Never Alone (All of Us Sequel)

Chapter 8

It had been one week since we were taken, or at least I thought it had been one week. The days have been a blur, each one the same. The same exhausting work in the fields, the same dictatorship by Trish. On the bright side, at least I hadn't seen Raegan again or been punished by Trish, unless you counted her giving me the hardest labor intensive jobs or slapping me across the face when I didn't "obey" her.

Jack was still following me around like a bodyguard, creeping me out with the way he watched my every move with this look on his face as if he was waiting for me to step out of line so he could punish me...

As Kathy and I got closer, she started to let classified information slip in the evenings when we would talk, information she found out through her job where she worked closely with a lot of Raegan's higher up workers. Whenever she did that, she would slap her hand over her mouth and swear me to secrecy, although I would never say a word. I was starting to trust her more too, but I still wouldn't tell her about Daryl or Alexandria.

One night, she started talking in depth about all the military equipment Raegan and his group had, like trucks, machines, weapons, and technology, before slapping her hand over her mouth. "Don't repeat that," she said and then turned the light out in our room.

"Of course," I said and then turned over in my bed.

Every night, I mapped the building out in my head, adding any new information I had acquired that day, and tried to think of a way to get us out of here. I still didn't know where exactly they were keeping Daryl, and I still didn't understand how no one could escape. There were so many people here, how could they keep track of them all?

From what Kathy had told me, they obviously had weapons, but maybe there was something else, something that I was missing.

I started to worry about my plan. If we got out of here, we'd go home to Alexandria, of course. But this group, these people were better than I first thought. If we got back to Alexandria, I had a creeping feeling that they would find us. That means we'd be bringing back a war to Alexandria. With all the weapons and machinery that Kathy said they had, it would be a war we could not win. Kathy had alluded to multiple groups that they had taken out already, each one making them stronger with supplies.

I didn't want that to happen, I didn't want to bring a war to Alexandria, and I knew Daryl didn't want that either. So if we couldn't go back to our home, our family, what did that leave us?

I decided right there that if we got out of here, if Daryl and I escaped, we wouldn't go back to Alexandria, not ever. I knew that once I explained it to Daryl, he would agree. I took in a shaky breath as it fully sank in that I would never see my family again. But it was a sacrifice I had to make.

Daryl's POV

I opened my eyes from the short nap I had, but it was pitch black. They kept me in a closet with no windows, so I never knew if it was night or day. The whole situation was remindin me more and more of Negan and when he had me captured and locked up too.

When I wasn't locked up in this shitty closet, they dragged me out and tied me to a chair, beatin' the crap out of me.

At first, they wanted to know if I had a group. I told 'em that I didn't have a group, but as they kept beatin' me, I stopped talkin and kept my mouth shut, not wantin to give 'em the satisfaction of getting a word outta me. It hurt, but at least I got to see the frustrated look on their faces.

Maybe I would have broken if I hadn't been used to this all my life. They say practice makes perfect. Usually, they mean with school and shit, but for me, this is what I been practicin for, and it was paying off. They weren't gettin nothin from me.