Rise Up

Chapter 33

Daryl came and wrapped his arms around me. He rested his chin on my shoulder and watched Judith sleep.

"She's okay," he said.

"Yeah. She's okay. She will be okay. And so will we," I said.

"Yeah. We will. You ready to get some rest?" he asked.

"On what? They took our mattresses," I said.

"We'll figure something out. Come on," he said.

He grabbed my hand and led me out. I closed the door behind me as slowly as I could. We went into our room and there was nothing in the middle of it. The only thing that was left were the bed sheets.

"How thoughtful of them. They left the sheets," I said sarcastically.

"The assholes," he said.

I knelt down and started to spread the sheets across the empty space where the bed should have been. It was decent enough I guess. I took off my boots and rested my head on one of the remaining pillows. Daryl came and laid down next to me.

"I can't stop thinking about Rosita and Sasha," I said looking up at the ceiling.

"They're tough. The both of them. I ain't worried about them," he said.

"I am," I said.

"Come here," he said.

I moved closer to him and he wrapped his arm around me. He kissed my forehead.

"We gotta do this thing tomorrow. Think about that," he said.

"You're right. More weapons. And maybe more supplies to make some bombs," I said.

"Yeah. Blow 'em up," he said.

"Hell yeah," I said.

The both of us got comfortable and drifted to sleep. The next morning, I was extremely stiff. I sat up and stretched. I made my way to the bathroom and took a quick shower. Daryl was getting his shoes on by the time I got out. I dried off and got dressed. The both of us made our way downstairs. Rick was already up.

"Hey," I said going up and giving him a hug.

"This place hasn't been the same without you," he said.

"Well, I'm here now. So what's the plan?" I said when we parted.

"Tara should be joining us any minute," he said.

I nodded. Daryl and I went and had some breakfast. As time went on, the group that would be coming along, made their way inside the house. Tobin, Gabriel, Francine, Aaron and Eric would all be joining the rest of us.

"I want to get those guns as peacefully as possible," Tara announced once we were all there.

"We want that too. We don't want to hurt them if we don't have to. So what did you have in mind?" Rick asked.

"I go in. Alone. Talk to them. Explain what we want. Explain why we need what they have," Tara said.

"Makes sense. You know them. But what if they aren't willing to give us what we need?" I asked.

"Then...we take drastic measures," Tara said.

"We have that dynamite we got from the highway. We set it up outside the perimeter of the place and let a few go off. Nothing too big. Then we just tell them that we're taking it all," Carl said.

"Outside the perimeter. That's smart, Carl. And I don't want to hurt anyone if we don't have to either," I said.

"Okay. So Tara goes in. We give her a time limit to talk to them. If she doesn't come back out within that time frame, we go in. Gather them all in one place to be sure none of them are hurt," Rick said.