Chapter Thirty-Four // {daryl's pov}

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Rick finally let go of Jordan and passed her a bow that he had found a little while ago. We were going hunting for some fresh meat. I knew that Jordan liked to get away sometimes so, I let her tag along.

"Ready t' go?" I questioned while taking my crossbow into my hands instead of leaving it over my shoulder. She nodded with a large grin plastered on her face. She turned around and pecked Rick on the lips one more time before skipping over to me. 

"Keep her safe," he mouthed when Jordan was busy counting her arrows. I gave him a firm nod. He turned and walked back into the church, leaving us outside.

"I feel like I haven't been able to hunt with you in ages," she exaggerated, dragging out the 's' in ages. I chuckled.

"Alright, we're gonna head east 'nd once the sun starts goin' down, we'll head west, back t' the church," I explained to the brunette who was nodding as I spoke. She grinned up at me.

"Do you think they'll be much game?" she asked, referring to the animals. I shrugged.

"Hopefully," I answered. We both became silent as we headed east, both us trying to avoid stepping on anything that'll scare away the animals.

I kept my eyes trained on the floor, looking for any tracks but there were no signs of anything, not even walkers. Jordan usually kept her eyes up, watching the trees for any signs of movement.

After a few hours, we eventually stopped at a road, that was heading north-south. 

"We've found nothing but two squirrels," Jordan stated, kicking a rock onto the road in anger. She huffed at the lack of animals.

"Stay 'ere, gonna take a piss," I said, walking off of the road to go find a bush. I didn't want to make it even more awkward by standing right next to the road. I was a good distance away from the road before I unzipped and urinated.

While finishing up my business, I heard tyres squeal and Jordan's loud scream.

I cursed and quickly zipped up. I picked up my crossbow and ran towards her scream that was oddly cut short. I quickly loaded my crossbow incase I ran into anything unwanted.

"Jordan!" I yelled out as I saw a black car drive off, the same squeal came from the car's tyres. I looked around for any signs of the green-eyed girl but came up empty handed besides a small puddle of blood on the road. Even her bow was gone.

"Fuck!" I yelled, kicking the same rock Jordan had earlier. 

I turned back to see the black car with a white cross on the back slowly fade away down the road.

Rick was going to kill me.

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I ran up to the church's door and pushed it open, almost knocking someone out.

"Daryl?" Maggie questioned with a panicked voice.

"Where's Rick?" I asked the girl frantically.

"In the right room," she answered, "where's Jordan?"

I stomped my way over to the right room, ignoring Maggie's question.

I almost broke the door by the amount of force I used to open it. Rick stood on the other side wore a look of pure annoyance. He was talking to Carl before I barged in.

"Rick, I need t' tell you somethin'," I told him calmly, hoping that he wouldn't panic.

Carl was the one who spoke up, "is she dead?" I shook my head slowly.

"Taken," I answered. Rick cursed, like I had done earlier. He passed Carl, Judith and walked up to me. He seemed tense.

"Where the fuck is she?" he growled. I stepped back into the doorway of the room. People from in the main section of the church could now clearly see us.

"Rick, calm down. It ain't helpin' the situation," I tried calming the sherrif down. He scoffed.

"I let my fucking girlfriend out of my sight once and now she's fucking gone," he spoke angrily, more to himself than anythang.

"She wanted to go out, it was 'er choice, it's not yer fault," I tried again.

"Where the hell were you when this shit happened?" he grumbled, pointing his finger at me. He was actually going to hate me.

"I was takin' a piss. I heard 'er scream and tyres screechin', I came runnin' and all I saw was a black car with a white cross on the back speedin' away. A pool of blood was on the road. I tried, man," I defended myself, pushing him back a little.

"Black car with a white cross?" Beth asked quietly from behind me. I turned around to face her.

"Yeah 'nd?" I questioned frowning at her.

"Daryl, you idiot!" she yelled at me, making me jump back, almost into Rick, "the same people who took me, took her!"

