The Walking Deth - Part I
An Unexpected Journey - Chapter 9
Gone
The bolt went straight through the motherfucker's eyeball with a satisfying pop. I stepped forward put my foot to the walkers chest and yanked the bolt out. I took that same bolt and forced it through the eyeball of another walker who tried coming up behind me. That one popped all over my hand, spraying cold, sludge between my fingers, but I didn't care.
That's right Daryl, Kill. Hunt and Kill that's all you're good for.
I took a moment's break from killing walkers to reload my Stryker and then let rip into another one that was stumbling towards me, dragging its rotted feet through the dirt. The bolt went straight through its gaping mouth and the tip popped out the back of the rotting skull. I paced over to it reached my hand into its mouth and yanked the bolt back out.
She hurt you bad Daryl. She hurt you 'cause it was true.
Another two were tumbling over each other trying to get to me. I took out my Busse and got one through the ear, and the other through the bottom of the jaw and up into the skull.
And what do you do if someone hurts you Daryl? You hurt 'em back.
I heard the gasping behind me and turned sharply throwing my elbow into the walkers moaning face. The skin on its face popped like a busted balloon on impact but it was still chomping away at me with bare, muscles, tendons and bone exposed. I kicked it to the ground and used the stock of my crossbow to finish it off.
But not her, she was better than that.
I put my foot to the stirrup and reloaded my Stryker again.
I had let Beth hit me for saying that dumb shit. That was the only good bit of advice Merle had ever given me about women. If you deserve it, let 'em take a shot. But then she had hated me. I was used to being hated. Being hated was easy. No-one expected nothing from you. But her hating me ate me up inside something fierce.
I had gone back to try to talk to Beth, to try to make things right. But then she was with him.
A walker fell out from behind the bushes almost catching my shoulder. I shrugged away from it's tired grasp and swung my Busse into the back of its skull.
The walker fell to the ground and I rolled it over to its back and slammed my knife down in its guts. Once, Twice, three times. I hated that fucker. I hated him with his hands and lips all over her. Not the motherfucking walker, Anton.
But she pushed him away.
I left the walker and went back to my Stryker lying on the ground.
She had pushed him away, and then she said what she said.
The only thing worse than being hated by her, was being loved by her. I knew how to show hate back, I didn't know how to show love. This girl was messing with my head like no-one ever had before.
Another walker stumbled through the bush towards me. It fell to the ground by my feet and I let a bolt go in to its forehead. I then removed the bolt from the walkers head using my foot against its face for resistance, crunching the rotting nose beneath my boot.
Anton knew how to love, that asshole was smoother than silk. He knew how to do a lot of things I didn't. He was fucking perfect for her. Before all this shit started with Beth, before I gave in to weakness. I told her that we would find a better place for her and a better person, and that was what we had found. I didn't really know what it felt like to be jealous, but I hated the fucker with every inch of my being, and that was probably what it felt like. I wasn't going to take away Beth's chance at happiness in this fucked up world just 'cause I was jealous and I had fooled her into loving me.
I don't know how many more walkers I killed. It was all a flurry of boots and bolts and steel and cold congealed blood and a shitload of gore. I had come through the trees now and found my feet tapping on gravel. I looked both ways down the empty road, trying to decide which way to go.
One way would probably take me to Terminus and back to Beth. Where I would have to let her go, let her be with Anton, or preferably some other guy from Terminus. And I would have to watch her, every day for the rest of my life, be happy without me. That would hurt like hell.
The other way was backward, back to what I had been before Beth, maybe to what I had been before the prison. Maybe to what I was before the world went to shit. That was a fucked up idea too. But I wasn't ready to see Beth or the others just yet. I needed time; so I walked away from Terminus. I would stay out here on my own, just until I could sort my head out.
After a few hours of walking along the road I spotted an abandoned truck. I wasn't even sure how long I had been walking. It was dark now, so it had been one full day, maybe two, since I had left the others – Everything had been murky since fighting with Beth. I suddenly realised how exhausted I was. I had no food or rest and had been living only on the adrenaline of walker killing. The truck would be a decent place to stop for the night. I would be safe from walkers at the least.
As I approached the truck, I caught voices talking low. Two voices; I could probably take them out if there was any trouble. I snuck up to the side of the truck and peered in the passenger window, trying to get a glimpse through the front windshield. My eyes were caught by an object lying down on the seat of the car. It was a familiar round brown object with shiny loop around the middle. A deputy sheriff's hat, and it was sitting on top of Carl's chest.
I stepped away from the truck and looked over to where the voices were coming from. It was Michonne and Rick, and there was someone crawling up beside them. And I knew who that was too.
"Joe!" I called out just as Joe pressed the muzzle of the gun to Rick's temple.
