AN: There is a *Trigger warning* for rape, and other nastiness in this Chapter.

The Walking Deth - Part I

An Unexpected Journey - Chapter VII

The good, the bad, and the dead

Ok Beth you've gotta pull it together!

What could I see, what could I hear, what could I feel? I was inside somewhere, I knew that much. And it was a big open space, I could tell by the way the air moved around me, and the way the sound of my heavy breathing disappeared into the darkness. It was dark, but my eyes could just make out several windows high above me. The moon must have been out, or the sun was coming up, as the glowed in a dim grey light. There was a distinct chemical smell in the air, like gas. Was I in some kind of Garage? My head was pounding and there was an aching on the left side of my face. I could feel something cold, damp and hard against my back. My shoulders were pressed against it, so that meant I had lost my sweater, I could also feel my backside against it, so I had lost my jeans. The cold air was settling over my feet so I had lost my boots too. Around my wrists, below my wrist bands, was something rough and itchy. Maybe rope? And down lower around my ankle the same sensation. My legs were bent awkwardly downward, and there was nothing supporting them below my thighs. I tried to move my ankle and it sent searing pain up my leg. So what happened before with the animal trap, that was real.

"Hello?" I called out into the darkness. My voice echoed throughout the room, and through my tender ears and head, causing the ache to worsen.

I could hear voices now as the ringing in my ears began to settle. They were the voices of strangers, two men by the sounds of it.

"I couldn't fuckin' believe it, first there's a car, fully fuelled, just sitting there waiting to be taken and then this sweet young thing was there runnin' towards the road. It was all too perfect."

A flame was lit and started to grow as it got closer to me, illuminating two faces behind it; Rough looking, with scraggly beards and missing and rotten teeth. I recognised the flame as a lantern as they held it closer to my face.

"God damn." One of the men whistled. "Ain't she a pretty thing?"

"Yeah we messed her face up a bit when she tried to get away, but the rest is just fine."

"You got a claim on her?"

"Nah, Len got in first, I got the car, but I reckon he'll let us have a shot at her if were real nice like."

They both chuckled.

I wasn't sure if what I was hearing was a dream or reality, so I let the words slide off me.

"Where am I?" I choked out, my throat was raw and dry.

"Looks like she's comin' to." Said one of the men, he looked older. He had Grey in his beard.

"Well hello little lady." Said the other one. He had long hair down past his shoulders, his beard was twisted into a point at the end.

"Who are you?" I don't think I even wanted to know, but the questions were running through my head and tumbling out of my mouth.

"Well we're your guardians for the time bein', until your claimant gets back." Said Pointy, before sucking on his rotten teeth, with a sickening wet sound.

"What are you gonna do with me?"

He made a sweeping motion of the room, which I now took the opportunity to examine. It was some kind of warehouse, I wasn't sure what it had been used for before, but it had several cars parked in it, and other items that were too dark to make out.

"We like to collect ... Never know when you might need somethin'."

He raised his eyebrows suggestively.

"Unfortunately the women are the hardest to come by." Added Grey.

Pointy began rubbing his hand up my bare thigh, I pulled it back sharply which sent a searing pain through my ankle, and I winced in agony.

"Don't touch me you fucker!" I said in my bravest voice possible.

"Oh, she got a filthy mouth, I like the filthy ones."

Grey chuckled. "You like all o' 'em"

Pointy beard was rubbing his hand upward over my hip, up my side over my singlet and stopping on my breast. He squeezed it in between his thumb and forefinger and drew his grip out pulling and twisting my nipple. The touch made my entire body tremble in revulsion. Who the hell were these guys? What were they going to do to me? Where was Daryl? I tried to remember what happened.

I had run from the funeral home, Daryl was behind me, I went out on to the road and a car had pulled up, the door was flung open and I saw a man in the back seat. It was Pointy. I had asked the guy for help, and he grabbed me and pulled me in the car. I tried calling out for Daryl, I tried opening the door, and then something had hit my face, and the last thing I remembered was someone calling out 'claimed'.

