65. thieves and devils

QUINN

     SHE WAS THE FIRST ONE TO WALK AWAY from the fire, back inside to the room they spend the night. She felt confused about everything, all her emotions, every move she made, it all made her feel lost.

'That car was headed downtown,' Daryl spoke up from behind her, slightly startling her out of her thoughts. He started packing his stuff and she followed his example. 'I say we get up in one of 'em tall ones, get ourselves a view, see what we see.'

'We can stay close to the buildings and keep quiet,' Carol agreed, throwing her backpack over her shoulders. 'But sooner or later, we're gonna be drawing them.'

Quinn sighed and nodded before making her way after the two of them out of the building. In the light of the sun the streets only seemed that much scarier. The stench of death hung like a impenetrable fog in the air and it made her nose itch. She didn't say a word though as they moved through the streets, trying to find a building that was high enough to get a good view over the city.

They came at a crossroads and Daryl gestured for them to stop before looking around the corner. Quinn didn't need to look to know there was a small herd of walkers crowding the street. She could hear their moans and smell their decayed flesh from this distance just fine.

'All righ',' Daryl said, taking a step back and turning back to them. 'We can get up there. There's a bridge.' He took his backpack off his shoulder and pulled out a few papers and a lighter. He set the paper on fire and threw it out on the street, the fire soon spreading to the surrounding cardboard and plastic. The walkers stumbled towards it like a moth was drawn to a flame.

The redneck gestured for them to start moving and as quiet as possible they ran down the street. She held her dagger tightly, keeping her gaze focused on the street surrounding them.

Daryl lead them into an underground parking lot, shooting a walker in the head that came stumbling towards them and taking the arrow back out before running on.

They found the stairs that lead up into the building and made their way towards the bridge Daryl had spotted on the street. Once they reached it though, they stopped.

The ground was covered in walkers trapped in sleeping bags, trashing around at the sight of a possible meal. Further down the bridge even stood a few tents. It appeared as though this bridge had been a shelter once.

The three of them shared a glance before stepping forward and killing the walkers in the sleeping bags. They couldn't take the risk of suddenly being bitten in the ankle.

But it turned out those weren't the only walkers. There were some locked in the tents too, groaning angrily for not being able to get out to take a bite out of their flesh.

A deep sigh came from behind her and she turned to look at Daryl. 'Some days, I don't know what the hell to think,' he muttered. Then he pushed himself up, gathered his arrows and made his way towards the door on the other side of the bridge.

It was locked with a chain but could still open wide enough to crawl through. Carol went first, then Quinn and Daryl came last.

They found themselves in a fancy office that looked nearly untouched and gave a great view of the city. Quinn walked up to the window, placing her bag on the ground as she stared at the ghost town surrounding her. She'd been in her home city when it fell but she hadn't seen the after match. She could only imagine how it all looked now. Had people found shelter in her small apartment? Were their corpses on the ground everywhere you looked? Had the grocery store down the street been completely emptied? What happened to her father...

Carol came standing next to her. 'How did we get here?' She muttered.

'Mmm,' Daryl grunted, 'we just did.'

'We've always been here,' Quinn said softly. She had been surviving long before the world ended and she knew the two of them had been as well. The scenery just changed.

'None of you ever asked me what happened,' Carol suddenly said, 'after I met up with Tyreese, the girls.'

'Yeah, I know what happened,' Daryl replied. 'They ain't here.'

'It was worse than that,' Carol whispered with a haunted look in her eyes.

Quinn had no words to comfort her, no advice on how to feeling better. The world was shit, people died and it was fucked up. Still, she wished she could've erased the haunted look out of the woman's eyes.

'The reason I said we get to start over,' Daryl said, 'it's 'cause we gotta.'

She frowned slightly, turning to look at him. She was almost startled by the fact he said something comforting when she hadn't expected him to. He always managed to find a way to surprise her.

'Yeah,' was all Carol said.

They turned to look out of the window again but all she saw were collapsed buildings and walking corpses.

Daryl moved so suddenly that she jumped. He pressed his eye to the glass, staring at something only he could see.

'What is it?' She asked.

'Don't know,' he mumbled, then gestured to Carol. 'Hand me that rifle.'

She did as she was told and handed him her weapon. He used the sniper scope to take a closer look. She tried looking into the direction he did but saw nothing.

'Right there,' he pointed, giving Carol her rifle back so she could look too.

'It's been there a while,' the woman said, handing the rifle to Quinn.

She stared through the scope, looking into the direction they had. There was a bus on the road, stuck on the edge of a bridge. There were two white crosses painted on the back windows.

'Definitely one of them,' Quinn mumbled, feeling anger flame up inside of her.

'It's definitely some kinda lead,' Daryl agreed, staring at the bus as if he could bring it over here with nothing but his force of will.

'We should fill up,' Carol said, walking over to the water cooler to fill their canteens and water bottles.

Quinn placed the rifle on the desk, frowning at Daryl who was studying a painting on the wall, his head cocked to the side and his eyes squinted, like a real expert.

'You like it?' She asked him, her eyebrows raised.

'I bet this cost some rich prick a lot of money.' He studied it for another few seconds before taking a step forward and waving his arm over the canvas. 'Looks like a dog sat in paint and wiped its ass all over the place.'

