Red River Blue
Chapter 27
"Shit, that's a lot of fuckin' biters," Merle groused, shading his eyes with his hand and glancing at the large herd that was slowly advancing on them. Their plan was to get Sam and go back to Hilltop. They didn't plan on being chased down by hundreds of pet walkers. But then again, they didn't plan on bringing Lydia back with them either. Not that Merle was really angry about that. After his experience in Woodbury, he developed a strong dislike for groups with compulsory membership. The problem wasn't that Lydia came with them. The problem was they couldn't go back to Hilltop with a hundred walkers breathing down their necks.
"We've got a pit stop nearby," Glenn said, ticking his head towards a building down the road. Merle nodded, wavering between his desire to take to higher ground and his hesitancy to duck inside a building only to have it surrounded by this herd. Normally, they could hide somewhere and just let the herd pass them by. But with people controlling the movements of the dead, that wasn't likely to happen. Merle exchanged glances with his brother, wanting to see what Daryl's opinion was. From the expression on his face, Merle could tell that Daryl was having the same internal conflict that he was.
"We've got to make a stand somewhere," Rick said. "We can't run forever."
Merle hesitated for another moment before he bobbed his head and turned to follow Glenn into the building he indicated. Once they were inside, Merle immediately began to survey the possible entrances and exits. There was an elevator shaft. But Merle doubted anyone could come up that way. Not unless they had something they could pry the doors open with. And there was one set of stairs going up. They took the stairs up to the second floor. The building looked to have been under construction when the outbreak happened. There were large sheets of plastic hanging from the ceiling. And warped lengths of treated wood and pressboard were heaped in random piles. Glenn lifted a sheet of particle board off the floor, revealing a small stash of food and weapons hidden underneath. He handed out a few bottled waters, leaving the rest of the contents undisturbed for the present.
"What's the plan?," Sam asked, his throat bobbing as he chugged down the rest of his water.
"Yer grounded fer the rest of yer life!," Daryl huffed. "That's yer plan!" He narrowed his eyes at the young man before turning his attention to the girl that was clinging to his son's hand. "And yer grounded too!," he announced, pointing at Lydia. "Both y'all are in fuckin' trouble!" Sam snorted out a laugh, wrapping his arm around Lydia and tucking her into his side. "This isn't funny!," Daryl hollered, continuing with his angry tirade. "Yer both fuckin' idiots! Ya snuck into her camp by yerself. Without tellin' anyone where you were goin'. And instead of sneaking her out, ya both stayed there and got fuckin' caught. Ya coulda been killed! Never seen such dumbass shit in my fuckin' life!"
Lydia's body went rigid with fear when Sam released his hold on her and stepped closer to the angry crossbow wielding man.
"I'm sorry," Sam said. It was his dad grounding Lydia that made him laugh. Sam actually felt bad about taking off and making his family worry about him. He set his hand on Daryl's shoulder, giving it a quick squeeze before he moved in closer and wrapped his arms around the man. Sam got his height from his biological father. Which meant he'd been taller than Daryl since he was thirteen. But that didn't stop Daryl from almost lifting the younger man off his feet with the force of his embrace. Sam leaned down, pressing his forehead against Daryl's briefly. It was a common form of affection in their household. His mom liked to pull him and Mika down and kiss them on their foreheads. Daryl would just lean in and bump his head against theirs.
"Ya scared the shit outta me," Daryl said, his gruff voice finally lowered to a normal volume.
"I know," Sam said, repeating again how sorry he was.
Sam moved away from his father, returning to Lydia's side. She had a strange expression of sadness and longing on her face. One that made him wonder how long it had been since she got a hug from her mother. Or from anyone. If Sam ever needed a hug, all he had to do was look for his Aunt River. She always seemed to know when someone needed a hug. Wrapping his arms around her, Sam pulled Lydia against his chest and squeezed until Merle and Rick started hollering at him to let her go and help them. They were blocking off the bottom of the stairwell while Glenn used a small CB radio to contact Hilltop.
"This won't keep the living out," Sam said, looking at the large pile of wood and busted up furniture that they piled up in the stairwell. It was substantial enough to keep the walkers from climbing the stairs. But a person could navigate the barricade easily enough.
"It's not meant to," Merle said, giving Sam a pointed glance. The boy nodded, understanding now the barricade was meant to separate the living from the dead so they could be eliminated. "You up for this?," Merle asked, noticing the look of concern on Sam's face. Same nodded. This wasn't his first skirmish with another group, though this was the first time he'd been involved in taking on members of a group this large. He would do what he needed to do to survive. He wasn't worried about that. He was worried about how Lydia was going to feel seeing her people killed in front of her. Because Alexandria didn't take prisoners.
Sam pulled Lydia out onto the small balcony. Merle was already present in the small space, staring through the scope on his rifle, firing it off often enough to make sure the living that were leading the herd knew where they were. They weren't hiding. They were waiting. He pulled the trigger, hitting a walker dead on in the center of the head and dropping it. Lydia flinched, cringing away from the loud pop of the gun.
