Nomads: The Ghost + The Darkness//Sequel(TheWattys2019)

Chapter Twenty: Riders On The Storm

Blaire POV
I woke up in a dark place with Missy whining, I reached out for her,”Missy, honey” She whimpered and walked over to me, I hugged her,”Come here, you’re safe” I looked over my to left and saw Courtney,”Courtney, Courtney wake up” She groaned,”Come on wake up” Chloe woke up groaning,”Chloe, jesus what happened?”
“I don’t know, where is that bastard Jesse? Oh fuck what did they do to us? I can’t feel my body” I agreed with her,”I can’t feel my body either”
“It’s paralysis, they injected you with some kind of paralysis injection, it’s what they do when they kidnap you...did they distract you before they took you?” We didn’t answer,”Okay, okay I think I have the idea that you don’t know me, I’m Daryl”
“Blaire, this is Chloe and Courtney” He nodded as he was playing with the Rubix Cube,”I met your dog there, she’s nice” I nodded and I tried to get up and groaned,”They took the others into another place by the way”
“Another place? Where is the other place”
“It’s where they’re in waiting for Nyra and they divide us for unknown reason” I made a confused face,”Nyra?” He nodded,”Yep, oh and the one asleep right there is Tawnin, he’s been here for as long as I have, we’re buddies” I looked around and there were bunks,”Where are we?”
“You’re in Shady Cove, we’re Riders now”
“Riders, what are you talking about?” Daryl put down his Rubix Cube,”They only let certain people in, they observe you basically and when they think that you’re perfect, they just take you and you eventually become one of us”
“You mean Raiders?”
“No Riders, you know Raiders kill anything in sight, Riders just take people that will become one of them, Nyra is the leader of the Riders….this place is a hellhole though” Courtney groaned,”Ah my fucking head” She got up,”I-I can’t feel anything!” She started hyperventilating,”I can’t feel-” Tawnin rolled over,”Relax, you’re injected with paralysis, you’ll feel like yourself in a little bit” He said it in a drowsy tone,”Where’s Dylan and Javier?”
“The ones you came with, they’re in waiting with Nyra, they woke up before you, when these guards find out that you’re awake, you’ll be with them too” I looked over at Courtney,”We’re back in Oregon”
“What?”
“We’re in Shady Cove, Oregon” She groaned,”Back in Oregon?” Tawnin sighed,”I reckon you guys had a different mission” I nodded,”Where to?” I looked over at him,”Why should we trust you? You’re in on this too”
“And what makes you think that we wanted to be here too? When we showed up here, we had no idea where the hell we were, we had to find every clue we can get to find out where we were, you think you’re the first ones we saw stay in here?”
“What happened to the others?”
“They’re either a Rider or a Walker, we don’t know which, but there was a woman here named Bridget, she uh had a fear of tight spaces, so she lost her mind here and they took her away, we knew she was dead when her screaming stopped”

A couple hours later and we were slowly feeling ourselves getting back up, I groaned, I was feeling like 70% of my body functions, but I felt rage,”Where….ARE THEY?!” I banged on the bars,”Where are they?! I know you can hear me!” I called out their names, Chloe stumbled over to me,”Blaire, they aren’t coming to us, didn’t you hear them? Bridget died screaming, do you wanna to end up like her?”
“I know those fuckers can hear me and I know that they have Dylan and Javier!” I banged the bar and I hurt my hand,”Ow fuck! Damn it!” I felt tears welling up,”They’re going to get us out of here”
“Which one?”
“Nyra and her workers"
“Who the fuck is this Nyra?” I asked Daryl,”Nyra is the leader of the Riders, she is...goddamn, she has all of us on a leash, no one is leaving...I mean the only people that has left is either dead or worse, a walker” Then a loud bang on the bars,”Hey! Boss wants to see you, 3 of you ladies” Chloe and I picked up Courtney because she still couldn’t feel her body system,”Hurry up!”
“We’re carrying a woman here, god!” We got to Nyra’s room, we saw Dylan and Javier in different clothes,”What did you do to-?”
“Stand back!” A man pulled me back,”Let me see him, please!” He shook his head,”Relax they’re fine, all of you were covered in zombie guts”
“So you changed all of us?”
“Please we keep it professional here” I nodded as Nyra turned around,”Hello, I apologize for these men here, they are...quite protective for this place, I mean we have kept this place running ever since this whole thing started and this whole foundation is built on trust, strength and integrity”
“From what we heard, the majority of you are riders” She raised her eyebrows and nodded,”Correct, but we also have our independence” She got close to me,”And if any of you ever break our rules, we’re gonna have you on a short leash, we have rules for a reason, this world is already out of order as it is, we’re trying to bring it back and bring in every survivor that we can find and build this”
“I don’t think you’re giving off the right impression by injecting paralyzation medicine to all of us” She shook her head,”Not all of you, these two were fine, Dylan and Javier” They were tied up,”Can I please see him?”
“I’m afraid not, you two are in different districts”
“Districts?”
“You’re in District Two and they’re in One” I wanted to come over to Dylan, but they were holding me down,”Why?” She chuckled slightly,”Well you see, I divide you guys in certain areas, like Jesse you met, he goes all the way to Crescent City and across the Border of California and Oregon, that’s One and District Two goes around Oregon like up to Corvallis to find more survivors”
“What if we don’t want to do this? What if we already had other plans to go somewhere else? If we needed saving, we would’ve set off a SOS fire or something” She scoffed after what Chloe said to her,”You were gonna die out there anyway, be glad I saved you”
“Saved us from our journey that we wanted to get through” She sighed and sat down,”How many people have you lost during this journey of yours?” She crossed her arms and we gulped,”Three”
“Were they children?”
“Why is that important to y-” She cut me off,”Were they or were they not children?” I sighed,”Two children and one adult” She smiled lightly like she was satisfied with our answer,”Good, we have a listener and a talker” Dylan came around and saw me on my knees,”Blaire! Blaire!”
“Shut it! I separated all of you and all of you stay out of each other’s way, District One and Two, both of you are treated equally, but different at the same time” Dylan called out from the other room,”Let me see her!”
“Oh I see I have made a mistake Jesse, seems like we have 2 lovebirds in the group that we took and we separated them, aw poor babies” She said as she moved a piece of my hair behind my ear. Courtney told her to let all of us go,”No, I want to see what all of you got, you all look useful for us. You know what? Let me talk to District One and Two, Blaire and Dylan, take the rest back”

