Red Tide² ━ FTWD

CHAPTER 12: Rough Waters

RED TIDE

chapter twelve: rough waters

[ season 2, episode 4; blood in the streets ]

DAY 21

Travis hadn't yet returned from the wheelhouse, working on the helm under Reed's watchful, beady eye. Jackass and Alicia were still missing, too, leaving the majority of the group under the control of the pregnant woman, Vida, who didn't seem particularly interested in anything they were doing.

Madison leaned closer to her mother and sister, lowering her voice. "Did you see Nick when you were on watch?"

Meghan shook her head. "No."

"He might have come up when we were on the bow," Ofelia suggested.

"And the only one who would know," Daniel said, "is in the sea." If you didn't know him, you could almost mistake his voice as amused, but it was only surface-level. A thin layer to separate what he showed the world, and the coursing anger like a riptide underneath.

These people had put his family in danger. Harmed his daughter. Daniel was not the type to forgive and forget.

Madison's gaze went to the bar counter, where Vida was fiddling through the racks of bottles and shot glasses. "There's only three of them," she noticed.

"So far," Katie said quietly. "They tried to radio earlier." Silent understanding dawned upon the group. If it wasn't obvious before, it was now. The three who had taken them hostage were not isolated, but acting on behalf of a larger organization. One that was likely already on their way.

Their window of opportunity was closing, and fast.

Madison looked to Daniel. "Can you get loose?"

Daniel's eyes drifted to the wheelhouse stairs. "Keep her distracted."

"Use their names," Meghan recommended. At several looks of confusion, she explained, "It's called deindividuation. A diffusion of responsibility that happens when people work in a group, makes them capable of violent acts they wouldn't otherwise do. Using their names humanizes them. Might force them to see us as human, too."

Heather had her doubts about the latter. This wasn't about survival, not for Reed. No one became that twisted, that fast, even in this world. The apocalypse hadn't changed his values — it just released him from the societal constraints that prevented him from acting on his preexisting urges.

He was long past the point of being reasoned with.

Madison nodded as two pairs of feet came into view, heading down the stairs. "Got it," she said under her breath as Travis came downstairs at gunpoint, Reed right on his heels. Heather shifted in place, hands clasping over her keychain toy and tucking firmly behind her back, out of the man's eye-line. She kept her eyes cast to the ground — if they didn't engage, maybe Reed would pass by without incident.