I began to scream for help, shrieking at the top of my lungs like a mad woman, panic had set in now and hysteria wasn't far behind it. My captors both laughed at me.

'Keep screamin'. No one's gonna hear you 'cept the freaks."

Freaks? Did he mean the walkers? Walkers would be better than them, I could handle walkers, I could even handle killers, like the governor. These guys, they were something else.

Now a third guy walked in through the door. He looked completely different from the other two. Not only in looks but just the way he carried himself, it was a lot less creepy. He was younger again, maybe in his twenties. His head was shaved bald, and he had deep brown eyes and skin the colour of burnt ochre.

"What the fuck have you got there?" He asked. I could see a mixture of shock and awe on his face as he approached me.

"Len's new toy." said Pointy.

"What are you going to do with her?" The young guy asked.

"Fuck the shit out of her of course – after Len, if he's willin' to share. Maybe you can go after me?" He grinned devilishly at the younger guy.

"Get in line kiddo." Said Grey with a chuckle

I was already trembling and a cold sweat was forming on my brow but now I had a new sensation; all-consuming terror. I felt like my heart was going to explode out of my ears and I was going to lose my bladder any moment now. These guys were bad, very bad and they weren't just going to kill me, they were going to rape me. I closed my eyes and said a silent prayer to Daryl. You're the best tracker I know, you better find me, and fast!

"There you go Anton, she'll be nice and wet by the time you get a go."

I opened my eyes and looked over at the man they were talking to. The man they called Anton still had the deer caught in the lights kind of look on his face.

Pointy put his ice tipped nose down on my neck and sniffed.

"Man she smells so clean." He made a beckoning motion to the others.

"Come smell her, I aint smelt nothin' like that in years." Grey came closer and smelt my neck too. I pulled against the ropes wanting to just be able to grab a hold of them, their hair, maybe an ear, anything. Maybe I could hurt them enough to make them think twice about coming near me.

My hands were firmly tied I wasn't going anywhere.

Deep breaths Beth, don't panic just try to focus.

Pointy beard began running his nose down my body over my singlet, down to my underwear. He stuck his nose in between my legs and took in a deep breath. I cried out in shock and revulsion and tried pulling my hips away, but I couldn't move them more than a few inches.

"And that smells even sweeter." Pointy said as he stood up straight.

I lost control at that point, tears were falling down my cheeks and I started sobbing.

"Please let me go." I began to beg.

"Sorry lil lady, I think you're gonna be around for a long...long time." Said Grey.

I looked over to Anton, the one with the sympathetic eyes.

"Please help me." I pleaded. He took a step back and shook his head.

"You guys really are sick fuckers." He said while he backed his way to the door.

"No please, help me." I shrieked after him.

"You've been with us for two months and you only now realise we're sick fuckers?" Grey and Pointy started laughing together. Anton sneered at them and then was gone out the door.

"What the fucks his problem?" Asked Pointy. "Prob'ly just pissed he weren't there to make his claim." He put a hand on each of my breasts and squeezed, I let out a wail and sobbed again.

"I'm sick of this claiming shit." Said Grey.

"Yeah I know, but he got his rules."

"Yeah you don't want to piss him off. He's been real on edge ever since Lou. Maybe things will get better when we track down that asshole who killed him."

"But fuck man, my dick is so hard" Pointy leant backwards pushing out a growing bulge in his pants.

Grey pointed off into the darkness of the warehouse.

"Maybe you can use her? Don't think she's wanted no more."

Pointy beard screwed up his face.

"She's all dried out and shit."

What the fuck were they talking about? Who were they talking about? I turned my head to the darkness trying to see what they were pointing at.

Pointy was leering down on me with a sickening smile on his face.

"You want to meet your room mate?" He asked.

No, I really don't think I did.

He grabbed the lantern and moved into the darkness to a wooden table, a dark cloth was draped over it and there was something lumpy beneath. I held my breath in terrified anticipation as he pulled back the cloth.

