Newly Revised
Ani pushed herself to the limit to cut that day down to arriving just as the sun was beginning to set on the horizon. She'd found evidence in a tunnel that Maggie and some of the others, at least five, had at the made it that far, thank the gods. She followed their tracks all the way until she saw a building in the distance and the prints kept going straight. Thinking about how stupid that was, she scoped the perimeter, hearing a patrol stomping around and quickly hiding from it high in the trees. There was something about this place that didn't seem right when she finally was able to get a good look at it. If it was a place for all, then why did it look like there were hardly any people there at all? She couldn't see inside it completely, but there couldn't have been more than thirty people bustling about. At the prison, even with only seventy people, there had been at least forty people wandering around outside. If they were supposed to be accepting everyone and everyone and it was a place to survive, why weren't more people wandering around? A place this big offering sanctuary would have at least a hundred; even Woodbury supposedly had fifty or so people outside regularly. Something about the place just didn't sit right with her, deciding that it would be better to wait than introduce herself right off the bat.
There was nothing she could do but to wait and see what life inside the place was like, leaving Daryl and Merle's bags along with her crossbow hanging in the trees. It would be easier to get around without the extra weight since it would be difficult with the kittens to begin with. She wasn't about to leave them on their own out in the trees in case they got out of the bag or climb out of the tree, let alone the chance they'd chase after her. It was better to just take them with her and make sure they had their bellies full so that they would sleep more than anything else. There was a bit of catnip in her bag for herbal remedies but if it kept the kittens quiet and still, she was willing to give it up. She wasn't sure how long she would have to watch the place let alone how long she would be inside the compound. She couldn't leave them to their own devices only to lose them. She'd lost everyone she'd ever known up until now; she couldn't handle losing anything else, especially not the kittens. They had already been targeted by one of those Claimer bastards once when she had taken a break and their dumbass patrol had caught up with her. Bobby and Catty would have to stay with her whenever she did whatever it was that she was going to do once she had enough information.
Hopping from root to root and climbing between trees using thicker branches, she made her way as close to the fence line as she dared before she stopped and waited. She damn near shouted in elation when she caught sight of Glenn and Maggie, the poncho on Maggie unmistakable. It was the body language of the man next to her that gave away it was Glenn, and she could only assume there were a couple more from the prison. She didn't recognize the movements of most of the others, though, but it didn't stop the fact that she wanted to shoot someone in the head as she watched on. Dammit all, that's my poncho!Ani thought as she watched Maggie being stripped of the beloved item. She had left it with one of the ladies in charge of the wash as soon as she'd gotten in the cell block. It had stunk to high heaven and it had taken about two hours from the time she'd handed it off to the time the Governor attacked. One of them must have grabbed it off the line with one of the bug out bags when they left, something Ani had every intention of thanking them for. It was such an ugly thing and Daryl had looked so funny in it the first time he'd worn it; he was much better suited for a leather or denim jacket. She had grown fond of it when he'd started making her wear it when she got cold and during the really bad days she had over the winter. It had become a secondary safety net for her when Daryl wasn't around or when she was having a hard time dealing with, well, everything. Seeing it being forcefully taken away from her friend pissed her off and made her decide that, one way or another, she was going to get it all back. Her friends, her damn poncho, what she'd lost of her mind being alone for so long; she just had to make sure she had enough information on the place.
There were no less than eight dots on the roof and several more in the courtyard her people were being held at. She watched as the dots moved with precision, ensuring that the group with Maggie could only go the direction Terminus wanted them to. They ended up in a railcar on the south side of the building that was relatively out in the open. They really think they're safe, she thought as she watched the dots on the outside lazily moving here and there once the group had been imprisoned. Ani only had a couple of hours to scope out the place before night would fall. She had to find a way in and a place she could hide on the outside before then. It would be a huge risk going inside the facility since she didn't know the layout, but with any luck, she would be able to sneak through.
She managed to take down two squirrels she fed to the twins as she moved along the fence line while staying as deep in the trees as she could and watched the building closely. It seemed as if there were two actual leaders, one person moving quickly in between buildings regularly while another others went to and from almost as much. Ani wasn't sure if the second was actually a leader or if she was the facility's cook like Carol had been at the prison. She could smell the barbecue at one point and it had almost her made throw up. It smelled like a combination of beef and pork when she didn't see any place that would be good to raise animals. Ani had seen a few raised beds as she crouched in the bushes but there was no place for animals to graze, just tracks upon tracks upon tracks. How were they able to obtain meat when there were no animals to be found? All she could understand was that one side of the compound smelled rotten when the wind picked up and the other side smelled of some kind of barbecue.
There was no way that they could have kept this place so intact with the meager safety efforts that they kept. While the majority of the people in the group were essentially a part of a well oiled machine as far as she could tell, they severely undermanned themselves when it came to guards. They kept two teams of two on outer perimeter watch, there were two teams on the inner perimeter, there were no less than twelve people spread out along the fence itself to keep a direct line of defense open. There were only two guards on the rooftops, though, staying relatively stationary as if that were their assigned posts. Their changing of the guard happened wherever the guard on duty was rather than in a building or in one particular spot. It left a lot of time and space for literally anyone to get through. Even Carl and Sophia would be able to infiltrate this place with the minimal amount of effort they seemed to put into their security detail. Sure, they had their perimeter watches and their guards, but they were so spaced out for the amount of space they had to cover that there was no way they would be able to clear the place of intruders.
Ani could only think of a few ways that this place could have stayed standing with how little they seemed to know about security measures. She wished she had a pair of binoculars with her so that she could tell exactly what was going on, but from where she was hiding she could still get a pretty good idea of the inner workings of Terminus. Ani's first thought was dashed the longer she watched the patrols and the comings and goings of the individuals that she could see. The way they moved wasn't in any kind of pattern nor were there any spots that were avoided, so it wasn't booby trapped on the outside. They definitely had a source of powerful weapons from what she'd seen on the patrols that had gotten close and the fact that every guard had some kind of rifle. So they had the weaponry, but without the security a good fortress should have to hold the sanctuary. They had fewer people on watch than they'd had guarding the prison and no one on the fence-line for walkers. Terminus was at least twice the size as far as the buildings themselves went, maybe four times as far as grounds. Ani could not figure out for the life of her if they were that confident or that stupid. The only way their security would be good enough was if there were people in the windows of the facility keeping a lookout as well and she just couldn't see it. If they did have more people on the inside playing guard dogs, things were going to get real bad, real quick when she made her move. All she could do was hope and pray that the fools thought that their show of force with the weapons was their biggest gambit.
Ani made her move when there were only four guards on watch and no one on the roof just after the moon had reached its peak. She used a tree as a springboard to land on the top of the fence without having to climb it and make more ruckus than just landing on the damn thing made. She took a moment to gather her balance before she carefully jumped down, crouched low to the ground with her bag cradled in one arm. There was no one around this part during guard changes and that was exactly why she thought their security was lacking. She already had three different vantage points scoped out that weren't even hit by the rooftop patrols. Ani was counting on the patrols not looking up since they were on the roof; a couple higher buildings that only had one entrance and exit and the tall antenna right in the middle of the roof. She slithered her way through to the back of the building, heading towards the train car to try to sneak her friends out. She didn't make it very far before the sound of a patrol she hadn't been expecting came close. Ducking behind one of the metal shipping crates that were close to the train tracks, Ani damn near puked again as the smell of rotting flesh was so strong.
