The Wolf You Feed
Chapter 11
Time passed slowly when there was nothing to do but stare at the inside of a wooden box. The minutes turned into hours and the hours turned into days. Daryl had been counting the days. He and Carl had been in this place almost a week now. They were both starting to get more and more worried about the girls. Carl kept saying he knew they were fine. That they must have gone back to Alexandria to get help. Daryl wanted to believe it, but really he thought it was a pipe dream. He tried not to let Carl see how hopeless he was feeling, but he was getting more and more sure that Rowan was dead or hurt somewhere. The pain of missing her was worse than anything he had ever experienced before in his life. At his darkest moments, he almost wished he had never met the woman.
Very little food or water had been brought into the pen since the night they ate the horsemeat. Daryl had been let out of the holding only once. To help a few of the other men dig a trench he guessed was going to be used as a toilet. Carl had been left inside the fenced area during this activity. And now that Daryl knew how things worked in this place, there was no way he was going to try and make a run for it without the kid. Those women would torture Carl to death or let that tiger they had chained up eat him alive while they watched. Plus Daryl felt light headed and dizzy from not eating or drinking enough. He wasn't sure how far he would make it even if he did get a chance to run.
Amanda came out to watch the man while Katie put him to work. His shirt was in tatters from when they hauled him in and they had not bothered to give him a new one. She could see how strong his arms were and she liked the way the muscles in his back moved and bunched as he worked. Amanda was happy to see that a week without food or water had softened him up. Men were stupid and easy to control. But it was even easier to control them when they were weak. She wasn't stupid enough to think she had full control over this new man yet. He was beaten, but he wasn't broken. A situation she intended to remedy as soon as possible.
Daryl sat on the ground, trying to stretch out a long piece of fabric and see if he could use it for anything. Carl was showing the older of the two crippled boys how to sharpen the end of a long stick to make a weapon out of it. When he was done, Matt hobbled over to hold up his spear for Daryl's inspection. Daryl took the stick and turned it over in his hands. Then he gave the boy a nod and handed it back. The stick would probably break the first time he used it, like most of the wood in this place it was too old and dry, but he had to give it to the kid, the end of the stick was wicked sharp.
The man that Daryl had noticed carrying the crippled boys around the most came over. Two other men were following along behind him, looking nervous. They also held crude weapons out for Daryl's inspection. It shocked him a little. He and Carl had done nothing but make weapons and wait for the right moment to use them since they got here. They had been watching the woman who guarded the enclosure, trying to get a feel for how often they changed shifts and which women were less careful about watching them. So far no obvious pattern had emerged.
Daryl had noticed a few of the men hanging around watching him and Carl sharpen up sticks and old bones, but this was the first time any of them had shown any desire to help. In fact when he had tried to talk to them before, they had all seemed adamant in their refusal to do anything to help. He figured they were just watching him because there was nothing else to look at inside this damn cage. Now he was hoping he had been wrong. This place felt like it was getting smaller and smaller by the day. Daryl was getting mighty sick of staring at nothing but the wooden beams of the fence. It would be a lot easier to get out if ten people were fighting instead of only two.
"Looks good," Daryl told the men before he handed the weapons back. The one man seemed like he had more to say, but instead he just nodded his head and walked back to sit under the overhang. Those men had made some weapons, but Daryl wasn't convinced they were ever going to be brave enough to use them. At the moment, he was thinking about following the three men and trying to get a feeling for how serious they were about getting out of this pen. But he stopped when he heard the sound of the gate being opened. Food. That was the first thing that came to mind when he heard the gate. Then he felt the anger starting to rise in him. He felt like a rat in a maze. One that was being trained with tiny bits of cheese.
Katie came in. And none of the long dress wearing women came in behind her. That was not a good sign. She looked around, her eyes narrowing as she observed the men sitting under the overhang. Something was going on in this pen, she could feel it. The men seemed jumpy, like they were up to something. She didn't like it, but she knew her sister would brush her off if she mentioned anything.
"You and you," Katie said, pointing to Daryl and Carl, "Let's go." She gestured for the men to follow her like they were so stupid they might not understand her words.
Daryl trotted along as he was instructed. He expected to be put to work doing some sort of grunt labor. Like the last time they let him out. But instead he and Carl were led around the side of the corral and into the small clearing space in front of the lodge that he knew now was Amanda's personal living quarters. Her tiger was out from the bushes it was usually hiding in. The sight of it made Daryl nervous. He had heard stories from Ezekiel about how Amanda kept it fed. The big cat was lying on it's belly, flicking it's tail back and forth, looking at Daryl with more interest than he would like.
