Daddy's Little Girl

Homies - 13

The moments pass slowly as we stand on the roof. My only thought running through my mind is probably the same as everyone else’s, Where the hell would Earle go?! The man sawed his own hand off for Christ sake! I watched my daddy stand swiftly, pulling out his crossbow out and pointing it point-blank at Tre. At the same time, Reginald takes out his pistol and aims it at my daddy’s head.  

“I won't hesitate. I don't care if every Walker in the city hears it.” Reginald states boldly, but I know he’s bluffing. He’s a softy when it comes to killing. Daddy drops his arm, spitting at his feet before turning on his heel and staring off. Reginald sighs as he unloads his gun, putting it back in his holster as my daddy turns back to us.  

 “You got a do-rag or something?” He asks Tre. Tre takes one out of his pocket and hands it to him. Daddy walks over to Earles's hand, placing his crossbow down a bit away from the scene. He lays the cloth on the tar flattop. I can hear the small swarm of flies buzzing around Earles's hand, must be fresh. “I guess the saw blade was too dull for the handcuffs.” He comments, kicking the bloody blade towards us as he picks up Earles's hand by one of the fingers and examines it. “Oh, ain't that a bitch.” He remarks making a face as he examines the stump before placing it on the cloth and wrapping it up. He picks it up and walks over to David, who once again looks about ready to blow chunks all over the damn place, and puts the hand into David’s bag. “He must have used a tourniquet, maybe his belt.” He explains looking around for it as he picks his crossbow up. “Be much more blood if he didn't.” He immediately starts tracking Earle. A faint dried up trail of blood along the rooftop. Tres goes and collects Roy’s forgotten tools before rejoining the group. My daddy follows the trail around the corner, finding a wide-open access door down a dark hallway. We stop, daddy and I pulling out our crossbows, aiming it down the dark hall. Cautiously we enter the building, we walk a few yards before finding a stairway. 

“Earle? You in here?” Daddy calls out as we continue to walk down the stairs. No answer. At the bottom of the stairway is another hall, shorter than the one upstairs, we find ourselves in an office building. There’s a lone Walker standing in the middle of the room, as she turns around, I let my arrow fly right into her forehead.  

“Nice shot.” Daddy mutters from behind me. I nod shortly, reclaiming my arrow before regrouping with the others, who found two dead walkers on the floor. “Had enough in him to take out these two son bitches.” Daddy says. 

“One-handed.” I added. 

“Toughest asshole I ever met, my brother.” He says more to himself than anyone, reloading his crossbow. “Feed him a hammer, he'd crap out nails.” 

“Any man can pass out from blood loss, no matter how tough he is.” Reg states. Way to look on the bright side Reginald. We continue to follow the trail through the complex, killing Walkers in the process.  

“Earle!” Daddy calls out for the millionth time. 

 “We're not alone here. Remember?” Reginald reminds again, and again and again. 

“Screw that. He could be bleeding out. You said so yourself.” Daddy says, mocking Reg. We silently make our own another hall, nothing. At the end of the hall is a steel door, through it we find ourselves in a kitchen of some sort. One of the burners is still on, a bright blue flame. An awful smell hits my senses, and I’m sure everyone else's as they make faces of disgust. There are a few small pools of blood on the floor, some on the stove, and Earle’s belt tossed aside.  

“What's that burned stuff?” I ask Reginald as he picks it up off the stove with his knife.  

“Skin.” He says and my skin crawls. “He cauterized the stump.” 

“Told you he was tough.” Daddy repeats, turning the burner off. “Nobody can kill Earle but Earle.”  

“Don't take that on faith. He's lost a lot of blood.” Reginald responds, walking deeper into the kitchen.  

“Yeah? Didn't stop him from busting out of this death trap.” Daddy says, finding a busted window, leading to a landing, and stairs, and the streets.  

“He left the building? Why the hell would he do that?” David asks confused. 

