I'll Take The Pain (A Daryl Dixon Story)

Pushing On

Before

 "Lower your gun, prick."

 "You, with the Colt Python."

"All of you, lower your weapons right now."

..."Come on out. Let's talk."

"We're not coming out, but we will talk. We've got a Carol and a Maggie. I'm thinking that's something you wanna chat about."

Now

"Now, we're gonna work this out right now, and it's going to go our way," The woman spoke out again. Rick looked over at me and asked, "You see them?"

I shook my head, "No. They're close enough to see us, though."

Rick looked over at Daryl and said, "Stand him up."

Daryl picked up the guy that he had knocked over earlier and pointed his gun at the back of his head, along with Michonne and Glenn, as Rick spoke into the walkie, "You can see we have one of yours. We'll trade."

"I'm listening," The woman said. Rick spoke into the walkie again, "First I want to talk to Maggie and Carol, make sure their alright."

It didn't take long to hear Carol on the Walkie, "Rick, it's Carol. I'm- I'm fine, but-"

It seemed Carol was cut off. Maggie was soon on the walkie, "Rick, it's Maggie. We're both okay. We'll figure thi-"

"Shut up," I could hear the woman cut Maggie off. She soon came on the walkie again, "You have your proof. Let's talk."

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

"Two for one, that's not much of a trade," The woman said, making me roll my eyes. Rick was quick to respond, "You don't have another choice or you would've done something about it already."

There was no response after that. I looked at Rick and said, "Judging by the static between you and her, they're farther away than we think. Might have snipers lining up to get all of us."

Rick sighed and spoke into the walkie again, "Look, I know you're talking it over. It's a fair trade. Just come out, we do this, we all walk away."

He waited a second before asking, "Do we have a deal?"

"I'll get back to you," She responded. I looked at Rick and said, "They're moving. It's the only reason they have to make us wait. If they're out in the open, they can easily be found by us. We need to try to follow them. If we know where they are and they don't make the deal, we can get them."

"How do you think we do that?" Rick asked. I nodded towards Daryl, "We got the best tracker with us. Lock down the asshole. Once we get tracks, we follow them. Take the dumbass with us. Easy ambush."

RIck nodded and looked at Daryl, who said, "Asshole had my bike. I ain't leaving him. Not 'til he tells me where he got it."

I look at Daryl and said, "You got the bike back. Be happy with that. We got Maggie and Carol out there with more assholes. You gonna just let Maggie die? Carol?"

Daryl gave me a look and I said, "Come on, we gotta go find tracks. We find tracks, we're gonna get those two back, kill the rest. Including that asshat."

Daryl just tossed the guy towards Glenn and walked passed me saying, "Let's go."

I nodded at Rick saying, "Lock him down. We'll be back once we find tracks."