Cautiously looking around, she forced herself to hold back her gag as she held the kittens close to her chest and looked past the chain link. She suddenly remembered where she had smelled the odd scent from the grill; it was the smell of burning human flesh. There had been a fire once that she'd been taken to in an attempt to identify an arsenic suspect after a dead body had been found among the flames. The smell back then had made several of the people on scene either gag or outright puke. Ani had been intrigued then, but now the thought of what was happening to the survivors who made it to the so-called sanctuary had her wanting to hurl. They'd been gutted and skinned like animals, erasing the burned leather smell of the actual skin while leaving behind the fat and muscle. That was where the smell of pork and beef came from and the reason why there were no traces of animals being raised on the grounds. Fuckin' cannibals, she thought to herself as she hid further against the metal as two men and a woman walked by.
"They want ta eat my friends," she whispered to the purring kittens when she was certain she wouldn't be heard. "Sorry, Mags. Goin' ta have ta wait a while longa. Plan's changed."
She had to move quickly, ducking between rooms and checking the halls as she moved; she had only given inner patrols a passing thought. It wasn't entirely too difficult to get through the halls unnoticed; it was actually a lot easier than when they'd snuck into Woodbury. At least Woodbury had border patrols and hadn't been easily caught off their guard; they'd been made within minutes of being within their walls. She had been within the compound for roughly twenty minutes and no one had even seen her, although she had seen at least twenty people so far. While there weren't that many patrols, there were a lot of stragglers that hadn't gone to bed yet or were doing other relaxation activities. It was honestly easier than it should have been as she made her way into a relatively empty hall. There was only a single man out in it and wasted no time silently pulling her dagger and sneaking up behind him. She quickly stabbed him through the back and up into his heart, dragging him to a close by as she could hear another patrol coming by. She hid with the body until the sounds of their footfalls became silent and two minutes had been ticked by in her head. Ani slowly opened the door and peeked out through the small crack she made to check and see if the hall was empty.
Upon finding out that it was, Ani sprinted towards the next door, hearing voices inside coming closer, and booked it to the next room. Holy mothaload, Batman, she thought to herself as she saw piles upon piles of weapons, trinkets, bags, clothes, and shoes. Unfortunately, she wasn't alone, and quickly had to throw her last blade to stop one from reaching the door on the other side of the room while she stepped up into the one coming at her's defenses. Quickly turning her back to him, she brought her hands together and used her elbow to strike under his chin hard, spinning back around and landing a strong blow to his stomach with her knee. As soon as he doubled over, she grabbed his head and brought it into another knee strike, the bones in his nose satisfyingly crunching before she grabbed him around the head and yanked in just a way that broke his neck. The other guy was as dead as a doornail when she got over to him, making her find places to hide both of the bodies; well, one body and one knocked out, paralyzed individual with a bloodied face. She was lucky there was a smaller room off to the side of this one or else her spree would have been found out sooner rather than later. It was just a small bathroom by the looks of it, one that hadn't been used in ages, and it gave her an idea that she had already technically started working on. A couple of walkers stashed in storage closets were not enough of a distraction, but some of those grenades strategically placed? That rocket launcher fired at the right spot and those rifles if she wanted to take out patrols? This room would be the sole reason she would be able to gain the upper-hand in this one against an army campaign of hers.
Adjusting her bag as gently as she could, she took it off and placed it on the ground near the door in case she needed a quick exit. Thankfully, Bobby and Catty were sleeping peacefully inside it and didn't make any fuss as they were jostled a bit. She stayed hunched as she moved, she first went to the table with clothes, finding a shirt that would fit her as well as some new pants. If she was really lucky, dressing in their own clothes would further conceal her as an infiltrator as long as she didn't get too close to the others. Even if they did get close enough to realize she wasn't one of theirs, she should be able to handle it on her own; they weren't the most qualified at hand-to-hand combat. It was easy enough to find clothes in her size, though she was somewhat disgusted at the thought of wearing either dead people's clothes she knew had been eaten or the clothes of cannibals. Either way, as she took her clothes off and changed into the new ones, all she could do was pray to the gods of mischief and war to help her get through this ordeal. Even though she hated the damn things with a passion, she found a baseball cap and quickly braided her hair before spinning it around in a bun. There was nothing to tie the ends with, so she simply fitted the cap over the ends to keep it in place; she would be screwed if it fell off and her hair fell loose. She carefully took her old clothes and tucked them around and beneath her sleeping babies, making sure to wrap the entire little burrow into her new hoodie so that they would be well protected for the next part of the plan. The table of weapons held a large number of knives, one of which she knew was Bob's, which she pocketed along with several others. She managed to grab a new quiver for Daryl and several bolts as well as refill her throwing knife sheath around her thigh before going over to the next table
Ani loaded as much ammo as she could carry into her pockets, filling the pockets of her backpack too, now that the kittens were protected by her clothes. She grabbed two high-powered rifles, one a fully automatic while the other was a sniper rifle, the scope of which would be exceedingly useful if she was able to get to the spot she wanted to. Their antenna, which would have been the perfect spot for a lookout and only needed a small platform built up there to make it efficient, was the least guarded area in the entire compound. They kept people on the rooftops but abandoned the one position that would have made her little mission impossible truly impossible. It was the most idiotic security overlook she had ever seen, and that was coming from the girl who took pot brownies into a police station and got away with it! They had basically signed their own death warrant with that little oversight and Ani couldn't help but once again wonder how they had managed to survive this entire time. Then again, she thought, they do have all this damn fire power. She pulled a rocket launcher off the table and threw that on her shoulder when she saw it as well. Ani readied herself to leave the room, making sure her bag was securely tightened on her back and the guns were carefully placed around it.
She made sure the coast was clear before slowly and as silently as she could with her haul exiting the room and started trying to find a new stairwell. Two men were coming down from above when she finally found and entered one, catching Ani by surprise and making her lose control of her strength as she went on the attack. At the same time as she superman punched one in the throat, feeling the larynx crunch under her knuckles before the man dropped, she kicked backwards and knocked the other man into the wall, making him stumble. Jumping down beside where the man had landed, she quickly stabbed up through his heart to keep him down rather than just out. She counted herself lucky as she stashed the bodies under the stairs and rearranged the shelving unit there to hide the bodies.
It was dark in the stairwell, making Ani thank the gods once again for her ability to see at night as she made her way all the way up to the tenth floor and up onto the roof. Creeping the door open, she almost immediately had to attack as the woman standing there went to shout. It was cut short as Ani's blade hit home in the heart, up through the rib cage, bringing the body back down into the stairwell. Thankfully, the way she'd killed these people left no blood trail; as soon as the pericardium filled up there would be no way for the heart to pump blood and breaking bones to cause suffocation was similarly bloodless, though not quite as painless. She took the body back down to the top level and stashed it under a desk before she moved back up to the roof. The sun's rays were just starting to peak over the horizon as she stealthily made her way to the pole and climbed up it. As soon as she came to the first cross-bars, she tied herself to a pole in a way that would let her get a little bit of sleep. She held her bag to her front, only coming out of her half-sleep state when her little kittens started to squirm.
