Red River Blue
Chapter 48
When Sam left his tent, he immediately began searching for his sister. They were scheduled to pull guard duty together. And if he had to do it, then Mika was damned sure going to help. He didn't care if she was having ten weddings. And while he was thinking about it, the fuss that was being made over Mika's wedding seemed way past necessary. But since Sam liked Henry and his Aunt River was going to make a cake, he wasn't going to complain. A party was a party. Even if the reason for it was his sister getting plowed by some kid she met ten seconds ago. Something Sam was quite certain Mika did often and without the need to have two entire communities celebrate it.
Mika was much easier to find than he expected. Sam spotted her at the breakfast area filling a plate for herself. She actually looked like she was geared up to take her guard shift. Which surprised him a little. And since she hadn't spotted him yet, he decided to take advantage of her lack of vigilance. Sam snuck around to the side of her, grabbing a slice of bread and dipping it into a jar of strawberry jam.
"Hey HoeDirt," he exclaimed, slapping Mika in the face with the slice of sticky bread and jam. Mika let out a shriek that was half surprise and half angry goat, startling the other people who were filling their breakfast plates. Setting her plate down on the edge of the buffet table, Mika turned and began to rain open palm slaps down onto any part of her brother that she could reach. Sam fended off her blows as his body shook with laughter. Henry was standing nearby, watching the show with his mouth hanging open. The young man looked like he was torn between wanting to laugh and his desire to jump in and defend his fiance from having her face rearranged.
Sam could hear his mother yelling. Carol was warning the both of them to stop and telling them they were acting like children. Sam completely ignored her of course, wrestling his sister into a headlock and grinding his knuckles into her scalp. He didn't realize his Aunt River was approaching them until it was too late.
If there was anyone that wasn't already staring at the minor wrestling match Sam and Mika were having, they definitely spun around at the sound of River cracking him in the back of his head with a flyswatter. She aimed for his ass next, swatting him hard enough that he released Mika and jumped away to rub his bottom.
"Take yer fuckin' horseplay away from the breakfast table," she warned. "Before ya knock the whole goddamn thing over!"
Not wanting to be on the receiving end of any further abuse, Sam assumed the surrender position. With his hands up and palms out, he quickly apologized to his Aunt. Then he laughed his ass off when River made Mika apologize too, though his sister was only minding her own business when he launched his unprovoked attack on her.
After his Aunt retreated, Mika wiped her face off and they filled their plates. Henry ate with them, finishing quickly and kissing Mika goodbye before he hurried off to help his dad with something. Kelly joined them shortly after, taking the spot that Henry just vacated. Sam hadn't spent much time with her yet. But he enjoyed Kelly's offbeat sense of humor and her easy going tomboy vibe. He was happy when Mika spoke up, asking Kelly if she wanted to pull guard duty with them.
"Hell yeah," Kelly said, quickly accepted. Sam laughed, guessing she must be eager to get a break from her sister's blossoming love affair with Tyreese. They were really sweet together, but he could see how being a constant third wheel might be frustrating.
Before long, the three of them were heading down the slowly filling streets together. Mika was hauling her longbow and Sam's crossbow. Because he was carrying Kelly on his back like she was one of their nieces instead of a grown woman. The three of them were laughing and clowning around as Sam and Mika tried to talk Kelly into coming to the movies with them later even though they had dates and she didn't.
Sam climbed up onto the small wooden platform, helping the girls up behind him. A few years ago, the platform had been converted into a basic sort of adult sized treehouse. It was much more comfortable to keep watch with a roof over your head for some shade and a bench to sit on. The Kingdom had all their guard towers done up similarly now. Sam thought Alexandria ought to copy the additions. And he made a mental note to bring it up at the next council meeting.
The spot they'd been assigned to guard was far out towards the large garden area near the rear of the Kingdom. Other than the few people that were tending the gardens, there wasn't really anyone around. Sam knew most of them were down at the fair booths, spending their tokens and catching up with old friends. He was trying to decide what he wanted to spend his tokens on. If he could find the woman that made the spicy salsa and hot sauce, he was thinking about just splurging whatever tokens he had left after Lydia's flowers on that. He was the only one in his house that liked really spicy food. So unless he made it himself, his only way to get some was to buy it.
The conversation flowed easily between the three of them, pausing when the occasional half rotted walker would wander out of the woods. Kelly let them each try her slingshot out, and gratefully accepted an archery lesson. Sam still preferred his crossbow. But he was starting to think that carrying a slingshot as a backup wasn't a bad idea, mostly because you could use almost anything as a projectile instead of having to constantly make new bolts. Making arrows and bolts was a constant ongoing process at his house. One that he didn't enjoy any more than making his own hot sauce.
"Hey!," Sam hollered, waving at Henry as the boy slowed his horse to a stop near the ladder that led down off the platform.
