Chapter 34.
Hostile.
Glenn ran his shirt over his face, wiping away a blanket of sweat. It was sweltering in the city, sucking the moisture out of his body, making the smell of death and decay more potent. Every time he came back, he had to readjust to the odor, fighting back gags to hold onto breakfast.
It was nearing noon and his bag was pitifully empty. Glenn knelt next to a mailbox, sorting his stuff to make it more compact, to create more room – not that he would need it. Pickings were slim in this part of the city.
"You okay?" Audrey stopped beside him, mimicked his posture. She was a lot tougher than him, taking the heat, the smell, the hiking, like a champ.
Glenn nodded, hiding his ragged breaths from her, "Oh, yeah. I could go all day."
"Hop up, then. Lot of ground to cover."
Glenn followed her reluctantly. "We already picked through here a few days ago. Why did you want to come back?"
Audrey said nothing, setting a quick pace down the sidewalk.
She had dragged Glenn back to the same rough-looking neighborhood they came to days ago, where big cracks in the road disrupted faded white lines. Houses on this street, in particular, were crumbling, and most of them had been abandoned before the walkers ever appeared.
Glenn finally stopped as they turned to the right, on the same path they had taken before, "Come on, wait. What do you think we'll find out here? Did you see something last time?"
Audrey paused, sighed, "We're wasting daylight."
Glenn held his ground for another moment, but gave in. Audrey was dead set on this. He went on following her. He wondered why she kept coming on runs with him, just to take charge and go to strange places. Granted, they had usually come back with some valuable things, even if they were short on food. Medicine, hygiene supplies, water containers. On their last outing together, they discovered a trunk full of knives.
He had his reservations, his concerns about her, but the pieces refused to connect. Something was off about Audrey – something vague, hard to describe.
She led on, unopposed, through the afternoon.
XxXxX
Glenn kept an eye on the sky, concerned with the position of the sun. He was no boy scout, no master navigator, but the sun was sinking, and that meant it was time to go back to camp.
"We should probably-" he began.
Audrey cut him off, "One more street."
He looked doubtfully at the sky again, nervous, but relented. He had no other options. He couldn't leave her out here on her own – though he had a feeling she was scrappier than him – and he couldn't drag her back to the car.
In the span of five hours, maybe six, they had scoured an entire neighborhood, finally breaking new ground an hour ago. Here, the houses were less dilapidated, and Glenn started to fill his pack with nonperishable foods and a few basic medications. He also grabbed a few items people had requested, and other, unimportant things that might get a few smiles.
In these houses, though, Audrey started acting differently. She looked through things that had no bearing on their survival. Photo albums. Drawers. She paced the kitchens, the living rooms, saying things to herself.
Glenn finally asked, "What are you looking for? Maybe I can help."
She paused, gave him a sharp glare, said nothing.
Glenn put his hands up, "Okay, jeez. I'll just… wait here, I guess."
She went on searching, moving from house to house, growing more agitated as she came up empty-handed. But in the last house on that road, an old brick building with crumbling front stairs, they found a bunch of blankets balled up on the couch, an empty can on the coffee table.
Audrey took stock of it, searched the rest of the house, nodded to herself.
Glenn got the picture, then. "Who are you looking for?"
She barely seemed to notice he had spoken. She gathered the blankets up in her arms, held them against her chest for a moment, eyes shut.
Glenn said, "Maybe I can help you find them. I want to help."
She looked back at him, muted now. "I got separated from my sisters. We were in this area when… It looks like Meg was here."
"How do you know it was her?"
Audrey picked up the empty can, showed it to him, "She never figured out can openers."
The top was mangled, like someone had stabbed it with a knife to open it.
"It looks recent," Audrey went on, tipping the can back and forth, "She might still be in this area."
She had this sad hopefulness in her voice, and this resolve that alarmed Glenn. He knew what was coming next.
"I can't go back until I find her," Audrey said.
Glenn said, "Well, what're we waiting for?"
XxXxX
A gate clinking open.
A hopeful sound.
Glenn turned around, hoping against hope that the missing girl, Meg, would be walking through the gate any second. No. It was a man, two men, three men. Glenn started backing away, sensing the aggression in their approach, not liking the smiles on their faces.
Audrey stood her ground, and he ran into her.
"Whoa, whoa, kid, calm down," the guy in front said, dropping a big backpack on the ground. "Whatcha got there, huh? Done a little looting out here?"
Audrey stepped in front of Glenn, her hand on the hilt of her gun, "None of your business, asshole."
