I strategically threw in that little bit about Merle forgetting to "protect" himself to see what you all had to say about that. I wasn't sure to run with it or just let it be a scare. I think it should be up to you since you are all the reason this story has come this far. The last chapter is going to be an epilogue set two years later. If you think this would be something he would want then I'll make it happen. If not then a scare it will be =) I just wasn't sure where to go with it. Just let me know!
Thanks for reading and reviewing! I've been writing this story for seven weeks now and I am really surprised at all of the response I have gotten in such a short amount of time. I hope I deserve it and don't let you down in the end! All you cool cats have a fantastic morning! I'll catch you on the flip side ;)
Chapter Eighty Three
Sophia was about as nervous as she had ever been in her life. Rick had taken Carl's gun but Duane still had his and she still had hers. But she didn't want to be put in a situation where she would be forced to use the gun. Not because she was afraid to use it. She was afraid of bringing those other men down on the whole group. If they messed up then that was what was going to happen. They were going to get the whole group killed.
It had taken forever for her to get up the nerve to try to sneak past Beth. The other girl had tossed and turned for hours but finally Sophia just had to risk it. The boys had been pacing the hallway anxiously.
"What do we do if we get busted?" Carl whispered as they made their way to the back of the building.
"Well," She sighed, "I guess we just have to hope like hell that they will take it easy on us since we are just kids."
"That's your plan?" Duane mumbled with a raised eyebrow.
She put her hands on her hips. "Yeah, Duane. That's all I got. You have a better plan?"
They were standing under the dark exit sign when they heard someone hurrying towards them. To her dismay Carl and Duane both pushed her against the wall and stood in front of her, Duane had his gun pointed in front of him. The lighting in the hallway was pretty dim but they could see a man coming at them.
"What the hell are the three of you up too? Are you really gonna try to sneak out?"
They all sighed in relief at the sound of the now familiar voice.
"Randal?" Carl hissed. "What are you doing? Have you been following us?"
When he reached them he was eying them suspiciously. "I knew somethin' was goin' on with you three. You and the Brothers Grim, I mean."
Sophia couldn't help it. She giggled quietly and shoved the boys apart so she could stand between them. "We have to get past those men and back to where the truck is. We have guns stashed there and since we've all been robbed, we have to get to them." She explained while the boys glared at her.
Randal just nodded as his face grew serious once more. "I'm in." He said in a whisper. "I can't stand it here. These people really give me the creeps. They freak me out more than Dave's group."
Sophia nodded but Carl and Duane both just shook their heads.
"The three of us can handle this without you." Carl snapped.
Randal just rolled his eyes at the boy. "I can help." He insisted.
"We don't even know you." Duane said suspiciously.
Randal just stared at him for a second. "We've been in the same group for a month now. You know you can trust me."
Duane glanced at Carl. "He's right, I guess. He's been with this group as long as I have and maybe we could use the help."
Sophia shook her head then. "There is already three of us. More people involved is just more of a chance of us all getting caught."
Randal studied her and then pursed his lips. "Well, I'm here. I'm coming with you whether you three want me too or not. That truck is pretty close but you guys could still run into some trouble out there. You just never know. What if a herd comes?"
Duane scoffed. "If a herd comes then we're probably dead meat. You wouldn't be much help with that."
Randal shoved his hands in his pockets and stared at Sophia. "I'm comin'. Either I come with you or I go wake up your parents. Which is it?"
"Son of a bitch." Carl hissed.
"Sophia?" Someone called quietly from the end of the hallway. It was definitely a female but none of them could tell who it was until they approached.
"Beth?" Carl frowned. "What the hell are you doing out here?"
She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at all of them. "I should be asking you the same thing. Sophia I promised Daryl I'd keep you outta trouble." She flashed Randal a dangerous look. "And ain't you a little too old to be sneakin' around with them?"
"The Governor and his band of Merry Men stole all our guns. He set Merle and Daryl up and they had to fight off four guys at once while the other men held us down so we couldn't help." Randal snapped. "These kids have guns stashed and now we're going to get them."
