A/N: Hey everyone, so this is a dark chapter, it's the second part of my mini subplot and is still AU, we'll actually hopefully be back in the Walking Dead timeline in the next chapter or possibly the one after that. It's likely going to be the next chapter though. But I had an interesting insert at the end of this chapter and I didn't think I was going to introduce this character so soon but here we are. So it's not Monday but it's sunday evening so here's a little treat, the next chapter I'm uploading will be early on Tuesday morning. Not tomorrow :)
Thanks for everyone who reads my story especially my reviewers! I'm on holidays now so I hopefully will upload 5/6 times a week at least but I do need one day of rest haha.
FnafAnimeGirl109: honestly Alejandro is a sweetie and a cutie and I loved writing him so much. It was pretty calming I'm glad you liked it.
JasminJW: thank you, continue enjoying it! Xx
Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead or any of it's affiliated characters and storyline, only my OC and my plotline.
Warnings: This chapter contains elements of semi-graphic nature, in line with the graphic violence in the show and there are hints alluding to abuse but no rape or sexual violence.
-Angels and Douchebags
The first thing I felt when I woke up was this burning sensation at the back of my head. I touched the back of neck and brought it back seeing the red sticky blood. I opened my eyes but I couldn't see anything. Blindfolded. The ground was cold and felt like concrete.
My hands also appeared to be tied behind my back and my legs were tied together. I was trapped.
"Polaris?" I heard a gentle voice next to me. I must've been in some sort of building, I could hear groaning and growling coming from somewhere in the room. Walkers.
"Alejandro?" I asked into the darkness.
"Yes it's me. Where are we?" He asked.
"I-I don't know." I stuttered feeling an overwhelming sense of fear.
"Don't worry we'll get out of this." He said firmly. I felt his hands brush mine, they seemed like they were also tied up. I tried to wiggle the blindfold off but it was no use, it was hurting my eyes.
"How did we get in this?" I wondered.
"I don't know maybe they were following us." He said slowly. It had only been 2 days since I had left the farm and I had managed to get myself captured.
"They're coming. Stay calm Polaris." He said shuffling away from me. I heard pairs of heavy footsteps entire the room.
"Ah So you're finally awake." A man said directly in front of me.
"What do you want?" I spat out. He took the blindfold off and I looked up seeing 5 men standing behind him. I checked on my belt as my colt and knife were gone.
"We've already stripped you off your weapons there's no point." He was a tall bald man with heavy boots. I looked around the room seeing heavy artillery on the table along with my knife and colt. There were Walkers tied to some length of rope so they could move and looked to be guarding the back entrance.
The bald man leaned down in front of as I backed away from him.
"I can see you're looking for a way to escape. Good luck when you're tied." He sneered making the other men in his group laugh.
"What do you want?" I spelled out a little calmer this time. I needed to keep a clear head for this.
"I want you to tell us where you group is." He said tilting his head to look at me.
"What? I don't have a group." I said confused. It was true. He swallowed before backhanding me across the face. My cheek was red and stinging as I turned back to face him.
"I really don't like hitting women." He said. He gestured to one of his men who brought two chairs. They sat me and Alejandro down on each one and tied us against it so we could see them directly.
"I know you're lying. You have a group." He came up to me holding his knife.
"Don't hurt her!" Alejandro shouted next to me sweating.
"Watch your mouth pretty boy, you'll be next." He threatened him. I looked at Alejandro warningly and he looked down saying nothing more.
"I don't have a group! It's just me and him." I said gesturing to Alejandro next to me.
"This is how I know you're lying." He said pulling my leather journal out of my backpack.
"You read my journal?" I scoffed. The man opened it up and started flicking through it.
"So who is this Rick Grimes? Because it sounds like not only do you have a group, but you have a solid base with weapons and supplies." He stated closing it and standing in front of me. I said nothing.
"Andy," He said to the man next to him. He stepped forward and punched me straight in the face. I felt blood dripping from my lip and spat on the floor.
"I thought you don't hit women." I spluttered.
"That's why I've got Andy." He smirked patting the blonde haired man next to him.
