A/N: Hi there! Here's another chapter, I hope you enjoy it :)
Carol's threat had been much more effective than she'd expected, getting Martin to fully cooperate from the get-go. In next to no time, they knew how many people lived in Terminus, the weaponry they had, the basic layout of the place, their leader's name, and the reason for the assortment of fireworks. Most importantly, though, Carol and Michonne had learned that Daryl and Rick weren't the only ones from their group who had been taken captive – Maggie, Glenn, Sasha, and Bob were also there, and all six had been alive when Martin had left the compound. He had even indicated the spot where their people were being held.
Carol wanted to ensure, as much as possible, that the information was true, so a couple of fingers had regrettably been broken, but nothing more than that. They didn't want to attract walkers, after all, and it had been difficult enough to muffle the sounds of protest without adding blood loss or further bone damage to the proceedings.
"I think we have enough," Carol said.
"Yeah," Michonne agreed. "Let's get him inside and go."
Tyreese walked in after Carl to the sight of Beth sitting on the ground, looking to be somewhere else entirely. When Carol had said she needed watching over, he'd assumed she'd been hurt, but he couldn't see any wounds. Something was definitely off, though. He turned to Carl with a questioning look, but the teen just sighed and put his head down before going to sit next to the girl. Ty furrowed his brow but didn't say anything and went to take a seat by the window. He wanted to keep an eye on what was going on outside, which just got his brow more furrowed.
As Carl settled Judith on his lap Beth turned her head to look at the baby, who looked back and stretched her arms out. Seeing this, Carl offered his sister to the girl who'd taken care of her for so long, hoping Judith might succeed where everyone else had failed. Beth didn't take the baby but did offer her hand for Judith to play with.
They all stayed quiet for a while until Carl broke the silence. "Where did you find her?" he asked Tyreese, referring to Judith.
"Oh… one of the kids handed her to me," Ty answered, leaving it at that. As he'd told Carol, he didn't want to talk about the girls, even if he couldn't get what had happened out of his mind.
"Thank you for looking after her. Me and my dad saw her car seat on the floor, with blood on it. We thought…," Carl stopped as tears started to run down his face again, which prompted Beth to briefly squeeze his hand. He was so shocked the tears stopped.
"Did you all get out together?" Tyreese asked Carl.
"No. It was my dad, Beth, and me; Michonne and Daryl found us last night. We were all going to Terminus, but they decided that my dad and Daryl should go first, to see what it was like. Then there was all the shooting, then that guy came, then you came."
At this point Carol and Michonne came in with a Martin that looked the worse for wear. Michonne had him sit against the wall opposite the teenagers, checked that his wrists were properly bound, tied his ankles, and went about gathering everything needed for the rescue mission. Meanwhile, Carol motioned for Ty to follow her outside.
"We have what we hope will turn out to be good news," Carol said. "Sasha, Maggie, Glenn, and Bob are also being held. Michonne thinks it's best not to tell Beth just yet, in case they don't make it back," Carol added.
"Sasha's alive?!" Tyreese exclaimed. He was so overjoyed by what Carol had said he didn't even register that 'not making it back' was also a possibility for his sister.
"Yes, we think she is, but keep your voice down," Carol semi-whispered.
"Sorry," he responded.
"It's OK. Let's get back inside so Michonne and I can leave."
"I'm coming with you," Tyreese said.
"No," was Carol's curt answer.
"I'm coming with you," he repeated in a hardened tone of voice.
She looked at him and let out an exasperated sigh. "Not two hours ago you couldn't kill a walker," she said. "There are people in there. Living, breathing people. And they won't be happy to see us. Do you really think it's a good idea for you to come along?"
They stared at each other for several seconds before Tyreese let out a sigh of his own, turned around, and headed for their shelter.
Once they were back inside with the others, Carol told Tyreese and Carl, "he tries anything, anything, knock him out."
"And stay inside," Michonne added.
