Too Far Gone // D. Dixon

chapter thirty-one

TRIGGER WARNING

Graphic depictions of violence, sexual assault and strong language.

Reader discretion is heavily advised.

When Maren woke up, she found herself in the woods. 

Looking around, her eyes adjusted to the morning light. But she couldn't move her hands. Looking down, she saw they had been bound with rope. She felt her heart pound within her chest, a wave of panic washing over her.

Here she was again, she panicked, in the very same situation she'd been in so many times before.

"Please..." Maren cried, her body tense from being so terrified, "You don't have to do this. You can...you can just let me go-"

Joe only laughed at that, looking at her more closely now, "I'm not gonna do that, sweetheart." He looked in her eyes as he aggressively tightened the ropes around her wrists. She squirmed around, making it as hard as possible for him to do so.

Angrily, Joe slapped her hard across the face. Her cheek burned upon impact, the sound bouncing off the walls of the warehouse. God, she thought, I might actually die here. She shivered at the thought, starting to scream louder. Maybe somebody would hear her, or maybe the walkers would come and kill them all.

"Lou!" Joe yelled to one of his other men, "C'mere and hold this bitch down. She screams again like that, you know what to do."  She knew he was pissed now, she shook as she watched them rid her of her clothes.

No, she thought, this is not real. This is not happening.

The men quickly grabbed her arms, scooting her down and closer to their bodies. Maren could feel their hands tracing all parts of her body, feeling the fear rise in her throat.

"Get up," A male voice spoke through her thoughts, noticeably not Daryl's, "Hey, get up!" 

His voice was not familiar. Upon further inspection, it was just a man and the two women she'd seen earlier. She noticed half of his face seemed to have been burnt, she curiously wondered what had happened to him. As she glanced to her left, there Daryl was, in the same spot she was. She let out a small sigh of relief. At least they were together.

With the sudden sound of a gun click, Maren grew tense. Fuck.

"We're moving. Here's the deal..." The man spoke, gun to Daryl's head, "You don't say shit and I don't kill you."

Maren stilled, trying to move in front to block Daryl, "Get that fucking gun out of our faces." The man looked at her, but didn't change his aim.

Daryl didn't move, eyeing Maren closely as he spoke, "We ain't who you think." His face told her that he wanted her to calm down, let him handle this. She sighed, but followed his lead.

That had made him mad, "Say something else. Go ahead-"

Maren interjected, trying to take the heat off Daryl, "You should be happy we didn't shoot your dumbass, you know we fucking could have."

"But you didn't..." the man looked at her, then speaking to the both of them, "Follow them."

With a gun to their heads, Daryl and Maren had no choice but to listen. As much as it pissed them off to be stuck with this trio, at least they were together. That had to count for something.

"Here, drink the rest," One of the women, Sherry, handed her sister the bottle of water. But she shook her head.

"We should save it." She spoke.

Sherry continued, "We'll find some more. Drink. You're supposed to stay hydrated. It all works together."

Finally convinced, the woman gives in, "Yeah, it does."

After a moment, Sherry stops. Looking back at Daryl and Maren, "Have it." But neither Maren or Daryl move. This only seemed to anger them more.

The man stepped up, "We don't need you two falling down. Drink..." and so they each took a swig, "They find us, maybe we give you to them, they let us call it even. You see, we're reasonable people. Everybody's got their code...You feel you gotta kneel, that's fair enough. We don't."

"Sure as shit don't sound like reasonable people to me." Maren spat, giving all three of them a look. Maren wouldn't hide her frustration, she was far too hard-wired to be stubborn to do that. Maybe they'd finally get sick of them and let them go. Maybe.

"Let's go."

"I can't believe we're back..." The woman says, her voice quiet. They all looked around, the forest a deep shade of black, the woods and grass that were once green now stood covered in soot. What the hell happened here?

Sherry sighed, "It's not home anymore, Tina, but it's better than where we were."

"This is a pit stop. We pick up Patty, nothing more than that." The man stated, desperate to keep moving. Why, Maren didn't know. But she figured this group may have been running from something, probably someone.

"How'd you do it?" Tina asked him.

He spoke again, "You saw where we left the truck? We opened the valve and drove all the way in from Farmview Road. Ran from the tree line till we got to the pavement. Lit up a matchbook from the Sweetwater and dropped it in on the trail. Then we just ran for the car. Got in and the dead ones were there. They were beating on the hood, and then...and then boom! Knocked 'em on their asses and I took an axe to each one." 

Sherry continued for him, "Then we just watched it go up. No more moans, no more of that wailing. It was just the fire, just burning them all away."

Daryl's voice came in, "You did all this?"

Sherry nodded, "It was right at the start. Everything stopped...the TV, the radio. We were here. The forest was full of them. And the other ones in town, they were drawn to it. They just walked
right into the flames. We got most of them. Thought we ended it for us, and she was in DC. We thought everyone was fighting them wherever they were..."

The man continued this time, "Yeah, we thought that was what everybody was doing. Fighting it. That we'd all win together. We were stupid-"

Daryl interrupted him there, "Y'all don't think you're being stupid right now?" Maren stopped, looking at Daryl as he stood firm. Normally, she would have laughed at that. But now? Well, now wasn't the best time.

The man stalked towards him aggressively, "Are you saying I should kill you? I mean it, are you gonna try and pull something on us? Are we just being thick here by not removing all doubt Right now, by me not pulling this trigger, is that a mistake?"

He paused.

"I'm serious. I really wanna know. You made a choice to kill for someone else, to have them own you for a roof over your head and three squares, so maybe I'm not considering all aspects here..." He urged, the gun pointed at Daryl again, "You tell me, am I being stupid?"

"No," Daryl spoke, this time more clear than before, "Look, we got somewhere to be. We can make a deal. I can help you out-"

At that, he panicked, "You're one of them. You're hurt and you'd say anything. We should've never trusted you people to begin with. Go on. Keep moving."

- TOO FAR GONE -

They'd kept walking. These people were headed somewhere. Daryl and Maren didn't know where that would be, but they knew there was probably more. There was always more.

They paused when they saw a fence, a small area filled with walkers, "Son of a bitch. Patty..."

Sherry looked closer, trying to see if there had been any survivors, "She could be..."

"No, she's gone..." The man knew there was no chance. There were too many walkers. The likelihood of someone surviving a horde that big was slim to none. 

Sherry fought that, "Then we make another plan."

"Yeah, we get out of here, that's the plan." He spat back, not seeing another way.

"Then that's the plan."

Tina finally spoke up, "You guys didn't have to do this for me."

Sherry shook her head, "It was the right thing, for all of us-"

"This was the right thing? Even if just you guys went back now, if you just told them
that it was me..." Tina was suddenly growing breathless, and Maren sent a knowing look to Daryl. Maybe they had a chance if they could outrun these people. Chances are they wouldn't be able to catch up to them, not with one of theirs down.

Sherry pushed again, "No, we'll find a way..." 

"Just think about it."

"No."

"Look, maybe we don't get as far, but we'll get...hey!" The man panicked as the woman fainted. With one glance, Daryl grabbed his bag and then they ran. With gunshots being fired in their direction, they sped up their pace.

"Hey, stop! No!" Sherry yelled in the distance, "Don't! We need that, please!"

Maren and Daryl sprinted, running as fast as their feet would take them. With one of them down, they stood a real chance at getting away. And this could be their one and only shot at that.

They had to make it back home. They absolutely had to.