"I think I'm gonna go on that run."
Daryl's head shot up from where he was securing the strap of a duffle bag onto his newly built motorcycle, made from scraps that Aaron had been collecting. Nye was having a hard time focusing her attention on his face, as she was reminded of how attractive he was sitting on one.
It was a week since the party, and the little drunken moment the two had had. Nye remembered it clearly for the most part, despite her intoxication, but she didn't mention it again, letting Daryl believe she had forgotten like he predicted. It may be mean and selfish, but Nye wasn't ready to bring it up again, deciding that if it was to be discussed, then it would have to be Daryl who brought it up.
"Why?" He asked, clearly not a fan of the choice, but knowing if he tried telling her not to, she would then do it for sure, purely out of spite.
And this was the woman he was in lo- who he was attached to.
Nye crossed her arms and shrugged. "Deanna's still working on setting up whatever it is that my job will be, and I'm going a little crazy in the meantime."
"I'm sure she'll be fine." Aaron addressed Daryl, then turned to Nye. "But you should watch out for Aiden and Nicholas. I won't say they're cowardly pricks, but…"
"They're cowardly pricks." Nye finished for him.
"Yep."
Aaron opened the gate, and Nye was hit with a sudden truckload of worry.
"Be safe, okay?"
Daryl nodded, giving her a soft look. "Alway am. See ya in a few days."
Nye smiled thinly, softly murmuring "See you." in return, and spun on her heel to run back and convince Deanna to let her be on the run team. But she was hit with a sudden and unignorable urge, so without giving it a second to be thought over, Nye spun back around. Tensely, she grabbed the lapel of Daryl's shirt, noting in the back of her mind that he also always looked ridiculously attractive in long sleeved shirts, and tugged him closer, thankful for the shortened height already given by his spot seated on the bike.
Her lips very fleetingly brushed his cheek, and she took full advantage of his stunned self to dart away, not giving him any time to respond or react.
She ran all the way to Deanna's house, where everyone who was going on the supply run were gathered around a van, supervised by Deanna and Reg, her husband who Nye had only a very few interactions with. Glenn noticed her first, and waved with a grin. Maggie, who was only there to help load up and say bye to her husband, gave the brunette a similar greeting. Tara and Noah were too busy roughhousing to bother acknowledging her, which was fine, and Eugene offered little more than a dull nod. Aiden and Nicholas, the ladder of whom she still disliked, seemed a bit confused as to why she was there, with her crossbow no less.
"You got any room for a stowaway?"
Deanna looked her over in consideration, then turned to Glenn. "Do you?"
Glenn grinned, throwing the last duffle bag in the back of the van. "Always."
"What's this run for, anyway?" Nye asked, immediately helping them load up the supplies and materials for the trip.
"We are in need of new components to store up the photovoltaic energy during the day, as the ones we currently have are beyond their usefulness, and we can no longer beat this proverbial dead horse."
Nye blinked, brows lowered with wide eyes staring dumbfoundedly at Eugene. Tara sighed, patting her on the arm.
"The solar panels need new batteries that save up all the sun-power while it's daytime, so we can still use shit at night."
"Ooh, I get it."
Noah approached Eugene, holding out a gun for him, with a silencer screwed to the muzzle.
"Oh, no, thank you." Eugene nervously waved him off, holding a black box, that Nye assumed to be one of the dead batteries, closer to his chest.
"Just take it." Nicholas groaned as he passed, rolling his eyes.
"Come on, you got to protect yourself." Noah insisted, shooting a look to the back of Nicholas's head.
"Not if I don't go." Eugene shook his head, the look on his face clearly conveying the fact that he had not been made aware that he was part of the team heading out.
"We're not driving all that way so we can just drive back with the wrong shit." Aiden said as he overheard the conversation.
"It's a dozen of these." Eugene held up the battery. "They are consistent in appearance across manufacturers. The shit will be right. I-I will install said shit. Then the grid will be fully operational again." He persisted.
Aiden walked away, and Noah exasperatedly pushed the previously offered gun into Eugene's chest, forcing the man to take it. Eugene sputtered, but ultimately knew this was a losing battle.
Nye threw the last bag in the back, this one she noticed was full of their ammo. Giving into curiosity, she frowned into the bag, spotting an extra gun lying among the boxes of bullets. Reaching in, her fingers brushed the handle she knew by heart. Fingertips tracing the three initials etched into the bottom, she pulled out her pistol, possessive anger bubbling up at the thought of someone else using her gun. She checked the cartridge, humming at the full row of bullets, and for extra measure, snuck the couple of bullets in the bag that were compatible with her pistol, tucking them away in her pocket, and slipping her pistol in the back of her belt.
A shadow fell over where Nye sat on the edge of the van's open back. "Had a feelin' you'd be hitching a ride with them. So I snuck that in there just incase."
Nye looked up, the anger fizzling out to nothing as she was met with Maggie's smile. She zipped the backpack shut, tossing it further into the van. "Oh yeah? Why's that?"
"Deanna hasn't given you your job yet, and I can see how it's affecting you." Maggie crossed her arms goodnaturedly. "I think Daryl's rubbed off on you."
As the seconds ticked by, Maggie watched in confusion as Nye zoned out, her face turning a darker hue. The small brunette didn't respond until Maggie snapped her fingers in her face. Nye jolted, face losing some of its redness, but most remained.
"Hmm? You lost me. What were you saying?"
