C H A P T E R   0 6

❛ on the run ❜

QUINN

     SHE WISHED WITH HER ENTIRE BEING that the darkness would take her. The pain was unbearable and with every step her father took she longed for the blissful nothingness of unconsciousness. Instead she was forced to feel everything, even the tiniest of movements shook through her body like an earthquake. Her bones felt fragile and weak, as though they could crumble into nothingness at any moment.

To distract herself she tried to focus on the shouts in the distance and occasional sound of a gunshot. It seemed the first shot had drawn Walkers to the compound. She dreaded the sound of engines starting, or of Daryl shouting in pain. But neither came. Nick told her he had a car parked nearby, ready to take them away but if the Saviors were to organise themselves, they could still catch up. Negan would soon be informed about their escape and she had no doubt he'd chase them down. He had after all done the same to Dwight and his wife.

Her father knew it too, which is why he ran as fast as his legs could go while he carried her in his arms. His hands burned into her skin, like a mark she wouldn't be able to erase but she couldn't exactly be picky at the moment. She was at the mercy of a man she'd never trusted in her life and that thought brought her more pain than the burning wound in her thigh.

She could hear Nick mumble for her to stay awake as he ran, but she was hardly listening, still focused on the sounds in the distance. Her heart jumped in her chest when finally the noise of an engine starting echoed through the dark night.

"Fuck," Nick mumbled as he tried to pick up the pace.

"H-how far," she tried to speak but her throat was dry and forming words was suddenly an impossible task.

"Don't worry," he replied but his reassurance meant nothing.

Screeching tires sounded behind them and chills broke out on her skin. "G-go into the w-woods," she ordered.

He ignored her and kept his course on the road before them. No matter the pain she was in she still had enough room left for anger. "Do it," she snarled, her voice like an animal lashing out.

Quinn could read the doubt on his face in the pale moonlight but when the sound of another engine starting came from behind them, the doubt disappeared. He headed into the shadows of the trees, jumping over tree roots as he went.

She tried to keep her hand pressed on her wound to keep too much blood from escaping while recalling all that Daryl had taught her. Moving through the forest almost invisibly was impossible when you were carrying a wounded person in your arms but there had to be something she could think of that might help them disappear. At least the Saviors couldn't catch up to them with cars anymore.

"Find a stream," she ordered, startling herself when she heard how weak her voice sounded.

Nick's entire body was tense with resistance but he didn't say a word and did as he was told. They moved through the forest, listening for the sound of rushing water. Her father must've known the area well because he headed into a certain direction with confidence. She couldn't tell which direction they were going and it made her even more uncomfortable than she already was.

Shouts came from behind them and once again Nick cursed. The Saviors had picked up their trail. Her father tried to pick up the pace, but the moonlight had disappeared behind the roof of branches and leaves and in the dark he failed to spot a tree root sticking out. One minute they were running and the next the ground came rushing towards her.

She tried to stay silent, she really did but as soon as her broken body connected with the ground a pained scream tore from her lips. Fire licked at her skin while her blood colored the dead leaves on the ground crimson red. She couldn't move, locked in a cage of numbing pain. Tears salted her cheeks as she sobbed uncontrollably, the pain too intense to even care about her father seeing her like this.

The car engines had been replaced by the shouts of men. They had abandoned their vehicles and were following them on foot. Soon they'd catch up and she'd be brought back to that hell hole. But even that thought wasn't enough to get her moving. The pain was too intense. The world danced around her in spots of white and red and in her despair she whispered one name over and over, as though that would summon him and soothe her pain. "Daryl..."

Footsteps approached and for one moment her heart jumped with hope, a fool's hope.

But it was Nick who knelt down beside her, mumbling an apology over and over again. He took off his jacket and bound it around her waist, tight and secure, making her hiss in pain as he finished the knot. But at least she didn't have to stop the bleeding herself now. She had no idea if it was enough, but they didn't have another option at the moment.

