BETA-107
After the father and son talk, Addy had given them a note that Henry went after Lydia and the Whisperers. Max and Daryl collected their stuff, heading towards the gate when Connie had said she wanted to come.
Morning hit as the trio tracked the boy, Connie signed. "He caught up with them."
Daryl nodded. "Yeah. There was a struggle. They caught up to him."
Dog barked gaining their attention, Max looked down the ditch and saw his best friend's staff. He slid down the slope, patting the dog, and picked up the stick.
"Henry's staff." He signed.
His father pointed behind. "They went that way."
Dog growled as two walkers came towards them making Daryl and Connie shoot at them. Dog went to get his owner's arrow, Max tried to make him drop it, but the arrow broke.
The teenager looked up at his father and Connie, the woman smiled and shook her head before walking away. Daryl looked down at his dog.
"Bad dog."
The trio made it to the tree line, a small herd roamed the open field in front of them, as two walkers came out of the woods dragging a tarp. The herd stumbled towards the tarp as the three Whisperers went back into the woods.
They made a plan that Max would lead the herd into the Whisperers's camp, while Connie and Daryl rescued Henry. Max crouched down, moving his way to the herd before gaining their attention.
"Hey, soulless freaks! Come and get me!" He said, loud enough the walkers to hear him.
Max lead the walkers towards the camp, took out one of the walker's that was far to close to him, before he ran in the opposite direction away from them. He heard the screams of the Whisperers echo through the woods as he met up with his father and Connie.
He took the mask that Connie stole from the Whisperers, slipping it on before they made their way through the herd. Once they got to Henry and Lydia, his father grabbed his best friend by the arm.
"Keep your head down. We're leaving."
"Not without Lydia." Henry said, with urgency.
"No, the girl stays." Daryl says.
"Then so do I."
Lydia looked at the boy. "Henry..."
Henry shook his head. "No. I'm not leaving you. I won't."
Daryl grabbed the younger teen boy by the shirt pulling him and Lydia into the woods with Connie and Max following as they fought off the walkers. The trio throw off the masks, sprinting through the woods.
Henry suddenly tripped over a branch, landing face first on the ground. The rest of them crouch down beside him, panting heavily.
"Are you okay?" Max asked, wiping away sweat from his forehead.
"This isn't the way back to Hilltop..." Henry panted.
"Tara made a deal with those assholes. We broke it. We ain't going back to Hilltop." Daryl said.
"He's right. There's too many of them. Alpha would destroy Hilltop to get me back now." Lydia says.
"And why didn't you tell us there was that many of them?" Daryl stood up, looking down at the girl.
"You kept me locked in a cage. What did you expect? I wasn't going to betray my own people!" Lydia exclaimed.
"Well, maybe you should go back to 'em." Daryl sneered. "Henry didn't know what he was getting his ass into, but you sure as hell did."
"I thought I could go back. I can't."
Daryl shook his head. "Well, you ain't coming with us."
"Hey, we could run. Me and her. You guys go back, and—and we keep running. They can't blame Hilltop if we just disappear." Henry suggested.
Lydia shook her head. "Henry, we can't. Let me fix this."
"No. There's no way in hell I'm letting you run away with this one. No way. Think of your mom!" Daryl says as Connie standing.
"We gotta go. C'mon." She signs before standing in the direction she needs to go.
"It's this way." His father says, pointing towards the opposite direction.
Connie shakes her head, motioning the three teen to follow her before heading in her direction.
"Dog, let's go." Max says, following after the woman with Henry and Lydia behind him.
"No, no, dog, Max." Daryl tried, before giving up.
***
Breaking out of the tree lines, Max and the four made their way on a road. Connie pointed towards the apartment complex in front of them.
"Us four, in there." She signs before pointing each other them.
"Take the high ground?" His father says, looking at the building.
"Chokepoint." She says as Daryl agreed.
"I don't understand." Henry spoke up.
"They use walkers to protect themselves, right? So we go up someplace the walkers can't go. We separate the living from the dead. They travel in a herd, but there's only like five or six of them in the middle, right?" Daryl explained.
Lydia nodded. "Yeah, but if we go up there, we're trapped. Alpha's not gonna send an army 'cause she doesn't have to. She'll send Beta."
Max frowned. "Who's Beta?"
"I'm sick of running." His father says. "This Beta—he their best?" He received a nod. "Good. We'll kill him first."
Inside the building, Max helped Connie push a table off what seemed like a board of wood that could be moved. The woman lifted the board up, revealing a small hole in the floor with supplies.
Max crouched, taking the water bottle she handed. "How did you own this was here?"
"We stayed here once." She replied as his father walked it.
"That stairwell's already barricaded." His father said, making Max translate what he said. "But you already knew that."
"Her and her group stayed here once." Max said, handing him a bottle.
"A little secret stash for emergency?" Daryl said as they walked over to a map of the building. "Smart. There's only two ways up—that's good. I think these barricades are a little too barricaded. So, we'll cut open holes so that they can walk up here. Alright? This place is good. This might work."
"Then what?" Connie signed.
"Then we go."
"The girl stays?"
Daryl shook his head. "Nah."
"The girl stays." Connie said more forcefully.
"If we take her back—me and Max's friends die—your friends, too. Our friends will die." Daryl explained.
Connie sighed, shook her head. "We have friends, she doesn't."
A little while later, Max, Connie, Lydia, and Henry were setting up another barricade of sorts when the boy's father walked in.
"Alright, they're here. Let's go."
Max went with her father and Lydia, who they had locked in a room with Dog. She put up a fuss before reluctantly agreed. The father and son waited near the south stairwell door, his aim his crossbow at it.
Suddenly the door busted open, Beta hold another door in front of him, blocking the arrow that came him. Max pushed over the shelf, blocking the doorway where they stood before the pair hurried in the opposite direction.
The father and son split up, Max going to take out the another Whisperers, while his father went to kill Beta. Picking up a ax, Max watched the first skin freaks went to pull the tarp down but he swung the ax and lodging it into the person's chest.
After the teenager took out the second Whisperers, he sprinted towards Beta who was holding his father over a saw. Max pulled his knife, throw it out the large man, causing it to get lodging into the man's body.
He hurried over them, grabbed ahold on Beta's coat and throw him off his father with all the strength he had. Beta stumbled into a wall, catching himself and lunging out the boy.
A hard fist connected with Max's cheek before he was lifted up and pinned against a pillar. Daryl tackles Beta making the man let go of his son and landed a punch in the Whisperers's face before he was throw off.
Max landed on the ground, stumbled to his feet, pulling out his hammer before lifted it in the air and brought it down on the man's shoulder as his father stabbed the man.
It didn't seem to phase Beta as he backhanded Max causing the boy to fall and throw Daryl into a wall. The wall broke as the redneck's body crashed into it.
Max grunted, holding his face as the large man went after his father. As he stood up, he heard Beta talk to his dad before loud bang echoed. He hurried into the room and saw his father standing in front of an elevator. The redneck had pushed the large man down the elevator shaft.
The teenager picked up his hammer and his dad's knife, handing it back to the man, before they headed back towards Connie and the others.
As Max wrapped a piece of cloth around his best friend's leg, Connie distracted the group walkers outside the building before coming back over to them.
"Alright, we should go." His father says.
"You figure out where we're going?" Henry asked.
Max made eye contact with his father as the man spoke. "Alexandria's closest. We'll get you stitched up there."
Henry shook his head. "No, we can't. If her people find out we're there, everybody—"
"We ain't staying. We'll get you back on your feet and then we'll move on. But there's something I need to there, before we move on."