Ladies and gentlemen, we are back! As I am ever wrangling with my schoolwork, I can't guarantee how fast updates will come these next few weeks, but I will do my best. Also, I have some exciting news. When this story, and my second WIP Atonement (Boondock Saints fandom if any of you are interested, go check it out! Ok, shameless plugging over) are finished, I'm going to be shifting into a new fandom with another multi-chaptered story. Won't say too much more than that, but I'm super excited for it, and I've already done most of the plot's construction and have started writing bits and pieces. Can't wait to bring that to you, but first, what I've got going must be finished. I've discovered I work best on just one story at a time. Hope you guys enjoy this next offering, right before the premiere of the new episode.
Someone tripped and fell, hitting the dirt like a sack of bricks. Daryl twisted to see that it was Maggie who had fallen, her entire frame shaking just like a leaf in a hurricane. Glenn was already at her side, and Carl hurried too, helping to pick her up.
"Come on! We can't stop!" Rick ordered.
"We can't keep on like this!" Maggie's voice was a strangled cry of desperation. She didn't even bother trying to wipe the grit and leaves away from where she'd fallen.
"They're coming!" Michonne warned, unsheathing her katana in response to the approaching Walkers.
"If we don't keep moving, they'll tear us to pieces!" Carl panted. He took out his machete and hacked a skull open that was just a few feet from closing in on the loose circle of the group. Just as that Walker fell, Michonne swung her sword and sent another head flying like a bowling ball down a slick lane.
"Move!" Rick snarled.
They took off again, going at a fast lope, struggling to keep ahead of the herd. They had thought they had lost them at the river but somewhere between keeping vigil over Benjamin and watching his flesh burn into soft, sandy ash, they had found them. They'd found some place shallow to cross, or just staggered over each other one after another, shoving and kicking, thrashing through the water and up the bank. Every member of the group had taken a fistful of the ash and thrown it into the slow moving river, all except for Ivy, who kept hers in a plastic bag that she stowed in her pack. Then they ran, and they hadn't stopped since.
"Maggie's right, we can't stay like this forever, we have to find some place to hole up," Glenn panted.
"That place ain't here," Daryl muttered. He readjusted his crossbow and picked up his feet, sweeping his eyes over the group, keeping a watch over everyone until his gaze settled on Fox.
She kept pace at his side, muttering some kind of mantra to herself. Her arms pumped at her sides as she churned her feet over the uneven forest floor, and after a little while, Daryl realized she was reciting some of her own lyrics to herself in the same cadence and rhythm of the pulsing of her feet. He was about to ask her which song it was when yet more Walkers began to filter through the trees ahead of them, blocking their path.
"I am so not in the mood for this," she snarled. She took both her kukri knives out and spun them in her fingers before charging forward. She'd lopped off two heads while Daryl speared a third with his bow right beside her.
"You and me both," he grunted as he yanked his arrow free of the skull and reloaded it. Beside him Rick had his machete pulled loose and used it handily on an incoming Walker with half of it's ribs already ripped out from its side.
Ivy had a slender stiletto knife in her hand, the textured grip allowing her better purchase as she swung and stabbed at her enemies. Even from this distance, Fox could understand the usefulness of the tool- the narrow blade offered less resistance sliding in and out of flesh and bone, and Ivy's strikes were not blind. Her blows were calculated to require the least amount of effort to hit the brain as possible, through the eye, the nose, or the ear. She moved with vicious grace and strength, killing one and hardly even breathing before she began to hunt the next.
The group cut their way through the group in their path and redoubled their pace, running almost flat out. Rick was in the lead, his long legs eating up the ground and Daryl wasn't far behind, sweat slicking his face and neck even as he knew the sun was beginning to set. He picked up the pace a little to get to Rick's side.
"It's gonna get dark soon. We need to find somewhere to dig in. Otherwise these bastards will pick us off," Daryl warned.
"If we can find the highway, we stand a better chance," Rick huffed as his feet churned. His gaze continuously flickered towards his son who was running with the rest of them just a little ways ahead. Then he switched around and dared a glance over his shoulder. In the greying twilight they could see a staggering horde not far behind them.
"Ivy, we need your map! We have to find some place to stop," Rick panted.
The Russian barely paid him any mind. Her legs were moving in a steady rhythm, her silver hair streaming out behind her as her speed picked up. She was slowly pulling away from them as if she could literally outrun all the pain that they had endured beside the river. She was carrying possibly one of the heaviest bags but still she moved with fleet footed grace of a deer through the trees, and Daryl could tell that she had indeed spent a lot of time living on her own, depending on no one, scavenging and surviving on her own with no hope of help if something went wrong. Watching her move through the trees like a ghost, he wondered if all those years ago when he'd first met the group that's how he looked to them too, dangerous and wild, practically feral.
When Ivy didn't respond to Rick's voice, Fox picked up the pace and caught Ivy by the shoulder. Blindly the Russian struck back, the heel of her undamaged hand slamming Fox in the shoulder that had been scarred by wolves all those years ago. Fox almost buckled under the blow but rebounded with a fist right under Ivy's jaw. The force of the blow sent Ivy reeling back and now Fox pounced, landing on her and with strength born of fury and pain, wrestled the Russian into submission.
"Ivy get a hold of yourself!" Fox barked. "We need your help!"
"Help yourselves! I never asked for this!" She wrestled underneath Fox's grip, trying to dislodge her but Fox was not swayed. She managed to wrangle her arms free of her bag and the two of them tumbled like pissed off badgers, scrambling at each other until finally Fox pinned Ivy against a tree with an arm on her throat.
"Benjamin died to give you a chance with us! Don't spit on his grave now!" Fox snarled. "Pull yourself together!"
