Author's Note: A little warning to say this chapter includes a lot of blood and gore.

Hope you enjoy! And if you do, please leave me a review!


Part Two

..

Eight

Brave Face

.x.

Alpha was many things, but a victim was not one of them.

She'd been captured and taken to the arena a short while after the outbreak, having been promised a safe place for her and her daughter to rest their heads for a little while. The arena had been nothing like what she had expected it to be; she had seen it transform to just a few people to it being a thriving with people who believed they were heading to a safe area after literally running for their lives against the dead. What they hadn't realised that some people could no longer be trusted. When she had arrived at the arena that morning with her young daughter held close to her, her gaze had fallen upon the cages and it caused her stomach to turn.

The men were a little handsy, she had grown to notice early on. But as she watched from the shadows that more and more women and men were being brought in, with the men being led away almost straight away. When they never came back, she understood what had happened to them. As women and children cried over their missing husbands and fathers, she was grateful that her own husband was no longer around. She had made sure of that.

With the attention no longer on her, she blended into the background, hidden in the shadows which she thoroughly enjoyed. She was way down the hierarchy now; almost invisible to them. She kept herself to herself but like an elephant, she never forgot. Names and faces that should've become blurred with the abuse she had endured were well and truly carved into her mind, and she made sure she remembered every single one of their names as well as their nicknames.

She'd stayed quiet and was almost avoided, but she was defiant in the sense of she knew she was worthy of more. Hell, she'd put her trust in the doctor to smuggle her daughter out of this place in the hopes of a better life for her. It wouldn't be much but at least she was away from the abuse and the eyes of men whose intentions were very clear to her. Alpha had promised Lydia that she wouldn't allow anything nor anyone to hurt her, and they had ended up here. This wasn't the place for a young girl who deserved better.

Alpha had been here longer than she had ever anticipated; thirty-five days and each day felt like a year. She was still no closer to escaping, however, despite her promise to Lydia.

She knew their routine off by heart now. She knew who would be walking past her cage at a certain time of the day; she knew who she could talk to and who she needed to be wary of. The doctor was someone she could trust; and she was grateful for him. He smuggled Lydia out and gave her updates whenever she visited him.

For Alpha, life now was more about getting by. She needed to bide her time for she struck. It had never been the right time, but it was as though her luck had changed for the better when the soldier girl walked in; the hushed voices that spread like wildfire alerting her to the new arrival. There was confusion as to where she was one of them, but as she was led to the cage adjacent to hers, now adorning a white dress like her own, she was just like the rest of them. Unlucky and unfortunate to be swept up and brought here. But she was different to the other women she had come to meet during her time here.

So unlike the others who quickly accepted their new reality, she noticed the way the soldier cast her gaze over every single face within the compound: the guards and the women; almost memorising features about them that others seemed to overlook. She was fascinating in the way she moved; the way she absentmindedly watched the exits, picked up on the routines of the guards, and the way the women were being treated. The soldier picked up on details that even she had missed.

She wasn't like the others and that excited Alpha to her core. She was just like her.

She wouldn't be easy to conform to this place, just like herself. She wouldn't be easy to beat down and mould into the perfect little helper.

"Names are meaningless," Alpha had told Esther, almost nonchalantly. "I call myself Alpha."

Esther, it seemed, accepted that without another word which gave Alpha more time to analyse her from afar. She noticed the way Esther was cautious of her leg and the way she absentmindedly touched it with her palm when her attention would waver. She was injured, Alpha could tell by the way she winced, but she would still be able to defend herself when the time came for it. Which, if Alpha could tell, wouldn't be long at all.

They sorted the weak from the strong very early on, choosing the ones that may cause them trouble as the highest in the hierarchy in a way for the women to prove themselves to the leader. If they were a fighter, you could be trouble. It was a way of processing the new recruits into the best categories. Alpha had started at the same stage as Esther and had made a name for herself as being ruthless and not to be messed with, which gave Alpha the peace she deserved. She was kept in a cage on her own for a reason after she brutally killed her last cage mate with the elastic from her knickers. It was a gruesome affair, but it had proved a point.

