IN THE MORNING we got told to go with Pope to check on one of their prisoners. By my surprise, in the room was Frost. He had been beaten nearly to death, blood running down his face and he was sporting a swollen eye. Carver was mercilessly beating him for information, and Frost was hanging by a thread.
However, Pope didn't like how slow he was being so he told my dad to help, whilst I stayed and watched.
Carver didn't like that idea very much, but was forced to obey under Pope's gaze.
My dad stared at Frost for a second, making the bloodied man spit out, "Well, are we just gonna stand here staring at each other dreamily or are we gonna get to it?" Dad then angrily moved around Frost, putting his arm around his neck to choke him. He started to gag, which made Carver frustrated incase his prisoner passed out.
"Hey, you kill him, the two of us are gonna have a problem!"
"Oh shut up, he knows what he's doin'." I rolled my eyes, making his snap his head at me and pointing.
"Nobody asked you to get involved, Grimes!" Carver gave me a glare.
"Just give 'em a location, where your friends are hiding." My dad bent down to look at Frost. "You do that, this all goes away."
Frost coughed and looked back up, "That's, uh... That's a good offer. Or... and hear me out...you all could go eat shit instead. Just a thought." He said before getting punched in the face.
"Already gone through these steps. Maybe we start taking pieces." Carver suggested.
"You do what you gotta do."
Pope thought before he turned his gaze at me, "Get the knife." He ordered, nodding at Leah who had one out for me. I took it and walked over to my dad. I assumed this was another way of Pope seeing what we were capable of.
"I don't think you understand. We're the best shot you got." My dad stated to Frost.
"Why? We all "friends" now?" He replied sarcastically.
"No. Not 'cause we're friends. 'Cause she's the one holding the knife." He grumbled, so I spun the knife in my hand in front of him.
"Yeah. And your buddy's the one holding the gun." I turned around to see Carver clutching his gun which was in his pocket, trying to be as discreet as possible. He looked at me, giving a smirk before winking at me whilst he felt his gun. Gross.
"Shut up! Shut up and listen to me." Dad yelled and banged on his chair, nodding to my knife. I gripped onto Frost's finger, squeezing it tightly as I help my knife to it. "We know you're close to her. The leader. Close enough to know where they're hidin'. No one needs to die in here. So just say a location so we can all walk away happy."
Frost started to breathe rapidly, in and out without stopping. "Unless you really wanna lose a finger, I suggest you talk." I grit my teeth before cutting his finger slightly. As much as I didn't want to hurt Frost we had no choice.
"Go to hell, assho-"
I saw my dad subtly nod. I took it as an indication to cut my knife through the flesh and bones of his finger. Frost yelled out loudly in pain, squirming in his chair and trying to move his hand, however I kept a strong grip on his other finger.
"Location!" Dad demanded again. "Or she takes another!"
"I can't!"
"Location!"
"No! No! Please stop!" Frost begged
"Location!" I yelled, cutting slightly through his other finger, which made him groan.
He squeezed his eyes shut before breaking, "Yellow house! Town off the 283! Antenna! Antenna... Antenna... Antenna..." He whimpered, bowing his head to avoid eye contact. I let go of his hand, he let out a gasp.
"Is that good enough?"
"I can scout it out." Leah nodded and looked at Pope for his orders.
"Take a squad. Four of you." Pope looked between us. "See if our friend speaks the truth."
"You want us to take them?" Carver asked in disbelief. Pope stared at him down until he shut up, he shook his head and left the room. I held the knife out to Pope for him to take it back, but he shook his head to say I could keep it.
Then we went to the gates and eventually set off in our group to go to the location, which Frost told us about. Hopefully Maggie and the rest had already gone.
•
There were a few houses in the distance, overgrown by trees yet there was no movement. Some reapers stayed behind the cars whilst my dad and I discreetly went around to the side, near to one of the fallen lines that was hanging from the pole. He gripped it and then shook it.
"What's that for?" I wondered.
"If they're still here, then hopefully they can find a way out. Especially before that asshole does." He replied, talking about Carver who was sneaking into the house with the group.
"Be careful around him. I don't want you endin' up like Frost." I told him cautiously as we snuck over to the houses. "Leah told me his brother is missin', so he's a bit pissed."
Dad scoffed, "Well that shouldn't be our problem."
"Well...it might be mine." I nervously said, causing him to give me a questioning look. "I might've killed his brother."
"You what?"
I put up my hands in defense, "I don't know if it was actually him, but I killed one of them! Either way, if they find out they will all be pissed off."
