DISCLAIMER: READ CHAPTER 1.

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CHAPTER 8 - ESCAPE AND BLAZING HELLFIRE

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Daryl and Glenn had run back to the others as they were by their cars and vehicles and Merle had looked up and seen that Colt wasn't with them.

"What the-hey, where's Colt? Wasn't he with you?" he asked and noticed that the two were in a hurry and both looked frantic and panicked.

"They're here!" Glenn yelled between panting gasps as he ran towards Hershel to get him and his daughters to leave.

"Wait, what?"

Daryl answered Merle's confusion. "The Runners! They're here! And they're coming fast! We need to leave now!"

"SAY WHAT NOW!?" Merle exclaimed incredulously as he went to set his motorcycle up and then set off its timer to deploy its decoy. "I thought I said that they're supposed to get here for a few hours when the moon shines above our heads!"

Daryl growled, "Try telling that to the Runner scouts that went ahead and ambushed some wandering Walkers when we were checking the perimeter!"

Merle didn't need to ask if they killed the Runners that came because the answer was on his brother's face but it still doesn't answer the other question that's on his mind and worrying him. "Where's Colt?"

"He suddenly went off running to the old man farmer's house. Don't know why-" he began but then Daryl was cut off instantly when Glenn came running back to them.

"I know why!" Glenn cried almost aloud as he looked panicked. "Hershel said that Maggie and Beth went back to the house to get Lori who got back in there!"

"And I'm betting that's why he ran over there, he must've seen them and gone to get them," Daryl said and then was turning around to the direction to the Greene house as he said to Merle. "I'll go get them. Tell the others to get in their cars and get ready to leave now."

"I'm coming with you-!" Glenn began saying.

But then suddenly, they didn't have a chance as they froze including the others who were about to finish packing up their stuff into the cars when loud roaring was heard and this time it's near them.

"SHIT! You gotta be kidding me!" Merle cursed as he hurriedly sets up the decoy motorcycle. "They're already HERE!"

Daryl's eyes widened in horror upon looking at something. "And they're surrounding the HOUSE!"

"NO! MAGGIE!" Glenn yelled and was about to blindly charge forward to save his girlfriend but Merle and Daryl Dixon instantly grabbed hold of him by the arms, stopping him from running off to risking his life. "LET ME GO! MAGGIE'S IN THE HOUSE!" he shouted and struggled madly, trying to break free from their hold.

"Damn it, Chinaman! Now's not the time for you going off all crazy and half-cocked like a mad bull! I can get them out of there if you'll just let me set off the decoy!" Merle barked as he and Daryl kept a tight hold on the struggling man.

Once he said that Glenn instantly stopped fighting and looked at Merle desperately as if he's a miracle worker. "You can help them?!" he demanded urgently.

Daryl was curious about it too. "How?"

Seeing that Glenn had stopped, Merle let go as well as his brother and he said. "I just need to start up my bike and then set it off and once it goes running on its own, the Runners will be chasing after it like donkeys following carrots on sticks!"

Merle instantly went to do just that and Daryl told Glenn to get to the others and tell them to start up their vehicles and get ready to roll out. Glenn looked like he wanted to stay to wait for Maggie once Merle distracted the Runners, but he obeyed Daryl and went off in a run to tell the others that they needed to leave now and fast.

Daryl went to Merle to see what kind of decoy he's doing to his bike to distract and lure the Runners away. He almost stared with wide eyes on seeing what he's done with it.

"Is that a boombox?!" Daryl exclaimed.

Merle nodded as he finished attaching wheeled side-stands so that the motorcycle wouldn't fall on its side once it drives off without a driver riding it. "Yep. It's got an automatic remote attached so that I'll set off one hell of a loud noise to get the Runners' complete attention!"

"How do you know it works?!"

"Done it before-Colt's people were the ones who came up with it. It became a thing among them and me to do this kind of trick to lure Runners away. Trust me, little brother, it works!" Merle said as he used a strip of cloth to tie a loop around and on the driving bars to move forward and then pressed and tied a weight on the pedal to start up the bike and keep it moving.

The two men turned their heads swiftly upon hearing crashing sounds and saw that the large pack of Runners is now trying to burst their way in with their super-strong fists and kicks. Merle hurriedly starts it up and the bike went off moving on its own, driving through the clearing in front of the Greene house.

Merle instantly turned on the remote and flipped the switch and then once the motorcycle was a few feet away from where they are and almost far from the house covered almost completely with the horde of Runners, loud booming sounds of random rock-blasting music was blasting out loud from the boombox and Merle Dixon was right.

The decoy worked.

Once the loud music blasted its sounds as loud it can go about the hearing range on a three-mile radius, the Runners instantly stopped their invasion into the house and all the mutated zombies turned on hearing the source.

Then suddenly, as if triggered by their instincts, the Runners all roared and then inhumanely leaped off the house and sprinted and ran fast to catch up with the decoy.

Merle whooped as he and his stunned brother watched them dash off after the riderless motorcycle. "What did I tell ya?! Ha! Take that you stupid sharp-hearing bitches!" he yelled but didn't make it loud so that the Runners wouldn't hear them over the booming blasting ear-deafening music.

They turned to the house and saw that Colt must've known that Merle did his part well and the three women were running out with Colt at the last end running behind them.

"Get to the car, Daryl! We're rolling out now!" Merle ordered as he went to the driver's side and starts up the truck. Inside at the back, there were already Sophia and Carol as they were waiting worriedly for them and Daryl was about to turn and ride shotgun beside Merle when he saw something again that horrified him.

"KID, LOOK OUT!" he suddenly shouts.

But it was already too late.

One of the Runners had broken off from the pack and leaped right at the unsuspecting running teenage boy and tackled him like a super-strong football player.

