Chapter 34: Bloody Hands
Riley's eyes snapped open. Her ears honed in on shouting and she stiffly sat up. Though she felt a little warm, the blistering fever raging her body seemed to have died down. Thank goodness. That meant the penicillin was working. A relieved laugh escaped her lips and she grinned from ear to ear, rolling over to her hands and knees. Her body was achy, but she felt so much better than before. Of course, the rippling pain from her injury was still there, but she didn't feel like she was about to die any second.
Another shout caught her attention and she realized where she was and how vulnerable she was. Quickly, she stuffed the penicillin in her backpack along with the needle and a few extras. She picked up the rifle that had fallen from her shoulder and shuffled toward the door. Somehow, no walkers had come crashing through the door but if there were others around, they had a distraction.
Carefully, she peered out of the window on the door, looking for any moving bodies. A few walkers trudged on by, but they were heading to the end of the hall. Her hand hovered over the door but she froze when she spotted more figures coming and the shadows of axes and knives plunging into the dead cast on the wall.
She quickly ducked down, swapping out the rifle for her knife, and waiting as she heard the growls of the dead cease. The footsteps got louder and louder and she slowly backed up until she was behind the center island of the room.
"This it?" a gruff voice asked.
"Think so. Looks like it's been tampered with. Think there's anything left?" another spoke, louder than the first.
"Probably not. But Negan wants this place stripped."
The door creaked open and she drew in a quiet, shaky breath. She was lucky to wake when she had or else she might have been in some serious trouble. At least now she could defend herself.
Adrenaline blocked out the pain and she waited anxiously as the two men shuffled through some drawers and cabinets. There wouldn't be a way around killing these men. And if they had the same boss as the group of men who tried to capture her before... Who was this Negan guy? It seemed like he had a whole army on his side.
As soon as Riley saw the looming figure turn the corner where she was, she leaped up, sinking her knife into the side of his neck. He let out a scream as the blood oozed from the wound and she yanked it out, ducking down as she heard the other buddy yell some profanities at the sight of his buddy dying. She winced, pressing her back against the island again as the dead man collapsed at her feet, slick red blood pooling out beneath her shoes.
"You're gonna pay for that!" the other man shouted, recovering from his initial shock and then sprinting forward.
Her shoes slipped in the blood but she was able to scramble to the other side of the island before he could get to her. Her breaths increased and she pressed a bloody hand print to the counter.
"Get back here, you little bitch!"
Hands grabbed her throat from behind and she thrashed, sucking in a deep breath just before her windpipe constricted from the pressure. She gasped and squirmed as he lifted her and slammed her back into the counter. He hovered over her, still holding her throat tightly.
She could see that he had dark hair covered by a beanie and nasty blue eyes that stabbed into her own.
"Hey...aren't you the girl that took out half of Simon's crew? Damn, maybe I should keep you alive," he mused.
Her air was getting low and she felt around behind her for the knife that had fallen when she was hoisted into the air. The blood surged to her head as she felt the bloody hilt and she swiftly swung, embedding it into his shoulder. His grip slackened and she sucked in a breath.
A loud cry escaped his lips and she didn't waste time in pulling it out and then embedding it again in his chest. That kept him down long enough for her to scramble away to the door. With all her strength, she burst through, scanning the hallways immediately for any signs of walkers. All of them were dead on the ground. That could only mean this crew was a lot bigger than the last.
Practically jumping over dead bodies, she tried to remember the way she came. Who knew how long ago it had been? The memories were fuzzy in her brain and her half-dead state probably hadn't helped much. So she turned her attention instead to the markers on the wall, finding the stairwell pretty quickly and heading up. As she got to the top, she heard some voices and decided to pause, listening carefully to try and gauge how close they were.
The voices sounded faint and she dared to open the door a crack, spotting a few figures at the end of the hall conversing in a small circle. Their attention was lax so she slipped out of the door, heading down the hall. More footsteps caught her attention and she took a detour into an empty room, crouching by the door and keeping the knife close to her chest in case any of them came inside. Lucky for her, they simply walked past and she could slip down the hall once more.
At the end of the hall, she came upon the room that she climbed in to get inside. She ducked down as someone passed, but then quickly moved up, taking a moment to peer out the window.
"Hey!"
Her heart leaped in her throat and she spun, coming face to face with one of the other goons that must have wandered inside.
Without a word, she ducked between his legs and used a nearby chair to shove into him. He toppled over and she made a mad dash for the window once more, only to be pulled to her stomach as he grabbed onto her ankle.
"Get off!" she growled, flinging her hand with the knife down on his wrist.