"You…" Alpha's voice trailed off as a guard passed them by. Once he was gone, her gaze met Esther's. "You ready for what they have planned for you?"

Esther seemed to notice the darkness in her eyes. "It depends what they have planned for me."

"Let's just say, friend to frien—"

"I'm not your friend," Esther cut her off.

Alpha chuckled darkly. "Okay, from a stranger to a fellow stranger, they will try to destroy you. They will push to the brink of hell and you will have to decide what you do. Are you going to allow them to torture you and force you to lose yourself in the pain, or are you going to drag yourself from the pits of hell and fight your way out of that darkness?"

"Sounds like a typical day at the office," Esther commented, and even though there was no humour in her voice, Alpha began to laugh maniacally.

"You're going to do well," Alpha told her. "But I will warn you… that place you have to go to in order to survive will haunt you for a long time. You will have to become the monster you know you are inside. You might not want to believe you are one, but in there… it will show you who you truly are. It will show you everything you're supposed to be. Are you ready for that?"

.x.

Daryl Dixon had believed his luck was over when he stumbled across Hershel Greene and his daughter that night.

When he and Rick returned to the group without Esther, Michonne or Andrea in tow, he had seen the looks on the faces of the others and knew that they had well and truly messed everything up. He had told them that he had tried to reach them all before they were taken but with Rick holding him back and telling him that he wasn't any use to them if he was captured as well, and with Esther giving him a warning to remain where they were, he knew there wasn't anything he could do except bide their time and come up with a plan. He felt useless and powerless.

He could sense the group losing morale, and he wasn't sure what he could do. As he sunk to the ground on the highway, the sound of galloping had caught his attention a short while later. He had grabbed his crossbow that was beside him and aimed it in the direction of the horse, his gaze never moving from his targets. They slowed once they realised there was a weapon being aimed at them, and he watched as the woman look towards the older man.

"Son, we haven't come here to harm," he spoke, but it still wasn't enough of a reason for Daryl to remove his invisible target.

"I ain't ya son," he bit back, venom lacing his voice.

The man wasn't surprised by his comment and simply nodded. "We saw you near that arena. We have been looking for one of our own for a while. My daughter, Beth… she was taken by them. We've been pleading and begging with them for weeks to release her, but they are ignoring us."

Daryl lowered his crossbow and shouldered it.

"We saw them take your people," the woman then interjected. "We know how to get them back but… with just the two of us against them, it was impossible."

"I'm Hershel Green and this is my daughter, Maggie," Hershel introduced himself to them. "My son… he's the doctor there. He was a soldier stationed there when things became the way they are now. He isn't aware of his baby sister having been taken by the very men who took that place over."

"They kidnapped her whilst she was tending to the chickens on our farm," Maggie added. "They came onto our land and took her against her will. They won't stop. But we know how we can get them back, it's just… we need help."

Rick furrowed his brow, taking a step closer. "And how do we do we get our people back?"

"You're just going to have to trust us," Maggie was the one to talk then, her gaze falling on Daryl. "Can you trust us?"

Daryl chewed at his lip. He gave a small nod, though he couldn't seem to shake the sense of uneasiness that clung to him.

.x.

It was soon night, and Esther was aware in the change of atmosphere.

Andrea and Michonne had yet to return to the cage, and Esther was growing impatient. Her conversations with Alpha in the cage next to her was intermittent and the subject varied, with the woman seemingly warning her of what to expect in the next couple of hours or days depending on how long they prolonged the processing time. As the hours raced away from her, she tried to a keep a level head on her shoulders, understanding she needed to remain as calm as possible. If she showed any emotion then they would immediately latch onto it. If she showed vulnerability outside of her injury, she was weak.

An hour passed and the entire stadium plunged into darkness, and Michonne and Andrea were walking back to their cage with a guard. Once they were inside, and before either of them could say a word, the guard beckoned Esther out.

"You're up," he told her. "They're waiting for you."