Maggie huffed a laugh. "That Daryl's…" she trailed off, and slowly grinned. "Oh. Nye, I think we need to find a way to help you unwind a little."
Nye scoffed, moving to rearrange the things in the van, despite there being no reason to. "Yeah? Look where that got you."
The instant it left her mouth, Nye slapped a hand over it, whipping around and staring at Maggie in horror and immense guilt. "Oh my God Maggie I didn't mean-"
"You're right."
Nye lowered her hand, still anticipating a last second meltdown. "What?"
Maggie shrugged, though she looked more tired now. "You're right. Maybe whatever you find yourself doing, shouldn't involve the risk of conception."
Nye laughed anxiously, tugging her goggles lower. "You're not gonna, like, bite my head off like a female praying mantis?"
Maggie shook her head with a snort, but sobered when she glanced back at Glenn. She sighed through her nose. "But, all I'm saying is, maybe you should ease up on yourself. Not to be that friend, but you shouldn't have to wait on him for this."
Nye frowned faintly, fidgeting where she sat. "You mean, I should find some rando to screw my brains out?"
Noah, just having rounded the side of the van, froze. His eyes went back and forth between the women, and he slowly back away. "I'll just… go."
Maggie didn't let up, not even with Noah's brief appearance. "I mean, you aren't in a relationship, Nye." Maggie told her softly, hating the dejected look it caused. "You're a grown, single, and very stressed woman. And no one would blame you if you decided to have a night to let go of some of that stress."
Nye bit her bottom lip. "But Dar-"
"It's Daryl's own fault if you pick someone else. He has no right to you, or to choose whoever you spend your time with. You don't owe him anything, and he will just have to accept that, or finally get off his ass and do something about it."
Nye nodded, mostly to get Maggie to drop the subject. "Okay. I'll think about it, thanks Mags."
Maggie smiled, and quickly fixed the angle of Nye's goggles. The small gesture was very maternal and it brought Nye's mood back up a notch.
"Be safe." She ordered to everyone as they piled into the van.
Noah sat across from Nye, holding open a notebook, bound in black leather. He tapped a pen thoughtfully as he considered how to start. Glenn climbed in, the last one, and shut the double doors behind him.
Tara settled next to Noah, glanced over his shoulder, and got to cleaning her gun to pass time. "The beginning."
"What" both Noah and Nye asked.
Tara nodded at the notebook, and the still blank first page. "If you don't know where to start, try the beginning."
Noah looked down, and placed the pen to the paper. From her spot, Nye couldn't see what he wrote, by Tara grinned at it, continuing on her gun.
Nye stared out the window, hand resting on her given crossbow. She wondered what Tara meant by 'the beginning'. Whether it was the day the world fell, or when Noah got ahold of the notebook. Nye knew that 'the beginning' wasn't always how things began, that sometimes, things really only started to begin when we were ready for them.
"Niagara Elise Conner" She had uttered, giving the hunter a fair chance at becoming something other than enemies.
She smiled, until an ear shattering bass drop filled the van, shaking the walls. Nye was a fan of loud music, even set up speakers in every corner of Pumpkin when she was being built, but Nye had a specific taste in music, one that absolutely did not include dubstep or death-metal.
"Great, another mix." Noah said ruefully.
"He does this every run?" Nye shouted over the blaring music, staring at Noah and Tara in deep fear and pity.
"Now you're going to die!" The music shrieked in a female robotic voice, interrupting anyone before they could confirm Nye's shocked question.
"Helps draw them away." Glenn shrugged, not letting himself get bothered by it.
"Exactly!" Aiden supplied from the driver's seat, smirking in a way that spoke to the fact that they still could have picked literally any other genre of music.
Nye pursed her lips, and raised a hand absently to her chest, where she could feel the beat reverberating. She swallowed, noting how the music was able to drown out the beat of her own heart.
She tried ignoring the sudden and looming sense of dread, reassuring herself with the fact that she hasn't had any serious heart problems since the day Andrea shot Daryl, when it had stuttered and left her hitting the ground unconscious.
Maybe going on this run was a bad idea.
…
The warehouse was dark. Not just dark, it was nearly pitch black, to the point where if they didn't have their flashlights, navigating the place would have been impossible. Nye walked slowly behind Tara, crossbow raised with a light duct taped to it to guide the way.
After finding a small hoard of Walkers, trapped behind a locked fence, they had split apart to search the giant shelves filling the warehouse, all stacked with cardboard boxes. Thankfully the boxes were labeled, so hopefully Eugene would find the right one soon enough.
"Lydia asked me what my favorite color was this morning." Tara quickly whispered to Nye, keeping her gun and guard up as Eugene checked some boxes.
Nye gasped excitedly. "What? No way! That's great!" She exclaimed in a hushed whisper. "She's getting more comfortable with everyone."
"Yep." Tara waited a second, then pounced on the opportunity presented to her. "You know what that is?" She managed to squeak out, barely containing the unbridled hysteria building up.
Nye slowly turned her head, eyes wide as she bit her lips together in a fruitless effort to keep it in. "Don't. Tara don't. Don't you dare."
Tara's lips quivered, as she did the hand gesture to go alongside the quote. "Growth."
"You fuck-" Nye croaked, covering her mouth as she tried to keep from cackling and alerting any undead to their presence.
"I couldn't-I couldn't not." Tara wheezed.
