The Wolf You Feed

Chapter 12

The practice target. Daryl turned towards Carl, yelling for the boy to run. But it was already far too late for that. Two women were forcing the boy down onto his knees and one had a knife pointed menacingly towards his throat. Katie and the other amazon girls started closing in on Daryl. He knew they had a knife on Carl, threatening the boy, but something snapped inside Daryl. That woman kissing and touching him. He hated people touching him when he didn't want to be touched. It put him over the edge.

When Daryl realized they were grabbing for his clothes he started swinging. He went for Katie first, hoping that if he knocked her down, the rest of the women might back off. His hard fist slammed into the scarred up sife of her face and she fell back, spitting blood onto the ground. But the other women did not back off. If anything, seeing their leader fall only made them angry and more determined to do what they had been told to do.

Daryl was well past the point of feeling bad about hitting women. He swung on them like he would swing on a man. He pulled his knee up and kicked one of them in the hip, sending the young girl flopping onto the ground with a loud shriek. A few others got punched or elbowed. He put up a good fight. But he was eventually overwhelmed by the sheer number of them.

The women got Daryl onto the ground and held him down, binding his wrists with rope. His boots and pants were pulled off, leaving him only in the tattered remains of his shirt. Then they dragged him over to a tall wooded post and heaved him up off the ground. The rope around his wrists was wrapped over a hook that had clearly been put there for this purpose.

His arms were above his head, the rope pulling painfully against his wrists as he struggled to get free. His feet barely touched the ground. It took a little of the weight off his wrists. He was glad he was as tall as he was. A shorter man would have been hanging there suspended in mid-air.

Daryl looked around for Carl. The boy must have tried to put up a fight when Daryl did. Because he was now lying on the ground. There was a shallow cut on his neck and his mouth was bleeding from one corner. His hands were bound behind his back and his feet had been tied together. He looked scared. And like he might be ready to start crying. The women that were gathered around the outskirts of the clearing looked horrified. But none of them tried to leave or to hide their eyes. Daryl guessed they had been ordered to watch whatever was about to happen to him.

This had gone from bad to worse. Unless Rowan and Enid showed up with some help in the next few minutes, Daryl knew he and Carl were not going to be alive at the end of the day. Daryl strained his neck, turning to glance back at the wooden fencing that made up the pen he had been held in. He could see people pressed against the insides of the pen, looking out. Watching.

Daryl scowled. Those men had to know what was going to happen to him. He didn't understand why no one had bothered to give him any sort of warning. Maybe they didn't think it would make a difference. Or maybe they were glad this was happening to him and not one of them.

In a sick way the men in the holding had been glad when Daryl and Carl showed up. If too much time passed without any travelers coming through, they knew Amanda would get bored and string one of them up to her torture post.

Amanda had brushed herself off and regained her composure. She approached Daryl. He watched her walking towards him and thought about trying to kick her. But he knew it wouldn't make a difference. He was barefoot and at an awkward angle for kicking. Trying to kick her would just piss her off more. It wouldn't get him loose. He twisted his wrists in the ropes, but they were not budging at all. If anything, the weight of his body was making the knots in the ropes tighter.

Once she got closer, Daryl saw that the woman had a pen knife in her hand. The sun glinted off the blade. It was such a small knife. Like the kind that would flip out of a swiss army key chain. He knew as soon as he saw it, it wasn't long enough to kill him. She only meant to cause him pain.

Amanda licked at her lips, wetting them. She could feel the electricity flowing through her body. She always enjoyed it more when the man she was torturing was handsome. And this one was strong too. He wasn't even begging for his life yet. But he would beg. They all did eventually. By the end of this he would beg her to kill him. The small knife felt good in her hands. The heat was pounding between her legs as she thought about where she wanted to cut this man first.

Daryl saw her move in closer. He felt the hard tip of the knife press into his thigh. He turned his head away and closed his eyes. The only thing he could hope for now was that this was all be over as quickly as possible. He was hoping if he didn't put up any more resistance, maybe they would let Carl live. After all he had been through in his short life, Carl didn't deserve to die like this.

Daryl waited for the pain that would come with his skin being opened up. But it didn't come. Instead he heard the loud crack of a gun shot. Then he was falling to the ground. His knees buckled as his feet hit the hard packed dirt. Amanda scrambled away, trying to stay low since she didn't know where the shooting was coming from. Daryl scrambled back behind the post he had just been tied to, his eyes darting around to try and locate the person who had shot the rope that was binding him.

He spotted her right away. Enid was on Comet's back with a rifle in her hands. She had another loaded gun tucked into the holster on her thigh. Carl's hat was perched on her head. She was no longer pointing the gun at the practice target. She had the rifle trained on Amanda. When the woman started back up the steps towards the handgun she had left on the porch, a voice rang out from the opposite side of the clearing from where Enid was.

"Stop right there Amanda!" Daryl turned to see who had spoken, but he knew that voice too well for it to be anyone else. Rowan. She was on Molly's back. Her face was painted up, with even streaks of green and brown across her cheeks that went all the way back to her hairline. Daryl had spent enough time hunting with her father to know what the marking were. Warpaint. It gave her a wild and frightening look, which Daryl supposed was her intention.

