THE ZOMBIES MENTIONED HERE, AS WELL AS STEPH, DOZER, FITZ, OAK, VIPER, DOOBY, BEN, VARIOUS BIKER EXTRAS, PETE, ANN, ANN G, AND MARY ARE MY OWN CREATIONS BASED ON TWD AND HOUSE M.D. , WHICH I HAVE NO RIGHTS TO. I ALSO HAVE NO RIGHTS TO THE CHARACTER THE MASKED MAN IS BASED ON. FURTHER, AS TO THE PRODUCTS MENTIONED BY NAME, LIKE: PURELL, MILLER, NISSAN, VICODIN, ETC. I HAVE NO RIGHTS TO, NOR AM I A PAID ADVERTISER FOR THEM. The Darryl events take place between Darryl's first stay at the Kingdom and his reunion with Carol. They do not affect the rest of his timeline, so should be imagined as 'deleted Darryl scenes on his way from point to point in the TWD narrative.' The rest of the events happen after the show 'House, M.D.' and have their own timeline, so nothing is changed from the shows unless I've made a mistake. (Please point out in reviews, providing any references you can.) I did not watch every House episode. Several incidental House spoilers and subtle in-jokes for TWD. The masked man is a well-known character (not mine) transitioning into a changing role in a changed world. Hopefully the surprise ending will be the best kind of surprise.

CAPTIVE SHARED ON NEGAN-HOUSE WAR

Darryl had a funny taste in his mouth. His eyelids felt heavy. His wrists—he startled awake. Still sluggish, he tugged gently at his bonds.

"You ain't gettin' outta that. That's plastic ties."

"Voice is hick—Carolinas?" Darryl thought. Darryl turned his head to the left and squinted through the dim light at a figure bound as he was to a seat in the same row. "Movies?" he muttered. They were seated in the front row of a small movie theater, just two yards from the curtain, and the floor was sticky under his shoes. He felt around, discovering he couldn't reach a pocket. He started looking for sharp edges on the seat frame.

"Yeah. You're Darryl, right?"

Darryl stiffened. "Why? Who're yew?"

"Name's Pete. I made some food for you once, but they didn't give it to you. Did you see who took us?"

"Naw. Where were yew?"

"Supply run. Little strip mall we hadn't picked clean. I turned down an aisle by the fire exit and lights out. He drugged me. She?"

Darryl frowned. He dimly remembered a swirl of dark cloth. "Could've been wearing a dress. Don't know. Yeah, I's drugged too. How long we been here?"

Pete shrugged. "Prob'ly a few hours. Sun was comin' in that window pretty good when I woke up. I think I heard her leavin'. I don't think we were brought in at the same time. Where'd she take you?"

Darryl frowned. "I'd parked in a warehouse and was lookin' 'round. Came down on a rope and gassed me. Fast."

"Shit, yeah; fast! Negan's gonna be sore we disappeared. I'm already in trouble for taking more food than I's given. Thass why he had me out on supply run. I usually work the kitchen."

The fire exit at stage left opened. A man wearing a black vinyl butcher's apron, thin black clothes, a black ski mask, black leather boots, and yellow dishwashing gloves covered with gore walked in with a chair under his arm. He dropped it, and with practiced ease, kicked it open without touching it. He stepped around it and sat down. "So . . . you're awake." His voice was deep and gravelly and had an irritated edge to it. He was idly playing with the gore on the gloves.

Pete goggled at the gore. "Don't hurt us, man. I'm a good cook. I can make SKUNK taste good."

"What chew wont?" Darryl squinted at the apron to see the lower half of it was splattered with gore, too.

"I heard radio chatter some months ago about a man referred to as the Governor. Do you know of him?"

"No?" said Pete.

"He's dead," said Darryl, "He attacked our group, and we fought back. He wrecked our home, and we wrecked his."

The masked man faintly shook his head. "Mutually assured destruction. Why did he attack?"

Darryl shrugged. "He-uz nuts. Kept heads in fish tanks. Kept his dead daughter on a chain."

"Your home didn't look destroyed."

"We were livin' at a prison south a here. We joined a new group. Alexandria."

