Newly Revised
Two days had passed and Ani still hadn't woken up and Daryl's anger raged so bad that he and Merle were both sporting shiners from it. He had to do something, had to make it right when his wife was laying unconscious on a bed in the infirmary for no particular reason anyone could tell him, only best guesses that she had an infection and maybes that what they were trying. That just wasn't good enough after he'd buried his wife's best friend two days ago, begged and pleaded and cried for her to wake up the next day as a fever started to overtake her body. Today, though, he was done sitting around waiting; Merle be damned saying he needed to be there for her. Ani had everyone else and he knew she'd understand why he left her to go pick up the trail. She'd know it was for her, to get back at them and make sure the bastards couldn't tell her parents where she was, to make damn good and well sure she was safe, that the baby was safe. Holding onto the key chain Denise had been playing with, he took a moment to contemplate whether or not he really wanted to leave Ani's side. Looking back at the infirmary, Daryl could barely make out Sophia and Beth forms in there with her, fussing around Ani's still figure. Catty had been laying on her stomach ever since she'd gotten to the infirmary, Bobby somewhere in there as well. If she did wake up, she'd have her family around her and she would wait for him to get back; she didn't need him to be right there.
With that in mind, he turned his bike on and revved the engine, bringing it to the gate before shutting it off and throwing the gate open as Rosita asked, "Where are you going?"
"Out," was all Daryl said.
"No shit," Abraham told him. "You got specifics?"
As he got back on the bike, ignoring Abraham's question, he could hear Merle hollering from down the street. Daryl didn't even look back as he left Alexandria, opening the throttle to get away as fast as he could before his brother gave chase. If Merle wanted to sit around with his singular thumb up his ass, let him; he was going to find the son of a bitch who'd shot Ani. He was sick of waiting, sick of watching her lay there, sick of everyone telling him everything would be alright. None of them could understand or even imagine what he was currently going through or how he felt when all he could feel was guilt and burning rage. The trail still had to be there since there hadn't been any rain in the last two days and he could pick up human tracks just as fast as walker. He was going to find that Dwight bastard and make him pay for killing Denise and hurting his wife. Daryl didn't even know if she'd still be there when he got back which made the guilt even worse, but he didn't want to be there for that if it happened. He'd rather hunt that asshole and put a bolt right through his eye and take back his head to show Ani she was safe and he was going to make sure she was safe. He didn't care if Merle or Sasha or Beth or whoever else had been telling him everything would be fine followed him; he'd be damned if he came back empty handed.
Merle reached the van at the same time as Glenn and Michonne, Abraham stopping in front of it and yelling, "Hey! Make room for my freckled ass!"
"No, you stay," Rosita said. "You cover my shift. I'll go."
"We need all the man power here!" Glenn tried to reason.
"I know where Daryl's going," she asked, earning her a sigh while she climbed in as Merle tried to climb in after her.
Michonne was the one who turned to him and said, "Not you, Merle. Ani's gonna need one of you here when she wakes up. We'll bring him back."
"That's my brother!"
"And she's your sister, isn't she?" Michonne asked. "She needs one of you here."
"You bring him back or else, Michy," Merle said after a minute of contemplating, looking back and forth between the gate and infirmary.
He slammed the door shut and watched as they left before he stormed off to the building with a dark look on his face. When he got to it, he started cussing up a storm as he entered the room Ani was in, causing Catty to hiss at him. Bobby to attempted to attack Merle's leg only to be knocked to the side a little harsher than necessary, which made her jump up on Ani's bed beside her sister in a more defensive position. Merle couldn't help his anger, though, when he had to pick between his siblings this time and ended up still being left behind. He could be out there right now keeping Daryl company while she sat back and prepared for what happened next if that little bitch hadn't've risked herself yet again. It was becoming a damn habit with the two of them; something happened to Ani and Daryl ran off putting himself in harms' way for her. He could understand with the illness, but even before that the boy had been practically itching to jump at anyone who so much as looked at her wrong. For someone who claimed to be so damn smart, he couldn't believe how badly she was being so damn stupid. She was going to get them both killed if she didn't start making better choices regarding her own damn life.
"Dumbass Dixons, the lot of ya!" he yelled at her sleeping form. "First, you just had to go out, didn't ya? We tell you, stay inside the walls, stay safe, but no, not Ania fuckin' Dixon! Hell no! Naw, she's gotta go out and do her own thing! And look at ya! Shot and sleepin' like ya a fuckin' dead fuckin' deer! And now Daryl's gone off to God knows where while I'm stuck in here with your pain in the ass self instead of out there helpin' to search for my baby brother! So you better wake your dumbass up so we's can go get 'im before I slap your sorry ass silly!"
"Merle!" Beth yelled, she and Sophia having ran into the room the minute he'd started yelling. "You can't talk to her that way! Not only is she unconscious, but she's one of our leaders! How was she supposed to know what would happen?!"
"'Cause it's what always happens!" Merle roared. "Every time they go out, they find trouble! Or trouble finds them! We're Dixons, Bethy! We don't get the easy as pie, slice of the cake life you get! Hell, the three of us have been fightin' for our lives since the day we were born! She and Daryl, they're gonna be each other's breakin' points like this! They're gonna get each other killed with this shit! If she'd've just stayed here in town instead a goin' and gettin' 'erself shot, he wouldn't have run off!"
"You know that's not true," Sophia said with a sigh. "She'd be right behind him on the bike. Denise was her best friend. She wouldn't have waited even one night. She and Daryl, they would've left as soon as they were done buryin' Denise and you know it."