"Hush now, guys. I know. Ain' no fun bein' cooped up. And I ain' got any food for any a us, but I promise ya, get through taday, and I'll start lettin' ya walk more, so long as ya stay with me. We all jus' got ta get through the day. Now, stay still, stay quiet," she told them, bringing the scope up to her eye and taking a good look around.
She was lucky that she'd found out her love indoor obstacle courses on the first and only time she'd ever gone on a date. While he had been all about trying to show off to her and make her feel impressed, he had only done the starter course. The kid had gotten so angry when, after they completed the first course, Ani had wanted to go onto the harder courses and ended up beating his times on the more difficult ones. It had been the first time she'd been openly humiliated for picking things up quickly since she had left home, and the last time she went on a date. Guys her age only wanted to show of and impress the girl while guys older than her were either looking for a sugar baby or thought of her as a kid themselves. The only good thing that had ever come out of it was her love for indoor obstacle courses and, therefore, her fascination in tying different types of knots. That fascination was how she was able to tie her rope into a type of sling that would allow her to move around the antenna's pole while keeping her hands free. Bobby and Catty were easy enough to handle, mewling every so often only to calm down as she began humming to them. It wasn't like she could be heard this far up and the patrols didn't even bother trying to look up.
The day was relatively boring, though Ani did get a better idea of the inner workings of the security, until a single gunshot sounded before rapid fire shot out. Bringing the scope up, she began to look everywhere as the movements below became flurried. The snipers on the roof had started firing and running this way and that, calling out various directions and letters as they moved. Ani was half tempted to begin firing on them as if they were ants and she was the magnifying glass, but if she did that, her opportune advantage would be taken away. She didn't even know who they were firing at as she moved the scope over to where the train car with Glenn was. It was the only place that she knew for a fact she needed to watch out for and seemed to be the place the roof-gunners were heading towards the most. There was definitely a group being herded that way as the gunfire only sounded out at specific times and only from a few of the shooters on the roof. Ani had to admit that at least when it came to rounding up their prey, a thought that made her nauseous all over again, they had their shit on lock. They were strategic and made sure that the people went the way they wanted them to and damn if they weren't proficient at it. It wasn't until she saw the cowboy hat her favorite boy owned, the honey-blonde hair she'd spent a lot of time playing with, and the sword that she realized it was more of her people. When she saw the wings that graced her own back came into view on the backs of not one, but two of the people down there, she whipped her cap off and let her hair fall.
"My gods," she whispered breathlessly.
She couldn't move around too much just in case the small group beyond the fence saw her, but everyone from the prison knew her hair fell to her ass and the odd color of it. There weren't many people with a copper-tinted burgundy head of hair, either; if any of that group saw her, even from this distance, they would assume who it was. Daryl would definitely know that it was her with how long he had spent toying with it or just combing his fingers through it. She wouldn't be surprised if Merle would just because of the length and how often he said she needed to cut it. Ani redid the bun and put the cap back on after Carl entered the train car and the door was closed and locked by Terminus. The walkers should be reanimating any time, if some of them hadn't already and just hadn't been found. It wouldn't take too much longer before the time to strike would be perfect. She just had to be patient enough to wait for it and attentive enough to know the best way to help her family escape. No matter what happened to her during the fight, her family was getting out of Terminus today.
~x~
"They seemed nice enough, but I was ready to go," the new redhead, Abraham, said, as Rick looked out the gap in the train car and up at the pole Merle had said Ani was on, and sure enough, there was someone up there. "We just got here, but, damn, it was time to go. When I told them about DC, a wink and a nod from the head asshole in charge, they pulled their guns and it was right back to our regularly scheduled shit storm."
Rick wasn't sure how the hell Merle knew it was Ani up there and not just some look-out from Terminus when there was no way to tell. He and Merle had the group making make-shift weapons out of belts, nails, wood from the train car itself, anything and everything they had available to them. Even if Merle and Daryl had both sworn up and down that they'd seen Ani out there high above the rest of Terminus, they needed to depend on themselves with or without help coming their way. Daryl seemed to be working harder than ever as he helped Sophia and Carl make their weapons while thinking about Ani. More than once, he'd smiled and scoffed to himself, thinking about how she was just sitting out in the open and yet no one had even noticed her because they hadn't bothered to look up. It was just like her, too; always saying she learned from watching and then grew up on genres where fighting and warfare reigned supreme. He was happy she was at least within sight if not in reach, but he was worried about her considering how she had acted the last time she'd gone against someone. The Governor hadn't known what hit him when she attacked, but she had left a permanent mark on the minds of those in Woodbury. She tries half the shit she did then, I'm kickin' her ass when I get her, he thought to himself as he listened to the others talk.
"Before they put you in here," Sasha cut in, "you didn't see Tyreese?"
"No," Michonne answered before Maggie asked about Beth, Daryl explaining what happened.
"Black car with a white cross painted on it," he finished. "I tried to follow it, I tried."
"She's alive?"
"She's alive."
"And you said Ani's out there, inside Terminus?" Bob asked.
"That's right," Merle told them. "Don't know anyone else who's got hair you can't rightly tell what color it is, or hair swinging down 'er ass. I swear, if she don't cut it when we're all done with this, I'm hackin' it off at night!"
"Do that and I'll let Ani do to you what she did to the Claimers," Daryl warned, causing both Rick and Merle to pale.
"What'd she do?" Glenn asked.
"You don't..." Rick said with a shake of his head. "You really don't want to know."
Merle was making a cutting gesture with his fingers towards his crotch before pretending to stuff his mouth and slit his throat even as Rick said his peace. He shrugged his shoulders when Rick looked back at him after seeing the horrified expressions of the people in front of him. To be fair, Merle wanted these people to know that they were not to be fucked with. They were a strong group and he wasn't about to let them think that they were soft simply because they were being all buddy-buddy for the time being. Merle wanted them to know first hand that they didn't have a chance at fucking with their group when they had a strong, capable leader backing them. These people had no idea how right Rick had been when he said that Terminus didn't know who they were dealing with. All their people would need was the opening Ani was sure to make to fight their way out of this hell-hole. That Eugene fellow looked like he was weaker than a dying turtle and about as mean as a newborn pup; even their kids could take him out with a single punch. Red was a soldier through and through, that much was obvious, and the girl was head over heels for the man, but the smarty-pants so-called doctor seemed off. Either way, they needed to know that whatever bullshit they tried once they were out of the train car and away from Terminus wouldn't fly with them.
"Wait, so you mean to tell me, we got a psycho lumberjack out there choppin' woodies off and stuffin' 'em down throats before killin' 'em, and that's our backup?" Abraham asked while giving them all a look of 'what the actual fuck?'.
"To be fair, they weren't plannin' on bein' friendly when they found her," Daryl defended.
"That's one load of crazy I don't want to get a whiff of," the man said, causing Daryl to round on him.
"Don't call her crazy! Man, you don't even know!" he growled at him. "Think you'd do somethin' different if they wanted to rape your girl and take turns with her? Think you would?" he asked Rosita to her face. When neither of them answered, he turned around and stormed back to where he'd been working on his weapon, "That's what I thought."
