"C'mon, we've got to get back to get them in there quick, Gareth's waiting," the man grunted, lugging Eugene's body.
The other man groaned, dropping Abraham on the ground, "Jesus, this fuckers heavy."
Abraham's eyes shot open, and he looked over at Nora, who was next to him being carried by a large man sporting a dark, grungy beard, indistinguishable items sticking out if it.
The man holding her spoke up, "Jacob, pick his ass up, we've got to be quick."
Abraham shut his eyes when he saw the man glance over at him, and waited a few seconds before looking, and he saw that Nora was groggily opening her eyes.
All Nora could see at first was a bright light before her eyes adjusted to seeing her group being carried over to train carts. But she noticed that Abraham was the only one on the ground, and it looked like the man was struggling with carrying his weight. And then she saw that his eyes were open as well.
He looked down at his hand, indicating for her to look too, and then held it up, his palm facing her, showing for her to stop. And then he quickly moved his hand back, so it appeared it hadn't been moved at all.
Another man came up to help the man, Jacob, hold Abraham, "you take his arms, I take his legs."
Jacob put his arms under Abraham's and lifted him as much as he could. Abraham silently waited for the other man to grab his feet as Nora watched through slits unsure of what to do. The man leaned down to get to Abraham's legs, and right when his face was near his feet, Abraham kicked out, one foot hitting the mans neck, and the other hitting his nose, both weak spots that was sure to freeze him for a few moments that would be valuable, as he had to get Jacob too.
Jacob tried to get his arms out from Abraham's body so he could do something, but Abraham just tightened his own arms, trapping Jacob into sinking down until Abraham threw his head back and it connected with his own head, causing blurry black dots to scatter across Jacob's vision.
Abraham jumped up, and saw the other men who were carrying them start to drop his group and run towards him with weapons already out. Abraham then remembered that he didn't have any weapons anymore.
Nora saw the men all circle Abraham and she quickly debated whether she should get up or not. Okay, I don't have my knife, and I barely know any hand to hand combat strategies. Oh god, but I can't just watch this happen.
One man tried to get Abraham in a choke hold, but before he could, Abe turned around and used the same method on him, his forearm wrapping around his neck tightly. Abraham knew that he could probably take a few of these guys out, but it would be difficult with them all trying to get him at once, so he went for the hostage tactic.
Abraham gave a deep laugh, "lets play a game. Whenever any of you come near me, this man's neck gets snapped," he pats the mans head.
The man who was holding Nora turned around, thinking, when he saw that Nora's eyes were open, and he smirked. He grabbed Nora by the hair, and her eyes widened by this turn of events. The man then took his had from her hair and put her in a choke hold too, looking at Abraham, "two can play at this game, let the man go, and we'll let the girl go."
Fuck, Abraham thought, thinking through his options. Okay, guess fighting it is. He let the man go, and immediately, the other men were upon him. Nora was still being held in a choke hold and something popped into her head. It's useless to try and get his arm off, he's too strong. I have to turn around. She remembered her lesson she had learned as a teenager to turn around, because the person doesn't expect it, and it releases the hold on the vital parts of her neck so she can breathe again. So she spun as quickly as she could, and once she saw the surprised look on his face, she head butted him as hard as she could. His arm slacked, and she pushed him away.
Abraham was still going strong, fighting off whoever he could. He punched without even looking where his punch was headed, but it had been working. Nora carefully stepped over Maggie's unconscious form to get closer to Abraham. Shit, shit, shit, what do I do? She panicked, looking around for anything useful, which proved futile. All of the men looked to be at least six feet tall and even the skinniest guy was still larger than her small form. Her 5'4" frame was hardly useful in situations like this.
"What the hell is going on here?"
Nora turned to her right to see Gareth, his face pinched in irritation.
Two of the men fighting Abraham saw Gareth and went still, "uh, two of them woke up."
Gareth crossed his arms, "yeah, and there's eight of you, so what's the problem? Knock them out, and get them in the damn train car."
"Yes, sir," a man mumbled.
Gareth walked away and went up to three men leaning against a side of the building, one of them smoking a cigarette and the other two debating how well their sports teams would be doing in the real world before the dead walked the Earth.
"Hey, go help them back there," Gareth said upon approach, "they can't do this one simple task by themselves," he scoffs lightly.
The men immediately go to help, and Nora started panicking even more, knowing that she wasn't much help, and the only other person awake right now was Abraham, who was still fighting off multiple men.
So, going against her urge to still jump in and help Abe, she knew her best chance was to act unconscious. She prayed no one noticed her get down on the ground and fake her blank appearance amongst the fighting. Her eyes now closed, she heard the loud thud of Abraham being hit, his body thudding to the ground, and tried not to flinch.
"Christ, he's tough," a man choked out, one hand massaging his stomach from where Abraham punched him.
"Let's get them in there before any of the others wake up."
Nora felt someone grab her under her armpits and start to ungracefully lug her along the ground, her feet dragging lifelessly. Suddenly the air felt different, and she could tell that her surroundings were now dark. She was dropped on the floor and she heard more footsteps close to her.
