Saved

XLIII

"Mommy?" He asked, and then he was jumping on my legs, desperately clinging to them, and I was holding in my cries of pain. 

"Hey baby. I'm sorry, but Mommy's hurt really bad, so can you hold my hand? We need to go, right now." I said, and he didn't hesitate to take my hand and wait for instructions. I turned my gaze back to Sherry, who was almost shaking in the doorway. 

"If they catch us, I'll find a way to kill you. You can count on that." I hissed, and then I turned to Daryl, who was staring at Dale and I, a look in his eyes I couldn't quite recognize and then I heard the strangest thing. 

"Hey Daddy." Dale whispered, and Daryl run over to us, and bent down to give him a hug. 

"Hey bud. Time to go. Don't let go of your ma's hand okay? This is a secret mission." He said softly, and when Dale nodded, Daryl stood back up, took my other hand in his, and I directed him towards the only place I thought we could escape from. 

Which just so happened to be the furthest point away from us, but it was the least guarded. The back of the sanctuary, in the direction of Oceanside, was a small door connected to a small shed that we used as a garage, with one, maybe two cars in it. We used to use it a lot, before Simon killed all their men and we cut them off, but now it was a place to store the extra shit, and was probably the only possible way for us to escape. 

But we would. We had to now, it was the only way to do it without having anyone die. This is all we have left now. 

We skirted around soldiers, and slaves, and other people that seemed to be somewhere in between, going through side doors and tiny little hallways, using the most roundabout way to get wherever we were going. But I trust Riley, she knows this place, and she's smart. She'll get us out. 

I could tell that most of the soldiers were heading in a different direction than we were, which made me feel a bit better about our escape plan which was taking a lot longer than the max fifteen minutes that Riley had predicted, but obviously, this place doesn't have an alarm system, because no one seemed to be freaking out that we had escaped yet. 

I kept a tight grip on Riley's hand, urging her along. I could tell she was lagging now, the exhaustion and the pain from last night was wearing on her, I could see it in her face. And the malnutrition from how they'd been treating her, it was all taking a significant toll, and I was starting to get worried that she wasn't going to make it out on her own, and if she passed out then we were super screwed because I had absolutely no idea where we are. 

"Mommy? Are you okay?" Dale had asked that question maybe ten times since we grabbed him, and every time I glanced back, worried that she had deteriorated even more. 

"I'm fane baby. Not much longer." Is what she would say, every single time. 

"Left." She whispered, and I held her back, peeking around the corner before pulling the family train along behind me. 

"How much further Ri?" I whispered, glancing back at her. The bags under her eyes were so dark, they looked like they had been painted on with black paint, and the bruises on her face were horrendous, but what was worse was that I felt like I could see every single bone in her face, and she was pale. So pale. 

"Two turns. Right." She said, and I stopped again, peeking out, and waiting for the two women gossiping about something to walk into the room they were heading to and close the door, and then I pulled them along again. 

"Right, after that light." She whispered, pointing to the light mounted to the wall, and I nodded, and walked the last twenty feet to the light, and moved them agains the wall again to peek. There were two guards there. They had guns, but they were hand guns, and they weren't drawn. These guys were kids. Maybe late teens, but definitely not into their twenties yet. They were guarding the only door that was at the end of the hallway, and there were no other hallways leading off it, so I knew that was where we needed to go. 

"Riley, what's beyond the door? I need a cover." I whispered, turning back to look at her, and her eyes widened. 

"There's guards? Shit. Okay... uhm, it leads into a garage, and outside the garage is the fence. There's... there was a walker back there, it needed to be restaked soon when I was in charge, but we hadn't done it yet. Say... say that Dwight told you to go retake the walker on the back fence." She whispered, panic swirling in her eyes, but I figured the story was as good as any. 

"Okay. If I make it through the door, I'm going to find something to use, knock them out. You wait until I come get you. If anyone comes, go through a door and leave it cracked, I'll find you." I whispered, and she nodded. 

I leaned forward, and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead and watched the lone tear streak down her cheek. She had her eyes closed, and I desperately wanted to kiss her, just in case. But I knew it was too soon for that, so I leaned forward and kissed away the tear, and then I knelt down to look at Dale. 

"Watch after your ma, okay bud?" I whispered, and he nodded, glancing at the hand he was holding, and I watched him squeeze it before he looked back at me. 

"I love you kid. I'm sorry I wasn't around, but I do love you and your ma so much. Remember that, just in case." I whispered, and he nodded, sniffled once, but tears didn't fall. 

"I love you Daddy." He whispered back, and I ruffled his hair, stood up, and looked at Riley one last time. 

"I love you." I said, and then I turned away, went around the corner, and headed to either our salvation, or our death.