“Why wouldn't he? He's out there alone as far as he knows, doing what he's got to do.” Daddy states. 

“Surviving...” I add. 

“You call that surviving? Just wandering out in the streets, maybe passing out? What are his odds out there?” Tre challenges.  

“No worse than being handcuffed and left to rot by you sorry pricks!” Daddy yells over at the others. David runs his hands over his face and Tre looks to the floor. “You couldn't kill him. Ain't so worried about some dumb dead bastard.” He continues, getting up in Reginald’s face. 

“What about 1,000 dead dumb bastards?” Reginald fires back. “Different story?”  

“Why don't you take a tally? Do what you want. We’re gonna go get him.” Daddy says, bumping shoulders with Reg as he grabs my hand.   

“Deacon, wait.” Reginald says holding my daddy back. 

“Get your hands off me!” He yells, letting go of my hand to take Reginald’s hand off him. “You can't stop us.” 

“I don't blame you. He's family, I get that. I went through hell to find mine. I know exactly how you feel. He can't get far with that injury. We could help you check a few blocks around but only if we keep a level head.” Reginald says. Reginald has a way with words and a smooth way of saying ‘em.  

“I could do that.” Daddy sighs, somewhat calmly his temper. I grab his hand and he gives me a squeeze. Glad he’s not to start something with Reginald right now.  

“Only if we get those guns first,” Tre speaks up. “I'm not strolling the streets of Atlanta with just my good intentions, okay?”  

*** 

We’ve been sitting around in this office of some sort, as the three brains try to decide what we’re gonna do about Earle and the guns. David has this grand plan of doing it by himself, run in and out while we cover him. What the hell is wrong with everyone and their dumbass master plans!? I mean look at how well Reginald’s plan from yesterday barely worked.   

“You're not doing this alone.” Reginald finally speaks. 

“Even I think it's a bad idea and I don't even like you much.” Daddy adds. 

“It's a good idea, okay, if you just hear me out,” David says trying to defend himself. “If we go out there in a group, we're slow, drawing attention. If I'm alone, I can move fast. Look…” David draws our attention to his make-shift map on the floor. “That's the tank, five blocks from where we are now.” He says placing a paper clip on the floor. “That's the bag of guns.” He says placing a piece of tape next to it.  “Here's the alley I dragged you two into when we first met.” He says looking at me and Reginald. 

“That's where Deacon, Kat and I will go.” 

“Why us?” Daddy questions.  

“Your crossbows, they’re quieter than his gun.” David explains, make sense. 

“While Deacon and Kat wait here in the alley, I run up the street, grab the bag.” David says marking his route.  

“You got us elsewhere?” Reginald asks, pointing at him and Tre. 

“You and Tre, right? You'll be in this alley here.” David says marking them a few blocks away. 

“Two blocks away? Why?”  

“I may not be able to come back the same way. Walkers might cut me off. If that happens, I won't go back to Deacon. I'll go forward instead, all the way around to that alley where you guys are. Whichever direction I go, I got you in both places to cover me. Afterwards, we'll all meet back here.” David explains. It’s actually a pretty solid plan, I’ll give you that much. Let’s just see if it actually works.  

“Hey, kid, what'd you do before all this?” Daddy asks. 

“Delivered pizzas,” David says and I laugh a little. Guess that’s where he gets his street smarts. “Why?”  

*** 

David, my daddy and I head out to the alley where we first met, while Reginald and Tre head to their positions two blocks up. We go down the ladder and hide behind a dumpster as we load up our crossbows. 

“You got some balls for a chinaman.” Daddy tells David and I give him a look. He’s more crude than before. More bitter too. Earle really rubbed off on him in the worst ways.  

“I'm Korean.” David corrects taking off his extra shirt. 

“Whatever.” He mutters as David runs out of the alley. There’s a slight noise from down the alley I know it’s not David back yet.  

“You hear that?” I whisper as my daddy pushes me behind him. He grabs his bow and stands straight up, aiming down the other end of the alley at a-at a kid, a living kid. 

