Red River Blue
Chapter 55
The overturned wagon was easy to find. But since Ozzy and the Highwaymen had already trampled over the area like a small herd of horse riding buffalo, finding the trail that would lead them to the owners of the wagon proved much more difficult. Even for Daryl. He combed the area in a widening circle, cursing under his breath as he went. And though he liked and respected Rick, the man was useless when it came to tracking. Daryl was starting to consider sending him back to town to fetch Harley. Or Mika. Because he didn't feel like he was getting anywhere on his own. All he was finding were goddamn horse tracks everywhere.
"Daryl!," Carol called out across the wooden area. "Here! I think I found something."
Daryl rushed through the already trampled bushes with Rick close behind him, eager to see what Carol found. She stepped back, pointing to a few long strands of blonde hair that were caught on a thorny bush. Daryl swept her up into his arms and spun her around.
"Good job babydoll," he exclaimed, giving her a quick kiss before he set her back down onto her feet. Not only had Carol figured out which way Hilde and Miles went, it looked like there was actually a trail leading into the woods that hadn't been completely trampled over by the Highwaymen. "We got us a trail!," Daryl announced.
With some idea of which way to go, the small group headed deeper into the woods. Carol stayed close to Daryl. Maggie and Glenn kept back a few yards, not wanting to trample over the trail now that Daryl finally located it. And Rick kept a little further behind, watching their backs and keeping an eye out for the dead.
Maggie heard the twang of Daryl's crossbow first. And then Carol's gentle warning that they ought to stay back and not look at what she and Daryl just found. Glenn caught her by the hand, trying to hold her in place. But Maggie shook her head. There was nothing she could see in the small cleaning up ahead that would be worse than her imagination. She learned a long time ago that it was better just to face things like this head on.
"They're dead," Carol warned, stepping out of the way as Maggie pressed forward. Maggie nodded, bracing herself for whatever she was about to see.
There were two bodies in the clearing. One man and one woman. Both had been stripped naked. Daryl's crossbow bolt was sticking out of the man's forehead. But there was enough of his face left that Maggie could still recognize him as Miles, the man they were searching for. He must have reanimated first. Because his mouth was covered in fresh blood. And the woman's body was torn nearly in half, her intestines spread out over the dirt. But what was strange was that Hilde also appeared to have been scalped. Her face was streaked in blood and gore. And her long blonde hair was missing, having been taken by whoever killed her.
"What'dya think?," Daryl asked, looking to Carol for an answer. "The skinjobs are takin' trophies now?" He knew they skinned walkers and wore their faces as masks. But this was the first time they'd seen a live person scalped.
"They wear their kills," Carol replied. "I'd say someone made themself a wig."
"That's so nasty," Glenn said, turning away from the grisly scene. He leaned forward, bracing his hand against a tree and trying not to lose his lunch.
Rick remained quiet, moving forward and taking up a spot next to Daryl. His mind was racing. It seemed certain that Lydia's people did this. There was no way that two separate groups were running around in the woods, skinning people. Which meant the whisperers were no longer outside Hilltop, like everyone believed. They were here. And Ezekiel had been allowing everyone free access inside the fair with no extra precautions whatsoever. Rick realized they had been stupid and blind not to assume that these people might follow them here to the Kingdom. They took that woman's daughter from her. Not by force. But that didn't seem to matter to her. If someone took Judith, Rick would do whatever was necessary to get her back. He guessed Lydia's mother felt the same.
"What're you thinkin'?," Daryl asked. Rick shook his head. Nothing good. That's what he was thinking.
"We sent all those people to guard Hilltop. But they're here. Lydia's group," Rick said.
"They're not just here. She's inside the fair," Carol added. "Alpha. Lydia's mother. That's why she took Hilde's hair and clothes. To blend in."
Daryl and Rick exchanged looks of panic and worry. There was no doubt in their minds that Carol was right. The question now was, what were they going to do about it. They could book it back to the fair and warn everyone. Or follow the trail and figure out where the rest of Alpha's group was hiding.