There, tied to the table by the ankles and wrists, much like myself, was a female walker. It had flinched away from the light initially and was now gasping. Its body was mottled with purple and green, there were bite marks all over its body, raw flesh was exposed on one of the breasts were another walker must have bitten off her nipple. The walker was covered in filth, some of it dirt, some of it other bodily fluids. I shuddered to think what they were using that walker for. These were definitely the sickest people I had ever come across.

"This is a...umm...I forget her name." Pointy slapped the female walker on the thigh, and she groaned at him. "You'll be her replacement."

I felt a warmness spread over my thighs and down along my butt that was pressed against the table and I knew I had wet myself. I was totally screwed!

I started wailing and moaning and out of the corner of my eye I noticed the walker's head move towards the sound I was making.

I turned my head and stared at her in horror. Her face was bloody and bruised, her mouth full of black blood and missing teeth, her eyes blood shot, her lips were cracked and dry, but they moved like I had never seen a walkers lips move before.

They mouthed the words

"Kill me."

It was some hours later when the sun began to rise and cast more light on my predicament. I was in a warehouse. There were several large rolling doors, and a smaller door on the far wall that the men had been going back and forth through all night. Large windows were spotted all over the upper parts of the walls. There were a number of items in the room, old car parts, Jerry cans, some paint tins, all placed in notable piles. There were three tables in the room. The table I was laying on, the table that held that other woman, the one who wasn't a walker, and another table. It was empty but there were blood stains on it. I did not want to think what had happened there.

I was guiltily relieved that they had covered the other woman back up. Every time I looked toward her I was reminded of my fate, so I kept my head turned the other way.

The way I was tied to the table with my legs bent over the end meant my back would arch up in an unnatural and uncomfortable way every time I tried to move. I had been pulling against the ropes all night and my ankles and wrists were raw and bloody, my injured ankle was swollen and throbbing from all the twisting and turning. I was shivering uncontrollably, partly through fear and partly through cold. Although the room was starting to heat up now the sun had risen, cold weather was approaching and all I was wearing was my singlet and underwear. I wondered what had happened to my other clothing.

I examined the room trying to think of a way I could escape, if I could just loosen the ropes a little, if I could just free one arm, that's all I needed, but I had been trying that all night. I had tried looking for something I could use to cut the ropes, something I might be able to reach with my fingertips, a rough edge, a splinter, anything, but there was nothing. I had tried using my body weight to shift the table, move it to somewhere I could reach something, or topple it over, but it must have been bolted to the ground. I was completely and utterly without hope. The only chance I had was if someone helped me, and the only person who might have any idea where I was or how to find me was Daryl.

He had been there through everything, protecting me from the worst. I thought about the comment he had made about the good people not being able to survive. He was right.

My thoughts were interrupted by a shadow in the door, as it approached I noticed it was Anton. He was holding a can, a spoon and a bottle of water.

"Help me." I tried to plead with him again. If there was anyone in this place who would help me, it seemed most likely to be him.

"I can't." He murmured. My heart sank a little.

He opened the bottle of water and put it to my lips.

"You have to, they're going to – they're going to do horrible things to me." I said pulling my mouth away.

Anton closed his eyes like he was having some kind of internal struggle. He opened his eyes again and looked down on me sympathetically.

"Here, drink." He said forcing the bottle between my lips, I tried drinking but it came out too fast and I choked on it coughing the water all over myself.

"Shit, sorry." He said, taking a cloth from his pocket and wiping my face.

I started crying again, sobbing and pleading.

"You gotta help me, you gotta!"

He began opening the can pulling back on the pull ring, he took a spoon and scooped up the contents of the can and held it to my lips. I took a mouthful of it and swished it around my mouth. It was a vegetable soup. I spat it back out at him defiantly. It had sprayed all over his face. I wasn't sure if that was the best move to make, it probably wouldn't win me any sympathy.

