Ch. 12
The woman, who Sam had realized was not a Walker, dropped the basket she had been carrying and unsheathed her sword. Though with every step that she took there was a slight stumble to her step.
"Should we help her?" Carl asked his dad frantically. Rick began running to the front gate.
The woman swung her sword frantically, spitting heads and taking them off with every stroke. But the bleeding wound in her leg was drawing in more walkers as she limped away from the gathering storm.
She stumbled to much and fell backward seeming disoriented before passing out.
Two Walkers were upon her and were just about to feed when Sam lined up a shot and took it. The Walkers head snapped back as the bullet tore through its skull sending it to the ground. Just as Sam was about to line up another shot a crack sounded through the air and the second Walker fell to the ground.
Sam looked down and saw Carl standing safely behind the fence, his gun raised as Rick ran into the entrance courtyard throwing his son the keys to the gate. Sam provided them covering fire, quickly dispatching a few Walkers, giving them enough time to get the woman and bring her into the prison.
"Is she bit?" Hershel asked, limping to the front gate on his crutches.
"Gunshot," Rick informed him as he quickly examined the wound on her leg. He threw her over his shoulders as the rest of the group went back into the prison, Sam taking a bit longer having to climb down from the guard tower.
Sam entered the block just as the woman had woken up and began to panic
"It's alright, look at me, look at me," Rick said softly as he poured a bottle of water on her to cool her. "Who are you?" The woman looked around and saw her sword laying on the ground near her and went for it almost immediately. Sam pulled her gun but Rick managed to kick it away before she could grab it. "We're not gonna hurt you. Unless you try something stupid first, alright?"
"Rick," Daryl spoke up as he came out of the cell block. "Who the hell's this?"
"You wanna tell us your name?" Rick asked as the Woman began to lean on her elbows. "You wanna tell us your name?"
She remained silent and Daryl took the opportunity to speak up. "Y'all come on in here."
Rick stood up. "Everythin' alright?"
Daryl actually seemed like he was going to crack a smile. "You're gonna wanna see this."
Daryl led them to a cell, and Rick went in first, stopping in his tracks, for inside the cell was the long-lost Carol. Carol stood up and immediately brought her into a fierce hug. They both smiled and laughed, everyone grinned at the return of Carol.
"Poor thing fought her way into a cell. Must have passed out, dehydrated," Daryl explained as the two of them broke apart.
Sophia broke through the crowd and let out a sob when she saw her mother. The two hugged and Sam smiled at the reunion.
It was beginning to look up once more.
"We can tend to that wound for you, give you a little food and water, and then send you on your way," Rick told the woman they had saved earlier. Sam and Rick both had their hands resting on their guns while Daryl held his crossbow loosely in one hand. "But you're gonna have to tell us how you found us. And why you were carrying formula."
"The supplies were dropped by a young Asian guy with a pretty girl," They all perked up at that.
"What happened?"
"Were they attacked?" Hershel's voice was in a panic.
"They were taken."
"Taken? By who?" Rick demanded.
"By the same son of a bitch who shot me." The woman's voice was filled with malice and her face showing nothing but hatred for the man she spoke of.
"Hey, these are our people. You better tell us what happened now!" Rick grabbed her leg, around where her gunshot wound was and she jumped up in a rage.
"Don't you ever touch me again!" She yelled shoving a finger in his face.
"You better start talkin'. You're gonna have a much bigger problem than a gunshot wound," Daryl warned her, his crossbow raised.
"Find 'em yourself," she spat at him.
Sam holstered his gun and walked over to her. "Listen, how would you feel if this had been your people, one of your friends? You'd do whatever you could to save them, right? Well that's what we're doin', so would you kindly tell us where they are?"
She looked Sam over, her eyes cold and calculating. Sam could recognize the look. He had done it so many times when his original group had… done the things he wasn't proud of.
"There's a town," she told him, "Woodbury. About 75 survivors, I think they were taken there."
"A whole town?" Rick sad in disbelief.
"It's run by this guy who calls himself the Governor. Pretty boy, charming, Jim Jones type."
"Great, now we got a fuckin' cult to deal with, perfect."