Jade irises met emerald and while Ivy stared up at Fox with a venomous glare, Michonne watched the scene closely. The expression in Fox's eyes was caught somewhere between rage and pain, and Michonne sensed that as much as Ivy was literally trying to run away, this was Fox's attempt to shove away the pain of losing Benjamin. It made Michonne wondered what had happened to her to make it so difficult to internalize emotion and instead respond with such outward aggression. She glanced towards Daryl to gauge his reaction to the unfolding scene. He was watching his mate closely but didn't look like he had any intention of trying to stop her. At last her eyes settled onto Rick. Familiarity passed through his eyes, but not as if he'd just seen this before. As if he'd done this before.
"There is nothing left for me now, just feed me to those bastards and let it be over!"
Ivy howled miserably and thrashed underneath Fox, trying to dislodge her grip, but Fox wouldn't let go. It wasn't just the press for time that made Michonne move. It was an intense realization that swept a strange wave of calm over her. She marched forward and snatched Fox by the wrist and yanked her arm away from Ivy, allowing the Russian to slip out from under her and stagger away.
"What the hell?" Fox demanded as she yanked her grip away from Michonne.
"If she wants to die, let her. It's her choice." Michonne's voice was quiet but was built on the firm bedrock of truth.
"We don't have time for this! Ivy, do this last thing for us and give us your map. We need it!" Rick panted. The herd was getting closer again, staggering with their relentless purposefulness, their slavering mouths gnashing hungrily.
Ivy jerked away from all of them. "Take it. Take everything I have." She took the map marked with her caches out from her vest and flung it at Rick. She also slung her pack into the ground and Michonne quickly snatched it up. Ivy watched all their movements with quick, careful precision. "I do not wish you ill," she said. "Go."
Daryl was hard pressed to leave. He'd been pushed to the brink a few times in his life, but opting out had never been an option for him. If his blood kin had ever done anything to help him, it was to break him so thoroughly themselves that the world never could throw anything at him as bad as what they had done. So when the shit had hit the fan, it was just another day in the life of a Dixon, but Daryl understood why some people just couldn't carry on. He'd once harbored disgust for those weak enough to give up; after learning how much he really did have to lose, he could understand how peaceful an escape from all that pain could be. He didn't want to turn away and abandon someone to that bleak end, it went against every fiber of his being, but when his family turned, he followed.
They didn't hear a scream or the wet howls of someone being torn apart. All they could hear was the scuffling of their feet through the leaf litter as they ran for their lives. Rick tossed Fox the map and even while she ran she managed to unfold it. Eventually she found them a route through the trees that led them back onto the highway after they hacked their way through a heavy blanket of thorny underbrush. When they climbed the hill to get to the pavement, they spilled out onto the asphalt, their chests squeezing with pain as they fought to catch their breath. The last rays of the sunlight began to sink below the tree line, flaring with brilliant gold, striking a fierce contrast against the iron grey of the clouds that lingered in the sky. As Daryl sucked down breath after breath he could taste the promise of impending rain.
As soon as she could move her legs again Fox laid the map out on the ground and began to search for their current location, and a place for them to hide for the night. As she folded the map and tucked it away, Rick turned towards her.
"The only place is a farm about ten miles from here. It's a straight shot from the highway. Everything else is even further."
Frustration poured through Rick's muscles as he braced himself on the side of a long rusted through car. He sucked down a deep breath to quiet the impending rage before he twisted around and nodded.
"Come on. If we don't keep moving, they'll find us."
One by one the group picked up their feet and followed. They could no longer run, there was too much pain and too little strength to go at a pace much faster than a walk, and even that was taking every ounce of energy they had left. Daryl stayed at the back of the pack, keeping a watch over the surrounding landscape while Rick was at the front and everyone else was huddled in the middle. The sun completely set and eventually the moon rose, casting the world in a hazy silver shadow as it peaked through the heavy cloud cover. The temperature dipped, losing the heat of the day and becoming wonderfully cool. It helped to keep the group moving, but Daryl knew that as soon as the rain began to fall they would be miserable.
He watched Fox walking beside him. Her scarred face was turned towards him, her eyes switching from watching the road ahead of her to watching her feet as she shoved one leg in front of the other. He could see the pain and exhaustion written all over her face. He wasn't fairing much better. He was sure he had blisters on his feet that were bleeding by now, and every step made a sharp jag of pain burst through him. The only thing it was good for was keeping him awake. He turned and looked at Fox and his heart was twisted.
She was as ragged as he'd probably ever seen her. She was barely a shell of the woman she'd been before they'd left the mountains. Her jaw nearly trembled with every breath she took, her whole body nearly quivering with every footstep.
"Hey, you ok?" he asked, his voice a rasp as he got Fox's attention.
She turned to him, the ruined portion of her mouth twitching weakly. "Oh I'm great," she huffed sarcastically. "Pretty sure I could go another twelve rounds."
Had they been alone he'd have worked through her sarcasm and flipped the switch so she'd drop her guard. Daryl didn't often have the patience to nurse people, but when it came to her, he always would, if she needed him. And he knew she needed him, but the world had ripped the opportunity away for him to tend her and soothe her fears and her pain in this moment. So for now he'd play along and follow her lead, just to let her know he was there if she needed him. He snickered at her comment. "Sure. And I could sprout wings and fly us all to Atlanta and be done with this shit by now."
Fox smiled at him, more sincerity in her face this time. "Good to see that even in hell you haven't lost your sense of humor."
He was about to respond when all of a sudden she tumbled to the ground. She hit the asphalt hard, banging her chin on the ground as her limbs flailed and her pack thudded with a harsh scrape. Exhaustion dulled his reflexes, preventing him from being able to catch her in time.
"I'm ok!" she called as the group turned around to see what the commotion was about. Her expression was strained playfulness, exhaustion biting through the jibe. "I'm just testing the gravity. It still works."
She struggled to pick herself up and now Daryl dropped down into a crouch and helped to set her on her feet. She leaned against him for a second and inhaled his smell deep into her lungs the way she used to do with cigarette smoke. His flesh was warm and somehow he had the strength to steady her as she leaned on him.
"Need me to carry you?" he asked quietly.
