***TRIGGER WARNING**
Chapter contains violence, death of bad guys, and attempted sexual assault. Please read with caution.
Ryleigh was walking behind Carl and Michonne as they attempted to balance on opposite sides of the tracks, trying to outdo each other. It was cute, the relationship they'd developed. They needed each other and it was nice to see Carl behave like a kid for once. Rick had his head bent down as he walked ahead of the group. It was awkward between him and Carl at the moment, and none of them knew how to alleviate it. Rick was completely oblivious to Michonne and Carl's antics as he spoke up from his position. "I think we've got about a day's worth of water left." He said with a sigh. "We're lucky it's cooled off a little, but…" His voice trailed off as he stopped his stride and turned around. A ghost of a smile appeared on his face as he saw what Michonne and Carl were doing. "What are you doing?" he asked. Carl chuckled slightly as he answered his father. "Winning a bet." Michonne scoffed as she kept her eyes on her feet. "In your dreams!" she exclaimed. Ryleigh made eye contact with Rick and both of them grinned at each other. Carl's voice wavered as he responded.
"I'm still on." He said and waved an arm at Michonne, trying to distract her. It only caused her to laugh because Carl almost lost his balance. "Spoke too soon, wise guy." She laughed. Rick started walking towards them, not wanting to interrupt their game, but knowing they needed to pick up the pace. "This might go on awhile," he said. "Maybe we can speed this up?" Michonne just kept her gaze on her feet with her arms out to her sides for balance as she replied. "Yeah, you're right," she replied. "Shouldn't be fooling around. We should probably, Carl!" she yelled, trying to distract the young boy, but only ended up losing her balance and falling off. Ryleigh couldn't help the soft peal of laughter that shook her body at the older woman's defeated look. Carl smiled hugely as he stayed on the tracks and faced her. "I win, pay up." He held out his hand expectantly to her. Michonne pouted as she glanced at him and dug through her bag. Rick joined Ryleigh in her laughter as he too watched on in amusement. She held out two candy bars to the boy, keeping the Big Kat bar towards her, hoping Carl would take the Cruncho bar. Carl looked at her hand, licking his lips in anticipation. "Is that really the last Big Kat?" He asked. When he reached for it, Michonne's pout got worse as she complained. "Oh come on!" Carl couldn't stop laughing.
"Hey, but you said, winner's choice." Michonne sighed as she glanced back at Ryleigh, causing her to shrug and continue to laugh silently at the situation. Michonne pouted more as she shoved the Cruncho back in her bag. "Go ahead, take it." She said defeatedly. "It's yours, you won it fair and square." Ryleigh watched as Carl broke open the bar and pulled a third of the bar off and handed it to Michonne. When she hesitated, he just held it out further. "Come on, we always share." Michonne grinned at the boy and took the chocolate. "Fork it over." She said softly. Ryleigh started to walk forward again when Carl looked back and held out another third of chocolate to her. Carl scoffed as he shook his hand at her. "Come on Rye, it's tradition that the three of us share the sweets." Rick chuckled at the girl's reluctance to take his son's prize, but Ryleigh took it with a big smile and used her free arm to wrap around his shoulders. Carl didn't shrug out of her embrace, just kept grinning which warmed her heart. Rick nodded at the sight in front of him before walking again.
They continued to walk for a few more hours, but then moved off the tracks so they could put up snares and setup their camp. While Rick set the snares, Ryleigh and Michonne created a perimeter of cans and pieces of aluminum they'd found so they would hear if walkers or something else stumbled upon their camp. Ryleigh was extremely hungry and desperately needed a shower. She'd even be happy with a small creek so she could wash some of the grime off her body. Most of all, she wanted to see Daryl again. She hoped he was okay. She had no doubt he was, but living it versus watching it was a very different thing. She knew in the back of her head what was taking place with the rest of the characters, but here she was with Rick's group. She knew what was going to happen and she was terrified of it. Rick walked back to camp and slipped under the ropes and smiled at her. He and Carl carried wood and built a fire. He set a can of beans on top of the makeshift grill he made and glanced at his son. "How hungry are you, scale of one to ten?" he asked. Carl looked up at them with a grin on his face as he deadpanned "15." He turned his head to Ryleigh who sighed, "22." She spoke. Michonne also kept her stoic expression when Rick's gaze landed on her. "28." Ryleigh watched as the man bent his head and chuckled at the three of them. "Yeah." He sighed as he shook the can of beans and divided it up between them. It was a lot and went quickly. Afterward, he stood up and looked at all three of them.
