From the Shadows

Sophia had disappeared into the woods a few days back, and Daryl was determined to find her. He would never admit it, but he was tired of losing people, especially the little girl. After the accident with Carl having been shot, Rick was leery of letting people wander around alone, in case something happened and they needed help. On this excursion, Daryl reluctantly let Glenn follow along. Glenn wasn't a good tracker by any means, but he was quiet, fast on his feet, could defend himself against a walker, and most importantly, listened to Daryl's instruction. Glenn paid attention to Daryl. He stopped when told, ran when appropriate, and he didn't bother Daryl with petty conversation. Glenn simply stayed quiet, and was a reliable set of eyes.

Daryl had noticed a pair of footprints in the ground. Larger than Sophia's, but still small, the imprint of an adult. However, they were fresh, and he had suspicion they were made by a female. The footprints indicated they were running.

“Should we follow 'em?” inquired Daryl, his husky voice drawing out his syllables.

“Maybe? She's alone, right? If she is dangerous, we can take her. Easy. Maybe she knows where Sophia is?” Glenn stumbled over his words. Daryl had never asked for his advice before.

They followed the tracks for a half a mile or so, stopping once to collect some water for their journey. Like every day for the past few weeks, it was unbearably hot. Georgia summers were notorious for humid, sticky and hot days. The only solace was at night when it cooled down, but the humidity still never seemed to drop. Sweat dripped from both their brows.

Before too long, they pair came across a small, two story house. It was dilapidated with a small back porch, and plants overgrowing on all sides. Daryl glanced over his shoulder to Glenn, who simply shrugged his shoulders. They carefully walked towards to house and creaked open the old, heavy, wooden door. The house seemed clear and undisturbed, and Daryl carelessly traipsed indoors, when a strange woman jumped from behind a doorway, startling Daryl and pinning him to the ground, holding a knife to his throat.

The woman was smaller than Daryl, but not by much. She was a few inches shorter than him, and a lot stronger than her appearance let off. Her eyes were angry but panicked. Her dirty hair was cut short, and fell into her face. After looking at Daryl's face for several seconds, her eyes grew more confused. She lightly shook her head in disbelief.

“Who the fuck are you?” She barely grunted through her teeth.

Daryl remained silent, not knowing what the right thing to say was. He said his name, barely audible. She didn't hear him.

“Are you with them?” Her voice was softer, shaking slightly, but still strong and determined.

“Who're ya talkin' 'bout?” Daryl responded. The strange woman could hear the sincerity in his confusion, and began to let off, when Glenn snuck behind her and hit her in the head with the butt of his pistol, splitting her temple and knocking her out.

“Wha' the fuck was tha' for?!” Daryl yelled, his voice angry.

Glenn confusedly responded, “She had a knife at your throat. I was trying to help.”

“She was gettin' off me. She thought we was summin else!”

“Who did she think we were?”

Then they heard rustling outside. Daryl motioned to Glenn to shut the back door, and stay low to the floor. Their was a window on the side with the strangers, the front of the house, and Daryl and Glenn didn't want to be seen.

“Come on out darling, don't be shy. We know you're in there.” The booming and oddly friendly, but fake, voice called from outside. Daryl and Glenn exchanged looks, confused. Daryl thought to himself, Is that the group she thought we was with? She tried to kill me...

“Don't make this difficult sweetheart. You have what we want. Just make this nice and easy for everybody,” called the voice again.

The strange woman started to move. Glenn had hit her pretty hard, but she wasn't out for long. Her head throbbed, and blood dribbled down her face over her eye and onto her cheek. She was making noise, so Daryl tried to politely shush her. His natural roughness made his politeness seem rude and uncalled for. He covered her mouth with one, calloused hand and placed a shushing finger from the other hand over his mouth. She glared at him with angry eyes.

The woman was conscious enough, and heard the voice outside. “We know you're there. We've found you this time. Can't run nowhere.”

