Under A Blue Moon

Dead Eyes

Once they slowly started coming into view one by one I started to slowly creep back. One seemed older than all the others but they were all the same. Men I'd run into before, men I'd run from even before. The ones that seemed to be stumbling out of bars far after last call, bully the female bartenders. Men who thought it was funny to wave guns round in the air and fire them off while throwing around filthy words and awful slurs. Men like Merle Dixon. Not a Daryl Dixon in sight. I tried to sink into the forest even further. Deserting the idea of the town and anything in their vicinity at that very moment. These were the people Merle had always warned me about, like men on the road.

That thought caught my breath in my throat and left me stumbling. Struggling to rein in the memory I hadn't thought about in so long. But with a snap of a twig I knew it was gonna happen all over again. And there was no Dixon to save me now. I couldn't even save me now.

"It came from over there." I heard a rough voice say, then the crumbling of more leaves, more feet. I clawed my way to my own, scrambling to turn and take off in a flat run.

"We got a running!" alerted another. "Go gett'em Mark." with that another pair of boots started thudding the ground, faster than my own. I had once considered myself pretty quick, but I was beginning to doubt that.

I ducked and weaved through the trees, under low branches, over bushes but he still kept coming. I huffed and huffed through the pain pushing myself harder and harder through the burning. Everything ached before, everything hurts now. But I knew getting caught wasn't an option, not like that, nothing like that again. "I'll die first." I grunted as I slid around another tree.

I thought sharp turns round all the trees would slow him down, or make him lose my trail but I'd only fashion my own end. My injured shoulder collided with a trunk and I was down and withering as he ran up. Trying to drag myself away with one arm and kicking at the dirt.

"Why you runnin pal?" The man grabbed me by my injured shoulder and flipped me onto my back. Panting, i should be panting but instead i held my breath as his joking smile turned into a cruel grin. "Eh!" he shouted. "We got a girl over here, boss."

I couldn't hear the boot or the hollers coming closer over the pounding in my head. Full instincts kicked in as he pinned me down with a knee to my chest. I pushed and I clawed and I twisted till I heard my joints pop. Clawing and flinging dirt. Hitting, kicking. Screaming. Tears making it hard to see as he pinned my arm, as he put his hand over my mouth. "Claimed!"

"You can't just claim a prize like that." the older man loomed over me. "Claims up in 24 hours." he turned and laughed a minute. "Just try not to mess up her face or break anything."

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<Rick's POV>

I woke up to the grumbles of men in heavy boots storming the house. Without hesitating I rolled off the edge of the bed and ducked under, grabbing my watch and water as I went. I sighed remembering that Michone and Carl were out, checking my watch they were due back in an hour, maybe two. Muffled screams made their way in waves up the stairs. Thud, thud thud. The boots dragged up her stairs. "Fuck yeah." The girl he had been dragging was left disregarded on the floor with a heavy thump.

I held my finger over my mouth hoping she wouldn't signal I'm here as she groaned and rolled to her side. My stomach dropped when I recognized the vest, the hair. The young woman who'd put Judith to bed every chance she'd get, rocking and humming her to sleep. I almost said her name out loud, I almost reached for her. If she's here, Daryl didn't make it and if he did, he didn't make it after these guys were through with him. She slowly opened her eyes but realization didn't hit her right away, her eyes, there wasn't a lick of life in them. Her eyes never left mine but it was like she was looking straight through me. Her hands and feet were tied and blood was smeared cross her lips and her eyes looked bloodshot and bruised.

More boots came down the hall and her eyes followed the sound before flicking up to me. "Run" She whispered just as the pair of boots entire the room. "Run." she whispered again as she dried to scoot out of the way of the man pulling another from the bed and tossing him to the floor but he stepped on her hand. She screamed for a split second before he rammed his fist into her face twice before beating the man from the bed to death. "Claimed!"

She shook her head at me already knowing what was going to happen next. She knew. She didn't struggle, she couldn't struggle. She gave up as he stripped her clothes from her and laid her bare on the floor as he cut the ropes from her wrists and ankles. "This is the last stop for you, hun." he pulled her up by her hair and tossed her on the bed. "Joe says you're dead weight, to show you some mercy. Pew."

I listened to the sobs rack her chest as I tried to focus. Tried to think about how I needed to get out of here. She shook her head. She knows you can't get her out of here. She knows you have to keep Carl from walking through that door. So I covered my ears and waited.

I stood up from under the bed, grabbing her jacket and vest as I did. The smallest bit of hope I could get her out of here with me. But he had draped himself over her and she was frozen like a deer in headlights. She stared at me as she slowly started to lift his arm from around her waist but he pulled her back in and she shook, violently. "Go." she whispered.

"You aren't goin' anywhere." he pushed his head into her hair taking a deep breath. We both froze and I took a step towards the door. "That pretty lil' body ain't leavin' this bed for the rest of your life." he chuckled. Tears streamed down her face as she nodded, watching me take another step out the door. "You're gonna die pretty soon." He laughed again as she sobbed. Loud enough to cover the sound of my boots, just then the look in her eyes told me she was awake and well aware of what she was doing. She cried louder, longer. She covered the noise of my escape and I clutched her jacket and vest the entire way. Till I made it to Michone and Carl. Till we heard shots ring out. Till he was asleep and i told Michone exactly what Lilith had done for me.