(A/N): Hey everyone. I'm super sorry it's taken me so long to put up another chapter. I started this story when I was attending college and didn't have much going on. It's summer now, and I have so much going on it's hard to find the time to write more chapters. I do plan on writing more and finishing this story it will just take me a little while to complete. Just hang in there with me and keep rating and reviewing. It always makes me happy knowing what you guys are thinking and makes me want to write more for you!
I'm going to be sticking to the show pretty close until they get to Alexandria. There will be little differences, but more of my ideas will play into the story when we get to the town.
Chapter 10: Hospitals & Cannibals & Walkers, Oh My
Ryder came to consciousness but didn't open her eyes. She could feel throbbing at the base of her skull that was giving her a major headache. She couldn't remember what had happened and why there was so much pain in her head. The last thing she remembered was that she was with everyone in the church. They were celebrating because of all the food they had found.
The blonde racked her brain trying to figure out what had happened. She kept her eyes closed and took check of her body. She was currently sitting, and her hands were tied behind her back, but her legs weren't bound. She could feel a breeze, so she assumed that she was tied up outside. There were sounds of chewing and gnawing. She couldn't tell, but it was probably walkers who were chewing on something. That idea made her open her eyes and try to figure out how to get out of her current predicament.
Ryder looked around examining her surroundings. Off to her right, she could see someone standing in front of a glass window or door. There were walkers pushing against the glass. The man standing there lifted his hand up to the glass. "This glass is gonna break sooner or later. Nothing lasts too long anymore." The man turned around and she realized that it was the leader from Terminus.
She scowled at him pulling against her ropes, but they were tied too tight. She looked to her left and noticed that there was a fire going and there were other people gathered around it eating something. She determined that the chewing sounds were the other people of the small group. That's when a lump of something moved slightly. She looked harder at it, and that's when she could tell that it was Bob who was sitting on the ground. He was still unconscious.
Before she could look around anymore the man over by the glass started to walk forward. "We marked our way here so that we could find our way back after. So stupid, right? I mean… back to what?" He walked over and knelt down beside Ryder. "It wasn't just a trap. It was gonna be a choice. You join us or feed us."
The blonde looked up at him and scoffed. "You guys are sick fucks."
The guy just kept on talking ignoring her comment. "You know… bears… when they start to starve, they eat their young. If the bear dies, the cub dies anyway. If the bear lives, it can always have another cub. That was part of the pitch. You know, Greg came this close…" he raised his hand up with two fingers spaced apart, "to nabbing that grey-haired queen bitch who killed my mom." He leaned forward running a piece of blonde hair through his hand.
Ryder flinched at his touch trying to pull away from him. These people made her skin crawl. She didn't like walkers, but at least they didn't have any more function in their brain. They only had their base instinct which was to eat. These people didn't have that problem. Their brains were functioning correctly they were just sick in a different way. She hated people for this reason along with other but mainly because more people who survived in this world were fucked in the head.
"He couldn't catch her, but I was able to catch you. You took out just as many people as she did." The grip on her hair tightened. "I like women better. Most of us do. My brother Alex – also dead because of you and your friends – had a theory that it was because of the extra layer of fat that women have, you know, for childbearing." Ryder tried pulling away from him as her skin crawled when she felt a couple of his fingers running over the skin on her shoulder. "Even the skinny ones have it." He looked more pointedly at Ryder. "You have more meat than most women do nowadays. I like that, and when I saw you walk into the woods by yourself, I couldn't help but grab you. As soon as we brought you two back the group wanted to rip into you, and I would have been more than happy to, but you were also going around with that bitch ruining Terminus for us."
Ryder was going to retort, but she heard someone groaning next to her. She looked over and saw Bob leaning against a post. He was out of it because of his head wound. It took her a minute, but she held back a gasp when she noticed that one of his legs were missing. She looked back up watching the group eating meat, and that's when she saw Bob's leg laying over the fire. Ryder leaned her head back on whatever she was held up against with her eyes closed. She was breathing heavy trying to keep herself from puking. The sight of them chewing and gnawing on her friend's leg was disgusting and seared into her brain.