Beth seemed to take this news in quickly as she studied them all in the dimness of the hallway. "Where?" She finally asked.
"The truck. It really wasn't broke down. We just needed a place to keep the guns until we needed them. Which happened to be sooner than we thought." Sophia whispered.
"So Merle and Daryl know about this too?" Beth asked.
Everyone nodded. "It was Sophia's idea. Just a precaution." Carl said. "Lucky for us she came up with it."
Beth nodded and then took a deep breath. "Okay, I'm in."
Duane threw his hands up in exasperation. "The hell you are! This is risky shit here. The more people going out there, the more chance we have of getting spotted. The three of us can do this faster and safer without you two getting yourselves involved."
"Then I'm gonna go get Merle." Beth said stubbornly.
Duane shrugged. "Go ahead. He'd probably give me an extra gun."
She glared at him. "I'm comin' with you."
Sophia held up a hand before Duane could say anything else. "Do the two of you have guns?" She asked.
Randal and Beth nodded.
She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. "Okay then. Let's go."
The boys groaned but Beth and Randal grinned at her. She rolled her eyes and turned towards the door.
~H~
"Wake up!" Carol said as she shook Daryl's shoulder. His arm tightened around her waist but he didn't open his eyes. "Daryl!"
Finally his eyes snapped open and then narrowed at her. "What? It ain't even mornin' woman, damn." He groaned and then rolled over, pulling her with him so she was lying halfway across his chest.
"Daryl, I need you..." She whispered but he cut her off.
"Oh?" He grinned and then pulled her until she was straddling him.
She slapped his chest as she sat up. "That isn't what I was about to say. I need you to listen to me." She never would have guessed it when she had first met him that no matter what was going on he could instantly be sidetracked with the thought of sex.
He sighed and then reached over and turned on the lamp. "You got me up. Now, what?" He laced his fingers behind his head as he laid back down and peered up at her, squinting at the light.
"I was thinking." She began as her eyes left his and slid down to his lips. She swallowed. "I was thinking that we should just kill them. All of them."
He frowned. She kept her eyes focused on his mouth. "What?"
"We should kill the Governor and all his men. It's the only way we can get out of here. We still have the guns we had on us and you all will probably have more guns after tomorrow. We should kill them." She was talking to fast, rambling like an idiot, but she had woken up with the idea and she had to tell him about it. She wasn't a vicious person. Not at heart but she was desperate right now. This whole mess had made her physically sick and it was the only thing she could think about. This was the only solution that she could come up with. She would kill them herself if it would protect her group.
He sat up and ran his hands up her thighs until they had ghosted up her shirt and then locked behind her back. "Where the fuck did all this come from? This ain't you, Carol."
"This is who I have to be right now." She whispered desperately. "We have to get out of here. I should have told you I would leave with you. Instead I keep messing things up, forcing you to come here. Forcing Sophia to come here. I should have listened to you."
His frown deepened and she finally met his eyes. His hands ghosted across her skin, causing her back to tingle. She had to shake her head to focus. "You wanted Sophia to have a life. Ain't nothin' wrong with that. It ain't your fault we're here." His tone was soft but believable. He wasn't blaming her for this mess. But that didn't lesson the guilt that she felt. It didn't do anything to make her feel any better.
"You didn't want to come here, Daryl." She whispered.
"I'm an asshole that never wants to do anything." He met her eyes. "We can't just shoot the place up. I already thought of that."
"Why not?" Her voice cracked and his hands stopped moving across her skin.
"Cause they outnumber us. They outgun us. We'd all be dead in seconds if we tried some crazy shit like that. Merle's right. We gotta lay low. We gotta make the asshole think we're just gonna roll over. He's arrogant enough to fall for it. Then we make a move when it wont get us killed."
"Then what do we do? After he's dead?" She whispered.
He shrugged. "I want this town."
She frowned. "What?"
