Epidemic

Chapter 11

We fell into a silence after that. The sky was still dark but the sun was starting to rise, giving us some light to follow. But it wasn't enough to completely let your guard down. One miss step, could have you tripping and getting hurt or worse, you could be falling right into a herd of walkers.

After about an hour of walking, I motioned for Andrea to stop. Listening, I waited to hear any sort of noises coming from ahead of us. But all I could hear was the crackling of a fire.

The ground was riddled with empty bullet casing and I could see the tire imprints in the grass. Telling me they went further into the woods. The only thing that had me concerned was that there were no walker bodies around. No sign of a ambush, or anything. It just looked like they were firing for no reason.

"Did they come this way or not?" Andrea asked, annoyance lacing her voice as she pushed ahead of me.

"Don't." I gripped onto her arm tight, pulling her back behind me. "You don't know what's in there." I glared, motioning my hands to the woods. "Anything could be in there and you're too stupid to realize it." I spat, getting annoyed at her. "Just stay here, I'm gonna give it a look over."

Giving me a bitchy look, she nodded her head unwillingly. Just rolling my eyes I pulled my bow up into position. My feet slowly and carefully following the car tracks into the dense forest.

Any move or noise could alert something or someone that I was here and that was defiantly not a good thing. Something I defiantly didn't need in this already tense situation.

Slowing my breathing I continued to follow the tracks. That's when I saw the cars. My heart was racing just thinking of reasons why they were this deep in the forest. Unfortunately none of my reasons had good explanations.

"I said where did you come from?!" I heard a voice yell out.

Stopping in my tracks, I listened again. This time I could hear footsteps and people mumbling. Taking this as a bad sign, I circled around, not going in on the direct root. I'd rather go in from the side and see what I was dealing with first. Before making any bad decisions.

Making sure no twigs or leafs were underneath my feet, I slowly made my way around. Until I finally saw people standing in a small clearing.

There was a guy with a machine gun in his hand throwing someone into the back of a jeep. By the hat it looked to be Glenn. I was glad they were still breathing at least.

"If you ain't gonna tell us, you'll just have to come with us." The guy spat, pushing Shane in next. All their hands were tied behind them, making them completely useless to fight back.

That's when my heart almost stopped. I couldn't believe my eyes when the man moved, and he revealed Daryl kneeling on the ground. His hands tied, a blind fold over his eyes. He was mumbling something but the cloth in his mouth prevent his words from forming.

"Get out of here." The man hit the back end of the jeep with his free hand, sending it off with the others. "I have business with this one." Even from this distance I could hear the smirk in his voice as he circled Daryl. Holding the gun up to his head, taunting him.

I had to hold myself back from running out there to save him. My heart beating so fast that I could feel it beating through every part of my body. Making it hard to focus.

"You think you can get away with killing one of my friends?" The man spat, hitting Daryl upside the head with the butt of the gun. "You know I hope I find that place of yours. You know that?" The guy bent down on Daryl's level, removing the blind fold. "So if you have a women I can do some bad things to her." He laughed, which caused Daryl to struggle with his bindings.

Positioning my crossbow, I followed the man with my sight waiting for the right moment to shoot. One wrong movement, one slip of concentration and I could hit Daryl and that would be bad....

"Screw ye." Daryl angrily hissed, as the man took the rag out of his mouth.

"I don't think so boy." He chuckled, taking a few steps away from Daryl. Leaving me with a perfect opportunity on my hands.

Taking a deep breath, I lined my sight up. Putting his head right in my cross sight.

"Ain't nobody gonna..." His voice trailed off, shortly after my finger pulled the trigger letting the arrow go.

Watching as the man dropped to the ground, my arrow sticking clean into his head. I smiled to myself thinking about how epic the shot was.

Shaking my head I refocused, knowing that Daryl knew exactly where the arrow came from. Giving a few seconds, I looked around making sure my coast was clear before slinging my bow onto my back and running out into the clearing.

"Had." He seemed to be in shock seeing me standing there.

"Yeah." I breathed out and ran to him. Dropping on my knees, I pulled my knife out and quickly cut the rope off from his wrist. Thats when I noticed the rope around his ankles. That's the reason he didn't fight back, he couldn't.

Leaning over I put the knife to the rope, starting to cut it. It was thicker rope then what was on his hands, but still easily cut.

"Had." He almost whispered my name. So when I finally got the rope undone, I moved in front of him. "Nice shot." A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

"Thanks." I let out a breath that I didn't even know I was holding.

"How did ye find us?" He asked, getting to his feet. His hand reaching for mine as he pulled me up.

"Followed your tracks." I said, running and hand thru my hair as I walked over to the man. Stepping on his back I pulled on my arrow getting out of his head. Wiping the blood off on my pants I turned back to Daryl. "I heard the shots last night, I was assuming the worst." I mumbled, trying to hide my feelings.

Closing the distance between us, Daryl wrapped his arms around me. Pulling my head to his chest. Obviously Daryl didn't fall for that trick...

"I'm ok Had, I ain't hurt to bad." He laughed, trying to make light of this whole situation. Which really wasn't making me feel any better.

"What happened? Who took the guys? Where are they?" I asked, rattling of my questions faster then normal. Wanting to know what really happened. My eyes searching his bruised face, trying to see what they did to him.

"We got here, there wasn't no body round. The copter was destroyed, no survivors. But when we got ready to leave, we got ambushed. We shot at them, I hit one of the bastards." He ran a hand over his face. "But there was to many of them. They kept us here for the night an questioned us about where we live. No body talked, they got pissed and tied us up and took the others away. Probably to their camp."

I let his words sink into my head, as I ran a hand thru my messy hair. This wasn't good, defiantly not good and I had no idea how to fix it.

"We need to go get them." I stated, my eyes closed tight thinking of a plan.

"I know." He mumbled, pulling me closer to him. His hand lifting my chin, so his lips could touch mine. I knew we had to go but, I was just happy Daryl wasn't one of the living dead.

"Drop the fucking weapons." Feeling a gun press against my back. "And maybe I'll consider not blowing your brains out."

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