"Shit Lia." He sighed as we entered the house behind Leah. Those who had checked the house were gathered in one of the rooms, we came up behind them.
"That son of a bitch jerked us around." Carver grumbled.
"We should stay, look around for a bit, so we don't miss nothin'." Dad suggested.
"No, we'll search the rest of the town first." Leah stated. "Quick and quiet, in case they're still nearby. You three, take the north end and work back. We'll meet you in the middle."
"Copy." One of them from the other group nodded before we split up. We went to the house next door.
We went inside, everything looked normal. Leah went into one room, noticing something. "They're still wet."
"Guess he was telling the truth, then." My dad called as he went up the stairs.
"We should clear the other rooms." Carver added with his weapon firmly in his hand.
I went into the main room, looking around for the people who I hoped that had left by now until I noticed a few gaps in the floorboards. There was a small door on the floor, partially covered by the carpet. As I squinted to look through them from afar, I thought I could see some figures. But, once I heard Carver's footsteps approach I quickly shifted the carpet over the door.
My dad then came down the stairs, "Maybe they went out the back. I can track them." He suggested again as he got downstairs.
"They can't have gotten that far. I can help track too." I also added.
"Are you two in a hurry to leave?" Carved asked with his usual annoyed tone, eyeing us both up and down.
"You got somethin' to say?" I furrowed my brows as he stepped closer.
"Other building, you wanted to stick around and make sure we didn't miss anything." Carver said, looking at my dad. "Now you wanna run right off. Both of you do. Which is it?"
"Look, man, I'm just trying to help."
"Yet you keep chirpin'."
I rolled my eyes at his childishness. "Oh my god. If you keep on actin' like a child then we will lose them."
"You lose 'em, it's on you. It ain't on us." Dad shrugged, stepping closer to Carver, however Leah eventually stepped in.
"Stop." Leah demanded before talking into her walkie. "Wash, we need a perimeter check. Possible runners. Half a klick."
Washington's voice echoed through the walkie, "Copy that, Shaw."
"Look. I don't have time for this toddler bullshit." Leah looked up at us all.
"Listen-" Carver began.
"I know. I understand, but I don't need it." She replied to Carver who looked more annoyed. "Go sift upstairs, make sure we didn't miss anything." We watched him go upstairs before she spoke again, "Don't."
"Don't what?" We both questioned.
"You're either with us or you're not."
"What do you expect us to do then?" I asked.
"For one thing... stop pissing off Carver. Usually they don't end well." Leah told us both, before walking away to search more of the house again just in case we missed anything. I rolled my eyes before going upstairs, to keep out of Leah's way, but also avoiding Carver's angry footsteps going into one of the other rooms.
The room I was in was clear so I was about to walk until I thought that I saw some movement outside from the window. At first I assumed it was my imagination, however I decided to check what it was anyway. It was probably the other group from earlier who we split up from.
I went to the window, checking for any other signs of movement yet I saw none. I sighed to myself, about to move away until I saw it again. I saw a group of people running the opposite direction.
Maggie was looking up at me. I turned around to make sure nobody was looking from the hallway before looking back. I gave her a subtle signal to ask if she was okay, she nodded. I heard footsteps from the other rooms, making me panic slightly for Maggie.
I gave her a signal to move quickly, hoping that she's going to find somewhere safe for now. She caught on quick, running through the woods discreetly to catch up to her group. I thought I was fine until I heard a voice behind me.
"The fuck are you doing, Grimes?"
Shit. No way they saw that.
I turned back around to the door, seeing Carver standing there with a confused yet angry face. His weapon was secretly clutched in his hand, as if he was waiting for an excuse, whilst walking forward.
"Just checkin'." I answered calmly, going to go past him until he pushed back my shoulder with force.
"You think I'm stupid or something?" He questioned whilst furrowing his brows.
I scoffed, "You really want me to answer that honestly?" I replied before his hand clutched my shoulder to then push me against the wall.
He gritted his teeth, keeping a harsh grip on my shoulder. "I don't know what games you and Dixon are trying to play, but it ends now."
I sneered at him, grabbing his arm that was pushing my shoulder against the wall. "I don't know what you're talkin' about, Carver. But get your hands off of m-"
He then grabbed his knife that was in his pocket, lifting it up and having it across my throat. "You don't think I know what you did out there before we caught you? Pope told me not to mention it, but he ain't here to save you."
I gasped quietly, not even daring to swallow as I could feel the sudden blade getting closer to my neck. "What are you gonna do? Kill me?"
