"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well."

― Robert Louis Stevenson

Even before sunrise, all of us started talking about a plan, we discussed how to attack them and trying to find a way out, it seemed like some sleep helped us. I didn't sleep, though, I couldn't. I was scared they would come and get us during the night, when we were more vulnerable because of the lack of light but nobody came. Besides, the three times I tried to sleep all I saw was us getting killed, it was better to stay awake.

Daryl, who had slept all night with his head on my lap, opened his eyes and smiled a bit at me when he saw me looking down at him, he sat up and kissed me on the forehead. He asked me if I had slept and I lied, I told him I had, I knew he would feel like he was to blame for my lack of sleep.

Afterwards, all of us looked in the few belongings we still had left, trying to find things that we could use as weapons. The men used the buckles of their belts and other stuff we had found in here, including some nails and sticks, I still had my small blade with me, so that was good.

"I'll be right back," Daryl told me, I nodded at him and stayed next to Sasha.

From my spot, I followed him with my gaze and saw him walking towards Maggie. I could hear Daryl informing her that her sister was taken in a car and assured her that Beth was alive when she asked him if she was in fact still alive. I was a bit upset he didn't tell me that, he could have, especially because I had asked what had happened to her, but I shrugged it off and focused on our problems at hand. I didn't even know why it was affecting me so much and making me so angry.

I loved Beth and I was glad she was still alive, wherever she was, and I hoped that she was okay but ever since Daryl mentioned he escaped with her, whenever he talked about her I got a feeling inside of me, making me upset, and that feeling just got worse when Daryl got all uncomfortable when I asked about it and refused to tell me more about it. I looked from Daryl to Sasha, who had asked me something, stopping me from thinking about Daryl for at least a few seconds.

As more time passed, Daryl moved closer to me and stayed on watch, looking out the train car in case people came to us. I grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze, he glanced down at me for a second before he continued to look through a small space between the door and the rest of the train car.

"All right, got four of them pricks coming our way," Daryl informed us a few minutes later, letting go of my hand. I stood up quickly and looked through the small space and indeed, four men were coming here, three looked to be around their late twenties or thirties, and only one looked to be around fifty.

"Y'all know what to do," Rick exclaimed. "Go for their eyes first, then their throats."

"Put your backs to the walls on either side of the car now!" We heard a man yelling outside.

But none of us did as we were told, we got on position with our weapons ready, Daryl grabbed me by my biceps and pulled me closer to him. He turned to look at me and in a quick movement, kissed my lips. Daryl didn't give me time to kiss back as he broke it just as quick. I could only hope this wasn't just a type of good-bye kiss or any of the sort.

We were just waiting for the door to be opened when we heard footsteps on the roof of this thing, then we saw a door from the roof being opened, I looked up but saw no one, just the light blue sky above us. Then I saw a gas bomb being thrown inside.

"Shit," I cursed, as usual.

"Move!" Abraham yelled.

We all ran to the very back of the train car, Daryl tried to protect me but realistically he couldn't do much. I heard the explosion and tried to cover my nose but it didn't really work at all, only seconds later I started feeling really dizzy. I tried to fight the feeling, I tried to stay conscious, I kept telling myself to stay away, that it was going to be over soon but with every second passing by, it just got harder and harder until I just lost consciousness and fell on the floor, next to Daryl and Glenn.

When I opened my eyes, even though I was like if I had been drugged and my eyesight was blurry and I was very disorientated I could tell I wasn't in the train car anymore. My surroundings weren't dark and I could feel like I was being moved, I looked around and saw some people by a table but everything was so foggy I could barely tell what was in front of me. I turned to my left and saw that indeed I was being carried, one of the four men I saw earlier was holding me by my ankles and another one was gripping me from my armpits, but I couldn't really see his face. As I was being taken somewhere, I also heard people talking but the sound was muffled and I couldn't understand what they were saying, but I could tell they were all male.

