Ride the lightning

Ch. 14

There is a sound that accompanies the shattering of someones world around them. If you were asked to explain it or describe you couldn't because for each person it is always different. At that moment it was a very visceral reaction for Mac and the pained heaving of his chest that had a whistle that sounded like a distant train through fog coming from his lungs. No he couldn't describe it because it'd be like asking the dead to describe the moment they died and how it felt for them, it's always different and for Mac at the moment it felt like a thousand small deaths taking place in his chest. It felt like the fucking crusades had sprung up in his heart and the war started before he even accepted the price. It fucking hurt.

Daryl was speaking quick and like always efficient. That was Daryl though. If Mac was the one who wasn't in the right mindset it seemed like that was enough to snap Daryl into focus and have him taking the reins. He was moving but Mac's eyes were on the woods seeing a thousand things at once and that silent thing he'd buried all those years ago with the body he'd left on the Luna Mesa floor clawed its way from the depths snarling and tearing. It felt like a rebirth in a way as that thing in his chest, his mind, his blood, and his goddamn soul sprung free and spread its wings after so long of being bent and bloody.

"Mac!" Daryl's voice is harsh and demanding but that tone underneath that has always been able to grip Mac and jerk him back into focus. Eyes focusing on his brother Daryl's eyes are murderous and lethal. It's that moment he knows this is the very stare Will Dixon looked into the night he died. "They couldn't have gotten far."

"They wont go any further I can fucking guarantee that." Mac's words are as deadly as the look in his eyes.

"We split up and meet at deep rock." Daryl's voice is low now taking on the icy edge he's heard before. He wasn't fucking around and it is that voice that Mac agrees to.

Daryl turns to go down the steps but Mac moves blocking him and grabbing his throat dragging his brother to him, "Watch your fucking ass out there. You don't rush into shit and get yourself killed you fucking got me?"

Daryl's snarl is quick and Mac can't help but mirror him feeling that beast that treads just below the surface free now. Daryl's is there too and he knows that if something has happened to Kira that can't be undone that the dead walking wont be shit compared to the hell that will rain.

He's not as silent, quick, or good in the woods as Daryl but he's a lot fucking better than Shane ever thought about being. The prints are easy and for a minute Mac contemplates a set up but for all of Shane's stupidity and then dumb luck he wasn't smart enough to present a false trail. It was dark and for an inexperienced outdoors man no tracking to be done but that is where it wrong. The dark...the night it offered something the day didn't. Focus.

The day time you were surrounded by the cawing of birds, animal movements, insects, the hum of life and all the things you don't notice till they are silent. You are blinded by the bright glare of the sun along the dew covered leafs and can easily miss something that is presented to you. No at night you were absent the cawing, the bugs, the wildlife. The world slept and while it did you were free to move and be the natural predator, the silent stalker through the woods hunting down that which needed it. And Shane? That bastard had it coming.

Finding his trail was easy and Mac let his light track it. The beam was more focused granting him a shorter spectrum to view but also a more focused one. Focus was good for how his heart and blood were pumping. Pausing in midstep there is a muffled grunt followed by a sharp slap. If there was a way to send a message to Daryl to let him know he's likely on the wrong side of the deep rock then he would but there isn't and he'd be goddamn if he was late again. If he wasn't there again when he was needed. He'd already let Daryl down and he'd be fucked if he'd do that to Kira.