that Daryl and I have met," I said, looking back in the mirror and noticing both Sasha's and Abraham's head snap up. "We met three other ones out in the woods right before we found you two. The ones that we told you about. Two of them are still alive. D, the guy that we met out in the woods, said that they were running from a leader. A guy that I would never want to know. I assume that he meant this Negan," I said.
My skin crawled as I mentioned Negan's name. I had no idea who this man was but I knew that he was nothing good. He reminded me of my father. And that was not something that I wanted to deal with again. "We gotta get back to Alexandria," Daryl said, stepping on the gas. "Rick is gonna know what to do. We have to let everyone know that there's another group out there that poses a threat. A big one," Daryl said and I nodded.
He was right. If anyone would know what to do, it was Rick. He was the one that we all turned to whenever we were in need of something. He was the man that I counted as both my father and best friend. He was everything to me. All of these people were. It just wasn't something that I liked to say. Letting my eyes close, I laid back in the seat. It was a long drive back to Alexandria and I was exhausted. By the looks of it, so were Sasha and Abraham. In the back seat they were already asleep. I assumed that it had been a long few days for them too. I glanced over to Daryl and he nodded, letting me know that he didn't mind if I went to sleep. Knowing that we were going back somewhere safe I nuzzled into the chair and let my eyes slip closed. It wasn't even a full minute before I was out like a light.
A few hours later I felt my leg being shaken and I jumped, sitting upright. The sky had gone dark and I had to struggle to see inside of the walls. Why the hell were none of the lights on? That was when I saw it. The fence, one of the damn walls was down. And walkers were pouring in through it. No. Please let them be alright. Maggie. Glenn. Carl. Judith. Carol. Michonne. Merle. Morgan. Everyone. They were all in there. "Oh my God. The wall, the far wall where the tower was. It's gone. It's down," I muttered, waking Sasha and Abraham out of their half asleep state. "Walkers are pouring into Alexandria. What the hell happened while we were gone? We have to get in there!" I yelled, finally realizing the full extent of the damage. "Get us up to the gate," I told Daryl, who nodded and drove the truck up to the gate.
Once the truck was parked I jumped into the back seat and threw a gun up to Daryl. He caught it and immediately ran out of the truck. Sasha and Abraham were after him and I grabbed my own gun before darting from the truck. Abraham was waiting for me and gave me a hand to the roof. Once up I joined the others in taking out walkers all over the place. Not far from where we were standing I spotted Carol and Michonne. Thank God, they were alright. I saw Rick too, Carl in his arms. My heart jumped at the sight of them but I knew that something was wrong. I had to focus though, I could worry later. Morgan was with Denise and I nodded. There's two more. Merle darted to keep up with Michonne and I sighed. Thank God. Father Gabriel was running with Judith in his arms and I noticed Rosita, Eugene, and Tara running as well. There were plenty of other Alexandria residents with them and I nodded. Maggie and Enid were running as well and I nearly laughed. Maggie was safe. So was her child. I saw both Aaron and Eric running too, with Spencer in tow. That was everyone.
Well, that was all but one. I was panicking internally as I searched for Glenn. He had to be out here somewhere. I looked down and noticed a swarm of walkers, all surrounding one figure. It was a man. Please be him. I took out the first few walkers and screamed with joy when I saw that it was him. We had gotten here just in time. Glenn was safe. "Glenn! Get the hell away from there!" I screamed down to Glenn, shocking him from his stupor. He nodded his thanks at me and I sighed, watching as he headed after Maggie and Enid.
Once I was sure that he had made it away from the bulk of the walkers safely I turned my attention back to the large groupings. I sighed as I shot one after another. It didn't matter. We were never going to make a difference in this herd. It seemed that Daryl knew it too as he motioned to me. "Keep shooting," he instructed Abraham and Sasha, who both nodded. "Come on. I've got a plan," Daryl told me and I nodded.
He gave me his hand, helping me from the platform. We both darted over to the truck and I watched as he grabbed the RPG. Well this was going all sorts of strange places. He nodded at me to grab the gallons of gas and I smirked. Now I knew what he was doing. He was going to get rid of the walkers without exhausting our bullet resources. Quickly, and quietly, we sprinted through the masses of walkers. My stomach roiled as I felt a few of their hands just barely graze my arms. I should have worn longer sleeves. But we finally made it to a turned over car by the lake and Daryl grabbed my arm, hoisting me onto it. I grabbed the weapon, surprised at how heavy it was, and watched as he jumped onto it. We both took the gallons of gas and threw it into the lake, hoping that this would work. It had to. This was our home. We would not lose it.
Once I was sure that all of the gas was out of the buckets and onto the lake I sighed. I gave Daryl a sharp nod and watched as he raised the RPG. I covered my ears, knowing just how loud the damn explosion was. Just as I had expected, the RPG blew into the lake and I watched as the water went up in flames. The heat wave was painful and Daryl pushed me to stumble back. Not even a moment after the lake had begun to burn I turned back to see hundreds of walkers heading right into the flames. I smiled proudly and watched as Daryl let the weapon lean against his leg. "Just in case you were wondering, no you can't keep that," I told him.
For a while we just watched the walkers head into the lake, into their demise. Once the steady flow had dropped from a stream into a trickle we jumped down and assisted with the remaining residents of Alexandria, in the cleanup of the streets. I saw both walkers that must have invaded from the outside and residents that had risen. Both affected me. I turned, about to sink my knife into another walker, when I realized that it was Rick. I smiled and jumped into his arms. Looking around I saw that the walkers were gone. All of them. The only thing that remained was to rid ourselves of the bodies. But that was for another night.
Already people were on top of the walls, placing pilings of wood where the wall had fallen. It wasn't as good as the supports that we currently had but it was better than it had been. Rick looked broken and I prayed that it was nothing to do with Carl. "Thank you. Both of you. I'm glad to see that you're both alright," he said as he embraced Daryl. I was about to ask what had happened here when Rick held up a hand. "Wait. Before you say anything, there's something that the two of you need to see. Something that you missed while you were out," he told us.
We both nodded and allowed him to lead us. We headed to the infirmary and my heart beat sped up. With every passing moment I was getting more and more worried about the residents of Alexandria. On our way I saw Merle, gladly embracing him. He didn't stay long though, as he was helping with the brutal task of taking care of those who had been bitten. I knew how awful that job was. To tell someone that they were going to die. I knew it all too well. I walked into the infirmary, nodding at Denise before heading into the back room. On the table was Carl, with a patch over his eye. He looked like my father. "Oh my God. What happened to him?" I asked Rick.
Rick's eyes were glazed over and I felt my heart break for him. That was his child. His first born that he had sworn to protect with his life. And right not he felt like he had broken his promise. "We were stuck in the middle of a herd. Sam, Jessie, and Ron were with us," he said and I raised my eyebrows. I had seen Merle and Michonne, but I hadn't seen them. "Sam saw something and started to cry, Jessie tried to calm him down but nothing was working. He was bit and so was she. We tried to get her away from them but it wasn't working," he said and I sighed. I knew that Rick was close to Jessie so I was sorry to see her go. I couldn't have cared less about either of her kids though. They were weak. "I guess Ron blamed me for their deaths. So he aimed the gun at me. He was about to fire when Michonne killed him," he said and I nodded. "The gun still went off though. Right into Carl's eye," he said, his voice cracking a bit at the end.
If I had eaten anything today I was sure that I would have just emptied it onto the floor. Carl. The boy that had started out so innocent and had been forced to grow up ahead of his time. He wasn't dead, thank God, but he was now missing an eye. It reminded me of my father. "I knew something was wrong with that kid," Daryl said and I nodded. Ron had always seemed a little off. I was glad to hear that he was dead. And that he would never be bothering us again. "Will he be alright?" Daryl asked, motioning to Carl.
The slight nod of the head that Rick gave us seemed to lift a weight off of my shoulders. So many people had been lost tonight and I wasn't sure that I could handle one more dead. "Denise said that he'll live," Rick told us and I nodded. Even though we had lost Pete, the real surgeon, we did have Denise. She had only been a medical student but she had been a promising one. "There's no saving the eye though," Rick said softly.
