My Secrets In The Apocalypse

Chapter 9

Daryl and Riley had finally made it to the tree line and she was completely exhausted. A large field still lay between them and the white farm house in the distance, much to Riley's dismay.
"I thought you said it wasn't far," Riley huffed.
"You'll be ok. Ya made it this far," he said lightly. She nodded once as they continued on.

They were about halfway through the field when Riley noticed some of the others running up to meet them in the field. Rick, Shane, Glenn, and T-dog came to a halt in front of them, Lori, Andrea, and Dale stood in the distance watching them.
"Riley!" Rick said surprised.
"What the hell happened out there?" Shane demanded.
"We looked everywhere for you," Rick said. "Why isn't Sophia with you?"
"I know. It's kinda complicated," Riley sighed. She really wasn't in the mood for a million questions at the moment.
"Are you ok?" Glenn asked.
"I've been better," Riley answered him with a raised eyebrow.
"We should get you inside." Rick quickly moved to her other side. "We'll have Herschel take a look at you, then we can talk."
"Herschel?" she asked as Rick and Daryl helped get her to the house, the others trailing behind.
"He's a doctor," Rick answered. "This is his farm."

"Is that Riley?" Andrea called out as they approached them.
"Yea, Daryl found her!" Rick answered as they made their way past them.
"What in the world happened out there?" Dale asked in surprise.
"We need to let Herschel take a look at her first," Rick cut off the questions as they approached the house where a group of unfamiliar people were watching them from the porch.
"Take her to the guest room down the hall," said the older man who Riley assumed was Herschel.

Daryl and Rick helped Riley into the house and brought her to the guest room. They let go of her so she could sit on the bed, Daryl moved to one side of the room and leaned against the wall and Rick sat in a chair in the corner of the room.
Herschel came in a minute later with his medical kit to check her over. She pulled her hair back carefully so he could look at the cut on the side of her head first.
"Any worse and it would have needed stitches," he told her dabbing it with alcohol to clean it. She winced a little as the alcohol stung her cut.
"Lucky me," she muttered. Herschel ignored her comment instead turned to the two men who were watching them carefully from the other side of the room.
"I'm gonna need y'all to step out for a minute," he told them politely but firmly. "I need to have a look at her leg."
The men obediently left the room so Herschel could continue his check up.
"I'll need you to take your pants off so I can see your leg." He handed her a bath towel "You can use this to cover yourself," he said before leaving the room to give her some privacy. She quickly pulled her pants off, wrapped the towel around herself, and sat back on the bed.

"Ok, I'm ready," she called out so he could come back in. He stepped inside shutting the door behind him and got right to work cleaning the wound on her leg.
"This one is going to need a few stitches," he said preparing the needle. She shut her eyes while he stitched her up and let her mind wander to distract from the pain. She thought about Sophia, wondering if she was ok. Where could she possibly have run off to that no one had managed to find her yet. It was lucky Daryl was out searching for Sophia or she would have never run into him and she would still be lost out there.
"All done," Herschel said wrapping gauze around her leg to protect the stitches.
"Thank you," she said once he was finished.
"You're welcome, just be careful putting your pants back on," he advised her before stepping out of the room again. She quickly slipped her pants back on, carefully pulling them over her bandages. Once she was dressed she folded the towel up and sat back down on the bed with a sigh.

"Y'all can come back in," she called out knowing Daryl and Rick were still waiting for a chance to talk to her. She watched as the door opened and Daryl and Rick made their way back to their previous spots, but this time Shane was with them too. She fidgeted under Daryl's watchful stare as Rick and Shane seemed to have a quick silent conversation.
"So...," she said quietly, grabbing all of their attention. "I guess y'all want to know what happened."
"Daryl already told us what happened with Sophia," Rick said.
"Oh," she said quietly.
"Why didn't you just come back to the highway?" Shane asked.
"Shane," Rick said warningly.
"I couldn't just leave her out there," she said defensively.
"Just look where it got you though!" he seemed to be getting frustrated.
"So I was supposed just leave?" she asked incredulously. "I should have just cut my losses and gone back? And say what to her mother exactly, 'Oh she ran away and I couldn't be bothered to go after her'?" she asked angrily.
"That's enough," Rick said sternly to the two of them. Shane glared at him then Riley before leaving the room angrily.
"What's his deal?" Riley asked confused by Shane's attitude. Rick didn't answer but just shook his head. Riley opened her mouth to say something else but was interrupted by her stomach making a loud growling sound. Her face instantly blushed, embarrassedly.
"I'll have Lori bring you something to eat," Rick chuckled getting up and leaving the room leaving her and Daryl alone.
"You don't have to stay here ya know," she said quietly.
"Yea, I know," he said moving to sit in the chair.
"Thank you," Riley said quickly.
"What for?" he asked confused.
"For helping me so much," she said "In the woods, and back at the CDC. I never did thank you for that."
"Was nothin," he said shrugging.