He took the cloth he used to wipe my face and calmly wiped the soup away.

"I'm helping you all I can." He scooped up another spoonful and pressed it to my lips. I kept them locked tight. He sighed in frustration.

"You gotta eat. You'll need your strength"

What did I need my strength for? So they could use me for longer?

"I really want to help you, I really do...but you don't know what these guys are like." He turned his head towards the door and then back towards me.

"Even if I helped you, I couldn't get you out of here, I'm outnumbered, and we still have more to come back. They've got weapons and they're ruthless. I can't get you out of here safely."

"But you can try?" I pleaded.

He sighed again.

"Please eat" he said, putting the spoon to my mouth again. I was starving and my stomach groaned at the smell of the soup. I opened my mouth and he slipped the spoon in dropping the contents into my mouth. It tasted pretty awful, but I really didn't care at that point.

He continued to feed me slowly, scraping the drips from my lips with the spoon as they escaped, like I was a baby. He kept it up until he was scraping the bottom of the can with his spoon.

"Look, I can't make any promises - it's risky." He looked around at the door again.

"I'll see what I can do, maybe I can try - I'll think about it."

I began sobbing again as a glimmer of hope started to build within me.

"Thankyou." I choked out between sobs.

"No promises." He took his bottle of water, his can and his spoon and backed towards the door.

"Don't leave me." I wailed after him.

"I have to go, they'll be back soon."

"Don't leave me!" I wailed again as he backed out through the door. I gave in to the sobs again. Who was this guy? What was he doing hanging around with these sickos, could I even trust him? I guess I was going to find out.

The day came and went, and my captors moved in and out of the warehouse. Most of the time they ignored me, but a few times they came up to me and taunted me about my fate, or made a grab at my body. My body was exhausted but my mind was fueled by adrenaline and I managed to keep awake thoughout the night fearing what would happen if I fell back to sleep. The anxiety of not knowing what was happening to me was more terrifying than anything else those men were doing or saying to me. It was getting to a point where I just wanted this guy Len to come back and get it over and done with.

Sometime after noon, judging by the light outside the widows, I heard voices approaching from outside.

"They already got the trail, Jus' gotta come back to get supplies and they'll be off again." Said an unfamiliar voice.

"You gonna go with 'em? ...Will you leave the girl 'ere? I been keepin her nice and safe for ya, that's gotta be worth some brownie points right?" that voice sounded familiar, like Pointy.

He walked in the room with two figures directly behind him. They both had the same look as the others, rough and dirty. Then another two figures entered.

I felt my breath catch in my throat as sheer relief flooded my body. One of the men was Anton, the sight of him was enough to give me hope, but there was an even more hopeful sight beside him. The dirty torn jeans, the angel winged vest, the crossbow, the messy dark hair. It was Daryl.

I tried to stifle a squeal. Just think Beth. He wasn't tied up, he wasn't struggling, he was with them, or he was appearing to be with them. I watched his face pale as he looked over me. His lips were turning white and I could tell he was holding his breath. His knuckles were growing white as well, as they gripped on to his crossbow.

The second man who entered, stalked over to me triumphantly. He was long and thin with black waved hair and a thick bristling beard. He had a bow hung over his shoulder, but different from Daryl's, like one they used in the olympics. He stopped beside me and looked me over from head to toe.

"I think this is the finest one we've ever found." He commented.

I tried not to look at Daryl, they didn't know we were together, there was no way he was actually friends with these degenerates.

"What you think Daryl?" He knew his name, so he must have convinced them he was with them. Daryl hesitantly stepped forward and looked over me, I could see the fury in his face, but he was controlling it.

"That's a sweet piece of ass." He croaked.

"Too bad I already put my claim down." I guess that would make this guy Len.

"Joe let you put a claim on people too?" Daryl was glaring at him, with a familiar scowl on his face.

"Joe knows what we need to keep peace."

Daryl shrugged his shoulders and started turning his head like he was cracking his neck.

