83. trapped
QUINN
AFTER ALL THIS TIME SHE THOUGHT SHE WOULD'VE gotten used to walking beneath the trees, but even now Quinn longed to see the open sky above her head. She clung to every part of the blue she could spot between the leaves of the trees. However, what bothered her most wasn't the fact that she couldn't get used to the endless sea of trees surrounding her, it was the fact that Daryl seemed to notice her discomfort. At times it seemed like reading her emotions came as easy to the man as breathing. And though she knew it was useless, she tried to pretend it was all fine, like the many hours they had spend walking through the forest weren't slowly starting to weigh down on her.
'Somebody came through here a while ago,' Daryl spoke, his voice pulling her out of her thoughts. She narrowed at the ground, trying to make sense of the tracks he had found. It was becoming a little bit easier every time but it would never become a talent of hers.
'If we see them, we hang back, set up the mike, watch, and listen,' Aaron said.
'For how long?' She questioned.
He turned to look at her. 'Until we know, we have to know.'
'You've sent people away?' Daryl asked while crossing a small stream.
'Yeah,' Aaron replied curtly.
'What happened?' Quinn asked.
'It was early on,' he explained, 'it was three people. Two men a woman. Davidson was their leader. Smart as hell, strong. I thought they'd work out. They didn't. I brought them in and I had to see them out. So me, Aiden and Nicholas, we drove them out far. Gave them a day's worth of food and water and left them.'
'They just went?' Daryl asked, his eyes never leaving the ground as he kept on following the tracks across the forest floor.
'We had their guns,' Aaron replied, not sounding proud of it. 'We had all the guns. I can't make that kind of mistake again.'
She nodded slowly at him, understanding where he was coming from. They were responsible for the people that were to enter the community and it would be their responsibility as well if they wouldn't work out. Wasn't that why he had asked her and Daryl to come? Because they knew the difference between a good and a bad person?
Suddenly Daryl stopped, his grip on his bow tightening. A small frown appeared on her face as she took a few steps forwards to be able to look at what had him so alert all of a sudden and when her gaze landed on the sight, she wished she hadn't looked.
On the ground before them lay a few different body parts scattered. The grass surrounding the arms and legs was painted red from the crimson blood. Flies were buzzing around the scene and the smell made her stomach turn in disgust.
'Whoever did this, took what was left with 'em,' Daryl said, his eyes scanning the sight.
Whoever did this was definitely not someone they should bring back to Alexandria with them.
'This just happened,' he added, his eyes going from the ground to their surroundings.
Her hands immediately reached for her daggers but she failed to see anything through the trees and instead followed the hunter closely as he followed some trial invisible to her. Aaron walked closely behind her with his gun in his hands, fear was written all over his face but instead of letting it consume him, it seemed like it only fueled him to move on.
Daryl moved across the small clearing with his crossbow help up high. Aaron and Quinn followed him closely, both holding on to their weapons like they were their lifelines. As they got closer, however, to their destination all three of them slowed their pace, horror written on their faces. Bound to the tree before them was a woman, well she had once been a woman. She was stripped naked, her belly ripped open with her guts spilling out of her. Her blond hair covered her face as her head hung low while the flies buzzed around her. The red blood was still shining brightly in the sun, making Quinn grip her dagger even tighter as she turned her eyes away from the sight, both to check their surroundings and to not have to look at the horrible sight for one second longer.
'She's tied up,' Aaron mumbled, his eyes wide in terror. 'And they fed on her. Tore her apart.'
Quinn coughed, turning away from the body. His commentary didn't do much to get the image out of her head. She could see what happened perfectly fine with her own two eyes, not that she wanted to. Taking a deep breath she turned back forwards, trying her hardest to calm her stomach and keep the little bit of food she'd eaten that morning, inside.
'This just happened?' Aaron questioned, looking at Daryl.
'Yeah,' the redneck mumbled, his eyes going to Quinn. They held a silent question which she answered with a simple nod. She wasn't going to throw up, no matter how much her body seemed to want to. Then he turned his gaze back forwards and reached out to the corpse. He pulled the woman her head back to reveal a "w" carved into her forehead, much like the one they had seen on a walker not two days ago. And as if the corpse could smell them, she suddenly came alive, snarling at the man holding back her hair. Her once blue eyes had lost all their life, now nothing but two glassy, empty orbs inside her skull. Daryl reached for his knife and plunged into through her forehead, her body becoming still immediately.