The masked man pulled off his gloves and dropped them beside the chair. He reached behind himself to the stage, reached under the curtain, and pulled out a small stack of maps. He showed Darryl one. At Darryl's nod, the masked man opened it. He pointed to each major interstate until Darryl grunted yes and nodded when he found the prison. The masked man pulled out a red highlighter and put an 'X' on the prison. "Destroyed, you say?"

"Yeah."

The masked man reached under the curtain and pulled out two abaci, kids' toys with brightly-colored beads and a cartoon clock face on each one. He pulled two beads to one side on the one with the duck and placed it in front of Darryl. He placed the other, with the pig on it, in front of Pete. "Was he actually a governor or anything?"

"Naw. He-uz worse than Negan. Kept some of his own people thinkin' he was a good guy."

Pete had startled. "Worse?"

"Yeah."

"I guess you two aren't Negan's most loyal people."

Pete snorted. "We're his LEAST loyal people. Of the ones he hasn't killed yet."

Darryl snorted. "You?"

Pete nodded. "I know you were a prisoner, and that the doctor helped you escape . . ." Darryl squinted at him in the dim light. "I watched him kill the doctor. I don't dare do anything THAT big. Open a prisoner's door? I brushed your bread and your plates with my special boullion."

Darryl squinted at him again. "What the hell is that?"

"Concentrated nutrition. Juice from the meats I cook and boiled-down vegetables. You were pretty strong leavin' right? You killed Fat Joey, right?"

Darryl said, "Yeah. Had to. What chew doin' with that?"

The masked man had moved three beads on Pete's abacus and two more on Darryl's. "Noting how helpful you can be. Tell me more about how you work against Negan."

"He doesn't trust me enough to eat without a taster. So I make his stuff and the top people's stuff less nutritious. I put more of the healthy stuff in the prisoners' food and talk about how I stay away from Negan."

"Because?"

"I tell everyone that I could get hurt if anyone tries anything on him, 'cause I'm no good in a fight. I'm tryin' to put the thought in their head that they should try somethin' by pretendin' I'm sure someone's gonna. I said that to the doctor. I prob'ly got him killed for lettin' Darryl loose."

The masked man nodded. "Probably. Do either of you know anyone who was actually in charge before the dead rose?"

"Jim on dish crew ran his own company."

The masked man cocked his head, moving three more beads on Pete's abacus and one more on Darryl's. "I mean in charge of government."

Darryl frowned. "Not living, I don't. There was a congresswoman in charge of Alexandria where my people are now. Deanna. Monroe, I think."

Pete shrugged, "Negan killed some guy who was town council near here a few months back and a town engineer when he took me. Why?"

"I'm searching for NORAD or any authority figures that survived outside it. I'd like America back on its feet." The masked man pushed over another bead for Pete and two more for Darryl.

Pete laughed. Darryl stayed quiet. The masked man turned to Pete. "What's so funny?"

"You lookin' for the jokers that let this happen in the first place? Great job THEY did."

"You don't want Negan running things. Who do you think should?" The masked man stared at Pete.

"You, man! Negan's people don't even know you're here! You got us! You could capture him and kill him and run things yourself! Let me cook for your camp, man. I don't need to be top guy. Just want to be more'n a slave."

The masked man turned to see Darryl studying the seven beads on each abacus. "Who do you think should run things, Darryl?"

Darryl looked up at him. "Rick and Maggie are the only leaders around here I really respect. No offense. All I know about chew is that you're not in it."

The masked man rose, stepped the three steps toward Pete, pulled out a small canister and sprayed something in Pete's face.

"Wait! Wh—" Pete slumped down.

The masked man sat back down. "You've been holding out on me. Were you keeping things from him or me?"

"Both! You lettin' him live?"

"I hadn't planned on killing him. You?"

"Long as he don't know anything. Can he hear us?"

The masked man reached under the stage curtain again to pull out a pair of heavy headphones and a dark blue pillowcase. He fitted the headphones onto Pete and put the pillowcase over his head. "Even if he's partially immune to the knockout gas, he can't hear us now. It's interesting to me that you could keep pace with him without saying anything about yourself. Did you lie about anything?"