"I do not mean to kill the mood," Eugene got their attention. "But I found what we came for."
Tara quickly took out her knife, joking mood disappearing. She stabbed into the side of the box, cutting one line, then another to make an 'X'. She pulled the flaps out, digging around in the pink packing peanuts, and taking out one of the batteries, identical to the dead ones back home.
"We found 'em." Tara quietly called over to the next aisle.
Glenn looked to them between two boxes, and grinned as they pulled out another. "All right, Eugene."
Nye looked at him, then Noah. "Hey, where're Beavis and Butthead?"
Just then, they heard a silenced shot, then another. Glenn ran down the aisle, spotting Aiden and Nicholas not too far away. Aiden was shooting at a Walker dressed in camo. It had gear on, a helmet, a bullet-proof vest, and a load of grenades strapped on across its chest.
Glenn stopped breathing as Aiden shot again, hitting it in the vest, nearly catching one of the grenades. "Aiden, stop! Stop!"
But he had already aimed, and fired, this time hitting exactly where Glenn had feared.
All Nye knew, was one second everything went a blinding white, and instantly fell back into darkness. She was distantly aware of the weight on her front, as she now laid on her back, and the metallic taste sitting on her tongue. There was shouting, and as she slowly regained her vision she tried sitting up with a groan. Shoving a box off of her, she put a hand to her head in pain.
"Noah? Nye? Tara? Eugene?" She could hear Glenn calling, but it sounded far away, and echoed in her head.
"I'm okay." Nye said, but it was raspy and weak.
"Oh God."
Nye opened her eyes, squinting and staring next to her. In whatever had happened, the shelf next to them had tipped, falling against another and blocking them in. But she wasn't concerned about that part, too busy with what had made Eugene mutter those two words.
"Oh God." Nye parroted him, scrambling over. On the floor was Tara, unconscious with an alarming amount of blood pouring from her head. "Oh God, oh fuck."
Eugene stood frozen, trembling as he seemed paralyzed by the sight of Tara like this.
"Give me your jacket!" Nye demanded, criticizing herself for it being the one day she wasn't wearing a pullover. "Now!" She snapped when he didn't move.
Eugene jumped, and jerkily ripped his arms out of his jacket, tossing it to Nye. She immediately wrapped it around Tara's head, keeping pressure on it as the beige fabric bloomed into a dark red.
"Guys!?" Glenn shouted again, this time sounding closer.
"Over here!" Eugene feebly called back, sweating and twitching as he watched Nye try to keep Tara alive.
Glenn appeared on the other side of the shelf, along with Noah and Nicholas. Aiden was notably absent.
"Is she breathing?" Glenn frantically asked when he spotted the blood, peering over the shelf as best he could.
"Barely." Nye growled, asserting more force, trying to keep as much blood in as possible.
"They're getting close." Nicholas warned, gun up in unsteady hands, eyes twitching around, trying to track where the groans and snarls were coming from.
"Walker." Eugene shakily announced, one of the undead shuffling through the gap between shelves. "Walker."
Nye glanced up, blowing a strand of hair out of her face. She ignored the Walker, keeping her hands pressed to Tara's wound. There were plenty of other capable people who could take the shot, so she wasn't going to bother.
"Eugene, it's yours. Take it out." Glenn encouraged the man, who was still shaking.
Eugene raised his gun, it wobbled in his grip as he took a timid step back. The Walker got closer, snapping its jaws, choosing to veer off from the man and instead go for the two vulnerable women on the ground.
Eugene finally went to pull the trigger, when another Walker descended upon him, taking him to the ground. Nye kept one hand on Tara and the other went to the back of her belt, taking out her pistol. She shot at the one coming for her and Tara, but missed, only shooting off a chunk of cheek meat. Eugene wrestled with his behind her, struggling to get his gun aimed up at the corpse's head.
Glenn and Noah got around the shelf, coming to aid them. Glenn yanked the Walker off of Eugene, and Noah bashed its brains in with his bulky flashlight. They ran over to help Nye, who had already shot two more times, but was still missing by a mile due to the poor lighting. Noah kicked its left knee in, and pierced his knife through the base of its skull.
"Get to that office. I'll get Tara. Go!" Glenn ordered, putting away his gun and scooping up the woman.
Noah helped Eugene up, and Nye scrambled to her feet to follow.
…
Toby fiddled uninterestedly with a deck of cards he found in one of the closets, walking down the stairs with a popsicle stick jutting from his mouth. With the power out in most houses, it was the children's sworn duty to eat all the frozen desserts taking up room where they could store more important rations. He slowly came to a stop midway down, when he heard Carol. Whoever she seemed to be talking to, wasn't deemed friendly, going by her tone.
"What are you doing here?"
"I didn't tell anybody about the guns. I swear to God."
Toby frowned around the stick, leaning his head over the banister and watching as Carol shoved Sam towards the door.
"Answer my question."
"Do you have any more cookies? The ones you made for the party?"
"They're gone. Now go. Go home."
"My house doesn't have power. I was going to paint my owl statue, but somebody broke it."
Carol scoffed. "None of these are problems, Sam. I don't care about your house. I don't care about your statue. Get out." She pushed him out the door.
Sam turned back, standing in the doorway. "Can you make more cookies?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because I don't want to."
"Maybe if you showed me how to make them, I could do it myself." Sam eagerly suggested.