Maybe it was the exhaustion blunting her normally intelligent brainpower, but it warmed the chilly depths deep in the pit of her chest that he would offer. Maybe because she knew he was dead serious, despite how tired he himself already was. She shook her head slowly, reluctantly forcing herself to stand on her own two feet while she picked up her pack and forced herself to heft it onto her back again. "I doubt you could carry a possum, let alone me."
"You carried me once," he reminded her as they resumed moving, following the group who had briefly slowed down to let them catch up.
"Well dragged was more like." She flashed him another weak smile. "Something's gonna give soon. I just don't know what."
"What hasn't given on this highway to fucking hell?" Glenn piped up. "How is it we can go from people with regular jobs, to surviving the end of the world, to having our asses handed to us every other day after twenty years of living without electricity or any of that other stuff we used think was essential? We did it before, in the first year of the outbreak, why are we having such a hard time now?"
"Because you all were holed up away from any sort of human population," Michonne said darkly. "You weren't exposed to how desperate it was. You were lucky. You have people in your group who know how to live off the land and survive long term without technological help. You don't really know how rare of a skill being able to farm and hunt wild game is."
Rick watched her closely and she shrugged a bit. "If people weren't bitten in the first year, most of them probably died of starvation within the first five. Because after that, there were no more supplies. All the stores were looted, and anything that wasn't had spoiled by that point. There was nothing left anywhere."
"So how did you survive?" Maggie asked softly.
Michonne shrugged again and didn't answer. Fox watched her walk for a while before entwining her fingers with Daryl's and squeezed gently. "Thanks for not letting us starve," she breathed.
He looked down at her with a raised eyebrow. "Are you kidding? All you city slickers whining for food woulda brought every Walker in Georgia right to camp. That's why I went to hunt. To shut them up and get away from the bitching." But he could only hold the seriousness for a second before he cracked and grinned. She smiled back, forcing herself to do so despite the wave of pain that rippled through her. They had lost someone they'd loved, they'd lost someone who they'd been asked to protect, but if they didn't go on, they'd lose everything they had left.
"I love you," Fox whispered as she squeezed Daryl's hand harder. "Don't ever forget that."
He gripped her back just as tightly, almost hard enough to hurt. He looked at her as he answered, no smile on his mouth, but conviction and truth in his eyes.
"I love you too."
They were hurting, but they had something to fight for. It was that and nothing else that kept them moving that night. Weak voiced conversation helped to keep them awake for a while as the moon climbed higher and the darkness at the fringes of their path deepened. When they took the turn off from the highway onto an uphill unpaved road that according to the map in Fox's hand would lead them to the farmhouse they were searching for, Rick tripped up and hit the dirt hard. Michonne quickly dropped to a crouch and squeezed Rick by the upper arm and helped him back on his feet.
"Almost there," Michonne reminded him. Rick could only nod his haggard head. He gingerly put weight on his feet and winced. Like the rest, Daryl suspected his feet were bleeding too, or very near to it.
"We'll toughen up quick enough," Daryl said when Rick was struggling to shake off the pain and keep walking. "Remember all the shit we used to do when this first started?"
Rick nodded his head and wiped the dust off his face. He was about to reply when they heard the softest rustle from up ahead. Michonne tensed quickly, staring off into the darkness, her hand reached back towards her sword. Carl's hand fell onto his gun and Daryl shifted his crossbow. Heartbeats pulsed quick and hard behind ribcages as the pain from sore muscles went from knife sharp to dull as adrenaline worked through the aching fibers.
Faster than any of their exhausted frames could react, five horses charged out of the darkness, legs kicking up wildly as their riders yanked their reins. Rick was withdrawing his python to take aim but one of the horses barreled into him, throwing him hard to the ground. Another rider twisted his mount around and before Daryl could squeeze the trigger on the bow, the rider used his foot to kick the bow aside. A hand reached down and pistol-whipped Daryl so hard over the head he collapsed into a pile of dusty limbs.
Gunshots rang out as the other riders opened fired. Rick managed to squeeze off a shot with his python before everyone was forced to scatter. All except for Fox, who rolled out of the way and unsheathed one of her throwing knives. She launched it with a shrieking battle cry, flinging the blade so hard it imbedded itself into the shoulder of one of the riders. The man screamed and the horse reared, it's piercing cry rattling all their brains.
"Get out of here, go!" one of the riders called to his wounded companion. The horse took off running and Fox flung another knife even as she was running to try and get to Daryl but the other riders blocked her path. She was reaching for her gun when one of the riders dismounted and hauled Daryl's unconscious body upright and held a knife to his throat.
"Ah, don't shoot. You shoot, and he dies," was the warning.
"What do you want?" Fox snarled. She could feel the presence of her family behind her but didn't dare turn to see what they were doing. Blood was leaking from a wound at Daryl's temple, trailing down his face with slow, steady persistence. The thin shafts of moonlight turned the color from scarlet to black. Fox swallowed, trying hard to fight all the fear that threatened to work its way onto her face.
"You thought you got out of the city without a scratch? You think you can just kill our boys and get away with it! You want your man back alive? Bring us everything you've got. Every gun, every bullet, every map. Bring them to us!" He yanked on Daryl's body, pulling him back, pressing the knife deeper into his neck. The blade bit flesh and a fresh trickle of blood spilled free.
"Let him go! Let him go or I'll blow your fucking brains all over this road," Rick snarled. Rage lit up his eyes like a hell-hound's. Fox was right at his shoulder, her chest heaving for air. Rick kept his python leveled, his hand completely steady, finger lightly hooked over the trigger, ready to squeeze.
The man snickered a bit. "Oh really? Whose hands can move faster? You've run yourself ragged for the past two days, on the road with no steady food or water, baking in the sun, dodging deadheads constantly. Go ahead, try and shoot me. See if I don't jerk your friend in front of the bullet."
At that moment the sound of multiple guns being cocked clicked through their ears. All their eyes swiveled to the remaining mounted men, noting the various guns aimed at all their heads. Fury roared through Fox's skull, making it so hard to think. Her vision ran red and she dared to take a step forward.