Tony was over by Michonne pointing his gun at her head too. I went to swing my Stryker up into my arms, but a rifle knocked it down. Harley pointed the rifle to my head and I let the bow fall to the ground. I noticed Len's bow was amongst the gear at Harley's feet. So they had got to the warehouse and seen what happened. They must have been following me that whole way.
"You screwed up, asshole. You hear me? You screwed up.." Joe said to Rick.
"Just hold up Joe. They had nothin' to do with what happened back there." I called out.
Michonne and Rick were staring at me with disbelief on their faces. Joe looked up at me with an ugly-ass, sly grin on his face.
"Well look at who we have here. If it's not my old pal, Daryl." His crew shifted around trying to get a look at my face and then started sniggering.
"Back there?" Joe said tilting his head backward. "Oh, you mean back at the warehouse? when we lost all our shit?"
I was aware of Billy creeping up behind me now, getting into position to take me out. Joe continued talking holding the gun to Rick's head.
"I thought that may have been an accident, but then we found Len crawling outside, half charred and all freaked out. He was all tangled up in his bow with his guts all trailing out behind him. I knew someone had done that to him. Thought it might have been Anton, thought they might have been fightin' over that blonde bitch they found. Anton liked the blonde ones."
That blonde bitch? Did he mean Beth?
"Anton?" I blurted in disbelief.
"He usually was the first to claim 'em but he missed out on that one." Joe explained.
"We talkin' 'bout the same Anton here?"
"Tall, black man – Looks like he belongs on the cover of People?"
That was him.
I felt my hands start to tremble by my sides. Anton liked the girls. I knew the fucker was creepy. I knew I should have trusted my instincts and fucked him off as soon as I got the chance. I could see that woman tied to the table now in my mind, her body bruised and battered. Anton had tried saying he took no part in it, I should have known he had lied, and now I had left him with Beth.
"Then we saw Jess stumbling about with a crossbow bolt sticking out of his neck." Joe continued. He was studying my face watching my reactions. "Did you want a piece and they wouldn't share?"
I glared back at him angrily.
"No. You knew the bitch hey? Thought you might of. So you took the girl, killed my men and burnt my shit down."
I was in a world of shit, but Beth might still be okay. She had Maggie and Sasha and Bob – they would keep her safe. I had to think of Rick and Michonne now. They couldn't pay for what I had done, or what I didn't do.
"Okay, but you can let 'em go – I don't know 'em, I was jus' passin' by." I said nodding towards Rick and Michonne.
With any luck Carl would stay hidden until these fuckers were gone.
"You think we were followin' you?" He chuckled and his crew followed with sniggers. "Nah. You see this piece of faecal matter killed one of my best men...Strangled him while goin' to the bathroom. We've been trying to track him down since before you burned our shit to the ground. You bein' here – my friend – is just a happy coincidence."
Harley and Billy both sniggered beside me, and Joe continued with his taunts.
"Today is a day of reckoning, sir. Restitution. A balancing of the whole damn universe. Everythin' and everyone is fallin' right into my cosy little lap."
"You want blood, I get it. Take it from me, man. Come on." I beckoned him with a wave of my hand.
Joe pushed the gun forcefully against Rick's head again.
"We will. We will. But this man killed our friend."
He gave a closed lipped smile to Rick and then sneered up at me.
"I'm not sure whose gonna have it the best. We'll fuck the girl." He nodded over to the scowling Michonne. "We'll shoot him." He tapped the muzzle of his gun against Rick's face, and rick's eyes glared out towards me. "but you...we're gonna beat you to death, Daryl."
I caught Harley's rifle stock in the cheek, knocking my head down. I stumbled forward trying to catch my balance and then found Billy grabbing me around the waist and pushing me to the truck. I was catching fists from both Harley and Billy, pummelling me in my face and kidneys. They pressed my face up against the driver's side window and I saw Carl staring at me in horror. Joes other guy, Dan, had opened the passenger door, grabbed hold of him and started pulling him out of the car.
Billy knocked me to the ground and I tried to defend myself against the onslaught of boots and fists. Prolonging the inevitable.
"Well looky here fellas, we got a boy to fuck too." I heard Joe call out crudely.
A boy to...Not Carl! That couldn't happen to Carl.
These guys were the worst kind of freak-shows in this shit hole world. I didn't know what to do. I was getting the shit beat out of me and Rick and Michonne both had guns to their heads. If I went for my knife they would be killed, and Carl would have no chance.
Then I heard a gunshot and I was sure Rick was a goner. I heard a struggle and then another gun shot – that must have been Michonne. At least she had been spared the raping, but I could still hear Carl struggling. Could I make a move without getting Carl hurt?
Harley and Billy lifted me and threw me up against the car again and I saw that both Michonne and Rick were still alive, and Rick was still standing there, in front of Joe. Joe stumbled backwards away from Rick, and I saw blood spurting out of a gaping hole in his throat. Rick spat a chunk of flesh and blood to the ground and I knew what he had done.