Carol pursed her lips, looking out at the idyllic neighborhood. "You want cookies?" She got a fast nod. "Alright. You're gonna have to steal the chocolate from Olivia. And then you're gonna get an extra bar for me. And if you get caught or you say anything, you're not gonna like what happens to you. Now go." She grabbed the back of his shirt and practically threw him outside.
Carol huffed, tugging the hem of her sky blue cardigan down, and went back further into the house.
"What guns?"
She halted, closing her eyes with a muttered curse. Carol looked up, met with Toby's judgmental stare as he still leaned over the banister.
"Don't worry about it."
Toby raised a brow, putting the cards in his pocket and taking the stick out of his mouth. "Yeah, or how about I just ask Mom when she gets back."
Carol scowled. "Where's your brother?"
"He went to climb trees to try to impress the other kids."
"Lydia?"
"Tyreese is teaching her how to sew next door."
Carol put her hands on her hips. "Can you keep a secret?"
"Depends, if it should be kept." Toby retorted, frowning down at her seriously.
Carol considered him for a moment, before relenting. "I stole a few guns on the night of the party. Sam caught me, but I was able to get him not to tell."
Toby looked at her in something akin to disappointment. "Carol, we don't have to do that here. We're safe so long as the walls are up."
Carol shook her head. "You trust these people? Already?"
"I never said that. But Mom once told us that you don't have to like someone to trust them, or to trust them to like them." He shrugged faintly.
Carol sighed, looking around at the pristine kitchen and living room she stood in the middle of. "Did you trust the prison, and the people living there?"
Toby blinked at the sudden change of topic. "Uh, yeah? Why?"
"Then how is what I'm doing now different than story time?"
Toby glared at her. "Because that was to ensure the kids would be safe incase of an emergency, like what ended up happening. This though, this is just you being overly cautious, and selfish." He turned away to stomp back upstairs, but paused before he reached the top. "I'd make sure those guns are hidden, before they get found out, ruining your persona, and fucking us all over."
Carol listened, hearing the stomps lead all the way to his, Mason's, and sometimes Lydia's, room. A door slammed, then silence. She sighed tiredly, wishing she had a cigarette to take the edge off. Knowing she was the reason for what might have been Toby's first use of the 'F' word, made the argument that much worse. All she could hope for now is that Toby would actually keep the guns a secret.
Carol wasn't sure of what the repercussions would be if Nye found out about the guns, but she knew the short brunette wouldn't hold back on her if it came to that point.
…
"How's she doing?" Glenn panted as they stood around in the office, able to see the dozens of Walkers through a dusty window.
Tara was laid out on the desk, jacket wrapped around her head more securely now than before.
"She has serious head trauma. She's losing blood fast." Eugene rattled off, cringing as Nye peeled back the fabric for a quick look, revealing a deep gash, still leaking blood.
"How do we stop it?" Noah asked nervously.
"Stitches. I need to stitch this closed right now." Nye barked, watching Tara's face in hopes of seeing the faintest sign of her being there, all she got though was pale cheeks and still eyelids.
"Med kit was in Aiden's pack. It got blown to hell." Nicholas told them, eyeing the Walkers outside edgily.
Glenn looked up with hope at the remembrance of something. "There's another one in the van."
Nye shook her head. "She's going fast, we need to take her there now."
Glenn nodded, putting a hand on Nye's shoulder for reassurance. "All right, we'll get her there."
"Help! Somebody!"
Nye's head snapped up, staring at the men in confusion as they heard Aiden, very clearly still alive, scream for them.
"Oh, Jesus." Nicholas breathed, hand going to his hair.
Glenn rounded on the man. "He's alive?!"
"I checked him. I-I thought-" Nicholas stammered, beginning to hyperventilate.
"We've got to get him." Noah declared, ready to risk his life for a guy who had been entitled and downright dick-ish to them.
"It's gonna take at least three of us." Glenn said, glancing around at them all.
Noah glanced at Tara worriedly. "We got that kind of time?"
"We pull Aiden off there, we could kill him." Nicholas spoke up, eyes to the ground.
"So you're saying we leave him?!"
Nye was going to snap at them to hurry it up, but Eugene surprisingly beat her to the punch.
"Go, save him. She'd do it." He tipped his head down at Tara, lips quivering. "I know she would. I'll stay with her. I'll keep her safe, I assure you. I will."
Nye stared at him, breaking into a barely there smile. She took his hands, putting them over where she had been keeping pressure. She picked up her crossbow, looking to Glenn. "I'll come with you guys, and hopefully help keep Aiden alive long enough to get him home."
"All right, we'll knock 'em back." Glenn pointed to himself, Noah, and Nye, then turned to Nicholas. "You still have that flare?"
"Y-yeah."
"You fire the flare over the shelves. That'll draw some of them over. All right, we're gonna hit the rest hand to hand. You ready?"
They stood at the door, readying their weapons. Noah tossed Nye one of the heavy flashlights, after one had worked so well for him as a melee weapon.
"One, two, three. Come on!"
Nicholas fired the flare to their right, distracting the Walkers and leading some away from Aiden. They bludgeoned and stabbed their way through the stragglers, reaching where Aiden was stuck. Two pieces of metal were sticking from his torso, both somehow managing to miss something vital, and acting as a trap to keep him skewered to the wall. He groaned, teeth stained red, as he reached out to the team with blood stained hands.