Then, seconds later, or so I thought, the two men stopped and I felt how they just dropped me on the ground, making me slightly wake up a bit more. I tried to stand up but one of them pushed me down to the ground again, while the other tied my hands. Then they forced me to get on my knees and felt how they were tying my feet together. I tried to struggle and to scream as they were starting to pull me again but I was too weak compared to them and I realized I had a rag on my mouth.

I felt how consciousness was slowly returning to me and noticed I was placed in between Rick and Daryl, who were struggling hard to break free, there were more people here but I didn't know them, except Glenn and Bob. We were knelt in front of a bright steel trough and I could only tell that the reason for this thing was more horrible than what I could ever imagine, I could feel it.

The men of Terminus started grabbing long knives and sharpening them, at the sight of it my consciousness came back to me all at once, it almost felt like a slap on the face . I started to freak out badly and hyperventilate, I moved my hands trying to break free but it was completely useless. I turned to look at Daryl, and believe me I could count with my fingers of only one hand the times I had seen Daryl truly scared, or at least as scared as he was now, which wasn't reassuring at all, which was what I was looking for, something to tell me that we were going to be okay, because I wasn't so sure about that and I needed to stay positive.

"All right," someone said and the two men behind us, that were wearing plastic coats stained with blood, walked to the first guy of the row. He had platinum blonde hair and couldn't be much older than me.

As I looked all the way to him, on my left, I realized all of the people here were men, I was the only girl in here, but all those thoughts were abruptly interrupted when one of the two men, hit the guy in the head with a baseball bat, knocking him out, making me jump at their actions, but that wasn't the worst, the other man, grabbed him by his short blonde hair, and slit his throat open without even blinking, he let go of his hair, letting his body fall forward, leant against the edge of the trough, the guy's blood dripped inside, quickly creating a big puddle of blood. I looked in complete horror, completely paralysed until I reacted and tried to scream but it was muffled and came out like a girly squeal because of the rag in my mouth. I wanted to act tough and brave, so I could die with honour but for a few seconds I didn't give a shit about that.

If possible, Daryl got even more scared. He had never been so scared in his life, or at least since I met him. I turned to look at Rick instead, and he looked a mix of scared and pissed off but to my reassurance he looked more pissed than scared, Bob, who was next to Rick, looked like he was pissing himself at the moment.

The two men moved to the next guy and quickly killed him the same way, when I saw all the blood coming out of him, I felt how my eyes watered, as all the reassurance I got from Rick only a couple of seconds ago, vaporized. Rapidly, the two men moved to the third man, repeating the process again. I almost lost it when the blood from the killed men had reached the part of the trough in front of me and slowly reached the drain. As it started to go down the drain, I heard the sound of it falling to a pipe or something, making me more uneasy, I took deep breaths to calm myself, I had to keep my cool and think of something.

I realized then that Daryl was going to be killed before me, the last seconds of my life were going to be the worst, with Daryl dead by my side. Just the thought of it made me start crying, making him look at me. I closed my eyes and bowed my head, trying to think of nice memories I had shared with him as I felt him trying to get closer to me, until our arms were touching.

I thought of our first kiss as a couple, that was the first memory I thought of. Then I remembered when he took me to that lake where we swam and almost kissed, and when he proposed to me and when we took our first picture together, and when Daryl found me in the woods and he hugged me for the very first time and when I finally reunited with him only two nights ago, even when the circumstances weren't good at all, I couldn't be happier about finding him.

"Hey, guys." Gareth's voice made me open my eyes and lift my head and look in his direction. He was writing things down on a notebook as he walked in. He wasn't even looking at us. "What were your shot counts?"

"Thirty-eight," one of the men that were killing us replied, and then they moved to the fourth men, I heard that horrible sound when they killed him, making me shut my eyes again for a few more seconds.