They rolled around on the ground and the Runner was over the boy and its jaws were wide open and about to bite and tear his face apart when Colt reacted first quickly, used his bow as a shield and its jaws instantly clamped at the shooting curve of the crossbow.

"COLT!" Merle yelled as Sophia cried in fright when they saw this.

"GO! JUST GO!" Colt yelled.

The Runner that was on him kept snarling with its snapping jaws still at the bow's metal curve as if trying to chomp through it and get close to eating him up and Colt furiously struggled to get him off.

THWACK!

Colt gasped when an arrow bolt shot right through and into the Runner's head at the spot of its top skull and it dropped dead instantly to the side and Colt pulled his bow out from the Runner's mouth with a yank.

He looked up to see who saved him and it was Daryl.

Colt breathed in relief as he gasped. "Thanks!"

Daryl came closer and helped the teenager up. "Come on, get up kid! We need to go now!"

He shrugged him off as he brushed his crossbow off its Runner saliva. "No need to tell me twice!" then Colt and Daryl went on a fast run to get to the truck where Merle and his riding occupants were waiting for them.

Maggie and Beth ran straight to where their father and the others that are riding in Dale's RV with TDog as the driver, and Lori had already reached the other vehicle where Rick, Carl, and Shane is with Shane driving.

They didn't hesitate to drive off fast and away from the farm as the Runner pack had been distracted by the decoy as they chased after the music-playing moving motorcycle.

But then just as they were leaving and are almost reaching the turning path that will get them to leave the area of the Greene family land, the Greene family house suddenly exploded in a large fiery wave and the house was burning in a blazing inferno and hellfire.

The three vehicles didn't stop as they kept on driving but on the truck that's leading them all, who are Merle and his riders, they had seen the fiery explosion hit and Merle instantly knew who the culprit was as he glanced at the back mirror to look at Colt.

"You did that!?" he exclaimed almost in shock and amusement.

Colt sighed. "I had to leave a second distraction-just in case the pack of Runners might've decided to change their minds and turn back and chase after us."

"Damn boy…you know you're gonna get in real trouble with the old man of that farmhouse!"

"Well, …it was worth doing it to give us time to escape alive."

"I'll put in a good word that you did it to save us. If they don't accept it, then that's their problem." Daryl offered.

Colt blinked and looked at him surprised and then he smiled. "Thanks. Daryl was it?"

Daryl nodded, turning away as if to hide the embarrassed blush on his face as if he didn't expect the thanks from Colt.

Colt sighed again and laid back as if he was tired and Sophia leaned to rest against his side and Carol lets her since she's happy to have her daughter back and alive.

Colt didn't mind the company as he let the girl rest on him and he closed his eyes while the truck drove fast with the other two vehicles behind them to get as far away as they can from the fallen Greene farm and the pack of Runners.

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By the time the three vehicles almost ran out of gas, they stopped right next to a gas station and Shane, Rick and TDog went to siphon all the gas they could find at the station. Lori, Carol, and their children stick together in one spot with Maggie and Beth as they gather by the RV. And the ones on the watch are Dale and Andrea.

Colt, Merle, and Daryl were together by Merle's truck almost farther away from the group to take over ground watch and look out for any stray stragglers like Walkers or Runners that might come at them even if Dale and Andrea are also looking out for any dangers.

Colt frowned intensely as he stared at the almost mangled broken state of his weapon. "That damn chomping Runner bastard messed up my bow!" he muttered grumbling angrily as he started to try to fix it.

Merle snorted and barked out laughing. "Boy, you sure are worse than my brother with his crossbow!"

"The hell is that supposed to mean, Merle?!" Daryl demanded at him snapping, making Merle grin wider with amusement.

It seemed that it's going to take a while for Rick and the other two to come back from siphoning gas and Merle and Daryl Dixon just watched out vigilantly while Colt was busy trying to fix up his crossbow weapon.

Colt decided to stop for a moment to bring out a radio-link walkie talkie and was switching it on to contact back at HQ which is the 'Safe Haven' Colt and Merle were from.

"Damn it!"

Both Daryl and Merle Dixon turned when they heard Colt Gunner cursed as he almost slammed a hand against the walkie-talkie radio he's holding to try to turn its power on.

Merle sighed, knowing grimly what's wrong. "Let me guess-no signal?"

"Yeah!" Colt cursed again as he used one of his hands to try to knock the radio back to work. "Either we're out of range or just our luck, we're out of power in this thing."

Daryl looked thoughtful as he almost bit his thumbnail out of habit. "I could check if there are any batteries in that station, be right back."

He went off towards the small store that was there by the gas station to look for batteries, but what he didn't know is that the walkie-talkie Colt and Merle are using, it's magical. But Colt wasn't lying that it's out of power because it ran out of magic energy power.

It didn't need mundane normal batteries at all but Colt will keep up an act and pretend with Merle doing the same.

After they had escaped the farm and the Runner pack, the two boys need to plan on how to get the group of survivors back to Safe Haven without revealing the special abilities Colt has, which is needed to be kept secret until the leaders of Safe Haven allowed them to reveal it.

As Daryl had left and was a bit far away from him and Merle, Colt concentrated on his magic to use the energy to power up the radio walkie-talkie to contact the others back in their safe place.

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AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Another chapter finished! Hope you like it!

Just so you know...the kind of loud rock-blasting music that was used on the decoy to distract the Runners are-''Nickleback We will rock you,'' ''Gloria Estefan Turn the beat around'', and ''ACDC highway to hell''.

Stay tuned and follow on! There will be more soon, I promise!

PLEASE REVIEW OR COMMENT!

ENJOY READERS!

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