"Dammit, girls! All she had to do was stay put! To put that baby in her belly first! They both did! That's all they should be doin'! Both of 'em! All they had to do was stay fuckin' put!" Merle roared, his anger at both of their actions roaring to life as he looked at the young ladies in front of him.
"Merle," Beth said, leading him to the chair beside Ani to sit, Sophia handing him a twist bottle and Ani's old bowl. "Don't you think you're turnin' your worry and anxiety into anger?"
"The fuckin' you on about girly?"
"It's just something Ani said you had a tendency to do," she said with a shrug, watching as Merle deftly pack the bowl and take a hit, anger still rolling off him in waves. "When you're worried about them, you get angry, and you shout your feelings. It kinda sounds to me like that's what you're doin' now. You're worried about her because she hasn't woken up and we don't have a doctor. We don't know how the baby's doin' 'cause we don't have the equipment to check, though, I mean, she ain't bleedin' and we have her set up with an IV, so she's not gonna get dehydrated or malnourished yet. And Daryl's so angry at the guy who did this he's not thinkin' straight. And you're stuck between 'em as their brother. I think Daryl only left because he knew you'd stay."
"What if we took her to the Hilltop?" Sophia suggested. "Don't they have a doctor there? He's the one who did the ultrasound thing that got that picture, right?"
"Yeah, why can't we do that?" Beth asked Merle. "I mean, you could drive the car with Phia, keep us safe and I can look after Ani. It'd be worth the trip."
"Did she teach you how to do that?" Merle asked them, looking between the two as his anger died to a more manageable level as he finished out the bowl, surprised the kids in the room weren't bitching at him for it. "How to gang up on me when I'm pissed off and change how this shit's gonna go?"
"No, not exactly," Beth admitted. "But, I mean, you do pick up a few things here and there watchin' how she does things. I also used to babysit a lot, before everything, and here in Alexandria again. You're basically like a big kid," she told him with a smile, watching as his face went from surly to shocked to pissed until a small smirk broke out and he scoffed. "Do you think I could try that some time?" she asked, pointing to the bowl in his hand.
"Hell nah! You're too good for this world to be devolvin' into the baser pleasures of life, Bethy. Besides, Daryl told me 'bout how you got drunk and burned down a cabin. Don't need you gettin' high and jumpin' off a roof."
"We got Ani for that!" Sophia said with a laugh, causing all three in the room to chuckle.
"God, you three are gonna be the death of me. I'm gonna go talk to Rick, I'll be back in a few. Don't fuckin' go anywhere or say a damn thing 'bout the two a ya gettin' the upper hand on me, ya hear? I hear about it gettin' out and you'll have more'n a few angry words thrown your way."
"I can take you," Beth said confidently, knowing that she'd been able to take Aaron down a few times when they sparred together outside of Ani's lessons.
"I'm sure you could, girly, with all that special trainin' you've had. Hell, the three of you are prolly worth more'n all the men put together. Stay with her. I'll be back," he told them as he left the infirmary.
Walking back towards the gate, Francine came up to him and asked about Ani's condition, only to be told that there had yet to be a change. Merle did tell her that there was still a pretty good chance she still had the baby and nothing had happened to it yet. He'd gotten used to being around Judith and he would chase the youngsters in the square from time to time, playing the big, bad wolf to all the little piggies as they'd run and hide and laugh when he caught them. A lot of the kids had started calling him 'Uncle Merle,' a sentiment that would, hopefully, remain true in another twenty five or so weeks. Watching Abraham standing alone on the watch post with no one at the gate, he excused himself from Francine and jogged up. He knew what the answer was before he even asked the question, but he couldn't help it as he called up to the redhead.
"They ain't back yet?"
"Someone is, open the gate, would ya, Stumpy?"
"Sure thing, Freckles!"
Opening the gate to let the car through, he watched as Rick got out while he closed the gate behind the car, Rick stating, "Morgan's still out there looking."
"Looking for Daryl?" Merle asked.
"No, Carol. She took off. Says she can't be around us because she can't kill anymore."
"Dammit!" Merle said. "We need 'em both! Phia don't even know Carol's gone!"
"I know," Rick told him. "Is Michonne here?"
"She's still out there, too," Abraham told him. "You afraid to go back to it?" he asked, talking to both of them. "Let somebody close?"
"Yeah," Rick said, Merle nodding in agreement.
"Me too," Abraham told them. "But now, I think I'm that much more ready to tear the world a brand-new asshole." They all shared a chuckle before Abraham turned to Rick and told him, "Any second now."
"Which reminds me, me and the girls need a car," Merle told the two of them. "We're takin' Ani to the Hilltop. They've got an actual doctor and she needs the medicine they've got there."
"I think that'd be a good-"
"SOMEBODY HELP!" Enid's voice called out from down the road. "PLEASE SOMEBODY!"
~x~
Carl and Enid stormed into the armory while Sophia was in there helping to collect guns and ammo, both of them going with Ani and Maggie to the Hilltop. Sophia refused to leave Ani's side until she woke up and Carl didn't want to sit this one out; he'd done enough of that since he'd lost his eye. It was bad enough that Ani was shot and had some kind of infection, but something was wrong with Maggie as well. She was having severe pains along her lower abdomen, barely being able to move, and had a slight fever that was starting to get worse. Even with Sophia and Beth working together to make a tea that would help treat her symptoms, it was only minimally alleviating them and keeping the fever at bay. Between her condition and Ani's own fever and comatose state, they had decided to take the RV and a group of people to Hilltop so both women could be treated. Everyone was on high alert and most of them felt like they could cut the tension with a knife.
"Glenn's still not back," Enid told Carl as Sophia listened, rolling her eyes in the process. "I need to be there for Maggie!"
