HEART OF GLASS
CHAPTER FORTY !
[ season three, episode eight ]
Dusk was upon them.
The group of unlikely participants had banded together to retrieve the hostages, and trust was the main component keeping them together, despite it being a scarce and difficult thing to obtain, most especially with strangers.
Fortunately enough, this trust meant Theo had been given his compound bow and that baseball bat back, and Michonne was partnered with her katana once more, so things were running smoothly as can be for the meantime.
Rick, Daryl, Sage and Oscar ─ the volunteers from the prison ─ crept up to an old, abandoned car situated just in front of Woodbury's main gate. It shielded them from the unsuspecting guards strolling across the wall up ahead.
"All right," Rick murmured, peering through the scope of his rifle at the armed guards. "We've got three on this side."
Unanticipatedly ─ before any more words could be spoke or orders barked ─ Michonne scurried backward and disappeared into the darkness, headed in the direction from which they just came. Theo's mouth fell agape, heart thrumming viciously. She wasn't seriously leaving him alone with these strangers who wouldn't hesitate to put his head on a spike, was she?
"Michonne!" he hissed after her retreating silhouette. "Hey!"
Everyone turned to look incredulously at the empty spot Michonne once stood. Rick was particularly annoyed by the woman's unprecedented abandonment, and his gaze immediately zoned in on Theo ─ he was Michonne's accomplice, therefore easy to blame, despite having had no notion she would flee from them so close to the walls. Regardless, Theo shrunk at the intensity in Rick's eyes.
"You, stay." the man growled, his bared teeth reflecting the huge overhead torches bearing down on them from Woodbury's walls. He punched a magazine into his rifle, "Damn it."
Only a few moments later, however, Michonne reappeared.
She whistled sharply to catch the groups' attention. The moment everyone had eyes on her, albeit some narrowed suspiciously, Michonne gestured to someplace on the left.
Apparently, she had found them a way inside. Of course; Theo should've known better than to underestimate her.
She told them to hop over an unguarded segment of the wall, shadowed by overgrown trees that were sprouting from the ground directly beside the stacked sheets of metal. Behind that, an unlocked window led them into a dimly-lit room which looked out onto the streets of Woodbury. The surrounding walls were lined by an array of shelving units, all of which were overflowing with different condiments ─ food, mostly.
Theo didn't recognise the room. It was an inventory, storing what looked to be some of Woodbury's most important essentials. He was fairly surprised there weren't any of those youth club members inside guarding the supplies. They would do anything for a pat on the back from the Governor.
"This is where you were held?" Rick asked Michonne.
"I was questioned," she corrected.
Daryl marched through the congregation, crossbow clasped between his hands, tread practically noiseless against the linoleum floor. He cautiously peeled back the pink and white floral curtain draped over the window embedded into the front door, peering into the streets of Woodbury. Theo crouched down next to him, fiddling with the string of his compound bow.
After a thorough inspection of the the room, Rick sighed impatiently upon discovering it was empty ─ no sign of Maggie, Glenn or Marley, "Any idea where else they could be?"
Michonne shook her head.
"I thought you said there was a curfew," Daryl demanded sharply.
Theo frowned. He pulled the curtain away from the dusty window closest to him and bore witness to Daryl's misconceptions. A couple of Woodbury residents were meandering down the fire-lit street in nightclothes.
"Those are stragglers," Theo defended lightly, dropping the curtain. "During the day, the street is packed. This is nothing."
"If anyone comes in here, we're sitting ducks," Rick pointed out. "We gotta move."
"They could be in his apartment." Michonne speculated.
Immediately, Daryl lurched away from the windows, lip curling in frustration, "Yeah? What if they ain't?"
"Then we'll look somewhere else." Michonne retaliated.
Theo bristled at the close proximity Daryl and Rick stood from he and Michonne. The tension between them all was palpable ─ and dangerous. One wrong move and someone in the room would quickly ease to exist, skewered by either Michonne's katana or Daryl's green-fletched arrows. And it wouldn't be Sage or Oscar, who stood back hesitantly, staring into the unfolding altercation with wide eyes.