Her eyes grew large and fearful, and she smacked Daryl's hand from her mouth. She started to do a weapon check. Two knives in her belt, one on her thigh, another in her boot, pistol.. but her bow and quiver were upstairs. Daryl and Glenn grew concerned, as her pace quickened as she prepared to attack, run or both.

“Who are they?” Glenn whispered.

“Not friendly,” the woman hissed.

“How many are there?” Daryl asked.

“Maybe four or five, last time I checked. Doubt they recruited more,” she said, checking again she had all her necessary tools. Daryl moved his crossbow to the front of his body, preparing for the worst.

The woman started to slink her way to the door, when Daryl held her back. “What do you think yer doin'? Yer outnumbered. Said that yerself.”

She quickly turned to him with snake eyes, and snapped, “They are a shit shot, and worse at close combat, which I happen to be good at. Tired of runnin'. Need to finish this now.”

“What did you say?” Daryl bewildered and pissed off at how vague and pushy this woman seemed.

“How can we help?” inquired Glenn, always the nice guy.

“Stay in here and keep fucking quiet. They don't know you're here. Don't let them. There are three windows on this side of the house. Two are obvious and easy targets, one in the bathroom upstairs. Do whatever, but stay the fuck out of my way!”

Daryl let go of her shoulder, and she headed for the door. In what felt like seconds, she appeared in front of the group of men, hands in the air as if to surrender.

“Well, well. You finally came to terms, eh? Good. Would hate to have to hurt a pretty face like yours.” grumbled the man who spoke earlier. All the men were gruff and sweaty, and noticeably larger than the woman. Daryl became worried for her. The men did not seem friendly, and she was outnumbered.

“Glenn, go find tha' winda upstairs. I'll stay here,” Daryl instructed, though his voice was shaky and sounded like more of a demand. Glenn listened, and quietly and slowly made his was upstairs in search of the bathroom. The house was old and creaking, and Glenn didn't want to make too much noise, so he moved much too slow.

Daryl moved his eyes back to the window, hoping thing wouldn't go as badly as he feared. He saw the woman was being held back, a tall and lanky man holding a knife to her throat as another man rambled on jargon at her. Daryl didn't care to listen, but loaded and aimed his crossbow. In a split second, the woman had pulled a knife out and stabbed her holder in the thigh, twisting it, spun around and slit his throat. She then rolled towards the next guy, kicked his feet out from under him and stabbed him in the chest. Another guy, young and naïve, hesitated but aimed a gun at her. She threw her knife at him and in perfect aim, hit right between his eyes. The fourth man started to run, but she pulled her pistol out with a silencer, and shot him in the back of the head as her began to run away. By the time Glenn reached the bathroom window, the aggressors were dead, and the woman was cleaning her knives onto a bandana. She began to walk back to the house, when a fifth man appeared from behind a bush and shot her with an arrow into her right shoulder. She leaned forward, and quickly turned around. He fired again and the arrow pierced her abdomen, very near the side of her waist. She fell to the ground in agony, and Glenn fired a shot through the window. The bullet injured the man, but didn't kill him. Daryl ran outside to finish the job, when the man began to plead for his life.

“Please, please. D-don't kill me. Was just a job. Didn't wanna hurt her, just a job.”

Daryl didn't hesitate and killed the man of no more than twenty. He turned around and saw the woman trying to stand, but her right arm was rendered useless, as it was too painful to use. Glenn rushed outside and knelt next to her, calmly telling her , “You're going to be alright.”

He leaned in to help her up, when she swatted it away and swore at him. “Don't fucking touch me.”

Her vision was tunneling in, and she panicked. Blood began to stain her shirt. This is it. She thought to herself. I made it all this way, killed those fuckers, and I'm still going to die.

“I've gotta finish it..” She barely squeezed out the whisper. Her eyes rolled in the back of her head, and her body went limp.