49. Wrath

'my ghosts will rejoice in knowing
my wrath is their vengeance.'
-monique orgeron

⤐

  I'm looking.. for someone. Who am I supposed to be looking for? They're lost... I'm supposed to be looking for them. Girl. Little girl. Sophia.

I'm supposed to be looking for Sophia.

Why am I here? I need to find her.

  No... not Sophia.

  Sophia's dead.

  They're all dead, aren't they?

No, no, I'm looking, looking... looking for someone.

Who is she? She's there... green eyes. I see them.

  So beautiful.

Where am I?

  Who am I?

  Daryl groaned as he curled into a ball against the damp concrete floor, ears ringing sharply through the melody of Easy Street blasting through the door repeatedly. He sucked in a shaky breath that felt like sucking a cactus down into his swollen throat.

  Everything was swollen; everything hurt.

I can see her face, her eyes... yes, yes. I see them.

Ace.

Zeppelin.

I see her.

⤐

"Where is he!?" Thunder rolled over Zeppelin's plea, a touch of warning as she paced between the ravine's edge and Lisa's body slumped against a tree.

  Static buzzed over the channel before a man's voice demanded, "Who the fuck is this?"

  "How'd you get on this channel?" Another echoed.

"Answer the goddamn question," she snapped. A drop of rain landed between her brows, and she wiped it away. "Where.. is Negan?"

Lisa stirred behind her, her body slowly regaining control as tiny pearls of crystal-tipped water drizzled between the thick canopy of leaves. Zepp dug in her pack for the thin rope, her other hand clenched tightly around the walkie-talkie. She could hear footsteps running down cement hallways over the fuzzy static, voices mumbling words like who, how, and where. She was sure they were wondering if she was a problem they could handle themselves or something they needed to get the big boss involved in.

And she's a big fucking problem.

She crouched next to Lisa and quickly slipped the rope around her wrist, securing it with an intricate knot. She looped the other end around her own left wrist, holding the antenna of the walkie-talkie between her teeth as she tied another knot. Satisfied with the connecting line, she leaned against the opposite tree and twirled her knife against her thigh.

  Her horrible knife. Maybe Lisa knows where the armory is...

Finally, a familiar voice buzzed through, his words riding in on a silky smooth laugh. "Now, who in the holy hell is this, and what makes you think you can demand my presence?"

  Every hair on her skin stood up straight; her very nerves perked up in attention at the sound of his voice.

  "Negan.. you know who I am."

  He paused long enough for her breath to quicken. The rain began falling harder, though she barely even noticed it.

  "Now, don't take this the wrong way, but I meet many people, sweetheart. Women in particular, I make sure to meet the women. But damn, you sound hot and like a particular type of crazy, so I can only name a few.. let me think."

  She could almost see the smug grin plastered on his face, the amused glint in his hazel eyes. Her darting gaze skimmed over Lisa, whose eyelids were finally beginning to flicker as water lightly pelted her face.

  "Oh, I get it," the plastic buzzed in her hand as he murmured in delight. "You must be that chick from Alexandria.. right? The one with all the curls and the crazy look in her eye? Gotta be," he confirmed. "Yeah... gotta be."

  "I want Daryl," she demanded, ignoring his little digs. "And I have someone of yours to trade."

  Lisa inhaled suddenly, finally jerking through the threshold of consciousness.

  Speak of the devil, and he shall appear.

  Zeppelin watched the woman as she wrapped the rope once around her palm, strengthening her hold as Lisa sat up slowly.

  Another long pause. She watched the birds above them scramble to find shelter from the rain. One chased after a much smaller bird; she wondered if it was her baby.

  "You've gotta be shitting me," Negan finally hissed. "You're really trying to negotiate with me right now? Did you learn nothing from our first meeting?"

  "Did you?"

  He laughed then, drawn out and low. "You have some massive lady balls; I'll give you that much."

  Zepp kept her eyes fixed on Lisa, who glanced at the rope on her wrist but made no moves to free herself.

  Yet.

  "I have Lisa with me. Let Daryl go, and she walks back in safe and sound," Zepp conceded. Rain ran down her neck and into her shirt, soaking the orange fabric until it clung to her skin. She shivered against the chill and popped her neck side to side.

"And what? We go our separate ways, live in la la land like nothing happened?" Negan scoffed. "Doesn't work that way, no ma'am. What is your name, by the way, darling? I never caught it."

"Doesn't matter what my name is. Will you make the trade or not?"

