Sorry it took me a few days to update, got a little busy, and I now just had a minute to post the next chapter. Thank you for all the follows and favorites! And thank you for the reviews!
I wasn't sure where the men had taken Glenn and I. We were in what looked almost like a warehouse or loading dock and there were a couple dozen men keeping an eye on us and speaking in Spanish. I didn't understand most of what they said, but I noticed most of them were holding guns.
Both Glenn and I had our mouths duct taped shut and I tried not to think about what they might want to do to me, seeing as I didn't spot any other women in the group. I tried to swallow the lump forming in my throat. I didn't see how we were going to get out of this situation.
Despite the hard hit against my head for the second time now, I was glad I hadn't blacked out. My head was still in pain though, but my hands were tied behind my back, restricting any movements for me to check out the damage. I was probably going to have another nice bruise on my face if I ever made it out of here.
"They're here!" I heard someone shout.
I saw Glenn glance over to me, his eyes wide and fearful. These men easily could outman and outgun Rick, Daryl, and T-Dog. What the hell were they thinking?
I could hear the voices outside, but no matter how hard I strained my ears, I couldn't make out what was being said. Suddenly a cloth bag was thrown over my head and I was roughly grabbed by the shoulders. I couldn't see where we were walking, but I was forced up a set of stairs and after being pushed forward a few more feet, the cloth was off my head. Glenn was beside me, the color completely drained from his face. Both of us had a man holding a gun to our head.
Down below I saw Rick and Daryl, but I couldn't see T-Dog anywhere. The two men I could see suddenly looked up. Rick looked to be holding back his worry while Daryl looked downright furious. The group below us exchanged a few more words, but from our distance I still could not hear what was being said.
The meeting must have been at its end because the bag was quickly thrown over my head again and I was shoved back down those stairs. Once we had stopped moving, the man known as Guillermo ordered the bags off.
Suddenly I could see again. We were back in the same room we had been in before.
"There's something I want to show you both," Guillermo said. "We don't want to hurt you or your friends. We aren't those types of people. You'll understand soon enough though."
We were led through the warehouse into a building next door. It looked like a nursing home and there were older folks in each room. We were stopped not far from the entrance and the duct tape was removed from our mouths while our hands were freed.
"What is this place?" Glenn asked nervously, rubbing at his wrists.
I looked around trying to make sense of everything. Were they protecting these people?
"When the world went to shit, everyone left. I was just a janitor here. These people were left with no one to look after them. Defenseless. They don't know what's going on out there because of us. Figure they deserve their last moments to be as peaceful as we can make it."
"So then why do you need the guns? Why take us?" I asked, feeling more comfortable now that our restraints had been removed. They didn't seem like bad people that were planning to kill us if they were taking care of all of these older folks.
"We need weapons and ammo to keep this place protected. Figured it'd be an easy trade—the guns and our man for you two—no one had to get hurt," Guillermo told me.
We were led to a recreational room where there were at least twenty older people playing cards or checkers together. They smiled and waved us over to join them the moment they spotted us. I noticed three Chihuahuas snuggled up together in a dog bed and smiled.
"You two can stay here and wait until your friends return," Guillermo told us before leaving.
Glenn and I stood back as we watched two of the men help an older gentleman with an inhaler. He had been having an asthma attack before they rushed over to help. I stood back, watching with concern, but he seemed to be alright now.
"What the hell is this?"
I jumped, having been so engrossed in what was going on that I hadn't noticed Rick, Daryl, and T-Dog enter the room followed by a bunch of men.
"He was having an asthma attack," Glenn answered.
"What the hell you guys!" T-Dog shot. "We thought you both were being eaten by dogs!"
I flashed a humorless smile as I gestured to the harmless little dogs in their bed.
Rick turned to Guillermo and whispered something before the man nodded. They moved a few feet away and started talking in hushed voices.
Daryl moved beside me, eyeing my forehead wordlessly. I looked up at him.
"What?" I asked him.
He gestured to my head. "Doesn't look so good."
Instinctively I touched my forehead and winced. I'm sure another bruise was forming. I couldn't even begin to imagine how ridiculous I would look tomorrow when most of my face was black and blue.
"It'll be fine I think. Just wish everyone would stop trying to hit me there," I said half-joking.
Daryl let out an amused snort. "Rick seemed worried when I told him what happened. Said you had a concussion not too long ago."
I nodded. "I'm sure all these hits to my head haven't been helping, but I'm still standing."
Out of the corner of my eye I watched Rick step outside the room with Guillermo and the bag of guns. Daryl's eyes followed mine before his brows furrowed.
"Wonder what they're talking about…" I said, mostly to myself.
Daryl let out a grunt in response, his eyes fixed on the door they had departed through.
"Bet he's giving up those guns," Daryl said in his usual gruff tone.
I turned my attention to Daryl. "So what if he gave these guys a few of those guns? Who else is going to protect these people if they don't?"
"Bunch of old farts are gonna die soon anyhow, why should we give up our weapons when we got our own people to protect?" Daryl snapped, his eyes narrowed at me. "Seems like a dumb idea."
"Seems more like a noble idea to me," I shot back. How could someone be so resigned to let these older folks just die?
"We ain't livin' in the world you grew up in," Daryl growled, his southern drawl more pronounced with his anger. "This is about tryin' to survive. We need to look out for our own, nobody else. How long do you even think they got?"
Daryl pointed at an older woman across the room. She was confined to a wheelchair and appeared to be hooked up to an oxygen tank.
"What good's she doin', huh?" Daryl growled, his voice low so that only I could hear him. "She ain't defending anybody. She ain't killin' any geeks. She's just using up resources sittin' in that chair all day, probably wonderin' when her grandkids are gonna come visit. And you know what?" Daryl shot, looking me right in the eye. "I bet they're all dead. Ain't nobody visiting them." He paused for a moment, his lips drawn tight in anger. "Still think it's such a noble cause?"
I bit back the many thoughts racing through my mind. I didn't want to get into an argument with Daryl in front of everyone in here, it wouldn't do anyone any good.
With as level of a voice as I could muster, I said, "I still think it's the right thing to do."
Daryl shook his head at my words but didn't say anything else.
Rick and Guillermo soon entered the room. We exchanged our goodbyes and left the nursing home, Rick having admitted that he gave up half of the guns in the duffle bag we had come back to retrieve. Daryl didn't say anything to him at the news, just kept his surly gaze forward as we made our silent trek back towards the train tracks we had followed into the city.
"Oh my God!" Glenn groaned as we reached the outer limits of Atlanta.
"Where the hell is our van?" Daryl asked, his gaze quickly searching the area.
"We left it right here, who would take it?" Glenn asked.
"Merle."
I looked over at Rick. His face remained expressionless but I could see the panic in his eyes.
"He's gonna be takin' some vengeance back to camp…" Daryl said to Rick, his voice trailing off.
"Then we better get moving," Rick ordered. "We're traveling on foot, we'll have to run fast if we're going to make it in time."