One day I will get myself back to a schedule, I promise you guys! 'Cause I'm starting to get tired of this! ha ha
This chapter is a nice long one for you guys and I have to say I'm content with it. Its had some drama and slowly, we're working our way to the final episode of this season. I can't wait, 'cause I got a lot in store for you guys! :)
kat hatake90: In the comics, Rosita and Abraham are together when Rick and the group first meet them. If the show sticks with the comic books (which so far, they kinda are) then Abraham and Rosita will be together. And if not, then yay! I haven't really done anything to change canon lol. And your right - so close to the Maggie, Glenn and Sam drama, I can smell it! ;)
HaloHunter89: Thanks for reviewing! And yeah, I know, I constantly have a crisis of faith, so-to-speak on whether or not I make Jeremy charming and smooth enough for my taste. If I don't, I feel weird lol
Love you guys!
- Nagiana
The tunnel got darker the further in they walked. Their boots crunched on the graveled ground, and the beams of Glenn and Jeremy's flashlights, bounced off the gray concrete walls. "You know, when I lost Maggie, I walked around like I was done. I was numb," Glenn spoke up, his words directed primarily at Tara but a conversation that Jeremy nonetheless felt himself tuning into. "I'm just . . . I'm just saying that I get it."
"When Brian said he wanted us to take over the prison, I knew it sounded bad. When I found my girlfriend, she was dead. My niece . . . my sister, she was surrounded and pounced on. There was nothing I could have done. But still, it was nothing compared to seeing what he done to Maggie's father . . ."
She trailed off when Glenn came to a stop. A feeling of overwhelming sadness appeared on his face when he remembered his beheaded father-in-law. He turned to face her, and Tara gave him an apologetic smile in return. "That's the second when I knew we done something wrong, you know? That split second . . ." She trailed off, and through the gloom, Jeremy could still see the look of sadness still playing out on Glenn's face. And really, he got it, he really did. He could respect the amount of effort he was going into finding his wife, because he was putting the amount of effort into it that he wanted into finding Tessa. However, Jeremy thought he was being a little bit more level-headed than Glenn was being. Glenn rushed into things without thinking now. He wasn't playing it smart – playing it safely. If he wanted to find Maggie, he needed to stop being stupid. So that's why Jeremy supposed he came along – to make sure Glenn didn't make a boneheaded decision that would get him and/or Tara needlessly killed.
"I wanted to scream no, but nothing came," Tara continued on, her words leaving Glenn riveted to the spot. Jeremy's eyes flickered back and forth from the both of them, his eyes lingering longer on Glenn than Tara. She was walking on thin ice by even telling him this, but he had to admire the size of her balls. "Brian said we might need to kill people . . . I was the first to jump in."
Her voice quieted at those last seven words, and seemed to fill with the hint of tears. Jeremy heaved a sigh and stepped forward. "I was in the SEALs since I was old enough to enroll. I grew up wanting to be SEAL and I did just that. I was trained to kill who I was told to kill and to ask questions. Just because you're told to kill someone, though, doesn't automatically make it right." He gave a shrug. "I'm not judging you, Tara. I'm not judging you at all – God knows I'm probably the last person who should judge you. But did you not once question at all the possible innocence of these people? Did you not wonder if they had kids with them – defenseless elders? Did you just blindly go along just because he told you to?"
Jeremy could see Glenn's eyes flicker in interest onto Tara at the onset of his words, and she gazed at him for a moment before replying. "Did you ever question your orders?" She asked, genuine interest in her tone, and he nodded.
"I can actually say I did. Especially in the beginning, I found it hard to swallow the useless interrogating of entire towns because they might be harboring Taliban or Al Qaeda soldiers or sympathizers. I questioned my last mission because I didn't want to leave the woman I loved behind. And yeah, I was reprimanded for it and threatened to be striped of my uniform and/or given a dishonorable discharge, but at the end of the day, at least I questioned. When it comes to needless slaughter or any type of killing at all, you need to question. If you don't, then your not human."
She gazed at him for a moment longer before swallowing hard. "Too bad I realized that too late, huh?" She spoke and Jeremy gave her a small smile, his eyes softening as he reached out and gently clasped her shoulder. It was then that they slowly continued on, this time, Jeremy and Tara leading the way, and Glenn trailing behind.