"I may have been with that group before but I'm not with them anymore. I don't know where they are." I defended.
"Bullshit. Let's see how long you last without food or water." He put the blindfolds over our eyes once more leaving us tied to the chair.
—-
I don't know what time of day it was but the night had definitely passed. My throat was completely dry and if I kept coughing eventually I was going to cough up my lungs. The blindfold was taken off and a bright light was shone in my face.
"Let's see if you've learned something from yesterday." He was standing in front of me again as I squinted.
"Where is your camp?"
"Screw you."
"Where is your group?"
"Where are your supplies?" The bald man asked his string of questions but I answered the same.
"Screw. You." I said spitting at his boots. He punched me in the face again and this time I knew it was bruised. He did it repeatedly until my face was sore and I was close to passing out.
"Fine. If you won't answer, maybe I'll have a little word with your friend here." He looked at Alejandro.
"No," I said weakly trying to shuffle in the chair.
"I'll be okay Polaris." He looked at me trying to reassure me.
"Wait," I said but they ignored me untied his restraints and took him out of the room. I could hear screaming coming from somewhere in the building and winced. They were torturing him because of me. I let the tears fall from my face. Leaving Hershel's farm was a mistake. Thinking I could survive again by myself. Was a mistake.
I closed my eyes trying to block out the screaming coming from next door.
—
"Please." I whispered hoarsely the next day when they brought him back all bloody from being tortured. The bald man who I had come to know as Dwane turned around to look at me.
"What was that ?" He came close.
"Water," I pleaded.
He left the room and came back with a glass of water. He placed it on the floor and kicked it over, the water trickling away. He then picked it up and handed the empty glass with a few drops of water putting it to my lips. I tilted my head back savouring the small amounts of water.
"What do we say?" Dwane raised his eyebrows.
"Thank you," I said quietly.
"You're most welcome." He smiled toothily.
"Please, can I just help my friend." I looked at Alejandro was a swollen eye and a bloody face.
"Just for a moment." I said not meeting his gaze. He untied my hands and threw me and old rag. I began wiping the blood gently from his face.
"I'm sorry," I whispered squeezing his hands behind the chair and he shook his head.
"Okay that's enough." Dwane said harshly shoving me back in the chair. He tied my hands again against the chair and I began slowly rubbing it on the metal leg.
"H-he doesn't know anything I s-swear. P-please don't hurt him." I pleaded with Dwane.
"Where is your camp?" He asked.
"It's a farm." I said feeling ashamed that they had broken me.
"Where is it? Is it close?" I nodded slowly looking at the ground.
"That's a start." He said putting some bread in my mouth. I chewed it quickly, being the first bit of food I had in a couple of days. He gave some to Alejandro who also gobbled it up. Dwane left the room leaving us alone again.
"I'm so sorry. You shouldn't have come with it. You'd be better on your own. I'm bad luck." I stated glancing at him.
"Don't blame yourself." He chuckled.
"Remember I insisted. And well, I'm glad to have met you." He gave me a half smile which I returned.
"But this is mierda." He said looking defeated.
"I'm going to get us out of this." I said firmly rubbing the ropes against the chair.
"How?" He looked at me.
"I'm working on it."
"It still bothers me though." I said after a while.
"What does?" He asked.
"How did they find us? I left no tracks, I was super careful wherever we went but they found us in the forest." I said frowning.
"Perhaps they followed us? Or perhaps they saw the fire?" Alejandro suggested.
"Maybe," I thought to myself.
"It doesn't matter anyways. We're getting out of here soon." I said and he shook his head. The rope restraints were becoming worn down and in a few hours time, if they didn't notice, they would be broken.
I looked around the room not recognising the building. Where on earth did they take us? This building seems to be in the middle of nowhere. If I could just be free of these restraints I could get to my weapons and the rifle, create a diversion somehow. Maybe steal a car if they had them and get away from here. Make it to Washington.
I can't risk going back to the farm, in case they somehow follow. I can't do that to him. The door swung open indicating Dwane and his goons were back.
