This chapter is a bit of mishmash. A lot of Daryl and a dash of the General. There will be Morgan and Michonne mixed in. So let the games begin. Okay, the title is completely cheesy, but it fits.

Righteous

Daryl crouched behind an azalea bush and watched the motel. There were soldiers walking around outside on both floors but he had concentrated his attention on the one that had four guards in front of it. Carol and Rick were there and he was aware of the passage of time. It was fully dark now and he knew he should move on this.

Daryl was worried about Morgan and Michonne. Gabriel had left a way out for him and he needed to find them. They were gathering intelligence and they both were too savvy to walk into a patrol but how long could they last here with little water and food? He slid back to the porch of the ramshackle house and sat down behind the porch wall to think. They would have gone to a high place with a view of the courthouse. He moved off the porch and toward the courthouse praying that nothing happened to Carol and Rick as he left.

He was becoming familiar with the alleyways of this town and he moved easily along darkened corridors. He had spent a lifetime stealthily stalking prey and he had always had good night vision and he needed both to travel through this maze of killers.

He saw two shadows move from the jail and he got his knife out. Gabriel had left a while ago. It was better to avoid any sort of confrontation and he moved back in the shadows but there was something familiar about the smaller shape and he risked all to say, "Michonne?"

The shadow whipped around, "Daryl?" She saw a white man in an army uniform and she raised her katana instinctively.

"Damn it, Michonne. It's me, Daryl", he tried to keep his voice low but she heard it and lowered the weapon and came toward him and hugged him closer.

Morgan hugged him too and Daryl pulled them even closer. It felt like a warm blanket on a cold night to be near them but he soon pushed away. "I have a way out for you." He meant to show them Gabriel's escape door and let them go before it got even hairier.

Morgan said, "We heard two soldiers talking about the jail and we came by to check on the place. Dead guard and the prisoners all gone, did you find Carol and Rick?"

"They put the Black people in jail and Carol and Rick in a motel up the way. Let's get away from the jail and I'll tell you what I know." Daryl led them to the long building with the unlocked door and he opened it and they went inside. "They were going to kill the Black prisoners tomorrow in a ditch. I think this fuckers are into genocide now. That is their final solution. Go out that back door and down to the river and walk back to the college along the river. Go save yourselves and protect that baby." Daryl knew it was time to get back and do what needed to be done. He missed his crossbow and he thought he might be able to get it out now because it was so dark outside.

"I am going with you, Daryl. Can't leave the Silver Fox and Rick here." Morgan wanted to take off with Michonne but the call to do what was right was keeping him here.

"I can still use my katana and I will tonight." Michonne's low voice was determined, "I let Andrea die because I was too stubborn to talk to her at the prison. I was too late getting to Woodbury and I am not going to be too late to save Carol and Rick".

Daryl sighed, "She is going to kick my ass about this but I don't think I can do it without you. Give me five minutes to get my bow and I'll be back." He slipped out.

TWDTWDTWD

The General met with his officers and they discussed Allanvale. They were discouraged that they had only found two white survivors. The walker situation was contained within the perimeter. Tomorrow they would start searching out of the town. The Blacks in the jail would be eliminated by the special crews. That was the way it was done. Most of the soldiers thought that they were being moved to camps in Georgia. The others knew better.

The General was finding it difficult to concentrate on the day to day details of this operation. He had found himself thinking about his night with Carol. She hadn't put her head back down after she told him that she would give herself to him to save Rick. She had looked at him with a coolness and courage that he admired. There something about her that told him that she wasn't afraid of anything because she had been through too much already. She probably thought that he was a sick sadist who would torture her. He wasn't. Sadism was for little people who got their jollies by hurting one person. That wasn't him. He wanted sex and he wanted to know more about her. He wanted to lie back after they fucked and talk to her because her cool pragmatism would be a welcome respite from the fanaticism of his racist officers. The General wanted her to call him by his name, Mason Summers. He knew he wasn't giving her back after tonight because he couldn't stop thinking about her.

