Chapter 6 ~ Maddy's POV
They slide our bags back on and shove both of us into a car. We go over bumps, turn sharp corners and suddenly we come to a stop. I feel my stomach become more nauseated and I feel an attack coming on.
No! I can't do this now, I have to be strong. Not just for myself, but for Jet, Carl, Daryl, Rick and everyone else. I need to get through this and no matter what happens at least Carl knew I loved him on some level. If he's still alive.
They grab us and pull us out of the car, shove us onto our knees and whip off our bags. I instantly search for Carl and I spot him, safe. I see Rick coming down, and I look to Jet. His cuts look a bit redder but other than that he seems fine. He gives me a small reassuring smile and I face forward again.
"Rick, pleasant to see you again," the Governor says, calmly.
"Yes, pleasant to see you're still alive," Rick says, through gritted teeth.
"Alright, it's simple. I'm sure you already know what I'm about to ask but I'll go straight to it anyway," the Governor says, smiling. "I want this prison for my people; there are no other safe places like it. The problem is, you're here so please take your rubbish," he says while pointing to us and motioning to everyone else, "Out of here," and then smiles.
"We can live together. My people and yours can live together, I know it! No one has to die today, I promise I'll make it work, don't worry!" Rick says, sounding a little desperate.
"Rick, I made my offer and that's final," the Governor says in reply.
"I can't leave this place; we want to be safe too!" Rick cries.
"It seems as though you're not taking me seriously," the Governor says, I hear his footsteps come closer to us and he pulls out a gun. Aiming it at Jet's head, he waits for a while as if he's waiting for Rick to say something. I see that Rick is lost for words, and in the next moment I hear the gun fire.
I whip my head to face Jet, to expect a dead Jet but I only see a bleeding leg. "GOD DAMMIT!" Jet cries, screaming as his leg bleeds out.
"The next bullet goes through his head," the Governor warns.
All of a sudden Rick fires at the Governor, hitting his arm which causes his gun to fall. Everyone behind me fires and people in front of me fire too. I crawl over to Jet, my hands still tied behind my back.
"Jet, you're going to be OK. Remember? We're going to get out alive no matter what," I say, trying to think of a solution that could get us out. I spot a boy running and hiding at the same time, so I tell Jet to crawl as fast as he can. We almost make it when he collapses, screaming in agony.
"C'mon Jet! You can do it, just a little further. Please!" I scream and so he gets up again and crawls. We make it over to Carl and he cuts us free.
"Oh my God, I'm so glad you're still alive," I say, pulling Carl into a great big hug.
"Me? What about you! You're the one who was captured by the Governor!" he says, as he clutches onto me. I notice people piling into the yellow bus and some people still fighting against the others.
"Carl…The bus," I say and Carl turns around to look at it. It reverses and speeds away leaving us and whoever else that was left behind.
"Oh crap," Jet mutters.
"We gotta get out of here," Carl says, taking my hand. Jet follows behind as we run through the forest.
I pull out my gun quicker than ever and shoot one of the enemies that tortured Jet before he could shoot us.
"Holy moly," Carl says, surprised.
"Being captured made her feistier," Jet says and I laugh as we run faster.
We slowed down after a while of running, we weren't sure where to go exactly but we decided to just keep going. We killed any walkers in our path, the ones that only needed to be killed. When Jet ran ahead of us, killing a few walkers, Maddy whipped her arm in front of me, gesturing for me to stop.
"Jet and I talked and he's OK. He's just broken because of the things that happened to him so don't worry about him anymore. I can't tell you the full story but I know he'll tell you when he's ready too," she says, truthfully. I nod my head in agreement and we start walking again. Jet's still up ahead slashing zombies heads quicker than ever. He must have had a lot of experience then.
I feel Maddy's hand slide into mine as we see a whole herd of walkers ahead. Not just more than a few but hundreds, thousands even.
"Oh no…" Maddy says. Jet runs back to us before they smell or notice him.
The herd of zombies reminds me of the time at Hershel's farm…How we just escaped and how I killed Shane…Or what was left of him.
"Now what do we do? We have to find a house or something for the night," he says, calmly. I notice how banged up and scarred he is for the first time but I don't ask because I already knew the answer.
"Let's just back up slowly, I think there's a town over this way," Jet says, hobbling away.
Maddy and I follow him, hand in hand. We start to jog a little faster because Maddy starts to get scared of being in the dark with walkers around and no flashlight.
After randomly stumbling around in the almost dark night for a while we finally see a building so we make our way over. Jet recognises it as the Library that he used to go too when he was a little child and that he always took his sister here every week.
Maddy's POV
The Library looked beautiful in the dark for some reason, almost creepy too. We walked around through the aisles for a while until we found some flashlights, couches, pillows etc.
I picked out a book and looked at it; I've always loved reading books. Ever since I was little I enjoyed the company of them, the stories they showed me through words.
"Maddy, our little 'camp' is set up," Carl says, walking into my aisle.
"Oh, okay. Coming!" I shout, not realising that Carl was standing next to me.
"What book you have there?" Carl asks, surprising me.
