Naomi
"He found you!" Mia yelled.
I damn near fell off the chair, " What ?"
"He found you!" she repeated, although it should have been obvious I hadn't misheard. Volume wasn't her issue. The worms in the dirt above and outside this bunker had probably heard her. The news would have woken the whole of Hilltop. "He found the mine, the trapdoor, the tunnels, and the door!"
"And he's sure… he's sure? " I said. It all felt too good to be true. I'd known he'd be out there searching like a bloodhound until he found me, but… Hell, he must not have slept since I'd last spoken to him.
"How many top-secret bunkers in mines can there be?" Mia laughed.
More than you'd think.
"There is more than one," I said. "I have no idea where, but I heard the Colonel radioing someone else. Someone outside of here."
"Really? There's more than one bunker?"
"Yes. One is definitely out of state," I said, thinking of Nora and everything she'd told me about her son. "But… I don't know for sure that it's the same one the Colonel was in contact with. Just… make sure he knows that, okay?"
"Okay," Mia said. "I'll tell him."
Her excitement faded, and worry crept in. I hated hearing her deflate like that, but it was important that she knew and passed the information on to Daryl. He couldn't move against the wrong place; if he did, he'd lose the element of surprise. A warning would spread here, and the Colonel would be on high alert. Getting in or out would be an even more insurmountable task.
"It's just a precaution. I'm sure he's right," I said, trying to stop her from losing too much hope. "But he's gotta be certain, he's gotta be…safe."
I knew how hotheaded Daryl could be. How rash. If he really had found the door, I was half surprised he hadn't already banged on it until the Colonel opened up.
"Yeah. I know. I know," Mia said, like she was trying to reassure me now. "Don't worry, Dad's gonna find you. He's got a plan, and he's-"
I didn't hear the rest.
Did she just…?
Dad?
I felt my heart swell so big in my chest that it hurt. For a second, I couldn't take in anything else. She was still talking about Daryl and his plans and how he'd come up with them. I doubt she'd noticed what she'd said. She'd said it so… easily.
Like she's said it before.
Hold it together. Hold it together.
I fought to keep the emotion from my voice, not wanting to draw attention to it if Mia hadn't noticed what she'd done. I didn't want her feeling weird about it or like she had to explain herself. It was her choice and none of my business, but… it meant the world.
I closed my eyes for a moment, tears prickling behind my eyelids. I couldn't wait to hug her again. To hug both of them.
"I'm gonna see you both real soon," I said. It might not have made sense in the context of whatever she said, but I couldn't help it. My brain was too scrambled to think about anything else. "I can't believe how soon."
"I still can't believe you're alive ," Mia said quietly. It made my stomach twist.
"I'm sorry."
"Stop apologizing," Mia said. "You haven't been holding yourself hostage in a weirdo's bunker."
Marissa knocked.
Shit.
It never felt like enough time.
"I gotta go. Pass the message on to…" I faltered. What was I supposed to say now? ' Your Dad?' No, that would draw attention to it. "...to Daryl. I'll see you soon."
"Really soon," Mia said, determined. "I love you."
"I love you." I switched the radio off. It was easier the quicker I did it fast. If I let myself think about it, I'd never be able to switch it off or move the dial back to where the Colonel had left it. He'd have walked in to find me sobbing over the controls, and it would be game over.
As it was, I managed to hold myself together long enough for Marissa to sneak me back to my room, where I could lie in bed, stare at the dark, and let the enormity of everything Mia had said wash over me.
Dad…
My whole life, it had been such a… big word. A void. A black hole I never looked into in case it swallowed me up. Who was he? Had he ever known I existed? If he did… would he want to know me? Would I have made him proud? Would he have saved me from Momma, or was he just as bad? After a few years, Daryl's Daddy had been enough to put me off the idea of them as a whole.
When Mia had come along, I knew she'd have had the same questions. Ones I'd never had answers for. I'd braced myself for her asking, but she never did. Maybe she'd asked Momma when she was really little, but she never asked me. It had almost made the absence more apparent, but I'd never known how to address it. I think we never talked about it because it shone a light on a difference that I otherwise never thought about. We had the same fucked up Momma but different absent Dads. Addressing that could have been a wedge in an already fragile family.
But now she'd found someone who made her feel safe, accepted, and loved enough to call such a big word… And he tied us closer together.
I closed my eyes and, for the first time in a long time, I let myself think about the world above this one. The possibility that Daryl was right there, somewhere above my head, and I might get to see him soon was almost too much to bear. But it did help me sleep —his protection seeping through the earth, strong enough to permeate these walls.
It was my first thought when I woke up, too. I tentatively passed on the news that Daryl thought he'd found us and that we should be ready to put our plan into motion. I spent the rest of the day trying to act as naturally as possible.
But that night, there was no knock from Marissa. We'd had a long run of being able to get into the communications room. Sometimes, she wasn't on the rota and was given the night off. Sometimes, she was working on another floor, and she wouldn't be able to get me there. It had happened a couple of times in the days since making contact with home, but it was frustrating now that freedom felt so close.
I didn't worry about it.
Until it happened the next night, too.
Long hours of darkness stretched around me, uninterrupted by the knock I'd come to expect. To depend on. I tried to tell myself that it was no big deal, that it was a coincidence that we hadn't been able to get into the communications room two nights in a row.
But I think I knew, deep down, that something had gone wrong.
I carried a knot of anxiety in my stomach all day. It tightened when Sherry wasn't in the kitchen, her absence not explained.
On the third night without contact, the sirens went off. The lights changed again. They cycled from red to pale yellow. I froze in my room.
Is this it?
Is it happening?