"Well, it's been a while. I'm going to check the snares." Carl looked up at his dad curiously. "Can I go with you?" He asked him. Rick smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "Well how else are you gonna learn?" He asked the kid. He stood up and kicked dirt onto the fire to kill it before it got too dark, and he addressed them. "Hey, you two, come on, you need to learn as well." Michonne and Ryleigh exchanged glances before standing up and grabbing their weapons, following behind the two males. Rick led them to where he had the snares setup, hoping to catch enough food to move on towards Terminus. "Well stay another day or two," he began. "Get some more rest." Ryleigh nodded and spoke up from behind him. "Finish healing up?" she asked to which he nodded and said, "I'm almost there." They walked further on before Carl spoke up, looking between the adults. "We're close now, right?" he inquired nervously. Rick asked if he meant Terminus and confirmed they were close.
None of them expected the question that Carl asked next. "When we get there," he hesitated. "Are we gonna tell them?" Michonne exchanged worried glances with Rick before responding. "Tell them what?" Carl paused before meeting Michonne's eyes. "Everything that's happened to us and all the stuff we've done." He stated blandly. "Are we gonna tell them the truth?" Ryleigh watched as Rick sighed and bent his head, his hands in his pockets. "We're going to tell them who we are." He explained. Carl shook his head, something was clearly bothering him. "But how do you say that? I mean…who are we?" They could see that Rick was struggling to find an answer, but he was saved from answering when the familiar snarl of a walker reached their ears. Michonne pulled her sword out and walked towards it, confidently, and sliced its head off. They didn't pause their walk and finally made it to one of the snares that caught a rabbit. Carl lamented how small it was, but Ryleigh was thankful that they'd have something at least. She watched as Rick went over the slipknot snare and set it back up. Carl watched him, riveted, when they heard someone screaming for help. Carl ran away before anyone could react. Rick called after him and tried to get him to stop, but he kept running. They couldn't do anything except run after him. They came up to a man completely surrounded by more than twenty walkers. Carl tried to rush into the field, but Rick grabbed him and kept him quiet. Ryleigh closed her eyes and covered her ears as the man's frightened screams turned into ones of agony as the walkers took him down. She could hear Rick quietly telling Carl that they couldn't help him because there were too many. However, she was just trying to drown it all out. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Michonne's sympathetic expression, motioning for her to follow her. "We gotta go!" She didn't hesitate to run behind the older woman, wanting to get away from the scene.
When they got back to the tracks, they just ran. They didn't want to let the walkers catch up, so they ran until they were unable to run anymore. They could still hear the herd, but they kept moving, hoping to lose them. Michonne pulled them off the tracks and onto a side road, having finally lost the herd. "I thought maybe there'd be some houses down this way," she panted from exhaustion. "Maybe even a store. There's gotta be some food around here somewhere." As they rose over a hill, Carl called their attention to a blue SUV with the back door open. They walked over to it and searched through it. Michonne took care of a particularly gross walker that looked partially melted into the pavement. Rick decided that they should use the car to camp. Michonne and Rick were going to take first watch, so Ryleigh crawled into the backseat with Carl and let the boy lean on her shoulder so they could try and get some sleep. She could hear the low voices of Rick and Michonne but couldn't make out their words as she began to finally doze off.
Ryleigh and Carl were rudely awoken by a bang on the side of the car. She jerked up from her laid-back position and her eyes widened at the man standing next to the car. She didn't hesitate, she jerked her hand down on the lock, having already locked the front seat. Carl followed her motion and locked his side too. She looked forward and saw that several men had surrounded their camp and Rick and Michonne were being held at gunpoint. She could tell the man was speaking, giving a pompous speech, but she and Carl couldn't hear it inside the car. The man next to the car tapped his hand on the glass, grinning, and exposing his yellow teeth to them. Carl gripped her arm, and she could tell he was just as terrified as she was. She heard the man's next words because he yelled. "Shit and here I was thinking of turning in early on New Year's Eve!" he shouted. "No who's gonna count down the ball dropper with me, huh?" It was then that he began to count, and she glanced over at Carl. "Just look at me, okay?" she told him. "Don't look out there, we're going to be okay." Carl met her eyes, full of fear as he nodded at her. The guy kept tapping on the car side, chuckling at her. When she heard a familiar voice next to Carl's window, she gasped. "Joe!" She turned and locked eyes with Daryl. He gave her a tiny nod before moving towards the front of the car.
