Dammit, they need me hunting snipe in Ecuador, I suppose I'll be gone for another couple of weeks. But don't worry kiddos, like a garden I always turn up.
And to those of you who thought Daryl wasn't reacting properly to Carol's absence...for shame on you for not trusting me. ^_^ I got your ship's back, baby!
Chapter Forty-Eight: Legba II
**Adele**
Her right eye was swollen shut when she came to.
Unsure how long she had been out, or unable to really recall what happened, she struggled to get to her feet, her equilibrium was off and she swayed on unbalanced feet. Two figures burst into the tent, staggering and she immediately reached for the pistol she wore at her hip and just like St. James had taught her, she shot one, but not before the other slammed full force into her.
Collapsing against the card table, she broke it and fell back onto the ground, managing to turn at the last minute to avoid landing on her stomach, scrambling to get out from under the snapping jaws of the thing on top of her.
She vaguely recognized the man as one of their group, but he was clearly dead.
More gunshots outside the tent.
Adele shoved her hand hard against the underside of the creatures chin and pushed its mouth away from her face as it tried to get at her.
Then there was a whizzing sound, like something fast zipping through the air and the thing fell, collapsed on top of her.
Adele used the last of her strength to bend her knees enough to shelter her pregnant stomach from the corpse that now draped over her and huffed.
Above her, through the haze of her remaining good eye, she spied a towering angel moving to peer down carefully at her.
The thing was hefted up and off of her, dropped onto the ground, cast aside in favour of the man kneeling to look her over quickly.
"What happened here?" He demanded in a drawl that brought her home again. "Are you alright?"
Adele fought hard to regain the memory of where she was and what she was doing, but her head ached and throbbed and all she could think of was how much it hurt and how terrifying her confusion was.
A pistol was slipped into her hand and the man, the towering angel was up and on his feet.
She heard more whizzing, then he returned, slipping his rifle on his back and stooping to gather her up in his arms.
"We have to get out of here, there's still uggies around."
"Lieutenant! What do we do?" A woman asked.
Adele flopped her head to one side to peer hard at the figure that stood shadowed by the bright light of the outdoors in the flap entrance to the tent.
"Help me with her, watch your ass for uggies," the man barked.
The woman was kneeling now, helping Adele get to her feet.
As they hobbled to the tent, Adele closed her eye against the searing light and the sounds of gunfire.
"Adele!" Someone shouted.
She forced her eye open, weakly shielding it with her hand. Behind the woman there was chaos. Those things, the ones that didn't stay down, were getting up faster than the remaining women could put them down. Across the camp a woman was being torn into by a group of them, but they were soon figuring out that there was more than one meal handy. There were two men fast approaching the one holding her up and while the women took notice of them, they ignored them in favour of killing the undead.
"Some of those things escaped! What do we do? Who are you?" She suddenly demanded of the man who was supporting Adele.
"Don't matter right now, you have vehicles around here?" The man stated.
"Wouldn't help, the men keep their keys on them, we'd have a hell of a time finding the right key for the right vehicle," the woman replied.
Cheryl. Adele recalled. That was the name that went with the face.
Raising his pistol and shooting a few of the things that were approaching, the man holding her raised it and swirled it around, calling out to anyone who'd listen. "Fall back! Get the hell out of here! Delgado! Find us a ride!"
A young man, with startling large green eyes approached her, his hypnotizing eyes on her face, drinking it in with a sympathetic furrow to his brow.
"Kowalski!" The man holding her up barked again, startling Adele. Reaching over when he got no response, the man nudged the younger one.
"Watch her!" He ordered, pointing at his eyes with two fingers, then at Adele. "Jesus, where's Carol?" He growled, eyeing the women of the camp as they continued to fight.
The name hit something deep inside her, but Adele couldn't think with all this going on.
Adele, mesmerized by the green eyes of the man who now tucked himself under her arm, watched him instead of the action around them.