Eventually, Rick relented.
"You said you could help us," he said.
Theo crossed his arms, jaw clenched, "We are."
"We're doing what we can," Michonne added, her annoyance spiking.
Oscar decided this was the best time to interject with his own personal agitation, "Then where in the hell are they?"
Waving a hand dismissively, Rick plucked himself away from the discussion and gestured for his prison-group to follow him to the other side of the room. They began speaking in hushed whispers, eyes occasionally darting to the outcasts. Clearly, the topic of conversation was about Theo and Michonne.
It seemed Sage had a lot to say too, compressed into erratic hand movements that the others struggled to decipher. Rick quickly took matters into his own hands and crouched down to meet her height. He cupped a hand around the back of her neck in a very fatherly gesture ─ thumb pressed against the bottom of her cheek ─ as he accentuated his words in a manner in which she could easily read his lips. And whatever it was that the man said, Sage nodded firmly in confirmation.
Theo turned to Michonne, "They don't trust us."
"They will."
There was a sudden drumbeat of knuckles hammering against the back door. Keys jangled in the lock and the handle jerked aside.
Michonne curled her fingers around the hood of Theo's jacket and yanked him toward the back of the storage room, where Rick and the others had gathered. They all hid behind a stack of shelves riddled in a plethora of supplies, and their heavy, anxiety-ridden breaths mingled in the darkness.
A man hobbled inside.
"I know you're in here," he said. He was fairly old, beaten down by time, his stubble patchy and grey. "I saw you moving from outside."
His heavy footsteps clacked against the linoleum floor. Theo's heart raced, and he instinctively tightened his grip around the curved edge of his bow.
The man grew closer. He was wearing a fraying cap, and there was a pistol wedged between his hands, "All right, now. You're not supposed to be in here and you know it."
Much to Theo's astonishment, Sage stuck her leg out from behind the shelf. Oblivious to the obstruction in his path through the darkness, the elder man stumbled over her leg and ─ with flailing hands ─ slammed into the ground with an agonised groan.
Rick was the first to leap out of their hiding spot. He bundled his fist into the back of the man's shirt, pressed the barrel of a gun to his head, and dragged him up from the ground. The man didn't fight back, for obvious reasons.
Vein throbbing in his neck, Rick moved his hand to the man's shirt-collar, the cerulean material bunching beneath his fingers, "Get on your knees."
He obeyed.
Daryl bound his hands together with a zip-tie and Rick shoved the muzzle of the gun beneath his jaw. The man was sweating profusely, his bulging eyes darting between the group.
"Where are our people?" Rick demanded.
"I ─ I don't know!"
Ehh. Wrong answer. Rick's jaw tightened, and he violently shoved the man into the wall. "You are holding some of our people. Where the hell are they?"
There was a genuine look of bewilderment in the man's expression. He was trembling from head to toe, his mouth hanging open. Theo honestly felt a little pang of sympathy for him.
"I don't know!" he cried.
"Rick," Theo whispered harshly. "He's clueless. We're not gonna get anything out of him."
With a sharp exhale through his nostrils, Rick released the man's collar. He angrily shoved the gun back into his waistband, and Daryl used a scrunched up piece of cloth as a makeshift gag to keep the man quiet. Then, he slammed the end of the crossbow into his head. The man crumpled to the ground, unconscious.
They had limited time before another Woodbury resident passed through. Or before someone realised a valued member of their community was missing.
"What do we do?" Theo wondered aloud.
Rick opened his mouth to say something, but the sound of continuous bullets ricocheting somewhere deep beneath Woodbury's pristine streets interrupted him.
Scratch that. They knew what to do.
It was follow the noise from there on out.
✧.｡. *.
Wake up.
Come on, wake up.
Wake up!