"I said no!" Carl told her, not wanting to have to choose between looking out for Sophia or Enid on the road, wanting Enid to stay home so he didn't have to and he could focus on Sophia instead.
"Carl!"
"Look, you were wrong before," Carl said, turning to look at Enid and noticing Sophia's blatant turn so that her back was facing him as she kept collecting things they might need. "This place isn't too big to protect. And you need to stay back and help protect it."
"This place is ready!" Enid insisted. "Most of us have been trained, you know that!"
"You haven't been trained nearly enough," he responded. "Not like I have. Not like Sophia."
"If you were worried about an attack, you wouldn't be leaving," reasoned Enid.
"You know how far the Hilltop is?" he asked her incredulously. "You know what could happen? Those Saviors are out there. And you know what they did to Denise. What they tried to do with Maggie and Carol and Daryl, Rosita, Eugene. What they want to do Ani. Hell, look at the state she's in! They did that! That's not happening to you, alright? I'm not gonna let it."
"But you'll let it happen to Sophia?"
"Unlike you, I didn't ask for permission, and I don't need a boy to take care of me," Sophia said in a huff as she left the room.
Catching up to Rick as he left the infirmary, Sophia saw the RV waiting for them as she followed the older man until he got to the vehicle. She was angry, so angry, at everything that was happening and the fact that Carl had so blatantly acted like she didn't matter just then making her even more so. It was bad enough knowing her mother had jumped ship again and Ani wasn't there to help her, but now her best friend and the boy she really liked wasn't there for her either. She didn't want to admit it, but she was becoming resentful of ever coming to Alexandria and wished they would have just kept taking their chances on the road. They might have had to fight for their lives, but they might have been able to find a better place than this, a place where they could all be together without all the drama and displacement. Sophia hadn't told Ani yet, but she really was having problems adjusting to not living with her mother and was also torn about how she even felt about the woman. She'd avoided the topic as much as possible and right now she could really use some advice, but the only person who could give it she didn't even know would wake up. All of it made her want to cry as Abraham, Sasha, and Merle walked up from the side, Eugene and Beth trailing behind them.
"Any change?" Sasha asked.
"She's gettin' worse," Rick told them. "And Ani's fever hasn't gone down either."
"Good call on the transport," Abraham told him, Sophia nodding her head in agreement.
"Well, I figured they'd be more comfortable," he responded.
"It also means you've got room for more," Abraham said. "They're out there, so I'm gonna be there with you. I took that girl under my wing, made her my sister for all intents and purposes. Maggie ain't in much better condition and I sure as shit ain't gonna wait around playin' with dingleberries 'til you get back. I'm gonna be there, protectin' them. We are," he corrected, looking down at Sasha.
"Package deal," she told him before heading into the RV.
"What she said," Eugene told him. "Actually, what they said. Ani and Maggie have been nothing but familial towards me and I must say I feel the same way."
"Look," Rick said, stepping up to him. "It's a long trip and you're just gettin' back up on your-"
"It's a superficial graze," Eugene interrupted. "Proteins are bindin', plus we need to discuss ammunition production and manufacture, so let's roll."
Rick scoffed as Abraham came back out of the RV to grab some more gear, smacking Eugene's stomach and shoulder lightly as he passed, "I already tried. Give him an inch, he's takin' a mile."
"I'm only askin' for twenty three, give or take, dependin' on the route," Eugene reasoned, not realizing he was being as obtuse as Ani could be at times, Abraham's joke completely lost to him. "I know I can be of some help. Now's the time and here's the place. Don't shun me. I'll be your anchorman. Yes I damn will," he told Rick before climbing into the RV, heading straight to a seat he could look back and see the two ill women from.
"I'm comin' too," Merle told him as Rick moved to check the spare batteries to the RV. "Now, I know ya need fighters here, but I can't stay here with both my siblings out there."
"Yeah, I didn't expect you to. You tell Francine?"
"She's got everythin' covered that she needs to. She'll keep it steady," he said, knowing Francine could take care of herself and help the rest of the town to do so too. "Bethy wants to come, but I told her she needs to stay back to help with the infirmary."
"Enid's stayin' back," Beth told him. "I've been trainin' with Ani. I know how to defend myself now, and I've gotten really good with a gun and a bow thanks to her and Daryl. I'm goin' and keepin' an eye on my sister. Glenn's not here to help her, so I need to."
"Alright," Rick sighed, knowing that Beth was just as stubborn, if not more so, than Ani and Maggie put together when she got an idea in her head.
"I'm coming too," Aaron said as he walked up. "We're ready to protect this place, and the Saviors know it. That's why they grabbed Eugene."
"Look, it's not up for discussion," Rick said, standing up and letting the cover fall.
"Then you're just gonna have to punch me in the face and tie me up again," Aaron told him seriously, thinking about how Maggie had given up her quest to find Glenn to keep him safe and all the time Ani had spent training him with Daryl. "'Cause that's what it's gonna take to stop me."
Rick motioned to the RV, letting Aaron pass and head onto it as Gabriel and Carl walked up from opposite ends. That's when Sophia decided to enter the RV, not really wanting to be around Carl after what had happened in the armory. She was worried that he might figure out that she had been talking about him with how she'd acted, and when he entered the RV and sat down next to her, her anxiety only got worse. Catty came up and sat in her lap, the kitten being the one that liked her the most in comparison with Bobby being protective of Ani. Daryl suggested that the kittens had imprinted on people, which was why they were so friendly, and the fact that they were raised with her helped them accept her into their family. Sophia scratched away at Catty's head while Carl sat and watched her, both of them looking into the back room when Bobby hissed at Eugene trying to go back.
"You've gotten good with her," Carl told her when she looked down.
"They both recognize me as part of their clowder."
