Stray // Daryl Dixon

Made to Suffer

My body shook uncontrollably the closer those bastards got to Glenn. Two more innocent men knelt in the way before it was undoubtedly Glenn's turn. The feeling was suffocating. To not have an ounce of control over a situation. A situation that only ended in life or death. I could hear the repetitive motion of the men being slaughtered. After the first man was killed, I knew exactly what was happening with each sound being made. I tried hard to squeeze my eyes shut, shielding myself from the scene before me, but it was a hopeless effort.

There was a whack, the exact same sound as a metal bat hitting a baseball. Following the strike was one final grunt escaping the lips of the victim before becoming unconscious. Then there was a slice, the sound that was the hardest to hear, but undoubtedly the most frightening. The sound pierced through your eardrums like the blade was at your own throat before your stomach churned upon hearing the first stream of blood spraying against the bottom of the trough.

The tears streamed down the side of my cheekbones. How did we end up here? How did I end up here? My heart pounded against my ribcage from how frightened I was. For the first time since the dead started walking the earth, I felt it, in this moment I realized that I was not getting out of here alive. The fear of death has always been there, it was an understanding that it would happen one day no matter how hard I tried to convince myself we were invincible. But never did I think it would be like this. I always thought I'd at least go down fighting, not strapped to some table with my life in the palms of cannibals.

"Hey guys, what were your shot counts?" a man's voice carried over the room. I finally turned my head, my eyes landing on Gareth standing in the door frame with a notebook in hand.

"Thirty-eight," the bald-headed man answered before striking the last man to stand in the way of Glenn.

Gareth recorded the number in his book. The butchers then shuffled over behind Glenn. Glenn stared straight ahead, his sweat-soaked hair dripping into the trough before he wandered his eyes over to me. He was saying goodbye. I watched as the swinger towered over him from behind, the bat being thrown up behind his right shoulder ready to make contact. I screamed out in agony, the rag in my mouth muffling the true force of my scream, but it was enough to still hear.

"Hey!" Gareth called out, stopping the batter mid-swing. "What is she doing here?" He pointed his finger towards me. The two butchers exchanged glances towards one another like they were nervous. My chest rapidly rose when the attention was turned over to me. Why was I here? "You guys know that we handle the women separately," Gareth scolded him.

The younger one's eyes darted around the room not wanting to make eye contact with Gareth before he finally spoke up. "Crap, man, I'm sorry. It was my first round-up. She was right beside the car door and the only one I could grab."

"After you're done here, bring her back to the train car when you grab the other two men still in there," Gareth explained calmly like he was speaking to a child.

"Hey! Hey!" Bob's muffled voice then caught my attention. "Hey, let me talk to you."

Gareth exhaled as he ignored Bob's pleas for a conversation, "So we got four from A once red is returned and four from D?"

"Yeah," the butcher answered.

"Hey, let me talk to you for a minute!" Bob tried again. To my surprise Gareth actually walked over to him, squatting down on the other side of the trough and pulling down Bob's gag.

"What?"

"Don't do this. We can fix this." Bob nodded his head.

"No we can't," Gareth responded before Bob could barely even get out the last of his sentence. Gareth had heard it all before, the thought of that making you wonder just how many people had lost their lives here. Gareth immediately placed the gag back over Bob's mouth before turning his attention to Rick. Gareth was level with him, shuffling his feet over so he could be across from Rick. Rick started right through him, as still as a statue, as straight as an arrow, that same look in his eye on the night he ripped out Joe's neck. Gareth removed his gag.