A gunshot was fired, the bullet hitting the grass at Nick's feet. He threw a look over his shoulder and seemed to come to the conclusion that Saviors were too far away to aim accurately, but that didn't seem to stop them and one bullet aimed just right could end this all here and now.

Nick gathered her in his arms and with a groan of effort he lifted her, got back on his feet and picked up the pace again. More gunshots were fired now before someone shouted the order to stop and she managed to catch the words: "Negan wants them alive!"

That was at least one ray of light in the darkness. If their pursuers couldn't shoot, they had a bigger chance of escaping.

Nick ran fast through the forest, using the little moonlight that managed to break through the trees to navigate. Until finally the sound of water reached her ears. Nick, probably understanding her intentions, needed no word from her to jump into the stream and wade his way through.

Daryl taught her that water was the best way to hide your tracks. It wasn't the most silent way of moving, so for hunting it wasn't perfect and neither for trying to escape your captors. But they were far enough away for now that the sound probably wouldn't get their attention. And so, for now, they were okay.

The shouts behind them never ceased though, no matter how hard Nick tried to keep up the pace but Quinn was out of ideas. Everything was foggy and warped, as if she was tripping. The sensation left her feeling sick and multiple times she feared she might hurl, only to remember there was nothing in her stomach to throw up. She also noticed her left arm was starting to feel numb, which couldn't mean anything good. Still, there was nothing that could be done about it now, she just had to bite through the pain and get the hell out of here.

She couldn't tell how much time had passed when Nick made his way out of the river. Their pursuers sounded far away now, or maybe it was simply the world becoming more and more vague to her. They climbed up a hill, took a few more steps and suddenly she could feel the ground becoming steady beneath their feet, they were on asphalt once again. She wanted to tell Nick how stupid he was being, but stopped when she could hear the sound of a car door opening. They'd managed to reach the car he had hidden for them.

He placed her down on the backseat but the leather felt as hard as rocks. A whimper left her lips as her thigh bumped against the carseat. The door was closed and Nick took a seat behind the wheel. He started the engine and drove away.

The Saviors would now have to double back to their cars first before being able to continue their pursuit and that tiny window could just be their ticket out of here.

"Where are w-we going?" she asked, slightly surprised when her father could understand her weak and trembling voice.

"We'll find a place to lay low," he said vaguely.

"Not Alexandria," she said through chattering teeth.

"I know," her father reassured her.

She didn't have the energy to say anything else and instead closed her eyes and curled on the leather backseat. At least he was smart enough to avoid going to the Communities, since that would probably be the first place Negan would look for them. Plus, as long as her family didn't know she had escaped, Negan couldn't hurt them for information either. Though, part of her knew she couldn't count on that. He'd hurt people for less...

The rest of the trip was a blur to her as she balanced on the edge of consciousness. Every bump in the road shook her awake once again and in those moments she wondered how it was possible she was still alive. Then she drifted away again, blackness pulling at her vision and her worries died on her lips.

Strange shapes greeted her in the darkness. Daryl's tear stained face. Milo's brown eyes, looking at her with questions she couldn't answer. Beth was there, shining as bright as an angel. She was holding out her hand, as though she was waiting for her. Quinn tried to call out her name but she was gone again, replaced by crimson blood dripping from a bat wrapped in barbed wire. She wanted to scream but her throat was held close by a large hand, cutting off her air and so she was plunged into darkness once again.

When the dark slowly started to retreat, Quinn had lost all sense of time and space. She had no idea if she was still in the car, or if they had been captured instead. The only thing she was aware of was a sound lingering in the distance. A steady rhythm of noise, swelling before retreating again and again. She groaned, waving her hands around in an attempt to get rid of it. But the noise didn't fade.

"Careful," a voice cut through the noise, "you'll tear your stitches if you keep waving around like that."

Nick.

So they hadn't been captured.

But where were they then?

Slowly she opened her eyes, blinking against the pale morning light. Only then did she notice she was laying on an old mattress. The white was stained by fresh blood, as though someone had recently done a surgery on it and one look at her wound confirmed that was indeed the case. Nick had pulled the bullet out and stitched the wound, then wrapped it in what appeared to be sheats.