"Naw. What chew wanna know?"

"In your sleep, you apologized to Carol, to Merle, to Rick, to Michonne, to Glen, to Carl, and to Judith. You mentioned bringing a squirrel to a tiger. I'd like you to explain those things to me."

"Everyone but Merle, Glen, and maybe Carol is still alive as far as I know. Glen was killed 'cause I didn't kill Negan. I let the live ones down gettin' taken. Merle was my brother."

"Why apologize to him?"

"I shoulda stood up to him more. If I'd taught him not to be an asshole all the time, he'd a seen sooner that I could get him in with the right people, maybe he wouldn't-a got killed."

The masked man nodded. "Family dynamics and general regrets. What would you hide from Pete that you would tell me?"

"Weren't no doctor's writin' on the note that told me to go. Loopy. Like a girl's."

"You got a note from this person that helped you escape."

"Yeah."

"What about the squirrel for a tiger?"

"King Ezekiel has a tiger. He runs another camp near here. I caught a live squirrel and put it in a weighted trap to let her play with her food a little."

The masked man cocked his head again and studied him for a moment. "What do you think about the American government?"

Darryl snorted. "Worst president's better alive than dead. Whatever, man. D'ruther ya kill Negan 'fore ya go." He looked at Pete, who was beginning to stir.

The masked man pulled off the pillowcase and earphones. "I won't be killing Negan. I won't do more about local politics than understand them and avoid them. I'll be releasing you both and going on to search for NORAD."

Pete snapped awake. "Crazy bum! All the American leaders were OLD! Most of 'em prob'ly dead from heart attacks in the first hour! You should kill Negan just to get Eugene!"

"Who?"

"Dr. Eugene! America can't elect a president like things are now. Eugene could make the biters stop walkin'. Then you could find whoever you like! Tell him, Darryl. Eugene came from Alexandria, too."

Darryl sat in silence for a moment. "I could work for you as a tracker for a bit. Pay me in supplies."

"What're you h—" The masked man took a deep breath, sighed, and gassed Pete again. "What?!"

"Eugene's not all that. He lied about the cure shit to us too for a little bit."

"So Negan has a major fifth column brewing." The masked man nodded.

"Not really. Eugene's a coward. Prob'ly volunteered for Negan's protection."

The masked man shook his head and smacked Pete lightly across the face. "Wake up. Even if I take Eugene from Negan, saving the world's not a one-man job. I'd need a team of doctors, and Negan's killed at least one that you told me about."

"There were two more genius doctors Negan didn't kill."

"Where?"

Pete looked blank. "Road to the southwest? My group was out there for a while. It was me, Ann, Ann G., Mary, Wilson, House, and Vic." Pete made a face. "House and Wilson, they were smarter'n Vic. Vic was an engineer."

The masked man looked back at Darryl. Darryl shrugged and said, "I need some stuff, and I'm good."

"You think Pete's telling the truth, don't you?"

Darryl frowned, "I think so. Don't mean he wuddn' lied to."

The masked man paused. "You'd track for food?"

"And water, a good knife—crossbow and bolts maybe. Just for a day or so. I wanna get back." Darryl looked at Pete doubtfully.

The masked man gassed Darryl and cocked his head at Pete. "Tell me."

I've taken some liberties here, made some guesses. Darryl might think of Shiva as a big housecat—playing with food. Darryl seems to have generic survivor issues, and so should be really good in the situation described above compared to the much-more-expendable Pete. Darryl might be simmering with anger against Eugene but still not wish to risk turning him in or revealing anything else about the Alexandrian situation through Pete. Shaving points, in this case, might mean that Darryl was sizing up the masked man to find out whether Darryl wanted to win or lose. He couldn't have reckoned on the masked man being that insightful, able to read that Darryl was doing it. The comment about any president being better off alive is an homage to Hairy Deewon. Thank you for reminding me that our country can survive any bad president. Our founding fathers did a fantastic job of statecraft. Thanks also by the way for the metrical chapter title challenge. I will be interested to know how soon my choice will be recognized. I'm hoping to submit these every one to two weeks on Fridays until they're done. The next chapter is longer, but already more than half done.