The man who captured them stood up and walked over kneeling in front of Bob. He was talking to him, and Ryder could hear Bob sobbing, but she didn't want to listen. She wanted to open her eyes and be with everyone in her group. She didn't want to be tied up waiting to be eaten by cannibals when there were way better and less pathetic ways of dying in the world they lived in now. The blonde lifted head back looking at the two men in front of her confused when she noticed that Bob had started laughing. She looked around the everyone who had started to congregate around the two men. The cannibals around her started making comments about her friend, but she wasn't paying attention. She was watching Bob trying to figure out what he was laughing about. The people in front of him had taken his leg, and they were eating it in front of him. To be honest, she didn't think it seemed like a laughing matter.
Finally, Bob started to talk. "You… you idiots."
The guy across from him turned his head looking at the walkers trying to pound their way out of the school that was across from them. "Okay, keep it down."
Bob chose that moment to pull his collar of his shirt to the side and reveal a bite wound on his neck. "I've been bitten, you stupid pricks! I'm tainted meat." Her friend continued to laugh as the group that had gathered around him started freaking out.
All of them were spitting out the meat they were currently chewing. Some even walked away from the group and started puking up everything they had already eaten. Some of the members were hostile, but the others were panicking because they didn't know what was going to happen since they were eating an infected person. Someone had made a comment about just killing Bob instead of whatever their original plan was going to be.
Their leader stopped a man who seemed to be pissed off and suggested killing Bob. "We need him."
One of the women spoke up behind the men. "We can kill him and use the other bitch."
Their leader kept looking at Bob. Ryder took that time to watch him. He looked like he was thinking about something. Their plan had apparently changed with the addition of Bob being infected. "No. We will take him back." He turned to Ryder. "She will come with us."
Ryder met his eyes glaring at him. "I'm not going to become your fucking food source."
Their leader walked over kneeling next to her. His fingers moved over to her face running it along her jaw down to her neck. "You won't have a choice. We are skilled, and we can make you last a while before you die. I may use you for other purposes as well."
Ryder jerked her head away from his fingers. She turned glaring up at him. Before he could react, she spit in his face. "Fuck you!"
The hand caressing her face left and wiped off her spit. He no longer looked amused. She didn't have enough time to react to the fist connecting with her cheek. Ryder shook her head trying to chase away the dizziness the impact caused. She was going to say something, but their leader had already walked away from her. She could feel blood dripping out of the corner of her mouth, but she didn't try doing anything while everyone was walking around.
The group picked up Bob from the ground and forced him to hop towards the direction of the church. She heard one person ask about what to do with her. Gareth told them to leave her. They would come back after killing the rest of the group. They didn't say anything else while they were in ear shot of Ryder who was still tied up.
Ryder listened for the group to get out of distance from her. She didn't have her weapons because she had walked out of the church with only her crossbow and her pocket knife in her boot. She looked around the camp, but she didn't see her bow. She assumed that no one in the group decided to pick up her weapon, but they also didn't bother checking her for more weapons.
She looked around, but the group had taken everything with them. She couldn't see anything that would help her free herself. She scooted away from whatever she was leaning against. Ryder moved to her left folding her right leg underneath her. She moved her body trying to reach her knife in her boot. She could almost reach it but since it was higher up on her leg and underneath her pant leg her hand couldn't reach it. Ryder rotated her wrists in the ropes trying to loosen them, but they were tied too tight for her to do anything.
Instead of reach into her boot, she unfolded her body and laid on her back. She lifted her right leg into the air shaking it trying to get the knife to drop out of her boot. She cursed herself when the damn thing wouldn't fall from it. Finally, with one last kick, the knife dislodged from her boot but slid into her pant leg. Ryder slammed her head against the ground frustrated. As soon as she did the pounding in her head intensified. She squeezed her eyes shut moaning in pain at her stupidity and carelessness.
