WARRIORS OF THE WALKING DEAD: SAVIORS OF MANKIND
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
He didn't know where they'd gone, but the minute he'd arrived, he'd watched, planning his revenge. When he saw that redneck asshole come out, loading up the truck, he knew it was going to be his lucky day.
He was patient as he watched, the tingling sensation of excitement making it difficult, but he knew that he was finally going to get his chance. He'd easily opened the back door, slipping quietly inside while they were out front talking. He'd heard the voices, but couldn't make out what they were saying. That other asshole, Rick, and the redneck's hillbilly brother, Merle were going with him. He didn't know the other guy, but he'd seen him somewhere before, he just couldn't put his finger on it.
Shrugging off the feeling, he focused on his true purpose; the world had gone to shit and there were no rules anymore.
He slung that bitch, Katelyn, over his shoulder and made his way to the wall behind their house. No guards were out there, he'd made sure, so it was easy to throw a ladder up and climb with her. Sliding her down the other side, he smiled when her body hit the ground as he hopped down beside her. The wall would certainly keep walkers out, but anyone determined to get over it, could easily scale this wall.
Grabbing her once again, he headed out into the woods.
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Daryl walked slowly, stepping quietly on the deer worn path, pausing for a moment to listen. He could see Rick and Michael about 100 feet away, moving the same direction and knew Merle would be on his other side a little farther out. Seeing a perfect perch to hide downwind of it, he headed silently for it while motioning with his hand to the other hunters.
Crouching down behind the bushes, he waited.
The group didn't have long, when Daryl heard a slight rustling of the leaves. His eyes focused in, piercing the thick foliage, as the brown muzzle of an animal appeared. Slowly, he lifted his crossbow and waited.
It's head emerged and Daryl swore.
"Shit!" Daryl bit out, standing up to walk forward.
It was a cow.
Merle walked out behind it and smirked at Daryl.
"That's some fine trackin' there, little brother." Merle snickered as Daryl rolled his eyes at him.
"Shut up." Daryl snapped, irritated.
Rick and Michael came up, nodding their heads.
"Hey. We can eat a cow. This isn't a bad thing." Rick said, scratching his head.
Merle laughed.
Michael reached into his pack and grabbed some rope and looped it around the cow's head, cowboy style.
"It's gonna be a lot easier to lead it through the woods, than carry it." Michael said, tugging on the rope gently.
The cow began to walk forward, leaving Daryl standing behind it, shaking his head at himself.
"I'm gonna go pick up that trail. I'll see you guys back at the camp." Daryl said, waving them on.
"I'll join ya." Merle said, not wanting to spend any more time with Rick and that other asshole.
Rick nodded and headed back to camp with Michael and the cow.
Daryl and Merle headed back into the woods.
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Katelyn awoke to pain in her wrists and arms. Lifting her head groggily, she winced when shooting pain shot through her head. Opening her eyes, she blinked a few times to focus them and tried to move but couldn't. Her wrists were tied to two ropes that had been strung between two trees, stretched outward painfully. She hung limply, her legs trailing on the ground below. Looking around, she saw Nate squatting next to a small fire, stirring the embers.
When he turned, she quickly closed her eyes, pretending to be unconscious still.
Nate stood up, walking over to Katelyn and grabbed the hair in the front of her head, lifting her head to look at her face. She should have been awake by now and he was getting impatient.
Katelyn was scared to death. She was frantically controlling her breathing so that she'd appear unconscious but she was shivering with fear. It was all she could do not to call out when he grabbed her hair to look at her face.
He let her head fall back down and felt him testing her ropes. Her mind quickly concocted a plan. She knew that Daryl wasn't even going to get home before the next morning so she was going to have to save herself somehow.
Going through all of Daryl's instructions in her head, she forced herself to calm down. She felt Nate lean in towards her face and reacted immediately, pulling her head back and hitting him with it for all she was worth.
Nate inhaled a breath sharply as he forehead connected with his nose ferociously, breaking the bone instantly and causing him to cry out. Not wasting any time, she used the ropes to hang from and lifted both of her legs and struck him with both feet, right in the face, knocking him out.
She was lucky enough that he dropped to his knees, reeling from the kick to the face. She lifted her legs once more and brought them down hard on the back of his head, knocking him flat. She knew she only had minutes, maybe even seconds, so she lifted one leg, stretching it as high as she could so that it would be close enough to her hand that she could pull the knife from her boot.
Sliding it out, she frantically started sawing the knife back and forth on her rope. It was difficult because she had to twist her hand around, causing the rope to dig into her already raw wrists. Crying out, she sawed back and forth until the rope snapped. Looking down at Nate, she hurried to sever the other rope that was tied around her wrist and then ran as fast as she could, disappearing into the forest.
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Daryl followed the deer trail, silently. He saw the beds they make when they sleep at night as they lay on the tall prairie grass and knew they wouldn't be far. Crouching down behind a tall tuft, he scanned the area carefully, looking for movement.
Seeing nothing, he moved on.
It wasn't more than a half hour when he stumbled onto a recently used camp. The fire still burned, and things were strewn about. He saw ropes tied to two trees and walked over to them. The ends seemed to have been severed and there were lots of footprints on the ground between the trees.
Daryl frowned.
Something wasn't right.
Looking around, Daryl saw that there had been a scuffle. Squatting, he whistled for Merle who came jogging over. Daryl put his hand down on a wet spot on the ground and then drew it up to look at it.
Blood.
"What is it?" Merle asked, looking down at him.
"It looks like someone was tied up and there's blood here." Daryl stated, showing Merle his fingers.
"Walkers?" Merle asked.
"I don't think so." Daryl said, looking around again before he stood up and walked over to the pack that was lying on the ground.
Digging through it, he saw the military issue equipment and paused.
"This shit is military." Daryl said, looking up at Merle.
"Someone from the base maybe?" Merle asked, thinking aloud.
"Maybe." Daryl said as he frowned.
Standing up, Daryl started tracking the staggering trail of the person who bled all over the campsite. He could clearly tell that they were tracking someone who was running from them. Since the ropes had been cut, he was guessing that someone had been captured and had escaped, doing some damage to the captor in the process.
Daryl paused for a moment, noting the size of the footprint who ran off. It was much smaller than the other set causing Daryl to frown. That meant, this guy was tracking either a child or a woman.
He didn't like either possibility.
"The guy's tracking a kid or a woman." Daryl said, looking at Merle.
"There was blood on the ground. You think some kid managed to make a full grown man bleed?" Merle asked, questioning his tracking skills.
"Think about Carl. It's possible." Daryl stated.
Merle shrugged.
"Maybe." Merle said, not necessarily agreeing with him.
"The guy's in rough shape. He's staggering all over. That was a lot of blood back there." Daryl said.
"Broken nose, probably. Easiest shot to take someone out." Merle stated.
Daryl nodded.
Daryl started walking, following the trail again, with Merle falling in behind.