The guy snorted, "Oh, feisty. I'm just trying to be friendly. I used to live around here, you know. It's rude to go through other people's stuff."
"We were just leaving," Glenn said, "You can have this stuff."
Audrey was not backing down, "You can have this stuff if you wanna go through me to get it."
"Audrey," Glenn hissed.
She ignored him. "Move along or get shot in the face. Your choice."
Suddenly, they were surrounded. While they were focused on the three guys up front, two more had come up behind them. One grabbed Glenn and dragged him backward, got him down on his knees, hit him with something. Glenn blacked out for a second, seeing stars, and found himself on the ground with a boot on his throat. His focus was consumed with trying to breathe. He grabbed at the boot, pushed, but it was too heavy. He choked for air, desperation making him panic. He heard laughter, scuffling, a gunshot.
When the boot finally came off, Glenn gasped like a fish out of water. He was dragged upright, and then punched in the face, back down to the ground.
He heard Audrey shouting, "Let him go!"
And the response, "Listen, honey, you two don't look like weary travelers. I know you got a camp out there somewhere. Where is it?"
Another hit. Glenn tasted blood in his mouth.
Audrey said, "Eat shit."
Another hit.
Her voice was strained, now, "We don't have a camp. We're just traveling."
Another hit.
Glenn groaned, the sound coming out of him involuntarily. He wanted to tell her to keep holding out, that he could take it, that she should keep these guys from getting to their people, but his mind was all messed up.
He heard her words through water, "Up the mountain, a quarry."
It faded in and out, and Glenn could only manage a little disappointment before he passed out.
XxXxX
He woke to Audrey shaking him.
Glenn stirred, moaned, "What? Where?"
She had him by both shoulders, trying to sit him up, "We're still at the house."
Glenn had to process that. House. Slowly, slowly, the attack came back to him. "What happened?"
Audrey was stone-faced, "They left."
"The camp," Glenn said, sputtering, spitting out a mass of blood. His throat was burning, his chest tight, every breath pinching.
She tried getting him to his feet now, guiding him to a chair, "I know. I'm sorry. I couldn't let them kill you." He realized they were in a kitchen. Audrey was pouring water on a cloth, dabbing his face. She said, "But there are a lot of armed people in that camp. If those guys roll up on them like they did us, they'll get mowed down."
She fed him pills, dragged him to his feet again. "Come on. We have to get back to the car."
"How bad is it? How bad am I?" Glenn asked, words slurred.
Audrey grimaced. "Pretty bad. You'll be fine."
He tried to believe her.
She supported him on a long march back through the neighborhood, occasionally shoving him into alleyways when they spotted walkers. When they were almost out, Glenn noticed that her shirt was torn, her neck bruised with heavy purple circles.
He said, "What happened?"
Audrey said nothing, pushed him onward.
His heart darkened, and despite his aversion to violence, he hoped those guys died at the quarry.
She was a lot tougher than him, really. It was the dead of night when Audrey located the car and helped him into it. She sat in the driver's seat for a little while, holding the wheel, not turning the car on. She stared ahead, eyes empty.
Glenn watched the side of her face with his one good eye, wishing he had something to say.
What could he say?
Finally, she started the car and headed toward the quarry. Glenn hoped against hope that those guys never found the quarry, or that, if they did, Dale would spot them before they got close. He hoped none of his people would suffer for his weakness. Audrey had to be thinking the same thing. She had told them where the camp was. He was grateful to be alive but devastated by the cost.
Please be okay, he thought, as he spotted the light of little campfires in the distance.
XxXxX
It was over quickly.
Daryl was the one who spotted them coming up the mountain. He was on his way back from tracking a herd of deer, hauling one over his shoulders. Rick was the first person he encountered, and Rick took over from there.
He was used to this kind of threat. Unknown persons with unknown intentions. His police training kept him calm, doled out the orders for him.
He sent most of the camp into the woods, under the guard of a few armed fighters, just before the truck made it up the hill. He put Daryl on the roof of the RV, trusting it when he said he was a crack shot. Everyone else who was good with a gun – T-dog, Andrea, Morales, and Jim – were stationed around the camp, some under cover of the woods, some in plain view. Rick kept the more imposing men with him, including Shane and William. It mattered little that William was a poor shot and a little clumsy. What mattered was presentation, size. Rick strapped a pistol to his side.
When the truck rolled up, Rick surveyed the men who got out. Five of them. Rednecks. Plastered. He smelled the liquor from a distance. His hackles were up. He felt Shane tensing beside him.
"Wow," one of the guys said, a little ahead of the others. "This is a nice place ya'll got up here. We saw the campfires in the distance and thought we would check it out."