"Did you change yer mind?," Mika asked, her face lighting up into a beautiful smile.
"No," Henry said, the disappointment clear in his tone. He still couldn't take watch duty with them. His dad had a million things he needed help with. Especially the movie projector. A finicky machine that only seemed to want to work when Henry tinkered with it. "I just stopped by with lunch."
"Thanks!," Mika said, climbing far enough down the ladder that she could take the small bundle he'd retrieved from his saddle bag for her. Bracing herself with one hand on the ladder, she leaned out and pulled him in for a kiss. Henry's mare snorted and stomped her foot, not liking the activity that was happening above her. Mika laughed as the irritated horse carried her fiance away towards the gardens.
Sam took the lunch bag, immediately pawing through the contents once his sister handed it to him. They ate the sandwiches first, passing the small bag of cut fruit around for dessert afterwards. It wasn't until Mika was stuffing the last strawberry into her mouth that they heard the screaming.
Sam stood up, shading his eyes and trying to figure out where the cries for help were coming from. He could tell it was a woman's voice. She didn't sound familiar. But that didn't mean she wasn't part of one of the fair groups. He turned, pulling the ladder up. Kelly helped him maneuver it across the small space so that it led down the outside of the Kingdom's barrier wall. But when Sam started to swing his leg over, Mika grabbed his arm, holding him in place.
"It could be a trap," she warned, cringing when she heard the woman scream once again.
"OVER HERE!," Kelly hollered, hoping that leading the woman towards them so they could help her might be a good compromise between running full speed into a possible trap and not helping at all. Mika must have agreed with her, because the girl added her voice to Kelly's
"THIS WAY!," she called, cupping her hands around her mouth.
A wave of relief washed over her when the woman calling for help dashed out of the woods, heading for their ladder. Sam leaned forward, lifting her the rest of the way up onto the platform. She looked sweaty and she was breathing hard, so Mika pulled her canteen from under the bench, offering the woman some water. She took it, gulping down a few sips before she spoke.
Mika didn't know the woman's name. But she looked familiar. Mika was sure she had seen the woman somewhere before. She had wavy auburn hair that fell to just above her shoulders. It was hard to tell the woman's age. But she looked around the same age as her Aunt River. Or maybe a little younger. She was wearing a beat up plaid shirt that looked and smelled like it should have been tossed in the burn pile a long time ago. Mika felt sort of bad as she took a step back, but something about the way the woman smelled was making her uneasy. Her face and hands were clean. But she smelled like a damn walker. It was disgusting.
"Are you okay?," Sam asked. "Were you running from the dead? Or people?"
"The dead," the woman replied, taking another sip of water. "Please, my sister. She hurt her ankle and I had to shove her up a tree. The dead were coming and I'm not sure how long she can hang on."
"Can you lead us back to where you left her?," Sam asked. The woman nodded. "How many biters were after you?"
"At least a dozen," the woman said. Sam glanced at Mika and Kelly, both of whom gave him a small nod. They could take out a dozen walkers easily between the three of them.
Sam headed down the ladder first, coaxing the woman down behind him. Kelly and Mika came down one after the other. Mika felt hesitant to swing around onto the ladder and she realized she didn't want to turn her back on the woman. Which was strange. The woman didn't do anything to her. And she wasn't acting weird. She just needed some help. But something about the woman was just giving Mika a bad vibe. She made sure to walk behind her as they headed into the woods.
"There!," the woman said, pointing to a tree that was being surrounded by a small group of walkers. Sam motioned for her to stay put. They took out most of the dead with their bows and Kelly's slingshot. Sam stepped forward, stabbing the few that were still standing with his knife as he approached the base of the tree. Looking up, he expected to see the redhead woman's sister up the tree. But instead, there was a large man hiding there. And not just any man. But the one that caught him with Lydia and almost killed him. Sam reached for his crossbow, swinging it off his back. But it was already too late. The giant of a man dropped from the tree directly on top of him, slamming him to the ground and knocking the wind out of him. Grabbing Sam's head in his large hands, the man slammed it hard against the ground, knocking the boy out cold.
Mika screamed, turning towards the woman that led them here. The woman that was already pointing a small handgun at her. Mika's eyes widened. And she suddenly realized where she'd seen the woman before. She was one of the crazy walker people that stripped her naked and ransomed her back to her family.
"That's my shirt!," Mika hissed, narrowing her eyes at the woman as she reached for her own gun. But the moment her hand closed around the barrel, she felt a horrible pain in her head. The large man that leaped from the tree onto her brother was lifting her into the air by her hair.
"I told you I'd see you again," he taunted.
Mika felt a tiny surge of hope as the woman in her stolen shirt spoke up, telling the big man that they were helping her. She seemed more hesitant than some of the others about whatever they had planned for them next.
"Doesn't matter what they were doing," the big man said, pointing to Sam's unconscious body. "That one took Lydia."