"Back so soon?" I mocked as he stood in front of me eyebrows raised.
"Grow some balls did you?" He said making the other men laugh. His man Andy punched me across the face in the same place as before making it ache like nobody's business.
"You think I'm afraid of blood? I'm a woman." I scoffed. He continued punching me until I could feel my face was swollen.
"Do you think you wanna tell me where your camp is exactly?" He asked leaning down to my level.
"Bite me." I said. I had to hold out. He glanced behind the chair and I immediately stopped rubbing the ropes against it. He looked back at my face and lick lips.
"New tactic." He smiled making me visibly shake. He started undoing my restraints on my arms and legs as one of the men dragged me by the hair until we were through the door. We came into another dark and dismal room where he pushed me into it.
He closed the door with the other man standing behind him and came closer. He stroked my cheek with a finger making me visibly cringe then stopped seeing my reaction.
"This entire ordeal would be a lot simpler if you tell me where your friends are. Polaris." He grinned making me snap to look at him.
"Oh that's right. Your friend Alejandro let that slip whilst we were extracting information from him." He said twirling the knife in his fingers.
"What a unique name for a beautiful girl." He said.
"W-what are you going to do?" I asked as he approached me.
"I'm not going to do anything." He shrugged.
"I'm going to ask you again. Where is your camp?" I wanted to tell them. I dreaded to think what they were going to do. I was so scared I missed Rick. I miss Lori. Carl. Andrea. T-Dog. Daryl. Carol. Maggie. Glenn. I kept my mouth closed not answering him. He pointed to one of his men who stepped forward and pressed the knife into my cheek making a deep cut. I screamed loudly as the cold metal bit into my skin.
"I don't know Rufus make another line across that so it's an x." Dwane stood with his hand on his face. I felt the knife drag across my skin again letting out an earth shattering scream.
"Feeling chatty yet?" He asked as I whimpered and started crying.
"No?" Rufus took the knife and ripped it down my shirt so it was open. He took it off leaving me standing in my bra. It's lucky I even found one. I wrapped my arms around my chest shivering in the cold room.
"Feeling shy now are we?" Dwane stepped forwards now eyeing me up and down. I backed away from him until my back hit the cold concrete wall. He stood taller than me and leaned a hand against the wall where my head was.
"Maybe I should have a little fun with you first?" He asked smirking.
"Please please no." I sobbed. He rubbed his hand down my side until it rested on my waist then put his other hand on my cheek turning it towards him so I saw his face. He began leaning in until I punched him in the face knocking him back.
"Tie this bitch back up! I'm gonna figure out what to do with her." Dwane barked orders at Rufus and Andy who dragged me back to the other room without my shirt and tied my hands up behind the chair.
When they left the room I allowed myself to cry feeling the wet tears stinging the cuts in my face. I turned my face away from Alejandro so we couldn't see and did my best to hide my body.
"Polaris." He said gently and I shook my head. The ropes were tied in a different place so I had to begin again. I cried silently rubbing the ropes against the chair. Come on. Don't lose faith Pol. I have to do this.
A few hours later I looked out the top windows seeing it was night. I was starving, Alejandro was starving. He tried handing his jacket to me but with both our arms and legs tied there was no way. I was forced to sit in ridicule with no shirt to hide my shame.
"So learnt our lesson yet?" Dwane walked in holding a clean shirt in one hand.
"Where is the farm your group's camping on?" He asked.
"It's-" I looked at Alejandro and he nodded his head, telling me to tell them.
"It's up your ass." I looked Dwane in the eyes and said it. He leaned forward and put a finger under my chin tilted it forward. His hands were hovering over my chest and I closed my eyes I didn't want to see what he was going to do.
"Open your eyes." He slapped me hard across the face which started stinging. The cuts reopened again and I felt the blood dripping from them. He used the clean shirt to wipe it.
"Tsk tsk. It's such a shame, to ruin such a pretty face." He traced his finger from my forehead to my lips which were quivering.
"I was going to bring this shirt to you, but you don't deserve it." He said. His eyes trailed down to my stomach before they stopped on the wound that was stitched up.
