Chapter Four

Carol wasn't sure what woke her up. She laid there for a while, listening to the rain pounding onto the steal roof of the immense building. The sound of rain was masking any other sounds that she could have heard. The girls on watch knew where she was so if something was amiss they would have come to get her.

A sharp crack of thunder shook the concrete under her bedroll and she sat up straight. The sound startled her, sure, but it was more than that. She tossed the blanket aside and stood up, shoving her feet into her boots and running a hand through her mused hair. The sound had a strange ominous quality to it that made her feel like it was more than just thunder.

It was an omen.

Something was coming. Something was about to happen that had the fine hairs on her arms standing on end. For some reason she felt as though she were standing in the shadow of some great wave that was ready to come crashing down around her.

She threw open the door and, without any light at all, stalked towards the steal switchback stairs that would take her to the second floor. Before she was halfway up them one of the watchers came tearing down towards her, flashlight in hand.

"We saw a group a few blocks over. Looks like they split up but one group is heading right towards us from the west. It's hard to tell how many but we're lucky we saw them at all. That rain is really coming down."

Carol nodded. "Thanks, Jane. Go get Cassidy. Make sure everyone has enough rounds. I'll go out first, Cas can follow just like we talked about. Pair up. I don't want anyone out there on their own," she called over her shoulder as she hurried back down the steps. She tried to tell herself that she was prepared for this. They were all prepared for this. There was a reason they were here and that was to find those men and take them out. Every damn one of them. If the people stalking them now was the group of men that had hurt her friends, then good. They wouldn't expect them to retaliate. They wouldn't expect a group of women to be as dangerous as this group was.

Her rifle was already strapped to her back and she cursed herself and her too tired mind for not thinking of checking the magazine before she went to bed. Now there was no time. She pulled a black bandana from her pocket and tied it around her face. All of the women did when they encountered others. She wished there was more time to change. She didn't want these men to know that they were dealing with women but it was pretty obvious that that's what they were.

Then again, maybe it would be a good thing. Maybe the men would underestimate them. That would be a grave mistake for the men. Carol had been with these women for quite some time and she had made it her mission to make sure that they were prepared for anything that this life had to throw at them. She worked with them constantly. She took the tattered pieces of what was left of their self worth and she mended it by building them back up. She made sure they all knew that they were good and they were tough and they could make it. She gave them a purpose because they had become hers. She wouldn't fail them now. She wouldn't see that lost look in their eyes again. She would fight until she had no fight left in her.

They were outnumbered, but these men, in her mind, didn't stand a chance. They had no heart. They had no loyalty. Carol and her girls had an endless supply of both. They weren't just fighting for their own freedom and survival, they were fighting for each others freedom and survival and that meant that they would fight twice as hard as anyone else. She tried to tell herself that this could be just some random group but she knew, knew deep inside, that this was it. This was what they had been waiting for. This was the group that had tormented some of them.

The rain was coming down in sheets and the darkness wrapped around her as soon as she pulled the door closed behind her. She felt panic for a second and pulled the rifle around, holding it at the ready. She was disoriented as she blinked water out of her eyes but it didn't last long. Her panic could get one of her girls killed and that wasn't happening. Not tonight.

She was thankful she had put those specific girls on the top floor. If they hadn't been paying such close attention there was no way they could have seen anyone in this mess. The rain was coming down in sheets and it wasn't quite daylight yet. It was a small miracle they weren't still asleep and oblivious inside that building.

She headed west down the alley, keeping close to the building. It wouldn't have mattered. She wasn't sure if anyone would have seen her even if she had been walking down the center of the narrow road. There was a chain link fence on the other side and her eyes kept going to it, flashbacks of walkers pressed against the fence at the prison distracting her for a moment. She took her hand off the gun just long enough to run her fingers over the knife strapped to her hip.

When she made it to the corner of the building she wasn't able to make anything out at first but the longer she stood there she was able to see more clearly, shapes on the other side of the street. The rain was lessening now, making it easier to see. And what she saw had her swallowing hard. There were at least ten men walking towards her. They were armed, she could tell that from where she crouched next to the building.

"Come out come out wherever you are!" A man yelled, startling her. Another man elbowed him. The one that yelled just laughed loudly.

Carol brought the gun up, took aim as best she could in the rain and then let loose a short burst of fire. The big mouth dropped and so did his friend. The rest of them scattered. She knew she had stood in the rain long enough that her own group had enough time to get to where they needed to be. These men weren't too smart if they thought that staying together would make them safer. That was just going to make it easier to pick them off.

She smiled to herself and blinked rain out of her eyes. Cas was going to be pissed. She wanted to take her time with a few of these men. When asked what she'd do about the man that had helped her escape she had simply shrugged and said she would just kill that one quickly.

Carol slipped through the shadows like a wraith, her eyes on movement towards the mouth of another alley between two long abandoned factories. These men were making this much too easy on her and her group.

~H~

Daryl knew that they weren't just dealing with your average group of women. As he'd watched them earlier he could see just in the way they carried themselves that they knew how to handle the weapons strapped to their backs and they wouldn't be easy to pick off.