Daryl glanced around, noticing something that scared him even more than the tiger. All the women were out, not just Amanda's enforcers. They were gathered around the edges of the open space, looking like they were waiting for something bad to happen. Daryl started feeling the urge to run. Make a break for it now. He and Carl were out of the pen together. This might be their only chance. But another look at Katie and the rifle she was holding made him think twice. He didn't know how good of a shot she was and he wasn't sure he wanted to find out.
Amanda was standing on the top of the steps that led up into her lodge. Daryl noticed right away that something was different about her. She was wearing a lot less clothing then he had seen her in before. Not that he had seen her that many times, but all the times he had, she had been dressed in shapeless men's clothing just like the clothing that all the girls with the short hair wore. Now she was in his leather vest. And not much else. A black lace bra and a pair of very short cutoff demin shorts. They didn't look bad on her either. She had long shapely legs and slim hips. If it wasn't for the crazy glint in her eyes, he might have found her attractive.
"How do you like your accomodations?," she asked the man. Her eyes were on Daryl. Carl was being ignored for the time being like he wasn't even there. It was making Daryl nervous, since he was getting concerned as to the reason that the boy might be out here with him.
"How do ya think I like them?," he asked her. He was locked in a fucking cage full of piss and crap and people that hadn't had a wash except for in the rain for what he guessed was at least the last six months.
Taking the steps slowly, Amanda walked down. Her body language seemed inappropriate for the situation at hand. The swing of her hips was exaggerated and she stepped down on each step with a little bounce that made her breasts jiggle. Sometimes Rowan would act silly like that, dropping things on purpose and bending down extra slow to pick them up with a big grin on her face. But that was different. They were lovers. It sometimes embarrassed Daryl a little if she started doing shit like that to him when her dad was around. But it never made him uncomfortable like this.
"I think you have been punished enough for your stealing," she said. By now she was down on the ground, circling Daryl like a shark. She was getting really close to him too. Closer than he liked. She even reached out and brushed the tip of one finger up the length of his arm. The feel of her skin against his made him want to vomit. And he had not been fucking stealing anything in the first place. How many times did he need to say that shit?
"What do ya want?," Daryl finally asked her. It was taking all his willpower to reamain still and not recoil from the woman and her disgusting sexual advances. She stopped in front of him and smiled. All her teeth were showing and she reminded Daryl of a crocodile.
"I'm going to give you a chance to earn your freedom," she told him. Daryl's eyes flicked to the side, looking at Carl. The boy was shaking his head. He was thinking the same thing Daryl was. It's a trick. Daryl wasn't sure what to say. He wasn't going to accuse this woman outright of being a big fat liar. He wasn't that fucking stupid. She would kill him on the spot. So he shrugged his shoulders and waited to see what else Amanda was going to say.
"If you can make me happy I will let you and your friend go," she informed him. Daryl's eyes got a little wider. What the hell does this crazy bitch want? For me to fuck her in front of all these women like some kind of stud rental service? Daryl wasn't sure what to say. He wasn't going to fuck this bitch. Not even with someone else's dick. That was for damn sure.
Amanda was still smiling. This was not the first time she had played this game. Most men jumped at the chance to earn their freedom by fucking her. But they could never make her happy. She demeaned them all, forcing them to perform more and more degrading acts until she eventually grew bored with the game and killed them. But a few had gotten away. Word had gotten out. Travelers were learning to avoid this area. And the men in the pen had grown wise to her game. They refused to play, choosing instead to just kneel down and beg for their lives. Having a man this good looking to play with was a rare treat.
She closed the distance between her and Daryl and pressed her lips to his. Her hands ran up his stomach and over the hard muscles of his chest. His body went stiff and he turned his head away from hers. Amanda didn't like to be refused. This man was embarassing her in front of the other woman. She grabbed him by the chin and forced her tounge into his mouth. For Daryl, that was the limit of what he could take. His arms came up and before he even realized what he was doing, he shoved the woman away from him. Hard. She fell down on her mostly bare ass in the dirt. He knew as soon as it happened that he had made a deadly mistake.
"How dare you raise a hand to me!," Amanda shouted. Katie stepped forward to try and help her sister to her feet, but the woman lashed out at her as well, smacking her hand away. Once she was standing up again, Amanda brushed herself off. Then she pointed a finger at Daryl.
"Strap him to the practice target!"