The steel doors opened with a loud screeching sound, and immediately the men filed inside, guns held aloft and at the ready. Joe was the last to enter, cigarette dangling from his mouth and with Daryl, Ethan, Tessa and the twins trailing in after him. Dust motes floated in the air around them and it smelled closed up and vaguely of rot, mildew and other unpleasant smells. Daryl turned around and closed the door behind them before placing a gentle hand on the small of Tessa's back and herding them in the direction of Joe and the others.
From the looks of the place, it was an old car garage or even a factory. Cars lined the inside covered in dust covered tarps. And from the looks of them, they were primarily older cars and muscle cars instead of the modern day vehicles they had been driving in before then.
"They aren't here," One of the men called out and Daryl and Ethan moved over to look underneath the black tarp covering an old Oldsmobile. Tessa stood anxiously beside her husband and son. "Nobody's been here for a while. Whoever it is, got all the gas."
The crinkling of a tarp split through the air and they turned around to see Daryl nodding toward the other side of the car him and Ethan had been standing at. "Go 'round tha other side and help me." He told him and Ethan nodded and handed his mother Danny before moving to do what his father told him.
"That don't matter," Joe spoke, drawing everyone's attentions away from what Daryl and Ethan were doing. "We're getting close, I can feel it."
As soon he was done, a chorus of 'claims' split through the air. One guy in particular glared at Daryl and shouted claimed before kicking a black trash bag away from him. He returned his glare and Tessa rolled her eyes as she glanced at Ethan. Not surprisingly, Ethan didn't have to shout claim. He headed toward something, the men automatically gave him a wide berth, not willing to risk his anger. She gave a small smile. It was amusing, seeing all these middle aged men more afraid of a fifteen-year-old kid then beings who could literally eat your face off and wanted to.
Daryl stalked off somewhere to search for more things, and Tessa moved to place the twins on the hood, giving her arms some relief from having to carry one of them around all day. She jumped, though, when she felt a gentle touch on her upper arm. Spinning around, she saw Joe standing behind her, a few dusty blankets in his hand and a small smile on his face. His eyes, though, were still cold and untrusting, and they alone forced only a mere terse smile onto her face.
"Here, for the babes." He told her with a soft smile as he handed over the blankets. She slowly took them.
"Thank you," She cocked an eyebrow. "Do I have to shout 'mine' too or hand them to the children to do it? 'Cause, you know, that's primarily a toddler thing, shouting 'mine' at everything they see." Her tone was snide and caused Joe's eyebrows to rise ever-so-slightly. She could see both Ethan and Daryl's eyes on her out of the corner of hers while they continued to look around, looting the area, although her gazed kept predominantly on Joe.
"You know, for a man who talks continuously of you being a 'Momma Bear', I have yet to actually see the claws come out." He told her and Tessa's eyes hardened. Everyone had already claimed a car except for the one the twins were sitting on, and when one of the men made his way over to them, intent on claiming the car, she spun around and snarled:
"You dare claim this car, and I swear to God, I will slit your throat while you sleep! Even thinking of taking a woman and her children's shelter – fucking ass!"
The man froze and looked uncertain for a moment but after glancing at Joe and seeing his expressionless face before they darted to a glaring Daryl and Ethan. He then pursed his lips and spun around, where he headed for another car. Tessa glared at him and watched him go for a moment before slowly turning back around to Joe.
"That Momma Bear enough for you? If you want anymore, then consider yourself lucky. Those that tempted the Momma Bear side of me, haven't exactly got out completely unscathed." She asked, her tone angry, and Joe gave a slight smile. He inclined his head to her before moving back to the car he had claimed for himself. It was at that moment that Daryl and Ethan returned to her, the twins and the car, and right when Tessa slammed the few blankets Joe had given her onto the hood. The twins jumped but didn't let out a sound of protest, and Tessa smiled and quietly apologized to them before pressing a hurried but loving kiss onto each of their foreheads. Daryl gave a small smile as well and placed a hand on her back before pressing a loving, lingering kiss of his own on her temple. Aayla, eyes wide, immediately held her arms out to him, hands opening and closing in the air with her desire to be picked up and held. He obliged her and she immediately wrapped her arms tightly around his neck as her face buried in his grizzled neck. He moved closer to the car and wrapped an arm around Danny as his youngest son fisted his hands in his father's leathers and held him close.