He was glad that they seemed to be even more ruthless than he expected but damn if it couldn't get him and his idiot brother killed. He'd damn near taken a head shot when someone had started shooting from across the street, and he could hear more gunshots coming from another direction. Somehow, in the dark and through the rain, him and the others had been spotted.

He grabbed Merle's shirt, urging him to follow him towards the alley and was surprised when Merle actually stepped in beside him. But so did another man. One of the ones that Daryl had fought before. He cursed under his breath but there wasn't anything he could do about it. Daryl was wanting a moment alone with his brother so he could tell him that he was leaving. He'd thought about just going without saying anything but he couldn't bring himself to actually do it.

At the end of that alley they were taken by surprise when they rounded the corner and nearly ran over a little girl. Little girl was the only word he could use to describe her. She had to to be as young as Beth Greene with that same surprised expression on her face and same boyish frame. Unlike the little girl back at the prison however, this one was carrying a gun and looked like she knew exactly how to use it.

Instantly she aimed and fired, cutting down the man that was with them. Daryl felt a sharp hot pain in his arm and then Merle had the girl. He ripped the gun out of her hands and then wrapped his arm around her throat, hauling her up.

"Stop!" Daryl roared, reaching for his brother so he'd drop the kid. Daylight was coming fast and he could see how scared she was.

"She shot you, dumb ass!" Merle growled.

"She's a fucking kid, let her go!" Daryl spat, glancing at his arm. He hadn't been shot. The bullet had grazed him. It was a deep gash but he'd suffered worse. "Just take her damn gun and let her go. You can't kill a little girl!"

"No, you're probably right," Merle growled into the girl's ear, "But I can sure as fuck teach one a lesson on manners."

Daryl understood why Merle was pissed but he couldn't let his brother hurt the kid. He grabbed the girl's arm and yanked her away from him. The girl cried out but Daryl turned so his back was to his brother and peered down at the girl. "Get the hell outta here. There's men here that you don't wanna run into..." He looked over his shoulder when he heard a dull thud and then Merle was on the ground. Someone was standing there and then she surprisingly tossed the gun aside and grabbed a knife from her hip. Her face was covered with a bandana and her hood was pulled up, obscuring his view even better than the rain and the weak early morning light.

Before he could even fully turn around the woman was lunging at him. The girl pulled away, backing into the wall as Daryl felt a knife come around, pressing into his throat. He couldn't let this woman kill him. Not now that he had finally made the decision to go back to the prison, back to his group.

With a little regret he grabbed at her arm before she could slit his damn throat, pulling it away from him and then threw a hard elbow into her ribs. He looked up in time to see the little girl slide down the wall, her wide eyes full of shock. The woman behind him grunted at the impact and then he turned, sure that the girl wouldn't do anything to him. Her gun was tucked somewhere under his brother's prone form.

He wanted to just get away but he needed to make sure his brother was okay. The woman was crouched in front of Merle, looking ready to pounce. Glancing over his shoulder one last time to make sure the girl was still in place was a mistake. The woman launched herself at him again, knife raised. He managed to catch her wrist just in time and then he found himself turning her, bringing his arm up around her neck like Merle had done the girl.

He didn't hit women. He had never hit a woman in his life. Merle always told him to never put his hands on a lady but to knock a bitch out if need be. He'd never put his hands on a bitch either. But this one wasn't going to let up on him and he wanted to check on his brother. It wouldn't be long before the other men came up on the scene and, despite the fact that this raving lunatic was trying her damnedest to kill him, he really didn't want her killed or taken.

He finally got a hold of her wrist again before she could try to stab him, and managed to yank the knife out of her grip. It all happened fast. As soon as he tried to bring the knife around so he could get it out of her reach, she struggled, shifting her body away from his and inadvertently causing the blade of the knife to dig into her side and back. She didn't cry out, even though he knew that it had to have hurt her, but as far as he was concerned, it served her right.

She didn't know who the hell he was. He'd been trying to help the little girl behind him. He hadn't wanted to hurt anyone and yet, she was giving him no goddamn choice but to hurt her. She was still struggling and all he could do now was let her go. He didn't know how deep that knife had sunk in and he didn't have time to wait around. He just wanted to check on Merle and fucking leave. So he let her go, shoving her hard so she landed on her knees.

He hadn't expected her to get up. He sure as hell hadn't thought that she would have another knife. But she did, and instead of running away like any other woman with any damn sense, she turned and drove that goddamn knife right into his side, strangely close to a scar he'd gotten while looking for Carol's daughter back at the farm.

He had no choice now. She wasn't giving him any goddamn choice. Before she could raise her eyes to meet his he back handed her, trying to get her away before she could pull out the knife and stab him again.

She spun and fell right on her ass right next to Merle's prone form, a sharp cry escaping her. He reached up, gripping the knife handle protruding from his side, knowing that he couldn't pull it out just yet but for some reason needing to feel it there. The rain stopped as suddenly as it had started. He looked down, half tempted to shoot the woman right in the damn head, but then she looked up.

The world froze then and there was a sudden ringing in his ears. In the murky predawn light he watched as the woman stood up slowly, her eyes as wide as he had ever seen them. But it couldn't be her. She couldn't be out here. Not with this group of rogue women.

She reached up and pulled the bandana away, pushing the hood back from her head.

"Carol?" His voice was nothing but a breath, blowing away on the breeze.