My civilisation (D.D)

Sixty four: Negotiating.

As I could feel my heart hammer against my chest did I notice we had one of their men on the floor who looked quite beaten up and that's who I realised Rick must have been referring to when he was talking about making a trade.

I believe he's called Primo.

"You can see we have of yours, we'll trade." Rick said speaking into the radio.

I'm listening.

"First I want to talk to Maggie and Carol, make sure they're alright."

Rick it's Carol-I'm-I'm fine bu-

I felt relief wash over me to hear that Carol was okay and when Maggie spoke next I could see the relief on Glenn's face. His wife was alive and okay.

Rick it's Maggie. We're both okay.

If they hurt them I swear to god I'm gonna lose my cool.

Maggie's voice was however quickly replaced by the strange woman's cackling voice.

You have your proof. Let's talk.

"This is the deal right here. Let 'em go, you can have your guy back and live."

Two for one. That's not much of a trade.

"You don't have much of a choice. Or you would have done something about it already." Rick hissed.

It took a while and we heard nothing. It was a waiting game.

I began looking around the area for any sign of them. They were hiding in the trees somewhere. They were close.

"Look, I know you're talking it over. It's a fair trade. Just come out, we do this, we all walk away. Do we have a deal?" Rick tried to negotiate.

I'll get back to you.

I took this opportunity to look around, I moved myself from Daryl's grip and began to scout the area for tracks.

The sun was lowering and the low light made everything harder to see but it didn't matter too much. Everything was still visible.

Bingo.

I found a clear set of tracks that I began to follow. The mud was imprinted with shoe prints and these people obviously knew jack shit about covering up tracks. Looking up I saw the trail lead only to the outskirts of the forest. They were close.

I began to pick up my pace, determined to find Carol and Maggie until I heard the cackle of the radio again.

Stop the girl. Or the deals of.

Huffing, I stood up of the ground and made my way back over to our small group where Daryl began to rub my back up and down sensing my frustration.

It seemed like years had passed until Rick decided to speak into the radio again.

"Have you thought about it?"

I said I'd contact you.

"I think we're gonna make the trade. So tell me where."

We haven't agreed to that.

"You will."