WARRIORS OF THE WALKING DEAD: SAVIORS OF MANKIND
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Rick burst through the front door of Daryl and Katelyn's house, heading frantically to the kitchen where he found Carol feeding little Hope.
"Thank god." Rick let out a sigh of relief, taking a deep breath to calm his quickly beating heart.
Carol jumped to her feet, looking over her shoulder at Rick.
"What's going on?" She asked worriedly. She'd come to check on Katelyn early this morning and heard the baby crying. Waiting, she knocked on the door multiple times before trying to doorknob but it was locked. Going around to the back, she found the back door open and walked through it, finding Hope sitting in her playpen alone. Searching the house, she'd found it completely empty and began to worry.
"Nate…he kidnapped Katelyn. Daryl found them in the woods and sent me back here to check on her while he got her mom.
"Is she okay?" Carol asked, concerned for her friend.
"I think so. He went back for her so I haven't seen her yet." Rick explained, wiggling his finger in front of Hope's nose.
"Jesus." Carol said sympathetically.
"I'm going to run over and call the Major on the radio." Rick said, heading for the door, "Then I've gotta get back and grab them."
Carol looked at Hope and smiled.
"I told you your momma would be back." She said, nuzzling Hope's tummy.
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Katelyn put one foot in front of the other as she stumbled through the woods. Her head was throbbing horribly and she felt sick, but the thought of Hope kept her going. The minute Daryl had disappeared, she had begun to walk after him, but the dizziness and nausea overtook her. Sitting down next to a rock, she knew she was in trouble. She couldn't find Daryl's marks anymore and wondered if she'd gotten herself lost. She just wanted to rest for a minute so she closed her eyes and laid her head against the rock.
Daryl had walked the trail twice already, looking for her. He knew he shouldn't have left her and that growing pit in his stomach hadn't gone away, so he'd asked Rick to go check on Hope while he went back for her.
The first pass came up empty-handed, so Daryl returned to camp thinking maybe she'd be there, but when he arrived, he'd found only Merle and Michael.
"No woman?" Merle asked, frowning at him.
"She must have wandered off the trail." Daryl said, sighing.
"Her head was messed up." Merle stated, looking up at Daryl.
"Shit." Daryl swore, looking around for ideas. "I'm going back over the trail. Gonna try and track her."
Michael stood.
"I'll help you." Michael said.
Daryl still didn't trust him, but right now, he needed all the help he could get. Heading out, found the trail and spread out, looking for where she might be.
Daryl suspected that she had a concussion which meant that her thinking wouldn't be logical. He thought she may have sat down to rest and fallen asleep or something. Now, he just had to find her.
Michael was interested in what had transpired out here. He'd only caught bits and pieces of the story, but what he heard disturbed him. Apparently, one of Major Reese's men had gone AWOL and was obsessively stalking Daryl's girlfriend. He'd kidnapped her from their house and brought her out here to what, though? He wasn't sure.
He knew that Merle and Daryl had found him, and didn't return with him which meant one of them might have killed him. Which also meant that one of them was a murderer. Normally, he'd assume it was Merle, but he knew what a man was capable of when love was involved.
Looking over, he saw Daryl disappear from sight and began looking for signs.
Daryl quickly found her trail. It appeared that she had left the trail in order to find something to sit down on, but had wandered off the path.
Daryl decided to risk it and called out.
"Katelyn!" Daryl yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth.
He didn't hear anything so he called out again.
"Katelyn!" He tried to project his voice farther but when he listened, he heard nothing in return.
What he'd do for a bloodhound right about now.
She was difficult to track, her stumbling making things unpredictable and erratic but she also broke a lot of branches on her way through leaving an obvious trail. Daryl knew she couldn't have gotten far so he continued to yell for her as he tracked.
As Daryl concentrated on the footdrags in the dirt, he failed to notice the walkers coming toward him. At the last moment, Daryl caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and jumped out of range of the walker's grasp.
Swinging wide, he hit the walker in the side of its head, knocking it flat, but didn't have time to do anything more than run as more walkers poured into the area.