I nodded, having figured that much. Carl would pull through but he would need time. He would need time to adjust. My father had lived with one eye and I had known people to live completely blind. He would just have to use a learning curve. "Hey, don't worry," I said, placing my hand gently on Rick's shoulder. "Carl will pull through this. He's gone through worse before. We'll let you have your time with him. You deserve it," I told Rick. He nodded at the both of us and I gave him a quick peck on the cheek, along with the unconscious Carl, before pulling Daryl from the infirmary. He was giving me the look that told me that I should have said something and I sighed. It would have been too cruel. "I know, I should have said something. But I couldn't do it. His son just lost his eye and he blames himself. Give him a while to get over it. At least let Carl wake up first. Then I'll tell him, I promise," I told Daryl.
He nodded back at me and the two of us made our way to the house, silently. Walkers were laying all over the street and the lake was slowly dwindling down to a steady burn. It seemed like most of the Alexandrian residents were on it and I nodded. Almost every damn day Daryl, I, and the rest of our group were cleaning up after these people. For once I just wanted to let them take care of it and give myself a break. So that was exactly what I did. Daryl went to go off and assist with the bodies but I grabbed him by the sleeve, pulling him towards our house. We walked in and I smiled at Glenn and Maggie, who were currently laying on the couch together in a deep sleep.
I held my hand up to my lips as we passed through the kitchen and up the stairs to our bedroom. Daryl kicked the door behind him and watched as I stripped off the blood covered shirt. Once I had pulled off my clothes and replaced them with an oversized shirt I grinned and flopped onto the bed. Daryl was moving slower than me and I watched as he pulled off his shirt, leaving it off. It was good though, I liked when he would let me see the scars. I knew that no matter what he said he would always be ashamed of them. He kicked off his pants as well before climbing into bed with me. We both spread out on the bed, barely touching. "Come here," Daryl said softly and I easily obliged. "I'll keep you safe. No matter what. I'll fight for you with my dying breath," he told me softly. I smiled before looking up at him, capturing his lips, and letting go of the horrors of the day.
TWO MONTHS LATER...
A shrill beeping filled the room and I groaned. For as many useful things that Heath had found on the past few runs, I did not agree that the alarm clocks were a useful part. Daryl shared in my sentiment as he rolled over and slapped the alarm, shutting it off. No matter which one of us would hit the alarm in the morning, it was always hard. I was pretty sure that we were going to break it in the next few days. Without saying a word Daryl climbed out of bed and pulled on his clothes before heading out the door. He wasn't angry, just tired. I couldn't blame him. We had been up late last night, planning the supply run that we would be going on today.
Over the past two months changes to Alexandria were being implemented every day. The walls had been the first things to be changed. I had been the head of that project, seeing to it that the walls were stronger than they had been. And it had worked. The walls were thicker and taller, extending even father now. We had the room to grow more crops, which was something that we desperately needed. Over the past few months, even though we had lost people, it seemed that we were going out less and less. And that meant that we had less food than we used to. The pantry supplies were running low and Daryl, Merle, and I were not enough people to go hunting for an entire community. We had been teaching some others, but it wasn't enough. People would be starving to death soon if we didn't do anything.
That was why we were going out on the run today. We had to get something. Some type of food. And we had to do it fast. It wasn't like we were the only ones though. Soon, Tara and Heath would be going out on a two week supply run. It would be our make or break point. And we all knew that we needed to make it. As far as the people went, we were healing. Carl was up and about now, and I was always on the lookout for an eye patch. I constantly teased him about being a pirate. I had thought at first that it might offend him but now I knew that he appreciated it. He appreciated not being treated like a broken doll. Abraham and Sasha had been growing close as of late, and I wasn't too sure how Rosita felt about it. Maggie and the baby were still healthy and Glenn seemed thrilled to be a father. As for Denise, well she and Tara seemed to be getting along rather well.
Everything was working out for everyone. For now at least. Since Wade and his men had found us out on the road we hadn't had another run in with any other groups. I wanted it to stay that way but I had a lingering feeling that we were due for another greeting sometime soon. I yawned deeply and stood, grabbing a fresh pair of clothes from the drawer. A loose fitting white V-neck and a pair of tight blue jean shorts. I grabbed my boots from the floor and slipped them on and grabbed my gun from the table, along with my knife. I glanced at the bow against the wall that Daryl had found me and smiled. It was a simple longbow, nothing fancy, but it worked. It was a little too big and not balanced quite right but it was more than nothing. Still, I missed my old bow. If I ever found D again, I'd be sure to get it back.
As I got ready to head downstairs I noticed Daryl come back into the room, a mug of tea and one of coffee in his hands. He held them both out to me, offering me a choice, and I smiled. I took the tea, despite wanting the coffee. I knew that it was what he wanted. "You ready for that supply run?" I asked him and he nodded. "Should be pretty easy. Just grab some stuff. Food's the priority right now. We're running low. We're used to not eating much for extended periods of time. But these people. They aren't. They've always been well fed," I scoffed.
Daryl nodded at me and watched as I twisted the ring around my finger. It was a habit that I was sure that I would never break. "Not a problem. We'll get out there, get the food, and be on our way," he told me and I nodded. It was always so simple, until something went wrong. "Think you can manage a run without nearly dying this time?" He asked me with a little smirk.
Biting back a laugh, I slapped him roughly on the shoulder before sighing. It had been an accident. About two weeks ago I had gone out on a run with him when we had been ambushed by walkers. We had turned to run and while I was running back a steep incline, I nearly ran straight into a ravine. If Daryl hadn't grabbed me I would have been gone. "You know, Dixon. One of these days I'm going to really die out there and you're going to miss me," I said and he rolled his eyes. "I mean, who else would take care of you? I do your laundry-" I told him before being cut off.
Daryl snorted at me and shook his head. I glared at him and waited for him to tell me how I was wrong. "You gather it to give to one of the girls that does it," he told me and I shook my head.
I wanted to argue with him that he was wrong but he was actually right. I never really did the laundry but that was because I had better things to do. Still, I did more than he did. "Still counts!" I yelled and he shook his head at me. "I pick up your disgusting socks and underwear. That counts as me doing your laundry. It's more than you do," I told him and he shook his head. He couldn't argue with that. And boy clothes were disgusting. I had offered to pick up Merle's one day too but after just once, well, let's just say never again. "Anyways, I also cook for you," I said proudly.
Once more Daryl snorted and I glared at him. He couldn't just let me have this one thing? Of course not, every day I made fun of him for something so now it was his turn to get me back. That was just the way that we worked. "You make coffee," he told me and I glared at him. He still drank it. "And watered down coffee at that," he said and I gasped. My coffee wasn't really that bad, was it? "Carol's the one that really cooks," he said and I shook my head.
While that might have been true there was no need to actually say it. So I got up and Daryl was up just a moment after me. He knew that he was in trouble. Good. "That's it!" I yelled and immediately Daryl was off like a bullet down the staircase. "Get over here!" I yelled at him as I chased after him. Darting down the stairs, and nearly tumbling down them a few times, I hit the landing and saw that Daryl was about to leave the house. Before he could though I jumped over the counter and sprinted after him. Maggie and Glenn were watching us with amused smiles as I jumped on Daryl and tackled him to the floor, forcing him over so that I could sit on him.
Of course I hadn't really thought through the fact that Daryl was much stronger than I was. Barely exerting himself, Daryl rolled us over and I grunted as my back pressed into the bow. It hurt but I refused to say anything. I was going to win this one. I always lost and I couldn't take it anymore. Just one damn time I wanted to win. "Are we ready to go on that run now or do the two of you need a minute?" I heard Rick ask. Glancing up I saw that he was leaning over the couch with a smirk on his face, Glenn and Maggie suppressing laughter behind him.