Slowly, Marley's eyes peeled open.
Ears ringing, she scrutinised her surroundings.
She saw the same cinderblock walls from earlier surrounding a circular wooden table, and the dim-orange ceiling lamp, and the chair mirroring her own on the opposing side of the table, and droplets of blood splattered across the floor, across her jeans, up the walls.
So she was still there, trapped in that place.
Time moved slow in captivity.
The ache in her head and the throbbing in her lips made it move even slower. And that blossoming pain brought back memories of those last few seconds before unconsciousness crept forth and lulled her into a dreamless sleep.
An altercation had transcended an unsuccessful interrogation. A fight. Marley possessed the upper hand for a good few minutes, slamming the man's head into the table not once, but twice ─ she broke him again and again. But then she had seen the blood on her hands, and she remembered Lori's crackling screams of agony, echoing down in the prison tombs. That awful man used her distraction to his uppermost advantage. His fist had connected with her face; it brought nothing but darkness from there on out.
But, hey ─ at least she broke his nose. That would leave a permanent scar. He would look into the mirror everyday and remember how he was overpowered by a little girl.
Unfortunately, he still managed to outsmart her.
Marley realised her hands had been rebound behind the chair when she attempted to reach up and touch her throbbing lip. Obviously, the man wasn't willing to take that chance again. Instead, Marley opted to run her tongue over the patch of congealed blood, and on her tastebuds lingered the harsh tang of copper.
The man had a killer punch on him, she would give him that.
She wondered if he was going to come back and finish what he started. How would that end for her? Not in flying colours, which was inevitable. But would it end in death? She hoped not. Maybe Merle would vouch for her life, considering they had once had a past and possessed a well-framed knowledge of each other. However, Marley seriously doubted that ─ he was the one who had dragged them there in the first place. He didn't care about her. He didn't care about Glenn. And if they died, if the man from earlier drove a stake through their hearts, then their blood was on Merle's hands.
Nothing would change that.
Nothing ever could.
She hoped he knew that. She hoped he felt guilty, even just a little bit.
A sudden wave of pain burst through Marley's head, like a wicked bolt of lightning cracking against the pavement.
It overwhelmed her senses. Pinned her in a chokehold. The walls around her melted into a blur, and the pain was the only thing Marley could focus on. She gritted her teeth together, squeezed her eyes closed as if that were going to help relieve any of the agonising discomfort. But it didn't. It felt as though someone had just ploughed an axe through her skull, and they were driving the blade deeper and deeper into her brain.
Count to three.
One, two, three.
Three, two, one.
It was like her mother used to say ─ just breathe, sweetheart. Imagine the ocean, the sun against the sand, the sound of the waves. Can you do that? Breathe. Come on, I know you can.
Why had that come back to her so late? Marley's heart felt heavy. She hadn't remembered. Why hadn't she remembered? What took her so long?
Imagine the ocean. The sand. The sound of the waves.
Eventually, after what felt like hours, the pain subsided.
And when Marley opened her eyes, she saw a thin veil of white smoke streaming through the crack under the door.
Within seconds, the tumultuous commotion outside dawned loud and clear.
Intermixed with the loud hissing of unholstered smoke grenades, Marley could hear panicked yelps and sporadic gunfire. There were footsteps too, right outside the door. Only, these footsteps weren't those soft and calculative ones that were typically used to take hostages by surprise, but were rather demanding and rushed ─ like people were running. Hiding. Fleeing. And accompanying that, there were people shouting, bellowing, barking vicious demands.
People. But who?
Time was running out.
The smoke crawled beneath the door in thick, white tendrils, filling the entire room like water. Marley coughed and sputtered, pressing her lips into a tight line in an attempt to block out the smoke. But it didn't do much other than make the desire to breathe far more insufferable. Her chest felt horribly constricted of air, as if a hand had tightened around her throat.
And now, she could no longer see the door ahead.
Oh, God.
