Winter Part 12

Melvin was the first to realize Evelyn was in crisis. When her guards failed to turn up for morning shift he knew something was wrong. He tried to radio them, but failed to receive an answer. Finally he got a response from Ray.

"I can't raise anyone," Melvin said.

"We've been picked off during the night."

"Why the fuck didn't you call for help?"

"Help from who, Mel? We're all we got and now we're all dead. The redneck and the chink are dangerous."

Melvin could hear the pain in Ray's voice. "You don't sound too good."

"I don't feel too good with this fucking arrow in me either. I'm gonna find a place to lay low."

"Come in. I'll patch you up and make you comfortable."

He waited for a response but got nothing. He doubted he'd ever hear from Ray again. If all their men had been picked off, that left him, Ziga, Evelyn's chef Cookie, Lena, Grant, and lastly Bobby.

Freedom...

The thought came to Melvin like a ray of light at the end of a dark tunnel of abuse and enslavement. A lot of Evelyn's people had been sick and depraved, or indifferent. Some, like he and Ziga, had been simply afraid. He knew Cookie couldn't be trusted to betray Evelyn, he was in love with her and every bit as sadistic as she was, but the others could. He wasn't the only one who wanted out from under her rule.

"Melvin to Lena."

"Lena here."

"Meet me at the shoe shop. Now. Bring the players."

"Evelyn-"

"Fuck Evelyn. Just trust me and meet me at the shoe shop."

*****

The shoe shop had been picked clean of anything useful, but there were still plenty of high heels left lying around. Rick leaned against the counter and stared at the open cash register. It was strewn with money. Hundreds, fifties, twenties, all the way down to dollars and pennies. It always struck a heavy blow when he entered some store, scavenging, and he saw a cash register full of cash. He, indeed all of society, had once lived and worked with the sole purpose of collecting those now worthless pieces of paper.

Well, they weren’t completely worthless. They were good as kindling for a fire, something that was actually useful.

“What’s taking Melvin so damn long?” Grant asked, impatient.

Rick pulled the money out, separated it, faced it, and then counted it. Four hundred eighty-four dollars thirty-seven cents.

“Robbing the store, Boss?” Lena said, smirking.

“We use cash for kindling,” Rick explained. “Plus, it still feels nice to open my wallet and have hundred dollar bills in it. That was unfortunately rare for me before the Turn.”

“Plastic or just poor?” asked Bobby.

“I wasn’t poor. I wasn’t rich. I used plastic mostly,” Rick answered.

“Finally,” Grant said. He looked on edge more than the others.

Rick watched as a muscled, middle-aged man approached the store. He wore military fatigues and carried a rifle slung over his back. He entered the store and stood before Rick and Michonne, sizing them up.

Then he turned to Lena, Bobby, and Grant, and said, “Everybody’s dead.”

“What?” Lena asked, shocked.

“Looks like our players have some loyal, not to mention very dangerous, warriors playing for their team. I call them Redneck Rambo and Bruce Lee.”

Rick smirked, sharing a look with Michonne. “Daryl and Glenn,” he said. She nodded in agreement.

“Well, Daryl and Glenn picked off ten of our people last night. Hid the bodies so as not to arouse suspicion. I gotta admit, I’m impressed. Your civilians are as well trained and deadly as the soldiers I once served with.”

“If you’re finished stroking Rick’s dick, you wanna tell us what the plan is?” Grant asked angrily.

“Who here wants to stay with Evy?” asked Melvin.

Lena exchanged glances with the others. “This a trick question?”

“Not at all. I want out of here. I want that bitch dead and I want to get the fuck out of this town,” said Melvin. “I want Ziga out of here. He’s been put through enough from her.”

“Turn on Evy?” Bobby said uncertainly.

“Do you owe her something?”

“She’s fed and clothed us and given us--”

“She’s used you to murder innocent people. Friends, family,” Melvin pointed out. “If you’re on her side go back to the mansion with us now. You can take up a place beside her. You can die with her.”

Bobby gave it some thought. He looked at Grant and Lena. He seemed to take his lead from them more than anyone else.

“I’m with y’all.”

“Great,” Melvin said. “Let’s roll.”

*****

Evelyn sat in her office watching Melvin plot her demise with the other traitors. She knew they he thought he knew where all of her cameras were but he was wrong. 

They were coming for her and she had no guards to act in her defense. She was numb with shock and fear. She’d thought her hold on them had been stronger than what it apparently was. With so many of her people dead she no longer had the implied threat that loyalists would pick off anyone who would dare betray her.

Move. Get the fuck up and act.

Evelyn was a manipulator more than she was a fighter. Her strengths lay in her ability to use people’s minds against them and to her advantage. She was a fear monger, a hate monger, using words and innuendo as her weapons. That time was empty.

She slapped at the release to the rotter pen. Then she flipped the switch on the whistles she’d had installed around town to herd the rotters. They would surround the house, all fifty of them. Then she opened the control panel and ripped out the wires, making certain the whistles couldn’t be deactivated until the batteries ran down. After that the rotters would just mill around the house, making it even more difficult for Maggie’s people to break in. That would buy her more than enough time to get to the tunnel and the truck she kept outside of town for just such an event as this.