Dread churned in my stomach. Setting off the alarms to cover our escape had been the plan, but… we hadn't been able to coordinate it. I hadn't seen Dwight in a while. Maybe he'd been outside and managed to find them. We were due a new delivery from the allotments in the next few days. Maybe Daryl had been out there and able to communicate with him.
It felt flimsy, and I couldn't shake the deep feeling that something was wrong. But I'd definitely never get out by staying in my room. I waited for another moment, thinking it would be easier to slip away if I hid in a crowd. But when I opened my door, it opened into an empty hallway.
Did I wait too long?
I looked both ways down the corridor for other stragglers, but I was the only one there. I started running toward the exit. I turned the corner, but the exit door wasn't open. The Colonel was standing in front of it, and a panel in the wall was open beside him. When he saw me, he reached inside it and flicked a switch. The sirens cut off immediately, and the lights returned to normal.
"Expecting someone else?"
He knows.
"Shouldn't… shouldn't everyone be evacuating?" I asked, playing dumb even though we both knew what I'd been expecting. What else could I do? He clearly knew a lot more than I wanted him to, but I still didn't want to give any more than he already had. The Colonel shook his head.
"Come with me." It wasn't a request. I followed him away from the door and back to the large, circular room I'd first been taken to meet him in. He pulled out one of the black, high-backed chairs, "Sit."
Again, it wasn't a request.
All of the monitors in front of me showed the same image in grainy night vision. A dark room on the screen. Empty, and not one of the ones inside the bunker. The Colonel leaned over me and clicked a button. A rectangle of light opened up at the top seconds after he hit play. A pair of boots swung down into a room that I couldn't call familiar but could piece together the location of. It was the dirt room I'd woken up in.
Daryl dropped down into the room, and my heart dropped with him.
No.
No, no, no.
I could feel the Colonel's eyes on me as I watched Daryl look around. Was this a live feed? A recording? Rick dropped down after him. Bryce followed shortly after. Glenn. Tara. I felt myself start to choke up.
So many of them came to help me.
Seeing the tears starting to prickle at the corners of my eyes, the Colonel pressed another button. The image changed to a video of their slow-moving progress down the corridor. I clenched my jaw, trying not to give anything away, but it was too late. The truth was written all over my face. The Colonel flicked through images of my loved ones exploring the tunnels outside of here, dropping off one by one until only Bryce and Daryl were left. He paused the video.
"I assume," he said, rage bubbling under his words, "one of them is Mr Dixon. "
Bryce and Daryl stood frozen side by side, looking at where I knew the door to the bunker would be just off-screen. I didn't say anything. I couldn't, nor did I need to. He already knew who they were and that they were here for me.
How did you work that out?
Did he know about the others who helped me? Were they okay?
"How did they find you?" he asked while my anxious mind worried about the last time I'd seen Amber and Sherry.
"I don't know," I lied. "But if you let me go, they'll leave you alone."
The Colonel sneered, "You expect me to believe that?"
"We have our own community," I said. "With no need for any of the shit you've got here. We won't come back."
"This is the single biggest breach of security we've had in the history of The Stronghold," he said. "I cannot just let it slide."
"It would be better for all of you if you did," I said, shockingly calm. I knew Daryl wouldn't rest until he'd got me back. I knew he'd stop at nothing. The Colonel should be the one who was afraid here, not me.
"Don't move," he told me, standing up and walking back to the door, "We're not done here."
Where's he going?
Does he have Daryl somewhere?
The moment the door closed behind him, I moved, immediately grabbing the mouse to click back through the videos. None of them were live. From what I could tell, the footage had been taken slightly before the last contact I'd had with Mia.
The Colonel had known since then.
Where are they now?
What has he done with them?
Feeling sick, I clicked around until I found how to switch over to a live feed. If the Colonel was keeping them somewhere I might be able to find them, break them out. There was no time for despair or guilt over the fact that if they were trapped here, it was all because of me. I cycled through as many as I could. So many empty underground tunnels. So many cavernous spaces. So far, nobody I knew.
One image froze my finger on the mouse.
It wasn't them.
It was worse.
Children huddled together in the dark. Alone. Scared. Probably hungry, too. Although it looked like the small cave they were being kept in had been modified. A chute in one of the walls could have been used to deliver food. A closed door was presumably there to let people in, but it didn't look like they were getting out.
Stomach churning with rage and nauseous fear, I force myself to skip to the next feed. A stone room full of Walkers. Moving slow. Aimless. Trapped by a door that looked sickeningly familiar.
Is that…right next door to the kids?
A protective hand flew to my stomach. There was a noise outside of the room and I scrambled to get the paused videos back on screen. They popped back up just in time for me to turn around and face the Colonel, renewed hatred in my gut.
You're a fucking monster.
Behind him, Dwight, Sherry, Amber, and Mark filed into the room.
"They had nothing to do with it," I said the moment I saw them. The Colonel didn't look like he believed me, but it was technically true. Marissa and I had been responsible for most of it. But she wasn't in the line-up. Dwight had a bruise forming around his left eye. Mark's lip was bleeding.
Some of the Colonel's men followed them in, forcing them to their knees at gunpoint. John was with them. He gave nothing away. He'd either betrayed us all, or he'd escaped the Colonel's suspicions. I hoped it was the latter and that Marissa was safe, too. Whatever Daryl was planning would be easier if someone was free to help from the inside.
After a signal from the Colonel, John strode over to me. His face set in blank determination. He grabbed my arm and forced me up from the chair.
"I didn't know who those intruders were," The Colonel paced in front of his kneeling captives as John dragged me over to join them. "I thought it might be chance. I thought some group might have accidentally stumbled across us while looking for shelter in the mines. So I went with a team to hunt them down."