What if this was a tactic to take the hostages off-guard? It could be ─ it seemed logistical. Frighten them with gunfire, and then choke them out with smoke grenades.
Suffocate them before they even knew what had hit them.
This was retribution. This was human brutality at its finest.
Marley's breath burst from her mouth in short gasps. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't fucking breathe.
Imagine the ocean.
The smoke was flooding into her lungs, drowning her from the inside out. Every instinct cried out for her to run, but with her hands bound behind her back, the most Marley could do was thrash aimlessly against the chair. There was nothing she could do to help herself, and she couldn't breathe.
She was going to die.
Just breathe. Can you do that?
Suddenly, the door screeched open. Marley's stomach flipped.
A figure breezed through the smoke. They came charging directly toward her, their footsteps falling into rhythm with another distant round of gunfire. Before she could catch a glimpse of the silhouette, the metallic shink of a knife slicing through duct-tape met her ears, and her hands sprung free.
Survival instinct rushed to the surface.
Marley immediately launched herself at the figure.
Through the smoke, she could just about discern a face ─ a boy with a dark shock of unruly hair and wide eyes lodged in his sockets like chocolate buttons. He carried a cool-looking bow, and wore a light blue jacket with a yellow stripe through the middle. Marley had never seen him before, and her adrenaline made her jump to pretty drastic conclusions: Woodbury was recruiting young.
Without hesitation, she drew her arm back and punched him square in the jaw ( which was a decision she would come to regret later. )
"Jesus!" the boy yelped. He clutched his face, reeling away from the girl who just assaulted him.
Despite the crackling flame of pain blazing down her arm and snaking around her knuckles, Marley raised her fist again. The boy stumbled into the wall, raising his hands in surrender. But surrender meant nothing to her after everything she'd been through. If she had wanted to surrender to that man from earlier, the chances he'd accept it were slim to none.
She lunged at the boy. He squealed in terror.
However, before Marley could reach him, someone's hand latched around her shoulder. She immediately rounded on them ─ she was more than prepared to attack whoever this was, too. She wanted to. She wanted to get out. She wanted to get home to her family. To Sage. To Beth and the baby.
Through the thick cloud of pepper smoke, Marley swiftly recognised the face staring back at her. And she didn't need to attack this person at all.
It was Rick Grimes.
He had come to save them.
She didn't think about it. She immediately leapt at him, coiling her arms around his shoulders. Rick was taken aback for a moment ─ he had never seen Marley in such a vulnerable state before.He didn't know what to do; this was not the kind of thing he'd been expecting. Tears, sure. A hug? Absolutely not. But it didn't matter. Rick's fatherly instincts overwhelmed every other aspect of his senses, and he placed one hand on the back of Marley's head, pulling her into his chest.
When he pulled away, Rick kept her at arms length, "We need to hurry," he said.
The smoke had almost completely vanished, and Marley swiftly placed the familiar faces that had suddenly materialised by the doorway to her temporary cell.
Daryl, Oscar, Maggie, Glenn, and a nameless woman with dreadlocks.
Sage.
Her sister.
She was there, too.
For a moment, Marley could have sworn she was hallucinating. Surely the group wouldn't bring her fourteen-year-old sister to Woodbury, where a violent altercation was inevitable. Surely not. Just to make sure, Marley blinked and blinked and blinked, checking that it wasn't her mind playing tricks on her.
But Sage remained.
"What the hell is she doing here?" Marley whisper-yelled.
"She wouldn't stay at the prison," Rick defended breathlessly, holding one hand aloft. From the corner of his eye, he could see Daryl gesturing for them to hurry up. "Trust me, I tried to make her stay. I tried. But she fought me on it."
"Seriously─"
"Come on!" Daryl commanded.
Time no longer moved slow. They had to go.
The boy from earlier shouldered his way outside and into the hallway separating the rooms, scowling in annoyance. There was already a bruise forming where Marley's knuckles had met his flesh, and she felt pretty bad for being so rash. It was an unnecessary act of violence, she quickly realised. Obviously, this boy was ( somehow ) with them. But how?