A knock on the door suddenly interrupted them as Lori came in with a plate of food for Riley.
"Rick wants to talk to you," she said to Daryl as she set the plate on the table for Riley.
"Thank you," Riley said to Lori with a smile as she watched the two of them leave the room. As soon as they were gone Riley tore into the food, finishing it in record time. She never thought food had tasted so good until she went a few days without it. With her hunger satisfied, she felt sleepiness come over her. She'd had an exhausting few days and it was really catching up with her. Riley curled up on the bed and snuggled her face into the pillow, falling asleep quickly.

Riley was lurking around the hotel quietly. This was just supposed to be a quick job, in and out before anyone even noticed her. She spotted the service entrance that she'd been looking for.
"Finally," she muttered to herself as she moved quickly over to the door. She quietly slipped inside and made her way down the hallway. She came to the end of the hall where it split off into two separate directions. She looked left and saw that it led to the elevators, to the right was a large set of double doors. She decided to see what was behind those doors before making her way upstairs.
She moved over to the doors, quietly pulling one open and peeking inside. She had to hold back a cheer as she realized this was a locker room for the employees. There was bound to be a uniform in here she could use, that would really make the task of getting upstairs without being noticed a lot easier. She quickly made her way through the room checking every locker until she found exactly what she was looking for. She quickly pulled on the uniform on over her clothes, moving her gun to the waist band of the uniform pants so it would be easy to get to.
Once she was done dressing she took a quick glance in a mirror that was mounted on the wall. She looked just like any normal hotel employee, she couldn't help but smile at that. She looked normal. What she would give to be normal, to be able to go out and do whatever she wanted with her life without worrying about looking over her shoulder for someone who might be coming to kill her. But that could never happen, she reminded herself, they would just hunt her down and bring her back just like the other times she tried running away. She would always be trapped in this life and there's nothing she could do about it. She sighed in frustration at her silly thoughts. She would never be normal so there was no use wasting time daydreaming about it. She needed to stay focused and get the job done or she would be facing a serious punishment when she got back.
Focusing her mind back on the business at hand, she quickly checked that her gun wasn't visible and made her way out of the locker room confidently. She strolled up to the elevators like any other employee would, acting the part in a situation like this was key to not getting caught. The doors slid open and she stepped aside to let two women wearing maid uniforms out before she stepped in and pressed the button for the fifth floor. As the elevator began moving slowly she went over her plan again in her head.
Her main target was Antonio Marino, a short pudgy man who was pretty high in the chain of command of the Bianchi family. They had failed to pay back a loan to her boss, so they had sent her here to "collect". She was told it would be him, another man, and likely two or three bodyguards and she was to wipe them out as a way to send a message to their boss. She would have to be really careful not to her distracted so one of them couldn't sneak up on her.
The elevator doors opened with a ding and Riley made her way down the hallway quietly. She noticed a food cart in the hallway and quickly grabbed it pushing it carefully in front of her, now she wouldn't just be knocking on the door for no apparent reason, much less suspicious. She came up to the door she was looking for and knocked, quickly moving the cart between her and the door.
"Room service!" she called out politely waiting patiently. As soon as the door began to open she quickly shoved the cart as hard as she could into the doorway, knocking over whoever was behind it. She drew her gun from her pants and immediately shot him in the head, thankful that she had thought to bring a silencer or the hotel would be crawling with cops before she could even finish the job. She didn't hesitate after shooting the first man, moving quickly she shot two more before they could even realize what was happening. Three bodyguards down she counted in her head as she moved closer to the short pudgy man she recognized as her target.
"Where's the other guy?" she whispered, in case he was hiding somewhere waiting for her. She watched as Antonio raised a shaky hand and pointed to the bathroom door that was shut.
"Thanks," she said before pulling the trigger and watching his body fall limply to the floor. She loudly moved over to the room door, making her footsteps easily heard, and slammed it shut before quietly sneaking to the bathroom door and waiting with her gun ready. She watched as the bathroom door creaked open and she was met with a face she thought she would never see again.
"It can't be," he whispered to himself.
"Dad?"