Giving Rick a wide smile I shoved Daryl roughly to the side and sprung to my feet. He hit the floor roughly and grabbed my leg, making me stumble as I stood. The two of us both had a little moment of regaining our composure before standing. "Oh no, I'm ready. Just had to teach him a lesson," I scoffed, shoving past Daryl to get to our housemates. "Hey, we'll see you two soon," I said as I gave Glenn a quick hug. It had become a habit, hugging each other. We never said anything about it but we always knew that it was very possible that it would be the last time that we saw each other. "Make sure you remember to keep taking the vitamins," I told Maggie as I grabbed her. "We'll be on the lookout for some more out there," I promised. I wasn't sure if we would find them but I would try.
Her eyes were bright and she had the glow from her pregnancy. The bump was barely even noticeable but it was there. You just had to look for it. I wished her the best of luck with it. It would be nice to see a fresh person in the group. Judith was cute but she was with Carl and Gabriel most of the time. "Thank you. Be careful out there. Please," she told me and I nodded as she moved closer to me. "I know that you think that those people have moved on since the last time that you found them, but they might still be there," she said with a hushed tone. "Just watch out. I can't lose you," she said and I noticed tears welling in her eyes. She had already lost almost everything.
Nodding at her softly I gave her hand a quick squeeze before walking out of the house, falling in line behind Daryl and Rick. Rick moved off to the side to get the car ready and I made a move to follow him, but before I could Daryl yanked on my arm. I was about to ask him what he was doing but he beat me to it. "One second, I gotta check something real fast," he told me and I nodded. Following behind him I noticed that he was heading directly for Denise. "Hey," he called out to her as we walked up to her. She called back to us and Daryl grabbed a piece of paper out of his pocket. "This thing at the bottom right here. You're talking about the drink, right?" He asked her.
I looked over his shoulder and cocked my eyebrow. Everything on the list was either food or something medical. There were even a few clothing requests and hygiene products. But there was nothing else like that on the list. Orange pop. Pop? Denise was clearly from the Deep South. Denise nodded, looking completely nervous. "I am, but-"
Daryl cut her off before she got a chance to explain herself and I glared at him. "It's not medical," he told her. I shoved Daryl gently but he ignored me. As much as I loved Daryl he had a bad habit of cutting people off the minute he saw something wrong with whatever they were saying. I loved both him and his brother but they were both terrible about that.
For a moment Denise looked taken aback. But I assumed that she had been expecting that of Daryl so she shook her head. I did notice that Denise hadn't once looked over at me and I couldn't help but to wonder if she was intimidated with both Daryl and I in front of her. I had noticed that most of the Alexandrian residents seemed to get a little nervous when we were around them or in big groups of our former group. "No, I drew a line between the important stuff and that. I just figured, if you saw it," she said softly, trailing off towards the end.
I couldn't help but to smile at her. Denise was certainly not a fighter, a little overweight, constantly nervous, and not a violent bone in her body. She was terrible out in the real world but she was good in here. She was a good asset to have here. And despite the fact that her skills were nowhere near his, I would take Denise over Pete any day. "All right," Daryl told her with a little nod.
Before the pair of us could walk over to the waiting car with Rick, Denise spoke up again. "Anything remotely medical is a priority," she said and we nodded, turning once more. But of course, Denise was a nervous talker and she wasn't done yet. "And food, maybe even food before medicine, and gas or batteries or books for the kids or clothes is just- if you see it, if it just happens to, you know, be right there," she said nervously. I could tell that she wanted the soda for something more than just herself.
Of course, Daryl was never one to use context clues. But what else could I expect from a high school dropout that had never really cared about school in the first place? But that wasn't to say he was stupid. He was smarter than plenty of people that I knew. "You like it, right?" Daryl asked her.
Denise shook her head at him and I grinned. I didn't think that it was for her. "No, I don't drink pop," she told him.
His eyebrows raised and I nearly laughed. I loved Daryl more than anything but he could be such a moron. Then again, so could I. We all were sometimes. "What the hell's pop?" He asked her and that time I did laugh.
His head whipped back to me and I shook my head. The last thing that I wanted was for a car ride full of Daryl and Rick pointing out every stupid thing that I had ever done. Denise looked slightly surprised before shaking her head and glancing down at the ground bashfully for a moment. "Oh, I'm originally from Ohio," she said and I smiled. Not where I would have thought.
Risking a quick look over at him I couldn't tell if Daryl was either angry at her or just plain confused. Idiot. These were the days that I wished that he could just read minds and save us all the time of stupid questions and pointless conversations. "Why you want it?" Daryl asked.
The question peaked my interest and I looked over to Denise who was currently sporting a bright blush. It was something about Tara. "Tara was talking about it in her sleep, I think," she said and I smiled. I thought so. "Either she likes it or she doesn't, but if she likes it, it'd be a really nice surprise. I'm not good with that kind of stuff, and she and Heath are going on that two-week run. I just thought it'd be a nice going-away present. Just, uh, don't go out of your way," she said, like she was ashamed that she was asking something. "And if it gives you any trouble-"
She was still babbling when Daryl cut her off. "I won't," he told her and I rolled my eyes. He really did know how to handle these kind of situations delicately. He was almost as good as me in those situations. Perhaps that's where I had gotten my charming personality from. At least that's who I would blame.
Denise nodded at us and smiled bashfully. She really was a sweet girl. I hoped that one day she would grow a backbone. It would be nice to see and I was sure that Tara would love to see it. "Okay, good, 'cause it's not important. I should've said so instead of just drawing a line," she said.
I shook my head at her and nodded at Rick, who was silently asking if we were ready to get going. "Got it," Daryl told her.
Before we could head to the car where Rick was waiting, I turned back to Denise and smiled. She looked nervous but nodded at me anyways. "Hey, we'll be on the lookout for it. I think I know a little gas station that has some. I passed it a few months ago. I hate the stuff so I left it," I said and she laughed. I couldn't believe that Tara liked it. It was horrible. "Should still be there if no one else has gotten to it," I told her and she nodded her thanks to me. Without saying another word I turned from her and ran to catch up with Daryl. He looked over at me as I ran up and I laughed at his stiff posture. "You know, you terrify her," I told him.
He merely shook his head and laughed softly before walking up to the car that Rick was waiting in. Daryl took the front on instinct and I piled into the back, stretching my legs out. We were off the moment that we both were seated and I gave a quick wave to Rosita, who was currently on fence duty. I was about to doze off when I heard Rick speak up. "Today's the day. We're gonna find food, maybe some people. The law of averages has gotta catch up," Rick said and I nodded.
Daryl, ever the downer, shook his head. I didn't blame him, I wasn't sure that I wanted to find people. After my last two meetings with strangers I wasn't overly fond of bringing someone new into Alexandria. Especially after all of the work that we had put in. "I don't know. We ain't seen nobody for weeks. Maybe we ain't gonna find nobody. Maybe that's a good thing," Daryl said and I nodded along. Rick sighed and grabbed a CD, popping it into the player. Daryl put his hand out though and pushed the CD away. "Don't," he said and I smiled. Rick ignored him though and pushed the CD in, flipping the volume on. Daryl turned it off though and I laughed. "Don't," he repeated. Once more Rick ignored him and played the Cd. "Please don't," Daryl pleaded but Rick merely ignored him, cranking the volume.
They were such children. I laughed as Daryl shrank down in his chair and looked pissed at the song that was now blaring in the car. "Give me the downbeat, maestro," the man on the CD purred and I smiled, letting the music fill my head. "I want to lay it on the line. 'Cause everything I do, I wanna do it in double time. When I take a ride. Well, if your music's gonna move me. Well, I just gotta feel the beat..." I eventually let my mind drift off and I leaned my head against the window. It wasn't long that I got to drift off though before I spotted the gas station that I had told Denise about. And just like last time that I had been here, there was a full vending machine.
As we drove by, I pressed myself up against the window and scanned through the machine. At the very top were a few cans of orange soda and I grinned. It was still here. "Hey wait. Stop here," I called up to the front. Rick nodded at me and turned the music off, pulling into the gas station and parking the car around the front of the station. Right where I wanted to be.
Before I could head over to the vending machine though, I did see a truck. A damn big one. It reminded me of the truck that Aaron, Daryl, and I had found where the Wolves' trap had been set but I brushed it off. This was different. It didn't look so perfect. It just looked like a stroke up luck. I was about to push open the back of the truck when Rick placed his hand on my back, startling me. "Hey, hold up. It's best to be safe," Rick told me and I nodded. I moved away from the truck and helped the men go through the store.
