We jogged in silence for what seemed like ages – but in reality must have only been a few minutes. We were on the outskirts of the town now, so there was more cover from abandoned houses. Rick and Daryl spotted the figures in the distance before I did; hardly breaking pace, they nodded, and crouched down to a hurried run gesturing me to follow them. As we drew closer I saw three of the Wildmen leading Mika ahead of them. Her head was down and her shoulders were slumped. Her feet dragged on the ground and I saw on the Wildmen jab her in the back to hurry her along.

In almost a single movement, Daryl knelt and aimed his cross-bow at one of Mika's captor, and Rick stood and took aim at another. Again, they nodded to one another and then fired almost simultaneously. The first Wildman went down with Rick's shot, and before the others could react, Daryl's bolt caught the second Wildman in the throat. The third and final Wildman grabbed Mika, and pulled out a knife, holding it to her throat.

"Let her go!" Rick bellowed as we all ran forward.

The Wildman tightened his grip on Mika. "Now, we're going to need to have a calm and reasonable discussion before I can do that," the Wildman started cautiously. "I can see she means a lot to you, but she's worth a lot to me."

"We ain't negotiatin' 'bout the girl. You best let her go!" Daryl spat.

"Well, hold on now, how do you know we're not on the same team? You killed my associates I had with me, and I'm guessing you killed the compatriots we left at the car, so we're going to need some discussion here before we come to an agreement."

"Well, we're taking the girl with us, that's not negotiable," Rick said in a quiet but authoritative voice.

The Wildman held up the hand that wasn't holding the knife to Mika's throat. "Don't you people want to end this thing? Don't you want to help us?"

"So kidnapping and killing our people is helping you do this?" Rick questioned, clearly buying time until he figured out how to get Mika away from him.

A maniacal gleam entered the Wildman's eyes. He spoke with increased fervor, "We're running experiments to find a cure. The doc put out an order for kids – we gotta see how the disease affects kids. Doc says something about their stem cells might have the answer. This kid's life might be our salvation! You should be thanking u-"

Mika had suddenly sprung to life as the Wildman became so engrossed in his speech that his grip had loosened. She bit him hard on the arm that has holding the knife to her throat, and she slid out from underneath his arm and ran towards us. The Wildman saw his chance was lost and he started to run, but Daryl already had a knife in his hand. He threw it expertly, and it lodged itself firmly in now running Wildman's calf. He fell to the ground with a cry.

"Please – please let me go. I'm doing this to help you people! We're going to find a cure and save the whole world! If you kill me you'll doom yourselves!"

Daryl kicked the Wildman hard, "Shut up!"

Rick joined Daryl, and they proceeded with interrogating the man. Even though this man was responsible for Carol's murder, mine and Mika's abduction, it was terrible watching Rick and Daryl work. I picked Mika up, even though she was pretty heavy, and she pressed her head into my shoulder. She was scared and exhausted. "I knew you would come, Del," Mika whispered. I walked to a nearby side street. I could still hear Rick and Daryl, but at least we couldn't see them. I laid Mika on the grass and she closed her eyes, too tired to care.

At first, the Wildman refused to tell them anything. After some encouragement from Rick and Daryl's fists, he started talking. Over the course of maybe 30 minutes, we learned that there were several groups of what I'd come to call "Wildmen". This particular group's task was to provide subjects for the experiments that the "Doctors" had been conducting. The doctors were a group of people who might have been real scientists at one point, but without the watchful eye of granting and ethics committees had become something far more sinister. The head of the operation was named Dr. Cemekien. He was a man of small build who was balding, but had a ring of salt and pepper greys encircling his head. He ran the operation as a sort if cult. The Wildmen truly believed that they were doing necessary work in performing these "experiments". In exchange for their help, there seemed to be some sort of military-esque ranking system based on how well they performed their tasks. These Wildmen appeared to be the lowest on the food chain. Higher up were scavengers, groups who were responsible for bringing in food and resources, and then above that there were "research assistants" who took care of the experiments and took orders directly from Cemekien.

"So you watched us at the church?" Rick questioned.

"Y-Yes," the Wildman stuttered.

"For how long?" Rick pressed.

"F-f-for a couple days, I don't know man, less than a week?"

"Last question: does anyone else know about us?"

"Y-yes – I confirmed the order with the assistants before I brought the girls in."

Rick nodded.

"So? What do you wanna do with him?" Daryl asked Rick in a hushed voice.

"I told you what I could – don't you understand? What about volunteering to be part of the experiment?" the Wildman suggested enthusiastically.