She took in the sight of the corpse one last time, feeling how hatred against the people who had done such a cruel thing boil inside her stomach. It felt as though them being out here had suddenly become about a whole other thing than finding people. They had to make sure that the monsters who did this would never step a foot inside the walls. Maybe instead of bringing people in, they had to keep people out. And wasn't that exactly what she told Aaron from the very beginning? Anyone still left alive in this world now, was a threat and so far he wasn't convincing her otherwise.
She turned on her heels, heading back into the forest without a clear destination in her mind. All she knew was that she had to get away from the deformed corpse. But the image was burned in her mind and everytime she blinked the face of the walker changed. Milo, Michonne, Beth, Rick, Carl, Judith...
No.
She'd make sure they would be safe. These monsters wouldn't set foot inside their walls as long as she still had air in her lungs. She had to find them and make sure that...A hand landed on her shoulder, shaking her out of her thoughts. She blinked and turned around, staring right into a pair of worried blue eyes. 'Stop it,' he mumbled.
Taking a deep breath she nodded, but wasn't able to shake the boiling hatred coursing through her veins. His words were no longer enough to comfort her. If this was what awaited them outside the walls, maybe they should never have left. When they'd get back, she would tell Deanna that the best thing she could do was keep the gate firmly closed.
Daryl stared at her with those knowing eyes, as though he could look into her very soul and she knew it was impossible to try and hide her thoughts from him.
'Let's just go,' she mumbled softly, then turned away from him and continued her path through the forest. She could hear the footsteps of the two men following her but their company didn't ease her mind. Her family was roaming through her head, all walking corpses, beyond saving. She couldn't let it happen, she wouldn't.
Time slipped through her hands as they walked through the forest. At some point Daryl had taken the lead again, following some trail invisible to her that might lead them to the people responsible for the horrific scene behind them. At least, that was what she hoped. Her hands were itching for any sign of them, to know what they were dealing with before getting rid of it.
It wasn't until Daryl held up his hand as a sign for them to stop that she was finally able to pull herself out of her raging thoughts. Her heart raced in her chest as she watched him take the binoculars out of Aaron his backpack and stare at something in the distance. She walked up to him and stood by his side to try and see what he spotted. She didn't need binoculars to see the red dot walking through the trees. It looked like a raincoat but she couldn't be sure.
She frowned as the red dot knelt down to pick up something from the ground before standing up again and rubbing whatever it was he'd taken, all over his face.
'What's he doing?' Aaron questioned.
'Wild leeks,' Daryl replied, 'son of bitch knows 'bout how to keep mosquitos off of him.' He lowered the binoculars and handed them back to Aaron. 'C'mon,' he said, starting to move forwards.
Quickly Aaron gathered his things and followed the redneck through the woods, Quinn right behind him. She tried her hardest to put aside the thought that this man might've been responsible for the scene they just saw. She really tried to believe that perhaps he was one of those good guys Aaron was talking about but her wild beating heart and sweaty hands revealed the word that kept echoing deep within her mind. Danger, danger, danger...
Still she followed Daryl and Aaron through the woods, keeping her thoughts to herself. It was just one man, they could handle one man but even that thought did not calm her racing thoughts. They walked until the sun was high in the sky, announcing that the day was almost over. They had not seen the man again since he disappeared between the trees instead they followed what looked like some sort of tracks. The stranger seemed to know what he was doing though because the tracks disappeared after a while and so did their chance at either killing a threat or saving a life. At some point they'd stumbled upon a road with a storage building at the other side of it and after checking every inch of their surroundings, they'd come to a stop at the gate of the storage building.
'We checked the forest,' Aaron said, looking at the few lonely walkers that stumbled around inside the courtyard of the building before them. 'We checked the roads. We can't find him. All right, sometimes they slip away, it happens. But you don't come across something like this every day.' He nodded at the building before them. It seemed pretty untouched, meaning the food stored inside could still be there. He was right, this wasn't something you saw often nowadays.
'If we do this now,' Daryl started, 'it means we're givin' up.'
'Home is fifty miles back,' Aaron weighed in, 'it's time to go. You saw it, there's bad people out here.'
'That's why we ought to keep lookin' for the good ones,' Daryl said, his words pulling at her nervous heart. He was right, of course he was but she was having trouble believing there were any good ones left still standing.
'We need more people,' Aaron agreed, 'and we'll find them. But when we do, we'll need to feed them.'
The hunter gave a small nod and then turned his gaze to Quinn, silently waiting for her to speak up. She sighed deeply, staring at the building ahead of them. 'After what we just saw,' she mumbled, 'whose to say there are any good people left to find?' Her hand tightened its grip on her dagger as the hatred once again boiled inside her.