Ryder gave herself a minute then huffed blowing some hair out of her face that had fallen from her ponytail when she had been rolling around on the ground. The blonde could feel the knife in her pants she just needed to get it out, but the problem was it was down by her knee, and she couldn't get it to fall out at her current position. She brought her knees up to her chest and started rocking forward, but she couldn't get her body weight shifted enough to get to her feet. She glared at nothing at her current predicament. She was a soldier, but she couldn't get a simple pocket knife to cut herself loose. She rolled over onto her stomach with her chin digging into the ground. Before she started doing anything, she looked around making sure the group wasn't close by. She also needed to make sure there weren't any walkers close by that could hear her grunting and struggling. When Ryder deemed it safe she continue to stay on her stomach and pulled her knees into her chest. While she was in the featle position, she made sure her feet were pointed down and started rocking back onto her feet. She finally was able to make it on her feet, but the added weight on her back from her arms made her lose her balance and fall onto her back.
She laid on her back not moving staring up into the sky. She started kicking her feet up and down hitting the ground while she was practically screaming at her frustration of the situation and how stupid she probably looked. Next, she tried moving her arms from behind her back. The blonde almost had her arms free from her back when she heard rustling from the area the group had disappeared from. When the sound caught her attention, she laid completely still watching the area. It didn't sound like there were many of whatever was coming through the woods.
Her heart started pounding as she heard it getting closer to her position. It was still dark out so she couldn't see what it was. Ryder hoped that it was Rick or Daryl coming to find her and rescue her from her current predicament. After a couple more heart-stopping seconds, she noticed something walking over to her from the darkness but she started scrambling around trying to sit back up when she noticed the way it moved. It wasn't sneaking around, but it wasn't moving fast. Nothing would move that slow and clumsy unless it were undead. The walker was coming right for her position, and she was still stuck in the ropes with her arms behind her back. She cursed under her breath because she knew that it was attracted to her tantrum earlier.
The knife was still stuck in her pants, and she couldn't get it out. Ryder started scooting away from the geek shambling toward her. She was frantically looking around trying to find something to use against the walker or something to cut the rope with. She kept scooting back until she felt the heat of the fire. Her head whipped around looking at the fire next to her. She wanted to hit herself for being so stupid. She was bound with rope, and there was a fire right next to her. It was still big from the cooking of Bob's legs. If she weren't in a hurry, then she would be able to do this more carefully, but right now she was hurting for time. She scooted as close to the fire as she could without catching her shirt on fire. The heat was scalding her back, but she didn't care. Ryder held her arms back to the edge of the fire trying to catch the rope. She kept watching the walker that was getting closer by the second. She winced and scrunched her face in pain as the flames licked around her wrists and hands. Ryder pulled her arms apart in the fire trying to get the ropes to burn and free her wrists.
The walker was getting closer than she was comfortable with which started to cause her more panic. She needed to pull her hands out of the fire but just as she was going to take them out and move out of the way she felt the rope give way, and her arms came apart. As soon as her arms were release the walker stumbled over with its arms out. Ryder rolled out of the way of the corpse in time for it to fall in the fire catching the clothes and part of its skin on fire. She grabbed the knife from her pants and stabbed the walker in the head killing it, leaving it to burn.
Ryder was breathing heavy as she looked down at her hands. She could only see a little of the damage since she only had the fire as light but she could tell that she had third-degree burns on her hands and it was worse up to her wrists where the rope was. Her back was also burning, but it didn't hurt as much as her hands did.
She looked around the camp and listened making sure that there weren't any more walkers coming out of the woods. When she deemed she was alone she grabbed the pocket knife that had fallen out of her pant leg when she stood up. Ryder started making her way to where she saw the group leave. She didn't know how far away from the church she was, but since they had walked to it, they couldn't have been that far away.
After about 10 minutes of walking and the sun starting to rise she was able to find the church. She came across her crossbow where Gareth had grabbed her earlier in the night. Ryder couldn't see anyone moving around in there, and she was hoping that she wouldn't come across all of the members of her group walking around as walkers. She walked up to the doors and took a breath steeling herself. She readied her bow and pushed through the doors. She kept her bow up looking around. She could see there were dead bodies littering the floor and she could also tell that she recognized them as the cannibals.
There was a sound farther into the church, and when she looked up, she was met with Rick's python pointed at her. As soon as she recognized him, she dropped her bow and let out a sigh of relief.
Rick didn't take any time when he noticed it was Ryder who had walked through the doors. He walked over to her wrapping her in a one-armed hug since he was still holding Judith. "What happened? We couldn't find you or Bob and then they came and tried to kill all of us. They had brought Bob with them, but we still couldn't find you."