She could see Lisa's shoulders tense, tears pooling at the edges of her eyes as they awaited his answer. Zepp shifted her weight to one foot and nervously tapped her index finger against the walkie.

"No."

The walkie-talkie clicked off, static cutting to a thick silence only broken by the drops of rain pelting the forest. Lisa let her head fall back against the tree as she squeezed her eyes shut. "Told you he wouldn't care," she whispered.

Zepp cursed under her breath and crouched beside her, laying the knife at her feet. "Then help me," she pleaded. "You have no reason to protect him if he won't protect you."

"But he does protect us," Lisa's eyes flew open suddenly, and Zepp steeled herself for a lunge that did not come. "The sanctuary, the saviors, all of it protects us from what's out here, from people like you!" She dropped her head in her hands as Zepp sat back on her heels.

"We are not like them," Zepp whispered, almost choking on the words. "What they did.. what he did.. my people would never do something like that."

"You killed Gloria," Lisa cried softly, tilting her head to look up at her. "You killed her, and you killed all those people at the outpost, too. What's so different? What makes you better than him?"

Zepp shook her head, her thoughts racing a hundred miles a minute as the rain fell harder. "No," she drew out a long breath. "It's.. it's different. I'm not explaining myself to my prisoner," she snapped, sitting up straight as she tugged on the rope, pulling Lisa to her feet. Zepp slung her bag over her shoulder and her rifle on the other. She tucked the hatchet into the loop on the waist of her jeans and the knife in her back pocket. With one hand on her pistol and the other on the rope, she tugged once.

  "Come on."

"Where are we going?" Lisa hesitated, planting her feet firmly.

"He doesn't want to trade, that's fine. Then you have to help me find Daryl," Zepp didn't look back as she tugged again and trudged on, dragging the other woman through the muddy woods.

"I already told you, I don't know where they keep the prisoners," Lisa argued behind her.

"Then I'll tear the fucking place down," Zeppelin snarled, whipping around to face her. Whatever Lisa saw in her expression then finally shut her up, and she followed just a little quicker as they weaved between the trees.

They stayed behind the tree line but close enough to the ravine that Zepp could keep one eye on the compound below. The thought was disgusting, but she actually wished she was covered in mud and guts again, her bright orange shirt a flashing alert in the muted greens of the woods.

Finally, the Sanctuary was behind them, and she veered left, circling around towards the back of their radius. A tiny run-down cabin sat just up the hill, and she ducked behind a tree, dragging Lisa down with her.

"Ow," she hissed, rubbing the raw skin on her wrist. "That cabin used to be a lookout out, but now it's just a booze spot. Nobody goes there during the day."

  Zepp hesitated, gazing directly into Lisa's bloodshot eyes, searching for some glimpse of truth.

  "Look, I'm not lying to you," Lisa insisted. "If someone were there, I would've screamed already."

  Fair enough.

  Zepp jumped to her feet and crept over to the rickety wooden building with two dirt-caked windows and a front door hanging off its hinges. She carefully cracked it open, peeking her head around the threshold. It was roughly the same size as a studio apartment, with a few tables and lawn chairs scattered around and a TV in the corner. She pulled the door open the rest of the way and snuck inside, though she could see every corner of the cabin with this one viewpoint.

  On the west side was a makeshift kitchen, a broken mini fridge resting in the corner with the door ripped off, and shelving on the walls with a few canned goods scattered along them, but what intrigued her most were the bottles of unlabeled, variously colored liquors lining the entire top shelf.

  "The boys like to drink, but too much in the main building can cause issues, so.. Negan likes to keep a stock set aside for his crew," Lisa offered quietly, creeping in behind Zeppelin at a safe distance. As much a distance as the tether allowed, anyway.

  Zepp grabbed a few bottles and shoved them in her bag, squeezing three in before the zipper wouldn't close.

  "Planning on blacking out before you do this?"

  Zepp glared at Lisa and looked around the small room for anything else she could pilfer from them. The only things that caught her eye were the thin white blanket thrown across one of the rusted lawn chairs, a deck of cards falling out of torn packaging, and a small silver Zippo lighter in the middle of the table. She smiled to herself and tugged Lisa closer as she shoved the lighter in her pocket and used her knife to saw off strips of the cotton blanket. It took some effort, but when she was finally satisfied with the long strips, she stuffed those in her bag, ignoring Lisa's inquiring gaze.

