Endure and Survive (Sequel to How We Live Now)

Chapter 2

Once inside the building, Rick quickly closed the door and checked to make sure no one was following us.

"What the hell are you guys doing here?" I asked.

"It's good to see you too," Daryl retorted.

I looked over him and sighed.

"Yes, Daryl. I'm happy to see you. I'm happy to see the both of you. But why did you come here?" I asked.

"Andrea and that woman, Michonne told us that you were here. We couldn't leave you knowing that you were still alive. I couldn't do that to Hershel," Rick said.

I sighed.

"Is everyone okay?" I asked, unable to resist not knowing.

"Everyone's good," Daryl said.

"I'm sorry, Kari but we had to get you out of here," Andrea said from behind me.

I turned and looked at her.

"You just couldn't leave well enough alone, could you?" I asked.

"I wasn't gonna leave you here. Not with him," she said sternly.

"Who else came?" I asked.

"Michonne. But she disappeared once we got here," she said.

"Well we have to find her," I said.

"Nah. She ditched us. Let her fend for herself," Daryl said.

"She helped Andrea get back to you guys. And she would have helped me too if I hadn't had other plans in mind. The least we could do is bring her back to wherever y'all are holed up," I said.

Daryl bit down on his lower lip. I had missed that mannerism. It had been too long.

"It's clear. Let's go back out and find a way out of this place," Rick said.

I then remembered the paper Michonne had given me. I checked my back pocket and sure enough, it was still there.

"Here. We could use this route to leave," I said opening up the paper.

Rick and Daryl took a look.

"That's just around the corner. We can make it," Rick said.

"Was my brother with you?" Daryl suddenly asked.

"He was the one who brought me back," I said.

He clenched his fist.

"Daryl?" I said, making sure he was okay.

"Maybe I can talk to him. Let me go out and find him. Maybe we can work something out," he pleaded.

"Daryl. No. If things go bad out there, I need you to have my back. We need you. Okay? We can find another way to get you and Merle together but right now, we gotta focus on getting out of here," Rick came up to him and said.

"You with us?" he asked when Daryl didn't say a word.

"Yeah," Daryl nodded.

"Okay. Come on," Rick said.

The four of us cautiously made our way out.

"I see them over here!" someone shouted as soon as we were out.

"Shit. Run!" Rick said.

We went around the corner and ran right into Michonne.

"Where the hell were you?" Andrea asked her.

She seemed to have been in some sort of scuffle.

"I was just...taking care of some things," she said.