"Clowder? What's that?"
"Oh, Ani's favorite word for a group of cats outside of like, lions with their prides," Sophia told him, turning to look at him.
"What else are they called?" he asked quietly.
"Pounces or clutters."
"Only you and Ani would know that."
"You do now, too."
"Yeah," Carl said, looking down at the cat in her lap. "You know, I didn't want to make it seem like I wouldn't protect you too. It's just, well, you don't need it. You're different from Enid. She doesn't know how to take care of herself, you do."
"It doesn't matter, Carl," Sophia said, turning her head away as her voice became hard, effectively ending the conversation as Carl stared at her in surprise, a sigh escaping his lips as he walked away.
Merle walked back to stand in the doorway next to where Sophia was sitting, asking how both women were doing. Maggie's condition was just deteriorating the longer they waited while a sheen of sweat had broken out on Ani's forehead. He would have been lying if he tried to say he wasn't worried about both women, let alone the babies they were carrying. Maggie wasn't very far along, and miscarriage was something he'd had the displeasure of knowing once or twice, though at the time he'd been too hopped up on shit to care. They'd already been on the road for almost half an hour by that time and the only time Ani had moved was when she'd taken a shuddered breath and made a face. He was positive the girl was in pain, but he didn't know what kind of pain it was and they couldn't do anything to help her. Merle was sincerely hoping with all his heart that they'd get to the Hilltop faster than expected, but of course, nothing in life came easy for his ilk.
"What the bitch?" Abraham's voice came from the front, prompting both Merle and Rick to make their way up.
"What?" Rick said as he leaned down to look, Merle standing behind him.
"Enemy close," came the reply as they saw eight heavily armed men, three vehicles, and a man laying prone on the ground. "We doin' this?"
"No," Rick said before heading out, Merle and Sophia both hot on his heels, the rest following suit, Rick being the only one to hold his hands up in surrender, the rest opting to simply not point their guns.
"He's someone who was with a whole lot of someone's who didn't listen," the man standing out in front of the other group called.
"We can make a deal," Rick called back. "Right here, right now."
"That's right," the man said. "We can. Give us all your stuff. We'll probably have to kill one of you. That's just the way it is, but then we can start moving forward on business. All you have to do is listen."
"Yeah, that deal is not gonna work for us," Rick said, lowering his hands and resting his gun in a manner where he could easily put it to use. "Fact is, I was about to ask for all of your stuff, only I'm thinkin' I don't have to kill any of you. Any more of you."
One of the men pulled out spray paint and painted an X on the man lying on the ground, a moment of silence passing between the two groups as the tension built before the man said, "Sorry, my deal is the only deal. We don't negotiate."
"Me and my people are leavin'," Rick stated with a gesture of his hand, the majority of the others returning to the RV.
"Okay, friend," the man told him. "Plenty of ways to get to where you're goin.'"
Merle followed Abraham into the RV as Rick called back to the other group, "You wanna make today your last day on Earth?"
"No, but that is a good thing to bring up," the other leader said. "Think about it. What if it's the last day on Earth for you? For someone you love? What if that's true? Maybe you should be extra nice to the people in that RV, 'cause you never know," he said before snapping his fingers. "Just like that. Only one of your people are safe, and that's because she's actually one of ours, she just doesn't know it yet. So y'all be kind to each other. Like you said...like it was your last day on Earth."
Rick sneered at the man, seeing Abraham physically holding Merle back at the insinuation they all knew was meant for Ani before he quietly said, "You do the same."
Entering the RV, they all took up their respectful positions as Abraham brought the engine to life and slowly backed away from the blockade. It wasn't long before they had to stop to figure out the next best route to take since the easiest and straightest route had been blocked off. While most of the others had left the RV for some fresh air and to have more room to look at the map, Beth stayed in the back with the women while Sophia, Carl, and Aaron stood in the dining area of the RV. Sophia had gone back to check on Ani, but seeing the person she looked up to the most laying there looking so weak, she couldn't stay. It wasn't like when they were in Alexandria; Ani had barely even started heating up from the fever and she wasn't sweating as badly. When she peeled back the bandage to clean it, though, she could tell that they hadn't been able to get the wound clean enough in time. If they didn't get to the Hilltop and get both her and Maggie to the hilltop for medicine, Ani could very well die from the infection she and Beth had tried to prevent.
"It'll be okay," Beth told her. "We'll get them to the Hilltop. We will."
"Yeah," Sophia replied weakly before walking back into the main part of the camper.
"Why didn't you stay back and help guard the place?" Carl asked, meaning it for Sophia, but Aaron answering instead.
"I owe her," Aaron said. "Why did the two of you come?"
Carl contemplated the thought for a minute before saying, "I owe them."
"Ani's always been helpin' me. Ever since she met me. I owe her everything. I don't think I'd be alive today if it weren't for her," Sophia said. "Besides, I've got people I want to protect."
"You should have stayed in Alexandria," Carl told her defensively.
"I don't need your permission to help protect my family!" Sophia said before storming out and heading over to Merle.
"What is wrong with her?" Carl asked as he watched her back, completely confused. "She won't even talk to me these days."
"What happened?" Aaron asked.
"I don't even know! We went hunting just a few days ago and now she's like this. I don't get it."
"If there's one thing I know, it's the attitude someone takes when they're jealous," Aaron told him quietly.
"Jealous?" Carl asked confused. "Why would Sophia be jealous? She's basically my best friend."
"Ah, but is that all she wants to be?" Aaron asked, watching as Carl blushed and turned his head away.
"You don't know what you're talking about."
"I was young once. Eric and I weren't always, well, friendly. There was a time when we were at odds because I was dating someone and he liked me. We were friends, but when I started dating that guy, Eric became cold, distant. Kinda like I see Sophia doing to you."