Everyone exchanged good-bye's, as well as instructions to be careful, and the two women left.
Long after the men had been taken Maggie and Sasha were still yelling and pummeling the door. Tara was unsure of what to do, so she stood by in case one (or both) of the women needed some kind of assistance. When she saw Sasha halt and slide to the floor, she started to go to her, but Maggie, being closer, got there first, so Tara stood guard while they talked.
"Sasha, look at me," Maggie ordered. "They will be fine," she said resolutely, trying to convince herself as much as Sasha. "And they will come for us, so we'd better get ready to fight our way out of here with them," she added.
"OK," Sasha responded shakily before all three women went back to working on their DIY weapons.
They became so absorbed in their mission that they all nearly had heart attacks when a deafening blast sent them flying across the quaking train car.
It took a bit of time for them to recover their footing, longer still to regain the ability to hear anything, at which point their sense was overwhelmed by what sounded like an all-out war. There were shots, smaller blasts, screams, walker growls, and running footsteps.
"What the hell?" Tara exclaimed.
"That's our men, I know it," Maggie said. "Let's see if we can find a way to go join them."
Michonne and Carol, wearing ponchos covered in walker entrails, were crouching by a chain link fence as they watched Rick, Glenn, Daryl, and Bob be dragged away from the train car where Martin had said their family was being kept. Michonne felt as if a knot was being tightened in her chest. She shook her head to try and keep it clear before following Carol for some time until they found the front gate, where they could see people putting down walkers.
"Look," Carol whispered to Michonne as she handed over a rifle.
Michonne looked through the scope and saw a large propane tank by the entrance. She turned back to Carol to see her holding a firework rocket stick and nodded. They spotted a large horde of walkers moving towards Terminus and knew they had to work fast, so Michonne set up the rocket as Carol took aim with the rifle. As soon as Carol hit the mark and propane began to rush out, Michonne lit up the firework and they both covered their ears. A sizable explosion followed, sending bits of undead, people, and fencing all over the place, as well as generating an earsplitting shock wave.
"You go get Maggie and Sasha from the train car and I'll go look for the others," Michonne said.
For a few seconds Carol seemed like she might object, but she ended up acquiescing and they went to join the increasing number of walkers headed for Terminus.
Tyreese ran to the window when he heard what sounded like a bomb going off.
"What was that?" Carl asked as he got up, struggling a bit with Judith.
"Some kind of detonation," Ty answered. "There's a lot of smoke, maybe I should go after them."
"No," Carl said. "It's Michonne and Carol, they can take care of themselves."
"Yeah…," Ty said, not looking entirely convinced.
"I'm telling you. I bet they're actually the ones responsible for whatever happened," Carl added as he lined a large cool box with his sweatshirt and settled Judith inside, placing it close to Beth.
"Alright," Tyreese gave in.
Everyone still alive in the slaughter room was on the ground wondering what the hell had happened. Everyone except Rick. He was working harder than ever on cutting through the plastic straps binding his wrists and all he could think of was killing every last one of these people.
As the three captors got to their feet, a number of questions about what was going on could be heard coming from Gareth's two-way radio.
"You stay here," Gareth told his men.
"These guys aren't going anywhere," the bald one said.
"Stay here until I know what's happening!" Gareth shouted before walking out.
"So, we just sit here?" The guy with the knife asked.
The other one shrugged and said, "we've got a job to do," before raising his bat behind Glenn's head once again.
And, once again, he was stopped, this time by Daryl's feet slamming into his knees, which sent him crashing to the floor as he howled in pain, bat landing several feet away.
The shorter guy was shocked into inaction for a few seconds, but once recovered, grabbed his knife and made for Daryl. Before he could strike, though, Rick had jumped up and sank the sharpened piece of wood into his neck.
Meanwhile, Daryl was trying to keep the other guy from crawling to his bat, but with his hands and feet tied up he was losing that battle fast. Seeing this, Rick promptly grabbed the butcher's knife that had fallen to the ground and cracked the back of the guy's head open.