"Hello, what's this?" He leaned down looking at the stitches.
"So you have medical supplies as well." He said looking up.
"Where is the farm?" He asked again. He got his knife and pressed it into the wound. I clenched my eyes shut in pain that felt like it would never end. He took it out as I began bleeding from the stomach again. He dumped the T-shirt in my lap.
"I guess we'll ask your friend again." he shrugged.
Alejandro closed his eyes before they undid this restraints and took him by the arms.
"No! Take me instead! Please take me!" He didn't listen. He dragged him out of the room and the last thing I saw on Alejandro's face was disappointment. I felt hurt. I could still feel Dwane's fingers on me. It made my skin crawl.
I could see the blood pooling on the ground beneath me. I was going to pass out from blood loss if I didn't cover it. I leaned forward as much as I could on the shirt hoping it would put pressure on the wound, but I found myself slipping out of consciousness.
I was going to die here.
I woke up feeling my ropes being untied from the back.
"No wait," I said hoarsely but I was shushed.
"I'll tell you, I'll tell you-" My eyes started closing shut before fingers snapped in front of my face.
"Hey!" I looked up seeing a woman leaning down in front of me undoing the rope tied around my legs.
"Can you walk?" She asked.
"Maybe," I said weakly. She lifted the shirt from my lap and saw it was soaked with blood. She took out linens from her pack and tied it around my stomach. She handed me the shirt then turned around giving me privacy as I put the shirt over my head.
"That wound's gonna need stitches but it should hold." She said handing me a bottle of water. I downed half of it before slowing down realising I may not have much later on.
"Thanks so much. I owe you." I said and she nodded her head.
"What are you doing here?" I asked her. I looked to the other side of the room and saw the Walkers lying on the floor with their heads severed from their body.
"I was scavenging, supplies, weapons and I saw you." She said checking the room speaking quietly. I found my pack on the other side of the room and checked the contents. Bastards took my food and clothes. My journal was still there. I hobbled over to the table with the artillery and took my rifle and attached the belt with my knife and colt.
"I've missed you." I smiled at the gun checking for ammunition.
"Let's go." The woman said eyeing the door in case anyone came through.
"Wait, I have a friend, he's being held in the next room and I can't leave without him." I said thinking of all the torture Alejandro took for me.
"Your friend's likely dead." The woman said curtly.
"That may be but I owe him my life." I said staring at her. She seemed to be thinking for a moment before sighing deeply.
"Fine but there's only two of us and six of them. How do you propose we get your friend in the next room?" She asked. I looked over to the machine guns lying on the table and smiled pointing to it. She followed my gaze and smirked. I took a few of the pistols and stuffed it in my pack saving it for later. There were a couple of boxes of rounds which we took and a machine gun each, making sure the magazine was loaded.
"This is a bad plan." The woman said as we stood against the wall by the door. I stood behind her seeing a white scabbard on her back.
"I know." I said.
"Is that a sword?" I asked her with one eyebrow raised.
"A katana." She said and I nodded my head slowly.
"A katana." I repeated.
"Yeah, got something against that?" She challenged.
"Uh no." I raised my hands up.
"I know it's a shitty plan, but it's the only plan we got." I sighed.
We were going to get out of this alive. I groaned feeling my stomach hurt. I wasn't counting but this was the at least the fourth or fifth time I would have to re-stitch that wound. The bleeding had slowed down which was good.
"Sure you can make it with that?" She pointed to my stomach and I nodded. She pressed down on the handle gently as the door creaked open. Laughter could be heard in another room. The lights were flickering in the corridor as the woman in front of me pointed her gun out scouting the area.
She signalled for me to come forward and we came outside the door we could hear talking coming from. We both stood outside the door getting ready to storm it, if they had Alejandro in there we needed to dispose of these men quickly and get out, hopefully getting a car along the way. She nodded to me as we stood close and began counting on her fingers.
"3...2...1...Now!" She shouted. She pushed down on the handle and the door swung open capturing the attention of the seven men in the room. They were sitting drinking beer and put their hands up as we came in the room.