Daryl was standing up against the front of the store and I joined him, my bow pointed at the door. I grimaced as Daryl banged on the glass. It was effective but it always made me nervous that it would draw more walkers than just the ones that we wanted. "You cover it?" Daryl asked once we were sure that nothing was inside of the store. Close to the front anyways.
Rick nodded at him and pushed the door open. "Yeah. Yeah, we're good," he said as we moved into the store. A quick swipe of the store told us that there was nothing here to be afraid of. But there was also nothing that we could get of use in here. Plenty of maps and a few candy bars, but nothing that we would want to bother bringing back with us. The three of us made our way outside of the store and I sighed as we went back to the truck. "One more time?" Rick asked when the door in the back didn't lift.
Taking a lot less caution than Rick had used, Daryl climbed onto the truck making my stomach clench nervously. He was going to get himself killed one day and I was going to be so pissed at him. Daryl pushed against the latch on the bottom of the truck and I nodded as it clicked gently. It wasn't locked. "It ain't locked," Daryl said, voicing my thoughts.
I watched as Rick nodded to Daryl and the door of the truck flew open. Daryl jumped down from the edge and the three of us waited with our weapons drawn. It only took us a moment though to realize that there were no walkers in the truck. But there were supplies. And lots of them. The three of us laughed, walking up to the truck to check out our bounty. "Well, how about that? The law of averages," Rick said with a smile. "Let's get this thing going, grab our gear, come back for the car later. Take another way back. See what we can see," he said.
I nodded and walked over to the front of the truck. I could see Daryl and Rick talking in the background and I grabbed the keys out of the front seat, tossing them back to Rick. "Think it'll start?" Daryl asked as Rick moved around with the keys in his hand.
Rick smiled at the two of us and I knew that for once, we were going to be alright. All we had to do was get this truck back to Alexandria. This was enough food to last us for months. Well, probably more like weeks but it would tide us over until Tara and Heath got back from their trip. "Yeah, I do," Rick said with a little laugh. He was holding a jar of something and I cocked my head at it. It was food. I think. "Sorghum," Rick said softly. I brushed it off to a conversation that I had missed earlier and headed back to where Daryl was messing with the vending machine.
It looked like he was trying to flip it over but I knew that the damn things were heavy. I tried to give Daryl a hand but the two of us were just shy of getting the machine to tip over. I smiled as we worked on it, knowing that Daryl was trying to get the orange soda out. He would always care more about people than he let on. "Yo, give us a hand with this," Daryl called out to Rick. "Let's flip it over," he said.
Even with Rick the machine was stronger than the three of us. I had always known that vending machines were heavy but I had never thought that they were this heavy. I guess I should have seen it coming though. People didn't want kids getting into vending machines for free so they made them as heavy as possible. "I don't think we got it," Rick said.
Both of us nodded with him, and I sighed. We were going to be here all day trying to get this stupid machine open. "I got an idea," Daryl said and we nodded, watching as he ran to the front of the truck. He whistled back to Rick and I watched as Rick tossed him the keys. Once the engine was running Daryl came out of the back of the truck with a large chain and I smiled. Now I knew what he was doing. Rick and I quickly helped Daryl tie the chain around the machine and we watched as Daryl climbed back into the truck, slamming on the gas. The machine easily went over and I laughed as the glass, and soda, went flying across the pavement.
Daryl immediately hopped out of the truck, tossing the keys back to Rick and went to work going through the mess that he had made. I watched him with a smile as he grabbed a Slim Jim out of the glass and tossed it back to me. I nearly laughed as I stuffed it into Rick's bags. I had told Daryl once, probably two years ago that I used to love them. It had been right after I was shot by Otis way back at Hershel's farm. It seemed like another life. One that I would love to have back. "It's soda and candy. Why the trouble?" Rick asked.
I went to helping Daryl collect the orange soda cans and shove them into his bag. Daryl didn't bother to look up to Rick, he merely grabbed the remaining cans off of the ground and popped them into his bag. "It wasn't any trouble," he said with a grunt as he pushed them to the bottom of his bag. Huh, maybe I should have brought my bag too? Oh well.
Even from behind me I could feel Rick go completely rigid and I turned back, watching as a man came darting around the corner. He bumped into Rick gently before stumbling past the three of us and turning back to face us. I dropped the can of soda that I had been about to open for myself and pulled my bow off of my back, aiming an arrow right between the eyes of the man. Daryl and Rick both quickly had their guns up and aimed at the same spot that my arrow was currently locked on. "Hi," the man said softly.
If the situation hadn't been as tense as it was I probably would have laughed. Here was this guy, with two guns and an arrow aimed at his head and the first thing that he could think to say was hi? He had guts at least. The man was holding his hands up and I nodded. He wasn't of of the people that Wade and D were with. "Back up! Now!" Rick yelled and the man complied. But he only moved a few inches. "Keep 'em up!"
He merely laughed and shook his head and I took a better look at the man. He had bright blue eyes, the same kind of eyes that Daryl had. His hair was a medium brown and it hit past his shoulders. He was wearing a brown trench coat with boots and a blue beanie on top of his head. His mouth was covered by a beige cloth but I could still tell that he was smiling. He didn't seem to be armed either which immediately made him more suspicious. "Whoa, easy, guys. I was just running from the dead," he said.
My eyebrows raised and I couldn't help but to wonder if he was telling us that just so that we wouldn't shoot him and risk drawing the walkers here or if he thought that we would just move on if we thought that they were coming. Well, the first option was out seeing that my weapon was silent. And considering that he ran right into us I assumed that he was telling the truth. "How many?" Rick asked.
The man merely shrugged his shoulders and I glared at him. That was anything but helpful. "Ten, maybe more. I'm not risking it," he said and I nodded. "Once it gets to double digits, I start running," he said and I nodded. That made sense, especially if you were alone, which it seemed that he was. If he had friends, they were nowhere in sight.
"Where?" Daryl asked angrily.
He had never been one to make friends with strangers and it seemed like he still wasn't ready to start. I couldn't help but to wonder why Daryl was a recruiter for Alexandria. He hated plenty of people and didn't trust even more. But he was a good judge of character. Sometimes. Other times it was just weird personal vendettas. "About a half a mile back. They're headed this way," the man told us and I nodded. "You probably have about eleven minutes," he said and I nodded once more.
The man was good with timing and he was honest. I appreciated that. He could have easily let us be ambushed by the walkers. So maybe he wasn't totally bad. He didn't really seem bad but I had met too many people lately that I couldn't trust. Too many people that wanted to kill me. I had to be careful these days. We all did. "Okay, thanks for letting us know," Rick said to the man.
The man nodded at us and I watched as he pulled down his bandana. He was smiling at us and I watched as his eyes trailed over each of us. Unlike most strangers that we ran into his eyes were more curious than anything else. He quickly glanced over me and gave me a sweet smile which I returned. He didn't seem like that bad of a guy to me. "Yeah. There's more of them than us, right? Gotta stick together. Right?" He asked and we all nodded. "You have a camp?" He asked and my heart rate sped up. This was normally where things went bad.
I had thought that Rick would be the first to step in but to my surprise, it was Daryl. I shouldn't have been surprised though. I knew that Daryl didn't like the man. He didn't like most people that we met out on the road. He still didn't like most of the Alexandrian residents. But I didn't blame him, they could be a bit much to handle. "No," Daryl said and I sighed. There goes getting a new member. "Do you?" He asked.
The man merely shook his head and I sighed. "No," he replied quickly and I narrowed my eyes. He had a place that he was holed up though. He was clean, his hair was cut, and his clothes were clean. "Sorry for running into you. I'm gonna go now. If this is the next world, I hope it's good to you guys," he said with an earnest smile.
Well maybe he didn't want to stick around to see if we were as friendly as he seemed to be. Before the man could turn back Rick spoke up and I turned to him. "I'm Rick. This is Daryl," he said and I rolled my eyes as Daryl snorted. "And this is Rain," he said and I gave the man a soft smile, which he returned. "What's your name?" Rick asked.