I opened them again to see the two men moving to Glenn, I turned away, not wanting to see how my best male friend got killed. Instead, I looked at Gareth. I didn't want to see down at the blood going down the drain either, even when I could hear it perfectly, I didn't want to look at Daryl and Glenn on my left or at Rick on my right, and I couldn't just close my eyes because I was only seeing bad things, so I concentrated on Gareth.

"Hey! Your shot count?"

"Crap, man, I'm sorry," the other man said, the one that was slitting the throats. "It was my first round-up."

"After you're done here, go back to your point and count the shells," Gareth told him, just getting a bit frustrated with him. "Kaylee won't be gathering them until tomorrow."

"Hey!" I heard Bob's muffled voice trying to yell. "Hey, let me talk to you."

"Five from A, four from D?" Gareth asked, ignoring Bob as he wrote more things down after he took a glance at us.

"Yeah."

"Thought we were just getting men today," Gareth told the two men as he looked down at me before he turned his gaze to the two men behind us.

"She killed Douglas, Gareth. We didn't think it was prudent to leave her in there," the one with the baseball bat told Gareth. Great, so I did in fact killed him, it wasn't my intention tough.

"Such a shame, she's such a beauty but it has to be done."

I ignored Gareth's words and instead thought of something else. Since these would be my last couple of minutes alive, I started to ask for forgiveness for all the people I had killed, including Peter, even when he deserved it, that Douglas guy, the girl at the prison that tried to kill me, the other guy of Joe's group, the two men back at Woodbury, just everyone. I could only hope to see Sophia again soon and reunite with Daryl on the other side, maybe Merle would meet us there and finally we would just rest from this constant battle against humans and the dead.

"Hey, let me talk to you for a minute," Bob insisted. "Let me talk to you for a minute. Let me talk to you for a minute."

It seemed like all that begging worked and made an effect on Gareth, even if it was just annoyance. Gareth did look rather annoyed at Bob, he rolled his eyes as he approached him, and removed the dirty rag from his mouth.

"What?"

"Don't do this. We can fix this."

"No, you can't."

"You don't have to do this." Bob raised his voice when Gareth was going to put the rag back in his mouth. "We told you there's a way out of all this. You just have to take a chance. We have a man who knows how to stop it. He has a cure." Well, I didn't know that, was he making it up or was it really true? "We just have to get him to Washington. You don't have to do this, man. We can put the world back to how it was."

As Bob spoke to him, Gareth turned his gaze towards me. I silently pleaded with my eyes as I looked right into his brown eyes. I really didn't want to die and in such a heartless way. As he looked at me I got an idea and I could only hope that it would work, not just for me but for the others too.

"Can't go back, Bob," Gareth said, breaking eye-contact with me, slightly leaning forward to put the rag back in his mouth once again.

"We can! You don't have to do this!" Bob's voice came out muffled again this time.

"Hmm, seems like the princess here also wants to say her last words," Gareth said, looking right at me one more time. I could feel how Daryl's muscles tensed when he called me 'princess' as his arm was right next to mine but I couldn't care less about how he called me. "Cecilia, right? Just give me a second, I need to speak to Rick first."

Gareth stood right in front of Rick, bent his knees so he could be at our level, and removed the rag from Rick's mouth. Rick didn't beg like Bob had pathetically done and failed, actually he didn't say a single word and the look on his eyes radiated confidence and self-trust, unlike probably all of us.

"We saw you go into the woods with a bag and come out without it," Gareth told him. "Had to pull my spotters back before we could go look for it. What was in it?" Rick didn't speak. "You hid it, right? In case things went bad? Smart. Still, we'll find it," Gareth told him with confidence. "But it's too dangerous to go out there right now."

Gareth then suddenly took out a knife and grabbed Bob by the back of his neck and pulled Bob towards him, holding the knife close to Bob's left eye. I suppressed a big breath as I saw the scene in front of me, not only he was willing to kill us, but also to torture us.

"What was in it? I'm curious and it was a big bag," Gareth said, looking at Rick, who at the moment seemed conflicted. "You really gonna let me do this?"