"He took her," she muttered low. Realizing the tall man's retreating back was getting further still, as he kept firing left and right at the things, Adele licked her bottom lip, tasting blood. "He took her!" She shouted a little louder.
In the distance that man, who she felt like she should know, but couldn't recall, kept walking and soon she was being pulled back, away from the chaos by Cheryl and the young man under her arm.
"He took Carol," Adele said to the young man.
"Head to the vehicles!" The tall man shouted over the noise of the gunshots and the shouting. "Everyone fall back! Get the hell out of here!"
The young man who was with her, raised a pistol of his own and took down two of the things which blocked their retreat and motioned them over to a nearby truck with a desperate urgency.
The door may have been unlocked, but the keys were gone, still he settled Adele and Cheryl both inside the cab and closed the door, guarding them on the outside by climbing onto the hood and pulling his rifle off his back, picking off anything that had stopped living which came near them.
Unable to focus on just one thing, Adele found her eyes wandering over various scenes in the action. A few women scrambling into vehicles of their own to escape the things, Charon being helped out of the cabin by another woman, that tall man striding through the smoke of the campfires firing on the things, crying out for everyone to fall back.
She watched the strong, firm line he cut with his figure as he paused to shoot down some of the things and it struck her as oddly familiar, though she was sure she'd never—
"That's my brother," she mumbled to Cheryl at her side.
Cheryl, who was too busy watching the action with a tense, drawn face, turned to her. "What?"
"He's from their…oh no, no, no," Adele, finding energy and some of her senses, flew to the door, opened it and hopped out before Cheryl could stop her.
The young man on the hood, noticing her getting out, took a few last shots at some nearby things and hopped down after her.
He caught her up in his arms and shook his head.
"I have to tell him!" She shouted over the noise at him.
The young man blinked, but didn't let go.
Adele pushed against him, she still didn't care to be manhandled by people, no one, since those early days when things were bad.
"Carol!" She stated. "I have to tell him!"
He narrowed his eyes, took a quick glance around, shot a thing heading towards them, before he shook his head and began leading her away.
Adele frowned, digging her heels into the ground. "Get your hands off me!" She screamed, flying into a panic at being helpless again, she began kicking and clawing without really realizing how bad she was falling into her panic.
One of her errant kicks hit the young man in the knee and he dropped in her shock.
Adele took the opportunity and while still unsteady on her feet, she tore off towards her brother. In her state she struggled to remember his name.
God, she had written it over and over again in her journal, she should know it.
"Fay-Fa…Lafayette!" She shrieked over the noise.
The young man caught up with her, catching her from behind.
That was the last place he wanted to creep up on her. Just as St. James taught her, she reached back and gripped his balls, running on pure survival instinct and twisted.
He dropped her again and she tore off.
"Lafayette!" She screamed, jumping into the thick of the fray.
There weren't many things left, but those left were hungry and the thick smoke made it hard for her to see anything.
"Lafayette!" She shrieked again and again.
She came upon him then, in the middle of it all, back to back with the man he had sent to find a vehicle that worked, the two of them turning around and around, covering each other when one ran out of ammo. At their feet was a pile of things and Adele stopped short, glancing about nervously for anything that could creep up on her.
"Lafayette!" She cried out again.
"Get out of here!" He commanded.
"Daddy took Carol!" She stated, moving in close to the two men, joining their back to back circle.
"What do we do, Sarge?" The man with her brother called out.
"Keep firing until we run dry," he returned. "Worry about that if we make it out alive."
Adele moved in close to her brother, tucking herself against him as she fired her own pistol on the things approaching.
Through the smoke which was now thick due to bodies falling into the fire, Adele spied the young man emerging, his face dark and stormy as he shot at things that approached him.
Seems his rage and fury were directed at her as he came to a stop at her side and glared hard down at her.
"Kowalski," the man with her brother said, nudging him with his elbow.
The young man looked over and reached out for a bundle of collected keys from the man.