Esther rose from her feet, her gaze falling on Michonne who furrowed her brow at her wordlessly.

"Be careful out there, soldier," Alpha whispered behind her. "You know what you have to do."

As Esther was about to turn around and face the woman, the guard banged on the cell frustratedly. "I don't have all day, One. You will obey me!"

The guard was merely an adult, with Esther guessing that he was shy of his eighteenth birthday. Standing a foot taller than her, the uniform he wore was a few sizes too big and looked as if it was hanging off his frame. As she limped past him, their eyes met. His face contorted in anger when her gaze met his own and without a second thought, his fist collided with her face, causing her to stumble against the fence. Blood swam in her mouth, and she ran her tongue along her teeth to check to see if any had loosened or were lost. She bitten her tongue during his sudden outburst.

"Wow, what the fuck, dude?" Michonne hollered, her hands wrapping around the metal fence.

"Stand the fuck back," he pointed a finger at Michonne, but she kept her glare firmly placed on him.

It was only when Esther stood back up and wiped the blood from her mouth did she back away.

"Don't worry, soldier girl," Alpha interjected. "Save him for me."

Esther merely clenched her fists together before the guard led her away. She passed cages that held women of all ages, all fearful at the exchange that had just happened, and she struggled with the knowledge that these women had all been taken against their will. How had the world come to this? How the hell was this place going to be destroyed if there were eyes and ears everywhere?

She thought of Daryl then; and her whole demeanour faltered. She felt so safe with him, and she wanted nothing more than to have him by her side now. She had warned him away from this place, hoping that they would see it as a simple mistake, and they could be on their merry way out of that place. But it was far worse than she had ever imagined, and there had been moments where she wondered if she would ever be able to leave. With guards as reckless as the one leading her to god knows where, she knew she needed to be calculated with her planning. It wasn't going to be straightforward or uncomplicated. It was going to be challenging in every sense, and maybe Alpha was right: maybe she was going to have to fight her way out of it.

She was led into a dark room, and once she was inside, the guard closed the door behind her thus plunging her into darkness. As she stood in the middle of the room, she wasn't aware of her surroundings, but she could hear chattering around her in the distance. Esther tried to strain her hearing to find out which direction it was coming from, but it was like a surround sound system. It was overwhelming, almost dulling every other sense.

Just as her vision adjusted to the darkness, the whole room was engulfed in light as a spotlight shone on Esther. She squinted against the brightness, her hand covering her eyes as the sound of cheers erupted around her. Blinking a few times, Esther felt fear wash over her as her eyes fell on a crowd of people all around her behind glass windows, their cheers coming over a tannoy system built into the wall.

In front of her was a cage with young girl inside, with long blond tresses tumbling around her as she laid on the ground. Philip was standing beside it with a menacing look upon his face, his eyes burning a hole into her as he tried to determine her reaction.

"The General saw something in you," he began. "I told him how you jumped to your friend's defence when she ran to me. I told him how you lied to us about your reasons for being here; that you were a vulnerable injured woman who needed a place to stay. And he agreed with me that though you are injured, you're not vulnerable in any way."

The crowd reacted with gasps and goosebumps scattered her body.

"And so, we've brought this forward to prove to us that you are capable of something," Philip continued with a smirk. "I'm not telling you what we're looking for, but you'll know. And to add suspense and a reason, this girl right here can only be rescued and saved if you fight your way through the biters. If you die, so does she."

Philip, with one last wink, walked out of one door as another one was pulled upwards.

Walkers, or biters as he called them, ambled out.

A mix of groans from the dead and excited cheers from the crowd echoed around her, and she looked at the crowd safe behind the glass in disgust. With no weapons on her persons, she was literally being thrown into the lions den.

They were coming closer, and time was running out. She knew she had to improvise. And that was when Alpha's words seemed to sink in.

But I will warn you… that place you have to go to in order to survive will haunt you for a long time. You will have to become the monster you know you are inside. You might not want to believe you are one, but in there… it will show you who you truly are. It will show you everything you're supposed to be. Are you ready for that?