Ryder walked into the Church more with Rick walking next to her. "I was outside and ambushed by that sick fuck and his group. We were out by the school. They left to go kill you guys, and when they were done, they were going to come back and take me with them. They brought Bob back because…" Ryder trailed off. She looked over and noticed Rick's dark expression. He looked up and motioned to one of the back rooms.
The blonde nodded in understanding making her way to the room. She slowly opened the door and grabbed everyone's attention. She was met with multiple hugs and sad smiles. She looked over and saw that Sasha was kneeling next to Bob holding his hand. He was sweating, and he didn't look good. It had been a while when he was bitten, so it wasn't surprising that he was nearing his last couple minutes with everyone.
Ryder started to walk over to Bob and Sasha. She looked over to the woman silently asking if she could say goodbye to him. She assumed that everyone else already had said their goodbyes. Sasha just nodded once letting go of his hand.
The blonde knelt next to Bob. She heard everyone shuffling behind her. After a couple seconds, she heard the door close gently. Ryder took Bob's hand in her own laying it against her forehead. "I'm sorry I couldn't do more for you. If I would have been paying attention earlier then we wouldn't have been jumped, and you wouldn't have lost your leg to…" It was hard to talk. Yet another reason why she wasn't good in groups. It was inevitable losing people, and it was always hard because they were just reminders of her failures.
Bob squeezed her hand as much as he could, but it was weak since his body was shutting down. "Hey… don't blame… yourself." He started having a coughing fit. There was blood on the corner of his mouth and Ryder could only watch as he composed himself again. "I was bitten when you weren't around… I was already dead. I'm… happy I was there… so…" Bob's breathing was becoming more labored and was much harder to talk. Ryder tried to tell him to stop and save his breath, but he continued to talk anyway. "I'm happy that they didn't… do anything to you… since I was there."
Ryder watched her friend. She could hear him wheezing. She squeezed his hand whispering another sorry. She stood up leaving the room joining back with the group. Sasha and Tyreese put their hands on her shoulder as they walked past her going back into the room closing the door behind them.
Ryder couldn't do anything. She had always been told that she was too empathetic. She always felt what everyone was feeling. It always weighed on her. It was one of the reasons why she always tried to be the hero. She hated feeling the weight in her chest. If she could save everyone, then they wouldn't have to worry about losing people and feeling broken. She was pulled out of her trance when she felt Maggie lay her hand on her shoulder. She didn't say anything, but she followed the brunette over to one of the pews.
Maggie made Ryder sit down with her hands on her legs. Ryder could now see her hands and her arms. The skin was black from being burnt in the fire and red from dried blood. Her hands were raw, but she couldn't feel the pain. Her whole body was numb to anything. She didn't say anything when Maggie came back over and sat next to her with bandages and some type of ointment. The brunette wrapped her wrists and hands making sure that all her burnt skin was underneath the bandages. Ryder wanted to protest and tell her to save it for when someone needs the supplies, but she held her tongue. She was currently in need and burns can get infected easily, so she needed the attention.
Maggie patted her knee when she was done standing up walking over to Glen. Ryder looked around and noticed people talking with each other and putting stuff away. That's when something occurred to her. "Where's Daryl and Carol?" She looked over to Rick waiting for him to explain.
Rick turned from whatever he was doing with Judith looking over at her. "When we noticed that you and Bob were missing Daryl wanted to go look for you. Carol didn't think he should go out there by himself."
"If they went out close to when I was grabbed they should be back by now. The school wasn't that far away."
Rick didn't bother saying anything and Ryder could tell that he was thinking along the same lines as she was.
"Something could have happened to them. We have to go out and find them."
"No. I can't risk more people getting lost… or worse. Abraham is taking the bus and taking Eugene to D.C. Most of us are going to stay back and wait for them. Here. At the Church." Ryder was about to protest when she noticed Rick's face. It was a hard time for all of them and arguing would just make it worse. She nodded letting Rick know that she understood.