"They got problems. We got a chance," Rick said as he worked on removing everyone's zip-ties.
"It sounded like a bomb," Glenn said.
"Sounds like a damn war," Daryl upped the ante.
"Right there," Rick pointed at a table with a few melee weapons and they all picked one up.
"Who the hell are these people?" Bob asked.
"They ain't people," Daryl said.
As Bob went to put down the dead men, Rick said, "don't." Bob gave him a questioning look and he added, "let them turn," before they took the same direction in which Gareth had left.
When they passed into the next room, they found half-butchered human carcasses hanging from the ceiling, metal containers heaped with pieces of human flesh, and knives of all shapes and sizes strewn over worktables. It was a scene straight from a slasher film, except it wasn't a film.
"Cross any of these people, you kill them, don't hesitate," Rick said as some of them swapped their weapons for better ones. With one last look around, he added, "they won't."
They got to a door that led outside and saw a shipping container through the glass cut-out. There were a handful of walkers surrounding it, which was a clear sign that people were inside.
"If we run, we can get by 'em, they're distracted" Rick said, meaning the corpses.
"We gotta let those people out," Glenn said, getting a reluctant look from Rick. He countered with a resolute one before adding, "That's still who we are, it's gotta be."
Rick nodded his acceptance, and they went to kill the walkers. Once that was done, Daryl, Bob and Rick kept watch as Glenn opened the container. Unfortunately, their goodwill was squandered, as the only person to come out was a crazed man who was overtaken by a couple of walkers after almost getting them killed. Worse than that, they'd missed their opportunity and were now trapped behind one side of the freight car by a group of cadavers that decided to parade by the other, with people shooting from the opposite direction. No good deed and all that.
Once past what remained of the gate, Carol turned left and moved with the dead, knowing she would have to cover about a quarter of the perimeter, going by a few train cars before she got to the right one. Every now and then during her slow progress she would duck behind something to take a shot, hitting a good number of living bodies.
When Carol spotted the container she had been going for, she saw the door was blocked by walkers. Looking around, she decided to continue her measured movement through a courtyard of sorts. Once she reached a point she deemed far enough to give her time to get her friends out of the wagon, but not so far that the intended noise would go unnoticed, she put a string of firecrackers behind some broken pallets, lit it up, and made the fastest slow getaway she would dare.
A couple of seconds later the popping sounds rang loud enough to attract the walkers in the vicinity, which thankfully included most of the ones Carol needed to get rid of. She disposed of the few that were left and yanked the door open to find Maggie, Sasha and a third woman pointing bits of wood and metal at her.
"Carol?!" Sasha and Maggie exclaimed in a happy shock, much in the same way Carl and Michonne had done. The circumstances were hardly ideal for any exchange of information, though, so Carol just shoved real weapons in their hands, said, "let's move," and did just that, leading the others towards the fence as they cut their way through a swarm of undead.
Tyreese heard what sounded like a couple of walkers outside and ran to the window, closely followed by Carl, who was now able to jump up quickly since he was no longer holding his sister.
"We're gonna have to –," Carl started to speak, but stopped abruptly when he heard the sound of scuttling, which made him turn around while grabbing his gun. Tyreese did the same thing, only he went for a knife.
"Don't!" exclaimed Martin, who was kneeling by the cool box with his hands around the head and neck of a now crying Judith. "Drop your weapons and kick them to me or I'll do it." When nobody moved, he exclaimed again, this time louder, "drop them, now!"
Tyreese looked at Carl and motioned with his head for the boy to follow the order, so they slowly placed the items on the floor as Ty said, "easy now, we're putting them down, just be cool."
"Good," Martin remarked when they had done as he'd asked. "Now open the door and go outside."
Tyreese looked at Carl before returning his eyes to Martin and appealing, "he's just a kid."