"Well, let me take you out there," Rick said, his voice was firm and he didn't stutter at all. I was surprised at how Rick was taking this, they were going to kill us in a matter of minutes and he still didn't look scare at all. "I'll show you."

"Not gonna happen. This might," Gareth said the last part as he got the knife closer to Bob's eye.

"There's guns in it. AK-47. .44 Magnum. Automatic weapons. Nightscope. There's a compound bow, a crossbow, arrows and a machete with a red handle," Rick told him. "That's what I'm gonna use to kill you."

I just turned to look at Rick, with my eyes wide opened at his statement, not only he had threatened Gareth but by his tone, I could tell Rick was completely sure he was going to do just that. Gareth didn't look scared at all, we were tied, we were vulnerable, defenceless and helpless. I saw how the corners of his lips slowly curved and broke into a smile, followed by a chuckle, of course that he found it funny.

"Thanks," Gareth exclaimed, as he put the rag back into Rick's mouth and patted his shoulders with both hands.

Then he slowly moved to his right and stopped until he was right in front of me, his grin came back as he looked into my blue eyes, that were probably bloodshot right now, there were still tears in them that were threatening to fall out. He raised his arms and slowly got the red rag out of my mouth. I took a deep breath after he did so, it felt nice.

"Alright, sweetheart, I'm all yours now."

Daryl tensed even more at his words but luckily he didn't move or even tried to say something to Gareth, Rick looked a bit tense right now as well, but I wasn't. It was a bit uncomfortable, though, to have Gareth so close to me and having him look at me so intensively, but this was the only card I had and I got to play it well, my life and theirs depended on that.

"I'm sorry about your friend, I really didn't mean it," I told him in the most sincere way I could master, hoping he would really believe me. "We just saw your people here had our friends' things and we just... snapped, you know? We believed you had killed them and eventually you will kill us too."

"Okay, apology accepted. Now go to the chase," he ordered me. "Because I know you just don't want to apologize, what else do you want to tell me?"

"I'm not going to beg but I'm asking you to not kill me," I told him as I looked right into his chocolate brown eyes, that somehow weren't cold or empty, actually they looked rather warm.

I was actually pretty shocked at how firm my voice was, I was freaking out inside, I was even shaking before I started talking to Gareth, so I had no idea how I was achieving to be so calm at the moment.

"Give me just one good enough reason not to do it," Gareth told me, he never looked away from me and I didn't either until then. "And I won't kill you."

What I was going to say, wasn't easy. I was more scared of Daryl's reaction than Gareth's. I bit my lip, took a deep breath and looked down at the ground for just a second, because I saw all the blood going down the drain, which I had forgotten, making me look up quickly and feel a bit nauseated. Gareth smirked when I looked back at him, making me feel less assured for a few seconds.

"Well?" I gulped.

"I am... I'm pregnant," I said in a quick breath, and then bit my lip out of nervousness.

Gareth looked really surprised at my confession, more surprised than I expected, his lips slightly parted and his eyes got twice as big and they reflected how shocked he was at the moment. He opened his mouth to say something but no words came out. I looked at Gareth the whole time but I even saw out of the corner of my eye, Glenn leaning towards me with a shocked expression, his eyes widening to a size I really think it wasn't possible for him, he even gasped.

For a second I looked at Daryl, he looked completely stunned. His mouth was open and he looked hopeless, of course this wasn't good news, not at this very moment. I saw him slightly shaking his head in disbelief. He refused to look back at me, he just kept staring in front of him, at nothing in particular, though. I wanted to hold him and tell him everything was going to be alright, but I couldn't do that.

I couldn't risk being seen like this, so I quickly turned to look at Rick, he wasn't surprised of course, he knew, I had to tell him but he looked surprised I had brought it up and was using it as a last resort weapon. I kept my gaze on Rick longer than on Daryl, hoping that Gareth wouldn't realize Daryl and I were an item.