As the group ran up a steep staircase, Marley pointed at him, "Who's this guy?"
Daryl happened to be the only person amongst the squad to hear her inquiry. He grunted, "Theo. He's with us."
She still had many questions concerning how, but decided to keep those to herself for now, and nodded in confirmation.
Soon enough, the group managed to find their way back out onto the streets of the Woodbury. They strayed from the middle of the road, sticking only to the left side of the street, passing shops and apartments and the occasional boutique.
Every door they encountered was locked. The woman with dreadlocks tried every handle she could, and eventually, they came to a large building that hadn't been sealed up for the night. She shoved the door open.
They flooded inside.
Unlike every other pre-apocalyptic place, the interior wasn't dusty or mouldy, and didn't smell harshly of the dead. It was like something plucked from Before the outbreak. There were small tables dotted around in random spots, all of which were set up for a meal, topped with polished cutlery and hand-written menus.
Not quite a restaurant. A cafe maybe, or a communal hangout spot.
But whatever it was, it wasn't real.
Marley sighed. She looked around the room for Sage, who was standing over by Glenn, her eyes flicking worriedly over his injuries. Marley hadn't even noticed his swollen eye until now, and it was quite intense amongst the other cuts and bruises marring his complexion. He looked broken and defeated.
She would help tend to his wounds after she talked to Sage.
Marley grabbed her sister's wrist and pulled her behind the shop counter, skipping over the whole happy reunion crap. She was angry. She wanted answers.
"What were you thinking?" Marley demanded, her blood-stained callouses grazing together as she signed angrily.
Sage frowned, "I wanted to help."
"That is not your responsibility."
"You're my sister, so it is my responsibility."
Marley pinched the bridge of her nose, releasing a deep sigh, "No, you're my responsibility. I'm the oldest," she gestured to herself. With another exasperated exhale, she lifted her hands high, "You can't make stupid choices like this, Sage. It's dangerous."
"I couldn't stay at the prison, either," Sage retorted, aggressively swiping a hand through the air. "That's stupid."
"No, that's safe."
Sage inhaled deeply, pushing a ringlet of loose hair behind her ear. Her hands were shaking like spindly tree-branches blowing in the wind.
"I just want you to be safe." Marley added softly, her clenched fists sweeping past each other to form a momentary cross. "You're fourteen. You're not a fighter."
Apparently, that wasn't the right thing to say. Not remotely. Sage's face dropped, and her expression warped into one brimming with anger and discontent. She narrowed her eyes at Marley, swallowing thickly ─ the first sign she was holding back tears.
Furiously, she stabbed her finger through the air, "Why do you find it so hard to believe in me?"
Marley's jaw slackened.
"I can fight. I can be a fighter." Sage's fists flashed by one another quickly. "But everyone thinks I can't. Everyone is afraid of what might happen if I try."
"Everyone is afraid because you're a kid. Kids shouldn't fight."
"Carl does."
"Carl wants to prove himself to Rick."
Sage spread her arms wide, "I want to prove myself, too. I'm just as capable as Carl."
"I know you are," Marley agreed, nodding. "But that doesn't take away from the fact you're still a kid. Both of you."
"So are you."
"That's different and you know it." Marley snapped.
She looked at the ground. Flashes of her mother's swollen, tear-stained eyes blared through her mind, and Marley recalled the promise she made to Monica Whitman as she lay dying on the family sofa.
Promise me. Promise me, Marley.
The eldest Whitman could hardly bear to think about that right now ─ not after everything. Not so soon after Lori. She didn't need these resurfacing memories, not now. Not now.
She just couldn't.
"We'll discuss this later."
Before Sage could argue with that turn of events, Marley stalked away.
She crouched down beside Glenn and Maggie, ignoring the scolding heat of Sage's stare against the side of her face.