The General listened to some more jockeying for position statements from his officers. He knew that they wanted his power and if they saw any weakness from him they would throw him out. Dangerous times indeed. He and his wife Melinda had built a farming settlement in Georgia after the ZA. He had developed an army to protect them and then it merged with a racist group and he wound up as the leader of a bunch of Nazis. Melinda had stayed by his side until last spring and she had disappeared with their son. She hated the Nazis and had tried to convince him fight them. Melinda had seemed to adjust to their new lives in Savannah but it was just a façade. She had waited until spring and then she left with a small group of their friends who had grown disenchanted with the way things were going. She had grown up in the North Carolina mountains and he thought she might have ran there. He didn't care about Melinda but he wanted to find his son. He would kill Melinda and anyone who had helped her. Then he would take his son back to Savannah and rear him to take over one day.

Mason thought about Carol. He wanted to take his time with her. She would give her body and not her heart tonight, but maybe she would change her mind when they went back to Savannah. He had a home and servants there. He wanted her, body and soul and he would never give up until he had both. Tonight he was going to be gentle and considerate but he would pump his seed into her and she would lie there compliant in body but rebelling in spirit. No matter because they both knew who had the control here and it wasn't her. He had read that occasionally women who were raped would have an orgasm so it is possible tonight that Carol's body would react to him while her spirit was repulsed.

Mason looked at his officers and thought it was time to thin the herd a bit. He had a few that were looking too ambitious and he couldn't have that. There can be only one king and it was going to be him. Perhaps, Carol would be his queen.

TWDTWDTWD

Michonne and Morgan were outside waiting for Daryl when he came back with his bow and they traveled together to the motel. Daryl was relieved to see that nothing had changed except there were fewer soldiers milling around. Most soldiers ate and slept at the high school so that was good news. They worked on their plan.

He was going to walk up to those soldiers and ask them a question. They would be bored by now and probably careless. Morgan and Michonne would be creeping closer. He would kill a guard and hope that Carol and Rick would hear his voice and find a way out. Michonne would use her katana and Morgan his knife. Maybe they would get in and out before any saw them.

Daryl took a deep breath and nodded to Morgan and Michonne. He walked casually toward the soldiers who watched him come closer. "I am looking for a friend of mine. His name is Rick? You see him, tall and gangly."

The guard said, "No one like that came around here. He is probably at the high school."

"I'm going that way now, I found this in one of those houses over there. It's a crossbow. Did you ever see one?" Daryl held up his crossbow and the guards moved a little bit toward him. "I had one at home before all this happened. You just put this bolt in it like that and it's loaded".

"Can you kill something with that thing?" The guard standing further away asked derisively.

Daryl smiled, "I sure can," and he shot the bolt between his eyes. He took a knife and cut the throat of another as Morgan and Michonne closed in.

Rick opened the door and took out another guard. Carol came out carry a bag and put something on the floor of the motel room and carefully closed it. She handed a bottle to Rick and one to Morgan. Daryl grabbed her hand and she grabbed Michonne's and they ran down the street together.

Rick and Morgan walked out after them and threw their bombs together and then they ran like hell after Daryl and the women. The explosions rocked the motel and lit up the sky so that they could see to run. They were inside the long building and locked it behind them. They went out the back and saw that there were steps leading down to the river. Once they were down there they could see a graveled pathway that wasn't very wide. Kudzu had taken over the buildings on this side but they could find the graveled path if they walked slowly. Daryl led the way, Carol followed him, and Michonne followed her. They didn't speak and the traveling was slow but they were gradually leaving the town behind. They would hear the sound of rushing vehicles and the excited talk of soldiers but they kept trudging on. They heard another explosion and Carol knew that someone had opened the door to their room and knocked over the bottle behind it. She wanted to make them afraid that there were more booby traps there. Might slow them down a bit. Daryl saw a big man walking cautiously toward him and he felt his heart rate rise. The man held up his hand, "It's me, Gabriel. Just came back to see if I can help." His voice was just a whisper but it sounded too loud to Daryl.

Daryl answered as low as he could, "Moses, lead us out of here".

It went faster as they got out of town and Gabriel led them to steps that took them to the college. They crossed the road and headed toward the piney woods. Gabriel led the way and they walked for an hour or more and then they came to the edge of an old meadow and there was a dilapidated barn set back against the trees. Gabriel opened the door and they followed him in. There was food and water inside the door and they all sat down exhausted by the day. The barn was barely lit by a small lantern and Daryl saw that the wall had been enclosed in some sort of canvas. The barn didn't let any light out.