No.
NO!
John's grip on my arm tightened. He leaned in close muttering under his breath, "They're fine. Daryl's coming for you."
I gave a micro-nod to show him that I'd heard. He pushed me down next to Dwight. All we had to do was convince the Colonel to keep us alive long enough for Daryl to get us out.
"But then I caught Dwight talking to one of them, " the Colonel said, kicking Dwight on the knee. "And once I'd seen that, it all made sense. He saved you because he knew you, and now you've both brought that community you were so desperate to get back to my door."
"Dwight had nothing to do with it," I said. I was pretty sure the Colonel wasn't about to kill me. Not for another six months at least. But Dwight might not be so lucky. "They're my people, but it wasn't him."
"So you do know how they did it," the Colonel turned to me, eyes gleaming with triumph at my slip-up.
Shit.
"It was just me," I said. Behind me, John breathed a soft sigh of relief. "I acted alone."
There was a soft knock at the door. So soft it seemed out of place in the tense, angry room. After a pause, Jocelyn pushed the door open. There was a medical kit in her hands. Her eyes darted nervously around the room. The Colonel nodded, beckoning her further into the room. "Are you ready?"
"Yes," Jocelyn nodded, although her hands shook as she unzipped the bag. Needles glinted in the light as she pulled them out and laid them on the table in front of the monitors. I tried not to react. But there was no world in which those didn't strike a deep fear in me.
That was what he wanted.
Maybe the Colonel hoped the fear of it would be enough to get me to talk.
"How did you find us?" There was a frantic undertone to his anger. After years of keeping this place secret, outsiders had managed to locate it. When I didn't answer, his anger rose. "It didn't have to come to this. I told you that once you'd given birth, we'd look into bringing the father here to join you."
"You never had any intention of following through on that," I said. "The moment I gave birth, I'd have ended up just like Callie."
Joceyln shifted nervously on her feet, but my eyes remained trained on the Colonel. His jaw tightened. He hadn't expected me to know that.
"It's… it's not like that," Joceyln said, filling the silence where the Colonel said nothing.
"Then where is she? Where's Callie?" I asked. I threw the question at the Colonel, but I wanted it to land with Jocelyn. I wanted everyone who blindly followed this man to stop and think about what they were a part of. "Where's her baby?"
"They… they had to be moved to a different facility," Jocelyn said. There wasn't a hint of uncertainty or deception in her eyes - she believed it. "They weren't well."
"Did he tell you that?" I asked, for a second her naivety threw me for a loop. But if you really didn't know, why would you suspect? Especially when the truth was so awful it was almost hard to believe. "When your parents told you the old family dog went to live on a farm, did you swallow that lie as well?"
Jocelyn looked at the Colonel like she was expecting him to say something. Defend himself. I fixed my gaze, my rage on Jocelyn.
"He gave Callie's baby to the dead," I said. Further down the line, Amber had started to sob. "As a test."
Jocelyn stepped forward. Her eyes darted between me and the Colonel. She didn't want to believe it. "A test? A test for what?"
"Immunity," I said when the Colonel didn't say anything. I looked at him. "Right? You wanted to see if a baby born after the outbreak would be immune to a bite?"
"We don't know anything about this… disease… this virus," he protested. "We evolve and could develop an immunity to-"
"In one generation?" I cut across him with a glare that shut him up. "You didn't really believe they would survive, did you?"
"We had to try!"
"And Callie's baby was Subject 2.0," I said, keeping my eyes on the Colonel. "So it's not the first child you've killed that way, is it?"
"How did you…?" his eyes widened. I saw something click as he realized what I'd overheard. "The radio. That's how you got your friends here. How did you get into that room?"
I stopped running my mouth for a moment. In my anger, I'd given away more than I wanted to.
"That's not what happened," Jocelyn said, but she didn't sound sure. It sounded more like a question. And she looked close to falling apart. "The first baby born here got sick… it wasn't… we didn't…"
"Don't be so naive, Jocelyn!" the Colonel snapped. She sprang back as if he'd struck her. "If the human race is to survive, the future generation needs to be stronger than we are."
"Is that why you have your children locked in a cave?!" I yelled. I'd done a pretty good job keeping my cool until now, but the rage that built up in me was too much. Those kids. As helpless as the ones that had been taken from us at Terminus. As underfed and unloved as Daryl and I had been. It hurt. On so many levels, it hurt. I glared at Jocelyn, "Do you know what he's doing to the other children? Are you part of that?"
"It's… it's for their own good…," Jocelyn said, but her voice faltered as she said it. She couldn't look me in the eye. "They will inherit…"
"Fuck you," I spat at her.
"It's a controlled environment," Jocelyn said. "We only let one of the undead in there with them when they're ready. We haven't lost one in months. They're adapting. And one day… one day they'll be able to live outside on their own."
"While you cower in your bunker?" I asked. "Protected. With enough food and space for all of them."
"We're teaching them-"
"Teach them to hunt," I said. "Teach them to fish. How to build a shelter. Which berries are poisonous, and which ones can cure a fever. That's what they need to know. Protect them. Teach them to fight, sure, but not like that."
The Colonel got so close to me I could feel the spit on my face while he roared at me, "We are teaching them how to live in a world of monsters. The world they will inherit."
" You are the fucking monsters," I yelled back. For a split second, I thought he was going to kill me, baby be damned, but he didn't. He stepped back, nodding to the men behind me.