Everyone fell into silence as they worked once the questions had been asked, Daryl standing to take watch after a while as a way to cool off. He was already sick of what the newcomers had to say about his wife and what she'd done to keep herself safe. It was dark, he had to admit, and a side of her he never knew about, but he still couldn't blame her for it. What he'd seen Rick himself do to the man who tried to rape Carl, Ani's actions against the Claimers were justified. He couldn't even say he would have been as nice as nice as Ani had been by killing the men first. She had clearly done it to send a message, and even if she hadn't done it on purpose, it had been rather obvious. It wasn't Ani's fault that those assholes hadn't cared about it and didn't realize that the more they chased her, the more that would be killed. After everything that girl had been through, she wouldn't let anyone who tried to take her without her consent get away with it. Merle clapped his shoulder as he passed, helping Sophia sharpen her stick as best they could given the limited amount of resources. Ani was still perched up on that pole and it set his mind at easy. Knowing she was safe for the time being allowed him to focus on the task at the same time as he tried to forget Abraham's reckless comments.
"Alright," Daryl said a short time later, looking up at Ani one last time. "Got four of them pricks comin' our way."
"You all know what to do. Go for their eyes first. Then their throats," Rick told them as they all stood at the ready with all of their makeshift weapons.
"Put your backs to the walls on either side of the car now!" someone said from the other side.
They were all waiting with baited breath, not seeing what Ani was as men climbed on top of the train car or around. Several men were waiting for the car's door to be opened after throwing something inside from a latch in the top of the thing. Inside the car, everyone started choking as the smoke bomb went off with a large flash, blinding most of them instantly. Abraham and Rosita covered Eugene while Merle had covered the kids and everyone yelled trying to figure out what was happening. Ani couldn't tell what was happening inside the car, but she watched through the scope as Rick, Daryl, Glenn, and Bob were removed from the car with bags over their heads until they were tied and gagged. She watched which way they were going and realized that it was the one closest to where she'd seen the bones. It took away two of the scenarios she had planned, making her thank the gods for the first time ever that her mind was constantly coming up with the different ways things could go. Hell, she could still remember stuff from the first grade that she thought about how she could have done it differently. Ani was usually plagued by the fact that her mind didn't let her shut off at all but for once in her damn life it was helping her. The distraction the quarrel in the car allowed Ani to take her chances and start her descension down the pole and onto the higher rooftop. Most of the patrols had been moved to two different corners; both had train cars being attacked at the same time. She didn't pay any attention to the other one, only hers, as she thought about which of her plans was best suited for the situation.
Inside the car, the group had only managed to land a few blows that didn't end even after Rick, Daryl, Glenn, and Bob were pulled out of the car. It left the guys in state of confusion, unable to tell what way they were going or even register what was happening. The sound of a saw and a muddled reflection of Rick's own face brought him back to his senses, the others already having come around at some point during transportation. Daryl was chewing at his gag, the sound of the saw and the sight of a body, a fucking human body, being cut into as if it was some trophy buck causing him to become queasy and forcing him to close his eyes. He had to remind himself that Ani was outside and she wouldn't let anything happen to them if she could help it to keep from panicking. The loss of freedom being bound had him on edge on top of what was about to happen if she didn't hurry it the fuck up. Glenn was looking at the body as if he wanted to puke, no fight in him whatsoever as he watched them sharpen knives. For what it was worth, Bob was still trying to figure out an escape plan even as his mind was plagued by what these people actually were.
"Alright," one of the guys said as the group watched them go to the guy at the end, Rick recognizing Sam at the end.
With a sharp blow to the lower back of the head, the kid was completely knocked unconscious by one man before another lifted his head and sliced his throat. The blood flowed into drain in the basin they were all knelt in front of, making several scream, grinding on Daryl's nerves all the more. His brother had just saved his life and he wouldn't even be able to tell him goodbye let alone give him a proper thanks. He'd finally caught sight of Ani, finally knew she was safe, and now he was about to die and there was not a damn thing he could do about it or to help his people. Fear caught up to him in that moment, true fear that had him believing he would never again see anyone he'd come to care about. The kind of terror that stopped his mind for a minute as he watched the blood from the next victim join with the first, and then the third. He refused to look as it was being done, keeping his eyes in front of him the entire time until they were behind Glenn. All Daryl could think about was his family, the fact that he had at least gotten a chance at being happy, as the last man fell and he and Glenn were preparing themselves for the inevitable.
"Hey guys, what were your shot counts?" Gareth asked as he walked into the room, distracting everyone as they worked.
"Thirty eight," one of them said before the man beside Glenn was knocked out and had his throat slit.
"Hey!" Gareth called out. "Your shot count?" he asked once again.
"Crap, man, I'm sorry," another guy behind them said. "It's my first round up."
"After you're done here, go back to your point and count your shells," Gareth said. "Kaylee won't be gathering them until tomorrow."
"Hey," Bob called out from around his gag. "Hey, let me talk to you!"
"Four from A, four from D?" Gareth asked, completely ignoring Bob.
"Yeah," one of the men said as Bob tried again.
"Hey, let me talk to you! Let me talk to you for a minute!"
He kept it up until Gareth rolled his eyes and removed Bob's gag with a short, "What?"
"We can fix this," Bob said quickly, as soon as the gag was out of his mouth, a desperate play to stall for time.
"No, you can't," Gareth said, going to put the gag back on.
"You don't have to do this!" Bob insisted. "We told you there's a way out of all of this. You just have to take the chance. We have a man who knows how to stop this. He has a cure. We just have to get him to Washington. You don't have to do this, man," he tried as Gareth continued writing in his journal before lazily looking over to him. "We can put the world back to how it was."
"We can't go back, Bob," Gareth said before replacing the gag, Bob insisting that they didn't have to, before he went over to Rick and took his out. "We saw you go into the woods with a bag and come out without it. Had to pull my spotters back before we could go look for it. Heard a funny story about some kind of animal lurking in the trees. Most of the spotters thought it was a cat, but one swore it was a person. What do you have to say about it?" When Rick just stared at him, as did Daryl, until Gareth shrugged and sighed. "Alright, maybe it was an animal. But the bag? You hid it right? In case things went bad?" He looked over at Daryl then, who just leveled a glare as the man commented, "Smart. Still, we'll find it. But it's too dangerous to go out there right now." Grabbing Bob, he unsheathed a knife and held it up to the man's face before asking Rick again, "What was in it? I'm curious. And it was a big bag," he said, continuing when Rick still refused to answer. "You really want me to do this?"
Rick contemplated for all of a second before saying, "Well, let me take you out there. I'll show you."
"Not gonna happen, but this might," he threatened, bringing the blade closer to Bob's eye.
"There's guns in it," Rick quickly replied, thinking it didn't matter much Ani was here somewhere and they would all get out. "AK-47, .44 Magnum. Automatic weapons, nightscope. There's a compound bow and a machete with a red handle. That's what I'm gonna use to kill you," he said.
"Thanks," Gareth told him with a chuckle as he replaced his gag, addressing the men behind them next. "You have two hours to get them on the driers before we go back to public face. Now's the time when we can get messy, but we need to dial it all in by sundown."
"Got it."
"Yes, sir."