His loaded crossbow was laid across her lap and she had her slingshot in her hands, a large smooth rock cupped and ready to be fired. Amanda stopped dead in her tracks, shocked that some strange woman she didn't know was calling her by name. Then she regained control and started back up the steps. Enid fired the gun again. Not hitting the woman, but hitting the step above her. Amanda took the not so subtle hint and got back down off the steps.

Daryl didn't see her get hit, but he heard Katie yip in pain behind him. When he turned his head he saw her rubbing her upper arm where a painful looking bruise was already welling up. She had reached for her gun, to swing it off her back. And Rowan had hit her in the arm with a rock from her slingshot. Daryl knew Rowan could have easily aimed for the woman's head and killed or seriously injured her. But she aimed for her arm instead and checked her force. That was only a warning.

"Katie put your hands on your head," Rowan yelled at the woman. Katie's eyes got as wide as Amanda's had when the strange woman called her by name. But she was even more afraid than her sister. This was the same woman she had seen ride wild into that stampede of horses. The woman's long hair hung down, mingling with the shiny black of the horse she was riding. Her face was an angry painted mask. For a moment, Katie really believed that the woman was some sort of creature. Half woman and half horse. A vengeful spirit that had come to make her pay for all the horrible things she had done. Katie put her hands on her head.

"Untie him right now before I shoot you dead," Enid hollered at the women that were standing closest to Carl. When they didn't move fast enough, she shot at the dirt near their feet. That got them going. They loosened the ropes around Carl's hands. Once his arms were free Enid yelled for the woman to get the hell away from him. He untied his own ankles and got to his feet.

"Daryl get your clothes on, we're leaving," Rowan hollered at the man, since he was still crouched behind the beam he had been tied to with a confused look on his face. The truth was, he was not sure if what he was seeing was real, or if he had passed out from blood loss and imagined all this. But Rowan's words got him moving. He grabbed his dirty pants off the ground and yanked them up. The button had been popped off, but thankfully they stayed up with just the zipper closed. Then he quickly pulled on his socks and boots.

"He will be needing all his clothes back," Rowan informed the women. "Including the vest you have on, Amanda." Enid pointed her gun at the woman to let her know they were serious. Amanda narrowed her eyes at the two women. Then she reluctantly removed the vest she was wearing and held it out for Daryl to reclaim. He snatched it out of her hands roughly, not wanting to get too close to the woman.

"My damn vest," he muttered. Then he slipped it on, grateful to have more of his body covered. Carl had already headed over to where Enid was and swung up onto the back of the horse behind her. He had one arm around Enid's waist and the other was holding the handgun that had been in her side holster. Daryl turned on his heel and almost ran for Rowan. She handed him his crossbow first and he slung it over his shoulder. Her legs hung forward, leaving the stirrups for him to use. He pulled himself up onto Molly's back, swinging one leg over. As soon as Daryl's arms went tight around her waist, Rowan pulled the horse's reigns hard to the right and kicked her heels in.

They were off. Riding as fast as Rowan rode Molly when she was the only one on her back. Normally such a wild ride would have scared the shit out of Daryl, but he only found himself wishing they were riding even faster. He wanted to put as much distance as possible between himself and that camp as fast as possible. He held tight to Rowan's waist. She was no dream. She was here. She was real.

Back at camp Magnesia, all hell had broken loose. Some women were standing around staring with their mouths open. A few were nursing injuries they had recieved during their struggle with Daryl. Katie was still standing still with her hands on her head, staring the the direction the woman on the black horse had gone. Amanda stomped over and slapped the stupid look off her face.

"What the fuck is wrong with you!," Amanda screamed. The woman was in a rage. Not only had those men escaped, but their women had made her look weak and stupid in front of the entire camp. The slap rocked Katie's head to the side. It seemed to wake her up a little from whatever idiotic trance she had been under. "You are fucking useless," Amanda raged at her, "I should turn my tiger loose on you again you stupid bitch!"

"What do you want from me!," Katie finally yelled back. The anger that flashed in her eyes at the mention of the tiger made Amanda back off a little.

There were more than a few women that hoped the fight would not end there. Katie was ruthless, but she wasn't psychotic. They thought things might be better if she was in charge instead of her older sister. She would not have shot her own neice in the face for trying to run away, that was for sure. And some of them thought they might get their husbands back. Katie hated men. But not the same way Amanda did.

"I do everything you tell me to," Katie yelled at the slightly taller woman. She had her hand on the knife that was attached to the back of her belt. "What more do you want from me Mandy!" Amanda was crazy. But she wasn't stupid. Katie was a better fighter. And all Amanda had on her was a tiny ass pen knife. She needed to redirect Katie's anger or the woman was going to turn it loose on her.

"Go after them, that's what I want!," Amanda yelled. Then she pointed in the direction the women on the horses had gone.

** I can see from my reviews that some people were really worried that something bad was going to happen to Daryl, so I decided to go ahead and post this today. I hope it was really exciting when Rowan and Enid came riding in to save the day. Thanks to anyone that took the time to leave a review. **