"Maybe we should go back," Maggie suggested. Her children were at the fair. And the urge to get back and protect them was strong. "Hershel and Annie," she said, reaching for Glenn's hand.
"They're safe," Glenn promised. "Merle's with them." Glenn wrapped his arm around Maggie, holding her against him and smiling at the irony of his last statement. He could still remember hating Merle more than he'd ever hated anyone in his entire life. Now Glenn trusted the man with the safety of his children. They'd all come a long way since the prison fell.
"If we go back, we'll just be stuck waiting on them to make another move," Carol said. "We should keep on their trail and see if we can take them by surprise." Rick nodded. And with the two of them in agreement, Daryl led the small group deeper into the woods.
Light was fading, making the trail harder to follow. Glenn felt the tension in her body when Maggie grasped his hand and gently squeezed, looking for the reassuring comfort of his touch. When they first headed away from Miles and Hilde's grisly remains, they were making some attempt to spread out. But they were slowly clustering closer together as they moved, not wanting to lose sight of each other in the fading light. When Daryl stopped in the next small clearing, Glenn almost ran smack into the back of him.
Daryl held up his hand, signaling for the rest of the group to stay put as he shined his flashlight around on the ground. He moved in a rough circle, obviously unsure of which way the trail led from here.
"Don't make no sense," he huffed. "The trail splits here. It goes off in five different fuckin' directions." With Daryl's attention focused on the ground, the first walker would have careened straight into him if Carol hadn't stepped forward and stabbed it through the head. When the walker fell, it seemed to set off a sort of chain reaction. And suddenly they were surrounded by the dead, struggling to fight them off. Glenn hadn't been in such a precarious situation in years. It made him remember why he and Maggie chose their peaceful life at Hilltop despite how much they missed and cared about their Alexandria family.
Stabbing another walker through the head, Carol pulled her knife out and prepared to go after the next one that came her way. But the space around her was empty. The rest of the walkers weren't pressing forward into the clearing. They were clustered around her and the rest of her small group in a circle. And when Carol took a better look, she saw the guns and weapons on their hands. They weren't walkers but men, dressed in their rotten clothes and skins. Daryl followed the trail and led them straight into a trap. Carol felt him move, positioning his body slightly in front of hers. They were surrounded by enough enemies to render his protection useless. But the small gesture made her feel safer regardless of the dire situation.
Despite having surrounded them, the whisperers didn't shoot. Which Carol assumed meant that they didn't mean to kill them straight out. But they also weren't speaking or making any type of demands either, which she found unsettling. Her mind drifted back to the mutilated naked bodies in the clearing. Maybe they weren't dead yet only because these people meant to kill them in a more gruesome way. Splay them out on display as a warning to their communities. Like Harley and Aiden often did, hanging the scavengers and raiders they caught from trees and leaving their bodies there to rot.
The menacing crowd parted, allowing their leader room to move in and address her captives. Like Carol suspected, Alpha was wearing Hilde's hair as a wig. She tossed it off once she approached, leaving her bare scalp covered in bits of dried blood and skin. Carol cursed herself for how stupid and naive they'd been. It had been too long since they faced anything other than small unorganized groups of raiders. They underestimated these people. Badly. A mistake that she was afraid was about to cost them their lives. Her mind flitted back to the last time she saw her children. Mika and Sam hugged her goodbye after breakfast, before they left for guard duty. Sam whipped her off her feet and spun her around. And she yelled at him to put her down. She wished she hadn't. She wished she held on tight and savored the moment.
"You," Alpha commanded, pointing towards Carol, "...come with me." Daryl shifted his body, stepping in front of Carol. The meaning of his gesture was obvious. He wasn't going to let Alpha take his wife anywhere.
"Touch one fuckin' hair on her head and yer gonna regret it," Daryl hissed.
"You seem to believe you're in a position to make threats," Alpha said, her high pitched southern accent making her violent threats seem all the more unsettling. "That needs to stop now. She can either come with me. Or you can watch while I slit her throat and gut her like a fish."