Gareth looked like he was about to say something, but screams in the hall echoed at the same time as gunshots sounded from outside. Gareth took out his walkie and tried talking into it as more screams and gunshots rang out. Before he had even had a chance to fully ask, what sounded like an explosion and felt like an earthquake caused the entire building to shake and Gareth to stumble. What none of them hadn't been able to see was that Ani had killed two more people on the roof as she made her way towards the fuel tank she'd chosen as her target. There were three of them, two on the tracks and a propane tank on the other side of the building closer to where her men had been dragged off to. That fuel tank was too close to where Daryl and Rick had been taken and would possibly become a hindrance to their escape if it went off wrong. There was also the very real possibility that she could injure the guys herself if they were in a room too close to the blast, even if it had been a part of her original plan. She just couldn't risk making things harder for them and so went to the fuel tank that was sitting right on the tracks. It would draw the walkers in and, considering their fences were really low when considering how high the prison's fences were, they would probably overrun the things. Ani was counting on that happening to create an even bigger diversion as she knelt down and brought the rocket launcher out and aimed it at one of the tanks. As soon as the rocket was headed towards it, she dropped the launcher and ducked down to protect the twins. The explosion would have knocked her on her ass if she hadn't have anticipated it even though Bobby and Catty weren't happy at being held so close.
What she had not expected was for a third blast to go off after the initial two from her own actions, meaning someone had blown the tank she had decided against up. Cursing under her breath, she ran towards the nearest walkway on the roofs, trying to find a way to help her men inside the building get out. Shite, she thought to herself as she threw a door open, only to be met with the faces of three freshly turned walkers, one of which was one of the men she'd stashed in the stairwell; she didn't know the other two. She slammed the door shut and moved on, hoping to get inside before the entire damn place went up in flames. If she couldn't, she would have to jump to lower areas of the building and possibly have to use the damn windows themselves to get out. That wasn't something she wanted to do because she be left wide open as a target and it would immediately put Bobby and Catty in danger. It was dumb being so overprotective of kittens they could make a meal out of if they needed to, but they really had been the only reason she managed to stay sane after the cabin. She followed a path she'd seen one of the other rooftop guards take, but kept close to where she'd seen her men taken. If they got out, they'd need someone to cover their asses from the horde coming their way from not one, but two separate directions. Ani opened fire on those running towards the oncoming herds, attempting to stem the flow of walkers, making sure the dead had fresh, screaming meat at their mercy. Some people weren't worth killing herself and what better distraction for her men to get around the walkers than a free meal?
Inside, Daryl and Rick had both been knocked over by the force of the blast, both falling over on purpose so they could use their makeshift weapons to work at their bindings. Most of the men in the room had either been knocked over or stumbled in some way, to be fair, Gareth falling before standing and looking irate. He still was unable to get a hold of anyone on the walkie talkie and that was setting him on edge. It was pretty obvious that they were under attack and he glanced over at the four men they had brought in within the last two days. A part of him thought that maybe they had planned everything out before they ever even entered the compound. Another part of him figured that they had been too lax lately and whatever 'animal' had been lurking had actually been a person. No matter what the situation truly was, it had landed them in a mess of some kind that he would probably have to clean up. The first thing he had to do, though, was find out what the hell was going on outside and then he could come back in and finish the mess here.
"You, stay here," Gareth told the men behind them.
"Gareth, these guys aren't going anywhere," one of them said.
"Stay here until I know what's happening!" he shouted at them as he left the room.
"So we just sit here?" one asked the other.
"Got a job to do," he said as Glenn began to struggle against his restraints, trying to break the knot of the fabric or make it loose enough to get his hand free.
"You there, Gareth?" one of them said into a talkie as Rick and Daryl continued cutting their ropes.
"He's busy," the other guy lazily said.
"You smell the smoke?" the one in the cap asked. "You hear the shots? He could be dead! The hell we doin' here? The whole place could be goin' up?"
"You went on one roundup and you blew protocol. We don't deal with security. That ain't our job," he told him. "This is. Hey, look at me," he tried as the other man started walking away in a huff.
They both turned their backs on Rick and Daryl which ended up being a fatal mistake as they were finally able to get free from their bonds. Rick immediately attacked the man closest to him, using his wooden stake to pierce his jugular and kill him instantly. The other man got the same treatment as Daryl worked at freeing Bob and Glenn and getting them their own weapons. It still made Glenn and Bob pale when they were able to stand and saw the body on the table that had been in the middle of being carved up. To see a human being being treated like an animal, like the Dixons would when dressing a deer, was disturbing to say the least. They were all disturbed by the sight to varying degrees of nausea or anger and that made them all the more determined to get out.
"If they got problems, we got a chance," Rick told them.
"It sounded like a bomb. Was it Ani?" Glenn asked.
"Prolly. Damn girl thinks the world is a damn action flick," Daryl growled out as soon the gag was out of his mouth. "Sounds like she's wagin' a damn war."
"What the hell are these people?!" Bob asked as he headed towards one of the men to stab the brain.
"They ain't people," Daryl told him.
"Don't," Rick stopped Bob. "Let him turn."
They burst through a door, expecting it to be an escape only to walk into what looked like a butcher's shop with the way it was set up. Carving tools of all shapes and sizes were laid on tables around hanging cadavers, pieces of meat and bone separating them here and there. A torso was hung on a meat hook while a leg was on one of the tables in the middle of being dressed up like it was some sort of holiday ham. There were other areas of the room that had meat grinders and other such utensils, what looked like a string of sausage hanging close by. All of them were The similarities between human and animal when it came to how it looked as meat was disturbing to say the least as they all replaced their makeshift weapons with proper blades or pipes. Every single one of them was primed and geared for the fight ahead of them as more and more gunfire sounded outside and shouts and screams began to fill the air.
"Cross any of these people, you kill them," Rick said. "Don't hesitate. They won't."
They broke out through a door that would finally lead them to the outdoors and into the mayhem that was happening. Walkers were starting to come through the shipping crates that were stacked high and into the various outer walkways of the compound. They looked on through the window to see how things were going only to see nothing but smoke and more crates. They couldn't tell how many walkers there were or how many Terminus people they would have to face, but they had to move. Rick was watching as a small group of the monsters ran past the door and towards another part of the building. The four of them ducked down as yet another one ran past, though much closer than the last, calling for weapons and to get the horde under control. Terminus apparently had the means to take on so many walkers and still have bullets to spare with how they were talking. Either way, the walkers gave them the perfect opportunity to make their way back to 'D' to get to their people. Once they did, they could fight the walkers all the way to the fence and get to their own weapons and then they could finish it.
"If we run, we can get by them," Rick told them. "They're distracted."
"We gotta let those people out," Glenn told Rick as he listened to people screaming in a storage container close by. "That's still who we are. It's gotta be."
They ran towards the walkers with their weapons and easily took care of them before Glenn went to the shipping unit and opened the door. A crazed man immediately came out and started yelling and attracting the walkers while holding onto Glenn. It was easy for them to understand how he had lost his mind, but that didn't mean they had time to deal with it with walkers bearing down on them. Rick went to grab the man and pull him off Glenn as Bob and Daryl took out the walkers around them, but his head exploded before he even got a hold of the guy. There were more walkers coming their way and it forced them to take cover behind the shipping crate and peek out at the oncoming horde. All they had were the weapons they had picked up from the butcher room, though that didn't mean they couldn't handle themselves. They knew how to get past the walkers, but more gunfire sounded even closer to them and that was what stayed their feet.