For a moment my skin crawled as I wondered if this man was Negan. But I knew that he wasn't. If he was the way that his men had made him sound the three of us would have already been dead. "Paul Rovia," he said and I nodded. Definitely not Negan. And it seemed that he wasn't one of his men either. But that begged the question, who was he? "But my friends used to call me Jesus," he said and I couldn't help but to laugh. Jesus turned to me and grinned. "Yeah, I know. Most people laugh when they hear that. Your pick," he said with a shrug.
Forget what the two of them wanted to call him, I was gonna go with Jesus. It was hysterical and it made me feel better. If his friends had called him Jesus that meant that he was a leader, trustworthy, and had a good heart. That was enough for me. "You said you didn't have a camp," Rick said and Jesus nodded, a suspicious look creeping into the corners of his eyes. Not that I could blame him. You could never be too cautious in this world. "You on your own?" He asked.
For the first time since we had met him I saw a little hint of hesitation flash through his eyes. "Yeah. But, still, best not to try anything," he said and I nodded. It was best for all four of us to just call it a day and chalk it up to making new friends. "Best not to make threats you can't keep, either," he said with a low voice and my heart jumped into my throat.
So far I was trusting Jesus not to hurt us but I wasn't sure if I really could trust him. I didn't know him. Just like he didn't know us. We didn't know how to handle this. Usually we all just shot at each other. It made things easier. But this time we were all staring at each other, wondering who was going to make the first move. "Exactly. How many walkers-" Rick began before he was cut off.
I was shocked that Rick had even bothered to ask the questions. I would have thought that I was the only one who thought that Jesus was a good guy. I thought that Rick was on the same side as Daryl, thinking that there was nothing good to come from this guy. "No, not this guy," Daryl mumbled.
Popping my hip out at Daryl, I turned to him and leaned in slightly, hoping that Jesus couldn't hear us. It wasn't like he was standing very far away. "Why not?" I asked Daryl, who turned to look at me like I had lost my mind. "I like him and he seems to know at least a little something. If he's been on his own for this long then he has to know something or another. We might be able to use him," I said, clearly not making my husband very happy. But when I looked up I saw that Jesus was watching us with a smile.
It wasn't a smile full of malice and he didn't look like he was watching us with the intent of making us argue. He just looked like he enjoyed watching the three of us interact. I did understand that. After so long of being on your own it would be nice to watch three people speak with each other. Even if it was to bicker. "I agree," Rick said before looking back up at Jesus. "How many walkers have you killed?" He asked the other man.
Daryl let out a loud scoff and I stomped on his foot gently. He might not like the guy right now but I could almost guarantee that he was going to end up liking him. Jesus reminded me of a more personable, and less deadly, Daryl. "Sorry, gotta run," Jesus said and I sighed. I was hoping that we might all be able to be friends. Or at least allies. "You should, too. Think you've got about seven minutes," he said before turning and bolting back around the corner of the store.
Part of me wanted to go after him but I stayed planted where I was, just staring stupidly after him. We all waited in silence for a moment before I turned back to Daryl and glared at him. Not that he was looking at me though. He was watching after Jesus. "Well there, see? He left. You don't have to worry about him coming back," I said.
Daryl scoffed at me before turning back around to where Rick was standing, looking just as shocked as Daryl and I were. "What the hell was that?" Daryl asked, trying to glance around the building after Jesus.
Rick shook his head and I stood with my hip popped out to one side. This was too strange. Some part of me trusted Jesus but I didn't trust what was going on. "He was clean. His beard, it was trimmed. There's more going on there. He didn't have a gun, either," Rick pointed out and I nodded at him. He was right, Jesus, like us, was lying. He had to be holed up somewhere. "We could track him, watch him for a while, and get to know more. See if he's really alone. Maybe bring him back," Rick suggested.
Nodding happily at Rick, I saw that he was smiling at me as well. At least the two of us were on the same page about Jesus being a guy that we could use. He seemed rather level headed too and that was something that we lacked in this group. Most of us were too hot headed in dangerous situations. "Nah, guy calls himself Jesus," Daryl spoke up from beside me.
I was about to tell Daryl that he wasn't giving the guy a fair shot when I heard the echo of gunshots. Both Rick and Daryl ducked to the ground, dragging me with them. We all hit the ground roughly and looked around, but no one was in close distance to us. So instead of waiting on the ground we all jumped up and ran around to the back of the building, where the gunshots were coming from. As we rounded the corner carefully I noticed that there weren't any people back here either. And the gunshots were coming from inside of a trash can. Carefully I kicked the trash can over and stared stupidly at the firecrackers inside of it. "Firecrackers. What the hell?" Rick asked.
Just as I was about to ask what was going on I heard the loud roar of the truck engine from the front of the store. Without bothering to wait for my two group members, I sprinted towards the front of the store. "Shit," I could hear Daryl grumble as he caught up to me. Once we rounded the front of the store I stood and watched with horror as the truck drove off, dragging the vending machine behind it. The three of us stood together, watching Jesus drive off. Damn, he was smart. "He swiped your keys, didn't he?" Daryl asked Rick.
Turning on my leader with narrowed eyes, I wanted nothing more than to smack Rick over the back of the head. How the hell could you not feel the keys being taken? "How the hell did he manage to swipe the keys from you? Aren't they in your pocket?" I asked Rick. His face was slightly pink and I rolled my eyes. This so figured. Every time that we met someone that could potentially be an ally they ended up being someone terrible. "Well I'd rather him be sneaky than a killer. Come on, we've had stranger luck before," I said as I started pulling the two men after me. I didn't want to run after him but it was the only thing that I could think to do right now. "At least I like running," I grumbled.
Without another word the three of us took off in a dead sprint after Jesus and our truck. My feet groaned in protest and more than once I threatened to show everyone my dinner from last night once more. But somehow I was able to keep it down. Somehow I was able to just keep running. I suppose it was because I knew how much was at stake here. I knew that we had to get those supplies back. I knew that it meant the difference between keeping our people alive for just another few days or another few weeks. We had to get that truck back so that we could keep everyone fed until Tara and Heath got back from their run.
Somehow, after running for nearly an hour, and by the grace of God, we found the vending machine that had been attached to the truck. It meant that Jesus wouldn't be far from here. I coughed a few times and leaned over my legs, groaning as the burning feeling shot through them. I felt like I should still be running but it felt so nice to just stop for a moment. I needed it. I watched out of the corner of my eyes as Daryl walked over to the vending machine and grabbed the orange sodas out of it. He stuffed them into the bag and I smiled at him. Even with everything happening, he could still care about the little things. He was panting as he stabbed a hole in the side of one and took a long swig. "This was a special request from the doctor," he explained to Rick and he handed the can to me. As much as I hated the drink I couldn't deny that I needed something.
A little bit of the drink dribbled down my chin and I sighed before nodding and handing the can off to Rick. He took a drink and nodded to me before handing it back to Daryl. "Hey, whatever she wants. She saved Carl's life," he said and I smiled. Carl was back on his feet and seemed to be doing pretty good with only one eye. "We didn't know her, and she turned out to be all right. If there's still people out here, and they're still people, we should bring 'em in," Rick said.
Even after Jesus stealing our truck I was shocked that Rick would say something like that. He was never one to be overly trusting and I would have thought that something like this would have broken his trust. "What, like this guy?" Daryl asked, motioning off to where Jesus was most likely heading.
I rolled my eyes and sighed. He was doing what he had to do to survive. I couldn't blame him for something like that. He probably had people that he had to feed too. And it wasn't like he had done it in a particularly violent way. He had merely tricked us. He had proved himself to be the smartest of the three of us. "No, not this guy," Rick said and I sighed. Well there went any chances of potentially being friendly with Jesus and his men. "We still got a trail. Let's go," Rick said.