"Get her out of here!" Her brother shouted. "And anyone else who needs the lift!" He grabbed the young man and jerked him so they were face to face. "Get out of here with them!" He enunciated loudly.
The young man nodded and giving Adele a stern look, pointed towards the vehicles they had left.
"Find her?" She pleaded with her brother.
He was too busy firing to speak, but nodded quickly, once.
Adele, worried she might not get a real chance to speak with him, to get to know him, gripped his elbow once and while he was distracted, leaned in and rubbed her cheek against his shoulder.
It would have to do instead of a hug.
She went back to the truck with the sullen young man.
He rounded up other survivors from their hiding places with a wave of his hands as he passed, like a mother hen collecting her chicks, hustling them towards the vehicles.
Adele, mindful of his back for him, watched her brother as well, as the smoke surrounded him until she could see his form anymore.
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**Vivian**
As soon as things got bad, she took off.
Not because she was a coward, but because she knew they'd need the back up.
Merle, if he was in position, should be somewhere nearby, just across the creek to the south. She'd get him and the four others he had with him, her mother included.
Staggering, she fumbled up again, knowing full well that there could be those creatures on the loose once more.
By the time she hit the creek, she couldn't hear the gunshots anymore and knew that Merle would be holding his position. Pausing when she spied one of their beautiful white horses standing there drinking, she hopped up onto it's back and tore off, thanking God that Sid insisted she learned how to ride properly.
It took her, what felt like hours, to find Merle and his men, but when she did, tearing into the clearing where they were waiting just off the highway for the warning to attack, she startled them all into reaching for their weapons.
"It's gone wrong," she warned. "They need back up!"
Merle's almost perpetual scowl deepened. "The hell?"
"I don't know…there's dead walking about everywhere and we're outnumbered!" She explained.
"Alright, you get out there and you let Daryl know, you let Rick know, you let everyone you can find know it's gone to shit!" Merle barked. "We'll head in."
Vivian nodded and urged her horse on again, heading for the highway.
She struggled to recall where Daryl's waiting point was. For a second she slowed her horse on the blacktop and fought to recall which direction to go.
"Shit," she muttered. "West!"
Her horse took off full speed down the ditch that lined the road with Vivian leaning in low on her back to give them better speed.
..-~-..
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**Daryl**
He was throwing all his concentration into digging the fucking grave, so by the time he was just finishing stamping it down over the bones he laid to rest there, he heard shouting from the front of the store and cautiously made his way around it.
Vivian was there on a horse, looking about nervously.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
"It's gone wrong," she said. "There's those things walking around and shooting and…Merle's gone to—"
Daryl was already dropping the shovel and climbing onto his bike.
He tore off down the highway for the camp, his hands numb and he couldn't say why, but he knew it had to do with Carol.
When he arrived at the camp, after recklessly skittering down several back roads, he found Merle and the others clearing out the last of what looked like walkers.
"Where's Carol?" He called out to his brother.
Merle, who didn't answer him fast enough, was ignored for the Lieutenant who was striding over quickly.
"Where is she?" Daryl demanded.
Fay looked like he'd been through hell, his face was ashen.
Giving him a shove, Daryl demanded. "Where is she?"
"He took her," Delgado answered from where he was dragging a corpse over to a fire which was raging.
Daryl didn't stop to think who the 'he' was, he only knew she was alive and not there.
"Cabri!" The Lieutenant shouted, catching up with him. "We'll get her back! Come on, I'll head out with you."
"Nope," Daryl stated, swinging his leg over his bike.
"I have to find him anyways," Fay said. "I'll come with you."
"Better find a ride fast," Daryl returned, already kicking his bike's throttle. It came alive with an angry roar and he nearly ran over Fay turning it around on the grass.
He heard a coupling roar after a few minutes of tearing down a dirt road and glanced beside him to find Fay on a stolen bike from the Bastards riding along beside him.
..-~-..
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**Carol**
She had been conscious for a few minutes, before her jumbled head cleared enough for her to remember the penknife still hidden in her bra.
