Beyond Terminus (Book Two)

Chapter 2: Can't Go Back

When I open my eyes again, the smoke has cleared, and no one is gone except for Rick, Daryl, Glenn, and Bob.

"Hope, you ok?" Maggie asks.

"Daryl. Where's Daryl?" I ask immediately, getting up and moving towards the door.

"They took him, with the others. Who knows where they are..." Michonne says.

I go back to my spot against the wall, sinking to the floor and hugging my knees to my chest.

Daryl's POV

I yell her name one last time before a man knocks her out. I growl with anger and try to fight against them, but the smoke is making my vision blur and my knees weaken.

They tie my hands behind my waist and shove a gag in my mouth. They drag me and the three other guys into a shed, where two guys stand carving up a human body on a table.

My stomach lurches and I breathe heavily, trying to figure this out. I curse silently. Hope is the smart one, not me.

They bend us over a trough with four other guys, and I watch my friends. They all look scared shitless, and I don't blame them. I'm trying not to look as scared as I feel, but damn, it's hard.

The two guys who were carving up the dead guy mumble something to each other before grabbing a bat and a few knives. They head to the end, where a blonde guy with eyes the size of dinner plates waits.

Thug One winds up and cracks the bat into the back of Victim One's head. Thug Two grabs his head and drags the knife across his throat, letting the spurt of blood drain into the trough.

They continue down the line, and the iron smell the blood that oozes towards us invades my nose. I close my eyes.

"Well, at least Hope was my wife for one day," I think.

Gareth walks in with a clipboard, not at all fazed by the line up. If I wasn't tied up I'd beat his face in. Thug One gets to Glenn, and I look to him, and he looks to me.

Is this really how it's gonna end? After all the shit we've gone through?

Just as Thug One winds up, Gareth holds his hand up.

"Wait!"

The stop, and we all breathe out.

"Did you do shot count?" Gareth asks.

"Uh...well, sorry. It's my first roundup. I just-" Thug One starts.

"After you're done here, go back to your point and count the shells. We won't be gathering anything until tomorrow." He rolls his eyes, scribbling something on the paper. Bob starts trying to talk through the gag, and he ignores him. "Four from A, four from C?"

The Thugs nod, and Bob mumbles through the gag again. Gareth moves forwards and yanks it off.

"Don't do this. We can fix this," Bob begs.

"No. We can't." Gareth starts to pull the gag back on.

"You don't have to do this! We know a way out of this. You just have to take that chance," he says, panting. "We've got a guy who knows how to stop it. He's got a cure. We just need to get him to Washington. You gotta take that chance, man. We can put the world back to how it was."

We glance at him, all of us with a terrified look in our eyes.

"Can't go back Bob," Gareth says shortly as the gag goes back into Bob's mouth.