"Hold her down," he said. Before I could move, hands gripped my arms. I tried to struggle against them, but they'd moved too fast, and there were too many of them. The Colonel picked up a hammer. I heard another struggle to my left. Dwight was trying to get me. Someone punched him across the face as I was pushed down onto the ground. More hands grabbed my legs, pulling them out until I was lying down.
Jocelyn injected Dwight with something as the Colonel knelt down by my feet.
"There are 26 bones in the human foot," he said, forcefully grabbing my ankle with one hand. "I'm going to break every one of yours until you tell me what I need to know. Or, until I find and kill everyone who found this place looking for you… whichever comes first."
Monitors glowed over the Colonel's shoulder, Daryll frozen on the screen. The strength that man gave me…
"You should let me go," I said. "For your safety and the safety of everyone in here. Let me walk out of here and I can convince them all to turn around and forget this place exists."
The Colonel let out a sharp bark of a laugh, pressing something hard and cold against my smallest toe. Against my better judgement I glanced down. The ridge of a small metal triangle was pressing into my toe. He raised the hammer. "Last chance."
I glared at him bracing myself for what was coming. He was so calm when he did it. So collected. The times that Negan and his guys had beaten me, they'd been angry. Riled up. This man didn't even flinch when he brought the hammer down hard, smashing it against the metal on my toe.
Bone cracked.
I tried not to scream, but it tore out of me all the same. My whole body convulsed in pain, but the hands pinning me down stopped me from moving much. The Colonel sat back and watched the pain course through me. I wished I could have resisted it and not reacted, but the pain of a broken bone stripped everything down to instinct. After a few minutes, it lessened to a throb.
"Now," the Colonel said, still calm as can be. "I don't want to do that again, but if you don't tell me how you contacted those people on the outside, you'll leave me no choice."
I said nothing. I looked up, picking a point on the ceiling to concentrate on. I focused on my breathing - deep and steady. I'd been in acute, inflicted pain before. I knew how to numb myself.
The second bone to break, I managed not to scream. The Colonel asked again. Waited. And moved to another bone. He knew the exact amount of time to leave it between blows. Enough time for the last one to have started fading, numbed by the adrenaline flooding through me. Throughout it all, he stayed calm and unaffected. I wasn't the first person he'd interrogated like this.
I hoped at some point I'd black out from the pain, but I didn't get so lucky.
"Stop it! Stop it!" Amber screamed. " Please! She's fucking pregnant! Stop!"
She looked close to cracking. Close to admitting to something she didn't do just to get it to stop. Or naming Marissa as my accomplice. I held her gaze. Shook my head. I didn't have to hold out forever, just until Daryl got us out.
Amber was sobbing. Sherry looked like she was about to throw up. Dwight was unconscious. Mark stared at the ground, shaking.
"Deal with them," the Colonel said.
"They didn't….they didn't do anything… they…" I started to say, trying to stop them from getting the same treatment.
"Relax," the Colonel said. "I wouldn't hurt someone innocent."
"Just children, then?" I snarled. He put some pressure on my foot, and I screamed.
One by one, Jocelyn sedated the others. When she was done, she looked over at me. Pity in her eyes.
"Sir," Jocelyn said. "Please. That's enough for today."
"Fine," he said. "Sedate her."
Jocelyn knelt down beside me, a syringe in one hand. She whispered, "I'm sorry."
I didn't have the energy to say anything back to her. But I stared her in the eye until I felt the sharp scratch of a needle in my arm. Drowsiness flooded my veins, turning them to lead. The pain started to fade. It was almost a relief until the Colonel crouched down beside me.
"You will know nothing ," he said. "And you will know pain. Until you tell me the truth."
"He'll kill you," I said, and I meant it. Daryl would stop at nothing to get me out. I could have put an end to all of it with a word. The Colonel shook his head like he didn't believe me and the drowsiness pulled me under.
I don't know how long I was out. Pain was the first thing I knew on waking. I could feel my heartbeat in my foot, aching. When I opened my eyes, the Colonel's face swam toward me through the bleary drowsiness of my vision. My arms and legs were strapped down to the bed in the medical room.
He asked if I was ready to talk. I ignored him, and he started the process all over again - small bones breaking one at a time. But I didn't break. Because I knew it would end.
At some point, when I opened my eyes, I wouldn't see the Colonel or Jocelyn or this terrible bunker.
I'd open my eyes and see Daryl.
Daryl
I'd noticed the cameras in the tunnels almost right away. Naomi had warned us about them. I should have been on a better lookout, but I was so caught up in the idea that she was close that I couldn't stop myself from pushing forward. By the time we found the door, it was too late. Bryce had probably thought he would have to peel me away from that door. Call in backup to stop me from trying to kick it down now that we'd found it. But I didn't because even I knew you couldn't kick down a blast door with rage alone.
I walked away. Hating it, but knowing it was for the best.
In her last call, Naomi warned that there was another bunker somewhere. So, we'd spent some time staking this one out to be sure we had the right place. The search for Sophia had failed because I'd been looking in all the wrong places. I wasn't making that mistake again.
Pretty soon, the Colonel came looking for us. I finally got a good look at the guy who'd been keeping my girl from me for three fucking months. God knows I could have ripped him apart right there and then. But it would have got me nowhere. One of his guys would've shot me, and Naomi would still be trapped, away from Mia.
So I'd tracked him as he searched the nearby town. He was looking for us, he must've seen on his CCTV by now. Dwight and John were with him, which confirmed we had the right place.
That night, Mia called - frantic. No word from Naomi had come through. I'd reminded her, squashing the fear in my own voice, that there had been a few breaks in communication before. Naomi wasn't always able to get to the bunker's radio.
But I knew as I said it that it was a lie. It was too much of a coincidence.