"That all of them?"
"Yep."
She heard her group's bodies being dropped, and didn't open her eyes until she heard footsteps recede and a slam of a door.
The slam was echoing in the small space she found herself in, and she fought through the dim light until she could see all of their faces.
Nora rested a hand on her erratic heart, "oh god," she whispered. What have we gotten ourselves into?
Eugene was closest, laying to her right. She grabbed his arm and started shaking it roughly, "Eugene, Eugene wake up." He laid motionless so after a few more seconds, she moved onto Maggie, to her left.
"Maggie, get up," she said louder now, "Maggie, please get up."
Nora was about to try the next person when Maggie started blinking, dazed.
Nora exhaled in relief and smiled down at the girl she had recently met, but felt like someone she had known for years, thanks to Glenn telling stories about this nice farm girl he never would have crossed paths with if it weren't for this disaster.
Maggie sat up, holding her aching head, "Nora?"
Nora rested a hand on the girl's shoulder, "I'm really happy you're awake, but I need your help getting the others up. I don't know what's going on in this place but we need to be ready." Nora turned around and started trying to get Rosita up.
Maggie followed her lead and started shaking Glenn, "what happened? I remember getting to that room, and then nothing."
Nora replied after seeing Rosita start to shift, "I don't know. They knocked us all out somehow, and I heard them saying something about putting us in a train car, but that's it."
By the time the two girls had woken everyone, they all stood together trying to think of any options that would help. None of them had their weapons, they didn't know what Terminus wanted them for, and they didn't know how they would escape the train car, let alone the entire place without being gunned down.
It was as if Nora could physically see Abraham's face go from confusion to war strategy, his history in the military had prepared him for hostage situations like this.
His gruff voice rang out as their guide, "Rosita, there's a nail in the wall beside you, it's the only one that's not snug in there, you can get it out if you keep working at it, it's not much, but it's something. Eugene, use that damn mind of yours and try and find any other ways we can get out of here besides the door. Glenn, near the floor there's wood chipping, see if there's a possibility of breaking off a piece by tonight, we could use it as a weapon. Sasha, I need you by the door with me, if that opens, I could use your fighting skills. We don't have a ton of shit to work with here people, let's move it."
Nora was standing wondering how she could help, while Rick was outside being led to the train car.
Rick looked at his two best friends and his son, itching for them all to be near him, not easy shots for the sniper on the roof of the building. But he didn't just want them near him, he wanted his whole group back and safe, not separated after the destruction of their shelter with himself, Carl, Michonne, and Daryl being led into this demented maze he still didn't know quite what to make of yet. A place where they had Glenn's watch, and Maggie's poncho. He pushed away the darkest part of him saying that they were already dead. No, they're alive.
Daryl and Michonne were both directed to stand behind Rick in a line. Rick looked at the people of Terminus, "my boy!" he yelled.
Gareth nodded at Carl, "go on, kid."
Carl stepped behind Michonne and they all walked into the train car in front of them. The difference between the sunny outdoors and the dark train car had them all squinting, their eyes painfully adjusting to their surroundings. Rick rested his hand on Carl's shoulder and exhaled in relief. They were still in a terrible position, but at least his son was with him and not taken. And now after what had happened with the group Daryl was with the night before, Rick felt an even stronger sense of responsibility to keep his son with him and as safe as he could in the circumstances given.
Rick pressed a quick kiss to Carl's head, and turned to Daryl and Michonne. Daryl grunted, "what the hell do we do now?"
There was movement behind Rick and he whipped around with the gun he had stolen from one of the Terminus men. He flipped the safety off before even seeing who had been the source of the noise.
Glenn looked at the four in disbelief, "Rick?"
Maggie pushed forward, "oh my god."
Rick slowly lowered the gun, struck by not only the fact that they were here, but that they were here. They could have went anywhere and they all ended up stuck in the same spot. He didn't even pay much mind to all the new faces there.
Nora looked between Glenn and Rick, realizing this was the same man she watched approach the Governor and try to coexist in the prison with him. The same man who's face haunted her in her sleep, his completely anguished yell after the Governor had killed Hershel forever imprinted in her head.
Maggie stepped up and grabbed Rick's hand, "Rick, these people...we don't know what they want from us, but it's bad. They've got our weapons, they have at least dozens of people, they surrounded us with guns at the fence. They have the upper hand here."
Rick squeezed Maggie's hand, trying to reassure her with a small gesture, "No, Maggie, you know what we have? Us. We just got away from the Governor, you think this will take us down? We can get through this, we've had worse before."
Maggie looked at him gratefully and she stepped back, Glenn putting an arm around her shoulders.
"Plus," Rick smirked, "they're gonna feel pretty stupid when they find out."
Nora looked at Rick in confusion as Glenn asked, "find out what?"
Rick stood there in silence, looking very determined and deadly, the darkness adding to his already intimidating look. He looked t everyone in that train car, Nora already feeling his leadership aura radiating off of him, he looked like a man that could convince anyone to follow him into battle.
"They're fucking with the wrong people."