She couldn't hear the rest of the conversation, but she could see the way that Daryl was looking between Rick, Michonne, and the car. The man holding the gun to Rick's head was becoming more and more agitated as Daryl spoke. She watched as Daryl dropped his crossbow and held his hands up, his bottom lip quivering as he pleaded with them. She couldn't hear anything until she heard the man Daryl called Joe yell "It's a lie!" She screamed when the man next to Daryl hit him in the gut with the butt of his gun. She heard Joe yell for his comrades to teach him all the way and she hated watching him get hurt for trying to protect them. His body hit the side of the car and she jumped as his eyes met hers again before he fell to the ground. Ryleigh was so distracted by what was happening to Daryl that she didn't notice the man outside picking the lock on the door until it was wrenched open. The man leaned in and gripped her hair tightly. "Come here!" he growled at her, his foul breath overwhelming her senses. At the sharp tug on her scalp, Ryleigh let out a sharp yelp. Michonne screamed, "No!" as she struggled against the man's hold. She heard a sharp crack and assumed that someone slapped her. As he held a knife to her throat, she couldn't stop the tears that streamed down her face. "You leave her be!" Rick screamed as he tried to get up from the ground. She heard Carl yell as he launched himself at the man. However, the man pushed him off easily and slammed him into the car. She watched in horror as Carl hit his head on the side of the car and slumped to the ground, unconscious.
She continued to struggle as the knife bit into her neck. He bit her ear and shushed her, using his free hand to stroke her hair. Rick spoke to the man who had the gun on his head, trying to get them to leave everyone else alone. "Listen, it was me. It was just me." He pleaded. "Please let them go." The man threw a hand up and nodded. "See, now that's right!" He stated. "That's not some damn lie. Look, we can settle this, we're reasonable men. First, we're going to beat Daryl to death. Then we'll have the girls, and then the boy. Then I'm going to shoot you and we'll be square." Ryleigh knew true fear when the man started laughing at his own words. He was truly psychotic. She couldn't react because the man removed the knife from her neck only to roughly shove her to the ground. She tried to crawl forward, but he grabbed her legs and pulled her back to him. She kicked out and screamed. She heard Rick tell them to let her go in a dangerous voice, but she fought with everything in her being. He leaned over her and sneered at her. "Stop your squirming!" he yelled and grabbed one of her hands. She lashed out with her other hand, scratching his face and making him yell. He swore and when his fist connected with her face, stars burst in her eyes. He just laughed as she continued to try and fight him off as she cried. She didn't know what happened next, just that a gunshot rang out. The man who pinned her down paused and she tried with renewed energy to get him off her. After what seemed like forever, more gunshots rang out and she was yanked to her feet, the man holding the knife to her throat once more.
Michonne stood in front of her with a gun pointed at them. He panicked and began screaming at her. "I'll kill her! I will, I'll kill her!" Michonne scowled at him, keeping her gun pointed at them. "Let the girl go!" she yelled at him. She watched as Rick stood up, completely covered in blood from his face to his torso. He held a knife as he regarded the man holding her. "He's mine." He said dangerously. He moved past Michonne, and the man was so flustered that he let her go and she stumbled into Michonne's waiting arms. Michonne cradled her to her chest as she sobbed into her arms, listening to the sounds of Rick killing her assailant. Michonne stroked her hair and whispered in her ear that everything was going to be okay. After a moment, she pulled away from Michonne, still shaking as she looked up at her. "We need-we need to check on Carl." Michonne looked over her shoulder and her eyes softened. When she turned around, she saw Carl clutching his father. However, when he made eye contact with her, he broke away and crashed into her. Ryleigh wrapped her arms around the young boy as he cried and apologized to her. "I'm so sorry, Rye! I-I tried to stop him, I'm sorry." Ryleigh closed her eyes as she rocked Carl back and forth and shushed him. "Carl, sweetheart, you were so brave. I'm okay, he didn't do anything other than hit me, I'm okay buddy." He looked up at her then, his eyes puffy from crying. "You promise?" He asked. Ryleigh leaned forward and placed a kiss on his forehead and nodded. "I promise, Carl, I'll be okay."
When she let go of Carl, she struggled to stand up because her legs were shaky. When strong hands grabbed her shoulder, she jumped and tried to get away until she heard his voice. "Hey, darlin, it's just me." Daryl's voice sounded behind her. She turned to face him, and her face crumpled once more. Daryl wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her to him as she started to cry again. He used one hand to cup her cheek and kissed her forehead. "You're safe, Rye, I got ya."