…
Lydia hummed to herself, carefully stepping down the stairs, looking over a large mass of dark blue fabric in her arms. She was just finished with her project that Tyreese helped her with, and was planning on showing it to a certain person she had yet to get close to, when she made it to the last step and heard an unfamiliar voice.
"Well, it was just an owl. Grand scheme of things, I think we'll live."
Lydia shrank back up a few steps, peeking through the railing. She saw Rick, standing with a ginger haired man, one who had an unnerving smirk on his face. She fought a shudder.
The man pretended to remember something. "I'm sorry. Heard you lost your wife." He patted Rick on the shoulder, either not noticing, or ignoring the way Rick tensed and fought a snarl. "You know... I'm sure it looks like we haven't lost much, but we have. We've lost things. Other things we're just fighting like hell to hold on to. Everything you people have been through, I don't know if you see that."
"We do." Rick rasped, with an indiscernible look brimming in his eyes.
The man took a sip from his beer, and continued. "Bring your kids in for a checkup. I know I offered you one, but they really should come in. They were out there a while, right?"
Rick restrained himself, looking away for a second to gather his emotions. He locked eyes with Lydia, who duck down, and he clenched his jaw, giving no other reaction to her presence. He didn't want Pete anywhere near the kids, not with what his gut was telling him. "Yeah." He finally responded. "Thanks, Pete."
The man chuckled through his nose, leaning in closer with a noticeably more predatory look. "Let's be friends, man. We kind of have to be, right?"
"Yeah, we do." Rick hissed with a fake smile.
The man grinned, heading out the door. "So we will. I'll see you, Rick."
Rick watched him go, closing the door. He would have locked it too, if it weren't for the fact there were nearly two dozen of the group coming and going between houses at any given time.
"He had a bad smile." Lydia timidly came out from her hiding spot, approaching Rick with the fabric.
Rick huffed a laugh, looking down at Lydia, spinning his wedding ring. "Yeah, I thought so too."
"Too fake." She added, shuffling her feet. "Too mean."
Rick let himself relax, noticing the pile in her arms. "Is that my uniform?"
Lydia jumped, nodding and holding out the policemen jacket. "I-I was just- and Tyreese said you might like- b-but if you don't I can just-"
Rick held up the jacket, not picking up on any difference at first, until he spotted the little rectangle above the badge, with embroidered text stitched in.
R. Grimes
Some letters were lopsided, or bigger than the ones next to it, but Rick found himself smiling widely at the girl's contribution to the jacket. He lowered it, kneeling down on one knee, and gently put a hand on her head, mimicking what he had often times seen Nye do.
"I love it. Thank you Lydia."
The girl froze, staring at him with wide and almost awed eyes. Slowly she started to blush, and ducked the bottom half of her face down into the neck of her borrowed sweater.
"'m glad." She mumbled into the sweater, playing with her hands, unable to look him in the eye.
Rick went back to looking over the new name tag, and grinned with an idea.
"I bet Michonne would love one too."
Lydia pulled her face out of the sweater, her expression eager and hopeful.
…
"Hey, it's gonna be okay. We're gonna get you out of here. All right?" Glenn hurriedly assured Aiden, panting from the run. He, Nicholas, and Nye stood ready to pull Aiden down, while Noah kept watch on how the Walkers were doing, and if they were still enamored by the flare. "Everything's gonna be okay. I need you to stay quiet, okay? Can you do that?"
Aiden nodded frantically, croaking out a quick "Okay."
Glenn took Aiden's upper half, while Nicholas and Nye grabbed at around his hips.
"One, two, three!"
Aiden screamed, not coming any closer off of the metal as they pulled.
"The flare. It's burning out!" Noah warned, shooting the Walkers coming back toward them at the smell of blood.
"Come on. Come on, again!"
Nicholas shook his head, backing away. "We're not gonna make this."
Glenn grabbed his shirt roughly. "Hey, yes, we are. But I need your help. You can do this."
"Nick. Nick, don't- don't leave me." Aiden begged, voice cracking as tears fell.
Nicholas gave in, going back and holding onto his friend again.
"Okay. Okay. Okay. Now!"
Aiden cried out, the metal making disgusting suctioning noises against his bloody flesh. And they had to let go again, getting nowhere.
Noah's gun clicked, he rushed to reload.
"Maybe, maybe we can find a way to get the metal out of the wall?" Nye panted desperately, knowing herself that it would be close to impossible.
Nicholas ignored her, leaning and whispering into Aiden's ear. "You left them. We both did. That's who we are. I'm sorry." He backed away, dodging Aiden's hand grasping for him. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
Glenn and Nye gaped in shock as Nicholas turned and ran away from them as fast as his legs could carry, abandoning his friend to die a slow and painful death.
"They're coming!" Noah ran out again, switching to a rifle.
"Nye!" Glenn urged, bringing her back to the current situation. Together they tried pulling again, grunting and straining even harder than before now that Nicholas was gone.
Aiden screamed himself hoarse, and when the two had to let go to regrip, he took the front of Glenn's shirt in his fist. "Okay, it was- it was us." He admitted, sniffling and hiccuping in pain. "T-the others before. They didn't panic. We did. It was us."
Glenn shook his head silently, trying again to pull him down. Aiden pushed him and Nye away, accepting this was it for him with a softly uttered "No."
"They're here!"
Noah grabbed Glenn's arm, dragging him away, Nye followed behind, as the Walkers reached Aiden.