"Thanks, babydoll. Certainly saves us from sleepin' on tha floor." He murmured, and Tessa nodded.
"Don't mention it. It'll be cramped, but I think we can manage if we each sleep in one of the front seats with a twin apiece. Ethan could take the backseat -"
"Bullshit, momma," Ethan interrupted her, his tone firm and brooking no argument. "I'll take tha front seat with deddy. Ya take the backseat. You can stretch out that way." Tessa gave him an uncertain look.
"Are you sure?" He nodded.
"Ya bet I am."
Tessa nodded, slowly. "Alright, but I'm taking Danny, okay? I'll sleep better if I'm holding one of my kids." She told them with a light laugh, and they both nodded in understanding. Daryl opened the backseat door and plopped their stuff inside. Something told him this was going to be one Hell of a long night.
They finally started hearing the reverberations of walker snarling fairly quickly down the tunnel. When they neared the direction of the snarling, it was only to see a few walkers trapped underneath a pile of rubble and large rocks – a cave-in.
They reached out to them and their beams of light, a look of utter hunger on their faces, and Jeremy saw Tara swallow heavily as Glenn got closer to them slightly to get a better look – trying his damndest to see if one of them was Maggie or if Maggie was caught underneath all the rock and rubble. Tara gazed at them both with a stricken look on her face as Jeremy bent down slightly to help him, the beam of his flashlight falling into the cracks and crevices of the rubble in an attempt to get a better look.
Jeremy got to his feet and followed Glenn around the side. The cave-in was definitely bigger than it had first looked, with a lot more walkers trapped than they had expected. Jeremy slowly shook his head. "Jesus Christ, man, this is a lot of Charlies . . ." He murmured, and Glenn glanced at him, silently telling him not to remind him, before returning the beam of his flashlight onto the moving, snarling walkers. Tara moved to join them seconds later.
"The bodies are still fresh. The cave-in happened today." She told them, and Jeremy nodded in agreement. The beam of Glenn's light ran along the caved-in roof and he glanced at Tara.
"Hold this . . ." She took his flashlight when he handed it to her, and they both watched as Glenn slowly inched forward, picking a careful path along the rubble scattered through the valley between two cave-ins. Jeremy forced himself to keep back a heavy sigh. It was a stupid move, but it was a move they needed to do if they wanted to progress. Glenn wouldn't go calmly until he made perfectly sure every single walker there was not Maggie or someone else he knew and cared about.
Sliding his knife cleanly into every walker he came to, Jeremy made sure his beam was in front of him at all times so that he could make sure he knew where to step. If he tripped or twisted his ankle and got his foot caught, that was the last thing they needed.
When Glenn got to the end, Jeremy sighed and nodded upwards. "Now we climb, I guess . . ." He spoke and Tara nodded in agreement. With a grunt, she slammed her foot down on a walker's head before finding a good handhold and foothold on the rock wall. Jeremy was already at the top by the time she hoisted herself up, and she shook her head. Figured. Bastard was trained for this.
He shocked her though, by getting to the top, squatting down and holding his hand out to her. He saw the look of surprise on her face, only to answer it with a look of amusement. "What? You didn't think I'd help you? Please, I ain't that big of a dick. That and I was trained to never leave a buddy behind. You got kicked out if you didn't do that." He told her, and she let out a laugh as she took his hand. With a grunt, he seemed to lift her onto the rock wall using only his strength, around the same time that Glenn breached the wall as well. Stepping to the edge, they were faced with the one thing they did not want to see – a splattering of walkers milling around below them.
Immediately, the walkers caught scent of them and turned around, where the vast majority of them caught sight of the beam of their flashlights. Becoming excited at the sight and smell of fresh food, they began a shuffling walk towards them. Glenn breathing became heavier, and Tara adopted a look of fear on her face. Only Jeremy remained completely expressionless and calm.
"Well . . . what the fuck are we waiting for?" He asked, and Tara shot him another stricken look at the walkers neared them and began making their slow way up to them from crawling up the steep incline of the wall.
"All of them? Are you crazy?" She asked, and Jeremy let out a bark of a laugh.
"There's only like, what . . . eight at the most? There's three of us – we're perfectly capable of dispatching these if we stick together and watch the other's backs . . ." He trailed off, his eyes pinned on Glenn shining his light directly on them, and his teeth gritted. "Glenn . . . Glenn!"