First, however, she had a visit to pay to Ziga. She took the hunting knife she kept stored in her desk and started upstairs.

*****

“Games,” Maggie said, staring out of the window, thinking of everything Ziga had told her about the sick games Evelyn had invented. The sun was going down. She wished she could see Glenn and the others walking up the street, like the bad asses she knew them to be, coming to her rescue. She smiled at the thought.

The smile fell from her face when she saw the walkers that moved around in front of the house, swarming, moving around in confusion as though they heard prey they couldn’t find. They looked irritated. They must be listening to the whistles Ziga had told her about. Why had she released them? Was this part of the game or was something else going on?

“Ziga, what’s with the walkers?”

He came to the window and frowned down at the street. “I don’t know. This isn’t part of the games.”

He suddenly cried out in pain and fell forward. Maggie gasped when she saw the knife in his back. Evelyn’s perfectly manicured hand reached out and pulled out the knife.

“It’ll take him a long time to die from that wound. Trust me, I know,” she said. Her accent was thicker than usual, and she looked mad with rage, even though she didn’t shout. “I’ve used it several times before.”

Ziga moaned in agony and tried to touch his back, which was bleeding profusely. Maggie wanted to help him but Evelyn held up a finger and clucked no.

“Why did you do that?” Maggie asked, backing away from her.

“Traître,” she said.

“Je n’ai pas trahi vous, Evelyn!”

“Speak English, goddamn it!” Maggie shouted, though she didn’t take her eyes off the knife in Evelyn’s hand.

“Then how do you explain Melvin plotting with Lena, Grant, Bobby, and the players to kill me, Ziga? They’re on their way here to do just that. Good luck getting to me. I have set the rotters on them. If they somehow manage to get through they’ll all find two more rotters waiting for them. Rotters they have a connection with. It’s just too bad I won’t be here to see the looks on their faces when they find--”

Maggie acted fast, using surprise to her advantage. She’d gripped a statuette of a Greek goddess, she didn’t know which one, and brought it around hard, striking Evelyn on the jaw. The woman had tried to dodge back at the last second and that was the only thing that saved her from being knocked out cold.

It was obvious that Evelyn was going to put up a fight, and it wasn’t lost on Maggie that she was facing a madwoman who tortured people for fun and would stab her own in the back at the blink of an eye. Evelyn was also confident with the knife in her hand and the way she moved, as she took one swipe after another at Maggie that she wasn’t completely without experience in fighting.

Still, Maggie wasn’t a novice fighter either. She continued dodging Evelyn, moving around the room fast, keeping out of reach, watching the older woman tire and sweat break out on her forehead, but the madness in her, the rage, kept her coming. Finally an opening came and Maggie managed to kick Evelyn in the gut. The woman doubled over and Maggie brought the statuette down on her back, hard.

Evelyn sliced the hunting knife across Maggie’s calf, hard. She cried out and brought the statuette down again, finally knocking Evelyn out. Blood ran hot and fast down her leg.

“Maggie!”

She heard a voice she didn’t expect to hear and nearly wept with relief.

“Daryl! In here!”

Daryl rushed through the door, crossbow ready. He examined the scene and then rushed in to look at her leg.

“Where is Glenn?”

“He’s securing the house.”

There were four gunshots and Maggie panicked. “Glenn!”

Daryl looked up at her. “I’ll go look for him as soon as I treat this.”

“No, find Glenn.”

“Maggie, I gotta stop the bleeding.”

Daryl rushed into the bathroom and came out with a towel that he twisted into a thick rope. He wrapped it so tightly around the wound she began to lose feeling in her toes, but it would stop the profuse bleeding.

“She’s behind all this. She’s dangerous,” Maggie said, noting Evelyn’s still form.

Daryl nodded once and then ripped a cord off a lamp. He used that to tightly bind Evelyn’s hands behind her back. He handed Maggie a pistol.

“Who’s she?” Daryl asked, motioning to Ziga, whose face was turned from them. Ziga was wearing women’s clothes so it wasn’t a surprise Daryl thought he was a woman. Maggie was glad Ziga wasn't looking in her direction. She didn’t think she could stand the pain and fear she’d see there.

Ziga had gone still but his breathing was labored. “He. He’s a good man. Now go check on--Glenn!”

“Maggie,” he said, and rushed to her side. Daryl had to practically dive out of the way of their reunion and he shook his head, his lips curving just slightly up at the corners, before going to Ziga’s side.

“You’re hurt,” she said.

“Got grazed by a bullet. The crazy cook downstairs tried to kill me. You’re hurt too.”

“The crazy ringleader here tried to kill me,” she said, and then cut off Glenn’s chuckle with a long, deep kiss.

“Please,” Ziga said, when Daryl gently turned him over. He looked up at Daryl. “That hurts, good lookin'.’”

“You’re dying and you’re trying to flirt?” Daryl said, shaking his head.

“Gotta be me till the end, right?” Ziga said. “Maggie okay?”