"Give him to me. Or I swear, I'll gut you and leave you for Walker bait."
The man chuckled. "Oh I don't think so, sweetheart. I can cut faster than you can throw." His eyes narrowed and shifted up towards where Rick was standing. "Farmhouse. You've got two hours to make up your mind. You show up with your bags, you'll get your man back. If not, well, there's never a deadhead herd far away to clean up the scraps."
His friends scattered, one of them lassoing Daryl and cinching the rope tight around his waist before spurning his horse, dragging Daryl's unconscious body behind him, deep into the darkness. The sound of hooves beating dry earth faded and was replaced with Fox's shriek of rage. There weren't even words, just strangled sounds of unadulterated fury.
She stormed ahead along the road until Rick lunged and grabbed her by the upper to stop her advancement. She whipped around and cracked him in the jaw with her fist, sending Rick reeling and she did her best to struggle away but her feet tangled and she took Rick down with her, collapsing into a pile of twisted limbs and hair. She screeched as Rick tried to wrestle her into submission.
"Let me go!" She howled with ferocity; Glenn and Carl pounced to help Rick restrain her to prevent her from charging up the road to the farmhouse half a mile away.
"Fox we're never going to get him back like this!" Glenn was huffing with the effort it took to restrain her. Carl had caught a hold of her flailing legs and Glenn had her arms pinned behind her back. She bucked and strained, throwing her head back hard, trying to crack Glenn in the face, but Rick's hand shot forward like a cobra and grabbed her by the chin.
"Fox, enough!" Authority rang through every syllable, so much that she stilled. She tried to jerk her face free but Rick wouldn't let go. He pulled her jaw to force her to look into his eyes.
"Listen to me. We will get him back. You think I'd leave him there?" That edge of power curbed his words, but beneath it there was softness. A plea for her to listen.
"How?" Her eyes were all but insane, glowing like a feral animal's as her chest heaved with exaggerated movements. She twitched and Glenn clenched his grip on her ever tighter. Despite his injury and exhaustion, he had the strength to hold her back, at least for the moment.
"I don't know. But we will. Fox, I swear on my life, we will not leave this place until we have Daryl." He crouched down and loosened his grip on her jaw. He glanced at Glenn and at Carl who still had a hold on her. "If they let you go, do you promise just to listen?"
"Anything you have to say, say it in front of them!" she snarled.
"Fine." He blinked his eyes and a muscle in his jaw twitched hard. "Daryl is like my own brother now. He's the man Shane pretended to be, maybe could have been, if greed and power hadn't gone to his head and destroyed him. When you were taken all those years ago, he wanted to go charging into a blizzard to run you down. I held him back at the risk of his fury in order to keep him safe and to give us the best shot to rescue you. I would have gone with him to death just to rescue you." His voice lowered and his hand dropped from her jaw and landed on her shoulder. Long fingers squeezed firmly, "You think I wouldn't do the same for him, and for you now?"
"You won't give our guns away!" she hissed.
He shook his head. "I don't intend to. We'll find another way to get him back without making a trade. We don't trade with cowards like them." He nodded to Glenn and Carl who slowly released her. She got up to her feet and yanked her shirt back into place and readjusted the belt that held her knives.
"She has a point though, how are we going to get him back?" Maggie asked. "We don't know the layout or how many of them there are or where they're hiding in the house, or where they're holding Daryl. For all we know if we storm the house we could be walking into a death trap."
"I can get in and out," Michonne said quietly. "I've been doing it for years."
"We have to calm down and figure this out. We have to scope out the house, see what the entrances and exists look like, figure out how many people are there, find out exactly what to do so no more of our people end up hurt or even killed." Rick's voice was strained as he could see that his words were bouncing off Fox as though he hadn't even said a word.
"We don't have time for this!" Fox snarled. She grabbed at the bag that she had dropped in the scuffle, Ivy's bag, and yanked out one of the semi-automatics that the Russian had loaded up with before they'd left her cache by the river. Fox began to storm up the road, charging blindly into the shadows, and now that she had a gun, even Michonne looked wary of chasing after her.
"I'll get her," Rick panted. He knew as well as the rest of them that there was a slim chance she was going to listen to anybody, but if she was going to listen to someone, it would be him. Rick picked up his feet and jogged after her following her long enough to give them breathing room to talk alone before he reached down and yanked the gun out of her hands. He tossed it behind him and was about to open his mouth to speak when Fox spun and took a swing at him, her fist flying in an attempt to crack the other side of his jaw. He ducked and skittered back rapidly to avoid the blow, holding out his hands in surrender.
"Dahlia, listen to me!"
A resounding slap cut through the air. "You never!" she spat on the ground at his feet as Rick reeled from her open palmed blow to his cheek. "You never call me by my name! Never! That's his name for me! His and nobody else's!"
"Ok, ok!" Rick huffed, still rubbing his smarting cheek. "Ok, I'm sorry, but please, listen to me!"
"Listen to what?" she snarled. "He's been taken by those bastards and I'm going to…"
"Going to what?" Rick hissed right back, cutting her off. "Charge right in there and get your head blown off in front of him? Break his heart, destroy Luna once we find her? Render us without one of our best fighters?"
"I'm going to rip them limb from limb!" she growled. Her green eyes glowed with murder and Rick saw a flash of the monster that lurked inside her that he had used only once to his benefit. He had no doubt that before the sun rose he'd see that monster in the flesh again.
"Fine. I'll not deny you that," he started but she cut him off. She flashed a hand around his wrist and squeezed so hard pain throbbed through his very bones.
"You don't have the power to deny me that!" she hissed. "You forget, Rick, that I don't listen to anybody but myself when it comes down to do or die."
"You're afraid!" Rick gasped as he tried to work his wrist out of her fingers but she wouldn't let go. "You're afraid you're going to lose him, I understand, but Fox, you can't, you can't let it take you over like this. We're gonna get Daryl back, but not like this. We have to be careful or you're going to lose everything else you have!" His voice dropped into a whispered plea. "Please, Fox. Daryl wouldn't want this. We have some time to figure this out. So come back and we'll figure a way to rescue him, I swear."
