Made to Suffer

"Just go in there and scare him a little bit," Shane said, runnin' his hand over his shaved head, "We need to know how many people are in his camp, how many people we gotta be prepared for."

"We're not going to war," Lori argued, crossin' her arms, "He's just a scared boy. And what about the woman with him?"

"We don't know anything about them," Rick said, "She could be just as dangerous as he is - we can't take a chance on that. We need to figure this out." The three of them looked to me an' I raised an eyebrow at this.

"What?" I asked, " Ya'll can't do your own dirty work?"

Shane piped up first, "We need your help in this. Some good cop bad cop, you in or are we on our own?"

"Yeah," I said, looking to Rick, "I'm in."

"Alright, I'll go first," Shane said with a nod before starting for the barn that until recently held a dozen or so walkers.

"He the good cop or the bad one?" I asked sarcastically to Rick, watching Shane pull open the barn door and disappear inside.



My head was still aching as the sun flooded through the cracks of the old barn doors, shafts of light falling on Randal and I.
"You think they're looking for us?" I asked the teen as my heavy head fell on his shoulder.

"I'm sure they are," Randal said, trying to sound brave. He'd managed to pull the hood off me during the night and he'd told me I had cuts and bruises all over my face from the truck.

"When we were in the hotel, what were you going to tell me?" I asked.

"About John," He began, "He- The last time we went to town and Dave and Tony went with us, on the way back we ran into this guy and his daughters in the woods a-and they did stuff with the daughters," He paused, I could tell he was feeling uncomfortable, "And they made the guy watch and it was fucked up. John's not a good guy." Disgust formed a lead weight in my stomach as I sat on the straw covered floor, my hips and back aching from being in the same position for hours. I opened my mouth to speak as the door opened and a man we hadn't seen before came walking in.

"Where ya'll from?" He asked, crouching down to our level.

"King's county," Randal replied, "We've got a camp there."

"How many people?"

"A lot," I said, thinking if he knew people were looking for us that we might be safe.

"How many?" He asked, more gruffly.

"About 30," Randal lied, taking my lead.

"Where they stayin'?" The man asked, looking from Randal to me. Despite what Randal had told me about John, I had to think of Tallie and Alice and whoever had made it back to the hotel. I kept silent, hoping Randal would too, "I said, where's your camp?"

Randal looked to me before speaking, "We ain't sayin, mister."

"That's fine," The man nodded, crouching down to our level, "But I gotta let you know, my friends ain't gonna like you not cooperating." His eyes were black and empty and they pulled you in to him, I looked away with fear starting to grip me. The man reached out and grabbed a handful of my shirt, yanking me closer to him, "You sure you don't got nothing to say, sweetheart? 'cause the next person that comes in here ain't gonna be as nice as me." I gritted my teeth and flashes of Merle went through my mind as I thought of a response.

"Let her go, man," Randal said, sitting up more. While the man was focused on Randal, I pulled back and spit in his face. Not the best idea, but it felt right. He pulled back an open hand and slapped me hard across my face before dropping me back to the floor.

"Fuckin' bitch," He spat, wiping at his face as he stood. I felt myself begin bleeding again from the cut I'd gotten when the truck hit me.



Shane stormed out of the barn, kickin' at the door as he shut it and lookin' like a fool. I raised an eyebrow as I watched him march up to where Rick and I stood.

"Anything?" Rick asked expectantly.

"Naw, man," Shane shook his head, "They got 30 people in their group, but they wouldn't tell me where they're at. That bitch in there spit in my face."

"Why you gettin' close enough for that?" I asked, Shane looked at me with annoyance.

"Tryin' to scare it outta her," Shane said crossing his arms. I held back a laugh and he narrowed his eyebrows at me, "You got something to say?"

"Your skills must be a little rusty, huh?" I smirked.

"You go get it outta them then," Shane said, throwing his arm out in the direction of the barn. I handed my crossbow over to Rick, "You think you're just gonna handle it?" Shane called out to me as I started for the barn.

"Don't send a boy to do a man's job," I responded, without looking back. I heard a bit of a scuffle between him and Rick, but just kept on my way. I pulled open the old barn door, it's hinges protestin' loudly as I did. The woman to the left had her head down, her dark brown hair hung in messy clumps hiding her face from me. The boy - he couldn'ta been more than 19 - looked me dead in the eye though, almost challenging me.

"Look," I started, deciding that I would do my best to be reasonable after seeing the state the girl was in, "I need ya to tell me where your people are-"

"Daryl?" Her voice was small and it was so faint I thought I'd been hearin' things, "Is that you?" The woman tipped her head on up to look at me after she'd spoken; my jaw fell slack as it registered that this was my wife sittin' in front of me. Her face and clothing were dirty and she had blood coming from her lip and nose, I gritted my teeth knowing that Shane had just been in here.

"You know him?" Randal asked as Raleigh looked up at me, waiting for me to move or say somethin'. I snapped out of my stupor and scooped her up into my arms, the chain wrapped around her wrists and ankles rattlin' as I did, "What about me?" The kid asked, but it was easy to ignore him as I carried Leigh out of the barn.

"Hey girl," I said, my voice crackin'. I swallowed hard, trying to keep the tears back as long as I could.

"Where you been, honey?" She asked, leaning her head against my shoulder as I purposefully made my way towards the house. I needed Hershel to look at her. I could see Shane and Rick heading after us out of the corner of my eye.

"Lookin' for you," I answered.