Rick feigned friendliness, watching his tone, "It's not much, but it does the job."
"Yeah, yeah," the guy said, looking around, taking in the people Rick had stationed in plain sight. "I'm sensing a little hostility."
Rick smiled, "Just weary, is all. You folks live around here, or are you just passing through?"
"Well, you know." He stepped back, pulled a beer out of the truck and popped the top. "Hoping to settle down sometime. Maybe we could fit in here, huh?"
Rick got a bad feeling from these men. His years in law enforcement had brought him in contact with all kinds of people. He could pick a snake out of the grass. Everything from the way they moved to the way they talked set off alarms in his head.
Shane seemed to feel the same way. He said, "Not too much free space up here. Might have to find yourselves another spot."
"Not very polite," the guy said, glancing at his buddies. "Your friends weren't that nice, either – pretty girl and the Asian kid."
Rick worked through a prickle of alarm. "Where are they?"
The guy only smiled.
It was over, then.
Rick knew what was coming. He saw the guy in the back reach for his gun, saw the ricochet as the others took an unspoken command to attack. Rick raised his hand reflexively, and in a split second, the guy in the back was on the ground. A rifle cocked and reloaded in the darkness, the shot ringing out from the top of the RV. Rick was the second to fire, drawing his gun in an instant, hitting the lead guy in the chest. Shane was on the same target.
A shot burned past his ear, one sparked off the ground in front of him, but only two shots came from the other side. His people had taken them down, just like that.
Rick stood there for a moment, processing the bodies in front of him.
Is this what the world is, now?
"Get the rest back," Shane said, motioning to the woods.
Rick said, "They ran into Glenn and Audrey."
"I'll head down and look for them," Shane said, clasping him on the shoulder, rounding up a few people on his way to the Jeep.
Rick tried to shake free of the sudden violence, reacting when his family reappeared from the forest. He held his arms out and Lori ran into them, holding on tightly.
She whispered, "I love you. I love you."
Carl hugged his waist, looking past him at the bodies, "Did they shoot anybody?"
"No," Rick said, turning the boy, "Go on to the tent."
Carl looked disappointed, but obeyed.
Lori kissed Rick, soft and sweet. She rested her forehead on his. "You sure everyone is okay?"
"I'm sure. Only two shots came from them. Both missed."
Rick turned, hearing a thud behind him. Daryl had hopped off the top of the RV, laying the rifle down on the outside table and picking up his crossbow.
"Thank you," Rick said. "You're a good shot."
"Told you," Daryl responded shortly, glancing at Lori, grimacing, and walking off.
Lori glared after him.
Rick wasn't in the mood to talk about that again. He kissed his wife once more and went to work, helping the other men drag the bodies away. He wasn't sure where they were going to go, what they would do with them, but he wanted them out of sight.
Not even an hour later, the Jeep returned, the sedan behind it.
The group crowded around as Audrey came out. Glenn was badly beaten, his face caked in blood and swollen. He seemed barely conscious. Rick dragged him out, Shane on his other side, and they took him straight to Nanny, the elderly woman who was a retired nurse.
"Are you okay?" Rick asked, as Audrey followed them.
She said, "How bad is it? Is he going to be okay?"
"You bet," Shane said, not hostile toward her, for once. He was more focused on Glenn, though, as he lowered the kid onto a cot next to Nanny.
Audrey disappeared, saying nothing else.
Rick wandered off, too, trying to shake the adrenaline of the night. He was leerier now that they had fired guns in their camp. He put more people on watch, stood out on the cliff himself. He looked out toward the city, watching for headlights, hoping they had no more visitors.
Shane joined him eventually, arms crossed, not fiddling with his hair for once.
"Nanny said the kid should be fine."
Rick nodded, "Good."
"They were real thin," Shane said, his voice low, almost a whisper. "Must have been desperate."
"We all are."
"Yeah. But we ain't done shit like that."
Rick wanted to say that Shane tried to do something like that before. He held his tongue, though, because Shane had been right in the end. All of the supplies were lost in the fire. Audrey lost her group. If they had joined, or if Rick and Shane had taken some of their supplies, it wouldn't have been a total loss.
But was that how he wanted it to be?
Rick hated that he was agreeing with that, now. He hated that he was finding it more and more reasonable. If there were people like those men in the world, so desperate that they were willing to kill innocent people at the drop of a hat, did that mean he would have to match their brutality?
It was the last thing he wanted.
Shane put a hand on his shoulder, squeezed. "You should get some sleep. Still got problems in the morning."
He was right about that, too.