"I wanna take this town. It makes sense. It's secure and there's plenty of supplies. The only thing wrong here is that piece of shit that's runnin' things. And them bastards that follow him around."
Carol didn't know how she was suppose to feel about that. They were casually talking about murder here. Talking about killing men. But she felt herself relax against him now. He would take care of it. He'd fix the mess that her and Rick and the others had made by blindly following this man into this town without listening to either of the Dixon's warnings.
"You don't seem like you're gonna put up much of a fight about all this." he smirked.
"I'm not. I'm done fighting you over stuff. Every time I do I end up paying for it. I'm gonna do whatever you think is best from now on." She said as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
He cocked an eyebrow. "Really. You're gonna listen to everything I got to say now?"
"Yep. All I'm gonna end up doing is getting us killed by fighting with you."
"So I'm the boss now, huh?" He grinned.
She gave him a dry look and wandered if she had made a huge mistake. "I think that's for the best for now."
He nodded, his face growing serious once more. "You know that anything I tell you to do is for your own good right?"
She smiled. "I know."
"So, I get to start tellin' ya what to do startin' when?"
"Right now. I'll do whatever you say, starting now." She knew where this was going but she kept her face as serious as his.
"Then lose that fuckin' shirt woman, we're burnin' up time here."
She grinned. "You're the boss, Dixon."
~H~
Sophia, Carl and Duane hurried through the woods on silent feet. They wanted to avoid the road since they didn't know if there were people out there patrolling it. Best to stay in the trees. Merle and Daryl had taught them how to be silent. Unfortunately Beth and Randal hadn't had the training that they had had.
Duane finally stopped, glaring at the two behind them. One of them had snapped a small fallen limb as they stepped on it instead of over it, making a loud snapping sound that seemed to grate against the three kids' nerves. "Do you think the two of you could be any louder? Jesus!" He whispered sharply.
Normally Sophia would have told him to lay off but she was just as frustrated as he was. The two newcomers didn't know what the hell they were doing. They were slowing them down and they were making too much noise. It was hard to tell if something was coming at you when the people you were with were making too much noise, and they were definitely making way too much noise between the two of them.
"How the hell are we suppose to be quiet when we're walking on dead leaves and sticks through the woods?" Randal snapped back.
"You can't." Duane growled. "Which is exactly why you both should be back in your rooms right now, sleeping. You're slowing us down and you're putting us at risk."
"Don't talk to me like I'm some sort of kid, kid." Randal said bitterly.
Duane glared at the man. "Out here, I ain't no kid, asshole. I know more than you. Out here, you listen to me. You got that? Cause before I let you get us killed I'll kill your ass myself."
Randal took a step towards him but Beth stopped him with a hand on his chest. "Don't you dare." She snapped. "They're right. We're bein' too loud and we're slowin' them down. But we came to far to go back. We gotta keep goin'."
Randal finally nodded and Sophia took Duane's hand. "Not right now, Duane. We gotta stay focused." She whispered.
Just before they started walking again they heard something coming towards them, still a good distance away. Carl had his knife in his hand quickly. They could tell by the sounds of it's shambling footsteps that it was a Walker. Only one, which was good news. They could certainly handle one lone walker.
Instead of waiting on it Duane and Carl took off towards it. Beth was about to call out but Sophia put a finger against the girls lips. Beth nodded and then the three of them hurried off after the boys. When they caught up with Duane and Carl both boys had stopped in their track. There was a small clearing in front of them and there was something separating them and the Walker that was now visible, stumbling forward with purpose.
"What is that?" Sophia hissed.
"A body." Carl whispered as he watched the Walker approach the prone form on the ground.
Sophia squinted, the moonlight not giving off as much light as she needed to make out any details of the still shape between them and the Walker. But suddenly the 'body' moved. Rolling over to one side and trying to crawl away from the advancing Walker. Just then another stepped out of the trees on the other side of the clearing.
"Jesus, whoever it is, they're still alive!" Sophia was about to run ahead before the Walkers could reach whoever it was.