She let go of his wrist, withdrawing her hand and flexing her fingers before letting them caress the handle of her kukri blade. "I've killed before. I always suspected I would have to do so again." She chuckled softly. "How fate is ironically cruel to us. To think, that all of us in the Before were tame, and yet the end brings out the strongest parts of us."
Rick huffed through the remaining pain in his wrist before he shook his head at her. "You were never tame."
"Neither were you."
Daryl slowly came too, blinking his eyes as his head swam with pain. He shifted his arms and immediately felt the coarse binding of rope. When he continued pulling he heard the metallic dragging of a very heavy chain. He twisted as much as he could and saw that he was tied up and chained to a metal post that was cemented into the floor, a fixture of an ornate fireplace.
"I wasn't expecting you to be awake so quickly. But then again, you look like you've taken a few blows to the head before."
Daryl turned to face the voice. It was coming from a man around Merle's age, scars riddling his lips and face and buzzed head. Well-beaten clothes hung onto his burly frame, a pistol was swinging from his belt near his hip. A smattering of blood decorated the butt of the handle.
"The fuck do you want from me?" He was just about to say us but he didn't want to give any information away whatsoever. These men had no way of knowing whether his group had been together for a long time or if they were new travelers and would abandon each other at a sign of danger.
"Oh we already got what we want from you." The man shifted and presented Daryl with his crossbow, still strung, spinning it lightly in the palm of his hand against the floor like a walking stick, the tip of the arrow grinding into the wooden floor at his feet. "And this," he added when he withdrew another pistol, the same one Daryl had formerly had tucked into the back of his jeans.
"So lemme go then," Daryl snarled.
The man snorted. "I guess with an accent like that I shouldn't have expected much intelligence. You're with a group, moron. We want their supplies too. That's why you're still alive."
Daryl huffed with irritation but he didn't reply. The less he said the better. He glanced around the room and saw six other men, one of them nursing a bad wound to the shoulder, surrounded him. The injured man still had a knife imbedded in his shoulder.
The man holding his bow followed his line of sight. "Vicious that one," he said with a tilt of his head. He narrowed his eyes as he swiveled his head to face Daryl again. "She's yours, isn't she?"
When Daryl didn't answer he chuckled. "Of course she is. I had just dropped you like a sack of horse-shit and she screams like a cat getting a bath and tries to fling a knife."
"Actually tried isn't the word, Sampson," the man with the knife in his shoulder grunted from the corner. Another man was slowly trying to work the blade out of his shoulder but the process appeared slow going.
"No, tried is the word. She was trying to kill you. She missed."
"It won't happen again," Daryl growled low and deep in his throat. "We've dealt with a lot worse than you, and believe me, you wanna just give this up now. It won't end well for you."
Sampson snickered and twirled Daryl's bow again. "Oh don't try that. We know all about you. You just lost your medic, you've been running ragged for weeks, and just judging by the look of you, you're down to eating the laces on your boots. Certainly smell like it. So don't think that you can talk shit and scare us. We're not stupid."
Daryl shrugged. "Your funeral. We're a decent group unlike you yellow bellied cowards so let me go now and we won't come after you."
Sampson advanced on Daryl, stopping when he was less than two inches from standing on top of him and crouched down, getting right into Daryl's face. "And what will your pathetic little group do if I don't?"
"The scarred one will gut you like a fish for starters. Probably string you up from the ceiling and leave you alive long enough for the Walkers to start ripping your guts out. You have no idea what you're messing with."
Sampson snickered. "Uh huh. Good luck with that. Gruesome though that image may be, I highly doubt it. There's seven of us, we have the property under full lock down, and there's no way they'd get inside here without a firefight, in which they, and she especially, would lose." He leaned right into Daryl's ear and Daryl could feel his greasy grin as he hissed, "And you know what? I hope she comes. Even with her mangled face, she's hot, and I wouldn't mind taking her on her knees a couple times before we feed her and the rest of your little group piece by piece to the deadheads."
Daryl lunged, using his forehead to slam into Sampson's face. A spattered howl of pain ricocheted around the room as six guns clicked and pointed straight at Daryl while Sampson staggered back, blood now pouring from his broken nose.
"You touch her, and I'll split your skull! I've done it before!" Daryl snarled.
Sampson's face hardened and he didn't even bother wiping the blood off his face before he grabbed Daryl's discarded buck knife, which had been sitting on the armchair that he had been previously occupying. He grabbed a fistful of Daryl's hair and yanked his head back, tracing the tip of the blade at the scabbed over cut near his temple. The cold sharpness pierced through Daryl like the blade itself though it hadn't broken skin yet. He struggled to slow the rapid pounding of his heart. He damn sure wasn't about to let this asshole think he was afraid.
"I think I should give you and your little girlfriend a matching set of scars. Then everybody would know at first glance she's yours, and just what to do to make you do something so stupid you're going to get yourself killed for it one day."
Daryl struggled as much as his bonds would allow but Sampson had a very tight hold on his hair and because of his hands being tied behind his back it didn't allow for much movement. He was about to try and get his legs under him in some manner when the glass windows of the farmhouse shattered. Bullets sprayed and men yelled as dust and debris exploded in midair. A rumbling crash sounded from upstairs and Sampson rolled away from Daryl who was desperately shrinking back against the fireplace, trying to avoid the spray of bullets.
Through the two side windows and the front door marched in his family, all of them armed with semi-automatics and apparently a full payload to burn. Maggie and Glenn were together on his left, shooting madly.
"Everybody down!" Glenn shouted. When the room of enemies remained frozen, Maggie squeezed off another six or seven shots.