Before the two men with me could run, I spoke up. Daryl crushed the can of soda and tossed it to the side of the road and I sighed. "Wait. Why not?" I asked. Rick and Daryl both looked at me like i had lost my marbles and I rolled my eyes at them. "I mean, what did this guy really do? We scared him guys. It was three against one. I've been in spots like that before. We all have. You don't trust the people that are around you. It's the way that things are now," I said. "He swiped the keys from you, Rick. That was smart. And he did it without violence. I say go with it," I told them softly, hoping that they would understood that Jesus had felt cornered.
For a moment I thought that maybe my plan had worked. But Rick finally shook his head and I sighed. I had known that I wasn't going to sway Daryl, but I had thought that I might have a chance with Rick. "I'm sorry, Rain. We can't trust him. He seems like he could be a good ally but he's already proved himself not to be loyal," he said and I shook my head. He was being loyal, to his people. "We need to go. If we run we might be able to catch him if he stops," Rick said and I nodded.
Once more we broke off into a full sprint and I groaned. If Jesus had stopped, I really hoped that it was close to hear. As it turned out, it was close to where we were. After only running for a few minutes we came up on a gas station where Jesus and our truck were sitting. Jesus looked like he was in the middle of filling up the truck and I smirked. He had known that we were going to come from him. I dashed up to him and knocked him to the ground, flipping myself over him. Jesus looked startled but he did nothing to me. Rick ran up beside us and aimed his gun to Jesus, motioning me out of the way. "Hold still and maybe we won't hurt you," Rick sneered, panting gently.
Jesus nodded at us and shot me a little smirk. I shook my head at him and grabbed my gun out of my holster on my thigh, aiming it at him. But it was easy to tell that it wasn't cocked. I wasn't going to hurt Jesus unless I absolutely had to. "Sure thing," he said. I jumped harshly as Rick hit Jesus across the face and the man yelled in response.
I wanted nothing more than to pull Rick off of Jesus and have the fight end, but thankfully he didn't go much past that. Jesus sat back up with a dazed look on his face and I sighed. "This is done," Rick growled.
Jesus wasn't ready to just give up like that though. He gave a dark laugh before growling back at Rick. I gulped as I watched the tense exchange. Both men looked angry and I knew that both were going to be willing to do whatever they needed to get the supplies back to their people. "Do you even have any ammo?" Jesus asked. Once more I jumped as Rick and Daryl both fired their guns to either side of Jesus. He gave me a grateful nod and I nodded back. "Okay. You gonna shoot me over a truck?" He asked.
I nodded as he tried the new tactic, reasoning with Rick and Daryl. He seemed to know that I had no malicious intent towards him so he had shifted his focus over towards Rick. "There's a lot of food on that truck," Rick said and I shook my head. We could make more food at Alexandria and he knew that. It wouldn't taste fantastic, but it would work. "The keys, now," Rick ordered Jesus.
Instead of following the order like Rick had asked, Jesus merely shook his head. My breath hitched in my throat as Rick cocked his gun once more. He was getting sick of this and I knew that his patience was about to run out. "I think you know I'm not a bad guy," Jesus tried to reason.
Scoffing loudly at him, Rick shook his head. Damn it. I just wanted us to get the hell out of here. Screw trying to make friends with Jesus, now I just wanted to make sure that we all made it back to our homes alive. "Yeah? What do you know about us?" Rick asked with a sneer. I turned to Rick with a glare but turned back when I realized that his sole focus was Jesus. "Give me the keys. This is the last time I'm asking," he said darkly.
For a moment the air was tense and silent, but finally Jesus dug into his pocket and handed back the keys. I let out a breath and watched as Rick threw the keys to Daryl, making sure that he was getting back into the truck. He did so and I watched as he came back out, throwing the rope to Rick. Without hesitating Rick bound Jesus and I watched with sad eyes. This was the way that the new world was now. No one could trust anyone else. It was a damn shame. "Damn it. You're gonna leave me here like this?" Jesus asked as Rick dragged me back to the truck. "You're really gonna do that?" Jesus asked, this time looking over at me.
I wanted nothing more than to turn back and let Jesus out of his knots. But I knew that Rick would have killed me had I done that. So I merely shook my head and took a few steps back. "Eh, the knots aren't that tight," Rick said with a shrug, like he couldn't have cared less. "You should be able to get free after we're long gone," he said with a nod.
At least they weren't leaving him to the mercy of the walkers. That was a cruel fate that very few people deserved. Rick pushed me back towards the truck again and I nodded, walking slowly to my seat in the back of the truck. Before we could get all the way back to the truck though, I heard Jesus shout back to us. "Maybe we should talk now," he said with a little smile.
Just as I was about to ask Rick if we could talk to him, just to see where he was coming from, Daryl jumped out of the truck. My whole body tensed as I watched my husband storm up to Jesus, praying that he wasn't about to kill the long haired man. "Nah," he said and I sighed. At least he wasn't about to get violent. "Here," he said, throwing down a can of orange soda at Jesus. "In case you get thirsty," he said before grabbing my arm and pulling me back to the truck.
Before he could get me back to the truck though, a sudden burning shot through me. I had to know something. I didn't think that Jesus was from these Saviors people, but I had to know if he knew who they were. Negan was apparently such a horror to see, I just had to know if he really was the monster that he had been made out to be. "Wait a minute!" I hissed at Daryl. "I have to ask him something. It's important," I said, brushing past both my husband and Rick, who were watching me closely as I walked up to Jesus. "Hey, Jesus. I need to know if you know someone," I said and he nodded at me. "Do you know a man by the name of Negan?" I asked softly.
The look that he gave me was enough to tell me that he knew exactly who I was talking about. The color drained from Jesus's face and he looked like he might throw up. That wasn't a good sign. That made me realize that Negan was exactly who I thought that he was. He was just as bad as people were making him out to be. "How do you-" Jesus began to ask me before he was cut off.
Rick had made me mad plenty of times before but I was never as angry with him as I was right now. He grabbed me by the arm and dragged me back away from Jesus. "Rain, get back here. Come on, we're leaving," he said as he shoved me back into the truck. I ripped my arm away from him and slammed the door shut, pissed that Rick had interrupted him. "Good luck out there," I could hear Rick tell Jesus before jumping in the truck himself and starting the engine. "Who the hell is Negan? And why would you think that he knows who that guy is?" Rick asked, after a moment of silence.
Turning back to look at Jesus, I saw that he was struggling with the bindings that were around his hands and feet. "It doesn't matter. I just thought that maybe he might know. Not so many people around, these days it seems like everyone knows everyone," I said and Rick nodded. I knew that he was suspicious of me and Daryl was watching me with narrowed eyes but I shrugged it off. Daryl only knew half of how bad Negan really was. D had told me just how bad he really was. "Negan is just the name of a guy that I heard mentioned out on the road. I was curious if maybe Jesus knew who he was," I said, hoping that Daryl wouldn't call me out on my lie.
The truck was silent for a moment before Rick shook his head at me. I sighed, grateful that Daryl had said nothing of the little that he knew about Negan. "It doesn't matter if he knows that guy or not. All that matters is that we get out of here. Before the walkers come. We've made a lot of noise out here," Rick said and I narrowed my eyes at him.
He really had no idea that he was slowly turning into the people that we used to say had no humanity left. Dale would be so ashamed of us. It made my gut twist painfully. "So you're just going to leave him here? We shouldn't just be leaving him there. Walkers could get to him. Anything could get to him!" I hissed, angry that they weren't seeing how wrong this was. "Come on guys. I know that you don't like or trust him but just give him a chance. Bring him back to Alexandria and tie him up for a while. Learn about him. Maybe he'll tell us where he's from. Rick, come on. You know that this is wrong," I begged my leader.
Rick was silent for a moment before shaking his head and starting the engine. I sighed and dropped into my seat, rolling my eyes. A damn waste of breath. Daryl chuckled softly before revving the gas pedal and leaning out the window. "So long, you prick!" He yelled back to Jesus before coming back into the window. "I remember the Alamo. I don't recall who won. It's a long way," Daryl said as we began the long journey back to Alexandria.