"She doesn't like me. She likes someone else."
"Did she tell you that, or just that she likes someone?"
Carl became quiet as the others climbed back in the RV and Abraham took the wheel once again, thinking about what Aaron had just said. Merle passed by with Sophia, going into the back and leaning down to check Ani's forehead to see how bad her fever was. Carl watched as he and Sophia shared a look, Merle giving the girl a quiet reassurance that Ani would be fine, that the baby would be fine. Both the bobcats were on Ani's bed now as Beth sat on Maggie's and Sophia moved to curl up next to Ani on her other side. Carl didn't want to be a part of what was happening in the back of the RV, so moved to the front where Abraham and Sasha were sitting in the driver's and passenger seat. He heard their exchange, Abraham asking if Sasha wanted to have kids at some point, saying that that was living. When Sasha asked if Abraham could, he admitted that he wanted to, making Carl look back towards the back and at Sophia, thinking about Enid momentarily until he saw that Sophia was crying. A large part of him wanted to go back there and comfort her, the only thing keeping him from doing so was her position between a wall and Ani and the fact that there were already five people in the room.
"Bitch nuts," Abraham exclaimed, drawing all the attention away from the women in the back and towards the front window at the five vehicles blocking their path.
"We making our stand?" Sasha asked him, counting at least a dozen Saviors with the vehicles.
"Yeah," Carl said, wanting to get to the Hilltop as soon as possible. "We end it."
"No," Rick countered. "Not now. They've been waiting. They're ready. With one of us behind the wheel and one of us with the sick, that's seven on sixteen. While we could take them, it wouldn't be without casualties. We're gonna play it our way, how we want it. Right?" he turned and asked Carl, before looking at Merle who nodded his head in agreement.
"Right," Carl sighed as he watched Sophia head back to the back before looking back at the Saviors in front of them.
"Alright, go slow," Rick told Abraham as they started backing up, one of the Saviors firing into the air as they made a u-turn.
It was some time later while Sophia was sitting in the back, her hand holding onto Ani's limp one when Merle came back to check on her. "You doin' okay, girly?"
"I'm sick of all this stoppin'. We gotta get her there!" Sophia said with a sniffle, the RV slowing once again.
"Wait here, I'll check it out," Merle told both her and Beth who had moved to see what was happening, Maggie barely conscious and pouring sweat now.
Leaving the RV along with Rick, Aaron, Eugene, Sasha, and Carl, Merle saw the walkers that were chained along the road, blocking their path. The chain was thick enough to do some damage to the RV and the way it was literally woven through the walkers' bodies was sick. It looked almost as if a giant needle had gone through and stitched them together, although a lot more haphazard and a lot less precise. Merle was just as sick of stopping as everyone else on this little adventure, and Ani's fever was starting to get as bad as Maggie's was. He and Phia had been afraid that her wound on top of the infection and trauma from watching Denise die right in front of her was what kept her comatose. Now they were worrying if moving her had made the situation that much worse and had somehow accelerated the infection's spread. Merle couldn't help but think about how lost that little girl looked was about how lost he felt at the moment with everything happening. What the hell was he supposed to tell Daryl if this endeavor ended up with losing her?
"Putting together a red rover like that takes people," Eugene said as Merle shook himself free of his thoughts and they walked up to the blockade. "A lot of them."
Some of the walkers were handcuffed together, some bound by wire, but they all had that long chain through them as Rick put his rifle on his back, "Come on, let's do this."
"Dad," Carl said, walking up to a walker as he saw a dreadlock hanging off of it. "That's Michonne's."
"Fuckin' hell!" Merle said, catching sight of a pair of bolts. "Them are Daryl's. The Saviors have 'em man!" he yelled, walking up and pushing Rick a second before gunfire rang out, forcing them all to run for the RV as Abraham came out firing.
Merle jumped into the driver's seat while Abraham and Sasha fired back at their invisible opponents, Rick breaking through the walker blockade by hacking the wrist of a walker from the rest of the body. Starting up the RV, he waited for them to finish their task and come running back to the RV before he floored it and went straight through the downed walker wall. He kept driving as Rick held onto Michonne's dreadlocks that he'd pulled from one of the walkers, all of them thinking about what that meant. The RV was starting to sound up a ruckus, though, and Merle was worried they'd have to stop again and start on foot, though, considering the current situation, he wasn't sure how bad an idea that was. If they were on foot, there was a chance that they could circumvent the Saviors and get where they needed to go without anymore incident. They were all ready to take on the bastards by this time as the sun had already gone past high noon when they'd stopped the first time.
"What's that sound?" Abraham asked not long after they got through.
"Undercarriage could have caught a bullet," Eugene answered, rubbing at the cuff on his wrist. "Or could be transmission. It could be nothing."
"They were firing at our feet," Rick informed them. "They blocked the road, but they weren't tryin' to stop us. They want us in this direction."
"Barton Road takes us north, but they gotta know we wanna go north," Sasha said.
"Meadows," Eugene suggested. "It takes us east a piece, but we can get back on track on Mayhew."
"We're down to a third of a tank," Sasha told Rick. "We can top off at the next stop, but no refills after that."
"Alright," Rick said.
"Maggie's burning up," Aaron said as he came out from the back.
"Rick!" Abraham called, the setting sun still shining through the trees as they came across even more Saviors, their numbers too great to count at a distance to be certain, all of them carrying artillery of some type.
"Fuck!" Merle said.
"Go back," Rick told Abraham.
"Where, Rick?" Merle asked. "Where the hell we gonna go, huh?"
