Trust Me | Daryl Dixon

Part 73

Daryl and Glenn quickly pulled the man up to his feet, aiming their guns to the back of his head as Rick tried to negotiate.

"You can see we have one of yours-- we'll trade." He offered.

"I'm listening." The voice responded.

"First I want to talk to Maggie and Carol, make sure they're alright."

Moments later familiar voices came over the radio phone between static pauses, "Rick, it's Carol, I'm- I'm fine, but--" Carol began before she was cut off, "Rick, it's Maggie. We're both ok, we'll figure this-"

"You have your proof, let's talk." The woman's voice spoke again and, although it was relieving to hear Maggie and Carol's voice, it only made this so much more real.

Rick looked around to us before nodding, "Alright, this is the deal, right here-- let them go, you can have your guy back and live."

"Two for one?" The woman scoffed back, "That's not much of a trade."

"You don't have another choice or you would've done something about it already." Rick spit back, confidence in his voice before a long pause was heard from the other side, "Look, I know you're talking it over-- it's a fair trade. Just come out, we do this, we all walk away. Do we have a deal?"

We all waited anxiously for the voice on the other end, hoping that everything would go as smoothly as possible, "I'll get back to you." The voice responded calmly, leaving us all confused as to what our next move would be.

***

"So are we just gonna hold out here until that bitch threatens one of their lives again?" Rosita questioned, pacing the field.

"We wait-- at least for now anyway." Rick said, trying to calm everyone, "Let them think the ball is in their court and then, when their guard is down, we take them out."

"How're are we going to do that if we don't even know where they're hiding out?" I asked.

"Daryl's going to track them." He said, looking over at Daryl who stood beside me, before he nodded back at the plan, "I want the rest of you to start loading all of the weapons and ammunition into the vehicles;  Rosita, Liz, Sasha, I want you three to keep a lookout around the perimeter in case they decide to circle back."

"It's no use," The man laughed, "Your friends are already dead."

"Yeah?" Daryl said lowly, holding an intimidating stance over the man who was sat back on the ground, "Ya best pray they ain't."

The air went quiet as we all broke off to where we were needed; worry filling every unoccupied space in our minds while, even the ones who weren't religious, prayed for some sort of good outcome.

Before heading to where I was going to take watch, I found myself making my way over to Daryl-- something about him seeming off, which nearly made me sick to my stomach.

"Daryl," I called out out from behind him before he turned around to face me, his eyes empty of any distinguishing emotion as he propped up the bike he finally got back.

"Ya ok?" He asked unmindfully, sitting on his bike before quickly going over everything on it.

I let out a sigh, walking closer, "Are you?"

He shrugged, "Gotta get this done."

"We're gonna find them-- you're gonna find them.. I know you will." I said truthfully, pushing the dirty hair out of his eyes, pain evident on his face, "And after you do, we're going to go home, and this'll all be done with."

He nodded, grabbing my hand, "Ya wanna come with me?"

"I don't even know the first thing about tracking, Daryl." I sighed, looking over my shoulder at the rest of the group, "And if they come back, we're gonna need as many people as we can."

He nodded, looking around before back at me, "Ya gonna be ok here?"

I nodded back, biting at the inside of my cheek, nervous about every aspect of this new plan, "Just.. do what you need to and hurry back."

And with that, he turned the key to his newly reclaimed bike, revving the engine, before I pulled his face in for a quick kiss.
Our eyes locking for a split second before I broke the contact, nodding as I stepped back, reluctantly watching as his bike sped down the dirt covered path.
I let out a sigh, my heart once again feeling heavy, not only from the knowledge of two of our people being held captive, but also the thought of every time Daryl and I separate, it may be our last.

I know that taking out Negan and this compound is something we had to do, not only for the sake of our group, but also for the Hilltop, it's just.. it feels like we're already getting punished for it.

I let out a shaky breath, readjusting my grip on the large gun in my hand as my mind toyed with me again; so many what if situations that I knew would keep me up at night if anything did end up happening to Maggie or Carol.

***

My eyes felt dry as I tirelessly scanned the distance in front of me, every now and then catching my thoughts wandering as I zoned out.

"Hey-" A voice from behind me called out, causing me to jump before quickly spinning around.

"Hey, it's ok-- it's just me." Rick said, holding his hands in front of him, "You doing ok over here?"

I took a second to catch my breath before nodding, pushing my hair out of my face, "Yeah, I just- a lots happening."

Rick nodded back, looking around, "I know it is, but we're gonna figure it out-- like we always do."

"Who do you think those people were? The ones that have Maggie and Carol."

Rick ran his hand over the scruff on his face, "Well, they seemed to know the guy who had Daryl's bike pretty well, I'd say they're more of Negan's people-- maybe they were out on a run or something, just happened to come back at the same time we were here."

"So there's still more of them.." I said quietly, remembering again the two I ran into at the convenience store.

"There's always going to be more people out to get us-- to take what we have." Rick shrugged, "We're not gonna let them."

"What if we don't have a choice?" I asked, looking up at him.

"Then we kill them."

_____
Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!
I really liked getting back into playing with Liz's and Daryl's feelings for each other and also creating another Liz and Rick moment because I really do like the thought of him almost being a mentor/father figure for Liz, since she really didn't have a good one growing up.

Let me know what you think!