Michonne took the moment of confusion and used it to grab Tony's gun and turned it into his neck and fired. Harley and Billy were busy staring at the action when I wound up my fist and slammed it in to Billy's face. Michonne took Harley out for me with the gun and I threw Billy's face in to the ground and started smashing the back of his head with my boot until he was limp and lifeless.
Rick took care of Dan plunging his knife into him, and dragging the blade upwards through his chest and gutting him like a fish. Dan's body fell to the ground and Rick climbed on top of him and started slamming the knife into his body. It reminded me of what I had done to Len. But this time no-one was going to stop him.
The next day when the sun rose on the situation Rick was pretty shook up about it all. He had spent the whole night sitting against the truck, staring into the woods, looking like he was struggling with his own humanity. I had spent the night destroying the brains of Joe and all of his followers, removing all their gear and dragging them away from the truck so Carl didn't have to look at them.
When I was done I went over to try to offer Rick some support. I opened up a bottle of water and poured it onto my red rag, and handed it to him.
"We should save it to drink." Rick protested.
"You can't see yourself, he can." I nodded towards the cab of the truck where Michonne and Carl had been sleeping. Rick was a mess. He looked like he had...well he looked like he had just torn a man's throat out with his own teeth.
He took the rag to his face and started rubbing the blood away, and I sat down beside him resting against the truck.
"I didn't know what they were." I said, turning to look at Rick as he washed his face.
"Where'd you meet those guys?"
"I was with Beth, we got out together. We were together for a while." I paused for a second thinking about the time we had spent together and how important that time had been, but now it was gone. "I lost her while we were out there, and came across Joe when I was tryna find her. His group was pretty ragged, but Joe seemed like a fair man. Thought I could stay with 'em 'til I picked up on Beth's trail. Then this ass-hole started droppin' hints that he knew where she was and it turns out they had Beth all along. So I got Beth away and set fire to their all shit." I scoffed at the thought of it. "Weren't enough though."
I didn't tell him about what they planned to do to Beth. I didn't want him knowing what could have happened to Michonne and Carl. His imagination wouldn't need any help.
"Where's Beth now?" He asked.
"I left her...back with Maggie, Bob and Sasha." I couldn't bring myself to say Anton's name. "They're headin' towards Terminus, s'posed to be safe there."
A glimmer of hope could be seen in Rick's eyes, when I spoke the names of our family.
"They're alive?"
I nodded, and a small smile flickered on Ricks' face.
"That's where we're goin'." Rick spoke it to me, like the we included me. My face fell a little and his face fell with mine. I was thinking of whether I deserved a place in that family. But he was most likely thinking of finding another Woodbury, by the way he got that haunted look in his eyes again. Hope was a hard thing to hold on to after what he had just been through.
When I first met those guys I had said I would kill every last one of them if I found they had anything to do with taking Beth. They had, and instead of killing them I ran. If I had have just killed them none of this would have ever happened. Rick wouldn't be struggling with his humanity. Carl wouldn't be getting rocked in Michonne's arms with them both coming to terms with near being raped.
"I should have killed them when I had the chance, I knew they were bad. Didn't think they could hurt someone like Carl though." I said regrettably.
"It's not on you, Daryl."Rick said, looking in to my eyes. I dropped my face down still feeling like I could have stopped it all.
"Hey...It's not on you."
I looked back up at him.
"You being back with us here, now, that's everything...You're my brother.."
A shudder went thorough my body as I thought how much that meant to me. I always saw him as family, but to be called his brother was really something special. To be actually wanted...I couldn't walk away from that. I would go on to Terminus with them. I would deal with Anton and then I would have a talk with Beth and sort out what was going on with us. Maybe it wasn't meant to be, but I still cared about the girl, and I could put up with the shit she made me feel as long as she was safe.
"Hey, what you did last night anybody would have done that." I tried to reassure the still shaken Rick.
"No, not that." Rick disagreed.
"Something happened."
Yeah something happened. His survival instincts kicked in. It was something I would do. Hell I almost did do the same to Len. I only wish I had thought to gut the fucker first.
"That ain't you."
"Daryl, you saw what I did to Tyreese...It ain't all of it, but that's me. That's why I'm here now. That's why Carl is. I want to keep him safe. That's all that matters."
You did what you had to for the people you loved. And I'm pretty sure that's why I had done it.
After we were all cleaned up we continued on from the road to a nearby rail line. We weren't all that far out from Terminus and I was getting anxious about seeing Beth again, and how I would handle Anton.
Rick wanted to leave the rail and go through the woods to case the joint first. It all looked pretty calm and quiet, possibly as safe as the prison. But we still buried the weapons we had pulled off Joe's men by the fence line, just in case. We were all suspicious about new people after the types we had met on the road.