Dylan was taken into the room with me, but the rest were back in their cells,”You two look like an interesting couple, like the heroic version of Bonnie and Clyde” I rolled my eyes,”And also from what Jesse told you, you two are leaders and have a thing for taking in strays”
“Yeah so?”
“We can take you in, but you two can’t be together, we have rules you know, if we ever catch anything suspicious about any of you guys, you’re joining as Guards and it’s definitely not what you think it is”
“Nyra, what makes you think that we are gonna follow you? We’re Scavengers and Nomads, we follow by our own rules like the Wild Hunt did, you can’t tame us and-” She slapped me,”Listen to me, you would’ve died out there” Dylan chimed in,”We survived a year and 2 months without you taking us, we would’ve survived a lot more if you didn’t”
“And how?”
“That also shows you don’t know us very well”
“And we are about to get to know each other a hell of a lot more as Riders” I looked down for a while and looked back up,”We’re not going back home are we?” Nyra smirked,”Don’t you get it? This is your home now, all of you need to get up early in the morning for your training, I’m not even sure if you can even ride a horse” Dylan and I got separated,”Primus!”
“Dylan! You bitch let us go!”
“Knock her out, I don’t care, that's all”

Dylan POV
I was in a bunker with Javier and this other guy,”What did she say to you?” Javier asked and this other girl,”The same thing she’s told all of us,’This is your home now, you can’t survive out there without me saving you, District One and Two are treated equally yet differently’ Oh and you learn how to ride horses, which is how you guys got here and that dog, she did not leave that girl’s side, the one you were in Nyra’s room with, what’s her name?” I was leaning on the door looking out the window,”Blaire…”
“That’s kind of a unique name”
“She’s unique” I said to the girl,”Hey we never got your name and yours” There was a guy in our bunker as well,”I’m Gwen and this is Nolan, brother and sister, he’s older than me, but has much as brain cells as Patrick Star”
“Shut it” She smiled and looked down,”We’re stuck here, aren’t we?”
“So far, the only times you get to leave is when you’re dead or a walker or worse, a Guard” Javier asked her what a Guard was,”Before you fully turn, they tie you up to a pole outside this place and you stay there until they decide to shoot you”
“Oh shit”
“So there’s no way out?” Nolan nodded,”They have this place locked down like that Daycare from Toy Story 3 or any of more up to date movies that have lax security, that was all that I could think of” Javier placed his face in his hands,”We’re stuck here, there’s no way we’re getting there” I tapped my finger,”So far”
“What are you saying here?”
“I’m saying is that maybe there is a way out of here, we all just haven’t tried” Gwen answered,”Well I get my spoon and dig my way out of here now, Dylan we’ve tried everything, no luck”

Chloe POV
“I’m telling all of you, you’re fucked and you’re even lucky they’re letting you keep that dog” Daryl really pissed me off,”That dog’s name is Missy!”
“Okay okay sorry, I’m just saying that they don’t let pets in for a reason and I don’t know why, okay I’ve only been here for 4 months and counting”
“Shit” I sat back down on my bed in the bunker,”How did you end up here?”
“Well Tawnin and I were walking along the river because we knew it would lead us to the Coast, but before we even got a chance to see the ocean, we were taken away. Him and I, we were from Utah, we thought if we went to the Oregon Coast, there’d be decent people enough to let us in”
“Clearly you were wrong” He nodded slowly,”Was it true of what they said about your group?” I looked back at him,”What do you mean?”
“That Blaire and the other have a thing for taking in strays, not just the dog” I shrugged,”it depends though, they do let you in, but if you break their trust to you, they’ll leave you without supplies. From what I remember they only did it once when this girl entered their group before me, she lied to them and almost turned all of them against each other and almost had Dylan to herself, they were close to killing each other, even Blaire and Dylan” I looked at Blaire laying there,”Jesus”
“The ones we came with, her and Javier, there were more of us, but for the past few days, we lost 2 kids and an adult”
“2 adults, Chloe...we lost 2 kids and 2 adults” Blaire sounded very broken-hearted about that,”Sorry to hear that”
“She okay?”
“She’s known them longer, I-I don’t know” I shrugged and Blaire rolled over with the black eye,”Yes I did, they were the first to come into the group that Dylan and I never thought we’d form ever, all of them changed it and even her” She pointed at Missy,”You guys aren’t some ordinary group”
“Then what are we?”
“Yeah I’m not a Scavenger or a Nomad anymore, what am I?” Daryl tapped his finger on the metal desk,”I haven’t gotten a chance to figure that out yet”