As soon as his screams hit her ears, Nye stalled. She ignored the shouts coming from Glenn and Noah, turning around and raising her crossbow. She closed one eye, sniffling as she took a deep steadying breath. The Walkers had only just gotten their hands on Aiden, and there was no way of knowing how slow and excruciating his death was going to be, unless something was done about.
She thought about Deanna, Reg, and Spencer back home, waiting for Aiden to come back to them safely. Then she thought about how they were going to feel, knowing that not only did they lose their son and brother, but that they lost him in such a horrifying way.
Nye had never killed anyone in anything other than self defense, or revenge. She had never killed a genuinely decent person. Until now.
Her finger closed around the trigger, and she sent a bolt through Aiden's left eye. He went slack, his screams dying immediately with him, with no time for him to even realize he was already gone.
"Nye!"
She blinked, dropping her bow and chasing after her family.
They ran down the endless halls leading through the warehouse, at last making it to the front lobby like area, hot on Nicholas's tail. He went for the revolving doors, despite there being nothing but Walkers right outside. He was being driven by mindless fear, flight mode engaged to a mind numbing degree. Glenn shouted for him to stop, still trying to look out for the coward, as he, Noah, and Nye shot at the Walkers spilling in through countless random doors. Their only option became clear rather quickly as they ran out of ammo.
Glenn and Noah went to the right, while Nye tried to grab onto Nicholas in time before he made a fatal mistake for them all. She leaped onto his back, clinging to him and fighting him to go right, but he dashed into the doors opposite to Glenn and Noah, pulling her in with him.
Everyone stopped. Staring across at each other as they realized where they all stood. Trapped on different sides, with Walkers swarming and blocking off either way out.
"Hey, maybe-maybe we can shoot our way past them! You guys still have guns!" Nicholas suggested desperately over the loud snarls and growls.
"And you have the ammo!" Glenn snapped back.
"We've got to do something, man. We're gonna die in here!"
"And who's fault is that you dumb fuck?!" Nye screamed rhetorically.
"There has to be another way. There has to be a way." Noah chanted under his breath.
Then, like an angel's, song, they heard the noise that would get them out of this. And by God it was the most beautiful thing Nye had ever heard.
"Hey! Hey! Over here." Eugene banged his hand on the outside of the driver's side door, calling the Walkers' attention as he honked the horn and blared the awful music. "Come get me. Come get me." He inched the van along leading the undead away, and giving the other four an open. "Come on. Come on. Come and get me."
But the problem still laid with the herd on the inside. Nye and Nicholas couldn't try to leave, or they would push Glenn and Noah straight into the Walkers' grasp. Glenn and Noah couldn't leave, for the same exact reason. All any of them could do was hold onto the handle bars and fight against the push and pull of the Walkers as they tried to think of some way out.
"Come on, Eugene. Yeah." Glenn whispered to himself. When the Walkers on the outside were cleared away, chasing Eugene, he heard cracking coming from the glass panels, getting hit with an idea. "All right. Hey. I need us all to-" Glenn banged on the glass, gaining Nicholas's attention when he noticed it had faltered. "Hey, Nicholas! I need us all to keep the door steady, all right?! I'm gonna break the glass. We get out, you push out! We get the rifle and we're good. All right? All right?"
Nye placed herself in the juncture between two panels, digging her heels in, and gripping the handle bars on either side of her with everything she had. She shot Glenn a nod, letting him know she was ready, alongside the other two.
Glenn held up his rifle, slamming the back end down onto the glass. It only wobbled, not even cracking. He hit it again, causing the door on Nicholas and Nye's side to open a crack, the Walkers' fingers wiggling through. Nye grimaced, but didn't say anything, just held on tighter. Nicholas didn't have faith in Glenn like she did, so when he saw the forming gap, he panicked.
"No! No, stop! It's not safe!"
"This is the only way!" Glenn argued, though he gave a once over to Nye.
She nodded over her shoulder, peering back at him, still pressed in the panels. "It's fine, keep going!"
"No, it's not gonna break!"
"It will!"
"We can hold it. We can!" Noah encouraged him, knowing Glenn wouldn't risk their lives on a half baked plan.
"Trust me, okay?! Count of three! Count of three!" Glenn looked to each of them, letting them hold the doors as he held his gun up again. "One, two-"
Nye gasped as the doors lurched, Nicholas throwing his body weight into the one leading outside.
"No! Fuck!" Nye screamed, her converse squeaking against the ground, fighting for enough friction to challenge Nicholas's attempt of escape.
"Nicholas! No! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Nicholas! Nicholas, don't!"
Nye shut her eyes, holding her breath and biting into her bottom lip as she pushed all her weight now against Nicholas, knowing full well that if he gave up, she and him would both be thrown into the herd. But if she gave in, Glenn and Noah would be the ones eaten alive.
It was simple math. A girl with a bad heart, and what wasn't even half a man, versus a man with a heart of gold, and one who hadn't even been given the chance to become a man yet.
Getting nowhere, Nicholas snarled. In a blink, his elbow shot out and rammed into Nye's stomach.
She choked, gasping and sliding down to the ground. It took everything she had left to not hold her burning middle, and instead keep her hands on the doors. The little lapse in strength was all he needed though. Nicholas squeezed halfway through the gap he forced open, throwing the backpack full of ammo outside to help slim down enough to fit through.
"Nicholas! Damn it, Nicholas, no! Nicholas! Hey, don't do it!"