'All right,' Daryl said, then reached for his knife and hit it against the gate a few times, drawing the attention of the few walkers stumbling around.
Quinn planted her feet down firmly as the corpses threw themselves at the gate, snarling loudly at the sight of a meal. She raised her dagger and pushed the weapon through the skull of the first walker. One by one they took all of them down until a small pile had formed at their feet and all the corpses were down. They entered the courtyard and headed towards the trucks that stood parked and ready to go. If they would have any luck, those trucks would be filled with food. They walked around the trucks, searching for a way to open them when Aaron let out a small: 'Woah.'
She turned on her heels to see what he was looking at. He chuckled and got to his knees as he reached for his knife. Frowning she walked closer and saw he was looking at a license plate. 'Wasn't sure I'd ever see one of these,' he grinned, leaning closer to detach it.
Daryl gave her a side-eye glare and she simply shrugged, then turned around to inspect the other trucks. They were parked in a perfect row and it seemed as though they hadn't been opened before. And suddenly an uncomfortable feeling came crawling into her stomach. It was very unlikely that in this area, so close to Washington, these trucks had never been discovered before.
'Hey, listen,' Aaron spoke up, pulling her out of her thoughts, 'I don't like giving up either but the guy is in a red poncho. You can see him from a mile away. You know we got a lot of miles here and no sign of him.' Finally he got the plate loose and while getting back on his feet he continued: 'But if we come away with a trailer full of cans, I'd say that's a good trip.'
Daryl simply nodded and knelt down to open one of the truck doors. As soon as it opened though, chaos rained down upon them. The smell hit her first, the all consuming smell of rotting corpses. Then came the sound of the familiar snarls and groans and before her brain had even began to truly process what was happening, Daryl was pulling at her arm and suddenly the three of them were running.
The trucks were completely filled with walkers and when they had opened one, the other three had opened as well. An entire herd of walking corpses had been released and was following them with hungry snarls and snapping teeth.
They ran back towards the courtyard, desperatly searching for a way out but the back of two trucks had been opened as well, setting even more walkers after them. The three of them pulled their weapons out, attacking the corpses before the walkers could take a bite out of their flesh. But for every walker she cut down, another reappeared.
'Over here!' Aaron called out, running to the small alley in between two trucks. But their escape was cut off by more walkers.
'Come on!' Daryl shouted and let himself fall to the ground, rolling underneath one of the trucks.
Aaron and Quinn followed suit but as soon as they were beneath the wagon, she realised this only trapped them even more. From every side walkers came crawling toward them, snapping their teeth and clawing at their next meal. Quinn kicked one in the head, ignoring the blood that now covered her shoe. 'Go!' She shouted when another corpse immediately took its place.
They managed to crawl out on the other side and she noticed Daryl picking up an iron chain from the ground and when they stood on their feet again, he swung it like a whip through three walker heads, like it was the easiest thing in the world.
She inhaled sharply and noticed Aaron doing the same next to her. She didn't dare look at the man, afraid her cheeks would turn bright red. During the time she'd known Daryl she'd seen him do many moves that looked like they came straight out of a movie, but this might've been at the very top of that list and it was in times, when the rough redneck appeared, that she could no longer deny that he was hot...
A snarl on her right snapped her out of her daydream. She spun, her dagger raised and pushed it straight through the eye of an approaching walker. Next to her Aaron had pulled out his machete and was cutting down walkers left and right as they attempted to cut their way through the herd to find some sort of safe place.
'Come on!' Daryl shouted once again and she followed his voice through the tight crowd of corpses closing in on her. A scream left her lips when one managed to grab her ponytail and pulled her back. She reached back and slammed her dagger through its head but there was no time to pull it out and she was forced to leave it behind as she struggled to move forward. Through the wood of rotting corpses she spotted a black car and saw how Daryl pulled the door wide open, all but shoving Aaron inside. She reached him and as soon as she did the raging storm in his blue eyes seemed to calm a little bit. They climbed in the front seats together and slammed the doors closed.
The walkers threw themselves at the windows, banging, snarling and growling, like hungry dogs desperate to get to their prey. She let her head fall back against the chair and closed her eyes for a second, exhaling shakily. 'Shit,' she muttered, guilt washing over her for not listening to her gut. A feeling within her had screamed that something was wrong with these trucks but she hadn't listened and now they were trapped.
'Glass will hold for a while, right?' Aaron questioned from the back of the car.
