Double Crossbow (Daryl Dixon) [The Walking Dead]

Chapter 60 ↣ What is this place?

"What we remember from childhood we remember forever—permanent ghosts, stamped, inked, imprinted, eternally seen."

—Cynthia Ozick

↣ ↢

Daryl

RUNNING. WHY WERE we always running?

"Kath!" I yelled over the sound of gunfire.

"I'm here," she replied, appearing on my right.

We all ducked down an adjoining alley from the common area. Gareth had shown up and made it clear we weren't getting any answers from them. That's when the running started. It wasn't for very far though because bullets cut off each way we tried to turn.

Around the third turn, I began to realize what they were doing. They were purposely aiming at our feet. We were being corralled.

We took cover alongside a train car, pausing for only a moment. We all peeled off it as someone began to beat on the inside of the walls. "Let us out! Help!"

"You've gotta be kidding," Kathryn said her eyes had gone wide and her skin pale.

I grabbed her shirt hem, and we moved as a unit once more into the nearest building. It wasn't much comfort. Dozens of candles lit up the room. Statues and ornate candle holders covered every inch. I had to watch every step I took. In the empty spaces, names were written in chalk.

"What is this place?" I asked.

Kathryn shook her head slowly.

"These people, I don't think they're trying to kill us," Michonne said.

"Yet," Kathryn scoffed.

"No," Rick agreed, "they were aiming at our feet." He pointed to a door. "There."

We ran, and just as Rick reached the door. It locked shut. I pointed to another. This one was open, and not on accident. There was nowhere for us to go that they didn't want us. There were more shooters on the roof outside. They corralled us away from the building. My heart surged when I saw the fence, but it soon plummeted back.

I slid to a stop as a dozen men stood from the brush on the other side of the chainlink. Kathryn pressed her hand against my back as she stopped beside me. They hadn't been lying about their numbers.

We turned around as Gareth yelled, "Drop your weapons now!"

Red started to seep in at the corners of my vision. Rage pooling in my stomach. People claiming sanctuary so we could be thrown in boxes. Pathetic. I dropped my bow and my knife to the asphalt.

Glancing at Kathryn, she met my eye. Her chest rose and fell in uneven breaths. She was just as mad as I was. A vein on her neck violently cut across her pale skin, shifting ever so slightly as she clenched and unclenched her jaw.

"Ringleader," Gareth taunted, "go to your left. To the train car." Rick didn't move. "You do what we say, the boy goes with you. Anything else, he dies, and you end up in there anyway."

I wanted to cut his tongue out. His voice was now nails against my skin, grating as he loomed above us spouting orders. Rick nodded at Carl before he began walking.

"Now the archer."

My lip curled as I looked up at Gareth. I held his gloating gaze as I followed behind Rick.

"Now the samurai."

It took every ounce of self discipline not to do something incredibly stupid right now.