Now, in the backseat where Martin had shoved her, she was quietly trying to reach for it without causing too much noise as he drove them down the highway at breakneck speeds.
Martin in the front was oddly calm, despite him tearing down the highway in the SUV.
Carol, cautious about being caught, quietly and carefully dipped her bound hands into the neckline of her shirt and fumbled for the penknife under her bra.
It was hard, but after a few attempts, she managed to worm her fingers under her breast and dug out the penknife.
Removing her hands from inside her shirt, she gripped the knife hard and fumbling in her lap to struggle to get it open.
The SUV took a sharp turn and the knife fumbled from her hands onto the floor.
Carol frowned, cast Martin a cautious glance and turned herself on the seat to begin her search for the fallen knife.
It was hard, with the vehicle speeding along the highway, her equilibrium off balance and her movement impaired, but eventually she found it and rolling over further onto her side, she gripped it desperately between her middle and pointer fingers and yanked it back.
Again she struggled to open it, managing to get the knife open after what felt like hours of straining the ropes at her wrists.
That wasn't the hardest part.
As soon as she began to attempt to cut the ropes at her wrists, she found she could twist her hand in a way that could get the blade at them and eventually settled on picking at the knot with the knife.
A cramp began low and throbbing in the meaty part of her palm, near the base of her thumb as she worked at the knot, but she furiously kept at it. She was so close and not knowing the destination or what was waiting for her there, Carol wasn't going to risk waiting to find out.
Thankfully Adele hadn't secured the knot too tightly back at the camp, and so Carol finally managed to slip the end out of the loop and almost like it was just waiting to be released, the ropes binding her hands unwound and she had full use of them.
She didn't wait to spring into action, darting up from where she lay, she took the knife and swung it at Martin's head. As it glanced off his forehead, things went to hell fast, Carol was thrown forward, over the seat as the vehicle hit the ditch when Martin swerved off the road and Carol found the windshield coming up fast.
..-~-..
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**Daryl**
They tore up and down the highways until suddenly it seemed like the sun was dying and Daryl, pulling his bike to a sharp stop, glared at the empty world around him. He could track a fucking deer through the woods, but a dipshit in a truck on the highway was beyond him.
Beside him on his stolen bike, the Lieutenant frowned. "They won't have gotten far. We'll find them, cabri."
"Fuck that!" Daryl growled getting off his bike to inspect the asphalt as though he could see the tracks of the vehicle they were after. Prowling up and down, he balled his hands into fists. "Twelve hundred miles of fucking highway in this state," he began.
"We'll find them."
"This was your fucking plan!" Daryl snapped. "You and this fucking asshole father of yours fucked everything up!" He wasn't angry at anyone but himself, but if there was one thing his father taught him, it was that anger projected outwards made one feel a lot better. "I swear," he broke off at Fay's wounded look, working his jaw muscle agitatedly.
"We'll get her back, Daryl."
"Yeah well, you'd best hope we get her back, because this is fucked!"
"I'm sorry, cabri."
Ignoring him, Daryl mounted his bike again and started off. Twelve hundred miles of highway to search and night was coming fast.
..-~-..
..-~-..
**Kowalski**
He didn't know where they'd want the surviving women he had piled into the back of the truck, whether Delgado wanted them at the farm or somewhere safe that wasn't so close to home, but he knew a few of them could use a good meal and some medical attention, so figuring things went to shit at the camp and guessing that Rick at the meeting place was still waiting like a chump and knowing that sharp featured guy they had shackled was a doctor of sorts, he headed for the gas station where the exchange was supposed to go down.
Pulling up, he could see Rick getting anxious, stepping forward thinking it was Martin, Kowalski pulled the truck to stop and hopped out, hands up so as not to shock or frighten the men waiting.
Rick moved forward, his face immediately reading understanding.
He said something to Kowalski, but the young Marine only glared a little and motioned to the women. "Something's gone wrong," he said, knowing how much of an idiot he sounded like when he spoke and shifting uncomfortably because of it.