This wasn't the way I wanted Daryl to know, yesterday Rick had told me to tell Daryl soon about it because things would just get harder if I waited, and right now I wish I had listened to Rick and told Daryl. This wasn't a nice way to find out, but I suppose it was better to know than dying without never finding out.

"Rick," Gareth muttered after he composed himself, he looked from me to the ground, back to me, then to Rick. I took the chance that he wasn't looking at me to reach for my small blade, which was in the waistband of my jeans, I was lucky I didn't take it out earlier. "Congratulations, you are going to be a grandad. Seems like you didn't know."

Apparently the people here had created in their minds the idea that Rick was my father and still believed it and Rick kind of confirmed it yesterday before walking inside the train car when he referred to Carl and me as 'his kids'. Rick, Carl and I had blue eyes, Carl and I had freckles and I acted really protective of him yesterday, so it was normal to assume we were all related. Of course, I didn't have a problem with them thinking we were father and daughter, and neither did Rick. After all, I loved Rick as if he were my father and I loved Carl as I loved Sophia.

"Is he the father?" Gareth asked, nodding towards Daryl, probably noticing the few times I had glanced in Daryl's direction.

I turned to look at him for a second before looking back at Gareth, who hadn't stopped looking at me. Daryl's colour had drained completely and he looked like he was going to be sick, I also noticed how Daryl's ocean blue eyes shined, meaning he was close to crying.

I bit my lip as I hesitated, I wasn't sure if I should lie or if it was better to tell the truth. I had a bad feeling, like if I told him that Daryl was in fact the father, he would kill him right away, probably just out of fun or because I killed a man here, or maybe because that would be the price I would have to pay to keep myself alive, and honestly I wasn't willing to pay that price.

"No," I told him curtly. "The father is not around anymore. Daryl here, he, uh, he just has taken care of me since John was bit and killed. I have known him since the very start and he has been my friend all this time."

I didn't even know why I picked John as the name of my baby's imaginary father, but the way I said it, without even stuttering or hesitating, made me really believable, or so I hoped.

"Hmm," he muttered.

"You won't kill a pregnant girl, will you, Gareth?" I said, looking right at his eyes once again and allowed myself to smile a bit, it was mostly out of nerves.

"Well," Gareth muttered, as he ran his hands on his chin, as he thought. "I could keep you until it's born, then we could kill you and keep the baby, because we really aren't bad people or you could agree to our terms and be kept alive."

"What are your terms?" I asked in a business-like tone.

"Oh right, we didn't have the chance to tell you yesterday because of your little show," Gareth said with a smile. "You only have to say yes, simple as that."

"Yes to what?" I asked, getting a little bit nervous, I only hoped this would also help keeping the others alive, as many as I could save.

Gareth grinned at me, making me feel bad chills running up and down my spine. He grabbed the trough's edge for support as he slowly leant forward, getting closer to me. I bit my lip, getting extremely uncomfortable with Gareth's sudden proximity. Gareth grinned at me as he looked right at my eyes but then tilted his head slightly to his left, his lips were only a couple of inches away from my right ear now.

"You have to agree to..." he said that loud, I was sure Rick heard it but then he lowered his voice so only I could hear him. "...eat people."

Instantly, I moved my body backwards, getting away from him, almost falling down and dropping my blade on the ground. I gasped and looked in utter shock at Gareth, who returned to his original position and just shrugged at me, his cheeky grin never left his lips.

Million of thoughts crossed my mind in just a matter of seconds, I didn't know what to do anymore. That was really crazy, so that's what we were going to become, their meal. That's why they didn't shoot us yesterday when we first came in, it would 'ruin' us.

"Alright." I heard Gareth saying as he stood up, using the edge of the trough for support.

Instead of grabbing my blade with only two fingers, I pushed it further into my hand and closed my fingers around it, to hid it, Gareth couldn't see I had it. He smiled at me like if I was a young kid that had done something well and then he walked around the steel trough and stopped right behind me. He grabbed me by my elbows and pulled me up, then turned me around to face him.