"Drop whatever weapons you have. Now." The woman in front of me said as they took out their pistols and rolled them on the floor.
"Alejandro?" I lowered my gun slightly seeing him not tied up and completely fine. His cuts were stitched up and he was fine. Completely fine.
"What?" I asked lowering my gun slightly.
"What are you doing?" He was sitting on the chair next to one of the men laughing.
"Oh Pol. I thought it was obvious." He replied in a normal American accent.
"For a smart girl I can't believe you didn't connect the dots." He said standing up and walking over to me.
"Your boy here, is part of my group." Dwane said smiling at Alejandro and patted him on the shoulder.
"You sold me out?" I asked feeling betrayed.
"And you still don't get it sweetheart." Dwane said clapping his hands together.
"How do you think we found you?" He asked and I almost dropped the machine gun in realisation.
"We should go," The woman whispered next to me.
"I haven't had a chance to meet you yet darling." Dwane said with his hands up strolling over to the woman next to me.
"Ain't you a pretty thing." He said smirking at her.
"Back up." She ordered making Dwane go back.
"What did you two think was gonna happen coming in here? You thought you were going to just shoot us and leave?" He asked incredulously.
"It was pretty stupid of you guys to leave your weapons lying about on the table there." I said smirking.
"Look, if you ladies are going to shoot us, just shoot us. You would've done it already, the thing is you don't have the-" I put my finger on the trigger as Dwane was riddled with bullets in his chest and fell to the floor. The other woman shot the other 5 men leaving Alejandro standing there. I pointed the gun at him and moved closer towards him.
"Pol, you're not gonna shoot me." He said trying to convince me.
"I just shot them without blinking an eye. What do you think I'm gonna do to you? You betrayed my trust, you followed me, had me kidnapped and tortured and molested. I couldn't give a shit about you." I pulled out the colt and took the safety off pressed my finger on the trigger firing a single bullet straight to his head. He fell to the floor with a thud as I dropped the machine gun.
The woman was looking at me curiously and lowered her weapon.
"Are you okay?" She asked.
"I just found out the man I was beginning to trust helped kidnap me instead. I'm starting to get too old for this shit." I sighed. I leaned down and kneeled by his body watching him unmoving on the floor.
Me and the woman checked they were all shot in the head and left the building, seeing it was still late at night. The building was on the edge of the forest but there were train tracks, these must be the same ones I saw earlier, if I followed the line north It would take me up towards where I want to go.
"Thank you for all you've done for me." I said putting my hand on her shoulder and began walking away.
"Where are you going?" She asked incredulously and I walked back to her.
"You're wounded. That needs to be stitched up, you need time to rest." She said.
"I need time to get away from here." I said shaking my head.
"Let me stitch up your wound at least, then you can head to wherever you're going." She said and I conceded. We walked across the road past the train tracks and disappeared into the forest. The woman walked over to two Walkers which were missing their jaws and arms, they were chained to a tree.
I pulled out my knife quickly about to stab them in the head before she shoved me back.
"They're Walkers!" I shouted angry she wasn't letting me kill them.
"I need them!" She said.
"For what?" I asked disbelievingly.
"Disguise." I backed off slightly. That was actually pretty smart.
"We'll go a bit deeper into the woods and start a fire, I can stitch you up there and you can rest." She said pushing her dreadlocks back. She untied the chain and pulled the Walkers in front of her as I stood next to her.
"What's your name?" I asked her.
"Michonne."
A/N: Trust me I was planning for Michonne to appear later but it just happened! I was also just thinking, maybe you guys think I rushed that scene, with her getting revenge on her torturers. but she's gone through all that shit with Shane, her line of thinking is that I'm not gonna let this bastards explain themselves I'm just going to deal with it and move on. The fact Alejandro used her has just given her trust issues for the rest of this story, her emotional turmoil over him is not going to be that long, she only knew him a few days and she was on the fence about him anyways. So I'm sorry if any of you are disappointed with that last scene but this is how I decided was the best way to handle it. Just kill them and move on, if she let them live, they would've hunted her down. She's essentially on her own again. survival instincts.