Before Daryl could move, Carol clamped her hand down around his arm. She shook her head, the fear in his eyes visible even in the dying light. She offered him the only comfort she could, what she hoped was a reassuring smile. Then she moved carefully around him and followed Alpha into the woods.
It became obvious to Carol that Alpha wasn't going to kill her when the woman began rambling on about boundaries and territories. But what wasn't obvious was where the woman was leading her. And why. It seemed like they had been wandering in circles for hours. Alpha could have given her the same territory speech back in the clearing. When they stepped forward out of the woods, Carol saw the edge of the cliff ahead of her. She knew it was there. The dusty dry canyon used to be a river. Until the man made dam broke and the water went back where nature intended. They stampeded a small herd of wild horses into that canyon a few years back, using the steep sides to help corral them. But now, Carol had a feeling the canyon was home to something other than horses. She could feel them more than hear them. The shuffling of hundreds upon hundreds of reanimated corpses. Alpha led Carol up to the edge, proudly displaying her walker hoard for Carol's viewing pleasure. There were more walkers than Carol had ever seen in one place. And that was really saying something because she'd seen a lot of walkers. She couldn't even begin to guess how many were down there. Enough to decimate Alexandria. Even their reinforced walls wouldn't hold against a herd this size.
"You've made your point," Carol said. "What do you want?"
Alpha smiled, revealing her small uneven teeth. Lit by only the rising moonlight, they appeared as fangs in her mouth. She repeated the boundaries that marked her land. Her territory. It was large. But not so large that they wouldn't be able to find her when they set out to hunt her. Which, in Carol's mind, was eventually going to happen despite the threat of the walker hoard.
"I've marked the edge of the northern border," she added. "You'll see it on your way out."
"What have you done to my husband?," Carol hissed. She instinctively reached for her knife. But the sheath on her hip was empty. Alpha's people made sure of that before they allowed her to follow the woman into the woods.
"You'll find your husband and your friends unharmed," Alpha promised, the eerie smile returning to her face. "You'll see the northern border on your way out. Stay off my land from here on out. This is the last and only warning you're going to get."
With that, Alpha turned, disappearing into the woods. Carol fought the urge to chase her down and kill her. She wanted to. Badly. But her concern for Daryl won out. And she headed in the opposite direction, away from the deranged woman and towards the clearing where she saw her husband last.
Daryl and the others had been gathered together and made to sit in the center of the clearing. Their weapons were taken. But they were otherwise unharmed. Alpha's people began to move once Carol rushed between them into the clearing. They backed up, slowly disappearing into the woods. Oddly, they left the group's weapons behind, though their packs had been emptied of food and water. Daryl scrambled to his feet, crushing her against his broad chest.
"She laid out her territory and wants us to keep off it," Carol explained, knowing that everyone was waiting to hear what happened during her long evening with the other group's leader. "She said something about marking the northern border. I think we better take a look." Daryl pointed towards the north, knowing that the rest of their small group probably had no idea which way even led back to the road by this point. Glenn and Maggie headed off in the lead. After a few minutes, they were able to turn off their flashlight. The morning sun was starting to peek out over the horizon. Carol could see a break in the treeline up ahead. And as she took another step, she heard the sound of muffled screaming.
Daryl rushed towards the noise. Carol gasped when she saw Mika tied to a tree and gagged. Her arms were wrenched painfully back, straining her shoulders. Carol knelt down, slicing through the rope that was binding the girl. Hoping to give them a moment of privacy, Rick followed Glenn and Maggie out towards the large open clearing. The second Mika's hands were free, she grabbed at the gag in her mouth, clawing at her own face in her desperate attempt to get the putrid fabric out of her mouth. And the moment she pulled it down, she began to scream. Horrible painful ear piercing shrieks broke the early morning air. Daryl grabbed her, pulling Mika almost onto his lap and clutching her against his chest.