"Oh, Carl! Mate, you almost made me reach for my dagger," I say, giggling, "It's a book I always used to read when I was upset or lonely,"
"Well, you're not lonely now," Carl says, smirking.
Suddenly I pull Carl into a hug which surprises him at first.
"Sorry, I just felt like hugging you," I say.
"It's okay, I like hugging you," Carl says.
We both let go at the same time and walk to where we set up camp, Jet looks at us raising an eyebrow.
"So, looks like you guys will be sharing one couch," he says.
"What?" I say, suddenly nervous. I've never slept with someone before…obviously.
"Well, I could only find two couches, I'm sure as hell not sharing with anyone and besides, you guys are like a married couple," Jet replies.
We quietly sit down, eating whatever we had found. I never knew how good a can of baked beans could be! After some random topics of conversations we started talking about life before the apocalypse started…
"I always used to go to this café type place with my friends after school and I remember we always went to this one because a cute guy worked there…He was about 16 years old or something. Life seemed so easy back then…" I say, focusing on my food as I remember what terrible events happened soon after the apocalypse started.
"Yeah, all I did was focus on school life, games and girls… Now people do absolutely anything to survive…" Jet says. We all stop talking and just stare at anything; I guess we were all remembering the happy memories. Or bad
We decide to go to sleep and I curl up with Carl on the couch. At first I felt extremely awkward but I just told myself to calm down and get some sleep. Just when I'm about to fall asleep in Carl's arms I see a pair of hands coming closer, but everything disappears.
The next morning I wake up with my hands bounded behind my back, tightly and a blindfold wrapped around my head. Letting no light through at all. I hear a groan across from me and recognise it as Jet and then another escapes Carl. "Carl? Jet?" I say, just to make sure.
"Yeah," Carl says, "Yep," Jet says. Thank God they're both OK, or alive.
"I can't believe I'm in this position again." I mumble, remembering back to when Jet and I were held hostage for the prison. Isn't once enough?
I feel around the room with my legs and I start to move but I hit something, warm like a body. "Did I just hit any of you?" I ask.
They both reply with a no and that's when I scream, I shuffle backwards but stumble and I fall backwards onto the ground, but again I fall on something warm and soft. I struggle a little but Jet says, "Calm down matey, it's just me. Did you feel something over there?"
"Yeah, I did. It felt like a body." I say, trying to stay calm.
"Just try to calm down, it didn't move right? So it can't be a walker…If it's human it's either asleep like we were or …" Jet's sentence trails off.
We all hear the door creak open and we hear footsteps shuffle inside the room and then the door closes. "Ah, I see you've gotten quite comfortable. Are you two together in a relationship? How sweet," an intimidating male voice says.
"It's not like that, I tripped-
"You were walking around? Why?" the voice asks.
"I was just trying to feel around. I was wondering where we are, wouldn't you too?"
"True, I guess. Take off their blindfolds, now!"
I feel someone tug my head upwards and the blindfold slips off, the bright light coming from the top window hurts for only a moment and soon I can see where we are. In a small storage-like room, and I realise that we're still in the library. The body on the other side was dead, definitely dead.
"You can get off of him now," Carl says.
I listen to Carl and get off of Jet, I shuffle over to Carl and sit next to him, I look up to our captor's faces and I gasp. They're only young! Sadly, they're all boys…
"My name is Mike and I'm the leader of this group, who is your leader?" I look to Jet and Carl and I pray that they don't say where we have come from. They need to make up a lie! I see Jet's mouth form a word and I quickly cut in.
"I'm the leader," I say as I stand up.
Carl looks down at the floor but Jet looks up at me, confused. "I'm sure you have a reason for capturing us? I can see we're not wanted in the library, we will leave right now."
"No, questions first." Mike says, smiling. "For each question you will answer truthfully or I can make this more painful than it has to be. First question, how old are all of you?"
"Sixteen," Jet says.
"Carl," I say, pointing to Carl, "And me are both fourteen."
"Ah, interesting mix in numbers. Too bad you're the only girl, us guys haven't seen a girl since the day it all started." Mike says as he inches closer to me. "I don't think your friends would mind if I steal you away for just a moment."
Carl and Jet both shuffle forward and stand in their way. "Actually, I think we do mind." Carl says, in a sassy voice. I almost burst into laughter but I hold it in, fortunately. They would probably start to think I'm going insane if I did that.
"Four against three, you're outnumbered." Mike states.
"Only one person missing, and we are very good fighters." Jet says
"You're forgetting one, tiny thing. You're all tied up. So, I'll just grab her and be on my way. What's your name sweetie?" Mike says.
I glare at him, refusing to tell him my name. Whatever he might do to me I don't want him to call out my name in the process. "Oh? Well, I'll get it out of you later," he says with a wink. He snaps his fingers and the three other boys grab my and carry me out of the room. I stare at Carl as I'm being taken away; his blue eyes are scared for me. If Carl is scared, then of course I'm hell scared.
The door shuts and they lock it loudly, dragging me away. Please, please don't let them do anything to me. I haven't prayed to God for a long time, right now I hope he's listening. I continue to pray silently as we come closer and closer to a room at the end of the hall. They open it and shove me forwards into it, Mike follows and the others leave.
