"How hungry are you, scale of one to 10?" Rick asks Carl as we sit around at a made up camp site.
"15" Carl says to him.
He looks at Michonne "28" she smiles to him.
He looks to me "52" I rattle another higher number.
We all laugh together "Yeah." he says "well, it's been a while. I'm gonna go check the snares." He stands up to leave.
"Can I go with you?" Carl asks him.
Rick smiles down at his son "well, how else are you gonna learn?" Carl smiles wider and goes to stand up. "Hey, you two too." Rick adds on to Michonne and I.
"Of course" I roll my eyes with a grin and stomp out the smokey pit and we all walk off.
"We'll stay another day or two. Get some more rest." Rick tells us as we walk along.
"Finish healing up?" She asks.
Rick answers her "I'm almost there."
She looks to me now "I'm better, no more sweats." I inform her.
She smiles back, happy we're both healing. "We're close now, right?" Carl asks.
"To Terminus?" I ask.
"Yeah. We are." Rick says.
"When we get there, are we gonna tell them?" Carl asks next.
"Tell them what?" I ask him, not sure what he means.
Carl answers "everything that's happened to us. All the stuff we've done. Are we gonna tell them the truth?"
We all keep walking, but I can tell Rick doesn't like what he asked. He sighs before answering "we're gonna tell them who we are.
Carl slows down just a bit "But how do you say that? I mean... who are we?"
A walker snarling towards us grabs all of our attention. Michonne takes the lead and slices through it's skull and the body thuds to the ground. We keep walking a bit further up and Rick shuffles ahead when he see's the trap. "There you go. It's a small one. It'll do." Rick takes the rabbit out of the knot and stuffs it in a bag for later. He pulls at the knot to explain "So, this is just a simple-"
"Slipknot" I finish the sentence for him. All three of them looked at me shocked. "Daryl taught me" I shrug, remembering some of the runs we went out on after he taught me how to use a bow.
"Right." Rick says remembering. "You tie one on both ends, then you tighten one side to a branch." He moves his hands along the ground "now, you see how the ground here is sort of like a funnel shape?"
"It's a trail?" Carl asks catching on. Michonne and I watch from above as they squat next to one another.
Rick encourages him "that's right. That's where you want to set the noose. So you hide it with leaves. Then you put sticks all around it so any animals going by have to run this way right into the trap." He swoops his arm through it for demonstration and it ties around his wrist.
"Help! Somebody help!" A man is calling out into the woods.
Carl runs after the noise "Carl." Rick calls to him but he's gone.
"I got him!" I shout back to Rick already on his trail.
I can hear him still call after his son "Carl, stop! Carl!"
We get closer to the yelling man "Get back! Help! Somebody help! Help me! Get away! No! Get away! Help! Somebody help!"
Carl lifts his gun up to shoot, to help him but I pull back at him. I pull him behind a tree "we can't help him." I whisper to him.
The man begins to scream in pain "No, no no!" and Rick gets here and starts to pull us away.
"We got to go" he says and we all run towards the train tracks again.
We are on a road now, the fall leaves covering the ground. We move along, as walkers weave in and our of the tree's. "Thought maybe there'd be some houses down this way. Maybe even a store." Michonne comments as the day goes on "there's got to be some food around here somewhere."
"Hey, look." Carl points to a truck in the road. The walker on the side is decayed into the ground. I quickly take it out as they check in and around the truck. We set up camp there tonight, Carl and I the first to sleep, will take second watch in a few hours.
There's a pounding on the window and I sit up from the back seat "Another girlies in here too.." I hear a man laugh. Carl is is in the front seat, but I can see him shaking from where I sit.
"She blonde?" Someone calls out. The man croons his neck and looks through the smaller back window at me.
"She is" he yells back and a wide smile crosses his lips.
"Now who's gonna count down the ball dropper with me, huh? Ten Mississippi. Nine Mississippi. Eight Mississippi." The man pointing the gun to Rick's head counts.
"Joe! Hold up." Someone calls to him. It's not just someone though, I know that voice. My body freezes, wondering what he's doing here, what he's doing with them. Was he in the house with them? Was he just downstairs that day?