"Go outside!" Martin yelled louder. When Tyreese and Carl still didn't move, he said, "it's just one twist," and shifted Judith's head up a little to emphasize his words. "Don't make me do it!"
"OK, we're going, just don't hurt her," Carl pleaded.
Tyreese opened the door and went outside ahead of Carl, trying to turn himself into a human shield of sorts for the teen. There were five walkers around and Ty immediately pushed one off to the side before kicking another on the chest, which sent it flying a little distance. Carl, who hadn't given up all his knives, managed to dispose of one corpse, then another. When he turned around, Ty had stomped two cadaver heads and was driving another down a spike-shaped dead tree trunk. As they looked around to make sure there were no more walkers, they heard, coming from inside the shack, a loud, prolonged wail, followed by screams and the sounds of a scuffle. They ran inside to find Martin gurgling on the ground with a knife protruding from his chest, while Beth walked around with Judith in her arms and blood spattered on her face as she tried, and succeeded, to soothe the baby.
When Rick saw that the group of people shooting at walkers was advancing past them, he decided to wait for everyone to go by and try to get the last person. He waited for his chance to get closer and took it when it came, ducking behind a car for cover. He was so intent on killing the living that he forgot about the dead, almost becoming prey to one, which Daryl took down at the last possible second. He nodded a 'thank you' to his brother, who responded in the same manner.
He concentrated again, this time with the added security of Daryl by his side, and, once he was sure the last of the shooters had gone by, he lunged for the man, wrestled the rifle out of his grasp, and shot not only him but all the others ahead of them. He didn't even take aim, just fired continuously from side to side a couple of times, as he figured any injury would do the job of slowing down his targets for the walkers to feast on. The screams that followed were evidence that his reasoning had been correct.
He and Daryl rejoined Glenn and Bob and they headed in the direction they thought would lead them back to the women, stabbing, shooting, and bludgeoning their way through the mass of walkers. They were probably halfway to their destination when they spotted their people moving towards the outer boundary, so they quickened their pace and went after them. It didn't take long for the women to notice them, but nobody stopped; everyone just kept on fighting until they got to the fence.
Those that had guns fired at some people who showed up on the roof behind them. Rick could see Gareth and aimed for his head, but only got his shoulder as he retreated along with his scumbag companions. Meanwhile, someone had thrown a piece of tarp over the barbed wire and everyone jumped over it, Rick remaining until the end to give cover.
Once they had moved a few yards and Daryl had caught some of his breath, he ran to Carol and hugged her tight, lifting her from the ground. He couldn't believe his sister was back, he'd thought he would never see her again. Everyone else looked happy as well and Rick approached her.
"You did that?" he asked.
She nodded, on the verge of happy tears, and Rick hugged her. When they pulled apart, she said, "me and Michonne." She finally looked everyone over and added, "where is she?"
"What didja say 'bout Michonne?" Daryl asked with urgency as he ran back to Carol.
"She went in with me. She was going to look for the four of you while I got Maggie and Sasha," Carol responded. "She didn't find you?"
"No!" Daryl responded, seeming more desperate with each passing second. "You mean she's back there? Alone!?"
"I… I don't know. I think so. Unless she gave up and decided to come out by herself," Carol responded.
"She wouldn't do that," Rick said.
Daryl looked positively terrified now. He swayed slightly, then shook his head, grabbed the rifle from Carol's hand, and took off back the way they'd just come.
"Daryl, wait!" Rick and Carol yelled, but he was already gone.
"Fuck!" Rick exclaimed. "You know where we left Michonne, Carl, and Beth? The makeshift cabin?" He quickly asked Carol.
"Yes," she answered.
"Take everyone there," he said, before running after Daryl.
Carol didn't feel that going back to relative safety was the best use of her skills under the current circumstances, so she quickly explained to the others how to get to the shack and sprinted back to Terminus.
A/N: Let me know what you think. I appreciate every comment, they are a great incentive and always make my day :)