  "Oh, no," the woman groaned, wiping the lingering rain from her forehead as she leaned against the couch. "You're not doing what I think you're doing.. right?" She pulled a little on her restraint, annoyance flicking across her features as she slowly followed Zepp back outside.

  "Got any better ideas?"

  Lisa grimaced and shook her head, inching closer to Zepp's side as they stalked through the woods. They started circling back towards the compound, with the ravine on one side veiled by a line of young, thin trees and the thick forest on the other. The rain began to thin, heavy clouds in the sky disintegrating into puffy streaks and giving way to the oranges and blues of the setting sun.

  Beautiful.

  "If you had to guess what section of the building the cells are in, what's your best guess?" She whispered to Lisa beside her as she paused behind a thick oak tree. The woman bit her lower lip in thought and looked out over the ravine at the warehouse in the distance.

  "Well, I know where they're not, so... the southeast corner, maybe? The west side is the cafeteria, rec rooms, and bedrooms, and the rest I've seen is just storage and stuff like that," Lisa murmured.

  "Any other secret entrances you know about?"

  "I know there's a window somewhere on the back side that doesn't lock, but I don't know which one," she said casually and shrugged.

  "Very helpful," Zepp sighed and turned back around to creep along the ravine. They were getting closer and closer to the sanctuary, each step sending a lightning bolt of anxiety through her veins.

  "I don't know what you want from me," Lisa hissed back, once again tugging ever so lightly on the rope that connected them as if she was testing the strength of the rope or Zeppelin's patience.

  One of them is incredibly thin, and it's not the rope.

  "I want your help, or I want you to stop talking. You choose."

  "I am helping you, though you damn sure don't deserve it! I could've been fighting back this whole time, but I haven't," Lisa's tone grew sharp and cold. "I've made this whole hostage thing way easier on you than I could've."

  Zepp couldn't hide the amused chuckle that escaped her lips as she kept her gaze on the warehouse, still following the path she laid out in her mind.

  "Something funny to you?"

  "The fact that you actually think you could fight me," Zepp said, her words tumbling out with a half-crazed laugh. "Now stop talking and help me find a way inside."

  "You're a filthy fucking rat," Lisa hissed.

  Zeppelin rolled her eyes and tugged harder. "Ugh, I love a woman who can talk dirty."

  Lisa didn't answer, though her steps slowed and finally stopped, pulling on the rope as Zepp kept stomping forward. She spun around to face her, her pistol raised at her side. "What now," she groaned.

  Lisa's eyes were fixed on the building below, straight down on two men leaning against the chain link fence as they smoked. One of them she didn't recognize. The other was the same blonde who had helped her inside the gate the first time, the one who brought her to the doctor. He had a nice smile; she could see it even from here. She wondered if-

  Before she could register what was happening, the only thing she knew was pain.

  Lisa threw herself off the side of the cliff, sliding down in the mud and fallen brush as Zepp tumbled to the ground and slid after her. She cried out as she caught herself on the overgrown roots of a collapsed tree, the rope connecting her to Lisa burning and gnawing at the flesh of her wrist.

  They hung like that for a moment, suspended on either side, Zepp clutching onto the tree for dear life as Lisa dangled off the ravine. Zepp could hear her crying, the rope around her own wrist no doubt scorching her flesh.

  Zepp's shoulders screamed and ached in agony as she used all her strength to hold them up. Her arms trembled, and her fingers started to slip from the moss-covered bark, tears pricking the corners of her eyes.

  "Pull yourself up!" She called out to Lisa, and though she couldn't see her, she could feel her total weight still dangling from the other end of Zepp's limb. "Lisa!"

  "Fuck you!" The other woman wailed, groaning as the rope swung just an inch or two to the side. Zepp screamed again, feeling the tendons in her shoulder starting to pop.

  She made it all this way. She survived everything she'd gone through. She made it in and out of the Sanctuary. She wouldn't go out like this. This isn't the end.

  Not like this. Not like this.

  Her fingertips barely clung to the tree, slipping lower and lower as her muscles gave out.

  She took a deep breath and let go.

  She fell closer to the edge, slamming her feet into the tree closest to her to brace herself. Wrapping both hands around the rope, she pulled with as much strength as her body would allow, ignoring the searing burn in her palms as the line tore her skin.

  The men below had to have heard their screams and had to see Lisa sagging from the top of the slanted ground. She guessed she had about five minutes tops before they came running after them. Finally, Zepp could feel Lisa climb back up, the relief in her shoulders washing over her in warm pinpricks. Lisa groaned, digging her nails into the dirt as she pulled herself up, sliding on her belly to lay flat next to Zepp as they caught their breath.