"You wanna go yerself?" Len laughed and the other men joined in. Anton stayed cold faced.

Daryl shrugged his shoulders again.
"It's been years since I fucked anything half decent looking." He said motioning to me.

"It's been a long time fo' all a us." Said Len. The other men grunted and nodded in agreement.

"I'll barter for her." Suggested Daryl.

"What you got to barter with?"

Daryl reached into the pocket of his shirt and pulled out a handful of jewels he had got from back at the country club. He dangled them in front of Lens face.

"That aint worth shit out 'ere." Len said with a chuckle and the other men joined in. Anton was still lurking in the back straight faced.

"Well what you want then?" Daryl asked.

"How abouts that Stryker." Len said pointing at Daryl's crossbow.

A saw a glimmer of something in Daryl's eyes. He looked at me and then down at the bow.

He couldn't be serious? Was he actually thinking about it? Relax Beth, he's not a fool, he's playing with them.

Len started rubbing the hair on his chin thoughtfully.

"She'll be all yours for so long as she's with us." He swept his hand around to the other men in the room. "No one else will touch her." I heard a few disappointed groans. Len glared angrily at the men and the groans stopped.

Daryl looked like he was deep in thought. I really hoped this was all an act.

"Okay that sounds like a fair deal."

Len held out his hand towards Daryl. "Let me have it then."

Daryl was thinking.

"Jus' lemme set it up for ya."

Daryl began messing round with the crossbow, turning the arrow around playing with the string. Len stepped forward and snatched it off him.

"I know how to use the fuckin' thing." He held the bow up and turned it around holding it in the correct grip. He lifted it and aimed it towards me on the table. Daryl took a step forward. And Len made note of his movement.

"Don't worry, I aint gonna shoot her – she ain't mine no more." The men chuckled.

Len took a step back and waved for Daryl to approach me.

"Well go on then, a deals a deal."

Daryl stepped towards me. His eyes were down cast looking at my binds, and at my underwear, I wondered if he could tell I had wet myself. He stretched a hand out to touch me, but it hovered just above my skin while he looked down on me, tormented.

"You gonna fuck her or what? Been a while like you said."

Daryl moved in between my legs and began to undo his belt.

Just breathe Beth, he knows what he's doing.

He stopped and looked around at everyone.

"I can't do it with everyone watchin'."

"We like to watch." Leered Pointy. "We like to hear em scream."

The other men chuckled.

Daryl reached into the front of his jeans.

"I can't. Performance anxiety."

Len sighed, and then turned towards the door, he waved for the men to follow.

"Come on guys, he don't want us to see his small cock... We'll stop the freaks from comin' when she starts making noise."

The men all sniggered lecherously as they made their way out the door. Anton glanced back warily as he exited.

Once they were safely out I began sobbing. Daryl cautiously looked towards the door and then moved towards my head. He had tears in his eyes and his face was bright red. He kissed me quickly on my eyelids and then unsheathed his knife and began sawing at my binds, trying to get the blade wedged in without cutting me.

"Did they hurt you?" he asked, examining the swelling on my face. It was an obvious answer. But I don't think that was what he meant.

"They didn't ..." I gasped. "They didn't touch me." He was still working at the binds on my wrist.

"We gotta get out of here, these guys are nuttier than squirrel shit."

I nodded in agreement. He was looking around at the room and at the window behind me.

"Did you notice another way in?"

I shook my head.

"I was out cold when they brought me in."

He pulled the rope off my wrist and I twisted my hand around enjoying the cool air on the burning flesh.

"We gotta be quick." He knelt down to get to the bind at my ankle and as he knelt I saw the shadows in the doorway.

"That fucktard said somethin' before. I think they know that I know you." Daryl continued obliviously.

"We do, and we know, that you know that we know." Len stepped through the doorway. His men behind him sniggering at his choice of words.

