My Damaged Protector

Chapter 51 ~ The Same Boat

Branches snapped behind us and Carol drew her gun and fired. Maggie pulled hers and turned as I drew mind up. "We need to go!" Carol called as Maggie went back to the man on the ground.

"Not until it's done." She approached the man as he whimpered in pain and held his arm.

Maggie went to fire as a gun was placed to my head. "Stop!" A woman called. "Or she's dead." I let my gun hang by the strap across my body and I raised my hands so I wouldn't be seen as a target. Another few people joined and held guns on Carol and Maggie as the one on me spoke. "Guns, knives on the ground right now." We slowly unhooked our weapons and set them on the ground.

"Nice jacket." Another, older, woman said to Maggie.

"For a murderous bitch." Another said.

The main woman on me spoke again. "Well, we'll take it off her before we shoot her." The women made quick work of ushering us towards the fenced courtyard. The sun came up shortly after that and my hair was slowly drying as the sun warmed the air again. The main woman had a pair of binoculars out as she watched the building, her red hair pulled back into a low messy bun. There was an engine rev as well as more gunfire before the main woman held her walkie up to her mouth. "Lower your gun, prick. You with the Colt Python. All of you lower your weapons right now."

"Come on out." Rick said back. "Let's talk."

"How many we got?" The older woman asked.

"Eight, in sight. Too many." The main woman said.

"No, we can take 'em. We took more." The man said.

"We're not coming out, but we will talk." She paused, looking back at the three of us. "Names!"

"I'm Maggie, that's Carol, and Skylar." Maggie said.

"We got a Skylar, a Carol, and a Maggie. I'm thinking that's something you wanna chat about. Now we're gonna work this out right now, and it's going to go our way."

"You can see we have one of yours." Rick said and I could faintly see our group pull someone up off the ground. "We'll trade."

"I'm listening."

"First I wanna talk to Skylar, Maggie, and Carol, make sure they're alright." Rick held his composure as a walker snarled behind the two women with guns and the man.

The main woman with red hair, jean jacket and backpack, looked at us. "I'm gonna put you on. You say you're fine. I'll know if you try anything else." She walked over to us.

The woman pressed the button and Carol leaned forward. "Rick? It's Carol. I'm-I'm fine, but-"

Carol got cut off as the woman moved to me next. "I'm fine Rick, its Skylar."

"Now you." She moved to Maggie.

"Rick, it's Maggie, we're both ok." She said quickly. "We'll figure this out."

"Shut up." The woman said and pushed Maggie back a bit. My eyes attached to Maggie, silently asking if she was alright. She nodded back to me ever so slightly, as to not set off the three women and the man. "You have your proof. Let's talk."

"Alright, this is the deal, right here." Rick started talking. "Let 'em go and you can have your guy back and live."

"Three for one? That's not much of a trade."

"You don't have another choice, or you would've done something about it already."

I looked over to Carol to see her shoulders slumped and her head hanging. "We have to get him back." The man said, holding his still bleeding arm.