Chapter Eighteen: Expedition
Expedition: a journey undertaken by a group of people with a particular purpose.
Day 61
"Bit'a overkill, ain't it?" Daryl piped up as the truck came to a shaking stop just inside Atlanta on the deserted train tracks, he looked at Daisy across from him, then Glenn and Rick who were in the front seat. "Four people for a bag'a guns?"
"Not in the city, man…earlier we were overrun by about a thousand." Glenn replied from the front, glancing back at Daryl with widened eyes. Daryl remained silent and stood when the truck had fully stopped, pulling the heavy door up with Daisy's help.
"Maybe a hundred…" Daisy corrected, shaking her head at Glenn's exaggeration. "Still a lot, though...more the merrier." She jumped down, feet landing with a satisfying thud.
"We can walk from here." Glenn said as he and Rick joined them, her and Daryl followed behind them as they passed, Daryl with his crossbow in hand and Daisy with her knife. The four of them walked along the tracks, following them for a few minutes until they reached the street near where the bag was dropped.
Rick led the others through a large hole in the chain link fence, jumping over a guard rail and jogging down the street.
"You know the geography, how we doin' this?" Rick asked Glenn, who was red-faced and breathless beside him as they jogged along.
"Uh, down this street…alley to the left, down the next street, another alley…" Glenn trailed off, then continued, "How 'bout I just lead?" He took the lead and they followed the worldly pizza delivery boy down many twisting, hidden alleys until they surfaced just near the street. Glenn paused for a moment, ushering the others to remain in the alley.
"I…" He started. "Even four people, we'll attract too much attention."
"Wh—?" Rick started to protest.
"No, I'm the one who's raided the city since the beginning, I'm good at this. I should get the bag alone."
"Then, why're we here?" Daisy interjected, Glenn looked at her then thought for a moment.
"Back-up." He said simply, Daisy gave a sceptical hum in response.
"You're not doing this alone." Rick remained steadfast, Daryl stirred beside Daisy.
"Even I think it's a bad idea and I don't even like you much." Daisy smiled wryly at Daryl's blunt honesty, then at Glenn's offended frown.
"It's a good idea." Glenn reiterated. "Okay, if you just hear me out…going with a group, we'd be slow and we'd draw attention. If I'm alone, I can move fast. The tank, it's five blocks away…the alley I dragged you into when we first met—" He nodded at Rick, "That's where Daryl and I'll go—"
"Why me?" Daryl asked confusedly.
"Your crossbow is quieter than his gun, and better than Daisy's knife. No offence." Glenn directed the last words to Daisy with an apologetic half-smile. Daisy just gave a mildly amused snort of agreement, then waved for him to continue. "While Daryl waits in the alley, I run into the street and grab the bag."
"Where'll we be?" Daisy asked, gesturing between her and Rick.
"You'll be in the next alley, two blocks away…just in case the walkers cut me off and I can't get back to Daryl. You'll all cover me, from your places. Afterwards, we'll all meet up back in this alley." Glenn finished.
Daisy gave an impressed nod at Glenn's comprehensive plan, beside her Daryl asked, "Hey, kid, what'd you do before all this?"
"Delivered pizzas. Why?" Glenn looked confused, Daisy gave a startled laugh, remembering how far they had come since Glenn had ran into her on D-Day.
Sometime later, the group split in two, with Daisy and Rick convening in their assigned alley. They waited their silently for a while, not hearing any telling disturbances save the occasional walker collision.
"So…I hear you've named my son after a fast-food restaurant?" Rick's drawling voice broke the silence suddenly, startling Daisy from her bored stupor.
"Wh—?" Daisy thought for a moment confused at his meaning before she suddenly realised, "Oh, haha. Carl's Junior…ugh, way to snitch." She jokingly cursed Carl's spilling of the never-secret beans. Rick gave her a half-smile.
"He really likes you, you know?" Rick told her, she smiled, pleasantly surprised.
"Probably that, uh, Hershey Bar I gave him and Sophia when we met." She joked. "Candy…always wins over children…" Daisy furrowed her brow at the implications of that. "Not in that way…" She covered her bases, Rick just shook his head with amusement and moved forward to glance around the corner into the street.
"How're you fittin' in?" Rick called back to her softly, furrowing his brow. Daisy looked at him questioningly, so he elaborated, "Sorry I haven't been around this past day…" Daisy rolled her eyes exasperatedly.
"You just reunited with your wife and son, Rick…" Daisy wrinkled her nose at him in amusement, adding, "I think I'll let this one slide." Rick conceded with a modest huff of laughter. Daisy looked down for a moment, then her face smoothed in seriousness, she looked up and said, "I am glad for you, though. It's really great that you found them. So soon, too."
Despite her authenticity, her head dipped back down as her face became drained in sadness. Rick realised what had gotten her so uncharacteristically down again and moved towards her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"We'll find yours too, y'know? Your family." Rick reassured her, Daisy looked up at him with a hesitant smile, not entirely believing that such a coincidence was liable to happen twice. "We will." He reiterated, Daisy took a sharp breath and nodded dismissively, getting up from where she had been seated and pacing towards the entrance to the alley.
