Out of the Woods (The Walking Dead)
PART 3
Chapter 1
No Sanctuary:
Suzy could remember the time her father died clear as day. She had never experienced loss before. She remembered how it felt. The dread, the hopelessness, the uncertainty and fragility of life. She had never felt so alone. Her best friend, her second sister, made all the difference in the world. Lucy taught her all about grounding; how to breathe, how to remind herself of where she was and hold her down in reality. Whenever she felt herself drifting away to be swallowed by her own panic, her second sister was there to bring her back. How did it all go again? She had to remind herself where she was...Live in the current moment...Where was she now? Who was she?
My name is Susan. I'm from New York. The world has ended, making me end up alone. I'm in Georgia after losing my family to look for something more. And now I'm in a train car, sitting on the hot metal floor. I'm not alone anymore. I've been captured with my friends. And now Daryl is here, too. We've been brought here to meet our end...
There was no time for words. No time for a hello and nice to see you. There was no time for anything. The beads of sweat dripping from her brow dripped onto the train car floor as she tried prying off a piece of wood from the frame. It was sharp enough. She looked over at Daryl standing watch at the door, peeking through the small crack of light to see if anyone was coming. She couldn't read his expression when she approached and said his name. What did he feel? Joy? Anger? Fear? There was no time for a loving reunion. There were more important things to do. They had to focus on fighting their way out. They were going to make it. She would just have to wait until this was all over to finally get the answers she'd been craving since she left the prison.
"All right," Daryl called out, "Got four of them pricks comin' our way."
Daryl was right. They could hear the voices outside. There was only one reason these assholes would be coming to open the door. They were here to round them up to be taken to the butcher house. They could hear other innocent voices calling for help, probably a group of others from another train car. Suzy remembered the horrors she saw when she came across the butchers. A naked body getting sawed with other pieces of meat and parts hanging in the back like slaughtered pigs. It was sick. They couldn't allow one of them to meet the same fate.
"Y'all know what to do," Rick said. Everyone stood up and got on their guard to prepare to fight, "Go for their eyes first. Then their throats."
"You ready?" Abraham looked down at Suzy holding her broken piece of wood up to her ear. She didn't look back but nodded. She had to keep her eye on the door.
"Good," Abraham said, doing the same.
"Put your backs to the walls on either side of the car!" A voice called from outside, "Now!"
Just then, a beam of light came from above. Everyone looked up at the bright sunlight, seeing the roof of the car had been opened instead of the main door. A can dropped in the middle of them, clanking against the metal floor a couple of times once it came down. There was a moment of silence before Abraham could process what it was.
"Move!" He shouted.
Everyone turned in opposite directions all at once. Abraham quickly put his hand on Suzy's back to rush her back with him. It was for nothing though. Once the gas went off, everyone was in disarray. They were coughing, eyes tearing from the gas. They were dizzy and couldn't see a thing now from the cloud of fog the tear gas formed around them. Suzy reached out her hand and looked around as best she could. She couldn't find Abraham anywhere now.
"Son of a bitch!" She heard one of the Terminus men shout through his gas mask. She could vaguely make out Rick's coat and him being shoved to the ground.
"R-Rosita!" Suzy shouted then broke out into a serious cough. Her eyes were tearing and burning so badly she couldn't see anything. When she tried calling out for Abraham or Eugene, she felt someone grab her by the arm and hoist her up. For a second, she was relieved, thinking it was Abraham. It wasn't until she was getting shoved out of the train car along with Rick that she realized it wasn't Abraham at all. The fall to the ground hurt something fierce. She landed on both her hands and knees, scraping them badly. She got kicked on her back so she was lying face down.
"No!" She heard someone shout. It sounded so far away like an echo. As the gas began to clear, she saw Daryl tackle the man who was coming for her to gag her and tie her up. She watched as Daryl beat the shit out of this guy who stood no chance. It was only because the other guys who already tied up Rick, Glenn, and Bob were able to come over and pull him off.
"Go!" Daryl shouted at her as she got to her feet, "Go!"
Suzy stumbled back to the train car and all but crawled up the stairs. She screeched Daryl's name as she saw him get taken away with the others, gagged and hands bound behind their backs with zip ties. And just like that, the door was slammed shut in front of her again, locking her and the rest back inside.
Everyone who was left panted for air to not only recover from the gas but also to relieve all the tension. There was so much to process in such a short amount of time. Suzy didn't move from the door. She wanted to-needed to-break out of here and do something. It was such a helpless feeling. She couldn't believe after all this time apart, Daryl gave himself up so quickly-so easily to save her life. Was this a sick joke being played on her by the universe?
"You need to calm down there, little one," Abraham's voice brought her back from a trance she didn't even know she was in. She found her scraped hands on the door. She had been pulling, punching, anything to desperately try to get it back open and smearing blood in the process. She turned around to see everyone staring at her. Abraham, Eugene, Maggie, Carl, Michonne, Sasha, Tara, Rosita. Suzy decided Abraham was right and moved away from the door so she could keep her head clear. She used her shirt to try wiping the blood despite how much it burned.
"You could've run," Rosita said as she approached from behind, "You should've. It was stupid not to."
"No," Suzy replied, "It would've been stupid trying to run out of here by myself. You can't expect me to leave all of you behind."
"It doesn't matter. What's done is done," Abraham said with that authoritative voice, "Best we can do right now is keep doin' what we're doin'. Keep our mouths shut and try not to swallow all the shit that's hittin' the fan. Even if the others don't make it."
"They will," Michonne said firmly.
"I'm just sayin'-" Abraham was interrupted so quickly he didn't know what happened. Out of nowhere, the entire train car was shaking from a sudden explosion from the outside. He rushed up to the door to try to see if he could see anything, but there wasn't a good view. He couldn't see where the explosion came from.
When Suzy went to also have a look, they could both see the walkers beginning to flood inside...
Continue to Part 3...
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Out of the Woods (The Walking Dead) PART 2
Terror**A continuation of the Out of the Woods TWD series** After losing Merle at the hands of the Governor, Susan Davis leaves the prison to process her grief. Only the more she is alone, the more she comes to realize how difficult it is to survive. No s...