'Maybe,' Daryl breathed, then started looking around, 'maybe we make it so they can't see us. In a couple hours somethin' 'll come by, they'll follow it out. There's gotta be somethin' here we can use to block the view.'
Quinn looked around, but didn't see anything. 'Maybe we can cut up the seats,' she offered but was interrupted by the rustling sound of paper. She turned in her seat and watched as Aaron picked up a paper from the ground, his eyes growing wide as he read it. Then he held it up for the two of them to read.
"Trap...
Bad people coming.
DON'T STAY."
'Great,' she mumbled, her eyes glued to the walkers that had thrown themselves on the front window of the car and were banging on the glass. And then a horrible thought struck her. The people that sat this trap were probably the same people who carved those w 's into their victim's foreheads. And if they were capable of setting up something this big, their group must be strong and numbered. The mere thought made her wanna storm out of the car, fight her way through the walkers and run back home to make sure everyone was alright.
Suddenly Daryl let out a dry chuckle, making her frown. 'What?' She asked him.
'I came out here to not feel all closed up back there,' he muttered, then shook his head. 'Even now, still feels more like me than back in them houses.' He turned his eyes toward hers. 'That's pretty messed up, huh?'
She shrugged. 'Yeah,' she replied honestly but then smiled softly, 'but you're allowed to be a little messed up after everything.' And for a second she swore she saw a smile on his face but it was gone as soon as it came.
'You were trying,' Aaron weighed in, 'you both were.'
'I had to,' Daryl replied curtly.
'No, you didn't,' Aaron said, his voice soft and filled with understanding and she supposed if anyone in Alexandria understood, it was him. 'Listen, when I saw you with your group out there on the road, then you went off on your own to find water, storm hit and you led your people to safety, that was it. I knew I had to bring you people back.' He took a deep breath. 'You were right, we should've kept looking for the guy in the poncho. I shouldn't have given up, you didn't.'
'Well, you weren't the only one,' she sighed, resting her feet on the dashboard before her. 'I was convinced there weren't any good people out there to find.'
'Was?' Aaron questioned, maybe a little too hopeful.
For a second she let the thought roll around in her mind but the snarls from outside answered that question pretty quick. 'Am,' she responded, not daring to look at either men, afraid for the disappointment in their eyes. It just wasn't in her nature to believe in the goodness of people, that was her brother's talent.
Next to her Daryl reached in his pocket and pulled out a cigarette and a lighter. How he always managed to carry one of those with him was a damn mystery to her but part of her wished he'd quit it. Not because it was bad for his health but because she loved the smell way too much and was tempted to start again everytime he put one on. And maybe a little bit because the smell of cigarettes would always remind her of him, even when he wasn't the one smoking.
'I'll go,' he suddenly said, making her blink to shake her thoughts away. For a second she believed she hadn't heard him right but when she saw the look on his face she knew that wasn't the case. 'I'll lead 'em out, you two make a break for the fence.'
'Hell no,' she replied immediately, shifting in her feet to face him
'It wasn't a question,' he told her, 'and this ain't your decision.'
She scoffed and shook her head, leaning back in her chair. 'Alright then,' she said, crossing her arms over her chest, 'I'm going out there with you.'
'Like hell ya are,' he shot back at her.
Quinn looked him straight in the eye as she replied. 'That ain't your decision.'
Now it was his turn to shake his head and scoff. 'Damn ya, woman,' he sighed but made no more attempts to argue.
'No,' Aaron spoke from behind them, making the two of them turn around and look at him at the same time. 'You two don't draw them away. We fight. We go for the fence. We do it together, all right? Whether we make it or not, we do it together. We have to.'
Her eyes went to Daryl, only to find he was already looking at her and just like she knew what his decision was back in the garage when Aaron first offered them this job, she knew now that he agreed with this crazy plan. And she smiled and nodded. 'Okay,' she said, turning back to look at the man in the backseat. 'Let's do it.'
Daryl put out his smoke and they reached for their weapons. 'Ready?' He questioned, looking over his shoulders at the two of them.
'Yeah,' she replied with a small sigh. She held her dagger tightly in her hand, her knuckles turning white from the firm grip while she reached out with her other hand to open the door.
'We'll go on three,' the redneck said, positioning his body as well as he could within the small car to make a jump out of the door.
'Okay,' Aaron spoke nervously from behind them.
'One, two...'