Glenn's injuries were worse than Marley assumed. Bruises lined his stomach, his chest, his arms, like a sprinkling of constellations in the night sky. His eye hadn't stopped swelling since they were rescued five minutes ago, and blood trickled ceaselessly from his busted nose, staining his shirtless torso.
"Shit. What happened to you?" he slurred, his one good eye widening at the sight of the bloody welt on her lip.
"Ignore me. Are you okay?"
Fretfully, she prodded a raised lump of skin protruding from Glenn's scalp as Maggie unravelled a tube of gauze on his other side. Marley hoped the lump wasn't a sign of some significant brain injury ─ that would just be the cherry on top of everything else.
He winced, jerking away from her touch, "I'm fine."
An unfamiliar voice joined the conversation, "You got pretty beat up, man. You don't look fine."
Looking up, Marley saw the boy she punched earlier standing right above them. Theo; that's what Daryl said his name was. He was grimacing at Glenn's wounds, and didn't even try to disguise his obvious discomfort when looking at the Rhee's puffy, black-and-blue eye.
"Thanks for that super helpful input," Marley drawled sarcastically.
Awkwardly, Theo shoved his hands into his jacket pockets, brows furrowed, "I was just saying," he muttered.
"Okay, well, in future, please don't."
"Fine."
"Where's that woman?" Maggie blurted apprehensively, glancing around the room.
Seemingly obvious to that woman's disappearance, Rick whirled on the heel of his boot, searching for her amongst the group, "She was right behind us."
He ducked to the window and peeled back the curtain. The fire-lit streets were swarmed now, men carrying rifles and donning furious expressions. She could be anywhere.
Theo huffed angrily, "She'll be back. This is what she does."
"Want me to go look for her?" Daryl asked.
"No," Rick countered sternly. He pointed at Maggie, Glenn and Marley. "We gotta get them out of here. She's on her own."
Theo chewed anxiously on the inside of his cheek, staring through the grimy window. The firelight illuminated his confliction ─ he was clearly torn between staying put or rushing outside in search of the missing woman. Marley suspected aforementioned woman was his friend.
Beside her, Glenn gritted his teeth as Maggie wrapped some bandages around the middle of his torso, staunching the flow of blood that was oozing from a thick laceration sliced along his chest. Knife-inflicted.
Merle-inflicted.
"Daryl," Glenn called out. The youngest Dixon brother turned to him curiously, "This was Merle. He did this."
"You saw him?" Rick demanded.
Glenn nodded grimly, "Face to face. He threw a walker at me. Held a gun to Marley's head. He was gonna execute us, keep Marley for leverage."
That was even worse than she expected. While she was unconscious after suffering a blow to the face by that horrible, sadistic man, Merle had dragged Maggie and Glenn into a room to face execution, meanwhile discussing their plans to use her as some sort of ransom. Leverage? She was just a kid.
She dreaded to think what would have happened if Rick and the group had hesitated to come and rescue them.
Daryl stepped toward Glenn, "So─so my brother's this "Governor?"
"No," Maggie said without delay. Her lip curled in disgust, "he's somebody else. Your brother's his lieutenant or something."
Governor. Marley pressed her tongue against her cheek. That must have been the man who interrogated her. It had to be.
"Does he know I'm still with you?" Daryl questioned.
"He does now," Glenn admitted, lowering his head to the ground shamefully. "Rick, I'm sorry. We told him where the prison was. We couldn't hold out."
Marley's heart stuttered with fear. She bit her tongue to keep herself composed.
"Don't. No need to apologise," Rick assured, patting Glenn's knee in good nature. He rushed back over to the window, staring into the street. "We have to get back. Can you walk? We got a car a few miles out."
Glenn managed to nod, "I'm good."
"Take this at least," came Theo's voice again. He was holding his blue jacket out for Glenn, looking a little unsure but determined nonetheless. "You might catch a cold."
Was that an attempt at a joke? Marley couldn't tell.