Her hand wandered over her skin, a frown on her face. "I didn't know you could do that," she muttered, more to herself than to her father but he heard her anyway.

"Did you forget I used to drive an ambulance before all this?" Nick replied.

"No, but I'm just surprised you remember it, considering you were fired for showing up to work drunk," she fired back, ignoring the way her throat ached as she spoke.

Nick nodded, his face betraying not a single emotion at her words. "Fair point." He stood up from the chair he'd been sitting on and, as he walked away, Quinn took in the space she had woken in.

It appeared to be an old fishing cottage. The room was small and dark, the only light came through a little window in the wall on the right. The other wall was completely covered in nets, fishing rods and other equipment she didn't recognise. The mattress she was on was pushed into a corner and in the other corner stood a small round table with two chairs. The ground was covered in white sand, blown inside through the small cracks between the wood of the walls. And finally she understood what that noise was that had woken her up.

The sea...

"What is this place?" she asked as she reached for the water bottle that stood on the ground beside her. Every single movement hurt and she couldn't help but wince as she carefully took a sip. Her body felt as though it had been beaten bloody by a hammer.

Nick sat down on one of the chairs and took a look around. "I lived here for a while before I ran into the Saviors," he finally said. "It was the only safe space I could think of for now."

She frowned. "But the Saviors know it?"

He shook his head. "I ran into them on a run I was doing in the village nearby. It's empty now. They won't come this way."

Silence settled between the two of them as she stared at him, not completely convinced but not having the strength to argue with him either. The small conversation had drained her energy, leaving her shivering and weak. Though her wound was closed now and the bleeding had stopped, she knew she wasn't out of danger yet. If the wound got infected she could still die. And the possibility of the Saviors finding them first was also very real. She wouldn't be able to fight if they came for them and she wasn't sure if her father would take the risk to fight them alone either. She had no other choice than to lay here and get better.

All while Daryl was still captured in that hellhole, getting tortured and questioned. The thought alone was enough for tears to gather in her eyes. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, forcing that thought down. The pain she felt when she thought of him was unbearable. She would rather get shot again than carry the weight of this heartbreak. But her soul cried out to him and she couldn't ignore the pain no matter how hard she tried.

The dreadful night replayed itself in her head, over and over again, as she thought of how she could've done things differently so that he would be here with her now. But she couldn't think of anything that ended up with both of them alive. However, thinking back did raise one very important question.

"Why did you help me?" she muttered, opening her eyes to look at her father.

He didn't look at her as he replied. "I owed you."

He didn't have to say much more for Quinn to understand what he meant. She had spared his life back at the satellite station and now he had repaid that debt. She was somewhat surprised by the small sting she felt in her heart at his words. He had only rescued her because of a debt and not because somewhere deep down in his heart, he might care for her. She couldn't possibly explain why she wanted him to care. Perhaps that was the fate of children who grew up without parents who looked after them; they would forever search for a sign that maybe, one day, they would show that they cared after all.

But it didn't seem like that was the case and so she forced herself to let it go. She couldn't carry any more heartache.

A sound came from her right and she froze, opening her eyes to look at Nick. Who, judging by the way his shoulder tensed, had heard it as well. Someone was outside...Once again the sound of shuffling feet reached her ears. As quietly as possible, Nick reached for his gun and got to his feet. He walked back until he was standing in front of her bed, waiting in silence. With her heart racing in her chest she listened as someone made their way around the cottage, right up to the front door.

Nick raised his gun and turned the safety off. His hands didn't hold so much as a slight tremble as he aimed the weapon at the front door.

They waited and the silence was slowly killing her. She was sure her heart would escape her chest and then, with a loud bang, the door was thrown open, revealing two women holding spears and one with a gun, all three the weapons aimed at them.

The girl with brown skin took a step forward, her spear ready in her hand and Quinn didn't doubt for a moment that she knew how to use it. The girl glared at the two of them, her companions blocking the door, cutting off their only escape. Then she spoke two simple words but her voice carried a clear warning.

"Drop it."