"That ain't gonna work out for us. Sorry brother," Daryl said.

The next thing I heard was the soft thud of Daryl's bolt embedding itself in the Wildman's head.

"We're done, let's head back," Rick said, approaching Mika and I. Daryl slung his cross bow over his shoulder and picked up Mika.

I just nodded. I knew the violence, the ruthlessness was necessary, but it still made me sick. We were living in a world of us or them.

It took us the day and some of the night to get back to the church. Fortunately for us, the moon was full and bright and so it wasn't completely dark. We encountered a few lone walkers, which either I or whoever wasn't carrying Mika took down. One herd passed us by. I remember in the early days of the apocalypse I would have panicked having the walkers that close to me – now we just hid under the dead cars along the road until they passed.

When we reached the church, we found Maggie on guard at the gate. She immediately went to Mika, who was sleeping peacefully in Daryl's arms, and kissed her on the head.

"Glad you're back here baby girl," Maggie whispered. Maggie then hugged me saying, "I haven't gotten to know you that well yet, Del, but you're one of us now and I'm so glad you're back." Maggie looked past Rick, who was bringing up our rear.

"And . . ." Maggie was trying to ask about Carol, but she already knew the answer.

Rick just shook his head. "I don't think we have anything to worry about tonight, but we're going to call a council meeting tomorrow morning and discuss what we should do. I don't think we're in any danger for tonight, but there's a new group out there that may pose a threat to us."

"Did they . . . Carol?" Maggie asked, swallowing hard.

"Yeah, but we're gonna bring some vengeance back to those sons of bitches," Daryl answered darkly.

"Maggie, you've been on watch all day – go get Glenn to take over for you. I'll get Michonne and we can do checks around the perimeter. Daryl and Del, I know you've had a long day, but we need all the eyes we can get until we decide how to deal with this threat. Would you go up lookout on the roof?

"No problem," I said. Rick carried Mika to bed as I followed Daryl to the roof. We stepped out on to the roof to find a very grouchy looking Caroline.

"Well finally, I been up here for hours," she huffed as she stomped back to her bed.

Daryl let a sort of a frustrated grunt go and sat himself down.

"You been through a lot today, don't mind if you want to sleep . . . won't tell Rick you fell asleep," Daryl offered.

"I'm fine!" I insisted.

"Sorry about today. Shouldn'ta happened," Daryl said, almost in a whisper.

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused as to what he could possibly mean.

"No one shoulda got that close without me noticing. You and Mika almost . . . and Carol . . . Maybe I coulda done somethin' more for her . . . "

I saw Daryl move up to wipe the side of his face.

"You can't think like that, you did everything you could, and you saved two lives today while risking your own," I said in what I hoped was a matter of fact, yet comforting tone of voice.

Daryl didn't respond.

"How is your head feeling? You took a pretty hard hit when they took us."

"S'fine," Daryl mumbled, absent mindedly-rubbing his head.

"Want me to take a look? I can at least make sure you don't need stitches or anything," I offered. All I got in response was a gentle grunt that seemed to be in the affirmative.

I moved over to Daryl and took a small pen light out of my pocket. "Where?" I asked.

"Side of my head," Daryl muttered as he gestured to his left side.

I slid up beside him on my knees and took the pen light to the side of his head. There was a bruise that had crept to the side of his cheek, and a little dried blood. I didn't really know what I was looking at. It definitely didn't look like it needed stitches, but I couldn't make a guess about whether he had a concussion or anything. To be truthful, I just wanted an excuse to get close to him. Despite the excitement of today, the kiss we had the first time we went to Edison was still fresh in my mind.

"Um, you look okay, as long you don't feel dizzy or sick?"

"Nah, feel okay," Daryl said quietly.

I was about to pull away, when Daryl's hands reached my waist and pulled me down into his lap. It was unexpected, but nice. He cautiously brought his lips to mine. It was a different sort of kiss than in Edison. That one was passionate and spur of the moment. This one was planned out, full of relief, peacefulness, and some sadness.

We broke away from the kiss, and I wrapped my arms around Daryl's neck.

"Like Maggie said, you're one of us now. Glad we didn't lose you."

I smiled and nodded. I mean, how else was I supposed to respond?

I know it's been so long since I've updated, but I'm going to writing a bunch in August because I'll have more free time. Thanks to my reviewers and everyone who favourited/followed the story! I wouldn't be writing at all if it weren't for you guys! Please write a review or PM me to let me know how I'm doing! I love hearing from you!