"He got muscle?" Daryl asked, ignoring Sam's comment.
"Paramilitary wannabes. They have armed sentries on every wall."
"You know a way in?" Rick asked her.
"The place is secure from walkers, but we could slip our way through."
Rick was still full of doubt. "How'd you know how to get here?"
"They mentioned a prison, said which direction it was in, said it was a straight shot." She told him very-matter-of-fact.
"This is Hershel, father of the girl who was taken. He'll take care of that." He nodded towards her leg and made his way back into the cell block.
"How do you know we can trust her?" Oscar asked, after Rick had informed everyone on the situation.
"This is Maggie and Glenn. Why are we even debatin'?" Beth asked aloud.
"That's because we aren't," Sam told her. "I'm goin'. Pretty sure Daryl will back me up. Hell, just the two of us could go in, grab 'em no problem."
"He's right," Daryl agreed, "But we're leaving as soon as she's able to."
"Well, this place sounds pretty secure, you can't go alone" Rick told them.
"I'll go," Beth agreed.
Axel stepped forward. "Me too."
"I'm in," Oscar nodded.
"I got the flash bangs and the tear gas," Daryl told Sam and Oscar as they loaded the trunk of the car. "Never know what you're gonna need."
"That's what I learned out on the road. Bring every tool you can," Sam told him as he weighed one of the canisters in his hand.
Sam felt a tap on his shoulder and saw Beth motion toward the gate. They walked over, Sam adjusting his rifle so that it was slung behind him instead of across his chest.
"You alrigh'," He asked her.
"I should be the one asking you. I mean, you're the one that's going out there."
Sam brushed it off, trying to keep the mood light . "I'll be fine. I got Oscar, Daryl, Rick , and a lady with a sword backing me up."
Beth bit her lip and looked down to the ground. "Jus' promise me you'll come back."
Sam smiled at the clichéness of the moment. "Beth, I promise you, that I will do my best to come back. Cross my heart."
She smiled and hugged him tightly. He felt her let out a few shaky breaths so he kissed the top of her head, telling her that it would be alright. She pulled back and went on the tips of her toes and gave him a deep passionate kiss that, to be frank, he was not quite prepared for.
It was so sudden and Sam eagerly returned it, cupping her cheek and closing his eyes.
"Hey, Paddy Reilly! We gotta go!" Sam mentally cursed Daryl as he and Beth pulled apart. Their faces flushed and their breathing heavy.
"I swear to you Beth, I'll be back."
"You better."
Sam leaned his head against the window as the car navigated through the backroads of Georgia. His eyes were closed, his brain gearing up to where he needed it to be. Back to the first few months. Back to the killer that he was before he had met the group.
Of course, he had killed after he had joined them. But this mission they were on, if just felt different. He could feel it in his bones. He needed to be as ruthless as he had once been.
"They have patrols, we're better off on foot," Michonne said, Sam felt the car slowly grind to a halt.
They exited the car and went to the trunk, getting their packs, guns, and any other equipment that they might need out.
"How far? Night's comin'," Rick asked her, looking up and examining the sky.
"It's a mile, maybe two," they finished gearing up and followed Michonne into the woods.
Sam held his machete loosely in his right hand while his pistol sat comfortably in his left. The woods were relatively quiet, birds sang, the sun shined brightly through the trees. Sam would have thought that he was on a hike had it not been for the military grade weapons.
Oh, how he wished he could go back to that time, where a person could walk through the woods and not have to worry about the threat of Walkers or Raiders. But those days were done, and probably forever.
"You alright?" Rick asked the young Irishman.
He shrugged and his eyes scanned the woods. "I suppose. Just a little nervous. My friends and I never attempted anything like this. We always stuck to groups of five or less."
"Why?"
"There were only six of us," neither of them could resist smiling at the bit of dark humor. "No but um, I just want to get our people back. Make the son of a bitch suffer."
Rick was about to respond when they both heard a groan. Then another, and another, and another. "Shite."
