Dark Days

Trouble

©JRF2016

I blinked my eyes but they wouldn't open much.  I felt like I had been hit by a truck and I had the metallic taste of blood in my mouth. The little gap between my eyelids revealed very little.  It was dark but I could hear the clinking of metal objects somewhere in the room.  Someone was whistling a creepy tune.  "Glad you're finally awake," a man said from behind me, "I need your help with a little problem I have."  I kept looking around trying to see who this guy was but he kept moving.  I tried to stand up only to realize I was strapped to a chair.  "You are one tough cookie," the man said, "So far you've been pretty uncooperative but I think I may have just the thing to bring you around."  My eyes were open just enough to see a scalpel in his hand.  He swiped it across my cheek.

"Are you going to kill me?" I asked my voice trembling.

        He laughed, "No, I need you alive.  I need you to get me inside that prison and to Reid."  What was his problem with Reid?  And almost as if reading my mind he answered, "There was an incident a while back, he and his friends broke in here and killed some of our people."  I spat a mouthful of blood out onto the floor.

"Reid wouldn't have done that.  You had to have done something to him first."  He punched me and let out a vicious sounding growl.

"Are you calling me a liar!"  He hit me one more time and I could feel myself about to lose consciousness again.

Back at the prison Reid saw Martha run up to the gate.  She was alone without the car and without Rachel.  He opens the gate and pulls her inside.  "Where's Rachel?"  He asks as she looks up at him, her green eyes filling with tears.  "We got overrun," she started, "I tried to help her but a walker fell on top of her and I didn't see her get up.  There were too many, I couldn't get to her.  I don't know if she made it out or not."  Reid shakes his head in disbelief.  She couldn't be gone.  He wanted to apologize to her, to make up for being such a jerk.  There's never enough time.

I woke up in my own bed inside my own cell in C block. Reid was standing in the doorway with his arm propped up above his head leaning on the door.  "I'm so glad you're back.  I felt so bad for the way I acted when you left."  He walks over and sits next to me on the bed, his dreamy blue eyes shining at me. As he sits down he leans over and places a soft kiss on my lips.  I smile into his kiss.  This is what I was longing for all along.  I open my eyes to see a strange man locked onto my lips.  I pull away, "Who are you?"

He laughs, "I'm the guy you're going to help get to Reid.  You're gonna help me steal everything from him the way he stole everything from me."  I spit a new mouthful of blood into his face this time as I screamed.

"Forget you!  I'm not helping you do anything to Reid.  You'll have to kill me!"  He wipes the blood off his face and laughs.

"Well, if you aren't gonna help me get to Reid I've got no more use for you, but I'm not going to kill you. That would be too easy."  He reaches over and I flinch, "Shh, Shh," he said stroking my cheek softly, "I'm not gonna hurt you anymore.  You are too pretty to disfigure anymore."  I shiver and feel the sweet, sweet unconscious take me again.

I woke up this time and the first man was gone. Another was sitting in front of me. I blink my swollen eyes and I am relieved to see a familiar face. "Conner!"  I try to squeal but it comes out as more of a croak, my throat is so dry. "Bout time you woke up," he said as he reaches for a cup and puts it to my lips.  The cool water slides down my throat giving me some sweet relief. 

"What are you doing here?  Why are you with this creep, you see what he's done to me?  Are you, wait, what are you gonna do to me?"  I start to panic; if he is with this guy maybe my Conner isn't the same guy I used to know. 

He laughs and somehow I didn't feel as uneasy with his laugh as the other guy. It was the laugh I was comfortable with, Conner's laugh. "I ain't gonna hurt ya, you know me.  I wouldn't do anything to hurt you, you're my angel."  He kisses me.  "I missed you so much and I'm glad you are still alive but I just wanna get back to my brother."  I looked into his light green eyes and although I still wasn't completely sure I could fully trust him now, I could tell he was at least telling the truth about his brother.  I spit some more blood on the floor.

"I don't know who or where your brother is, but I would like to get away from this guy.  I don't know how I'm gonna help you get back to your brother, but you can come back to my group with me until we figure it out." He smiles.

"Oh, but you do know my brother, he's back there with your group. You've been hanging out with him a lot actually."  I look at him trying to figure it out, he had told me about his older brother before but I don't recall him ever telling me his name and I've never met him.  My memory flashed through everyone in the group trying to figure out who looked at least somewhat similar to Conner but I couldn't figure it out.  "Darrick."  He says as he leans back in his chair. 

"Darrick?"  I ask in a state of shock, "He doesn't look anything like you." 

He nods, "Different fathers.  We ain't got the time for explanations.  Tony's gonna be back any minute and we need to be long gone."  He unlocks the handcuffs holding me to that chair and pulls me up out of it.  He threw my arm over his shoulder and placed his big, strong hands on my hip.  We made it to the gate and he set me down as he looked for an opening we could slip through.  He found a spot and lifted me up letting me go through first.  I turn around to grab his hand and pull him through but someone stronger pulls him back out of my grasp.  "Dammit, run Rachel!"  He yells as I hear the other men's fists hitting him.  I hear the first man yell, "Don't just stand there! Get her!"  One of the men reaches through the small opening and grabs for me.  He gets hold of my ankle and I fall backward.  A zombie stumbles towards me.  I kick the man in the face breaking his nose as he retreats screaming.  I jump and grab the closest thing to me to fight off the zombie next.  It was a metal pipe and I pull back and swing connecting with its softened skull and splattering its dead brain all over the ground.  I ran as fast as I could in the direction I thought the prison was in.

{Reid's POV}
It had been three days since Martha returned from the run where Rachel was lost.  I had been out a couple times just to see if I could find any traces of her with no luck. First I lose Lucy before I get a chance to fix things with her and now the same thing has happened with Rachel.  "Reid!"  I hear Martha screaming from the guard tower.  She was pointing outside the gate.  I put my hand on my pistol ready to see Tony coming back for another fight.  I feel a smile creep across my face as I see it is Rachel fighting her way to the gate.  I unlock it and run to her just as she collapses in my arms.  I carry her into the cell block, "Doc, we need Doc!"  I lay her on her bed as Doc comes in to check her out.  "She's been through a lot but she'll make it.  She just needs to rest."  I nod and sit down by her side waiting for her to wake up.    {end Reid's POV}

It took me the rest of the night but I finally come to the edge of the woods and saw my refuge, my home.  I looked up at the guard tower to see who was on watch.  It was Martha.  I feel a smile come across my face.  She had made it back.  I wave my hands above my head to get her attention. Unfortunately, hers was not the only attention I got.  A zombie turns around and heads straight for me.  I grip my metal pipe tighter and prepare to swing as I hear Martha yell for Reid.  I run for the gate swinging at walkers as I do.  My breathing was getting heavier and my body was getting weaker.  That guy really did a number on me.  Just as I reach the gate I collapse and feel two arms wrap around me.  I look into those blue eyes of Reid's and smile before passing out.