The second day, I dodged the Colonel and went with Tara and Denise who had been searching the area and trying to find other ways in and out of the tunnels. Or the bunker. They hadn't found either, but what they had found was an allotment a few miles away. Hidden off the beaten path and with armed guards outside. We watched it from a distance. It looked like they were preparing some kind of delivery - loading vegetables into barrels that seemed too big to be carried down all those narrow, winding tunnels.
They looked big enough to hide a person.
As night started to fall, most of them cleared away, piling into trucks similar to the one Naomi and I had seen during my botched proposal. They left two people out there to guard the place overnight. Overall, the people in the bunker outnumber us by a lot, but two people? We could take them out without breaking a sweat.
I followed the trucks from a distance, tracking them back through the town by the mines. They didn't turn off near the entrance we'd found. Instead, they drove further up the hill. I had to slow; there were a lot of twists and turns on the way up, and I couldn't risk running into them. Or risk them hearing my bike. I worried I'd lose them, there was no chance of that. They headed to a large compound, hidden down several winding roads obscured by gaint, overgrown trees.
A heavy metal driveway gate was swinging closed behind the last truck by the time I arrived. High walls blocked whatever was inside from view. I brought my bike to a stop and hid it off-road. Swinging up into one of the nearby trees, I climbed to get a better look into the compound. The walls surrounded a low, flat building with no windows. The only way in or out seemed to be some heavily shuttered garage doors. They were closed when I saw them, but they didn't open again, and the trucks weren't anywhere else. I waited a while, but nobody came back out.
There's another way in.
There had to be a way down into the bunker from in there. And if we played this right, they'd open that door and carry us in themselves.
Another night passed without word from Naomi. The only thing stopping me from losing it and making me able to talk Mia down was that they had no proof Naomi knew us. They didn't know who we were here for. The Colonel must have tightened the security around the communications room, and that was why she couldn't call the Hilltop again. She was lying low. Flying under the radar.
On the third day, we went back to tracking the Colonel's men, trying to stay one step ahead as they, in turn, hunted for us. It was like a game of cat and mouse. Except they were all fucking rats, and I was an exterminator.
I honed in on Dwight, following him for a while as he broke away from the rest into smaller and smaller groups. When it felt safe enough, I let him see me and then ducked away again behind the corner of a building. I radioed Rick, who was ready with a distraction that would let the Colonel and the rest of his men get close to finding us.
Dwight excused himself for a smoke, sidling up to the corner I was waiting behind.
"She alive?" I asked.
"She's alive," Dwight glanced frantically over his shoulder like we were about to get caught. "He knows you're here. We're supposed to be looking for you."
"Haven't heard from her in a few days."
"Comms room is on lockdown," Dwight said. "Until he works out whether or not you have a link to any of us."
I relaxed a little, let my eyes drift closed for a moment as a small amount of relief washed over me. They didn't know it was Naomi who'd led us here. She was safe. This news would help Mia stop freaking out too.
A noise nearby made us both freeze. My eyes snapped open and scanned the area. Dwight was on high alert, checking behind him. When he looked back, it was all business, trying to work out why I'd risk talking to him like this, "What's the plan? Want me to come with you as a hostage? Set up a negotiation?"
"No," I said. The negotiation to get Beth back had failed because we'd let it turn into a negotiation at all. We should've gotten her out without involving anyone else. I wasn't making that mistake again. "I ain't asking."
Dwight had nodded, but I could tell it wasn't what he'd wanted to hear. "It's… a difficult place to launch an attack on."
"I ain't doing that either. Not like that." When I'd rammed that truck into the side of Sanctuary, I'd brought a shit load more problems to our doorstep. "When's the next visit to the allotments?"
Dwight's eyebrows had raised at that, something clicking into place. "Two days."
"I think that could be our way in," I said. "If we can make it work from out here, can you make sure nobody checks them barrels?"
"Yeah," he said. "John and I volunteer for that one all the time. We'll get you in."
"Getting out," I said. "That gonna be an issue?"
"The Colonel gives out the key for the cargo door to people on the allotment run," Dwight said. "I can make sure it's me."
I nodded. With any luck, we'd be in and out before they noticed a damn thing. A smattering of gunfire in the distance signaled the end of Rick's distraction tactics. They were retreating. Dwight hurried back to his group, and I headed to the meeting point I'd agreed on with Rick.
The two-day wait was agony. We used it to search the hill for more ways into the mine. We found a few more disused tunnels and cautiously mapped them to see if any led back to the door. The occasional appearance of a camera warned us when we were close and needed to make a quick retreat. I didn't mind if they saw us down here; it would keep them looking in the wrong direction - alert for us in the tunnels when we were coming in another way.
We arrived at the allotment early that morning, taking out the guards one at a time. We kept them alive, Tara and Denise held them at gunpoint and forced them to radio the bunker to let them know that the barrels were waiting for them but that they wouldn't be there for the handover. They repeated the line we'd given them, that they'd seen a campfire from our group somewhere in the town and were going to check it out. Hearing it out of their mouths, it sounded like such an obvious lie, but the Colonel lapped it up. He even agreed to send backup to the decoy location.
We dumped the contents of the barrels and creates out of sight and moved them back to the pickup point before we climbed in.
"Good luck," Tara whispered before she closed the lid over me.
Here goes nothing.
So many clashes with other communities had gone wrong. A lot of it was on me. I couldn't fail this one, too. I wasn't leaving anything up to chance. Or luck.
I'm getting my girl
The right way.
I would never have guessed that the right way involved hiding out in barrels that smelled faintly of onions.