"Get down, now!" she snarled. They dropped to their knees and then Rick and Carl emerged through the front door. They both perused the room, snatching up their enemies' guns and knocking any man who wasn't already face down to the floor with a rough strike. From the window on his right Daryl watched as Fox slid through, one kukri blade in hand, the other holding her gun. She didn't wait for an answer or for a command, as soon as she came inside, she aimed her pistol and shot. At point blank range she executed the men that she could see, spilling blood and brains all over the floors and walls. Daryl watched as she moved from man to man, shooting with poised accuracy, an expression on her face like a wolf whose finally had a taste of sweet blood after a very long hunt. She was beautiful, deadly, almost terrible to behold, but Daryl couldn't help but feel his heart squeeze with a certain aspect of pride. She was certainly his; the only one who would ever match him and his desperate protectiveness and justice for the ones he loved.
As soon as the men were dead she sheathed her gun and crossed the room, crouching near Daryl while Maggie, Rick, Glenn, and Carl began to sweep the house and the outside property. She set her larger blade aside and unsheathed her kukri blade.
"Miss me?" she asked as she sliced him free.
"Think you missed me more," he commented. She cut his bonds but the chain that had him bolted to the floor obviously wouldn't give under the blade.
"Know where the key is?" she asked.
He shook his head. "No. Maybe one of them has it," he panted as he tried his best to slip his wrists through the chains but there was no way he was going to get loose unless he sacrificed both his hands.
She was just about to get up and inspect the bodies when a mad cry sounded just behind her. Daryl tried to call a warning but by the time the shout left his mouth Sampson had lunged from behind the hall corner and wrangled his arms around Fox, tugging her back into his chest, sending them sprawling. She fumbled for her knife as he did the same and due to his longer reach and stronger hands, he yanked it clean from her fingers. She tried her hardest to get out of his grip but he flung his legs over her hips and flicked the knife against her throat.
"Gotcha!" Sampson huffed, his yellowed teeth all but biting her earlobe. "You, you killed my men, but I'll have you scream before I'm done with you. And then I'll make your man watch while I gut you!"
He tore at Fox's shirt while Daryl yelled at the top of his lungs. He didn't know where his family had gone but if he didn't bring them back everything he had worked so hard for was going to be destroyed. Fox screeched, flinging her limbs, trying everything she could to break free but Sampson had the size and weight advantage as well as the knife, and he managed to twist Fox onto her stomach and hold her down. The knife sliced her shirt up the back to expose her skin while Daryl watched with a combined flood of rage and horror. Fox tried to get her arms out from under her stomach while Sampson leaned over her and pinned her head down to the floor with one hand. He was reaching for his belt with the other when he suddenly looked up, his eyes going cross, before collapsing into a limp heap on top of Fox.
"Get off her you despicable maggot of a man!"
"Ivy!" Daryl gasped as he recognized the mane of silver hair. In her hands was a heavy-duty ashtray that was now tinged with blood. Ivy lunged down and snared Sampson by the back of the shirt and heaved him off of Fox as he groaned with pain. Immediately she was on her feet and snatching up the knife. Ivy nodded to her once, her face smeared with blood, her silver hair blowing around her face as she recovered her breath.
"I bet Daryl warned you what I would do," Fox hissed as she stood over Sampson's slowly twitching body as he tried to shake off the daze of Ivy's blow to the head. "And at first I was going to just settle for shooting you in the head, but now…now I really will gut you." And with that she plunged the knife deep into his abdomen. His scream ricocheted around Daryl's skull, earsplitting and blood curdling. Daryl knew that as long as he lived that sound would stalk the darkest corners of his dreams, forever haunting him. Fox twisted the knife and tore it from side to side through his flesh back and forth before yanking the blade free as Sampson's howls turned to gurgling bubbles of bloody breath. She flicked the knife sharply, spattering blood and little pieces of guts on the wooden floor before wiping it on Sampson's shirt. Ivy had already turned away from the still living corpse and crouched down next to Daryl. She had a bobby pin and a slender nail file in her hand and immediately Daryl leaned forward so she could go to work on breaking the lock.
"Do you always carry a poor man's lock pick with you?" he panted, trying to fight off the urge to gag from the overwhelming smell of blood pouring into the room even as Sampson whimpered and moaned, twitching in a pool of his own guts.
"Never know when you'll need one," was her reply. Just then the lock clicked and she pried it off the chain, setting Daryl loose. Fox turned and helped him to his feet before nuzzling his throat and neck, huffing with relief.
"Come on, we have to go," she murmured. "The herd followed us here."
Daryl nodded slowly but when he pulled away he looked down at him. "You're gonna leave him?" he asked.
Fox shrugged. "He'd of left you." She pulled him by the hand. Ivy was already halfway down the hall towards the back door. By the time Fox and Daryl caught up, Rick was running to meet them.
"Come on, the herd's headed this way. There are horses in the barn out back. Maggie's getting them saddled, there's enough for all of us. Can you ride?" he asked looking at Ivy and Fox pointedly already knowing Daryl was capable.
"It's been a while but I'll manage," Fox said. Ivy nodded and they all took off for the barn.
"Come on, they're coming!" Michonne urged as she swung up onto a cinnamon colored horse that was shying at the sight of the newcomers.
Maggie led another horse out of its stall, a grey female with a black mane if Daryl could tell just by a glance. This one she passed to Ivy, who had to use one of the step stools to get her foot into the saddle and swing up onto the horse's back. By then Daryl was following Maggie into another stall to give her a hand.
"Nice work back there," he commented as he hefted a saddle onto another horse's back while Maggie worked the bit and bridle between the animal's teeth and over it's head.
"Learned a bit from you after all," she responded with a smile as she adjusted the straps and buckles of the bridle. "This one's for you, he's the right size."
Daryl's eyebrows twitched. "How closely you been starin' at me to know that?"
Maggie just smiled and hurried into the next stall. Daryl led the horse out into the main hall of the barn and watched as Fox knelt down to rummage through her bag. Her shirt was almost falling off thanks to the slices from her bowie knife, but before she could replace it, Daryl could see what their life of running for their lives had reduced her to. She was thinner than he had ever known her to be; when her arms stretched taught, he could count the outline of her ribs, and he could see the curvature of her spine nudging her skin. He hadn't seen her this thin even when they'd first met all those years ago at the beginning of the outbreak. The stress was wearing on her.