Rick said something else and all Kowalski caught was the word 'dead'.
He shrugged, tired of having to deal with people and yearning for the solitude of his tree.
Hopping onto the hood of the truck he had stolen, Kowalski sullenly eyed the goings on, as Rick and his men set off to offer back up to a battle which was over and that medical fellow looked over the women with his hands and ankles still bound.
Dusting his boots off, Kowalski calmly eyed the helter-skelter. Things had been bad, but they had been worse overseas.
Hell, this actually felt comforting to him. He didn't want to say he liked it, but having no real connections to anyone present, he had to admit he found it kind of fun.
One of the women came up and was nagging him or something, he didn't know, so he tilted his head and jerked his thumb in the direction of Rick. She could take up any complaints with the man who looked in charge.
She glowered at him and stormed off.
Whatever the hell that was about, it didn't concern him.
Narrowing his eyes wickedly at the pregnant woman who goosed his balls hard back at the camp, Kowalski watched as she passed by.
Her face, when they came upon the camp, had been beaten to a pulp and she walked now, monitored carefully by the medical man, with a slight limp, holding her fat stomach.
If she came near him, kid brewing or no, he'd snap at her like a feral animal. His balls still complained every now and then when he'd move wrong and he honestly didn't think he cared much for the way she never seemed sorry about doing it.
Damned lady, he was only trying to help.
Who grabbed nuts anyways? That was just…especially when someone was trying to help.
Rick, gripping the front of Kowalski's shirt said something, yelled something it looked like and Kowalski, neither appreciating being grabbed nor liking the way he was being yelled at leaned away from Rick's grip, not at all understanding what it was the man wanted.
But when Rick and the other's left, Kowalski realized that it he was being yelled at for babysitting duty and Kowalski, left with a bunch of women who looked in no shape to fight anymore and two men who came from the other group, eyed them with suspicion and trepidation.
The medic came up and said something to him, scratching at his eyebrow with his bound hands and covering his mouth, so that even if Kowalski could properly read lips, he missed eighty percent of the exchange.
The man stopped, tilted his head and leaned in, repeating himself.
Kowalski pointed to his ear and shrugged. Doctors usually caught on easily to that sign.
Nodding, the man tried again, slowly, enunciating each word carefully.
Can…you…cut…me…loose?
Considering this, eyeing the blond man who was warily watching the women as they helped each other calm down after their ordeal, Kowalski pursed his lips, tilted his eyes to the sky above, before reaching for his combat knife and slicing the ropes that bound the man.
Wagging the knife in a silent threat at the man to behave, Kowalski slipped it back into its sheath as the medic knelt and began tending to the pregnant woman first.
Sniffing, he smeared away the grime of the day with the back of his wrist and turned his eyes back to the trees around them and to the dying sun in the west.
All in all, it was a good day.
Nearby a woman puked from the adrenaline and the nerves and Kowalski watched her placidly as she emptied her stomach on the ground by the truck.
Yeah, it was a good day. Little smoky in the middle there, but all in all, he was still alive.
..-~-..
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DarylDixon'sLover - I so too. ^_^
Claire Randall Fraser - I'm glad you liked that bit about Merle. Not only did I feel he yearned to be a part of something, I also feel he's accepted Carol as a Dixon and wants to look out for his kin.
vickih - I don't think so either. Carol is a kick ass female.
Merle's Right Hand - They're going to fuck like rabbits. That's what they'll do.
Surplus Imagination - Yikes, if you thought that last chapter had a lot of POV's...I wonder what you thought of this one. Ehehe.
Brazen Hussy - I tried, but dammit, his scene was long. I'll include some Merle in the next chapter I swear! Sorry if I disappointed you.
Yazzy x - I'm glad you liked the convent scene. I think too many people forget that Daryl is not a very open person with his affection, but behind the scenes he's just as caring and sweet as any man.
itsi3 - Jesus. You kind of scared me off visiting Corpus Christi now...