"We gotta double back around," Bob said, not really knowing how they were going to get to the car in one piece.
"A's that way," Rick told him. "We double back, we don't know where we are."
"We don't really have a choice, do we?" Daryl asked, eyes on the horde and rooftops, hoping to spot Ani and wondering how the hell they were going to get out of this alive.
More gunfire rang out, but much closer this time, spurring Rick to look at the situation on the other side of the shipping crate. Walkers were falling as someone fired on them, and somehow he doubted that was Ani. She knew they knew how to take on droves of walkers, so she'd leave the walkers to them unless they needed help. Telling the others to stay where they, Rick made his way around to a car that was a short distance away. There, he used the broken side-mirror to see what was killing the walkers. Six of Terminus's people were shooting, very badly, at the walkers, taking body parts off before ever even managing to hit the head. He was trying to figure out a way to kill the people and get the guns when he heard and felt a walker come up behind him. It already had it's decrepit claws on him by the time he noticed it, causing him to panic slightly. If it hadn't been for Daryl ignoring his command to stay put, he probably would have died. Daryl's makeshift weapon found it's way deep into the thing's head, ending it for good as they both crouched down low as the men and women passed by, not even holding the guns properly. They were just about to make their move when rapid fire rang out from above them.
"Get the guns, ya giant lumps a chuck!" Ani's voice rang out from high above them, her loud voice ringing down the narrow alley.
Looking up at the corner of the building they were next to, they could barely make out her image through the smoke. They ran to retrieve their collection, both Rick and Daryl grabbing an automatic for everyone as Ani kept the walkers at bay for them. After they'd gotten the guns, though, she stopped firing on the walkers altogether, letting them have the people she'd gunned down from Terminus. Not even their screams were enough to grant mercy after what she'd seen them doing. She ejected her empty cartridge and slid a new one into place as she watched the two men run back to the others. It was a good thing she had been close to this area to begin with and heard the members of Terminus firing on the walkers. She hadn't expected to see Daryl, Rick, Glenn, and Bob come out of a building and release a crazy man when she got there, but it was a relief nonetheless. The only problem she was having getting off the roof was that every time she opened a door, she was either met with walkers or Terminus people. Ani was trying to come up with a plan to get to the ground but it just wasn't happening the easier way. All she could do for the time being was to support her people from the roof as best as she could until she could find a way to get to them..
"Get down here!" Daryl yelled up to her.
"I'm tryin'! Get goin'! I'll find ya! Nah matta what! I'll find ya!" she yelled back her promise, and then she was gone.
"We're gonna have to double back around," Rick told the others when he got to them and handed them their own guns.
"Was that Ani?"
"Yeah, she's here. She'll find us," Rick said, clapping Daryl's shoulder as the man looked down and his shoulders slumped.
~x~
"What the hell is goin' on?" Abraham asked as he pounded on the door again.
"Someone hit them," Michonne said.
"Maybe our people got free?" Sasha suggested.
"Or maybe our little wild child is on the move. Ain't at 'er perch no more," Merle said as he stared out the gap. "Definitely blew somethin' up. Swear she thinks this world is an action flick."
"Who is this wild child? Ani, you said?" Rosita asked.
"My sister," Sophia said.
"Yours and mine both, girly," Merle said, nudging her with his elbow.
"Hold up, you're tellin' me that the chick who cut men's dicks off and made them eat said dicks when they became undead cannibals is related to the two of you? Just how much crazy am I lookin' at here?" Abraham asked, earning a smack to the head. "Hey! Watch it!"
"Don't call her crazy," Merle said darkly. "She's braver than most men and a hell of a lot smarter than everyone. Even your scientist over there could learn a thing or two from her."
"Like what? Does she know how this thing ends?"
"She knew that we were all infected before any of us did," Sophia said indignantly. "And without anything other than observation! She didn't need to be a scientist to know."
"Well la-dee-fuckin'-da, he knows how to stop it," Abraham countered while pointing at Eugene, not believing that a little girl was standing up to him.
"So 'e says," Merle deadpanned. "Scared little dog, that's what he is. Clingin' to whatever master will keep him safe by any means necessary. Shit, you could stomp and he'd shit himself. 'Sides, Ani worked as a shrink. Might do you some good. Definitely knows when someone's lyin'."
"Oh, and how exactly will she know if he's lying or not?" Abraham demanded.
"She'll know," Merle and Sophia, along with Carl, Michonne, Maggie, and Sasha said at the same time, making the man eye them wearily.
"Now that was just some sort of next level Twilight Zone shit right there" he said.
"She's a psychologist," Maggie told him. "She was workin' with the Atlanta police while workin' on her PhD when the everything happened. Says there's little ticks and tells everyone has that you just gotta know how to look for. She's got her issues, but she knows how to read people and in between the lines when they talk."
"What kind of issues we talkin' 'bout here?"
"Does it matter? She's helping us get out," Carl responded in exasperation.
"What the hell are you doing?" Rosita asked Eugene as he barged his way past Rosita and Sasha and bent over by the door
"I might be able to use the shell to compromise the door," he told them. "From the sound of things, there may not be anybody left to open it."
"Eugene, I'm sorry," Tara, the short haired girl said. "But shut up."
"Hey," Carl spoke up, walking up behind Sophia. "My dad's gonna be back. We know Ani's out there. They will be back. They all will."
"They will," Maggie agreed. "And we need to get ready to fight our way out with them when they do."
"There's walkers," Michonne smiled.
"You hear that?" Abraham asked as the sound of gunfire continued, one particular weapon firing strangely. "Someone's takin' time to shoot out there. Your boys could very well be dead already."
"They ain't dead. Bet your bottom dollar that's Ani takin' out the Terminus folk," Merle said. "Don't sound nothin' like it did durin' that chase."
"And why the hell would she do that? How'd she even know we were here to begin with?"
"Who knows? But that's less of them we have to deal with," Michonne said, "and one more of us to fight."
They kept working on their weapons as Eugene messed with the door and Abraham contemplated the oddities around this new group. Sure, Glenn, Maggie, Sasha, and Bob had all seemed like normal people aside from Glenn and Maggie's insane missions to find each other. But the way they'd talked about their group, that Ani person in particular, was completely different than what his group had been. It was almost as if they weren't just a bunch of people stuck together at the end of the world just to get by like every other group of people he'd run across. Instead, they were a tight knit family with that Ani girl right at the epicenter of it all, holding everyone together somehow. High praises had been sung all around about how fiercely she fought to protect those around her, how she cared about everyone's physical and mental well-being. She had taught most of them a few steps above basic self defense and some of them knew even more than that. This supposedly tiny creature with amber hair and soul-crushing eyes, as Sasha had called her was the glue that had held them together at times. She was called a tornado in a bottle when she was in a good mood or worked up by Glenn and Maggie had said she had a heart of gold that wasn't afraid of putting people in their place. Bob had only known the group for about a week, but she'd taken him in with hardly any questions asked; that alone spoke of her morals. Then, there was all this action flick talk by old stump hand about her and he had to admit, he was quite curious about this person helping from the shadows.