Rick just looked at him, the fear evident on his face as he went to the back, the old redneck stalking after him and ready to throw punches. Merle stood in the doorway as the man knelt next to Maggie, reassuring her that the Saviors were gone and they were going to get where they were going. That she and the baby would be okay, Maggie telling him she believed in him, which made him silently scoff and look away. His eyes connecting with Merle's as the man stood watching their exchange before Merle looked over to Ani. It wasn't right to compare the situation, but at least Maggie was awake and could tell them a bit about what was wrong, where it hurt, how she was feeling. Ani was deteriorating just as fast, though she was making a lot more faces while her breathing suggested she was having a flair of pain or nightmares. Either way, Rick could understand his fears, especially now that they knew the Saviors most likely had Glenn, Michonne, and Daryl. They didn't even know if they were alive, either, just that they had most likely been taken. Merle had to be afraid of losing the only two members of the family he had left if anything happened to his younger brother.
"They're both gonna be okay," Rick told him. "We'll make them be okay."
It was barely twenty minutes later when they were once again stopped in the middle of the road, Merle asking, "What now?"
As those who could leave the RV did so and walked up to the blockade of downed trees, Eugene had the grace to inform them, "These tracks...they indicate that they not only have people, but some big ass toys with capabilities."
"What it indicates," Abraham said, walking closer to the logs, "is that we are neck deep up shit creek with our mouths wide open."
They all turned around as a yell was heard from behind them, a man freshly thrown from the overpass just behind the RV dangling from a chain as he was strangled. It was the same man who'd been laying on the ground during their first encounter with the Saviors, the same 'X' painted on his chest. They all knew it was a sign, a warning, that they were being watched and there was nothing they could do about it. Worse than that, it was a warning of what was to come if these Saviors ended up taking over Alexandria; act up and wind up dead. Whoever these people were, whoever that 'Negan' fellow was, the Saviors meant business and were sure to make a show of it. Merle would have been impressed if it weren't for the fact that they were running on a ticking bomb and didn't have the time to keep stopping. Whatever the Saviors were planning on doing needed to be done already so that they could get the girls to the doctor and get them on the mend. The chain was too thick to really do anything other than stare at the man as he choked to death, though that didn't stop Aaron from raising his rifle.
"Don't," Rick told Aaron.
"I can try and break the chain," the man said.
"It won't work," he told him.
"I can try!" Aaron insisted.
"The man said it won't work," Abraham agreed.
"Chain's too thick," Rick told him as he walked a bit closer. "And we need the bullets."
They watched as the man hung to death, flailing until he hung limp before they smelled the burning wood and turned around. The Saviors had managed to silently start fire to the trees, or perhaps the fires had already been started and they were only taking hold. Either way, they were now blocked on ever damn road they had to get through; Merle realized they had made a damn cage the RV couldn't get out of. There was no way they were getting away from these people and he was beginning to doubt that they would even be able to make it out if they took dirt roads. Negan and his men were no joke with how well thought out this entire play had been on top of how well it was already working. It was a longer, more drawn out version of some military tactics, most often used in battle, much like the people at Terminus had used it. He recognized that this was the same thing, him and Abraham both if the look on the ginger's face had anything to say about it.
"You're treating your people good, right?" a disembodied Savior's voice rang out. "Like it was your last day on Earth? Or maybe one of theirs? You better go. It's gonna get hot. You go get where you're goin'."
"Go," Rick told them. "Go!"
Once again they piled into the RV, driving until they were parked damn near in the middle of the woods, off the road and any real path. There was no way of knowing whether or not the Saviors knew where they were or if they were watching them right then. It was a guessing game of where to go and what to do to get their women to Hilltop as quickly as possible. There were very few routes to the Hilltop that the RV could get through and night was fast approaching. Whatever they were going to do, they needed to decide on it and get to doing it before they got lost in the dark. The only one who even remotely had a chance of leading the way, if there was enough light from the moon, was the smaller woman laying sick in the back. For all his years of tracking, Merle had never seen anyone move through the woods quite like Ani had the night they'd stayed in the woods after Woodbury. She would tell them when to watch their feet and had pointed out a few trails he and Daryl couldn't see, but had still landed them dinner. Merle didn't know if he could lead them to Hilltop through the woods well enough in the dark, but there wasn't anyone else that could do it either. It was the only real option, though, as he looked at map on the table between them all.
"So what's the play?" Abraham asked after parking and coming back to the living area of the mobile home.
"They need a doctor," Rick told them.
"There are two more routes north from here," Sasha told them.
"They're probably waiting for us right now," Aaron said.
"So, they're ahead of us," Eugene said. "Probably behind us. But they're not waitin' on us, per say, they're waiting on this rust bucket. And they don't know the moment-to-moment occupancy of said rust bucket. And the sun sets soon."
"That's the best play we got," Merle said. "Been thinkin' it for a while now, though it's gonna be hard in the dark. We can rig a couple stretchers together easily enough."
They all got to work, though as they worked around Ani, Sophia couldn't help but ask, "Should we send the twins away?"
"You know the command for them to follow at a distance?"
"Yeah, but I don't know if they'll listen to me."
"They've bonded with ya, give it a try," Merle told her. "Only thing you can do. They don't listen to me 'less it's to bite."