Rick smiled at Daryl before shaking his head and leaning back into his seat. "Still worked out. Today still is the day," he said with a little grin. He leaned forward for a moment and turned the volume up on the radio, making me roll my eyes at the old song that came through the static. 'In the Central Standard Zone you were quiet like the TV, hung up like the telephone. You were sleeping next to me, I might as well have been alone,' the old voice sang. "Hey, look at that," Rick called and I glanced up from my lap.
Out in the distance was a barn and I glanced back up at the front seat. Had I missed something? Was there something special about that barn? "Yeah, a barn," Daryl said. I was about to ask why we were talking about the barn when a loud bang sounded from the roof. I jumped in my seat and grabbed my gun from my holster. "You hear that?" Daryl asked and I nodded as the thudding continued. Rick leaned forward and turned the volume down. "I think that son of a bitch is on the roof," Daryl hissed.
Rick looked back at me and motioned to the seat belt that was hanging from the corner of the truck. I nodded at him and grabbed the belt, pulling it across my lap. "Hold on," Rick said and we both nodded. Without another warning, Rick slammed on the brakes of the truck and I screamed as we slammed to a halt. I noticed a figure go flying off of the roof of the truck and I stared stupidly at Jesus. He grinned at us before turning and running. I yelped as Rick slammed on the gas and the truck lurched forward, after him. "Mother-" Rick grunted before Daryl pushed his door open and jumped out of the truck. "Daryl! Daryl!" Both Rick and I called.
Walkers were on both sides of the two men and I gulped. I couldn't lose Daryl because of his stupid vendetta. I threw open my door, smashing in the face of a walker before jumping out as well. I did a little roll as I hit the ground and jumped up, shooting a walker that was a few feet in front of me. I could hear Rick shout my name as he jumped out of the truck as well, killing a walker that was right next to him. "We came to a conclusion, asshole! I got him!" I could hear Daryl yell ahead of us. "Come here, you little shit!" He yelled.
I watched for a moment as both Jesus and Daryl ran around, neither willing to slow down. They seemed to just be running in circles as both Rick and I took out the walkers that were getting a little too close to their scuffle. More than once during their fight I had gotten distracted and nearly been a meal for the next walker before Rick would take them out. As I shot a female walker that was limping in front of me, I glanced back to see that Daryl was currently being beaten by Jesus. Shit, he was better than I thought. I ran up to the pair but I was too slow. Daryl had managed to get away from his attacker and was now dragging him away from the truck.
Both Rick and I were running over to the pair but we were too slow. I could see the truck get flipped into neutral and I nearly screamed. They were so busy focusing on each other that they hadn't even realized that the truck was moving slightly. Daryl had Jesus pinned under him, trapped by the seat and door and I screamed loudly as a walker came up to Daryl. Neither place was safe. A walker was behind him and Jesus was pointing a gun at him from the front. Oh my God, he was going to die. Jesus clicked the hammer and I sped up. I had to get to him. "Duck," I could just barely hear him say to Daryl.
The walker snarled loudly and I let out an ear piercing shriek at the same time that the shot rang out. A sigh escaped my lips as the bullet went straight through the walker's skull, causing it to drop behind Daryl. Daryl turned back to the walker and I could see the horrified look in his eyes. He hadn't even known that it was there. He had thought that Jesus was going to shoot him. Maybe he would finally see that he wasn't a bad guy. "Thanks. That's my gun!" He yelled and I rolled my eyes. Jesus pushed past Daryl and I watched as they both went sprawling to the ground. "Come here!" Daryl yelled, grabbing Jesus's leg and pulling him towards himself.
My eyes shot over to the truck and I felt my heart drop into my stomach when I watched the car roll slowly towards the lake. I rolled my eyes and looked back over to where Jesus and Daryl were fighting. "Uh, whoa!" Jesus yelled, trying to back off of Daryl. Just before he could though, the door that I had left open caught Jesus over the back of the head, effectively knocking the daylight out of him. I grimaced and watched as he fell to the ground, and the truck rolled into the lake.
Well there goes our food. And clothing. And everything that we needed. "Are you all right?" I asked as I ran forward, grabbing Daryl's arm and helping him stand back up. He nodded at me and I nodded back, slapping him over the back of the head. "You idiot! You could have gotten killed! All because of this guy!" I yelled, motioning back at an unconscious Jesus. "You both should have just listened to me and taken him back to Alexandria when you had the chance. Now we lost the damn food. Now we'll just have to come back another day," I sighed.
Rick sighed at me and I knew that he felt bad. Not that it made much of a difference. I was pissed that neither one of them had listened to me from the beginning. We would have at least had the food then. "We'll get the food back. We can come back out tomorrow if you want," he told me and I scoffed. "But now we have what's important. That lot was just lucky. We shouldn't have even been able to come across something like that," he said and I shook my head. But we had, and now we had lost it. "Law of averages," Rick reasoned.
Daryl shook his head and I groaned. I wanted nothing more than to just go back to Alexandria and call it a day. "That's bullshit, man," Daryl said and I rolled my eyes. He turned back and headed over to the cars, ignoring Jesus, who was laying at his feet. "Let's go check them cars, get the hell out of here," he said to the two of us.
Both Rick and I stood behind, not moving from our spots. Rick looked like he was about to move and leave Jesus to die but one glare from me and he planted himself in his spot. I nodded and motioned for him to call Daryl back. These two were not leaving him here. Especially not after he had saved Daryl's life. "What about the guy?" Rick asked Daryl.
Even from a looking at his back I could tell that Daryl had rolled his eyes. He turned back slowly and stared at Rick like he had lost his mind. Not Rick, me. I was normally the last person that wanted to trust someone, but for some reason I trusted Jesus. Maybe because he hadn't tried to hurt us, or because he seemed to know who Negan was, but it didn't matter. I couldn't just leave him here to die. "What about him?" Daryl asked with a scoff.
I wanted to slap both of the men. I couldn't believe that they were both really that thick. They were damn morons. I couldn't believe that even after he had saved Daryl's life, they were both still not sure whether or not they should help him. "Well, he helped you," Rick said awkwardly.
Daryl shrugged his shoulders, like this whole conversation was just an inconvenience for him. "Maybe," he said softly.
Both men stood together, looking down at the passed out version of Jesus. For a moment I was nervous that they might shoot him, just to get rid of the problem. But even all three of us together weren't cruel enough to do that. Rick merely shook his head and glanced up at Daryl, who was staring at Jesus angrily. "He ever pull a weapon on you?" Rick asked Daryl.
Instead of bothering to fight with Rick, Daryl simply shook his head. The truth was, Jesus had pointed a weapon at Daryl once, but it was to make sure that Daryl wouldn't get bitten by a walker. He was a good enough man to me. We would have to watch him for a while but I was sure that he was going to prove himself to be a good man. If these two bumbling idiots would just listen to me. Everything would be so much better if people would listen to me. "Fine. Let's put him up a tree," Daryl said.
Finally I had heard enough. I scoffed and pushed Daryl back from Jesus. "No, damn it," I snapped, clearly surprising both men. "I'm drawing the line here. We are taking him back with us," I said. Daryl looked like he was about to argue with me but I continued talking before he could. I didn't want to hear anything more from him. "It's our fault that he's out right now and we can't just leave him like this. At least bring him back and have Denise take a look at him. We owe him that much. He saved you," I told Daryl with a little glare.
Jesus could have easily let Daryl die, but he hadn't. That meant that I was in his debt. For now at least. He had saved Daryl so that meant that it was my turn to save him. I watched as Rick picked Jesus up, with the help of Daryl, and the two men dragged him to a car sitting in the field. There wasn't much gas in it, but it seemed like there was going to be just enough to make it back to Alexandria. Rick let Jesus heavily fall into the backseat and I was about to climb in with him when Daryl shook his head at me, pushing me up front. I took the passenger seat and watched as Daryl climbed in next to Jesus. Within a minute we were back on the road and I sighed, relaxing back into my seat. "He took a pretty hard hit. Denise needs to look him over," Rick said and I nodded. "You wouldn't have gone through with it. You wouldn't have left him," he said softly to Daryl.
I shook my head at Rick. I knew that he wasn't watching me but I didn't care. I was pretty sure that Daryl would have left him. He might have eventually come back for him but at the moment he had looked like he was damn well ready to leave Jesus in the middle of that road. "I would've, right up in a tree. I would've," Daryl said when Rick shook his head.