She yanked a new shirt on and left the ruined one on the barn floor. Daryl boosted her up into the saddle and then double-checked to make sure everyone else was mounted and the door to the barn was open. He hefted himself onto his horse's back and Rick took the lead, spurring his horse with a strong nudge to its flank.
"They're here!" Carl warned as he tugged on his horse's reins to turn it to follow the group. And sure enough, the herd that had been relentlessly following them was beginning to crawl across the property. Faintly, but distinctly, they could hear bone shattering screaming coming from the house.
"Let's go!" Rick growled.
They kicked their horses into high gear and pelted away from the herd, struggling to find their bearings in the saddle, but after they put a good three or four miles quick distance between themselves and the farmhouse they slowed down into a walk, Ivy guiding them onto a stretch of much more deserted road than the highway was likely to be.
"How did you make it through?" Rick asked the Russian as her horse walked along side his.
"Yeah, how did you all of a sudden just show up like that?" Daryl demanded from just a little ways behind her.
Ivy dared to smirk a bit. "I've been doing this for almost twenty years. You think I don't know how to manage a herd on my own?" She tipped her head to the side. "Although, I have say, not having a gun made it harder."
"Why did you come back?" Michonne asked in a softer voice.
Ivy nodded towards Fox slowly. "She was right." She sighed quietly, her jade eyes glistening in the watery moonlight. "Benjy asked me to help you. So I will. I will not desert you again. You have my word."
"How did you know where we'd go? Or that we'd be in danger?" Carl questioned. Suspicion curled through every syllable and Daryl could appreciate that even now.
She shrugged loosely. "I knew you'd head for the highway, and from there, there was only one logical place to go to seek shelter from the herd. I knew that the gang in Topeka had scouts in this area, they've used that farmhouse as a camp before but when I had last checked it was abandoned, so they must have moved back in recently."
"Anymore of them we need to know about?" Glenn growled, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"They won't go far from the river. Especially now that their numbers were slashed. Besides, the herd will cut them off."
"And us too if we don't hurry," Michonne warned.
"They'll cut us off in the end, no matter how quick we run. But let's see if we can't beat them at their own game for tonight." Her hair all but glowed in the moonlight as she nudged her horse to the front and they all picked up the pace again, following her lead deep into the darkness.
Emberka-2012:Well, now the Luna knows the answer to her question. Mal support her. And no matter how much she may deny it, her pulls toward him. Daryl definitely will want Mal's blood.
Mal does support her, at least as far as he can read her. He knows she wants out, and for now, he's willing to help, but she'll test him, that is for certain. And she does feel a connection to him. She is intrigued by the fact that he's not afraid of her like everyone else is, it's driving her crazy but she can't predict him. And yes of course, Daryl is not about to let anybody get away with touching Luna, be it friendly or otherwise xD
Brittney: Incredible! Probably my favourite chapter to date. Luna is one tough character and I like that she and Mal are getting close. I'm definately patient enough to stick with this story through the breaks while you continue your studies!
Luna is a tough cookie for certain, she is her parents' daughter after all. The dance she weaves with Mal is so much fun to write so I'm glad my readers are enjoying it too =)
NIGHTSCREAM: Oh just found the sequel! I love that you're taking this world and looking beyond where the comic currently is. After all 18-20 years is a long time. To be honest I'm actually surprised there are a good number of walkers left (even in the comics) considering the decomposition rate of being out in the open, and despite being mobile...they are still just dead bodies. At most most of them should be barely functional unless well fed. I guess the parasite still needs to be fed, but the Walker to Human ratio would almost ensure that most Walkers, would be Crawlers, or non-mobile (those that sit and wait..Lurkers?). And no one ever mentions the Carrion feeders...I would think a pack of Coyotes or carrion birds would have picked a lot of the stragglers off. And just what would eating an "infected" meat source do? all interesting questions. But I degrees, I love your story and your characters. I cried when Ben died, and I laugh when Luna basically call's Mal and Jenner's people dog's to her wolf. It also makes me wonder if they kids they took forcefully also have people looking for them. I think I remember reading that Leland actually was scouting for his group when he was stolen. Just makes me wonder if Rick's group will met up with others due to Jenner's Kidnapping's. I mean after all they are basically going up against a small army. Keep up the good work. I look forward to the next chapter.
As far as how/why there are so many Walkers still up and running so to speak, I tend to just take that as a parameter of the universe. It may very well be that after 15-20 years that there really wouldn't be very many of them left, due to decomposition and lack of living flesh to eat, but who knows really? And I know in some other ZA worlds (Resident Evil namely) carrion eaters that do eat infected meat turn into zombiefied creatures themselves, but I thought I read somewhere Kirkman mentioned that and said it wouldn't happen to animals in his ZA world, they would just die. But it would make more sense for them to become zombiefied, at least to me. Awww, Benjy has had quite a few tears shed for him, and I must digress as well, I cried a bit killing him off. (And felt a tad bit heartless doing it). Weaving the tenuous jousting match between Luna and Mal is a lot of fun (and challenging) for me as an author so I'm glad that my readers are enjoying reading it too =D And that is an interesting thought you mention, about Rick's group meeting up with others that might also have been wronged by Jenner. We shall see what happens, won't we? It's so good to hear from you my friend, I hope I see you again on the review page!