Sophia gave the signal, sending the kittens bounding into the trees away from them as Eugene went into the RV and drove off. She would have smiled at the fact that they actually did listen to her, but the gravity of the situation took the pride right out of the moment. Abraham and Rick were carrying Maggie as Sasha and Aaron carried Ani, the other four from the RV keeping the two stretchers protected with they're knives and guns. Even as they walked, Merle was apprehensive about the entire thing with Sophia beside him, taking down a walker from the side as Carl took one from the front. He noticed the boy looking back at the girl while he was talking to his dad, the conviction in his voice as he spoke pure and true. He promised Rick that he wouldn't let anybody die like Denise had evident and making Merle proud to have helped in keeping that boy safe. Rick was about answer Carl until they all were put on high alert as whistling broke out through the woods all around them. Merle couldn't help but feel the panic rise in him as they made a run for it, doing their best to keep both stretchers steady. Lights erupted around them the minute they broke through the trees into a clearing, blinding them momentarily as the whistling became almost unbearably loud due to the number of Saviors whistling at once. They were completely surrounded and outnumbered, their own RV sitting in plain sight away from the rest of the cars with few Saviors in front of it. Panic was evident on everyone's faces as they looked around, Carl immediately going to Sophia's side as the whistling died down. She couldn't help but step back towards him as she noticed a shaken and beaten Eugene kneeling in front of the RV, it's headlights shining on his frightened form.
"Good," the first Savior they'd encountered on the trip said as he stepped into the light. "You made it. Welcome to where you're goin'. We'll take your weapons. Now."
"We can talk about-" Rick tried to negotiate.
"We're done talkin'," the man cut him off. "Time to listen." As a group of Saviors descended upon their group, the man walked up to Carl and pulled the spare gun he had in his holster out, looking at it and asking, "That's yours, right?" Carl just stared at him as Sophia tensed, ready to take action if the man tried anything to him. "Yeah, it's yours." He flicked his hat as he stood up and said, "Okay. Let's get her down, get Titania out front here, and the rest of y'all on your knees. Her, too," he said while looking at Maggie. "Lots to cover."
"Hold up," Abraham all but growled out. "We got it."
"Sure, sure," the leader said.
Aaron and Sasha moved in front of where the man was standing, Merle going with them and helping them set the stretcher down gently. Abraham and Rick helped Maggie to kneel on the ground, her form shaking as she struggled with it. While Abraham stayed on his knees next to Maggie, the other Saviors grabbed Eugene up, forcing him to become a target of attention. He was all but dragged over to their group and forced to his knees in a parallel line to the rest of them. Rick was in shock when he saw him kneeling there, face bruised and bloodied, when they had planned on the RV being what they were after. They had only been in the woods about ten minutes; Eugene shouldn't have been caught that easily or that quickly. If it wasn't clear from the fear, shock, and anger on everyone's faces, they all knew that they were in a place they couldn't return from easily. Even if they made it out of this, it wouldn't be all of them and it probably wouldn't even be most of them, maybe just Ani. Merle knew that the only means of survival for the time being was to give into whatever bullshit demands were given now only to fight again later. That's what he'd done his whole life and he wasn't worried about doing it again to a jackass that kept calling Ani by her old name.
"Gonna need you on your knees," the Savior told Rick, leaning in as if that made his point clearer. As Rick sank, so did the rest of the survivors. "Dwight!"
"Yeah," the man said, coming out of the woodwork.
"Chop-chop."
~x~
Daryl had the bike hidden by the railroad tracks, making use of some fallen branches he'd found there to cover it up. He'd been out for about an hour now, following what were likely the tracks of the men who'd fled after the barrage of bullets had ended and Ani and Eugene's injuries had taken precedence. He was still berating himself for letting her leave the walls, for agreeing to take her with him and letting Denise go, too. He was blaming himself for not killing those people when he had a chance instead of helping them or better yet, left them to whatever hell they were bound for when he'd gotten away to begin with. And the fact that they knew Ani's parents meant that those bastards were with the Saviors, now, and who knew what tale they'd spun. He was looking for the trail after it had been mucked up by some walkers when he branches cracking and whipped around. He brought his bow up and took quick aim, firing even as he saw it was Rosita, his bolt landing in the tree right next to her face as a warning.
Rosita looked at the thing and then back at him, anger evident all over her face as she snatched the bolt out of the tree, "Watch the hell out, asshole."
"Yeah, I did," he said as he snatched it back and stormed away, growling out, "You shouldn't have come."
"You shouldn't have left!" Michonne told him. "Ani needs you!"
Daryl stopped and looked back at her before leaning on one foot and admitting, "When I split off from Sasha and Abraham, he was out there in them woods, in that burned-out forest with them girls, put a gun to my head! Tied me up!" he finished with a yell. "I even tried to help him," he said as he walked away.
"So you think it's your fault?" Glenn asked, making him stop in his tracks again.
"Yeah, I know it is," Daryl told him, squaring off with the younger man. "Denise dyin', Ania bein' laid up. That's on me. I'm gonna do what I should have done before."
"What, for her?" Glenn called out when Daryl walked away again. "Denise is gone, man. Ani's unconscious in bed. You're doing this for you."
"Man, I don't give a shit," Daryl admitted. "They threatened my wife. They know her damn parents, for Christ's sake! I'm takin' care of this. Makin' this right," he said as he walked away a third time.
"Daryl," Glenn said, walking in front of the man and cutting him off, "we need to get back there and figure this out from home. Our home. From beside Ani, your pregnant wife. We need you! And everyone back there needs us right now! Ani needs you! It's—it's gonna go wrong out here," he pleaded.
"We'll square it," Michonne told him. "I will. I promise you. Just come back."
Daryl looked between the two of them before shaking his head, unable to bring himself to go back just to watch Ani lay there and waste away, just to watch them lose their child, "I can't."
"Wait!" Glenn tried again. "Daryl!"
"Man, I can't!" he told him with a yell, his voice thick with the hurt and anger he was feeling inside before he stomped off into the woods.