Cramped, with my knees up to my chin in the dark, I heard the vans arrive. I tensed, listening to their voices as they moved around us. Would they notice that anything was out of place?
Someone moved the barrel I was in, hoisting me into one of their vans. I held my breath, waiting. More thumps and thuds around me, but so far, nobody yelled. Nobody checked anything. I heard the swing of van doors and things got darker.
I felt the engine underneath me shudder to life. The wood of the barrel that caged me in shook with the vibrations of it as the van started to move. Rattling around in there I could feel every turn, every damn bump in the road. It was worth it - any amount of pain or discomfort was worth getting Naomi back - but I hoped the others were holding up okay.
The barrel jolted as the van came to a sudden stop. I heard the muffled sound of someone groaning as we were flung against the side of our containers. I prayed none of the Colonel's men were riding in the back of the van with us. It would only take one of us to be found and the whole plan would go up in smoke.
A moment of silence stretched on and then I heard the van doors open up again. Voices, too muffled to pick up Dwight's specifically, and the scrape of wood on the van's floor as they started unloading what they thought were crates and barrels of supplies.
Please don't check. Please don't check.
More waiting. It was dark, and I did my best not to make a sound. Footsteps came closer to me, and suddenly, I was on the move again. Out of the van. Every muscle in my body tensed as it lifted. I pressed my elbows hard into each side to keep myself steady. It was carried a short distance and then set down again.
More waiting. More voices. I didn't risk moving the lid to take a peek.
An electronic whirring started, and my stomach dropped like I was on a damn rollercoaster. Judging by the slight vibrations underneath us, I think it was an elevator. It came to a stop. More waiting and then I braced myself as they carried me out again. Set down. More thuds around me. So far, nobody had looked in. So far, I hadn't heard anyone yell in surprise as they uncovered Glenn or Bryce in what they thought was a barrel of apples or onions.
Footsteps started to retreat. A door shut behind them. I waited for the voices to fade. I kept waiting long after I couldn't hear anything. Listening. In case one of them had stayed behind quietly taking inventory or some shit. We were fucked if they had. When I couldn't stand the wait any longer, I pushed up on the lid of the barrel. My knees ached as I stood up, complaining about being cramped for so long. I ignored it, letting my eyes adjust to the gloom of the storage room we were in.
Shelves ran from floor to ceiling. Stocked with rows of canned goods and boxes I couldn't see in. The lid moved off the barrel next to me. Rick looked out cautiously. "We're supposed to wait for Dwight."
"Well, what's taking him so long?" I asked. "He should've come back by now."
I didn't know if that was true. It wasn't like I'd been able to check the time. But there'd been so much waiting around that my nerves were bubbling over. Adrenaline started to flow. We were so damn close. Naomi might have been in this room. Or next door.
The door handle moved. I raised my knife, ready. Rick sprang up beside me, hand on his gun. John looked back at us, slipping quickly into the room and holding the door shut behind him. Seemed he was alone.
"Where's Dwight?" I asked.
"Someone saw you talking to him," he said. "They reported him to the Colonel."
Shit.
My blood ran cold. I glanced at Rick. He looked as tense as I felt. "He rat us out?"
"No," he said. "But… the Colonel figured out who you're here for, seeing as it was Dwight who brought her in..."
"Where's Naomi?" I asked at once, done playing.
"He's… got them all in the same place," John said. "We'll get them in a minute. We just need to wait."
"For what? "
"Marrissa's going to take out the lights," he said. "The backup generator will kick in, but it'll get the Colonel away from the console and the cameras, and we'll be able to get to them undetected."
I can't do any more waiting.
But I had to. I wasn't going to mess this up. So, I distracted myself helping the others out of their hiding places. Glenn unfolded himself from a wooden crate, a few beets spilling out with him. Bryce had a small graze on the top of his head from where he'd bumped it on the lid of his barrel. As he stood up there was an electronic whine, the sound of something shutting down. The room was plunged into total darkness for a second, and then a dim glow made its way under the door.
"Come on," he said, pulling the door open again. "We've got ten minutes."
The corridor was lit by a strip of emergency lighting along the edges of the floor. Moving hurriedly down the corridor was the first time I really got a sense of the size of the place. Naomi had described it and warned us how many people there were, but it was nothing compared to actually seeing it.
We moved fast, keeping our heads down. I followed John past one identical door. How the hell did anyone find their way around this place? Marrissa was waiting for us outside one of them. When she saw us coming, she unlocked the door and ushered us in.
A small, dark room. Four beds with four people lying in them.
And there she was. In the bed furthest from the door.
My girl.
Naomi lay too still, her head turned toward the door like she'd fallen asleep waiting for me to come to bed. But she didn't react when the door opened. Didn't stir when I called her name. Didn't give me that slow, sleepy smile I'd missed so much.
"Naomi," I said again, taking her hand. I squeezed it. She didn't squeeze back, but her hand was warm. Something glinted on her finger.
She's still wearing her ring.
It almost broke me; seeing the ring I'd been so nervous to give her that I'd almost bottled it a hundred times. So worried about making perfect for her that I'd had to keep taking breaks to psyche myself up to work on it again.
Is she still mine? Does she still want me?
Does she… forgive me?
Felt too good to be true. Swallowing a lump in my throat, I turned her hand over, feeling for the pulse point on her wrist. Found it. Beating strong.
Thank God.
My gaze drifted further down. A trail of needle marks on her arm made my breath catch in my throat. It tore me up, seeing what they'd done to her. Her worst fear was right there on her arm.
What have they given her?
"She's drugged?" Bryce said, standing beside me at Naomi's bedside. I nodded, not taking my eyes off her for a moment.