They were all armed and were aiming their weapons at Daryl. Len lifted Daryl's crossbow ready into his arms and made a nodding gesture to Pointy and another man, that came over toward Daryl and I. One came close to me and I swung my free arm out towards him in an effort to punch him, it was my left arm and it was an awkward punch, and he was too fast. He grabbed my wrist and held it down firmly against the timber of the table. With the other hand, he pointed the gun to Daryl's temple. Pointy was now on Daryl's other side, with a gun pointed at his other temple. Daryl was frozen between the two.

"Both of you found over by cemetery drive." Len raised the crossbow to aim at Daryl's head.

"There's no way a pretty young'un like that would be out there on 'er own, and you...you looked like you had lost somethin' real special when we found you."

A wide mischievous grin was pasted on Len's face.

I looked to Daryl, his eyes were full of abhorrence.

"You gave over your bow a little too easily too."

Len pointed towards me and then put his hand back on the bow.

"She looked a lil relieved to have ya 'tween her legs, and I don't think it's just 'cause your prettier 'an me."

I tried to pull my wrist free from the man's hand again but he slammed it back down on the table.

"It's gonna be kind of ironic isn't it. Being killed by your own bow?" Len crowed.

I looked over at Daryl, he moved ever so slightly to the left, moving in closer to the man who was holding me. Was he planning something?

I saw Len's finger tighten around the trigger and a wail escaped my lips as I saw the arrow hurtling out towards Daryl.

There was a wet snap and a thud as the arrow hit home in his neck. It had skewed off to the right and pierced the man who was holding me. The guy grabbed towards it as blood started fountaining out all over me and all over the floor, he fell to the ground, choking and spluttering.

"Naw shit." Len dropped the bow to the floor with a clang. "Piece of shit bow."

Daryl was now wrestling with Pointy trying to get a hold of the gun. He elbowed him a few times in the face, and brought the man down to his knees. Then he started reaching for the knife that he must have dropped when he was cutting my binds.

As that happened Grey moved over and pushed the muzzle of his shotgun into Daryl's lowered head forcefully. Daryl let go of the knife letting it clang to the floor noisily.

Pointy recovered himself, stood up and gave Daryl a firm knee into his abdomen. Daryl doubled over expelling all the air from his lungs, while Anton just stood back in the darkness and watched.

During the commotion I had been trying to free my other wrist. But Len was now next to me and he slammed my head down on the table. I was momentarily stunned, seeing small yellow stairs in my vision. He was now holding my wrist back down with his grime covered hand.

"It's all good, he was fuckin' useless anyway." He pointed to the body on the ground, I could just make out the arrow sticking out of his neck from my position on the table.

"And I didn't really want you to miss this." He was speaking to Daryl.

He now moved between my legs, he began pulling at my underpants tearing them as he pulled them down over my thighs. I screamed at him and tried to move my hips around but he held me in place.

"You fucker, you sick fuckin' piece of shit! I'm gonna tear your guts out and wear 'em as a belt, you mother fucker. I'm gonna rip of your head and piss down your throat. I'm gonna feed you to the gators..." A whole stream of cusses were pouring out of Daryl's mouth, words I had never heard before, I'm sure he was making at least some of them up. Pointy and Grey both knocked the muzzle into Daryl's head at the same time, which quietened him down to a heavy panting.

Everyone was laughing at Daryl's display, except Anton who was still quiet in the back, holding his pistol aiming at Daryl.

"Who is she to you anyway?" Len said as he looked me over.

"Is she your daughter?"

Daryl flinched.

"It's your fuckin' daughter isn't it?"

"You fuckin' touch her and I'll cut your dick off and feed it to you." Daryl spat.

Len ran his free hand along my cheek and then grabbed a handful of my hair roughly, he turned my head towards Daryl.

"You want daddy to watch while I fuck you?"

All I could do was sob.

Daryl was still swearing his head off in a barely intelligible mumble.

"You going to call out for daddy?" Len was questioning me.

I kept my mouth shut. I couldn't call out for him, that would crush him.