“She’s fine.”

“Good. Tell Melvin I love him. Tell him…”

He was gone before he could even finish his message. Daryl got the gist, though.

“I’ll tell him,” Daryl said, and then closed Ziga’s eyes.

*****

“Fuck,” Melvin said, seeing the wall of walkers that milled around between him and the mansion. “She knows. Ziga…”

“I knew it,” Bobby said. “I knew she had eyes everywhere.”

“I thought the shoe shop was safe!” Melvin cursed and kicked a nearby car.

Lena shushed him. “Quiet, you’ll give us away. I know you’re worried about Ziga. We’ll get in and save him.”

“I’d like to know how, Lena. There’s fifty rotters between us and the mansion, so unless you plan to throw yourself to them to distract them there’s no way through it,” he rejoined.

“We can’t get through that many and Maggie’s in there,” Michonne said. She looked at Rick. His face appeared haggard in the inky shadows of the night.

“Then we’ll have to find another way,” he said.

“You think she’s alive?” Michonne asked.

“Evelyn will probably want to use her as a bargaining chip.”

Grant shook his head. “She’ll kill your girl out of spite. Maybe Ziga, too.”

“The tunnels,” Bobby suddenly remembered.

“What tunnels?” asked Melvin.

“I found them a couple of months ago when I went hunting for some deer. They lead to the mansion’s potato cellar. There's even a truck at the exit. No doubt she kept it there in case she ever needed to escape.”

“She could already be gone,” said Melvin. “Our people could be dead and she could be gone.”

“Only one way to know for sure,” said Rick. “Take us to these tunnels, Bobby.”

*****

Maggie sat at the kitchen counter, feeling her leg throb while toying with a bottle of prescription painkillers. Lortab was written on the bottle. Glenn passed her a bottle of water and she took one immediately.

“Eat this. Keep that pill from making you sick,” Daryl said, handing her a cheese sandwich, which she ate quickly.

Evelyn was on the floor, tied to the breakfast nook table. Her head was at an awkward angle but no one felt inclined to make her comfortable. She’d been gagged and tape put over it. She continued making noises, trying to talk, but after years of ignoring the nonsensical grunts and moans of the walkers it was easy for Maggie, Glenn, and Daryl to tune her out.

“I looked everywhere,” said Glenn. He eyed the kitchen window where two walkers were pressed to the bars that covered them, eying them with longing. “No way out. We’re surrounded by those things. There’s no clear path away from here.”

“Ziga told me Evelyn has a control center here on the first floor.”

“The room with all the screens?” said Daryl. “I know where that is.”

“Supposedly we can control everything from there,” said Maggie.

Daryl was already shaking his head, even as the sound coming from Evelyn was unmistakably laughter.

“Control panel’s been ripped out. It’d have to be rewired and I don’t have the first clue about how to do it.”

“Me either,” Maggie and Glenn said in unison.

Fed up, Maggie marched over to Evelyn and peeled the tape away from her face, slowly, causing as much discomfort as possible. She pulled the rag from her mouth.

“What’s so fucking funny?”

“I have an escape route,” said Evelyn. “I can help you out of here in exchange for mercy. Let me leave, on my own. I can survive out there. You go your way, I go mine.”

“So you can torture and kill people again? So you can gather an army of psychos and terrorize everyone you find again? I don’t think so,” Maggie said.

“Suit yourself. We’ll just die in here.”

“You’ll die before we do.”

Maggie put the tape back over Evelyn’s mouth and stood to pace, trying to think of some way out of this mess. She jumped, as did Daryl and Glenn, when someone began pounding on the kitchen door.

“Maggie! Let us in!”

She recognized Rick’s voice and rushed to the door. She unlocked it and flung it open and was nearly ran over by Rick, followed by Michonne and three strangers. A flood of walkers were hot on their trail and began to crowd the back door. She was grateful for the bars that were attached to it. Their wasted, bony hands pounded at the door and Maggie danced back when one bony fist managed to smash through the glass, but it couldn’t get past the bars.

“Well, we’re trapped in here but at least we’re all together,” Rick said. He and Maggie looked out into the back yard. The full moon made it easy to see that the yard was swarmed with many more than fifty walkers.

“Come on. The control room,” Melvin said, after checking that Evelyn was secure and hadn’t worked her restraints loose. “I’ll turn off the whistles around the house and turn them on deeper in town. They’ll head off that way and leave the escape tunnels clear. Ziga’s good with electronics. He can control the whistles. Where is he?”

They followed after Melvin, though Glenn elected to stay behind and guard Evelyn.

“You Melvin?” Daryl asked.

“Yeah, why?”

“Evelyn killed Ziga. Stabbed him in the back,” Daryl explained. “He gave me a message to give to you.”

Lena reached out to take Melvin’s hand. Grant squeezed him sympathetically on the shoulder as the man’s eyes reddened and moistened with tears. “What’s that?”

“He wanted me to tell you he loved you,” Daryl said. “His last words.”

Melvin nodded, and then turned back toward the hall that led to Evelyn’s office. “I know just what I’m going to do to that bitch.”

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