The Rest of your Life

Chapter 44

"Rick, please." Rory begged. "It's, it's Beth, okay? It's Beth." Daryl had come back the night before, without Carol. He brought back a boy named Noah, he was just a few years older than Carl. He was with Beth in some kind of hospital, Rick and some others were actively getting ready to leave to bring the two back.

"Rory, you need to stay here, help protect your sister. We'll bring her back." Rick set a hand on her shoulder, but the girl shrugged it off.

"Please, Rick." The man just shook his head and Rory sighed before walking away. "I'm gonna go lie down." Rick watched, grim faced, as he watched the girl walk into one of the side rooms before she shut the door.

Rick then turned to his son, giving him a hug before stepping back. "We'll be back soon."

"I know." Carl agreed.

"Look out for Rory, yeah?" Rick said softly, patting Carl on the shoulder.

"When do I not." The boy joked. He watched as his father and the rest of the group left the church. Carl looked to Michonne before they both nodded and begun boarding up the church door.

Once they boarded up the door, Carl stated how he was going to check on Rory. Knocking softly on the door to the room she had walked into, the boy got no answer. He looked to Michonne before opening the door and stepping inside.

"Michonne?" The boy called. Michonne walked over, quickly, only to come to a stop at an empty room and an open window.

"Shit."

•••

Rory was in deep shit. Maybe climbing out of the window and scaling the truck to hide on the roof was not a good idea. She decided she could deal with Rick and Daryl being angry with her, but not disappointed. And right now, the two men were exactly that.

That's exactly why Rory had to be by Rick at all times, which brings her to now, next to the man in an empty building, the others gathered round.

"At sundown, we fire a shot into the air." Rick recited, telling the others the plan. "Get two of them out on patrol. Then once it's dark enough that the rooftop spotter won't see us, we go. We cut the locks on the stairways, take it to the fifth floor. I open the door, Daryl takes the guard out."

"How?" Tyreese questioned.

"He slits his throat." Rick shrugged as if it was obvious. "This is all about us doing this quiet, keeping the upper hand. They're not expecting us. From there, we run out. Knives and silenced weapons. We need to be fast... Tyreese, Sasha, take them." Rick motioned to the little diagram he had drawn on the floor. Rory would compare it to something that Judit would draw. That thought alone made her smile a little.

"Daryl, you take care of whoever is in the kitchen. I got Dawn. Ivory, you stay with me at all times." Rory shrank a little at the man's stare. "If they're smart, the rest of them will give up. Then it'll be five on three. Six on three once we give a weapon to Beth."

"Twelve on three." Noah corrected. "The wards will help."

"That's best case." Tyreese nodded. "What's worst case? All it takes is one of those cops going down the hall at the wrong time. Then it's not quiet. All hands on deck. We're talking about a lot of bullets flying around."

"If that's what it takes." Sasha commented to her brother.

"It's not." He denied. "If we get a couple of her cops alive out here, we do an even trade. Theirs for ours. Everybody goes home."

"Yeah, I get it." Rick spoke, standing fully beside Rory. "And it might work. This will work."

"Nah." Daryl spoke up. "That'll work, too. You say this Dawn, she's just trying to keep it together, right?"