Once Bob took his final breath the group gathered around his grave to say goodbye. Ryder didn't want to be there longer than she needed. She hated funerals, but it seemed like that's the only thing they did now was bury their own. The group was gathering around the church van saying bye to everyone on the mission to take Eugene to D.C., but Ryder didn't join them. She decided to do rounds around the church making sure everything was clear. Since Gareth and his group was taken care of, she didn't have to worry about any more people sneaking up on her. She only needed to keep watch for walkers, but she still didn't let her guard down.
Ryder made it to the side of the church when she heard the buses doors close. Soon after she watched as the short white bus drove away from the church. She hoped everything would work out but the longer that she lived in the world, the more that she lost hope. She wanted to believe that when Eugene made it to D.C., everything would be better but that feeling was hidden by a bigger pit in her stomach. She wasn't one of those people who thought that everything could go back to normal. This was how they lived now, and nothing was bringing back the people they had lost and what the living had lost in themselves to be able to make it in the new world.
Ryder was sitting on the ledge of one of the windows. It was dark again, and everyone was sleeping, but she couldn't sleep. Daryl and Carol were still missing, and it put her on edge. She wanted everyone to be back together, but they weren't, and she couldn't sleep. Michonne was outside keeping watch by the stairs in case there were more survivors from Terminus. She looked away from the window when she saw Gabriel getting up and walking outside. She didn't bother stopping him because she personally didn't care what he did. Ryder looked around at everyone sleeping on the ground. Their group was getting smaller, and there wasn't anything that she could do about it. They had lost so much and so many people in such a short amount of time. Even if she did want to leave she couldn't, there wasn't any possible way she could leave the group that she had started to call her friends. She wanted to find Daryl, Carol, and Beth. She wanted to meet back up with Maggie, Glen, and Tara so that their group could start building another home, a place where they could live peacefully.
The blonde readjusted her spot on the window, but out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Michonne walking over to the side of the woods she had been watching. Gabriel also came into the church looking frightened. Ryder stood and made her way quickly over to the doors passing by the preacher. She exited the church looking over to where she saw Michonne enter the woods but she couldn't see anything. It was too dark to see into the trees, but she did hear rustling and snapping of branches.
After a few moments, Michonne walked out of the forest followed by two people. Ryder could tell that Daryl was behind her, but Carol wasn't with them. There was a smaller boy limping behind the two. The blonde dropped her bow watching as the three of them walked up to the stairs where she was standing. She wanted to say something to Daryl. She wanted to know what was happening and who this boy was who wasn't with them before but she didn't do any of that. Michonne led Daryl and the boy into the church. She nodded at Ryder, and all three of them walked in closing the door.
Ryder didn't bother to go in there. She sighed sitting on the steps of the church. It was still dark, and they needed someone to watch for anything that was going to come at them. She would have a chance to figure out what was going on in the morning when everyone was awake.
Ryder watched out the windshield of the truck they were in. Daryl was driving, and Rick was in the passenger seat. Daryl had told them earlier what had happened to him and Carol. They had been following a church car after they went looking for her. It led them into town where they spent a while trying to find out where Beth had been taken. Noah, the kid Daryl brought back, had been working at the same hospital Beth was currently at. Daryl also told the group that Carol was at the hospital after the men from the hospital had hit her with their car. Noah explained how the hospital worked and why Beth hadn't been able to leave. He also explained why he was alone without her since they both tried to escape. Now they were in a box truck heading back to the hospital with Noah, Sasha, and Tyreese trying to rescue Beth and Carol.
Ryder leaned up against the wall looking out one of the dusty windows. She watched Noah draw an outline in the dirt that had accumulated. Rick knelt and started going over his plan. His idea was simple enough. They would divide and conquer the people in the hospital. Everyone would split into twos and take out the guards as they found them. Once there were more intruders that inhabitors than they would get Beth and Carol back. The biggest problem that people seemed to be having with the plan was the need to kill the people in the hospital.
Ryder looked up watching the group in front of her. Daryl had told them what happened to Carol. The officers had hit her on purpose to take her to the hospital to work. Ryder squinted to herself. She didn't care if she had to kill the officers. They were despicable if they purposefully hurt people for them to work as slaves. The world was hard enough they didn't need people like this in the world now. She agreed with Rick's plan.