The blade plunged into his arm and she kicked him in the face as he shouted and screamed in pain. Withdrawing the blade, she sprinted back to the window and launched herself out, instinctively plunging her knife into the next neck that came close enough. Her vision tunneled as she hurried down the side of the hospital toward the parking lot and then dived behind a car for cover.
Riley caught her breath, keeping the knife clutched in her hand and close to her chest. She could hear the shouts and searching of the men as she pressed her body against the car. What was she going to do? Slowly, she peeked through the window of the car to try and get a good look at her surroundings. Coming from the right, she could see a group of three men searching. Right in the middle of the lot was a much larger group, maybe seven or eight men.
By the group that was coming toward her right, she could see another car. More cover if she could get to it. And the men had varying degrees of weapons, mostly guns.
Swallowing thickly, she looked to see how many rifle bullets she had. Four total. Okay...
She took a deep breath and readied the rifle, scooting more to the right of the car until she was at the very edge. The group stopped for a moment, shouting something at the other group across the lot, and she took her chance.
Popping up and resting the rifle on the trunk of the car, she fired, sending a bullet right through the center guy's chest. The rifle only had the capacity for two rounds, so she quickly clicked another bullet in the chamber and aimed at the next guy as he ran for cover. Her bullet just got his shoulder before he dived down and she retracted so that she could reload. She fumbled with the bullets but quickly put them in and cocked the first one in the chamber.
Carefully, she looked around the side of the car to see where the other man had gone. As soon as her head popped out of cover, bullets came whizzing toward her and she retreated, heart picking up speed as she did so. How was she going to get out of this? They were coming in from all sides and shooting at her whenever she moved. She had to be smarter than they were, use her size and speed to her advantage.
Her eyes scanned underneath the car to try and see where everyone was. She could see a few people underneath the cars across the lot and one using the car she wanted to get to as cover. A plan started to form in her mind and she brought the rifle down to the ground, turning her attention to the lone man. She could see one of his feet slightly poking out from behind the tire and she turned her aim there.
Carefully, she lined the shot up just right and fired. The bullet went right through his leg and as soon as she heard his scream of pain, she darted out of cover. The bullets started up and she didn't slow down, only pausing for a fraction of a second to scoop up the two handguns that the men she killed before had dropped.
When she reached the other car, she delivered a swift kick to the man's nose and crouched down, pulling her knife out a killing him with a swift jab to the temple. Shouldering her rifle, she took the two handguns and made sure they were ready to fire. They were loaded, all the way, and she had to admit she didn't think she had ever seen guns with so much ammo. About ten rounds in each.
"Somebody, grab her!" she heard someone shout, followed by footsteps.
Riley jumped up from the cover and aimed both her guns at the slew of men that came running out from behind the car. With one in each hand, she started to shoot, one bullet after the next.
Several of them went down within a few seconds and then the empty click of the guns signaled she had run out pretty fast. So she quickly ducked back down and began to slink toward the hospital building once more. Just as she got to the corner, a bullet whizzed past her head, skimming her cheek.
"She's making a break for it!"
Was she ever going to get a break? She had to find a way to get away or take them all out. As she ran to the back of the hospital, she reached up to feel the small trickle of blood dripping down her stinging cheek. That had been really close. Almost a head shot. Almost dead.
When she reached the back of the hospital, she stopped to catch her breath. She pressed her back against the wall and took in deep, short breaths as her heart thudded a mile a minute. Her blue eyes scanned the area around her, trying to figure out where she could go to get away from these guys. It seemed like there was a little development of apartments across the clearing behind the place, but it would be a long stretch of open field and the potential to get shot was pretty high.
It seemed like the grass was about shoulder-height, so if she was careful, maybe she could crouch down and make it more difficult for them to spot her. It was the only solid plan she had, so she took a moment to peer around the corner to see if she could spot any of them. So far, no one had made it far enough for her to see, but she could still hear them yelling at one another.
A firm grip suddenly grabbed her arm and she was pulled roughly to a strong chest, an arm slinging under her chin to press against her throat as she began to struggle.
"I got her!" he yelled, keeping her held tightly to prevent her from escaping or reaching her weapons.
"Let got of me," she growled, sucking in a breath as her airway closed up.
Her only instinct was to chomp down on the exposed arm of this man and it worked a lot better than she planned.
Blood oozed between her lips and he screamed, grip slackening enough for her to wiggle free. With a knee to his groin, he was on the ground and she didn't hesitate to knife him in the neck. Her hands were beginning to shake from each life she took, the reality of the situation beginning to sink in. She had definitely taken over ten lives just today.
