Darker Skies *The Walking Dead*

Chapter 12

"So, where did your parents take you when the walkers came?" Carl asked. They were walking side by side on the tracks behind Michonne and Rick. They had been on the tracks for two days now, headed to a place called Terminus. Rick had noticed more signs down the track and told them maybe someone from the prison could find the signs as well and be there waiting. It gave Skylar some hope at least. Carl had slowly been asking her what had been happening in her life, trying to catch up on the two years they were apart.

"Dad drove out to Athens almost immediately." She told Carl. "There were whole abandoned neighborhoods by the time we got there, so we just took a house."

"We were on the outskirts of Atlanta, we found a small group of people. Then dad showed up and we started to move around."

"Did you move a lot?" Skylar had only moved a few times, but the house close to the prison was the one with the most memories that now haunted her.

"Yeah, it feels constant." Carl looked tired. There was a silence between them. Skylar didn't mind having short conversations, she didn't want to jump back into the friendship as she did at first. She didn't want to get close to Carl just to lose him when she finally found him again. She was tired of the pain and needed to protect herself.

As they walked the tracks they would run into a few walkers at a time and each uses their knives to kill them. Sometimes Skylar's ankle would hurt too much for her to walk and Carl would have to carry her, which wasn't as awkward as the first time. Carl held her tighter and always made sure she was feeling comfortable. Sometimes he'd switch from holding her like a princess to her climbing onto his back. Carl had never been able to carry Skylar before, she was taller than him when they were 11. But now he had an inch on her and had gained muscle from working at the prison.

Rick kept them moving almost constantly, trying to get to Terminus as fast as possible. Every ten miles there was a sign showing them they were getting closer, but still had a ways to go. That night they had found a truck parked on the side of the road that didn't have any sort of creature inside of it. Michonne broke into it for them and they settled down.

Rick and Michonne had put their blankets in the front seats and left Carl and Skylar to sit down in the back. They had finished eating a rabbit Skylar had caught while she and Carl sat in the back with a pair of comic books Carl snagged from a house and Michonne and Rick were still sitting outside talking. Carl sat in the middle of the backseat so he could be close to Skylar. It reminded her of their time in her treehouse, just reading or talking and sharing a blanket. When it started to get too dark to read, Skylar put her book down and rested her head on the window, almost immediately falling to sleep.

~~

There was a slam on the window of the car that woke up Skylar. Her head bumped into Carl's when she lifted it, but she couldn't think of that when there was a strange man peering into the car. He looked hungry as he stared down the two kids. Skylar looked out the windshield to see Rick and Michonne sitting with guns to their heads and a white-haired man talking to them. She couldn't make out what he was saying until he started to count down from 10. She cried out softly and Carl put a trembling arm around her shoulders and pulled her into him. He put his hand over her head so he didn't have to see the man at the window now holding a knife to them and licking his lips.

Skylar heard the man yell "eight Mississipi" and then another voice cut him off. Carl twisted around and gasped, so Skylar had to push out of his arms so she could see what was happening. And she saw Daryl's dark figure walk by, into the moonlight to stand in front of Rick and Michonne. Daryl and the old man were talking when suddenly Daryl threw his crossbow down. Skylar sat up straighter to keep an eye on the scene. More talking and then the three men behind Daryl came at him, shoving the butts of their guns into his gut and face. Carl and Skylar watched as he punched them right back, standing up for himself as he does.

That's when the back door to the truck opened and Skylar was being dragged out by the man who was taunting them. She screamed and grabbed for Carl who tried pulling her back in but it was no use against a grown man. A man broke away from his fight with Daryl to grab Skylar and break her away from Carl, who now had a knife to his throat. The man who had Skylar twisted his hand in her tangled hair, pulling hard, and grabbed her throat with a tight squeeze. Rick and Michonne almost moved, but the guns at their heads were shoved harder into their temples.

"It was me!" Rick growled at the man who must be the leader.

"See! Now that's not a damn lie." He sounded like he was having fun while his prey struggled and cried. "We can settle this like reasonable men. First, we're going to beat Daryl to death. Then we'll have both the girls. Then the boy. Then I'm going to shoot you." Skylar threw her head back, wanting to get away but the man pulled her hair up so she'd whine and stop struggling. Carl's assailant pushed him down and climbed over him, with the leader laughing maniacally at Rick's shoulder. Skylar screamed, not caring if it called attention to them, and tried to kick back at her kidnapper but it was no use. She couldn't fight her way to Carl, she's too small.

Bang.

The gunshot made Skylar freeze and tense up, but she also felt the hands around her throat and hair loosen. So she tried to twist out of them just as she saw Rick stand up and throw a punch at the leader. But as Rick was thrown to the ground, so was she right next to Carl who was still fighting the large man above him.

"Look at what you got yourself into, princess." The man whispered in Skylar's ear and pushed her hands over her head with only one of his hands. Carl was fighting as hard as he could, people were grunting from fighting, there was another gunshot, Rick was stumbling everywhere. Skylar didn't know what she could possibly do, they were screwed. The white-haired man had grabbed Rick into what looked like a hug and said:

"What are you going to do now, sport?" And still laughing. Skylar heard belts unbuckle and tried to kick her legs again when she heard a shout turn to a gurgling. She tilted her head to see Rick spit something out and his attacker grabbing at his bloody neck. Everyone had stopped moving as they watched Rick sway on his legs and the man fall to the ground. Michonne grabbed a gun and shot the man who had her, one of the guys attacking Daryl, and the man above Skylar. She was just about to shoot Carl's man when he had pulled the young boy up with the knife to his throat.

"I'll kill him if you shoot!" He threatened.

"Put him down!" Michonne didn't sound as strong as she normally did. Skylar had scrambled to Michonne's side as Rick also came up to her.

"He's mine." Skylar had never heard someone sound so evil, so deranged as Rick. He took sloppy steps to the now cowardly man who had thrown Carl to the ground. Skylar reached out to Carl and pulled him to her chest and held him like it was her last time to hold him. They shivered together and watched Rick rip into the man who tried to hurt Carl. Skylar found this time she couldn't turn away as Rick stabbed the man over and over and over again. She found herself unable to cry as Michonne tucked her into the car with Carl. She found herself unable to sleep again.