Rick looked like he had a confession to make and I turned to him. "No. I know. Almost as soon as we got to Alexandria, you got it. You saw- you and Michonne, Glenn, you all tried to tell me. You most of all Rain," Rick told us and I smiled. I remembered when Rick had gone out into the woods and buried his gun. We had buried mine out there too. It hadn't been a bad idea but I had thought that we should trust Alexandria. I was glad to see that I was right to trust them. "I should have listened to you from the beginning," Rick said and we both shook our heads.
I placed my hand over Rick's and glanced back at Daryl. Jesus's limp form kept falling onto him and I smirked. He looked so uncomfortable with it and I was sure that any moment now he would push the man from the car. But Daryl finally managed to shove him away from himself and onto the window. "So shut up," Daryl finally hissed at Rick.
The rest of the ride was silent and I reveled in it. The day had been so long that I was exhausted. All I wanted was to go back home and fall into bed. I just wanted to spend the night with my husband and pretend that we were in the old world. It would be nice to just pretend that we were back in the past for a while. Even back at the prison. Despite the fact that my father had been around, he was nothing compared to these new men. The longer that people survived in the new world, the more dangerous they became. We arrived at Alexandria finally and I helped make sure that we got Jesus back to the infirmary. Some of our group were giving us funny looks, but no one said anything. Rick grunted with Daryl as the two laid Jesus onto the bed. "'Cause I'm finally listening," Rick said with a smile.
I smiled back at him and sat in between the men while Denise looked over him. It turned out that there wasn't much wrong with Jesus. He just had a concussion and he was a little dehydrated. They were easy fixes. Apparently all he really needed were a few aspirin's and some food and water. Everything that we would give to him once he woke up. Once Denise cleared Jesus for movement we brought him to the same basement that the leader of the Wolves had apparently found himself trapped in. He had evidently died during the walker invasion but we had found out that this was a good place to leave people we didn't yet trust. I watched as Jesus was tied up and Rick left a note and nodded as the two men led me from the building.
Rick locked the doors and I said a quick goodnight to him before dragging Daryl back to our house. Neither Glenn nor Maggie were downstairs and I figured that they were upstairs, probably asleep. It was already late. Daryl walked us up to the room and I sighed the moment that we ran into our room. I immediately pulled off my dirty clothes and tossed them to the floor, pulling on my oversized shirt. "You know, we still haven't told him about those assholes out on the road. I mean we told him. But he doesn't know the full extent. He needs to know just how dangerous these people are," Daryl told me as I dropped to the bed.
Nodding at him, I laid back against the bed, watching as my shirt rode up my thighs. Daryl watched for a moment too before glancing away and looking back to my eyes. "I know. And I will. It's just he was so focused on Carl and making sure that he got better. Rick has been doing so well lately and I just didn't want to do anything to jeopardize that," I said and Daryl nodded. "Now isn't a good time either. With Jesus here now you know that all of his focus is going to go into figuring out who this guy is," I said softly.
Even though I had good reason to keep Rick away from the true horrors of the men out on the road I knew that one day we would have to tell him just how bad these people really were. He had to know that they weren't all dead. "He needs to know. You saw what went down on that road two months ago. Those assholes were about to kill Abraham. They would have killed you and Sasha too," he said and I heard the pain in his voice. He wouldn't have been able to handle me dying. It was the same way for me. "D, or whatever the hell his name is, he was with them too. We ever run into them again and I'm pretty sure that they will kill us. Rick has to know," he said.
Nodding slowly at him, I watched as he pulled his clothes off of himself and replaced them with a loose shirt and a pair of flannel pajamas that I had picked him up. It drive me nuts that he slept in his jeans. "But what exactly do we even know about these people?" I asked. "We know that they seem to have more men than women. They're lead by a man, Negan. Everyone seems to be afraid of him. I mean, you saw Jesus's eyes when I asked him if he knew who Negan is. He looked like he had seen a ghost. He knows who he is. He's not with those guys but he must know them. I need to talk to him," I said and I watched as Daryl's eyes narrowed.
He would never agree to me talking with Jesus. At least not alone. If I wanted to talk with Jesus, Daryl would have to be there too. And I wasn't sure if Jesus trusted Daryl enough to talk in front of him. "If he knows those people, that's only a bad sign," he said and I sighed. I hated to admit it but he was right about that. "We should just dump him out on the road and get on with our lives. Jesus is not worth our lives. Any of them. Especially not yours. I made a promise to protect you. You make that damn hard to do sometimes," Daryl said and I smiled.
I was not going to let him just dump Jesus, but I did agree that we couldn't keep him here forever. The last thing that we needed was bringing these people to our doorsteps. "I'm sorry. But if I have a chance to make sure that we're protected, by knowing just a little more about those people, then I'm going to take that chance. You can be there, with me. But I have to talk to him. Jesus knows more than he's letting on. He knows something about this Negan guy. By the sounds of it, we need to know about him too," I pleaded with him.
Daryl sighed and for a moment I thought he wasn't going to say anything. I watched as he stood up and turned the light off, grabbing the sheets and tossing them up so that we could settle in. I sighed and dropped into bed. I had figured that it wouldn't work. "Alright, fine. Tomorrow morning we can go and talk to him. See what he knows," Daryl told me and I smiled. I knew that I just had to butter him up. "Now come here. I've had enough of talking about him. What kind of person calls themselves Jesus?" Daryl asked with a scoff.
Smirking as I pulled myself up to Daryl, I settled into his chest and poked him gently in the ribs. He swatted me away and I merely laughed. He had no idea how easy it was to pick on him. I understood how Merle had done it for all of those years. "That's cute, are you jealous?" I asked Daryl with a smirk. Instead of just snorting at me and rolling his eyes, Daryl pinned me down, wrapping the sheets around me and towering over my body. I knew that he was going to teach me a lesson for saying that, but I had absolutely no problem with it.
A/N: Here I am, finally back with another chapter of Killer Love! By the way guys, I'm thinking about changing the name of the story. I'm not sure if I like it anymore. So this is a relatively demure chapter, not too much happening and we hear a lot more of Rain's thoughts then we do her talking. I have a reason for that. Right now I'm just kind of biding my time until Negan comes along. And we all know Rain will have some form of a relationship with him! Ugh I can't wait to write her relationship with him. Other than the Governor, Negan has been the character that I've been the most excited to write. Also, Jesus! I adore him, both in the comics and in the show. So I hope you guys liked this chapter. I know there wasn't too much action in it but that is to come! I'm anticipating about another four chapters before the ending of Season 6. I think I'll combine East with the season finale. How did everyone like the season finale? Who met Lucille? And how do we feel about Daryl's chances of making it to Season 7? God I hope he didn't meet Lucille. So a little note! I am going to wait to write the last chapter of Season 6, both East and Last Day on Earth, because I don't want to just take a guess at who died and be wrong. So sorry that you'll have to wait! But it will be worth it, I promise. Anyways, hope you guys liked it! As always, thank you for the follows and favorites! Until the next time -A
And a huge thank you to my reviewers!
Steph: Your review made me so happy! Even when I get stuck on this story I never want to stop writing it! I'm kind of rushing through the chapters so that I can get to Negan and I'm trying so hard not to do that! But if you like my original twists, just wait until you see Rain's first conversation with Negan ;)
sarahmichellegellarfan1: I'm so glad that you loved it! I hope that I continue to make you like it :)
One Life One Destiny: That means so much to me! And no worries, I can't top writing it when we're so close to Negan ;) But with him coming in I'm not sure how much I'm really liking the idea of them having a family anymore. He's just way too big of a monster to have a child around. But I'll work on it!
Meow101: Thank you! It made total sense and I'm so glad that you feel that way! I don't want to write anyone out of character. I really loved the way that I wrote Rain in as The Governor's daughter so I love hearing that other people like it too! Here's hoping that you enjoy her with a man just like her father, Negan ;)
Guest: Thank you so much for your opinions and I'm so glad that you like the story :)