"It's okay. We're here. I've got ya," he soothed, rocking her shaking body back and forth. Her screams turned into soft whimpers and low guttural moans. Carol smoothed Mika's hair back from her face, rubbing her back as Daryl whispered to her. Mika lifted her shaking hand, pointing towards the clearing. And then Carol heard Maggie screaming. Horrible god awful screams. Screaming like Carol hadn't heard from anyone in years. She rose and began to move towards the sound. She couldn't see Maggie yet. But she saw Rick. His face was stark white, like he'd seen a ghost. And he was stumbling in their direction. He dropped to his knees a few feet away from Daryl, issuing the man a warning before he leaned forward and began to vomit.
"Don't let Carol go out there," he croaked. "It's Sam."
Hearing her brother's name sent Mika back into another round of frightened shrieking. Daryl struggled to untangle himself from the girl, feeling guilty for leaving her clutching herself in the dirt as he lunged after Carol. Because the moment she heard Sam's name, she took off for the edge of the woods. Maggie was on the ground, clinging to Glenn and sobbing uncontrollably. Daryl rushed past them, grabbing Carol and trying to put his body between hers and the horrible scene in the center of the clearing. But it was already too late.
There was a long row of wooden pikes. And topping each one was a decapitated head. Walker heads. Which meant after they were killed, their people had been allowed to turn before they were dismembered and put on display. The leader of the Highwaymen was on one end, his hat still perched on top of his head. Two more of Ozzy's people had also been killed. Daryl felt guilty that he didn't know or remember their names. A few teenage kids from Riverbend were next. And one of Georgie's personal guards. It seemed Alpha was careful to make sure she hit every community personally. Because next to Georgie's guard, was the head of the woman that used to be the leader of Oceanside. Cyndie's long dark hair blew around her now pale face. Her glassy unfocused eyes staring out across the clearing. Daryl wanted to turn his back. He didn't want to see any more. Because the next pike after Cyndie, was Connie's sister Kelly. Her hearing aid was still fixed to her ear, though a few of her piercings had been ripped loose.
"No," Daryl gasped. Carol was clinging to him, her hands digging into his flesh. "Don't look at them. Look at me."
Maggie let out another scream, pulling herself up onto her feet. She stumbled forward, stabbing Beth's reanimated head before she ripped it off the pike. Dropping to her knees, she clutched it in her arms, rocking it like a baby as she wailed and wept. Beth was dead. The girl that Daryl escaped the prison with. He watched her grow into a woman and came to love her just as much as his flesh and blood nieces. Beth was so much a part of their family that she came back to Alexandria to be with them instead of staying with her own sister in Hilltop. He would never get to hear her sing again. Or hold a baby, which was her other favorite pastime besides making music with Harley.
"Sam!," Carol screamed.
Daryl tightened his hold on Carol, lifting her almost off her feet as he backed her away. He wasn't sure why. He couldn't protect her from what she'd already seen. Their son's head on a pike. Sam. The lost scared little boy that hid in closets and under beds for a solid month after they took him in. When it was dinner time, Mika and Wren would each grab a leg, dragging Sam out from under the bed and forcing him downstairs to the dinner table. The moment he got done stuffing his face, he would run straight back to the closet. After Carol's coaxing and River's bribing and even Merle's threats failed to make a difference, Daryl gave up and wedged himself right into the damn closet with the kid. Sam climbed into his lap and cried for a solid hour. Then he finally admitted he was scared of the dead. That's why he was hiding. Daryl gave the boy his first archery lesson that day. And once Sam hit the wooden target with an arrow, Merle took him up onto the wall and let him pick off a few walkers with a gun that was almost bigger than he was. He stopped hiding in the closet after that.
Sam got over his fear of the walkers. But he was always more sensitive than the rest of them. Sam was the one that would cry if one of the horses whelped a foal that didn't make it. He was the one that always spoke up for people that he felt didn't have a voice. And Daryl always felt oddly proud of that. That he was able to raise a son that wasn't hardened by life the way he and Merle were. And now, Sam's caring nature had gotten him here. With his decapitated head on a pike.