The Wolf You Feed

Chapter 15

Daryl and Carl slurped their soup down so fast, Enid got another can out for them and set it near the fire to warm up. Rowan noticed how fast they were eating and grabbed them each a few pieces of dried jerky to gnaw on while they were waiting for the soup to heat. Seeing how hungry they were made her feel terrible for leaving them in that place so long. But she and Enid had been waiting for the right time to break them out. There were so many of those women. Rowan had not wanted to have a direct confrontation with them if she could avoid it. She was grateful that the confrontation she did have with them had gone as well as it did and no one had been hurt or killed.

She and Enid had tried once at night to break the guys out, but there were too many of those woman guarding the place. They had been trying to dig a few sections of the wooden fence out around the back of the enclosure, but the dogs made too much noise and walkers came. They had to run. Robin told them it would be easiest to wait until both men were let out for some sort of work duty. So that's what they had been doing. But Carl and Daryl were never let out at the same time. Not until today. And then there had been no choice expect to ride in and hope for the best. Daryl would have been killed or badly injured if they waited any longer.

As Enid was taking the third can of soup off the fire, Tank was suddenly on his feet. A low growl rumbling in his throat. The horses knew his warning growl well, and they started acting nervous, prancing and pawing at the grass. There was no discussion, everyone went for their weapons. Daryl held a finger to his lips to keep them quiet. Then he signaled to his right. The direction of the creek. Rowan cocked her head and listened quietly. She could hear it now too. The sound of a group of people stomping through the woods and stepping on every stick and crumpled leaf in sight. No wonder they had to chase horses off bridges to eat. Even Rowan knew how to be quiet in the woods. And she was not exactly a champion hunter.

Daryl nodded his head and used his hands to signal. Carl and Enid went one way. He took Rowan and circled around the other way.

Katie sighed in frustration. There was no way they were going to be able to take these people by surprise. The girls with her were tramping through the woods like a herd of wild buffalo. She kept telling them to shut the fuck up, but it wasn't helping. They just didn't know what they were doing out here. If Mandy would get her lazy ass off her throne for once and actually help, Katie wouldn't be stuck out here with untrained hunters that were too stupid to even watch where they were stepping.

Katie had Daryl's torn up shirt in her hand. She found it caught on a branch, further downstream. That was a lucky break. It was the only reason she had even gotten close to finding the people she was looking for. And she had to find them. If she came back empty handed, she was going to get worse than a tiger attack this time.

The hippie women back at camp, Mandy liked to call them the sheep, they had been acting strange after that dark haired woman and her friend showed up. Well stranger than normal anyway. It had not taken long before a few of them admitted they knew her. She was not just a stranger passing through. She must have been trying to come home. Maybe looking for lost friends or family members. She wasn't stupid like the rest of those long hairs either. Katie knew the woman must have been spying on them for a while. Long enough to learn their names and which ones of them to watch out for. She and her little friend had aimed their weapons at her and Amanda straight away. Made fools out of them.

"Your shirt," Rowan hissed. Daryl cursed under his breath. That must be how those women found them so fast. He shifted his weight. They were crouched behind a bush, both dogs crowding in next to them. Thankfully, Morgan had not started barking yet, but he wouldn't last if those women got much closer. Daryl took stock of the situation. There were five of them, and only Katie had a gun. The rest were armed with knives and pointy sticks.

"I'm going to scare them off," Daryl said. Rowan caught him by the arm before he could stand up.

"They might listen better to me," she suggested. Daryl gritted his teeth. He didn't like the idea of putting her in the line of fire. But she was right. That Katie woman had made it clear many times over what she thought of men. Maybe Rowan could reason with her. Daryl bobbed his head. Rowan leaned close and pressed a kiss to his cheek. Then she stood up. She made no noise. And she was quite close to the women. They had no idea she was there. To them it seemed like she had just appeared out of thin air. The young one with the shaved head gasped and stepped back, stumbling over a stick and almost falling.

"Looking for me?," Rowan asked them, "Here I am." Enid, Carl and Daryl popped up, pointing their weapons at the intruders. Katie quickly realized she was surrounded. And badly out gunned. The boy and girl both had guns. The man had a crossbow pointed at them. And the woman had her slingshot loaded. Katie felt the urge to rub her arm again. There was a large black bruise welling up where the woman had hit her with a rock back at camp. If she had been hit any harder, it might have broken the bone in her arm. She had no desire to recieve a second helping of that.

"We... we were just hunting," Katie said. She knew it sounded lame, but it was the only thing she could think of to say.

"No horses here to chase over a bridge," Daryl said. He had his bow pointed at her head, and it was clear he was thinking about shooting her no matter what she said next.

"I think you were hunting us," Rowan added. The woman was clearly lying. She was holding Daryl's ripped shirt in her hand for goodness sake. "Maybe you should leave."

Tank chose that moment to reveal himself, pushing through the bush and baring his teeth at the woman with the mangled face. Her eyes flew open. Horses were one thing, but this dog was huge. She took a step to one side, trying to put some distance between herself and the large snarling animal, and only managed to get close to another large dog. How many giant dogs do these people have? This one was white, and slightly thinner looking than the black one. But no less menacing. He was growling and when she stepped closer to him he barked and snapped his jaws at her.

"We didn't come here to fight," Katie said, her voice getting high pitched and squeaky. "This was all a big misunderstanding."

"You were going to torture me to death," Daryl reminded her, "hell of a misunderstanding."

"We thought you were stealing," Katie said, looking back and forth between the two large dogs and trying to figure out which way to move. Rowan thought about pointing out that all animals belonged to the great spirit Manitou. They had not been put on this earth for only Katie's group to hunt. But now was not really the best time for a philosopical debate.

"We didn't know you were with her," the younger girl with Katie added, pointing her finger at Rowan. She was from Twin Oaks. And while she had been part of a different community group, she remembered Rowan. Her older brother used to help the woman with her dogs sometimes. And everyone knew Rowan's mother. Her advice on spiritual matters was held in high regard. The light of recognition in Rowan's eyes as she looked at the girl became obvious. Rowan could not recall the girls name, but she had been part of a family group that moved in from the acorn a few years before the outbreak. She gave the girl a nod and called her dogs back to her.

Katie breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe the women she ahd with her were not as useless as she thought.

"That's right," Katie added, "we came to apologize." She was trying to think of something else to say. And it came to her then. An idea. A wonderful terrible idea. "We came to extend our hospitality. Invite you back and show you we know the proper way to greet returning member of the community."

Rowan wrinkled up her nose at the woman. This nasty woman clearly knew nothing about her community. Because the way someone would normally be welcomed back home after a long time away was with a party. A sort of feast where everyone brought their favorite dish to pass. And there was no way this Katie woman had come up here to invite them to a party. That was just crazy.

"That's right," the young girl added, "we should have a party to welcome you home." The idea sounded appealing to the girl. It had been so long since anything fun happened.

Rowan was not so sure. Her hesitation showed plainly on her face.

"Tomorrow afternoon," Katie said, "We will understand if you don't want to come."

"Understand this," Enid hollered at the woman, displaying her middle finger. Her favorite expressive gesture. It always made Daryl grin a little. His brother had been fond of flipping the bird as well. Usually at the worst times possible.

"Alright," Daryl said, eager to wrap this little confrontation up, "Ya said yer piece, now pack it up and get yer asses outta here." Katie did not enjoy being ordered around by a man. It showed in her eyes as the good side of her face twisted up into a scowl. The other side was frozen in what almost looked like a weird joker like grin since that side of her mouth had been slashed at.