  Zepp coughed, and it felt like someone took a jackhammer to her rib cage, crawling to her knees and peeking her head over the ravine's edge. The men were gone, which meant they were probably coming for them.

  Fuck.

  She hissed an inhale between gritted teeth as the rope pushed against the raw and bloody flesh on her left wrist. This wrist... no...

  She softly traced over the thick, ugly burn marred across the already fading black lines with trembling fingertips.

  She remembered the day she got the tattoo down to the last minute detail, every scene still fresh in her mind. In the month after she ran away from home, she befriended another waitress at the bar she was tending, whose boyfriend happened to be an aspiring tattoo artist. This really meant that after they closed the bar, they'd sit on top of overturned kegs outside and pass joints while he practiced on them, but it was good enough for a V, a soft reminder of her very best friend.

  "No," she let out a soft cry. The scar had ruined the lines of the V, only leaving choppy black marks on her bloody wrist. "No..."

  She returned to face Lisa again, who had risen to her knees as she rubbed her shoulder, eyes squinted in pain. "What the hell were you thinking!?" Zepp hissed and inched closer to her. "What did you do!?"

  All the rage she had been fighting to hold inside, the anger boiling inside her skin, was finally bubbling to the surface. Her vision was fuzzy in the corners. Sleep deprivation demons whispered taunting tunes in her ears as she flung herself at Lisa. She landed on top of the other woman and landed three blows to her face before pushing Zepp off her, rolling over and scrambling away.

  Lisa crawled through the mud for five seconds before Zepp looped the rope twice around her hand and tugged, bending Lisa's arm behind her as she sat on her back. She leaned down close to her ear as the rain returned. "Don't ever try that shit again, do you hear me?"

  Lisa didn't answer, only sobbing and cursing softly into the earth below them.

  "I said do you hear me!?" Zepp shrieked and pulled the rope harder... much harder than she had intended. The sickening pop of Lisa's shoulder dislocating was enough to make her stomach flip, and she crawled away from her as Lisa flipped over, screaming in agony.

  "I'm... I'm sorry," she whispered, shaking her head as she tentatively reached out to her. "I'm sorry-"

  She was cut off by shouting in the distance, footsteps thundering through the thick and overgrown brush.

  "Get up," she whipped back to face Lisa, wrapping her hands around her forearms to help pull her up.

  "You just dislocated my shoulder, you crazy b-"

  "Get up!"

  Lisa didn't need another command, stumbling to her feet and following on shaking legs as Zepp sprinted away from the chorus of voices behind them. She'd circle back around, only a few minutes' distance between her and the opening in the fence. She couldn't bear to turn around, to risk seeing how many men were after them, how close they were.

  Maybe she'd get lucky. Perhaps they were far behind, far enough they couldn't follow. Maybe most of the outside patrol was in the woods looking for them, and she could slip back in without being noticed; maybe, just perhaps, just this once, the universe would be on her side.

  She's smarter than them, faster too.

  She already knew she had an edge over the Saviors.

  She just needed the blade to be a bit sharper.

  First, she has to outrun them.

⤐

  Footsteps.

  Feet lightly pattering down the hallway, soft and slow and full of quiet intent.

  Shadows.

  A shadow under the door, dark grey and black, engulfing the crack of light.

  "Daryl?" A gentle voice whispered.

  Sherry.

  He didn't say anything, but he tilted his head towards the door, waiting to hear the next word.

  "She's here."

  She?

  He mumbled what he thought was a response, but if he only spoke in grumbles and groans, he wouldn't notice a difference.

  "Daryl, can you hear me?" Sherry tapped one finger softly against the door. "I said she's here."

  "Who," he murmured, his voice cracking in defiance of being used.

  "Whoever it is that's been keeping you sane in here," Sherry breathed. "She's here, and she demanded Negan trade you for one of the wives... I don't know how she did it, but she did. She's here for you."

  Zeppelin... did he say that out loud? He couldn't tell anymore.

  Sherry was silent, only the sound of a lock clicking open ringing in his ears seconds before her shadow disappeared.

  Was this another test? Could he trust her?

  She said she was here... Ace... is it true?

  He cracked open the door just an inch, peering around the dirty steel into the dim hallway. If it was true, he had to see her. Even if he were captured again, even if he was killed, if he could just catch one glimpse of her, it would be worth it.

  She is worth it.

  She is everything.

  He ran.