lunasky99: Yes! I can finally read your story again! first I was grounded then our internet cut out then a wedding then a bunch of other stuff and to top it all off Halloween but finally, finally I can read again! 0.0 WHAT!? But... Huh?... this can't be happening... you can't kill Benjy! Benjy can't be dead! It's just... bu?... No! I can't believe it! I wont believe it! I refuse to believe it... okay I believe it. I can only imagine how sad Judith and Luna are going to be when they get reunited with the group just to find out they have two new members and is missing one old one. They better not blame themselves for Glenn being hurt and Benjy dying. Poor Ivy she just got him back and now she lost him again. Now I don't cry often not even when my horse died but that was just horrible and I cried like I just lost a family member! my sister walked into the room and freaked out because she saw me crying and thought something terrible had happened but luckily I explained that someone died in the book I was reading before she could yell for my parents to come. I seriously have to say that was one of the sadist deaths I've encountered in any of the books I read, good job!... I still don't like that you made Benjy die X(. So Luna and Mal kissed eh? Luna is a very interesting character and I love reading how she can effect someone just by them seeing her willpower, her animal, her strength she makes them think and I like it. Haha Judith is funny tricking Luna into confessing she kissed him. I absolutely loved the fight scenes! they where magnificent! two thumbs up! I can't believe they tossed her to the walkers without a weapon! who does that!? No wait don't answer that I know exactly who does that... *Mutters under breath* Fuckin' Jenner. I'm glad to see that Luna has finally Unleashed that spark that was deep within Mal and I can't wait to see/read what happens next. I'm glad Michonne talked to Rick and I think that she is going to be really good for him to be around. Hopefully Rick will stop lusting after Fox (even though I know he's trying really hard not to) and can be at peace with himself when they get Luna and Judith back and maybe a couple new members aside from Michonne and Ivy Like maybe Mal and some people named Tau and Leland? I'm just being hopeful here but maybe even some of the other kids? Please, Please, Please do NOT kill Mal or Judith at any time throughout the story because that would just be fucked up, it would be like - Luna and Judith get kidnapped, Luna despises all that live with said kidnapper but then slowly finds love in the arms of a... (of a what? would he be considered her kidnapper or someone that was kidnapped or a bystander or what? and I'm not even 100% positive that the'll fall madly in love but it seems to be going to way from what I can see so far with the kissing for not just escape reasons but also because she wanted to and he definitely wanted to) anyways she finds love in the arms of a guy she met at the place the kidnapper took her (that'll have to work for now) then she convinces lover boy to help her escape, then they escape and then BAM! lover dies, sister dies, friends die, some people in her family die, you see how that would just be jacked up right?. Alright I think I covered pretty much all I needed to cover I can't believe Benjy DIED! *cough cough* Sorry anyways I've covered pretty much all I needed to cover and I'll definitely be reviewing the next chapter sorry for not being able to the last like three? or maybe it was four? anyways see/read ya next time!... okay that just sounded creepy so... yeah bye! xD
Ahh, no worries, I totally understand about life. It's this thing we have to do, sometimes it gets in the way of our fictional worlds xD. *sniff* I know, I killed him. It was rather cruel of me…but then again this is the world of TWD. People unfortunately die, even people we really like. And I do imagine Judith and Luna will be very shaken if/when they're reunited with their family and realize he's gone. As well as encountering Michonne and Ivy, whom they don't know. They wouldn't blame Glenn, or anybody else though, they know that none of their group would ever deliberately put one of their own in danger. Awwww, I made you cry? Is it bad I'm congratulating myself? xD I don't mean to be cruel, I just love it when people have the same emotional response to my writing as I had myself. You know I've always wondered a bit as to why some people become leaders, why others rally around them, why they gain followings and loyalty and the like. I've discovered it's for several different reasons, but I personally think that the primary one is simply a sort of awakening. When you see someone capable of something you thought wasn't possible, you get curious to try it too. Or at the very least I do. And that's what's happening with Luna. Luna doesn't consciously recognize very many boundaries, because she never had them when she was growing up. She didn't grow up constrained by fear like most everyone else in this world did. Plus, she's naturally predisposition to fearlessness, and stubbornness. She could see that same spark inside Mal, and she knows that she needs his help, and she was determined to get it, any way she could. Heh, and Judith is certainly a smart one, isn't she? Smart and definitely knows how to play people and isn't shy to do it when necessary. I love the dynamic with Rick and Michonne. They have this great measure of respect for each other (both in the real show and in my story) and they somehow understand each other, or at least understand each other's motives and each other's pain. She'll help him keep his head, because she knows what kind of man he really is, and he's just fraying at the edges because of so much stress. Ohhh, the potential of a Luna/Mal romance, and of course all the potential dangers of loss that could go along with it. It's such an interesting concept to play around with, and I love weaving their dangerous dynamic. Luna is growing to like Mal, she recognizes that there is value in him, and plus she is magnetically drawn to him because he's the only one that she hasn't been able to frighten. And of course he's attracted to her because of what she's done to not just him, but everyone in the CDC, setting them on edge, starting to make people question, sewing doubt into people's minds. I am so looking forward to showing you guys what happens ;)
Jerrie Higarashi: Don't worry doll face. I havent left you at all. I'm just being a silent reader for now because I don't have as much time on my hands as I used to :) I'm reading everything as you post and I promise to go back and review as I always do:) But oh my God. So much SHIT! Fucking hell, I love Ivy, great character for sure. Too bad that Benjy died. I liked him a lot and it's a pity that the most important one died. He was a medic for crying out loud! Fuck! Omg, finally, loving the Mal and Luna. Maybe some Judith and Leland? Dunno but this story keeps me going on my toughest days. Wish I could pour out my heart and soul into this review but I can't! I'm just thrilled with each chapter, I promise you that! I'm just looking forward to more Mal x Luna :) Awesome job! Just remember I'm always here even if I don't show up for a while :) Peace. XOXO.
Ahh, so good to hear from you again my friend, I have missed you tremendously. Nice to hear the love for Ivy, always makes me warm to know my OCs are being well received by my beloved readers. I know, losing Benjamin on a practical level was a really harsh blow, now they have mediocre medic skills at best. They best hope they don't end up with anymore serious injuries, or illnesses. Ooh, how perceptive you are, I am dropping a little Leland/Judith hints, but we shall have to see what happens between them, not to mention Mal and Luna. Gunpowder and a match those two, for certain. I look forward to hearing from you again soon my friend!