The first walker almost pushed his way through the others to reach her and, with her bad leg, she kicked his legs from under him which caused him to tumble to the ground, before she stamped repeatedly against his head until his skull was caved in and his movements became still with what could only be described as gloop staining her bare legs. Cheers erupted around her once more and she willed herself to drown them out.

As more and more dead came to her, she fought against them, trying to aim for their legs to completely take them out, preventing them from getting the upper hand. Once they were on the ground, she was able to manage better. Her leg was protesting against her, and pain seared through her. She cast a quick glance down and noticed the blood seeping through the bandage and staining the white dress.

Two walkers closed in on her and she darted right, jabbing her elbow into the head of the one closest to her. They collapsed to the ground like bowling pins before she took care of them, their second demise at her hands. She tried to calm her breathing, but she didn't see the one that was verging closer to her. It tackled her to the ground, his weight pressing her to the ground, and she struggled against him. His teeth gnashed his teeth at her, his unseeing eyes staring her dead in the eye. His smell invaded her senses and she felt a wave of nausea overwhelm her, causing her mouth to water as the urge to empty her stomach threatened her.

Her mind travelled back to the time when she was pinned to the ground in the middle of the city, her pleading with Glenn to shoot the walker that was about to make her his meal, and an arrow had penetrated his head, knocking it backwards for a second before his dead body collapsed on her. Daryl had saved her that day. She hadn't realised just how much she cared for him until that moment. That he would've done anything to keep her safe.

Her mind was plagued with memories of Daryl; of how her lips still burned with the touch of his; of how she had never wanted to the kiss to end. All of the weeks that they had spent together had allowed her to feel things again; she was always on autopilot, doing what was best for the country, what was deemed appropriate in order to survive that she wasn't allowing herself to truly live.

She had always told herself that if she was going to die, she was going to die fighting for her life. But today wasn't going to be that day. She wasn't doing this for Daryl; she wasn't doing this for herself. She was doing this for all the women locked in cages like animals, who had been kidnapped or taken against their will.

Esther pushed her thumbs into the eye sockets of the dead man above her; he didn't struggle against her, wasn't vaguely aware of what he or she was doing, but she kept pressing and pressing until her thumbs penetrated his brain. As gloop dipped down onto her face, she turned her head and pushed further, to the point that she was raising her body against the man, removing her thumbs once he was lying on the ground. Her eyes met those of Philip who had entered the room once more, and she sent him a smirk just as she stamped on the walker's head. It exploded underneath her boot, sending brain matter and coagulated blood everywhere.

Philip wiped off the blood that marked his face which was now contorted with anger. "You bitch," he muttered with a shake of his head. "Send them in."

Guards advanced towards her, and in that frozen moment of time, Esther watched their eyes flicker from him to her. Their faces were unreadable as they watched the scene unfold before them. There wasn't a hint of fear, just an invitational smirk as an unknown man closed the gap between her. She noted that he wasn't Simon, but she remembered Philip had mentioned the General.

"You're a nasty piece of work, aren't you?" he sneered as he whacked her across the face.

A sudden gush of pain jolted throughout her body, her stomach ached, and her lungs burned as though she had been running for her life for hours. Her tongue was soaked in the taste of blood, unavoidable and stomach churning. She was aware of the hunger in their eyes; a hunger that only she could fulfil for them. Their anger was embedded into her through punches and kicks, and she knew she was growing weaker with each hit she took.

As she rested against the ground, she observed them conversing with each other in the corner and she knew they were talking about their next moves.

Bruised and wounded, her head was pounding from the previous beating. She had fought to the death – whether it was his or her own – and just when she believed it had been the end, it had stopped. She hadn't been sure how long the beating would be, but she had punched and kicked her way through, trying to match their own. But she was ready for them when they turned back to her, and she stood to her feet, her fists poised and ready for them.

Her weakened state and her agile movements slowed which allowed six pairs of hands—rough and calloused with their intentions—to seize her. And Esther knew, when it came down to the fight for survival that there was no honour, no code, and no true winner. Nothing was ever taken for granted, especially when there was nowhere to run.