We scaled the fence and entered a door to a large warehouse full of people painting signs to Terminus. A woman was sitting by a microphone saying the radio message that we heard on the way to the vet school.
"Terminus those who arrive survive. Follow the tracks to the point where all lines intersect. There are maps at the crossings to help guide you with your journey. Sanctuary for all. Community for all. Those who arrive , sanctuary for all. Community for all."
"Hello?" Rick called, interrupting the speech.
"Well, I bet Albert is on perimeter watch." Called a clean cut looking guy...well as clean as you could be in a world thats gone to shit.
"You here to rob us?"
"No." Rick replied. "We wanted to see you before you saw us."
"Makes sense." The guy said with a shrug. He started approaching us cautiously.
"Usually we do this where the tracks meet." he cleared his throat.
"Welcome to Terminus" He opened his arms out placatingly.
His name was Gareth, and I took him to be the leader type. He asked us to lower our weapons which we did and then they frisked us. I was relieved that they let us have the weapons back when done. But my hackles were raised.
Another man, his name was Alex, took us around the front way, where it all looked perfect, too perfect. There were flowers and crops growing, a place to wash clothes and the place was filled with people, but no Beth. Alex took us to a woman stabdig by a grill.
"Hi." she called in an eerily friendly manner. "Heard you came in the back door. Smart. You'll fit right in here."
"Hey, Mary, would you fix each of these new folks a plate for me?" Alex asked the woman.
"Why do you do it? Why do you let people in?" Michonne asked warily.
"The more people become a part of us, we get stronger." Alex strolled over and collected a plate of meat from the griller.
I didn't like the feel of this place. It was too good. Too nice. Too friendly. Too fake.
Rick was also looking about the place suspiciously. I spotted my Poncho earlier that Maggie and the others must have grabbed from the prison, but I couldn't see any of our people anywhere. Reading Ricks body language, he was going to make a move, and I would follow suit.
Rick pulled his gun and pointed it at Alex. Michonne, Carl and I followed Rick drawing our weapons. Rick demanded to know where our people were. The lying sack of shit, Gareth, appeared and tried saying they never came here, and came up with some far out excuses as to why they had all their gear, which none of us were buying.
Rick spun Alex around just as the Terminus people opened fire. We were all under fire now and made our way back to the warehouse we had entered from.
As we ran away I heard Gareth shout "Push A."
They were organised, and they had a plan.
We ran through the buildings with the fire at our feet. It was clear they were trying to control our path like a rabbit into a trap. When I spotted the 'A' on the door we were entering I knew we were heading exactly where they wanted us to.
We came upon a room lit by candles, with a message scrawled across the wall reading 'Never again. Never trust. We first, always.' There were dozens of names written on the floor. People they had lost?
We left the place and found ourselves outside again with freight containers spotted all over the place. I thought I could hear yelling from inside them. Was one of them Beth? We had no time to check it out now, we needed to get out of here and back to our other weapons before we could help anyone. We made a try at the fence but were met with a line of snipers. They had won, we were trapped.
Gareth ordered us to drop our weapons and, one by one, enter a nearby train car, which was also painted with the letter A.
We all stepped inside and the door was pulled shut behind us, with a finalising clang. I could feel the warmth of bodies and the smell of stale breath. I knew we weren't alone in there. My eyes adjusted to the light and I recognised the other bodies in there with us.
Glenn, Maggie, Sasha, and Bob all stepped forward. I was somewhat relived despite the world of shit we were in. There were more people behind them. Two women and two men I hadn't seen before, stepped forward, but there was no Beth.
"Where's Beth?" I asked, turning to Maggie.
"She went looking for you." Maggie replied with a puzzled look on her face.
I searched through the faces again.
"And Anton?"
"He went after her. Said he was gonna bring her back, but they never showed up. Probably a good thing hey?" She gave a nervous chuckle.
What was I going to say to her now? Should I tell her who Anton really was, and what he was capable of? It wasn't going to achieve nothing. It would just make her stress, and we were already in enough shit as it was. I didn't know what had happened with her. I didn't know if Anton would rape her, or kill her, or if Beth would have got away from him. I didn't even know if Anton had found her out there. All I knew was that she wasn't here, and that may just be a good thing.
I threw my back against the side of the train car and put my shaking hands to my thighs trying to control them in front of the others, fearing for Beth was a burden I didn't want to share.
Rick was watching me with concern. I wondered if he had remembered what Joe had said about Anton, back before he killed him.
"Daryl?" He spoke in a questioning tone of concern.
"She's gone Rick. She's just gone."
AN: So that brings us up to Season 4 finale. But don't worry I decided to continue the story on...I'll post the first 4 chapters of Part II within the week.
Thanks for all the positive reviews, it really does encourage me to keep writing. I'm totally cool with negative reviews too, so don't be afraid to share those, just don't be nasty.