However more shouting rattled her out of her thoughts and she quickly took the dead guy's gun, dropping the empty ones, and diving into the tall grass. She scrambled for a few seconds on her hands and knees before she paused to listen. They had to be just where she was a second ago by now and she drew in shaky breaths, waiting as they tried to discuss a plan amonst themselves. Maybe if she stayed here long enough, they would leave and she wouldn't have to reach the apartments. Holding her breath, she waited, pressing her forehead to the ground.
"Wait...see that blood? She went into the grass!"
She ground her teeth, clutching the gun and beginning to crawl again, trying to keep her movements slow and steady so it didn't look like she was even in the grass. Feet came thundering by her and she almost yelped as a body zipped right past her. She braced herself firmly on the ground and slowly started to crawl again, this time peeking up through the strands of grass to see where everyone was.
A total of about ten more remained and all of them had gone ahead and then slowed down, turning in every direction to try and look for her in the tall grass. She didn't have many bullets in the gun she took, but she could carefully sneak up behind them and take them out, one by one, with her knife.
For what seemed like the thousandth time, she switched out her weapons, tucking her knife in her hand. It was easy to slip up to the guy furthest from the rest and she remained behind him for a moment until she was sure it was clear.
She sprung on his back, jabbing the knife into his neck and then dropping back into the cover of the grass. Killing was getting too easy.
Biting down on her lip, her eyes glossed over her bloody hands before she quickly checked the guy for bullets and then moved up. Slowly and silently, she moved with the grass, taking the opportunity when the wind blew to use as cover. Each man that dropped to her feet felt like a hundred pounds on her mind, but she pushed forward. She got about seven of the men killed before she saw the opportunity to escape.
The last three had wandered far on the other side of the field and she slunk through the grass until she reached the apartments. By then, her heart beat had slowed to a normal pace, but she didn't stop. She kept going, starting up a light jog as she rounded the apartments and went to the street. A couple walkers spotted her, but she easily breezed past them and headed toward the highway, following each and every sign until she got back on track.
She knew that they couldn't know where she was by now so she slowed to a walk, letting everything finally wash over her. Her wound started to throb again, but she checked to see that only one stitch had popped loose and it actually looked to be healing. That penicillin had saved her life.
And somehow, through whatever luck the universe was giving her, she had made it through the waves of men with only a scrape on her cheek and a sore neck. She was so much closer to reuniting with her family.
Night crept upon her and she decided to stop and climb up a tree on the side of the highway to rest. And as she leaned against the trunk of the tree and looked down at her lap in the darkness, she could finally feel the rush of thoughts and emotions that hit her. She had killed so many people and so much blood was on her hands now. Quite literally. Her hands up to the middle of her forearms were coated in dried, sticky blood. Of course, she would do anything to fight for her life and the lives of the people she cared about, but each life gone took a toll.
Riley never realized how powerful one person alone could be. A single person could save numerous lives, take numerous lives, and ruin the lives of everyone standing to watch the aftermath. She had saved her own life and ended countless others, many of which had families or people that cared about them. But she couldn't see herself as the bad guy, no matter how hard it was to come to terms with the fact that she was a killer.
They had tried to take her and kill her. The wolves had tried to kill her and Carl and the rest of her family. The Terminus group had tried to eat them. And Joe's group had tried to rape them. These men weren't good. Taking a life to protect herself was a necessary evil. That was what she determined.
If she had to kill one man to save herself from being killed, that was what had to happen. And if she had to kill a thousand men to protect Carl and her new family, so be it.
Bloody hands could be cleaned and bruised knuckles could heal, though the lasting scars on her mind, skin, and soul would remain. But in the end, that was just a part of surviving.
A/N: Ahh it's been so long! Here's the next chapter! Intense? Hopefully, that was what I was aiming for haha. I aimed to make this chapter very similar to certain parts of The Last of Us. If you have played the game, I tried to make it like the winter season where Ellie had to kill dozens of men to try and get back to Joel. One of my favorite parts of the game so I had a lot of inspiration from it. Anyway, after this I think I'm going to have ONE more chapter of Riley separate from everyone before she returns. Then it'll get realllyyy interesting. And feelsy. But anyway, in other news, I have started a new story to go along with Fear the Walking Dead. It's called Grow Up and it's a ChrisxOc/a fix it fic. If you know what happens at the end of season 2, you'll know what I mean. So if you like Fear the Walking Dead, I already have three chapters up for that and you can find it on my profile if you're interested! I'm going to have the next chapter of this up on the 21st of July. I really hope that you enjoyed this chapter and thank you so much for all the support, reviews and otherwise, especially over the off-season of Walking Dead where I'm not updating as much. You guys are seriously awesome and I'm so grateful that you like my story! :)