Tara shot around and her eyes widened even more. "Glenn what are you doing? Turn off the light!" She hissed, and Glenn ignored her, only shook his head.
"None of them are her . . ." He hissed back, and Jeremy rolled his eyes. In this instance, his drive to find his wife was going to get them killed! "She not under the rubble either, which means she got out of the tunnel." His voice was louder now, and his eyes and the beam of his flashlight pointed upwards – towards the darkened tunnel they led out of there. "She made it through. So I agree with Jeremy – we can do this. We have to get rid of them."
"We don't enough ammo -"
"You want to shoot a gun off in an enclosed space that echoes? Do you value your sense of hearing? And besides, the sounds echoes, we might draw more. We can't risk that." Jeremy asked, and Glenn nodded in agreement.
"He's right. We push through."
"We have to find another way! We can go around like the others did - meet them that way!" Tara spoke, and Glenn shook his head again, his eyes connecting with Jeremy's over his head. No matter what Tara said, they knew what they needed to do.
"Come on, we can down over here if we're quiet . . ." Jeremy spoke, and they nodded and turned around to follow him, Tara giving a groan as she followed them. At the other end of where all the walkers were culminating, Jeremy showed them the path to take and Glenn went first. He made his careful way down before Jeremy did the same. He turned around and held out a hand to help Tara down, right when her foot slipped. Jeremy flinched violently when the falling sound of rocks split through the still, delicate air of the train tunnel. But what was worse, was the look of pain that flashed across her face and it was then that Jeremy realized she had her leg trapped.
"You okay?" Glenn hissed, and Jeremy silently let out a curse as he bent down and grasped the small boulder trapping her leg in-between it and another piece of rubble.
"Here, I'm gonna lift this up and you help her get her leg out, okay?" He asked, and Glenn nodded as he quickly got into position and took a gentle grasp of her leg. Teeth gritting while letting out a grunt of exertion, Jeremy, with some effort, managed to pull back the rock long enough for Glenn to help her wiggle her leg free. The entire time, the snarling of walkers grew closer to them.
Shit, shit, shit . . .
"FUCK!"
"This is bullshit!"
Daryl shot upwards off the hood of the car he had lying on and quickly handed off Aayla to Tessa. His posture was tense and ready for a fight, the same as Ethan as he shot up as well. Tessa gently slid Danny to her and he immediately took a hold of her, sensing the sudden electricity hanging in the air around them and which seemed primarily directed at his father.
"Ya step back right now . . .!" Daryl told him, his voice taking on a challenging tone that Tessa knew he readied when he knew he was about to get into a fight. It was a tone she had grown up in highschool hearing and had even occasionally heard between him and Will and even him and Merle.
"My half was in that bag!" Len snapped at him, his hand shooting behind him to point at the black trash bag sitting by his car. "And now it's gone! And ain't nobody in here interested in no half of a Goddamn cottontail 'cept you!" Daryl slowly got to his feet as he was shouting at him, his hand twitching in anticipation of grabbing hold of his crossbow. Ethan was tense as well as he moved to place himself in-between his deddy and his momma and siblings. If Len somehow made his way through Daryl, then he'd have to make his way through Ethan as well. And Ethan would be damned if he'd get through him.
"Ya also tha one thinkin' 'bout tha' crap!" Daryl shot back, anger lacing his tone as he took a few threatening steps towards him. He was sick and tired of this bullshit! He thought him and Ethan done handled this!
Well . . . primarily Ethan did . . .
Len made a move to his bag. "Empty your bag -"
"Step tha fuck back!"
Daryl yanked up the bag and backpedaled. Immediately, Tessa tensed as Daryl moved more fully in front of her and the twins. His bad wolf's proverbial hackles were raised and his teeth were showing in a snarling growl. Daryl was damn near ready for a fight and if Len was looking for one, then dammit, he'd give him the fight of his life.
Joe, however, stepped in-between them and yanked the bag out of his hand. Daryl weakly let it go, his attention fully onto Len and whatever move he was so very tempted to make. Joe didn't open the bag, but he did pin a searching eye onto Daryl. "Did you take his half of the rabbit, Daryl?" He asked, and immediately Daryl snarled out a no. "Are you lying to me?"