"Stay out here," Sam instructed. He was prepared for an argument. The women in his family wouldn't take kindly to being told to hide during a fight. But Lydia simply nodded. She didn't know how to fight. And even if she did, she didn't think she could kill her own people. Not all of them were good. But they'd still been her only family since she was a child. She didn't want to hurt them. She just wanted out. She wanted a chance at a real life.
"Be careful," Lydia said, reaching for his hand. Her dark eyes met his blue and for a moment he was lost in her. Sam peeked over his shoulder, making sure Merle's focus was still on his gun and not on them. Then he pulled Lydia into his arms and kissed her. She parted her lips eagerly, letting him tangle his tongue up with hers. Thoughts of what they did the night before were swirling in his mind.
"Come on. You'll have time fer that later," Merle huffed, whacking him in the back before he ducked back inside the building. Sam gave Lydia one more quick peck on the side of her mouth before he headed inside, leaving her alone on the balcony.
Sam stood where Rick told him to stand, aiming his bow at the open doorway that led to the stairs. It felt like they were waiting forever. But in reality, it was only about another fifteen minutes before he heard footsteps coming up the stairs. It was hard to guess exactly how many men were coming up the stairs towards them. But the moment Sam saw movement in the doorway, he fired.
Daryl also fired his bow. And several gunshots rang out across the small space. But none of them hit their target. The large man that Sam knew now was Beta was holding a large wooden door in front of him. His companions were also hidden behind it. The bullets and bolts buried into the wood, not even coming close to hitting the men behind it. The men fanned out as Beta hurled the door across the room. Sam reloaded his bow, keeping one eye on their attackers. Though the one man was intimidatingly large, there were only about half a dozen of them and none of them appeared to be armed with anything other than knives or melee weapons.
The man that rushed at him had a rusty hammer in his hands. Sam fired his bow, grazing the man's head and clipping his ear through the mask he was wearing over his face. Blood seeped from the bottom edge of the mask, running down his neck. He was injured. But that didn't stop him. He kept coming. Sam pulled his knife from his belt. The man backed up slightly when he swiped at him. The man was shorter than him, which meant Sam had a longer reach. And though it was hard to tell with the ragged baggy clothing he was wearing, Sam guessed he outweighed the man by quite a bit too. He was prepared for a physical fight. He was not prepared when the man threw the hammer in his hands. The wooden handle of the tool was what struck his head. But Sam still staggered back from the hard hit. The man took that as his opportunity, rushing at Sam while he was still slightly disoriented and knocking him to the floor. They struggled for Sam's knife. And the tip of it nicked his cheek, sending blood dripping down from the cut. Sam was stronger. But the other man was on top of him, which was giving him more leverage as he attempted to push the knife down into Sam's throat.
Lydia screamed when she saw Sam get cut with the tip of his knife. And before she even realized what she was doing, she darted inside and grabbed the hammer from where it fell after it hit Sam in the head. She rushed at the man, hitting him as hard as she could in the head with the rusty tool. She felt the man's skull crack. And the force of her blow knocked him away. Sam rolled, gaining control of the knife and plunging it through the man's eye socket. When he looked up, he saw Beta advancing on Daryl with a giant wicked looked bowie knife.
Sam grabbed his bow, cranking the string back and loading it as fast as he could. He fired, hitting the large man in his shoulder. Beta turned towards them, his eyes lingering on Lydia. The place was alight with the sound of gunfire. And just as Beta turned his attention back to Daryl, Merle came flying in from the other direction. He collided with the much larger man, sending him stumbling backwards. Sam watched with wide eyes as Beta suddenly seemed to just evaporate off the face of the earth. When he climbed to his feet and approached, he realized that Merle had sent him flying straight into the open mouth of the elevator shaft. The small group gathered, peering over the edge and down the deep dark cavernous pit. Sam could barely make out the large hulking form of the man, lying limp a full story down.
"We got 'em all?," Merle asked. Rick nodded.
"Still got to deal with the dead," Rick lamented. As if there weren't enough of them already, the echoing gunfire had probably drawn even more of the dead to their location. The men shuffled out onto the small balcony, staring down at the gathering herd with irritation. They had food and water to hold them. But none of them were eager to spend much more time there. Just as they were about to start kicking around ideas on how to get rid of the large herd, the sound of a motorcycle engine broke the silence.
"Down there," Glenn said, lifting his hand and waving like crazy. Merle followed his gaze, laughing when he saw River and Carol at the far end of the street. Carol was on the bike, revving up the engine. River was standing nearby She waved back before lighting a small bundle of firecrackers. River tossed them away from her, covering her ears as they sparked and popped in a loud series of bangs and crackles. When it stopped, she climbed back onto the bike behind Carol. She revved the bike up a few more times. Between the loud roar of the bike engine and the firecrackers, the two women were soon leading the entire herd down the street and further away from Hilltop.
"What are we gonna do now," Lydia asked. She directed her question towards Sam. But it was his dad that answered.
"We're goin' home."