He slid through, but just when he only had a leg still in, Nye screamed in rage and threw herself against the door, slamming the glass down onto Nicholas's shin bad enough she heard a crack, and a cry of pain right after. He slipped through, and limped away, leaving them for dead.
Nye panted, standing as they steadied the doors finally. Turning around, she looked at them across from her.
They were both still there. Alive.
"What now?" Noah gasped, hands on his knees, having lost a shoe in the fight to keep Walkers out of their side.
Glenn breathed heavily, staring outside with a lost expression. They all knew there was no way that they could break the doors anymore, not without enough muscle to hold the doors still.
Nye felt her eyes watering, welling up at the thought of not seeing anyone back home ever again. With wavering hands she reached into her pocket, intending to look at the two photos she always carried.
Her fingers brushed metal.
Mouth falling open, wide eyes drying quickly, Nye stared at Glenn and Noah with a dumbfounded look on her face.
"W-what?" Noah stuttered, still fighting with the doors.
Glenn looked away from the thought to be unreachable outside, swiftly picking up on the way Nye was staring at them.
"You're not gonna believe this…" Nye croaked, hand coming from out of her pocket, and holding out two bullets.
"Are those-"
Nye nodded slowly, still shocked she forgot about the bullets she tucked away before the run.
Glenn blinked at the tiny pieces of metal, and stood taller. He took a deep breath, nodding to himself.
"Okay. Nye, shoot the door on your side! When you get out, we'll get out right after. Then we all make a dash for the van, got it!?"
"Got it!"
Loading the bullets into the magazine Nye took a trembling gasp, and aimed at the door. She shot once towards the top, the once under the handle bar. The glass splintered, and fell away like nothing when she gave it a sharp kick. Slipping under the bar, she ran, swapping her gun for her crossbow, slowing and listening closely as Glenn and Noah followed her.
"We're right behind you! Go!"
Nye leaned forward in her run, throwing the last of her energy into her legs. She was the first to make it to the van, making it just in time to see Nicholas throw Eugene out of the driver's seat. Glenn surpassed her in a blur, savagely ripping Nicholas out of the van, and throwing him to the ground, proceeding to beat his face in for nearly getting them killed, and leaving them to be Walker food.
Nye ran past them, unbothered as Nicholas pathetically tried getting Glenn off of him, going to the back doors and opening them. She checked Tara's pulse, and deflated in relief when she felt it there, pumping away just under her skin.
"She okay?" Noah asked frantically, setting aside his empty gun and climbing in the back, checking her himself.
She stepped away, tipping her head to the sky, distantly aware that Glenn had stopped hitting Nicholas. Dropping her head back down, Nye was met with the sweat and blood covered Eugene.
"You got her here yourself?" Nye panted, pointing weakly at Tara in the back.
"Indeed I did. I had no way of knowing how long you would be, and knew if I waited any longer there was a serious possibility that she-"
"You brilliant brave beautiful haired man!" Nye blurted, running and crushed him in a hug, high on the knowledge that Tara still had a chance.
When she pulled away, Eugene had a dazed look on his face, stunned by the out of nowhere show of affection. And undeniably filled with pride at the 'brave' bit.
"We still need to get home." Glenn announced, getting to his feet, Nicholas unconscious on the ground. "Help me load him up. We can't show up missing both him and Aiden."
Nye took pleasure in letting Nicholas's head drop painfully on the floor of the van, rattling his brains one more time before heading back, just for good measure.
…
Crickets chirped in the dark, making the only noise to be heard that night in Alexandria. Just finished making sure Tara wasn't going to pass in the night, Nye walked her way home from the infirmary, hands washed of the blood that had been caking them.
After getting back, Glenn took it upon himself to tell Deanna what happened, notifying the poor family of the loss. He didn't mention the hand Nye had in it, and the brunette knew she would have to come clean to the mercy kill soon enough.
Despite everything they had gone through in the unending day, Nye found her mind wandering, all the way to what Maggie had talked to her about in the morning, before the run.
"You're a grown, single, and very stressed woman. And no one would blame you if you decided to have a night to let go of some of that stress."
Nye sighed tiredly, running a hand down her face. The thought of sleeping with someone that wasn't Daryl made her inexplicably guilty. The thing was though, Maggie was right, she did need to de-stress, and she had every right to choose how she did it, so why did she still feel guilty for even thinking of doing it? Besides, she couldn't think of a single person who would have any interest in her as a fling, at least now that Tara was in a coma, so that left her at square one.
"What are you doing here?"
Nye jumped, looking to her left. She hadn't noticed what house she was crossing, and now regretted not paying closer attention and finding a different route.
"I was just… heading home. It's been… a day."
Spencer scoffed, standing on his porch with a bottle of bourbon held in his right pointer and middle fingers.
"You think it's been a day?"
Nye winced, kicking herself for that. "I'm sorry. I-I have a really bad sense of timing and word choice." She offered him a sympathetic smile, though it wasn't even a smile, just pursed lips turned upwards.
Spencer sighed, taking a gulp from the half empty bottle. "Was it quick?"
"What?"
"Was it quick?" Spencer said again, enunciating each word, his speech clearly slurred now that Nye listened closer.
"I-" She cut herself off, sagging guiltily. "No. But it could have been a lot worse."
Spencer pondered this, then nodded in acceptance. "Figures." He whispered, taking another drink.