"I didn' take fuckin' nothin'," Daryl continued to snarl, and he took a few more steps closer to his accuser. "I'd rather my family fuckin' starve than eat anythin' of this asshole's!"
Joe shook his head. "Well then let's see what we got here, then . . ."
He opened the bag, Daryl staring daggers into Len the entire time with the opposing man only occasionally returning the glare. He was looking awful fidgety . . . maybe he could only talk a big game and couldn't handle the rage of the alpha wolf he just pissed off.
Joe upturned the bag and shook it and what fell out was one of the canvas diaper bags . . . and Len's half of the rabbit. "Well would you lookit here . . .?"
"He fuckin' put tha' there! Didn' ya? When I went out to take a piss?" Daryl shot out, fury lighting through his eyes like lightning. The inner wolf let out a snarl and a feinting lunge, and immediately Tessa placed her twins on the car beside Ethan before scrambling to her feet. Her body was tense, unsure of what to do, and eventually, Ethan's firm hand on her arm kept her from doing anything. In this instance, Daryl needed to handle this, not her.
"I didn' -"
"Ya did!"
"Ya lied!" Len snarled as Daryl shoved him. He came back up, teeth gritted a snarl of his own on his lips. Tessa had never seen a fight that resembled so much of a dogfight - not even the ones between Daryl and his father and brother - and that alone sent of trill of fear shooting up her spine. "You stole!" They started circling each other like pit dogs waiting for the first one to lunge. "We gonna teach this fool what for, Joe?"
"Bring it on, puppy!" Daryl snarled – the wolf licking his chops before teaching a hotheaded young challenger who was really boss. Briefly, Tessa saw Will shining out through his son's eyes and she knew, no matter what was about to happen, that Daryl was going to win this. Will would rather have slit his own throat than lose a fight based purely on principle, and right now, Daryl had the exact same mindset. If he lost this incoming fight, then he lost his family's standing in this new, dangerous group. He would no longer be a wolf who others feared to fuck with. Instead, he'd be a wolf who people wanted to fuck with.
"Eh, eh, eh . . ." Joe spoke as he slid his way in-between the two men. Len stayed put while Daryl moved away a couple of paces and immediately started pacing, just waiting for the signal to lunge. "Now Daryl said that he didn't take the rabbit, so we're at a bit of a conundrum right now. Either he's lying, which is an actionable offense, or . . ." Joe laughed. "You planted it on him like some pussy, punk, piece of shit cop. Now while that isn't exactly breaking the rules, you would be disappointing me."
"It would," Len nodded, and Joe nodded back. "But I didn't!"
"Good," Joe spoke before turning to Daryl. Tessa saw Daryl steel himself, however, quite suddenly, Joe turned around and decked Len hard against the side of his face. He fell to the ground with a yell and Joe backed away. "Teach him a lesson, gents! He's a lying sack of shit and I'm sick of it!" He shouted, and everyone nodded. Daryl, however, looked stunned. He glanced at Tessa, all the fight in him gone as the other men descended on Len like a pack of snarling wolves. Joe turned to him and after placing a hand on his back, squarely in-between his shoulder-blades, steered him over to his family.
"I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, ya'll." He told him, his tone serious, and immediately, Tessa moved to wrap her arms around Daryl. He readily returned her embrace as Joe turned his eyes onto him. "But I saw him do it"
"Then why didn' ya try and stop him?" Daryl asked, his voice taking on another snarl, and Joe gave a shrug.
"He wanted to play that out, and I let him. And you definitely seemed like you weren't trying to avoid a fight, so . . ." He trailed off with another shrug, and Tessa buried her face in his chest as he shook his head in wonderment. The sounds of Len getting the shit kicked out of him, reverberated throughout the building, and Daryl grew thankful when Ethan wordlessly scooped up the twins and took them into the backseat to show them their toys – to try and distract them from what was going on in front of them.
Joe pointed a finger at him. "You told the truth, and he lied. You understand the rules. He doesn't." He turned around after throwing the other half of the rabbit onto the hood of the car. Daryl shook his head.
"Merle would have hated him, you know? Would have called him a damn snake in the grass and would have tried to kill him in his sleep the first night." Daryl murmured to her, and Tessa nodded, her gaze stone-faced as she pulled herself out his arms.
"For once, I agree with Merle. But it takes one to know one, don't it?"