"I have to go now and see to my family. Some of the men in that group are out warning the survivors that live here. We are well armed because we collected all the guns and ammo after this happened. I'll be back at dawn to take you to your group. I don't think anyone will find this place tonight but the back door will put you into the woods." Gabriel smiled at them, "Get some rest". He slipped out closing the door carefully behind him.

They collapsed onto the floor and drank water. Carol and Daryl were holding onto one another as they sat. Michonne looked exhausted and was leaning on Morgan. That ate the food and Michonne fell into an exhausted sleep. Daryl and Carol volunteered for the first watch and they sat side by side at the front of the barn. There wasn't much of a moon but it shed some light on the meadow.

"I need to talk about what happened while we were captured," Carol began and Daryl took her hand in his and squeezed gently, "We were taken before the General. He talked to Rick and ignored me for a while, but then he told Rick that he wanted to sleep with me and he wanted Rick to agree to it. Rick refused but then he told me that he was going to have Rick killed if I didn't agree. So I told him I would. He was going to do it, Daryl. I wasn't going to let Rick die. I have enough blood on my hands."

Daryl had drawn his hand away as she spoke. He stood up and moved away from her, "You just told him, okay, I'll screw you because you love Rick so damn much that you can't let anything happen to him. Why did he think that anyway?"

Carol winced, "Rick told him we had been together since the turn."

"Rick told him that you were his wife, didn't he?" Daryl was furious. He had been terrified all day that he would lose Carol and he knew that he was still a little wound up. Too much adrenaline and they were still far from home hiding in a barn that might fall down any minute while army patrols looked for them.

Carol sat still for a bit. Daryl was as exhausted as she was and he was coming unglued. He would calm down and start thinking straight but she wasn't going to hide anything from him anymore, "The General wants me and he never got me. He isn't going to quit looking because he doesn't like to lose. He is coming to the mountains because he is looking for someone else. A woman but not me. He'll take everyone he doesn't kill and put them in a settlement and kill them if they try to leave".

Daryl stood still and took some deep breaths. "These Nazis have already dug the ditch for the Black people they find here. They would kill Alia, Michonne, Morgan, Tyreese, Bob, Sasha, Jesse and his babies because of their skin color. We can't let that happen. I am sorry I acted like an ass. Nothing he could do to you would change how I feel about you. You were right. You bought some time so that I could find you. I love you, Carol". He reached down his hand to pull her up toward him.

They held each other for a long while and then Carol laughed, "You look hot in that uniform. Very sexy. Keep it when we get back home." She kissed him and he said, "I am a soldier on watch. You can't be doing that shit to me".

She kissed him again and put her hand down to his zipper and rubbed him there. "Stop that!" He pushed her away, "Terrible woman, always sexually harassing me."

She let him go and smiled at him. He understood about why she had agreed. Daryl was a realist. He knew that she would always protect their family and Rick was family.

Daryl looked out at the meadow. It was very quiet out there. "You give up awful easy," he complained. He wanted her but not because he had to claim what was his. Carol was his wife but not his property. He just wanted to be inside her and feel her response to him. She wanted the same thing. He walked back in the barn and brought Rick back out with him. "Rick is going to take first watch".

He took Carol's hand and they went back into the barn. "Let's go up to the loft and watch the moon come up".

The moon came up and fell upon their sleeping faces. Rick woke them up when his watch was over and they stayed on watch until dawn. They thought that Michonne needed the rest and they were content to sit together and wait for sky to break open and herald in another day.

AN

Daryl was righteous because he risked himself to save the African-American prisoners in the jail. Morgan and Michonne stayed when they could have left for a safer place. Gabriel was safe and came back to help Daryl and the others.

Kudzu takes over everything and it would provide a good cover if it was on fences and buildings.

"Righteous Among the Nations" is a term for those people who risked themselves to save Jews during the Holocaust. There were those that acted according to their conscience.

Genocide exists today. Sadly enough humanity doesn't seem to get past it.

I debated on making this captive storyline drag on but in the end I wanted it to end.

There is creditable research that shows that rape victims can experience sexual arousal and orgasm. Doesn't mean they consented to or wanted the attack.

Mason Summers isn't a sadist. He does what he does because he has become addicted to power. He is evil but in a way that looks more normal on the outside.

Please review. I want to thank kawinki for being such a loyal reviewer. Tammogram is faithful too. I write because I like to write but if you are reading I would appreciate you telling me what think about the story. Bad or good. So drop a review even if it is short.