"You're stopping me on eight, Daryl?" I hear him ask. Carl keeps his eyes straight ahead. The back window on the side of the drivers seat is blocked, and I can't see him from the back seat.
I stay motionless, not breathing waiting for him to speak again. "Just hold up."
"This is the guy and girl that killed Lou, so we got nothing to talk about." Another one says. They out number us, even without Daryl, they'll take us down.
"The thing about nowadays is we got nothing but time." The man holding a gun to Rick's head says back "say your piece, Daryl."
"These people, you're gonna let 'em go. These are good people." Daryl tells them. He's with us, no matter where he was before this, he's still with us.
"Now, I think Lou would disagree with you on that. I'll, of course, have to speak for him and all 'cause your friend here, well they done strangled him in a bathroom." Is the man's response. My head drops just a little. Rick was the one to end his life, but I wasn't going to stop him. I know what would have happened if they found us, what's going to happen tonight.
Daryl responds, he steps further in front of the truck now and I see him throw his bow to the side "you want blood, I get it. Take it from me, man."
"This man killed our friend. You say he's good people. See, now that right there is a lie. It's a lie!" The leader, Joe, gets louder. The others start to surround him and Daryl quivers as he gets hit with a weapon. "Teach him, fellas. Teach him all the way." He yells as the attack him.
"Daryl!" I shout, jumping to the front seat to get out. His face lands on the car, his head turned in and our eyes connect.
"Come here, boy." the car door opens and my attention is broken. The guy is reaching for Carl, he goes to fight him back but is too small. I kick the guy in the face, trying to help Carl. He stumbles back but still has a hold of Carl's foot and he is dragged out of the truck.
"Get the bitch in the truck!" The scum with Carl yells out. I try to go back for my knife but one of the other men who was attacking Daryl opens the door and drags me out.
"Daryl!" I shout through the chaos. I can't see him, I cant see anything but my face in a pile of leaves.
"See, now that's right. That's not some damn lie. Look, we can settle this. We're reasonable men. First, we're gonna beat Daryl to death. Then we'll have the girl, the one with the dreads. Then the boy. Then we'll have the other girl, she was there with you, should be painful for her too. Then I'm gonna shoot you and then we'll be square." I hear Joe laughing as he says all of this to Rick, but loud enough for everyone of us to hear.
Tears fall from my face into the damp leaves "Rick.. Daryl.." I cry to them scared. I continue to try and fight, to get myself out of this man's grip but I don't know if I'm strong enough.
"Hey, I claimed you first bitch, stop fightin and lets get this party started!" He tries to hold me down and undo his buckle at the same time.
A gun shot goes off, the attention of the man holding me wavering for a moment. I try to use it to get away, but he quickly over powers me, knocking me in the head. Everything gets dizzy but I fight, I fight against him. I'd rather die fighting than live through what they are going to do to me, to all of us. The man turns me onto my back, and stares at me with grotesque lust. I turn my head, searching for Daryl. I spot him, as he tumbles to the ground. He stumbles, trying to come over to me but a man stops him, picking him up around his collar and throwing him towards the car. There's a loud scream, a male's scream and it grabs everyone's attention. I push the man off of me as he stares around the truck. A gun shot goes off again and I am able to see that Michonne just killed the man who saw us under the bed with his own gun. Rick is walking towards his son and Daryl just knocked out one of the men hitting him hard. Another goes to take a swing at Daryl with his knife but I grab a hold of it and pull it backwards. He wasn't expecting me and his arm jerks incorrectly. He screeches out and Daryl turns to finish the job. When he turns from killing him, the man who was straddling me lunges him and they fall to the ground. I run to the front of the truck, quickly loading Daryl's bow and move closer to them. I've only shot his bow out on one run and I wasn't very good. I had just gotten good at the bow I was using, but wanted to try it out then.
My heart beats in my chest as I raise it up, staring him down. I look up for a moment, and see Daryl, losing his strength. The man's hands clench around his throat blocking his airway. I release the bow in that moment and it goes right through his chest. The man releases his grip and falls to the side in a heap. I drop the bow to my side and just as it hits the ground I feel myself falling as well. "I got you. Don't worry" I hear him tell me before I can hit the pavement.