All of Us (The Walking Dead)

Chapter 32

Michonne explained what had happened. 

They had come upon a small group of people, and from the description Daryl had given and their location, it seemed like they were the same people that jumped him. They were only a small group, but we knew they were dangerous. 

Michonne said they ran into one of the guys from the group when he had gone off on his own, so they had no choice but to act. They could have killed him, but since we still didn't know if they were part of a larger group, it made more sense in their eyes to capture him and bring him back so that we could get answers. That part worried me. Were they going to torture him for answers? What if he was a good guy?

Just then, Aaron came out of the house.

Michonne turned to him. "Is he talking?"

Aaron shook his head. "Can't get anything from him."

Michonne turned to look at Daryl. "You wanna try?"

Daryl's eyes looked cold when he nodded his head.

"Wait," I grabbed his arm to stop him. "Are you going to hurt him? We don't even know if he's bad."

"It doesn't matter," he said in a deep voice. "He's not one of us." 

He could tell I didn't like his answer. "Sloane, I'm just gonna talk to him," he said and turned to leave. I wasn't sure that I believed him. Rick went in behind Daryl. I was glad he would be there in case Daryl started to force the information out of him.

I knew he could be a bad person, but now that I had been to Alexandria and learned about the other communities, I knew that there were still good people out there. The group might not have even been the same people who hurt Daryl. I didn't want Daryl to beat him up just because we didn't know who he was.

I waited outside with Michonne and Rosita for a while until the door opened and Daryl and Rick walked out. I noticed Daryl had a little blood on his knuckles.

"You hit him?" I gasped at Daryl.

Rick jumped in. "Sloane, it wasn't that bad. But, he still won't talk." He raked a hand through his hair in frustration.

I glared at Daryl. He just shrugged. "I barely hit 'im."

I wondered if another method would work better, since he obviously didn't respond to intimidation.

"I want to talk to him," I said.

Daryl furrowed his eyebrows. "You ain't going' in there."

"Why not? Maybe a different approach to getting him to talk would help," I said.

Daryl scoffed.

"That might work," Michonne said. I smiled at Daryl in triumph.

"Fine," Daryl huffed. "But I'm comin' with ye."

"Sure," I said and started to head into the house. 

I followed Daryl as we walked down the stairs to the basement where the cell was. When we walked into the room, Daryl's body in front of me hid my view of the guy in the cell. When Daryl moved to the right, I was finally able to see him.

When I saw his face, I gasped. The man turned to me and we locked eyes.

A slow, sickening smile spread across his face. "I know you."

My mouth parted. "No," I breathed out. This could not be happening. The memories flooded back, and the realization of what this meant and who the group we were dealing with was made me instantly feel sick.