"They're alive," Rick said, checking the pulse on Dwight's neck. "But they're going to be harder to get out of here. How long have we got?"
"Not long," John said, glancing at his watch. "We should move. Once the power's been fixed, he'll check on them."
I pulled back the blankets around Naomi.
"What the fuck…?" I breathed. Her right foot was swollen and wrapped in a bloodied bandage. Her other foot was completely bare. Both of them were tied to the metal bar at the bottom of the bed. Where were her shoes? Her clothes? They'd dressed her in some weird white gown. Worse still, it wasn't just the ankle restraints, she was held down by a strap across her middle. A prisoner would've been treated better. She was being held like a damn rabid animal. Anger like I'd never known pulsed through me.
"The Colonel wanted information. On you guys, and who'd been helping her contact you," he said. My brain still couldn't comprehend what I was looking at. I stared at John, who swallowed like I was about to hold him responsible. "Her bones, he… broke them."
Bones… plural.
I felt sick.
Everything I'd held back for the last few days boiled inside me. Underneath it all - fear. What if they'd done something to her I couldn't undo? What if it wasn't just a sedative she was under?
"Daryl…" Rick said again.
"I need to kill him," I said, "and I need it to hurt."
"We need," Rick said cautiously, "to get them out of here safely."
Right.
Right.
That's right.
I turned back to Naomi. Rick was right; we had to get her and the others to safety before I found that piece of shit and chopped him into tiny pieces. Starting with his feet. I'd feed him his toes. Gently, although I doubted she could feel anything in her current state, I leaned over Naomi and undid the straps around her
"Get them up to the cargo door," John said.
I slipped my arms under her and picked her up. I tried not to think about how limp she was, how unresponsive. Instead, I tried to focus on the warmth of her in my arms again. The smell of her hair as I pulled her close. Nothing had smelled like home in so long.
That's my girl.
"You need a hand with her?" Bryce asked quietly.
"Nah, I got her," I said, holding back on telling him that I never wanted anyone else touching her ever again. Bryce was a good guy; none of the rage bubbling below the surface was for him. Seeing the state that Naomi was in put me in a bad place and close to losing it at anyone who tried to take her from me.
Bryce nodded and moved to help Rick with Amber. She was also dressed in the same kind of white gown Naomi was. Except you could see a baby bump under Amber's. No shoes on her either.
Who the fuck would drug a pregnant lady?
If I were Mark, I'd have lost my goddamn mind. Maybe that's why they'd had to sedate him, too.
We'd only risked sending in a small team. We hadn't banked on having to carry them all out of here. Closest to the door, John opened it before helping Marissa carry Dwight out of the room. Glenn followed, carrying Sherry and keeping the door open with his foot until Bryce could catch it, helping Rick through with Amber. Naomi and I followed after.
You're okay, angel. We're going home.
Every step I took following John down that long corridor, I willed her to wake up. I could feel her breathing against me, feel the warmth of her. But I wouldn't trust anything until she was looking at me, talking to me.
John came to a stop by a set of big freight elevator doors. I assumed it was the same one that had been used to move us all down here after being unloaded from the trucks. John pushed a button. Nothing happened, not even a beep. Nothing whirred or rattled into motion. He pressed it again, harder this time.
"The elevator's out," John said, his hand still mashing the buttons helplessly.
"Is it because of the power?" Rick asked. We could still make it out when the lights came back on.
"The backup generator should power it," he said.
Marissa's face went white, "The Colonel must've shut it down manually."
He's onto us?
Good.
I wanna look him in the eye while his life leaves it.
"Is there another way out?" Glenn asked.
"There's the door to the mines," John said. "But I don't have the access code."
"I got this," I said, setting Naomi down. I looked at Bryce. "Get her to the other exit. Get them all to the exit."
"Where are you going?" Rick asked.
"To get the access codes," I said, not slowing down. "Get them to the door. Be ready."
Knowing we were almost out of time by John's estimate, I raced back to the room we'd just come from. If the Colonel was suspicious about the power going out, he'd be on the way to check his hostages. I got my knife ready before I pushed on the door in case he'd beaten me down here.
The room was empty. I looked over at the bed where Noami had been lying. Alone. Hurt. Drugged .
I cracked my knuckles. Ready. Itching for it.
Footsteps moved down the corridor. Paused. And then the Colonel opened the door.
Before he could reach for the light switch, I'd rushed him, slamming his back into the wall. He gaped at me in surprise.
"Expecting someone else?"
" You... " the color drained from his face. His voice came out raspy, winded.
"You drugged my wife," I said, pressing my arm harder against his throat. He struggled. "What did you give them?"
"Nothing… nothing that would… hurt the baby," the Colonel spluttered. It wasn't why I'd asked, but in my defense, Amber wasn't my top priority. When we got back to Hilltop, Dr Carson could make sure she and her baby were unaffected.
"Is it addictive?" I asked. "The shit you put in her?"
The Colonel's eyes widened like it was something he'd never thought about. Or it coulda been the pressure I was putting on his windpipe making his eyes bulge, I guess. "No."
My anxiety over it didn't ease up. I don't think it would until she was awake and talking to me again. Until I saw that smile.
Recovering from his initial shock, the Colonel grabbed my arms, trying to move the pressure on his throat. He kneed me in the stomach, which dislodged me for a moment. He got a few hits in. I dodged another and then smashed my fish into his face while he was trying to reach for something in his pocket.
His nose cracked under my fist. He yelped like a damn dog.
"Days spent breaking my girl's bones but can't handle it yourself, huh?" I snarled, backing him up against the wall again. "Give me the code to get out, and I might not kill ya."