A crushing sound came from her left and she turned to look at the window to see a stick pushed through the eye of one of the walkers, killing it instantly. The door was opened and a hand pulled her out. She didn't protest like she normally would've and followed the stranger into the chaos. She couldn't hear or see if Daryl and Aaron were behind her, she didn't even see the face of the stranger that was helping them escape, she had only eyes for the countless walkers that surrounded her. With a dagger in each hand she killed the ones closest to her while trying to keep away from the walkers their teeth.
The stranger came back into her view, he was clearing a path towards the fence, using some sort of stick to keep the walkers away. He swung it like a sword, each blow mowing down a corpse. No matter who he was, she no choice but to follow him. The fighting noises from behind her somewhat comforted her and with the knowledge that her friends were right behind her, she ran towards the gate.
Once she was out of the courtyard she turned around, watching Aaron and Daryl run towards her. When they were in the clear, she grabbed the fence and closed it, just in time before the walkers threw themselves against it, their snarls and groans hurting her ears.
She took a few steps backwards, breathing heavily from the amount of adrenaline that was rushing through her veins.
'That was...oh,' Aaron spoke through heavy breaths. 'Thank you.'
Only then did she remember the stranger that rescued them and she turned around to look at him. His skin was brown, just like his eyes. He wasn't very large but looked strong and capable and...her breath hitched in her throat as recognition washed over her like a tidal wave.
'Um, I'm Aaron,' the man introduced himself and then pointed at the two of them, 'that's Daryl and that's-' 'Quinn,' the man interrupted him, a small smile formed on his face.
Silence fell between the four of them and Aaron looked completely stunned, while Daryl kept looking between the two like he was trying to figure out a complicated puzzle.
A chuckle of relief and pure wonder left her lips. 'Morgan,' she greeted him, looking him up and down and wondering why she hadn't recognised him sooner. It was only when she looked him in the eye that she realised why. He no longer looked like a mad man. He no longer seemed like the caged animal she'd met back in King County with Rick. He didn't look like the wounded friend they left behind. He seemed...normal.
Morgan seemed to follow her thought process and chuckled lightly. 'As you can see, quite a lot has changed,' he spoke, still smiling brightly at her.
'What...' she stammered, then shook her head to get her thoughts straight. 'What are you doing here?'
He reached inside his pocket and took out what looked like a map. 'I found this,' he said and handed it to her.
She took it, folding the paper open to reveal a map covered in blood stains but beneath that she could clearly read words that seemed to have scribbled on it in haste. Daryl came standing next to her, looking over her shoulder as they both read the words.
"Sorry I was an asshole. Come to Washington. The new world's gonna need Rick Grimes."
Looking up from the map she turned her eyes to Daryl. 'Abraham wrote this, right?' She questioned, remembering Milo telling her something about the soldier leaving a map behind for the group to find them once they left for Eugene's nonexistent cure.
Daryl nodded curtly.
She turned her gaze back to Morgan. 'Looks like your search is over,' she said, smiling brightly.
Her smile was reflected on his face and he nodded but then frowned slightly and pointed at her stomach. 'I'm sorry,' he mumbled, 'about-' 'Don't,' she cut him off, remembering how he'd almost pushed his knife into her stomach but also remembering the crazed look in his eyes. 'You're better now,' she said, emphasising every word.
'We should go,' Aaron said, throwing a worried look over his shoulder at the walkers still pushing against the fence. No one had to be told twice and so the four of them headed back towards where they had parked the car and bike.
As they crossed the street Quinn walked up to Aaron, smiling at him. 'Was,' she spoke firmly.
A smile appeared on his face and his eyes sparked brightly. 'I told you there was some good left in the world.'
'Yes,' Quinn said, unable to stop smiling, 'yes you did.'
A U T H O R 'S N O T E
Omg guys I'm so sorry it took this long to get this update out. It's just a very important chapter and I wanted to do it justice and then I got sick and it took even longer. Anyway, it's here now and I'm very proud of it. So, please share your thoughts with me in the comments!
The next chapter will be the last chapter of season 5! I honestly can't believe how far I've come! And you know I just realised that we're nearing chapter 100 and Quinn & Daryl still aren't together. I know I warned you all in the beginning that it was going to take long but even I am getting impatient now. All I can say is this: Don't worry, it's not going to take much longer anymore. I'd love to hear your guesses about when it's going to happen :)
I also wanted to quickly say this for those who don't follow my instagram: I have changed my update scedule. From now on this story will only be updated on wednesday. I'm sorry but it's necessary. School is taking up a lot of my time and I have a lot of other fanfics to work on, so one update each week on wednesday!
See you all next week! :)
xXx
UYM