Tyreese's voice broke her out of her thoughts and pulled her back to reality. "All it takes is one of those cops going down the hall at the wrong time. Then it's not quiet. All hands on deck." Tyreese looks away from the diagram on the floor looking at each of the people standing in the circle. "We're talking about a lot of bullets flying around."
Sasha decided to speak up for people who understood Rick's plan. "If that's what it takes."
"It's not. If we get a couple of her cops alive out here, we do an even trade. Theirs for ours. Everybody goes home."
Rick stands with his hand on his python. "Yeah, I get it. And it might work. This will work."
Ryder walked forward. "I agree with Rick. It may not be pretty but killing them and showing our power is the best case to show them we aren't fucking around. If we took two of her cops alive and try a trade, there are too many factors that could go wrong."
Ryder heard someone protest to her side. She turned looking to see that it was Daryl. "Nah, that'll work, too." Daryl looked at Noah. "You say this Dawn, she's just trying to keep it together, right?"
Noah shook his head. Everyone could tell that he didn't want to go along with the plan Daryl and Tyreese wanted. "Trying and doing are two different things."
"You take two of her cops away, what choices does she have? Everybody goes home." Daryl points to Tyreese. "Like he says."
Everyone looked at Rick waiting for his decision, but Ryder spoke instead, "What choices does she have? We have six people. If we don't go in there quiet and take down as many as we can before they notice us something is going to go wrong. Noah said that she is trying to have a handle on the cops under her, but apparently, she isn't doing that great of a job. Anyone of them could let loose during the trade and fuck everything up."
Tyreese didn't care for how vocal Ryder was being. "With this plan, we don't have to kill people. They are people just trying to get by in this world just like us. We can't be judge and jury with everyone else. How else are we going to survive this world long enough for it to be fixed?"
"You don't understand…" Ryder cut herself off, turning walking over to the window. "Do whatever you want." She wasn't going to argue. They hadn't been through what she had been before the world fell. They had a different look on the world than she did. That outlook didn't change with dead walking around.
Ryder was crouched with Daryl on the other side of the road across from Rick, Sasha, and Tyreese. She wasn't happy about what they were doing. There were too many things that could go wrong. They were leaving too many things to chance.
The sound of a gunshot pulled her from her thoughts. Rick and she made eye contact both nodding to each other. There was another gunshot closer to their position. The group didn't move. They didn't want to give away their positions. This plan wouldn't work if the cops noticed that Noah had more than just himself. Noah came limping by at a jog past the alley everyone was tucked into. He rounded the corner but soon after a car came speeding through to grab Noah. They were going too fast to notice anything else.
Everyone stayed in their positions even when they heard the car squeal to a halt and a thud of someone hitting metal. Car doors popped open, and they could hear a woman talking. "Put it down, Noah."
A male's voice followed the woman's. "Put the gun down." Ryder heard them cock their guns while they were talking to Noah.
The woman addressed Noah again. "Hands up. Turn around."
There was a pause when the group couldn't hear anything happening. Either no one was talking, or they were talking too quietly to hear. Ryder looked up at Rick who had stood with his back to the wall. He was watching what was happening. He could see everything from his vantage point, unlike Daryl and Ryder. They had to go on what they could hear.
Ryder heard the woman start talking again. "I thought you were smart, Noah. You think we wouldn't hear you?"
There was another pause. The man sounded confused. "Where are those rotters you were shooting at?" Rick motioned for the group to follow them. Ryder didn't have a problem with that. She was getting antsy sitting doing nothing. She walked half a step behind Rick with her assault rifle pulled up pointing it at the woman while Rick stopped the man.
Rick whistled to get their attention. "Hands."
Both the cops whipped around pointing their guns at the group. The woman spoke up again, "What do you want?"
Before Rick could answer the man tried to reason with them. "Whatever this is, we can help."
Rick didn't answer them. "You do what we say, we don't hurt you."
Ryder watched the man to her right. She saw his eyes moving over the party members along with their guns. She knew that he could see they were outnumbered and resisting would be stupid and futile. "Okay." The woman seemed to look confused for a moment but let go of her gun also following the lead of her partner.
Rick took a step closer. "Good. Now turn around. Put your guns on the floor and kneel."