Carl caught her around the waist before she could get far. "You sure you wanna save them? If more Walkers are comin' they'll be distracted by food."
She gave him a hard look and jerked out of his grip before running towards the stranger. She heard the boys, right behind her but knew that Beth and Randal were frozen. Unsure how to proceed. What a jerk! She couldn't believe Carl was willing to sacrifice some living person just so they would be able to make it to the truck easier.
She went for the Walker that was the closest to the person on the ground. Luckily that Walker was a woman and was relatively small. Sophia threw herself at the snarling thing, jumping right over the body on the ground. When she hit the thing with everything she had it went sprawling backwards and Sophia landed gracelessly on her knees. But Daryl had taught her how to be quick and she was up and moving once more before the Walker had a chance to regain any sort of footing. Sophia didn't hesitate at all. She held the knife in a two handed grip and then plunged it into the Walker's skull.
She looked up as she wiped the knifes blade onto her jeans. A pair that she loved that Carl had gotten for her. Damn it. Carl and Duane made quick work of the other two Walkers and there hadn't been a need to draw their guns. They had to do a lot more footwork than she had since both Walkers they faced had been much bigger than them. Merle had taught them well, telling them that size don't matter outside the sheets, whatever that meant, and that they couldn't get side tracked just because something or someone was bigger than them. Thinking about that would get their asses kicked in a real fight or get their asses bit if they were going up against a Walker.
Once the Walkers were down Sophia faced the person that was still on the ground. The moonlight was bright in the clearing, painting everything with a silvery glow. She could see that it was a woman. She had dark skin and long dreadlocks held back by a wide headband. She was lying on her back now with her eyes closed, breathing in quick shallow pants.
Sophia heard the boys approach her from behind. Carl put a hand on her back. "You alright?" He whispered as Duane walked around her to get a better look at the woman.
"I'm fine." She said as she took another step herself.
They all three jumped back as the woman's dark eyes flew open and her arm snaked out quickly, grabbing something that had gone unnoticed at her side. She pulled the object until she was gripping it with both hands.
"Holy shit! Is that sword?" Duane's eyes looked as though they would pop out of his skull at any second.
"What are kids doin' out here?" The woman managed to croak weakly.
Randal and Beth were running towards them now. The woman's head turned to watch the newcomers approach.
"Sophia." Carl whispered, leaning close so she would be the only one to hear him. "Look at her side."
When Sophia glanced down from the woman's face she saw the slick blood, washed black from the moonlight, covering her shirt. The clothes hid the wound so they didn't know if it was a bite or not.
"Have you been bitten?" Sophia asked as she pulled the knife back out and held it tightly at her side.
"No. I was shot. Just grazed really." She grimaced as she covered her side once more.
"Let me look." Beth said suddenly, kneeling down next to the woman like she had known her all her life.
"Beth, wait." Randal put a hand on her shoulder but she shrugged it off.
"I've seen daddy take care of enough animals to know what I'm lookin' for." She said as she gently moved the woman's hand away from her wound. "My name's Beth." She smiled slightly as the woman kept her eyes on her face.
"Michonne." The woman said.
"Who in the world would want to shoot you, Michonne?" Sophia asked as Beth examined the long rugged tear in the woman's side.
"Some men from a town not too far from here. You kids best steer clear of it. It isn't nothing like what it seems." She winced.
"Sorry." Beth mumbled.
"We know the town. Our people are there now." Duane said angrily.
"Son of a bitch." Sophia cursed from between clenched teeth. She knew it was bad. She knew that it was really bad. But to have all their fears confirmed made things real in a different way. This was proof that if they didn't do something soon they were all dead. But not all hope was lost. They could bring the guns back, Merle and Daryl would come up with a way to get out of this mess and then everything would be fine. She just couldn't stop her mind from wondering, who were they going to lose in the process?
Yes. I brought in one last member. She doesn't have a huge part but she serves a purpose. Her being shot causes a bit of conflict back at Woodbury. I was going to make it just some random stranger found in the woods but decided to have a familiar face make an appearance! XD