"What's all this about action flicks?" he asked Merle as they worked.
"Oh, well, we were at this prison, you see," Merle started.
"Yeah, heard that bit, just get to the juicy bits."
"Geez," Merle huffed. "Your momma must've hated tellin' you stories. She rigged up this place we were s'pposed to meet this Governor guy at, an old feed and seed store out on Chestnut Rd past what used to be the town of Woodbury. Blew it all to hell and saved my ass in the process."
"Wait, are you talking about that mess with the fallen silos?" Rosita asked before turning to Abraham. "You remember, don't you? It was about three hours after we stopped to look around that place we found those two on the road. Eugene almost stepped on a wire rigged to a grenade."
"Holy shitballs," Abraham said, his face morphing into shock.
"There're still traps out there?" Merle asked.
"Not anymore," Rosita answered. "We searched the area, took what we could find. Which wasn't much. A couple grenades and a gun."
Sasha had been keeping quiet since the others had started talking, only now finding it impossible to keep her curiosity at bay. She hadn't been able to find her brother yet but instead had found someone who could make things right. If Tyreese was alive, there was a chance that she could find him if the world went back to normal. After everything that had happened, after crawling out of that shelter and losing their first group, after the fight with Woodbury, almost dying from that damn illness, the attack by the Governor and now this, it could all end. Sasha wanted everything to go back to normal, but what Merle had said did make sense. The man had been mum about anything related to the so-called cure he claimed to have. She wanted to believe that he could fix things, but they had nothing but his word to go on. Not even Abraham and Rosita knew what the cure was or anything about it; if they did, they were just as quiet about it as the man himself. Curiosity got the best of her as she listened to the others talking and watched the man fidget and fumble with something in his hand.
"What's the cure, Eugene?" she asked him.
"It's classified," came the immediate answer, discouraging most of the people but making Merle scoff.
Michonne chuckled, "We don't know what's gonna happen."
"You leave him be," Abraham said.
"We need to keep workin'," Maggie said, not wanting to deal with pointless conversation.
"Yeah," Sasha agreed. "But it's time to hear it. 'Cause we don't know what's comin' next."
"What's next is we get out of this," Tara chastised.
"Even if I told you all, even if I provided step-by-step instructions complete with illustrations and a detailed FAQ and I went red-ring," Eugene said while looking over at her, "the cure would still die with me."
"Awfully convenient, ain't that?" Merle said at the same time as Abraham spoke, Carl being the only one to pay attention to him and nod his head in agreement.
"I'm not gonna let that happen," Abraham said.
"The best-case scenario, we step out into a hellstorm of bullets, fire, and walkers," Eugene said. "Now, I'm not fleet of foot and sure as hell can't take a dead one down with sharp buttons and hella confidence."
"Yeah, but we can," Michonne told him. "And we will."
"You don't owe us anything," Sasha said. "Not yet. But we just want to hear it."
"You don't have to," Rosita said.
"Well, I sure as hell ain't takin' his word on blind faith alone," Merle told the woman.
Eugene thought about it for a moment; it wasn't that they were actually looking for a cure so much as hope. They wanted something to hope for so that they had a reason to fight, and if they wanted a reason to fight, that made it easier for him to survive. He had been managing to get by by giving people hope that there was a way out of this mess. Keeping up with that tactic was the most strategic play he'd had from the start, being honest. If it hadn't been for the complete stroke of luck upon finding Abraham right after the man had lost his family, he would have surely been made a meal of by now. He wasn't one who could fight and never had been and what the man missing the hand had said was correct. Eugene knew he was a coward and that he had no skill set in which he could defend himself against the dead. Sure, he was as smart as smart could get even without the knowledge he purported to know and he had used that knowledge time and time again to get his point across. Abraham, Rosita, Glenn, Tara, Sasha, Maggie, and Bob had all believed his lie, along with others along the way. It wouldn't matter much if they died before they could escape Terminus and even after that, until he had to face the truth, the more people he could sway, the more protected he would be. With nothing to lose, he stood up and began to recite the story he'd been telling himself for so long even he almost believed it.
"I was a part of a ten person research team at the Human Genome Project to weaponize diseases to fight weaponized diseases. Pathogenic microorganisms with pathogenic microorganisms. Fire with fire. Interdepartmental drinks were had, relationships made, information shared. I'm keenly aware of all the details behind fail-safe delivery systems to kill every living person on this planet," he told them with his thick southern accent. "I believe with a little tweaking on the terminals in DC, we can flip the script. Take out every last dead one of them. Fight fire with fire. All things bein' equal, that does sound pretty badass."
"So let's get back to work," Maggie said before the door started being banged against, earning all of their attention.
Ani was on the roof still, starting to cough up a storm as she watched Rick open the door to the train car, being close enough to hear him shouting, "Come on! Fight to the fence!"
"You do not leave his side!" Abraham ordered several of the group in regards to Eugene.
Ani watched as they fought to the fence, taking out any and all walkers in their way as well as any of the people from Terminus who so much as looked their way. She had kept up with them the entire time even if she was on the roof only for Rick and Merle to stop and start shooting ahead of them somewhere close to her. There were four men from Terminus aiming at her men and she had no way to get down there fast enough to do anything about it. Without giving it a second's thought, she jumped down onto a utility shed for generators, immediately falling forwards, breaking her fall by landing on three of them men firing at her boys. She quickly scrambled to her feet and unsheathed one of her knives, sweeping the legs of the last standing individual out from under him. As he landed on the ground, she plunged her knife into his heart right before being on the receiving end of a kick to the face. It damn near made her fall back onto her bag with her babies, having moved it onto her back after she started her assault, enraging her even further. In her rage, she went blind for all intents and purposes as she dropped the knife in her hand. She moved to one knee, standing and launching herself at the man with speed and precision, grabbing his larynx in what was supposed to be a Cobra Strike to his collarbone. Using the same technique she would to break his collarbone apart, she crushed his voice-box and left him to choke himself to death. The second to last man simply stood before talking as the other one ran away while she was busy, her men still standing at the fence like the idiots they were proving to be.
"So you're the one, huh?" the guy from Terminus stuttered. "The one that stashed the bodies in the stairs? The one who put Julie in the cupboard? That was you, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, that was me," she said coldly before stepping up into a high roundhouse kick, smiling at the satisfactory way he crumpled to the ground.
"Ania!" she heard Daryl scream, looking back towards him as walkers closed in.
"Go! I'm right behind ya!" she said, waving her hands as she picked up her discarded knife.
"We gotta go," Rick said. "Daryl, we gotta go!"
Daryl stared as the woman stood so close to him for the first time, yet completely out of reach, "I can't..."
"Come on, boy," Merle said, pushing him to the fence. "She'll make it out and we'll get her back. Don't worry."
That got Daryl up and over the fence, though his heart was breaking all over again; he kept leaving her behind. Merle grabbed him by the shoulder and offered him support when he popped over the fence, followed by Rick and lastly Abraham. Daryl led the procession followed by Merle as they made their way through the woods and backtracked towards the fence they'd originally come in through. He'd seen her, seen her wild hair looking more tangled than ever and wearing clothes he'd never seen before. The poncho he thought she had been in was no where to be found and there had been blood all over her. How much of that was from other people and how much of it was hers, he had no idea and that made it that much harder to walk away. Everyone else seemed to be completely alright with their missing member, but then, a lot of their members were missing. Most of their original group was still together, but they had lost over twenty people at the prison to the illness and almost an entire cellblock to the walkers it made. Their number of over seventy had been decimated to eight when Ani made it back and if the newcomers stuck around.