"I understand it might be a shock at first but I'm willing to give you a chance only if you are willing to try. I already forgave you for killing Douglas and the others will too, leaving it behind us, like I said, we are good people."

"It might take some time," I said nervously, this time failing to keep eye-contact with him.

"You are really pretty, Cecilia. I would hate to waste that beauty by killing you."

"I'm wi-willing to tr-try," I stuttered. "Just one thing."

"What?"

"Don't ask me to eat my friends," I whispered, looking from Gareth to Rick. Daryl and Glenn were behind me and out of my sight.

"You got yourself a deal," he told me as his smile returned. "Perfect, because being pretty doesn't mean tasting better," he whispered in my ear, making me feel sick to my stomach. "At least most of the time."

I seriously wasn't sure my plan was going to work, but apparently it did and I was glad I wasn't becoming their dinner but now I had to figure out how to save my friends and my fiancée, that was my top priority right now, saving the others back in the train car wasn't as urgent at the moment, unless they were in another room exactly like this one but I doubted it.

Gareth grabbed me by my right biceps and pulled me with him, I glanced at Daryl and saw he looked slightly relieved that I wasn't going to be killed, at least for now. Gareth stood in front of the trough again and looked at the two men behind Rick, Daryl, Glenn and Bob.

"What about them?" I asked, turning to look at Gareth.

"I'm sorry," Gareth said emotionless, he even had a small smile on his lips.

"What about my dad?" I exclaimed, looking at Rick with tears in my eyes. I once heard or read that guys can't really resist girls crying, so this was my second card, a bit pathetic but I had to try everything I could.

"I can't do anything for him, he's dangerous to this community."

"But you can't kill my dad," I muttered as I broke down crying. "And they are my friends, they mean a lot to me."

Gareth looked really uncomfortable and wasn't sure what to do, it was obvious a crying pregnant girl made him uneasy. He slowly put his hands on top of my shoulders, I looked up at him after I tried to wipe my tears with my left shoulder, since my hands were still tied. He bit his lips and turned to look at his men instead.

"You have two hours to get them on the driers. I'm gonna go back to public face," he said, making my heart drop. "Now's the time we can get messy, but we need to dial it all in by sundown. Got it?"

"Yes, sir."

"Wait!" I exclaimed quickly, stopping Gareth from leaving the room. I really wasn't sure what I was going to tell him to convince him to not kill them but whatever I was coming with, didn't matter. We heard gunshots in the distance, making Gareth look from me to somewhere behind me. I also stopped trying to think of some excuse to keep them alive and instead focused on the noise.

Gareth looked a bit surprised by the gunshots and for the first time I didn't see him calm and confident. I heard more and more gunshots, they were getting a bit closer, Gareth got his walkie-talkie while I prayed that Carl and everyone out there were alright. I turned to look at Daryl one more time before I heard a huge explosion that made the floor beneath us and everything else to shake violently, making me fall down on the ground, I just grabbed the blade tightly so I wouldn't drop it, not caring if I cut myself in the process.

As I fell down, all I could think was, what now?

Hello guys! I'm back once again! I had the best holidays. Stayed in the city for a few days then we went to the beach, which is only an hour away and then back to the city for a day. As usual I didn't want the holidays to end, but this time I almost cried because I spent such a good time with my mum's cousin and his family, I will miss them terribly. :(
And well, the way back wasn't as smooth because before going to the beach there were a couple of quakes and thankfully when we were in the beach, there was a stronger quake in the city so we didn't feel it or the quakes that follow it, some things well and it was a chaos in the city but we were alright.
So, a very big rock fell on the highway we use to go to the border, so we had to go to another one, and this one was farther and there was a lot of traffic and yeah.

Anyway, did you like the chapter? What do you think of it? What do you think of Cecilia's confession? What do you think Daryl is thinking right now?

As usual, thanks for reading it, for commenting and to my Wattpad readers, for voting! 3