“Whoa, don't shoot me!” He pleads, hands up in the air. “What do you want?”  

“I'm looking for my brother. He's hurt real bad.” Daddy says. 

“You seen him?” I add, stepping out from behind him with crossbow raised.  

“Ay dame!” The boy shouts as I take my aim off him and look down the other side of the alley from where he came from. 

“Shut up! You're gonna bring the geeks down on us. Answer me.” Daddy whisper/shouts.   The kid shouts again, this time louder. “Answer me!” Daddy yells. The kid continues to shout the same sentence over and over again. This time Daddy hits him with his crossbow to shut him up.  

“Help! Help! Help!” The kid shouts. 

“Daddy get him to shut up!” I say not taking my eyes off the Walkers pouring into the alley in front of us. 

“Shut up. Shut up. Shut up.” Daddy says trying to cover his mouth. 

“Daddy!” I scream as two men run into the alley; one knocks me over as the other runs for my daddy. He kicks my daddy off the kid and continues to kick my daddy as the other picks me up and restrains me from doing anything. “DADDY!” I scream as the man pulls out a bat and starts to beat my daddy with it. 

"Shut up b***h!” The man yells covering my mouth with his hand. I bit his hand, hard. He releases me. “Stupid b***h bit me!” He yells, backhanding me with force as I let out a shriek, falling against the brick wall before he grabs me and restrains me again. Just then, David runs into the alley with the bag of guns and Reginald’s hat looking at the commotion in confusion.  

“That's it! That's the bag, Vato!” The man with the bat says to the other holding me.  

“Take it! Take it!” The one holding me yells to the other abandons Daddy and chases after David, grabbing him by the shoulder and punches him in the face. 

“David!” I shout as he begins to beat up David. Daddy manages to pick himself up off the ground and shoots an arrow into the man’s legs, the same one that held me. He throws me at the brick wall as he howls in pain. The impact knocking the wind out of me as he rips the arrow out, grabbing me by the wrists and begins to drag me back to the end of the alley.  

“Get off me! Get off me! Deacon! Deacon!” David shouts for my daddy by I barely have enough air in my lungs to breathe properly. A car pulls up behind us as the men throw David and I into the backseats and drive off.  

“Come back here, you son bitches!” Daddy screams after us, standing in the middle of the road.  

“DADDY!” Was the last thing I was able to scream before I was knocked out cold. 

Deacon’s P.O.V 

What the hell just happened? One minute me and my girl are just sitting here waiting for the c******n David to come back with the guns, the next some taco-bending son bitches come, beat my ass and take my little girl! I think as I shout at them as they drive off, geeks are coming after me.  I quickly turn and close the gate to the alley before I get eating alive. The stupid son b***h that started this gets to his feet as Reginald and Tre come running down the alley. I push him back and pick up my crossbow, only to be stopped my Reginald.  

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Stop it!” Reginald says pushing me back. 

“I'm gonna kick your nuts up in your throat!” I yell at the kid. “Let me go!” I yell at Reginald. 

“Chill out.” Tre tells me. 

“They took Kathryne and David! That little bastard and his little bastard homie friends! I'm gonna stomp your ass!” I yell still fighting to get passed Reginald. 

“Guys! Guys! We're cut off!” Tre yells, walkers banging to the fence, nearing making it through as more pour in from the other end of the alley, practically cornering us.  

“Get to the lab. Go.” Reginald yells at Tre.  

“Come on.” I say to Reginald as he picks up the bag of guns. “Damn, let's go.” I yell back at them, loading my crossbow as I take out the lone walkers too close for comfort. Reg quickly runs back, grabbing his hat before catching up with us again. We run through the maze of Atlanta back alleys, opening and closing doors until we’re back in the same building, back in the same room we all were supposed to meet back in. I’m coming Kitty Kat don’t you worry, daddy’s coming.