Beyond Terminus (Book Two)

Chapter 25: Grady's Going Down

The walker that almost bit Daryl goes still with a small popping sound. Rick appears, his gun held up as the bald cop gets up slowly, groaning. He sees Rick, a small smirk on his face.

"Fine. You win asshole," he says, holding his hands up.

Rick stares at him as he slowly stands up, the gun trained right on his forehead.

"Rick," Daryl says, moving away from me slightly. He gets no reply. "Rick, three is better than two."

Rick lowers his gun, his face less than pleased. Daryl cuffs the cop and I move forwards to stand near Rick.

"You alright?" he asks.

"Yeah. I'm fine," I say.

"Good."

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We get into the warehouse where we're bunking down, leading the captives with us.

"Your friend, what's his name?" the woman asks. We don't respond. "I need to talk to him. Your plan is going to get me and my friends killed."

"We're gonna make it work," Sasha says.

"It would work if you had different cops to trade," she insists. "Dawn's running Grady into the ground. A bunch of us want her out and she knows it. Pretty sure she knows we want Lamson to replace her, too."

"Dawn doesn't know that, Shepherd," the bald cop says.

"She might, Licari. And she's smart. So there's a good chance you can't make this deal work and that'll leave us all dead," she counters. "But if you let us go, we'll take care of Dawn ourselves and then we'll let your friends go and this is over."

"No, we're not gonna do that," Lamson says.

"Do you want to die?"

"No. I just need you to shut up right now. You can make this work. But you've got to be able to talk to her," he says.

"Noah told us all about her," Sasha insists.

"I've known her for eight years, ma'am. I know this woman. And my only interest is peaceful resolution, not dying, and sleeping in my bed tonight. So please, let me help you. Please."

There's a long pause and all we do is stare at each other and the captives.

"Hey, Rick. You're gonna want to hear this," Daryl says.