my tears ricochet

Chapter 107

The radio crackled for a few minutes and Daryl sat uncomfortably on the metal stool positioned before the big desk. The wood had been hammered together and threatened to leave splinters whenever he rested his elbows against the surface. "C'mon, Rosita. Pick up," he called into the microphone.

It spat out more crackles tersely. But finally it sputtered back, slightly, and Rosita's voice came through the haze. "I'm not glued to this fucking set up, asshole. You need to start getting back. Things are bad."

He froze. Daryl had expected to wrangle someone to get Glenn and Ivy over to the radio set up at Alexandria so he could touch base properly. "What?"

"Things are bad. Things are really bad. So again. Start getting back here now."

"What's the situation?"

"Ivy's missing. Glenn and Beth took off. We've got the community on lockdown but one of our scouts said that the bridge is burnt down."

It took effort to keep sitting. "Where the hell did she go?"

"Listen. Glenn called the lock down right as he took off. He's going to the border, right where the creek cuts in. I tried paging someone to tell you."

The fire had them gone for a full twenty four hours trying to combat the flames. The tractor was half melted from the heat but Rick had saved the field from being wasted but the woods took a hard hit and it would take months to recover hunting grounds and spots to forage. "I'm heading out after them."

"You need people—"

He abandoned the room and Rosita's voice. Daryl rushed down the stairwell and grabbed a set of keys from the desk before striding off to the little car lot. The Hilltop had few decent cars but he found the one he needed and threw the door open while whistling for Rick's attention. The man had been forced into sitting with a damp rag to wash up some of the ash and soot from his skin. "We gotta go," he ordered roughly. "Now."

They took off in a haze of movement. It might have been wiser to let Rick control the car but Daryl's hands were locked around the steering wheel, gunning straight down the steep slope until he hit a solid vein of road. Curtly he explained the situation and let Rick sit silent as he maneuvered by memory to get as close to the border as they could get.

A car was crumpled around a tree but he didn't recognize it as one of Alexandria's. He slowed down long enough to check that it was empty from any bodies. "You've got low fuel," Rick warned him. "Better pull over before you run it dry."

Daryl hit the brake hard enough that their seatbelts restricted around their chests like pythons. Time felt scattered. Ivy was missing, Glenn was missing. He needed to find them again. Foot prints were stuck in the earth around the crashed car and something had been dragged along the soft bank of the road. He followed the illusion of a trail further until he heard the rough sound of something struggling.

Glenn was barely visible in the long grass. A walker was on top of him and he grunted, struggling.

Daryl went to haul it off of the man but Glenn twisted positions sharply, rolling to reverse the position. It jerked beneath him with automatic desperation but Glenn merely lodged his arm against it's throat and held tight before reaching with his good hand for a knife dropped in the long grass. "I got it," the man said roughly as he jammed it hard through the bone. Yellow glazed eyes stopped rolling and Glenn managed to detangle himself. "You guys took your time."

"We had to put some fires out," Rick said as he offered his hand out to help the man up to his feet. "And you didn't exactly leave a giant sign where you were heading."

Glenn's voice was tinted in false amusement. "I'm sorry. Was the crashed car not obvious enough for you?"

"What happened?" Daryl cut in, impatient. "How'd she get loose?"