She couldn't help herself and laughed, which earned her a surprised look from him. As if he'd forgotten she was able to laugh and had to get used to the sound.

'Really?' Carol asked, ignoring her. 'I kind of like it.'

He scoffed. 'Stop.'

'I'm serious,' she replied, still staring at it.

Quinn crossed her arms over her chest, staring at the painting. 'All I see are a few lines,' she shrugged. 'At least paint something nice like the sky or something.'

Carol just shook her head before gathering her stuff and heading towards the door.

Quinn smiled at Daryl, who, once again, seemed to look slightly surprised but that didn't stop him from smirking smugly back at her. She ignored the warm fuzzy feeling that spread through her stomach and turned to walk after Carol.

They made their way back to the bridge. Carol climbed through the door first while Quinn held it open as far she could. She was about to follow when Carol suddenly spoke warningly. 'Quinn, don't.'

But she was already halfway through the door and the gun was already pointed at her.

'Get up! Hands up, both of you!'

It was a teenage kid, couldn't be much older than Beth. He had a dark skin and clothes that were a few sizes too big. But none of that mattered because he was holding Carol's gun in his hands and it pointed right at the two of them.

Slowly she stood up, hearing Daryl follow through the door and without looking at him she could see the murderous look that he must've worn right now.

'Lay down your crossbow,' the kid spoke, then nodded at Quinn, 'and your daggers.'

'You got some sack on you,' Daryl growled.

'Look nobody has to get hurt,' the kid defended himself. 'I just need weapons, that's it. So, please, lay down your crossbow and your daggers.'

She felt her hand itching to pull one of her daggers free and throw it right into his forehead but by the time she'd done that, he could shot at least one of them. There weren't many options here and so she started to take of her belt. She threw it at his feet, hoping her eyes were telling him to go to hell.

Daryl placed his crossbow on the ground, but the murderous look did not disappear from his face.

'Back up,' the kid snapped and the three of them did as they were told, their backs pressed against the doors they just came through.

He picked up the crossbow and belt, his eyes never leaving them. 'Sorry 'bout this,' he mumbled but he didn't seem very sorry. 'You three look tough. You'll be all right,' he spoke, as if that would justify his actions. Then he pulled one of her daggers out of the belt and ripped the tents apart, setting the walkers within free before disappearing down the hallway himself.

Quinn bent down to take out the knife she always carried in her boot and pushed it through one of the walkers its eye.

Carol shot down another one and then pointed her gun at the kid but before she could shoot, Daryl pushed her arm away, making her miss the shot. She threw him a cold glare but Daryl ignored her.

The three of them ran down the hallway. Daryl reached the door first and he threw himself against it, but it was held together by chains on the other side. An angry grunt came out of his throat.

Quinn inhaled sharply, anger burning within her stomach. They just got their weapons stolen by a kid. She just lost her precious daggers because of a damn kid.

Daryl stormed passed her, heading towards the stairs and she followed quickly. The kid was probably long gone by now, which meant the only thing left to do was go and find that bus.

'Three bullets,' Carol said, checking her gun. 'We're in the middle of the city. He was stealing our weapons. Did you think I was gonna kill him?'

Daryl didn't answer, instead only started walking faster towards the exit.

'I was aiming for his leg!' Carol protested, taking his silence as a yes. 'Could that have killed him? Maybe. I don't know but he was stealing our weapons.' Her frustration grew as she went on and Quinn slightly frowned. If there was something in their group who had changed, it was Carol but she wasn't sure if it was for the best.

'He's just a damn kid,' Daryl sighed. They reached another locked door but instead of walking away he took his knife out to try and open the lock.

'Without weapons we could die,' Carol replied. 'Beth could die.'

Quinn threw her an angry glare but fear was taking a hold of her. They could indeed to little for Beth without weapons but that didn't mean she had to blame Daryl.

'We'll find more weapons,' Daryl simply said, still focusing on the door.

'I don't want either of you to die,' Carol whispered, all the harshness suddenly gone from her voice. 'I don't want Beth to die. I don't want anybody at the church to die, but I can't stand around and watch it happen either. I can't that's why I left. I just had to be somewhere else.'

Finally Daryl turned away from the door, looking at his friend. 'You ain't somewhere else,' he spoke coldly, 'you're right here. Trying.' Then he turned back to the door, putting the knife against the lock again.

'You're not who you were and neither am I,' Carol went on and suddenly Quinn felt like she was invading a very private conversation. Relief washed over her when Daryl managed to get the door open but Carol wasn't done yet.

'I don't know if I believe in God anymore or heaven,' she spoke. 'But if I'm going to hell, I'm making damn sure I'm holding it off as long as I can.'

Those words made her thoughts race. What could she have possibly done that would send her to hell, except for they had all done...survive.

And all of sudden it all made sense. Why she left, why she carried so much guilt in her eyes and why she tried to leave again.

'Karen and David,' she mumbled, seeing the woman tense at hearing their names. 'That was you.'

She didn't look at Quinn as she nodded, the weight of the world suddenly seemed to have been put on her shoulders but that didn't change the cold feeling of horror in her veins. In that moment she realised she knew nothing about the woman and even worse Carol did not know herself anymore.