"You're quite a pretty girl for a fourteen year old." Mike says. He comes closer and unties the ropes around my hands and whispers into my ear, "Oh how long I've been waiting…"
I cringe and shudder at the same time. This guy is definitely going to do something to me and I absolutely have to get out of here. Unless I'd rather be impregnated and I sure as hell don't want to be!
I slam my fist into his face and his body is knocked to the ground with a thud.
Crap, that hurt like a bitch!
He gets back up instantly though and grabs both of my arms, twisting them so they're back behind my back. "I gave you a chance to be obedient but you obviously turned it down." I tense up all my muscles because I feel that that's the only way to keep calm and let my anger out. I shut my eyes so I don't have to stare at his.
"I see you're scared. But you don't have to be, I'm way better than those two guys. I wouldn't do anything to let you get harmed, but they did! They left you un-guarded! Lucky for you that I found you instead of the dead people or crazy bandits!" he says.
"You're only caring for me so you can use me for sex. At least those guys actually cared for me. You're just a selfish, insane bastard who will rot in hell." I say back, spitting at him.
"You could have gotten on good terms with me but I guess you're going to be hateful. No matter, let's get this started then, shall we?" he whispers.
I shut my eyes tighter as he forces me downwards, I scream inside me and I feel everything burning up from my bottled up rage. He touches me in places I've never been touched before and I tense up again. Suddenly, I hear the door burst open and I hear voices from Jet, Carl and… Daryl? Chelsea? And Sam?
I stand up instantly and see familiar faces; tears start to form in my eyes. Thank you God
Jet throws me a bat and I slam it down onto Mikes back making him scream in agony. I pull myself on top of him and pin him to the ground. He stares up at me, petrified.
"This is what happens when you try to rape girls, you will always lose." I say, hatefully.
"Please, don't kill me!" Mike says.
"Oh? You think I'm going to kill you?" I say, bursting out into laughter. "No, I'll give you the punishment you deserve. First, I'm going to knock you unconscious, then tie you up to a tree and we'll see how it goes from there."
"Hurry up Maddy, we gotta get out of here." Carl says.
"Aw, too bad I won't be able to watch you be eaten alive." I say and swing the bat onto his head, only just hard enough to knock him out. Jet helps me take the body out and I tie him to a random tree, I start to spot some walkers coming this way so I make a huge noise and then we run off back to the others.
Daryl slides his arm around me and pulls me closer, like he's acting as a big brother I never had. I love Daryl, he always makes me feel protected and whenever he's around I feel as if no one will die. "Are you OK?" Daryl asks, sounding concerned.
"I'm fine."
"Look, you can't just be fine. You were almost raped and you forced someone to be eaten alive…I didn't think you'd do something like that." He asks.
"Looks like you underestimated me then." I say and brush off his comforting arm. I'm no longer some weak little girl, I don't need comfort or safety from boys or men.
I catch up with Chelsea and we start our usual topic of conversation.
"So you escaped with Daryl and Sam?" I ask
"Yeah, we're all fine I guess but… Daryl." Chelsea says.
"What happened?"
"Sam and I were running through the crowd, after the bus left without us. We spotted Daryl and caught up with him, he told us to run. I noticed he was crying and…" Chelsea says, "I saw Carol's body on the ground…"
"Oh my…" I start. Over the past weeks that I'd been staying at the prison I closely observed everyone. Daryl definitely had feelings for Carol although they never really showed them much. I always wondered if they had a relationship going. One time I even asked Carl and he said he thought so but was never 100% sure. We keep walking without any more discussion but soon after we spot an abandon hospital. Well it looks abandoned.
"I guess we'll stay here for the night but we'll go on shifts for watch." I say and the others nod in agreement. We go inside and check one entire level, nothing to be found that could harm us so we find a big room for all of us to sleep in. We scrounge around in the rooms and different levels until we all gather enough snacks and random foods for dinner and for travel the next day. Daryl suggests that we keep heading up the street next dawn because before the bus left they had let him know where they were headed.
"I hope we find them soon." Sam says, huddled next to Chelsea. I wiggle my eyebrows at Sam and he blushes, those two are cute as.
I find Jet and Carl sitting together, talking and eating at the same time. I feel as if I'd be the third-wheeler with Sam and Chelsea so I take a seat in front of Jet and Carl so I'm facing them both. They both nod and I nod back, we continue eating silently until we finish our food.
"I hope no one else is dead." I mumble, after telling them about Carol.
"Same," says Carl and Jet. I can't believe I'd ever become friends with Jet, but I'm glad we did. He's like an older brother to me, well kind of. I didn't want to think of him as anything beyond that because of Carl… My feelings are growing stronger for Carl every day but I still don't think it's the right time to confess. Carl might have changed his views on me over the past couple of days because of that little incident with Mike. He's seen my scary side, when will I see his?
A/N; Again, I hope you liked it and I hope it wasn't too short or too long. Reviews are appreciated, please let me know what you think so far! xx