He pulled my head up by my hair again, and slammed it back on the table. The pain throbbed through the back of my head and towards the swollen left side of my face.

"Call out to daddy." He urged.

I kept sobbing.

Len looked to Pointy.

"Kill him."

"No!" I wailed. "Daddy, help me!".

I wasn't even thinking of Daryl when I said it, I was thinking about my dad, as if he could arrange some kind of divine intervention from God and rescue the both of us. The tears were streaming down my face now, and now tears were falling down Daryl's face too.

"That's a good girl." Whispered Len in my ear, causing me to shudder in revulsion. He shook his head at Pointy who lowered his gun just a little.

"I think daddy likes to watch." Said Len as he began fumbling down between my legs. I squeezed my eyes shut waiting for what would come next.

Don't be here Beth, be somewhere else, back at the farm, or in the prison, out in the woods with Daryl, anywhere but here.

"I think deep down, all men wanna fuck their daughters." It was Len's cruel cold voice.

Block it out Beth, just block it out.

"You want to fuck your daughter don't ya?." I winced as I felt him press against me trying to get inside. I moved my hips away as much as possible while he tried to push in.

I kept my eyes clenched together as Daryl let out an inhuman wail.

And then I heard the cracking of the gunshot.

My ears were ringing from the sound that was reverberated through my skull, along with the scream that was escaping my own lips. I didn't want to open my eyes. I couldn't. To see Daryl's lifeless body, a bullet wound in his head, his face pale and expressionless. Confirming that he was lost, that would be worse than what my own body was about to endure.

Len pulled away from me and I felt a sense of relief tied in with a sickening anguish.

"What the fuck?!" Len said with outrage in his voice.

I opened my eyes, I had to see what he was responding to. I looked over to where I had last seen Daryl standing with the muzzle of the gun to his head.

He was now rolling on the floor in a struggle with Grey, he had hold of the shotgun and was wrestling him down to the ground. He forced the shotgun down knocking Grey's head back on to the hard ground and then using the butt of the gun to hit him in the face. Daryl flipped the gun in his arms and lined it up below Grey's upturned chin. He pulled the trigger, blowing his head clean off and spraying it's remains all over the floor.

My eyes shifted across to Anton who was standing with his handgun still drawn, with wisps of smoke escaping the muzzle. It was aimed at where Pointy had been standing. I looked down and saw Pointy on the floor, his head in a pool of blood.

Len let out a cry of fury and began stalking over towards Anton, while pulling his bow from off his shoulder. His pants were still pulled down around his hips as he shuffled along. He began shouting vehemently at Anton.

"You mother fuckin' untrustworthy piece of..."

Len suddenly groaned, and a look of bewildered shock was on his face. I looked down to see Daryl had crawled over to him. He was kneeling in front of him holding a knife that he must have got from Grey, it was buried up to the hilt in Len's groin. Len fell to the ground and Daryl straddled him and began slamming the knife down repeatedly into his groin.

Anton strode over to me, and cut the binds from my wrists and ankles with a knife. The raw skin on my wrists and ankles stung as the rope fibres pulled away. I pushed myself off the table almost collapsing as I placed weight on my weak legs and injured ankle. My ruined underwear fell to the floor and I kicked them off and away. I couldn't care about modesty at that point.

I moved over to Daryl. He was still stabbing at Len's groin, reaching the knife high above his head and slamming it down hard into his lower abdomen area. With every turn, the knife was getting deeper and deeper into the mess of blood, and guts until I heard it clanging on the concrete beneath him. The next time he lifted the knife I could see the blade had snapped off and now Daryl was just pummelling him with his fists clenched over the hilt. He was covered in blood and he was flinging mess and guts all over the room, all over me and Anton and the other dead bodies in the room. I could see he was being lost to madness.

"Daryl!" I called out to him. I was trying to get closer without being hit by his upward thrusts.

He didn't seem to hear.

"Daryl." I repeated.

"Daryl…"