Daisy flinched minutely as she saw a walker immediately across the street from her, its growls echoed softly towards her. She perked up and her head tilted in confusion as she heard a shout from further up the street. Daisy shot a look at Rick who also looked worried.
"You hear that?" Rick asked offhandedly, starting towards the street, Daisy nodded. There was another shout. And another. Rick started forward with Daisy close behind, they ran up the street dodging roadblocks. The shouts began unintelligible yells. As they came closer they heard several people shouting, then what sounded like a moan of pain.
Rick turned down an alley, Daisy following him, then as they rounded the corner they saw Daryl shoving an unknown teenager against the wall.
"Whoa, whoa! Stop it!" Rick yelled at Daryl as he came between the two, restraining him. Daisy stopped and glanced to the side at the terrified kid, then back at the struggling Daryl.
"I'm gonna kick you nuts up into your throat!" Daryl shouted as Rick continued to hold him back. Daisy looked back over at the kid whose eyes darted to the side, presumably looking for an escape. So Daisy backed up into his line of sight and raised her knife up fractionally, giving him a warning look. "They took Glenn! Little bastard and his little bastard homie friends!" Daryl explained, yelling at him.
The kid looked even more panicked, flinching forward, but he was slammed back against the wall by Daisy's hands on his chest. Daisy grunted as she struggled to keep him in place with her full body weight behind her hands.
"Little help here." She managed, Rick came over and took her place, Daryl starting forward.
"I'm gonna stomp your ass!" Daryl shouted, Daisy stepped in front of him with hands raised.
"Whoa, not helping, man." She looked at him with pleading eyes and he stopped in place, fuming. Daisy's attention was grabbed by the rattling of the fence behind him, the walkers were growling louder and grasping for them. "We gotta go." Daisy said resolutely, backing away from the swaying fence, heading down the alley.
She led the group, Rick, Daryl and the new kid, back through the sprawling streets and alleys to the best of her abilities without Glenn there, they soon arrived at the alley that had been sheltered in before. Daisy ushered Daryl and Rick, who held onto the kid, into the alley in front of her and looked behind them, determining the lone walker stirring slightly on the ground to be a non-issue. Rick pushed the kid down against the wall of the alley and started to pace, eyes jumping wildly around with alertness at the possibility of a walker threat.
"Those men you were with, we need to know where they went." He started, trying to sound diplomatic for the scared kid.
"I ain't telling you nothing." The kid replied, eyes hard.
"Double negative." Daisy mumbled to herself, the others glanced at her but she gave them a weak smile and shook her head dismissively; it seemed to be a common phenomenon in the South. "What happened back there?" Daisy asked Daryl, changing the subject.
"Told you, this little turd and his douche bag friends came outta nowhere and jumped me!" Daryl's hackles rose defensively. "They took Glenn." Rick nodded thoughtfully, then lowered himself to the kid's level.
"The men you were with took our friend. All we wanna do is talk to them, see if we can work somethin' out." Rick said calmly. The kid was attentive, he gulped and looked between the three people, giving a tiny nod after some time.
One very tame interrogation later, Daisy, Rick, Daryl and the kid had arrived at the headquarters of the kid's group. Daisy peered through overgrown vines at the rustic wooden door that was supposedly where the kid's group were holding Glenn, then glanced sideways at Rick.
"Sure you're up for this?" Rick asked her, Daisy replied in the affirmative and picked up the elusive bag of guns.
"Good luck." She said her farewell, wiggling her eyebrows at them light-heartedly, getting a smile from Rick and a weird side-eye from Daryl. Daisy stalked off, pulling the bag up higher on her shoulder. Behind her she heard Daryl threatening the kid with an arrow to the ass, and she smiled to herself.
Daisy hummed to herself as she walked out of the scrub and onto the backroad, her eyes narrowed as she looked around, finally deciding upon a nice, large rock to seat herself upon. Daisy had been tasked with protecting the guns from the kid's group, if Rick and the others failed in their negotiations, she would have to return to camp without them, but still with the guns.
After what seemed an eternity, Daisy was kicking tiny rocks around with her boots when she heard a commotion ahead of her. She perked up nervously, hand gripping the strap of the bag, ready to leap off the rock and run. And…it was her group.
"Shit…" She sighed in relief, then stood and walked over to them, dragging the bag along with her. "How'd it go…" Daisy asked rhetorically, as she eyed the kid that was still there, no Glenn in sight.
"Not well." Rick said lightly, his gun held low in defeat. "They want the guns and Miguel." He passed her and slumped onto her now empty rock.
"Miguel?" Daisy mumbled to herself, happy to have a name for the kid. She nodded her head in acknowledgement to him and he just glared at her, scrunching up his face and spitting on the ground near her feet. "Well, shit…that was entirely unnecessary!" Daisy lamented, rolling her eyes and scuffling away from Miguel's loogie.
"Watch it." Daryl said firmly, pushing Miguel so he stumbled forward.
Daisy turned to see Rick sit higher on his seat, holding out his hand to her. She passed him the heavy bag of guns and he set it on the ground in front of him, unzipping it. Daisy stood listless for a moment, sharing an uneasy glance with Daryl beside her.
"So…what are we gonna do…" Daisy started uncertainly, lips quirking into a smile as she finished, "O' fearless leader?"