Glenn hesitantly pried the jacket from Theo's fingers, smiling in appreciation. Maggie didn't waste any time in throwing it around Glenn's bare shoulders, shoving his blood-stained arms through the sleeves. She and Sage looped their arms around his back and helped him up from the floor.
Marley shot Theo a look. She gave him a quick nod, "Thanks for that."
He looked entirely different without that bright, yellow-striped jacket on now, she noticed. Underneath it, he was wearing a plain white shirt, which was stained by dirt and grime and blood. It wasn't too cold, but he would definitely feel a chill through the thinning material once they got outside.
Selflessly, though, he thought about Glenn before himself. And they barely knew each other.
Theo merely shrugged, "I couldn't just stand there with two layers on while he had none. That's like laughing in his face without physically doing it."
"Right," she muttered.
A small smile tugged at the corners of her lips ─ he elaborated on things he didn't really have to. It was kind of amusing.
"Hey, if Merle's around, I gotta see him," Daryl blurted, understandably distressed. Like everyone else, he probably thought his jackass of a brother was dead the entire time.
"Not now," Rick refused. "We're in hostile territory."
"He's my brother. I ain't ─"
"Look at what he did," Rick hissed, jerking his head in Marley, Maggie and Glenn's initial direction. "We gotta get out of here now."
There was a beat. Then, Daryl shook his head, insisting, "Maybe I can talk to him. Maybe I can work something out."
"No, no, no. You're not thinking straight." Rick's voice lowered, "No matter what they say, they're hurt. Glenn can barely walk. How are we gonna make it out if we get overrun by walkers, or this Governor catches up to us? I need you."
Daryl stepped back, swaying slightly. He had to make this choice now. Would it be his true family, or blood?
"Are you with me?" Rick urged.
Another pause. Everyone held their breaths in anticipation, expecting the worst.
But Daryl nodded, "Yeah."
Relieved, Rick patted his sidekick on the shoulder, "All right. Let's make a move."
The group slid into formation as if it were second nature.
Marley pressed her back to the wall, and from the corner of her eye, she gave Sage a quick once-over to determine her current state. Her sister was gripping onto Maggie's hand for dear life, their fists scrunched so tightly together that their knuckles had blanched.
Sage's eyes found Marley's. They flashed back to the window quicker than light.
Back to square one. Again.
"This is yours," a voice hissed in Marley's ear, just as Daryl began unloading a few smoke canisters from his backpack.
Theo.
She shifted her gaze to his outstretched hands. He was attempting to give her something.
A baseball bat.
"Holy shit," Marley breathed incredulously. The M painted on the barrel of the bat reminded her of the one she dropped back at the outlet mall when Storm Merle ripped through. And she realised that, in fact, it was the one she left behind. "Where'd you get that?"
She snatched the bat from Theo's hands and twisted it between her palms.
"The same place you dropped it." he stated vaguely.
"Well, that clears things up."
"I'll explain when we get out of here."
"Okay," she whispered.
Her demeanour had changed drastically toward Theo compared to earlier, back in that smoke-filled room. That hadn't been the most pleasant of encounters, to no fault but her own. Guiltily, she glanced at the darkening bruise on his cheek. She got him pretty good ─ her one-split knuckle was evidence to that.
She swallowed thickly, "Sorry about punching you."
As a deep crease formed in the chasm between his brows, it was safe to say Theo looked shocked. He hadn't been expecting an apology at all, never mind this soon.
"I thought you were one of the Governor's guys," Marley explained, sheepishly breaking eye contact.
He grimaced, taking a pointed step back, "Never insult me like that again."
Marley laughed, "Sorry. I won't."
They turned back to the chaos.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye.
Daryl ripped the front door open. He threw two smoke grenades out into the street, which both clattered loudly against the road and rolled in alternating directions. One, toward the on-edge Woodbury soldiers. Two, into the bushes next to their hiding spot.
