Double Crossbow (Daryl Dixon) [The Walking Dead]

Chapter 67 ↣ Is she desperate?

"Now, do not misunderstand me;
when I call myself a shell|
I mean—a used up bullet casing.|
As in, an echo of inflicted evil."

— Amrita Chakraborty

↣ ↢

Kathryn

BEING BACK IN Atlanta made my skin crawl. I didn't believe in ghosts, but the heavy feeling that coated Atlanta could've made a believer out of any skeptic. Pair that with the anticipation of securing our group members had my blood jumping. I paced a bit away from the others who were discussing plans.

Tyreese proposed abduction rather than Rick's plan of intrusion.

I stopped at Daryl's voice. "Nah, that'll work, too. You say this Dawn, she's just trying to keep it together, right?"

"Trying and doing are two different things," Noah said.

"You take two of her cops away, what choices does she have? Everybody goes home. Like he says." Daryl looked back at me and raised an eyebrow. Any time now.

"Is she desperate?" I asked Noah.

He shoved his hands in his pockets. "I don't know... I think she operates on instinct alone."

I chewed on this for a moment. "Instinct would be to save your fellow cop, yes, Rick?"

He nodded.

"Instinct would also be not to lose face. She can't look intimidated by some smelly nobodies that just wandered up to her door. What will she do to counter that? If she's not desperate, that may be more predictable. All of this is to say we should go with Tyreese's plan with the addendum we make sure to gather as much information as possible from the cops we snag before we make contact. Stray bullets could kill one of us just as easily as them, and there's been enough blood recently."

"Me," Noah started. "She'll want me back."

"Well, considering Glenn's not here, I think you just volunteered yourself as bait."

Noah turned to Rick. "They'll be listening for signs of me. Gunshots." He turned towards the window. "We just have to lure them down a dead end. They won't expect me to have help."

Rick looked slowly between Daryl and I. The smoke was clearly pouring out of his ears as he evaluated every way this plan could go wrong. In all honesty, both were terrible plans, so why not pick the one that might end up with a lesser body count?

Finally Rick nodded. "I have a few places in mind. Where do they normally patrol?"

Noah quickly started drawing in the dirt, mapping out streets. I looked away from the scene as Daryl came to stand by me.

He dropped his voice. "Ty said it was ugly. You left that out."

"Ugly is a little subjective don't you think."

Daryl frowned.

"It's done. They're gone."

Daryl continued to frown at me.

I narrowed my eyes. "Your face is gonna get stuck like that."

Finally, his expression broke. A small laugh shook his shoulders. "I'm tired of it too, Kath."

My heart faltered in my chest. What had I just let slip that he so quickly picked up on? I swallowed hard. "Of what?"

He reached forward, and fruitlessly tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear. His hand lingered for a moment as he said, "All the ugly."