It all slowly came back to me... the same black car speeding away with Beth on that night near the graveyard.

"She's at Grady Memorial," Beth explained, suddenly making Rick interested.

"In Atlanta?" Rick questioned much more calmly than before.

"Yeah, I was taken there. They have some stupid thing where they'll help you but you have to repay them. Bunch of cops created it all," the blonde explained, glancing at me nervously. I rubbed my head in anger at her always looking at me nervously. Do I scare her?

"I know how to get there," Beth added.

"Lets go then," Rick decided, pushing past me.

"Dad!"

"Rick, no!" Glenn yelled.

He turned around to face his son. Carl looked pissed off while holding Judith in his arms.

"If she's dead, I don't want you to get in there, guns blazing, with no plan and then to find out that she's gone. Figure out a plan first, Judith and I need at least one parent alive," he stated, sounding much older than he was. Sadness washed over Rick's face and he nodded.

A few people around the room rose an eyebrow when Carl spoke about his and Judith's mom. Most of them probably thought he was referring to Lori but I knew better than that. He saw Jordan as a mom.

Glenn took over the situation, "Beth, we'll need you to help us get in and out quickly with her. Abraham, get the bus ready, we'll need to take a lot of people. Tyreese and Sasha, can you go to the town and hotwire two cars? We have some fuel out the back. Everyone else, get your weapons, ammo, food and water ready. We leave to D.C. after we rescue Jordan," Glenn commanded. Everyone nodded and scattered off to their given jobs. Rick stood silently in the middle of the church, staring at nothing in particular. He seemed lost.

I strode over to him and put my hands on his shoulders. His blue eyes glanced up to mine.

"She needs ye more than ever. Don't give up on 'er yet, she's stronger than ye think" I tried to comfort him in a brotherly way. Almost as if I triggered something in him, he stood up straighter and gave me a firm nod, letting me know that he's good.

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Glenn, Rick, Carl, Beth and I stood around two maps. One of the state of Georgia and the other was specifically Atlanta. Rick stood back more and watched over with a blank face. He was usually so involved with the decisions and now he just listened.

Beth circled where we were and where Grady was.

"It's a fair way," Glenn commented. The girl nodded thoughtfully.

"It's also closer to D.C. though," she stated. Something had changed about her since she was taken. Almost as if she had adapted to the harsh world during that time. She was no longer weak and I liked that about her. I'd never admit it to her or especially Jordan who had already picked up on it.

The blonde started to draw lines all over the map, mapping out what roads we need to take. She had her full attention on this map, I knew Beth and Jordan were close.

She suddenly stood up, as if remembering something.

"Rick, I forgot..." she started, making Rick's eyes snap to her.

"Jordan knows the cops in Grady. She worked with them, even dated one at one point. They won't hurt her," Beth explained, trying to comfort the man. He gave her a small smile but, the way he fidgeted when Beth said 'dated' didn't go unnoticed. Beth nodded and went back to drawing up the map. She moved onto the Atlanta one.

"Right so, we'll enter Atlanta from here," she said while pointing to a main road, "then we'll cut through these two roads to get to the place where we'll drop me off."

"Drop ye off?" I asked a bit too quickly after she spoke. She rose an eyebrow up at me in slight confusion.

"They look for people around Atlanta. I'll shoot up at the sky a few times, they'll come runnin' after me. They won't know that I'm runnin' them straight to y'all. That's when you guys come in at this back lane, we'll tie them up. We can do some kind of trade to get Jordan back. Dawn, the leader, will want that," Beth said to us all.

"You have it all worked out then," Glenn chuckled, making Beth smile brightly.

"She's my friend. I'll do anything for her," she insisted, glancing over at Rick who wore a small smile.

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a/n: originally, I was going to keep writing, BUT I decided to put it into another chapter so 'stay tuned' for that. ahahaha. ((:

& do you all hate me yet? lol you will soon AHAHAHAHAHA! >:)

^ insanity at it's finest. ;-;