Within seconds, a thick cloud of grey pepper smoke spiralled up into the air. The smell worked even faster. It itched Marley's lungs, and she refrained from coughing, covering her mouth and nose with the back of her wrist.
Rick counted down from three. A collective intake of breath was released in simultaneous bursts.
"Go!"
The group stumbled out into the cloud of smoke, making a beeline toward the wall, as instructed. Someone from the Woodbury side spotted them, and loud gunshots began to ripple across the foggy street. Daryl and Rick ordered everyone to head toward the parked buses pressed against the front wall ─ some type of reinforcement strategy. Without a gun, there wasn't much else Marley could do but run.
A bullet zipped by her head, close enough she heard it whistling through the wind.
"Get down!" someone yelled.
Marley curved her arms over her head and ducked behind a propped-up satellite frame. Oscar ─ the nicest of the convict bunch ─ crouched beside her, firing into the crowd of Woodbury soldiers. She heard one of the men scream in pain, and Oscar hissed between his teeth, reloading his gun.
He peeked back over the top of the satellite frame, shooting at the enemy again. Soon enough, Oscar's gun clicked to inform him the magazine was empty. He swore beneath his breath.
Miraculously, Rick appeared out of the thin air, swimming through the cloud of smoke, "This way!"
Heart thrumming violent against her ribs, Marley pushed herself up from the ground and sprinted toward the immobile school-bus, Oscar in tow. Maggie and Glenn were already clambering up the bonnet, and Theo was kneeling by the front-wheel, aiming at the opposing side of the conflict.
He drew the string back on his compound bow, squinted his left eye, and loosed an arrow. It soared through the smoke and struck a Woodbury solider in the thigh.
Purposefully, he avoided killing them directly.
Marley ran past Theo and threw herself onto the bonnet of the school bus. Maggie's hand immediately latched around the girl's upper-arm, hauling her onto the roof. A bullet clanged against the metallic wall of the bus, but fortunately, they were covered by Oscar, who raised his gun and squeezed the trigger, downing a man who almost lodged a lucky bullet in Maggie's head. It missed her by inches. She paled considerably.
Then, the worst happened.
Oscar was shot.
He was dead before he hit the ground ─ the bullet had worked its way through his chest, tearing into vital organs. A patch of blood bloomed in the middle of his blue prison jumpsuit.
Gasping, Marley jumped down from the roof of the bus. She kneeled in the damp grass beside Oscar's body, and pressed her fingers to his neck, checking for a pulse. There wasn't one. She had been expecting that, but some part of her hoped there would be a chance.
Tears pricked her eyes.
"Rick!" Maggie bellowed hoarsely, her eyes also welling with tears. She cupped her hands around her mouth, "Hurry!"
Woodbury had warped into a war zone. It was too dangerous to linger.
Theo gazed down at Oscar's body sorrowfully. He didn't know who he was. He didn't know how he wound up incarcerated. Not that it mattered. He fought for them, he killed for them.
Without hesitation, Theo raised his bow and fired an arrow into Oscar's head. Turning was an inevitability after death ─ he was stopping that process from happening. His friends, his accomplices, shouldn't be forced to do something Theo could do without that heart-wrenching, emotional pang of guilt. He wanted to save them that duty.
Maggie nodded at him. He nodded back.
Gunshots continued to blast in every direction. Marley's head thumped, ears ringing. She jumped onto the roof of the bus again, grabbing Maggie's arm for support. Glenn sighed sharply in relief when he saw she had made it to safety.
And then, as commanded, Marley clambered over the wall. So did everyone else.
Well . . . not everybody.
⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
HALLELUJAH.
HALLELUJAH.
they met they met they
met. THEY FINALLY MET.
marley and theo!!!
buckle up for richonne
2.0 folks. and by that I
mean slow-burn, serious
pining, and unmatched
chemistry. this is just
the beginning <3
( also i haven't
thoroughly edited this
so there may be some
mistakes.)