"Hey," he said, jogging up to a tree and kneeling down, "right here."
He unearthed the small shovel and tossed it over to Rick who dropped to his own knees and started digging as Abraham walked up, "What the hell are we still around here for?"
"Guns, some supplies," Rick answered. "Go along the fences. Use the rifles. Take out the rest of 'em."
"What?" Glenn asked.
Rick turned to look at him, dead seriousness in his voice when he said, "They don't get to live."
"Rick," Glenn said, not wanting to linger around. "We got out. It's over."
"Ania's not out," Daryl growled as Rick handed him Ani's dagger before dispersing some of the other weapons.
"It's not over, until they're all dead," Rick agreed.
"The hell it isn't," Rosita complained. "That place is on fire. Full of walkers. If that chica loca wants to run around in there, fine, but count me out."
"I'm not dickin' around with this crap," Abraham concurred. "We just made it out."
Maggie couldn't help but agree, "The fences are down. They'll run or die. Or Ani will do what she has to like she always has. But we leave that to her. We can't risk staying here."
"The hell we do!" Daryl yelled. "Always leavin' that shit to her! Just 'cause it don't affect her like it does y'all! She helped us get out and you just want to leave her!"
"Daryl," Merle tried to stop his tirade as Daryl began to get riled up.
"Naw, man!" Daryl growled, twisting out of Merle's reach and hitting his hand back. "They wanna cut their loss and run! Just like they do every damn time she's gone! Fuck that! I ain't doin' it!"
"Daryl!" Merle shouted. "She's alive! She'll stay alive until she gets back to you! Now you gotta do the same, boy! We can't do that here."
"Mom?" Sophia's whispered word stopped everyone from speaking. "Mom!" she screamed as she ran to the short-haired older woman and threw her arms around her waist.
Daryl followed close behind, giving her a tight hug himself and picked her up slightly before he put her down and asked, "Ania?"
"I saw her, but I don't know which way she went," Carol said somewhat dejected, hugging Sophia for only a moment before pulling back. "She was heading towards the fences when I got over."
Ricked walked up to her then and asked, "Did you do that?"
"Some of it. Blew up a tank right after the other one blew. I'm assuming that was Ani," she told him. "Took a few down and found Daryl's bow, and this," she said, handing him back his watch. "It really was a nice watch." Rick hugged her then, happy that she was alive and helped them. "You have to come with me," she told them.
Carol took them down the dirt road that lead deep into the woods until a small cabin came into view with someone standing in front of it. Carl and Rick dropped everything in their hands the minute they saw the person and who he was holding as Sasha cried out in joy and joined them a moment later. Tyreese was holding Judith in his arms as he walked down the few steps to the cabin's porch and met them, handing Judith over for Rick and Carl to smother. Sasha cried into Tyreese's hug as the others from their group watched on at the happy reunion. Daryl, on the other hand, for as happy as he was to have Carol back and that Little Ass-Kicker was safe, Ani was still no where to be seen. All he'd managed was to get a few glimpses of her and they all got to be together with their loved ones again. It wasn't like he wasn't grateful to still have his brother around, but it was different when it came to Ani; it would always be different.
"Have you seen Ania?" he asked the man as Tyreese clasped Rick on the shoulder.
"No. Was she there?" Tyreese asked.
"Yeah."
"We'll wait a bit," Rick said. "See if she catches up."
After about an hour and learning from Tyreese that he had killed a member of Terminus inside the cabin, Rick began feeling restless. They were still too close to that place for his liking, and they didn't know if anyone was still there. Daryl had taken to pacing as time wore on, Carol having given him back his crossbow when they met up with her. He wondered just how well it was going to go over with the younger Dixon when the time came and they needed to leave. He couldn't blame Daryl for his reaction to seeing Ani and then her being gone all over again. Rick still saw Lori from time to time, though it had gotten to be so much less since he laid down his gun, so he knew what the man was feeling well. It had always been worse when fear, pain, or regret plagued his mind and he could see it happening in the man's eyes as he paced. Whether or not any of them liked the thought of leaving her alone again, they would have to get moving again. He waited about fifteen more minutes before he spoke up as he looked at the rolling black smoke still rising in the distance.
"I don't know if the fire's still burnin'," he commented.
"It is," Carol told him, remembering what Mika had said.
"Yeah," Rick said while ringing his hands. "We need to go."
"Naw," Daryl said.
"Daryl, she'll find us. There's enough of us in this group to leave a trail that girl can see a mile away. I know you want her back, but we can't stay here. It's going to be gettin' dark soon. We have to go," he emphasized while pulling on the man.
"Y'all go, then! I'm stayin' 'til she gets here!"
"And what if you get caught alone with survivors of that place?" Rick reasoned. "We know she's alive. She promised she would find you, right? You gotta trust her."
"I can't just leave her!"
"Mate, you ain't gonna like hearin' this, but you gotta pull your head outta your ass and put your listenin' ears on," Abraham said, coming to stand in front of Daryl as he became more and more enraged. "We cannot jeopardize our mission for one broad. We need to get our asses moving before we end up in a donner party type situation here. We are moving on, without or without the woman."
"Fuck you!" Daryl yelled, ready to push the man when Merle stepped in the way.
"Now, calm down, baby brother. We can't stay here. There's enough of us to leave a trail. She'll find it and get back to us."
"Y'all can go, then!" Daryl growled out as he slapped his brother's hand away and took a step back.
"Don't make me knock your teeth in, son," Merle shot back just as angrily. "You think I wanna split out on 'er? We ain't got a choice. Now pull your head out your ass. We're leavin'."
Daryl punched Merle right in the face when he was finished talking, knocking the man down before he stormed off. She'd been left to disappear at the quarry because of excuses, left to find her own way on the farm because of excuses, and now she was being left behind again because of excuses. At the quarry, Shane and Lori had said that she'd left on her own, she could return on her own and refused to even look for her. It had been one thing after another at the farm; either too hurt, too inexperienced, or plain and simple doing some other bullshit rather than trying to find the girls. They owed a lot to his girl and he was sick of them treating her like she could do it all on her own. She was going to be on the verge of a breakdown by the time she got back, if not right back to not talking because she'd been on her own. Everything he'd worked on helping her come to terms with, everything he'd tried to build up in her, there was a chance it was all gone because she'd been on her own for the last week. What she had been through with the Claimers, what she had been through in Terminus; Daryl wasn't sure if he was going to get his wife back or his wife's shadow like she'd been over the winter. However she came back to him, he swore he was never letting her out of his sight again. He was never going to let the group treat her like an expendable asset again. No matter what happened, Daryl wasn't going to keep letting Ani take the brunt of the danger anymore.
"What's his deal about her anyway?" Rosita asked, watching Daryl's back along with the other newcomers.
"Remember how I said she's my sister?" Merle asked as he stood up and pointed at the man. "Yeah, that's my brother, and she's his wife."