They did what he said. Daryl and Sasha took zip ties and started tying the two officers. Tyreese undid the ties that had Noah bound. Ryder didn't drop her gun, but her shoulders relaxed a bit. She started to walk around the area to see if there had been any walkers brought to their commotion. They had tried to take out as many as they could in the area. They could never be too careful especially with the gunshots. They had lucked out though. The gunshots would have echoed through the buildings, and it would confuse the walkers.
Ryder could hear the man talking to Rick about something. She thought she could hear him talking about being a cop. Ryder had learned that Rick had been a sheriff before everything had happened.
Before Rick could respond, the sound of tires squealing again caught everyone's attention. Everyone looked down the alley to see a car barreling toward the group. With that, all hell broke loose and everyone started firing at the car. They couldn't get any good hits on it while it was coming at them. They had to take cover, and that gave them officers enough time to hop in the back of the car and take off from their group.
Ryder scoffed to herself rolling her eyes. She started running after where the car disappeared. She could see that Sasha was able to shoot out one of the rear tires. This was why they didn't rely on chance for their plans. Nothing ever worked in their favor.
The group came around the corner to see the car parked and the doors open. There were burnt walker bodies everywhere. About half of them were dead, but the other half were still alive. They couldn't walk but they were trying their hardest to grab at anything they could eat.
All of them cautiously walked a head with their guns up watching out for any sign of the other people out there with them. After a could more steps, there were sounds behind one of the burnt campers. The two cops that they had zip tied ran out from them and disappeared behind a building close by.
Rick noticed and took off after them. "Two, on me."
Sasha, Noah, and Tyreese took off after Rick. Ryder was running next to Daryl, but she slowed down with him. They had noticed the same thing. There was still one more person they were missing. The other officer wasn't bound so he could be anywhere.
Daryl went to the abandoned car looking through it. Ryder moved closer to the campers to see if he was hiding where his friends were. She went over and stood next to the camper door. She readied her gun and quickly opened the door. She waited for a second to see if something would jump out but nothing did.
She turned but was pushed back against the camper when the man from earlier tackled her into the camper. Her back smacked against it and before she could recover his fist connected with her jaw. Everything went dizzy, but she fought through it. Ryder swung her upper body connecting her elbow with the man's cheek.
He stumbled back but before he could retaliate Daryl ran over tackling him to the ground. Ryder took a moment to shake her head. It had already been sore from her run in with Gareth. The extra blow didn't help the situation.
She blinked a couple more times. She could hear struggling, and it sounded like gasping. She looked over and saw that the man was on Daryl choking him. Daryl couldn't reach his gun. The only thing around him were the walkers.
Ryder walked over and shot the walker with her silenced pistol she had grabbed from the stack they had found earlier at the church. She needed something quiet, and her desert eagle wasn't. The two men on the ground stopped struggling when they heard the shot.
The man on Daryl jumped off him and knelt with his hands at his sides. "Okay. You win, bitch."
Ryder didn't say anything. She held her gun at his head. She wanted to kill this piece of shit in front of her. They were the cause of the problem right now. She wanted to solve the problem instead of taking them hostage. She squinted her eyes gripping her gun tighter.
The other man stood up slowly trying not to provoke Ryder to shoot. "Ryder." The blonde didn't bother looking over. She kept watching the man in front of her. Her finger started to pull the trigger not wanting to hear him breathing any longer. "Ryder!" Her hand was steady. With her time as a ranger, she couldn't be shaky. She couldn't second guess herself. People needed to die. Her hand was about ready to pull the trigger when Daryl finally pulled her from her trance. "Ryder! Three is better than two." Daryl walked in her line of sight next to the man.
Ryder watched Daryl but didn't drop her gun. She could see Daryl watching her hand seeing if she would pull the trigger. Her whole body was vibrating with adrenaline. Her brain, heart, and gut were telling her it was the right thing to do, but instead of listening, she pulled back the hammer of the gun dropping it to her side watching Daryl. He started to tie the man up, but Ryder couldn't help the feeling that she had made a mistake as she watched the dark-haired man.
(A/N): Well, that's it for chapter 10 guys. Let me know what you all think! Again, I'm sorry it's taken so long. When summer is over there will be more regular updates. I'm going to try to get myself on a schedule.
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