"If I have to."
"I'd like to see you try." I commented, before raising my knee with force to kick him between his legs. He grunted, dropping the knife and wheezing back. I used it as my chance to move past him to escape through the hallway.
"This ain't over, Grimes. Watch your back." Carver told me through sharp breaths.
I chuckled under my breath, "Sure it ain't." I then made my way back downstairs. My dad was down there too, just coming out of another room. I brushed my neck, rubbing off a tiny bit of blood from the cut that Carver made, but it was only small.
Carver then later came back down, my dad went to talk to him. "They ran. They ain't comin' back here."
"What?" Carver repeated.
"I mean, think about it. You hit 'em hard. Even if they get more people, they won't come back here. It's a bad move." Dad explained, "You got what? 20 people in your town. You got weapons. You got walls. You'd see them coming from a mile away. Trust me. They ran."
"Is there a point to any of this?" Carver questioned.
Leah then came into the room, "Let's go. There's nothing here. It's time we move on."
"No. We're missing something." Carver thought and shook his head.
I huffed under my breath as I stood on the rug opposite him. My dad was fed up too, trying to convince him to leave. "Fine. Let's waste another hour. That's smart."
"Daryl..." Leah began.
"It's not my fault he's too stupid to pay attention!"
Carver narrowed his eyes, "Yeah. Chirp, chirp, chirp."
"Enough." Leah demanded.
"Screw that. This dirtbag wants to play, I'll teach him the rules." Carver stepped closer to him.
"I'm right here, man. Make a move."
"This ain't the time, we're gonna lose them at this point." I commented.
"You want me to teach you the rules too?" Carver tilted his head with a glare.
My dad lightly shoved him, "Leave her outta this."
"This is not the time, and it's not your call to make." Leah interrupted with frustration.
"Jesus, Shaw. We both know who he really is deep down." Carver looked at Leah.
"What?" She asked.
"I was there. Remember?" Carver reminded. "After. What, you think this is gonna end any different?"
"So this is what? You looking out for me?"
"Always."
"Uh-huh. Gotcha. And what about the fire?" Leah then asked, which caught him slightly off-guard at her sudden question. "When Pope locked me in the cabin and lit it up. You must have known. Was that you looking out for me, too?"
"Shaw. Wake up. Everything's a test now." Carver grumbled, "If you think these guys are ever gonna give a shit about any of us, you're gonna fail."
"Certainly don't give a shit about you that's for sure." I murmured.
"Grimes..." Leah warned under her breath.
"No, he's right." My dad spoke up. "I don't give a shit about any of you. Except you." He looked at Leah. "I'm here for you. It's no secret. I made mistakes. But I'm here right now. Maybe I'd be better at it this time, if you'd let me. And Pope scares the shit outta me. I don't wanna be face-first in the fire under his boot. But if you say trust 'em, I'll trust 'em."
Leah looked between Carver and my dad for a moment, "We've wasted enough time here already."
"Oh, you're not seriously gonna..." Carver began.
"It's time to move on." Leah stated.
I muttered with a sigh, "Well it's about damn time."
"Sure. Your call." Carver sighed, looking at the ground until he noticed something strange on the floor. "Hold on." He noticed something small that was peaking from the carpet, which I didn't manage to cover. Part of the trap door's corner was in view. He nudged me out the way so he could lift it up.
He lifted up the carpet to show the rest of the trap door. He got his gun before opening it quickly, pointing his weapon in all directions. Once he realised that no one was down there, he relaxed and put his weapon away in hidden anger.
"Told ya'." My dad said.
Leah walked towards the door, "Time to go."
•
We walked back to the camp after meeting back with the other group. Pope and another man was standing outside the gate after he saw us. Carver then stepped forward to tell him the news that we didn't find anything useful.
"They were there. Caught signs, but they slipped away." He admitted, sighing. "Sorry."
Pope just stared at us all before chuckling, "Ooh." He started to laugh. I was confused and...slightly weirded out. Shouldn't he be annoyed at least. We found nothing.
Leah's tense gaze relaxed, "I thought you'd be disappointed."
"Well, this day was a success."
Really?
"How so?" Leah asked, taking the words right out of my mouth.
"After you left, I continued the 'discussion' with our guest." Pope stated, talking about the poorly beaten up Frost. "He wasn't too talkative. But I got everything I needed out of him." He said that whilst smiling at my dad and I, before turning to the tree which had a walker strapped to it. But it wasn't any walker.
It was Frost.