Running, Daryl thought of Katelyn, out here in the woods, with these in the area and didn't notice the steep cliff as his foot met air.
Daryl didn't have time to react before his body plummeted downward, hitting the sloping cliff, spinning him upsidedown, before tumbling to the bottom.
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Michael crouched behind the bush, watching Merle approach the grotesquely bloody body that hung upside down from a large tree branch. Immediately, he realized it was the one called Nate. It appeared that someone had tied his hands behind his back and hung him by his feet, just low enough for the Walkers in the area to gnaw on him. Since Merle had come straight to the body, he assumed this was his work and not his brother's. Michael shook his head.
Some people were just sick.
He continued to watch as Merle poked the body, eliciting a growl from the once human Nate. He was obviously now a Walker, but instead of killing it, Merle just grunted with a chuckle and began looking around for footprints.
Michael immediately knew exactly what kind of man Merle was. He'd sure known plenty of them in his time. War torn and shell shocked, they bordered on animalistic, their humanity having been stripped from them by the necessary evil of war. It wouldn't do any good to try to bring Merle to justice. Justice wasn't the same anymore. There was really no structured government out here, so it wouldn't do any good. Besides, he might not like the method, but Merle had rid the world of a kidnapper and would-be rapist and murderer. He certainly wasn't going to cry over that.
Michael waited for Merle to head into the woods before unsheathing his knife and approaching the growling undead. Taking a breath, Michael plunged the knife into his skull, then cut the rope on his feet. Debating what to do with him, he decided that finding the girl was more important than worrying about the state of Nate's body, and turned to help them track.
Michael decided to head back to where they'd left her originally, immediately recognizing her footprints. Searching around quickly, he was able to pick up the erratic prints, and began following. It wasn't long before he noticed that she walked in circles and at some point, she'd fallen to her hands and knees. It appeared as if she…
Seeing the draping vines which hung from the edge of a small cliff in front of him, he noticed that they'd been disturbed. Smiling, he moved forward, quietly brushing the vines to the side. Ducking his head, he entered the small, well-hidden cave behind. Allowing his eyes to adjust, he immediately saw the outline of a small body lying on the ground. Grabbing his flashlight, he flicked it on and sighed in relief.
Katelyn lay on the ground, her head resting against her arm which curled under her. Moving silently, Michael closed the gap and knelt beside her. Reaching out his hand, he brushed her hair away from her face, then checked for a pulse against her exposed neck.
"Katelyn." He said quietly, putting his hand on her shoulder and gently shaking her, but she did not stir.
"Katelyn." He stated, this time more forcefully, squeezing her shoulder.
Katelyn's eyes opened slowly, confused as she groggily looked around the room, before resting her eyes on the unfamiliar face of Michael. Sucking in her breath in fear, she shrieked, and scooted backwards, getting as far away from him as the small cave would allow.
"Katelyn. It's all right. I'm Michael. I'm with Daryl. He sent Rick, Merle and I back for you." Michael didn't move toward her, allowing her the space she needed.
Katelyn's mouth moved as if she wanted to say something , but nothing came out.
"Katelyn?" Michael asked, suddenly concerned that something else was wrong.
"Where am I?" Her voice was squeaky, and her eyes wide with confusion.
Michael cocked his head to the side, trying to discern the state of her health.
"You're in the woods. We need to get you back to Deer Creek." He said calmly.
Katelyn just shook her head in bewilderment.
Damn. Michael thought. Her head injury more serious than he'd hoped.
"You don't remember what happened?" Michael lowered his voice to a soothing whisper. He didn't want to alarm her and he'd heard about her panic attacks.
Tears welled up in Katelyn's eyes as she shook her head.
"It's okay. Let's get you to a doctor and have you checked out. I'm sure it'll all come back to you soon." Michael said comfortingly as he held out his hand to her.
Katelyn just stared at it for a moment, before stretching out her own trembling fingers to take his. Michael closed his fingers around hers and squeezed encouragingly, before leading her out of the cave.