Nye frowned sadly, fidgeting with her hands and taking a step closer to the house with her eyes to the ground. "Look, if there's anything I can do, to like, help you feel better-" She stopped, closing her eyes and shaking her head with a mumbled swear. She knew what it was like to lose a brother, however short a time she may have had him, she knew the hurt it brought. It wasn't the kind of hurt that just goes away with a few kind words.
In her moment of internal criticisms and debates, she didn't catch how Spencer slowly came down from the porch, coming towards her.
"What I mean is, I know how… I just think I could help you with this, and hopefully help you-"
Her face was tipped up, a hand on her chin. Her eyes shot open, wide and almost fearful. She was frozen, and in what felt like only a few snapshots, too fast to stop, Spencer pulled her face towards his, and kissed her.
A shudder ran up her spine, not the good kind she would later note, and she could distinctly taste the flavor of bourbon on his lips. Her body was as still and rigid as a stone statue, her mind racing too fast for her to move. There was a less than brief thought that crossed her mind, that maybe she should let this happen, do as Maggie suggested. But everything crashed and burned when she felt his tongue try to force its way into her mouth, and his hand settle on her hip.
Nye jolted back down from whatever crisis she was having in her mind, and she roughly shoved him away, gasping and wiping at her mouth.
Spencer hit the ground, dropping and spilling his bourbon. "What the fuck?!"
Suddenly, it was like a fire was lit deep within her stomach. "What the fuck? What do you mean 'what the fuck'?! You kissed me without my consent, and tried to-" Nye shuddered again, wiping her mouth once more. She felt dirty, and just downright terrible.
She had never cheated before, but she had a feeling that this was what it felt like. It could have been chalked up to his grief, and lost inhibitions caused by the alcohol, but her mere convenient presence did not give him free reign to use her as a way to forget.
Spencer scoffed, still laying back in the grass, not bothering to get up yet. "Don't act all innocent. You were giving me signals, and you know it."
Nye gaped, face flushing in rage. "I- you- are you serious?"
Spencer shrugged. "If the shoe fits."
Nye sucked in a breath, clenching her fists and forcing herself to walk away. It would be too easy to give him a play-by-play of his brother's death, but that would've been too cruel, even if she wanted to chop his dick off.
"That's right, go right back to that house o' kids. We all know why they don't look anything alike, but whatever!"
Nye stopped, her back to him. Her willpower vanishing at the mention of her kids, and the insinuation that she slept around enough to be the biological mother of the three. "Tomorrow, when Nicholas tells your mom about what happened," She looked unflinching over her shoulder. "Ask him if he included the part where Aiden admitted to them being the reason why the past run teams never made it back alive. Because they were both too pussy to actually protect their own people."
Spencer tried getting to his feet, face set in a look of rage. His intoxication kept him grounded, making him too dizzy and jelly-legged to be able to charge after her like he wanted to.
Nye stomped her way home, fuming and disgusted. She couldn't believe she humored the idea of sleeping with him, even if the thought had lasted shorter than he probably did.
Barging through the door, she breezed past the living room, heading for the stairs, but stopped. She stared at the couch, where Lydia happily sat stitching something in what appeared to be Michonne's uniform, Mason was next to her, watching over her shoulder, he was covered in scrapes and bruises.
"What happened?" She asked Toby, who was sitting on the floor, practicing card magic at the coffee table.
"He fell out of a tree, trying to be a badass. How's Tara?"
"Alive. Who was he trying to impress?"
Toby put the cards back in the deck, both he and his mother ignoring Mason, who glowered at the conversation about him while they acted like he wasn't there. "Ron and Enid. Carl told him it was a dumb idea, he didn't listen. Why do you look mad?"
Nye frowned, going back to her original plan to march upstairs and go straight to bed. "Doesn't matter. Goodnight."
"Goodnight!"
Nye slammed her door shut, immediately wincing and waiting with her breath held, when she didn't hear Judith start to wail, she relaxed. Stripping down and putting on a random button-up shirt she picked up from the laundry basket by her closet, Nye dropped her goggles on the nightstand, falling onto the mattress and laying on her right side in the middle of the bed.
Her eyelids fluttered soon after, exhaustion putting out the smoldering anger in her chest, leaving her too tired to stay mad. Her right arm laid in her view, and the longer she languidly stared at the pattern of the shirt, the sooner she started to realize who's shirt it actually was. Her mind working like molasses, Nye hummed at the knowledge that she was wearing one of Daryl's few long sleeved shirts to bed. In the morning, when she wasn't too tired to think, she would be both embarrassed and giddy at the fact.
Her eyes fell shut, and after what seemed like only a few seconds to her, Nye felt strong arms cuddle her from behind, holding her tight. She beamed sleepily, eyes still shut.
"Rough day?" His voice broke the silence, thick and raspy, speaking lowly right into her ear.
She shuddered, and this time it felt right. Turning her upper half his way, she started opening her eyes.
"Better now that you're-"
The bed beside her was empty, and the nighttime crickets chirps were now replaced by cicadas crying.
Nye blinked, eyes adjusting to the morning light. Processing that he had just been a figment of her imagination was painful, and left her in a sour mood already. She flopped back down, grabbing the edge of the blanket, and yanking it over her form, rolling until she was wrapped up by it, and didn't stop rolling until she fell off the bed to the floor. She grunted, and laid there.
"My life fucking sucks."