"I can't let you leave," he said.
"Then I can't let you live," I said, jamming my knife into his side. He yelled in pain. I pressed harder and watched the blood spill down his clothes. My forearm pushed harder into his neck. He tried to gasp in another gulp of air, and it sounded like it hurt.
Good.
"We ain't comin' back here," I said. "Think this place can survive without you? Fine. I'll kill ya and ask the next sorry asshole who crosses my path for the code out."
The Colonel struggled again, trying to dislodge me. Anger glued me where I was. After what he'd done, there was no way he was getting out of my grasp. I couldn't stop thinking about how we'd found her. Broken bones and bound to a bed.
"Did you put your hands on her?" I asked, pulling the blade to widen the cut. He screamed again.
"What?"
"Did you touch my fucking wife?" I asked.
"No…" he said. "Not… not like… no."
"Just breaking her bones, then?" I said, not easing up the slow pressure I was putting on the kife.
"2,7,8,1," he said.
"What?" I was so caught up in revenge that getting information from him had slipped to a secondary goal.
"The code…" he said, voice strained with pain. "It's… it's… 2,7..8,1. The keypad is in a panel by the door."
Focus.
Pull it together.
Get her out.
Don't fuck this up.
I'd loosened my grip on him, and while I was distracted, he managed to pull something out of his pocket. I thought it might have been a weapon and braced myself for another round of fighting. But, it was a walkie.
"Intruder…," he wheezed into it. "...hostage… room."
Shit.
I pulled the blade out and plunged it back in again. He gasped, dropping his walkie, "You said…you said you wouldn't…"
"You kept my wife from me," I said. "You drugged her. You broke her fucking bones . You really think I was gonna let you live? "
I let go of him, and he dropped. Even with help, he would probably bleed out slowly. But he'd still die faster than he deserved. I stepped over him as he gasped for air on the floor and hauled the door open. At the end of the corridor, a group was running to the Colonel's aid. Shouts rang out when they spotted me.
Shit. Shit.
I ran in the other direction. Rick was running toward me. He pulled his gun.
"Move!" he yelled at me, I tucked into one side of the corridor as I ran. Rick fired on the people chasing me as he moved backward. I caught up to him, and we both turned and fled. Gunfire broke out behind us, but we'd already turned the corner.
Our team was by the door into the tunnels. Naomi still hadn't woken. None of them had. Bryce was by the door, he'd set Naomi down nearby. I ran to her side.
"2,7,8,1," I shouted to him. "Keypad's in a panel by the door. 2,7,8,1!"
Bryce scrambled into action, sliding open a panel by the door as Rick, Glenn, and the others picked up our still-unconscious friends. The keypad beeped as Bryce punched in the numbers. Footsteps and shouts down the corridor were gaining on us. The keypad flashed green.
Bryce pulled the door open, looking back at me to see if I needed help.
" Go ," I yelled, Naomi safe in my arms again. "I got her."
Bryce started running, leading the way as John and Marissa followed, carrying Dwight between them. Glenn and Sherry were close behind. Rick picked up Amber and ducked out ahead of me. I stepped into the tunnels and turned, pulling the door closed with one hand just as the Colonel's men rounded the corner. I didn't stop to see if they'd follow, but I did hear the door lock automatically when I shut it, which should slow them down a little.
Bryce led the way, a single torch beam swinging in front of him as he ran. The rest of the tunnels were in total darkness. Legs burning, I held Naomi tight and concentrated on following that one light source down every twist and turn, trusting Bryce to get us out. He wasn't going the way I expected him to. He was leading us to one of the other exits we'd found while scouting out the place, hoping it would confuse anyone who might try to follow us. The sound of our running footsteps echoed so much that I couldn't tell if there were any more coming up behind us.
Light grew up ahead. Daylight. A small exit into the side of the hill. Narrow. We'd have to pass one at a time. Bryce squeezed through, helping Marrisa and John with Dwight's limp body when he'd got to the other side.
I stopped running, breathing hard and trying to listen for any sound behind us. Glenn passed Sherry through to Bryce before slipping through the small exit. Just ahead of me, Rick started to squeeze through after them with Amber.
BOOM.
I didn't hear it, but I felt it as it passed through the Earth. The Earth shook. Inside the Earth, I shook with it, Naomi almost slipping out of my arms.
I had seconds to react. Rocks around the entrance were already falling loose, tumbling down. I didn't dare try to run through it. Setting Naomi down on the ground, I curled my body protectively around her in case the cave-in moved deeper in.
The light vanished in a pile of falling rock, sealing us off from the outside. The dark was so complete I couldn't see anything. Not the exit, not back the way we'd come. I couldn't see Naomi right in front of me.
When it seemed like the shaking had stopped for good, I straightened up a little, keeping a hand on Naomi at all times. If I let go and moved away, I didn't know how I'd find my way back to her.
A high-pitched ringing in my ears started to fade, and I heard someone shouting my name. Muffled by a wall of fallen rock.
"You guys okay?" I yelled back. I hadn't seen if Rick had cleared the exit with Amber before it caved in.
"Yes! Are you?"
"We're fine," I yelled back. "What the hell was that?"
"I don't know, but hang tight, we're gonna dig you out, okay?"
"All right," I said. I sat down to wait for Rick and the others to clear the rubble, holding Naomi in my lap, her body so limp. I rested her head against my chest, feeling the rise and fall of her breathing against me. I wasn't worried about getting back to the world outside right now. I was more worried about the one in my arms.
"Please, please, please be okay. Come home to me," I whispered to her. Of course, she didn't answer, so I did what I always wanted to do when I was scared and alone in the dark.
I held her hand.