"Down," Rick ordered the others as he crouched low and everybody followed his example. Walkers began pouring onto the trail, Sam raised his machete defensively as did the others with their melee weapons. "Get in formation, no gunfire." Rick then proceeded to jam his dagger into the Walker's head. The others followed suit. Sam brought his down and kicked the Walker away, freeing his machete as he turned to his next target.
"There's too many of 'em," Daryl huffed as he pulled his knife out of a Walker. They began emerging from the trees surrounding the small group.
"This way," they all followed Rick through a small opening among the Walkers, their weapons flashing as they brought them down on the Walkers that got in their way. "In there, c'mon!" Rick pointed to a rundown wooden hut with the windows boarded up.
They piled through the door and Sam wrinkled his nose at the smell. The others were not immune to the scent as they brought their hands up to shield their noses.
"That smell, it's loud," Daryl said.
"Did something die in here?" Sam asked, though he knew that it was a very likely possibility that something indeed did die in there.
They began to explore the rest of the hut, being careful as to where they stepped, as if someone had booby trapped the entire place.
"What the hell is that?" Oscar asked, as his flashlight glanced past the body of an animal.
"It's got to be a fox or what's left of one," Daryl said as his flashlight over the body. "Guess Lassie went home."
Walkers began pounding on the door, their nails scraping and pulling against the wood each hand trying to find their way in. The wood began creaking and groaning from the number of Walkers that were at the door.
Rick signaled them to follow him. Sam and Daryl moved quickly, their weapons drawn and at the ready. Rick's light shined on the bed in the corner of the room, and he slowly reached his hand out and grasped the blanket, pulling it off and revealing a scrawny man in tattered clothes wielding a double barrel shotgun.
"Who the hell are you?" he yelled pointing his gun at the group.
"We don't mean any harm!" Rick tried to tell the man but he simply aimed his rifle at tried to calm the man.
"Get outta my house!" He shouted again.
"Okay, we will, but we can't right now," Rick explained.
"Now!"
"Shut him up," Michonne whispered growing annoyed with the man.
"Get out! Right now!"
"There are walkers outside."
He looked around at all of them. "I'll call the cops!" He threatened.
"I am a cop. Now, I need you to lower the gun. Don't do anything rash. Let's just take this nice and slow, okay?"
The man shoved his gun into Rick's face. "Show me your badge!" He demanded.
"It's in my pocket. I'm just gonna reach down, nice and slow," Rick moved his hand to his back pocket, but then quickly pushed the man's gun out of the way and pulled him into a headlock.
Rick screamed and pulled his hand back, teeth marks embedded in the skin and the man dashed for the door. But before he could open it, Michonne's sword had impaled him and he fell to the floor lifeless.
"What do we do now?" Oscar asked and Rick and Daryl knelt beside the body.
"Remember the Alamo?" Daryl asked Rick.
Rick and Daryl picked up the man and positioned him by the door. "Help me with the door."
"On it," Sam said without hesitation. He remembered doing things like this during the early days. He'd tune out the horrible things he was doing at the time, and find a way to process them later. It was routine at this point.
"Oscar, check the back." Rick and Daryl threw this man's body out of the door and into a crowd of Walkers, before Sam slammed the door behind them.
It was dark by the time they arrived outside of Woodbury's gates. There were a few men on watch, one manning a spotlight, the others walking back and forth along the walls with rifles.
"You know, Rick, I hate to be the pessimist, but there is no fuckin' way we're getting in and out without anyone spotting us," Sam said as he looked through the scope of his rifle.
"An' there ain't no way we're gonna check in them buildings, not with all them guards there," Daryl added.
Suddenly, branches snapped behind them and they all turned with their weapons drawn. Michonne came from behind them and motioned for them to follow her. And although they were hesitant, they did so.
AN: So I'm not the best with romantic scenes, that's kind of why I'm doing the Beth and Sam thing in this story, to try and help me improve with writing them. Well that and I enjoy them. Not sure if that's how it's gonna be for the rest of the story or if Sam will end up with someone else... let me know your thoughts on that either through a review or PM. Either way, the Assault of Woodbury will commence next chapter. In the meantime I will be going back and renaming all of the chapters. I'm going to name the chapters now, just letting you guys know. Please Review! ~Pacco1