the great war (r.g)

twenty-three

they left in the middle of the night. cora still had yet to find dan. her group was packed in a caravan on their way to the complex. the savior's should be asleep now, making it easier to attack.

the group waited in the woods, among the trees, while andy, who's brother they were saving, went up to the guards at the door. he showed them the walkers head that was supposed to be gabriel's. while the guards inspected the head, daryl and cora crept up to them and slits their throats, silently killing them.

the group emerged from the woods, approaching daryl and cora. two of them got rid of the guards bodies while the rest entered the building.

daryl and cora entered the building from the front doors. the two walked straight down the main hallway while the rest of the group split off into the rest of the complex. the first room had two men sitting on one couch. one of them was sleeping and the other seemed to be polishing his knife. daryl killed the sleeping one while the other struggled to fight off cora but ultimately, she killed him.

most of the other rooms went just like this, daryl and cora killing two or four guys per room. until they came to the room at the end of the hallway. cora hesitated opening the door, stopping to listen to what noise was coming from the inside. there was faint music and giggles coming from the inside. giggles. daryl opened the door to find a bunch of kids sitting in a circle around a record player. "who are you?" the oldest looking one asked.

"i..." cora was speechless. getting caught up in all the killing made cora forget that these saviors could have families.

"what's that stuff all over you guys?" one of the younger ones asked. cora looked down at her hands that were covered in blood. their families blood.

"um..." cora couldn't find the words. daryl grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the room, shutting the door.

"are you okay?" daryl asked. "cora?" daryl was slightly leaned over to look her in the eyes.

"yeah, i'm fine. let's find the others," cora said. she brushed past daryl to go down the hallway they just came down.

before turning down the next hallway, cora heard footsteps. she waited until the steps were closer before she bounded around the corner, knife held up.

once she registered who it was, cora immediately backed off. "dan?"

"cora?" dan seemed just as surprised to see cora as she was to see him. dan dropped his gun and took a few steps back. he looked startled and a little bit worried.

"why are you here?" cora asked him. "we were looking for you before we left and you were nowhere to be found."

"i...i was outside the walls and when i got back izzy told me you guys left so i just came here," dan said, stuttering. "what's wrong with you? you look like you've seen a ghost."

"well," cora glanced at daryl and back to dan, "you just scared me, that's all. let's find rick and the others."

outside the compound, the group found a parking lot full of vehicles. glenn, heath, and tara engaged in their own conversation about the two week long supply run they were starting. "everything go good in there?" rick asked cora when he joined her, daryl, and dan.

"everything went smoothly," dan answered.

rick glared at dan, then back at cora. "can we talk?" cora nodded and went to stand off to the side with rick. "how did dan get here? he was no where to be seen earlier."

"he said he was outside the walls and izzy told him where we were," cora told him. over rick's shoulder, cora saw dan glaring over at them.

"izzy didnt know where the complex was. she wasn't at the meeting," rick told her. he was right, izzy was not at the meeting, she had no idea how dan got here.

"hold on," she told rick. cora walked over to dan, about to confront him, when someone's voice came over the walkie talkie michonne was holding.

"drop your weapons," the lady said. cora looked around, confused to where this woman was. "drop em' now. we've got carol and maggie. we're thinking you might want to talk."

"shit," cora muttered under her breath.

"what do we do?" michonne asked. cora thought for a minute, scanning the group. off on the edge of the woods, cora saw daryl holding one of the saviors at knifepoint.

"let me see this," cora said, taking the walkie talkie. "we have one of your guys." silence. "we're thinking you might want to talk about that."

rick took the walkie talkie now and said "your man for ours." there was static on the other end and then nothing.

the group stood there in silence, thinking of what to do.