The blows came in sync; one after the other, relentless for everything they were. But they faltered, with the General's eyes gleaming with impatience and frustration as she kept rising.

"COWARD!" he yelled at her, grabbing her face with such anger. And through the blood that stained her face and seeped into her eyes, she saw her moment. She closed the gap between them; her teeth sneering at him. She grabbed at him, angling herself around him before her teeth sunk into his throat, a yell so bloodcurdling and thunderous echoing around the room. He crumpled to the ground as if his bones were made out of jelly, and the ground beneath him soaked every last drop of blood that expelled from his body until he stilled.

A roar of cheers erupted around her then and she grimaced at the admiration she was receiving. She spit out his skin to the ground and cracked her neck. She pulled the knife out from the General's pocket and she held it close to her body, blade outwards.

The other men advanced towards her, but she was ready. She all but dragged herself towards the cage that held the unconscious blonde girl. She was a fighter, a protector. And if these were going to be her final moments then she would fight to the death.

The room was plunged into darkness then, and confused murmurs escaped the crowd. A second later, the lights flicked back on and the room was empty of all souls except for her and the unconscious girl. She was breathing heavily, the hits her body had taken weakening her to the point that her bad leg collapsed from under her. Esther scanned the room looking for Philip, but he had all but disappeared. The windows that allowed the crowd to watch with pleasure was darkened with blinds.

A figure came out from the shadow of a doorway on the opposite side of the others, his gaze meeting hers almost instantly. Samson raised his hands in surrender.

"We have a few minutes to escape this area before they're able to get back into this place. They're locked out of this room," Samson told her, his breathing panicked. "She's my baby sister."

Esther turned to the young girl lying on the ground, her hair covering her face.

"I didn't know she was in here until today when I saw those bastards carrying her inside here," Samson informed her, bitterness evident in his voice. "And then I saw you being led in here and I just knew I had to do something."

She was like a caged animal, still in the defensive mode. She was jittery from adrenaline and from the pain that seemed to knock her pain tolerance out of the park.

"We're going to have to move quick," he continued, aware that words were failing her at that moment. "Can you walk?"

Esther gave a quick nod, realisation hitting her like a freight train. He pulled out a key from his pocket and advanced towards the cage, opening it quickly, and pulling his baby sister out of it. He lifted her with ease and turned to Esther.

"We've got to go," Samson told her. "Thank you…"

"They're monsters," Esther whispered shakily.

Samson nodded, and offered her a smile. "But you're not. Remember that."

Esther followed behind him as quickly as she could, the knife fixed in her hand. A loud siren echoed around them and the two of them quickened their pace. He navigated them to an area behind the outside of the room she had been brought to and watched from the dark corridor as guards rushed around like headless chickens.

"On the count of three, we go to the left, okay?" Samson told her. "There's a door that leads outside, I've cut out a part of the fence."

"We're leaving?"

Samson furrowed his brow at that. "Isn't that what you wanted to do?"

"What about the women stuck in the cages? What about my friend?"

Samson let out a sigh. "The key is in my pocket. Take that, get them out. But just know, not everyone can be saved."

Esther retrieved the key from his pocket with a nod. "Thank you, Samson. Be safe out there."

He searched the darkness for her face. "I'll see you on the outside."

As Samson left the darkened corridor, Esther went to the right, keeping close to the walls. She rounded the corner, keeping herself hidden in the shadows. As guards passed her by, she advanced towards the cage she had been inside. As she approached, she saw the widened eyes from Michonne and Andrea as they noticed the blood that stained her body. She was weaker now, beaten and bruised.

"Ah," Alpha said. "You survived it. I knew you would."

Esther ignored her then, trying to unlock the cage as quickly as her hands would allow her to.

"There she is! Get her!" Philip's voice boomed over the shouts and the siren.

"Shit," she cursed, pushing the key into Michonne's hand and squeezing it closed. Michonne understood and moved away from the door.

Philip closed in on her and before she could react, he whacked her across the face with such force that all reality was thrust from her.