He could hear Rosita following along behind him, her footsteps heavier than Ani's, but lighter than both Michonne's and Glenn's. Daryl couldn't help but compare the small woman following him with the small woman waiting for him to go back home. He wanted Ani to be out here with him, but because of his complacency, because he tried to do things the way he thought she would do them, she was laid up. He couldn't handle that knowledge, couldn't handle the fact that his choice had gotten her best friend killed. Denise had done a decent job looking after Ani and helping her have somewhere else to go that wasn't just with their group or Aaron and Eric. She'd double checked with him several times even if they were awkward exchanges, neither knowing what to say to the other. She always had some sort of nutritional food that she was bringing over, usually bringing breakfast to him and Ani right before they'd take off on a trip. Even Daryl had to admit that the woman had made some pretty decent oatmeal considering they only had a few things they could put into it. That was all over now, all the good times and good memories; all of it was gone, and that was all on him.
"She won't blame you, you know," Rosita said as they walked through the trees.
"It don't matter."
Rosita just raised her eyebrow at him and continued following along behind the man as they tried to find the people responsible for the death of the woman they had both brought out. Daryl had never been much for conversation Merle, Aaron, or Ani, and even then, Ani was the one he spent the most time talking to. They kept circling the woods in silence until Daryl stopped and pointed to a couple sets of tracks walking in tandem, but that wasn't the most worrying fact about them. The most worrying fact was that in places Glenn's tracks were obvious while in other's Michonne's were. Either they had been followed or captured, but that didn't matter as he and Rosita followed and broke off. He saw Glenn and Michonne before he saw anyone else, the two of them bound and gagged and sitting on a log. Raising his finger to his lips, he silently told them to remain silent only for Glenn to start trying to yell something at him.
As he raised his crossbow to take careful aim, he heard the click of the gun from behind him as Dwight's voice sounded out, "Hi, Daryl." He lowered his bow only for a gunshot to resound in the woods around them as Daryl's right shoulder exploded in pain. "You'll be alright. Payback, you see, for Titania gettin' hurt. Apparently, she's supposed to remain unharmed, but you? Boss-man has some big plans for you for what you did to her. Seems kinda strange to me, a man like you, sayin' you got a wife to get back to when it's just a kid you lead on 'til she runs away to be with you. That's kinda shitty, don't you think? Well, it don't matter much to me. We got some place for the four of you to be."
The world went black for a long time before he finally came to, whistling sounding from somewhere around them as his eyes tried to adjust from their blurry state. He was covered in blood and his shoulder hurt like a bitch, but he was alive and that counted for something. Looking around, he found he was with Glenn, Michonne, and Rosita in some sort of truck, but that was all he could tell. As the whistling got louder, he tried his best to get into a seated position, grunting and groaning the entire way. His anger towards himself roared to life, roiling over the fact that once again he'd put those he cared about in danger doing something stupid. They could hear the muffled voices coming from outside the darkened vehicle, the only light coming from small holes in the canvas that covered the back of the vehicle. Daryl could barely handle the pain in his shoulder, wondering how the hell Ani had been able to before remembering that she was still passed out from that wound as far as he knew. It was only now that he realized he had been stupid leaving her side and silently let the tears fall in the dark, his body heavy and breathing slightly labored from the loss of blood. He heard Dwight's name being called before the back of the truck was open and Daryl was roughly grabbed out, though not without a struggle.
"Come on," Dwight told him, the blanket around Daryl's bloodied form doing nothing to help him as he was shoved. "You got people to meet."
He, Michonne, Rosita, and Glenn were all dragged from the back of the truck and roughly shoved onto the ground. Both Daryl and Glenn tried to break the hold of the men who had them when they saw their wives, Maggie breaking down while Daryl was practically tossed onto the ground next to his brother. He reached out touched Ani's face, looking to Merle as if to ask why she was there; Merle only shook his head indicating that this wasn't the time. One of the Saviors grabbed him by the back of his shirt and forcefully pulled him back, away from Ani, causing him to fight a little bit before a gun was held to his head. It was only then that he stopped fighting and stayed where he was, staring at Ani on the stretcher in front of him. She was so much more pale than when he'd left her that morning and she was burning up and sweating. Even when he laid on top of her, she never seemed to sweat that much; he was the one who did the most of it. His eyes never left her as the Savior in front of them began chuckling and clapped his hands.
"Alright," the told them. "We got a full boat! Let's meet the man!"
He went over to the RV and knocked on the door before walking off to the side, tossing Carl's gun at him as a man roughly Rick's age stepped out of the vehicle. If the leather jacket and red ascot didn't make him seem charming, the award winning smile he gave them all certainly added to it. Had he not been carrying a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire, he might almost look like a friendly guy. He honestly looked like the type of guy you'd see at the bar and stop to have a good talk. By his looks alone, Merle couldn't tell why this man was as powerful as he apparently was by the size of his army. He was more charming than the Governor had ever been and that was just stepping out of the RV, but charm didn't make a leader. Strength and strategy made someone a leader, which was why Rick and Ani had been so efficient as leaders. Strength and power made a dictator, someone who controlled with an iron fist and only cared about themselves. Merle didn't see this man being like that, which made him much closer to Ani when she alone was running things. This man had the strength to make people look up to him based on the number of followers he had in this outcrop alone. He had the power enough to keep over a hundred men in line with what seemed like minimal effort. He also had the strategic insight to set an elaborate trap just like Ani had at the feed store, though this was much more thought out and threatening than simply booby trapping something. It also seemed as if the man's eyes cued into Ani's form lying on the gurney in front of them before moving to the line of people in front of him, zeroing on Daryl's bloodied form with a sneer.
"Pissin' our pants yet?" he asked, his sneer turning into a charming half smile. "'Cause I got a feelin' you're about to be."