Day's End

Liar, Liar

            Rose's eyes fluttered open, and the pain from her wound rushed back raw and anew. She heaved herself up from her place on the floor with a grunt, placing a hand on her side for stability. The woman raised her shirt and braced herself for what she might see; a bloody bandage wrapped around her stomach. Rose lifted the bandage and studied the stinging bullet hole. "I don't think you want to be messing with that, Rose," a voice sounded.
Her head whipped up, and, panting, she caught sight of a strange man. "Who are you? Where am I?" Rose asked, wildly looking around her cell like a cornered animal.
"You're in good hands. For now, at least."
"How do you know my name?" She brought her knees up to her chest, which brought a new wave of pain.
"A friend of yours, if he's not lying. We have him."
"Who? Who do you have?"
"His name is Sidney, correct? I believe he'll be just fine here. He did take my fancy, after all."
"Sidney?" Rose lurched forwards to the cell bars and looked up at the man. "Why am I in here? Where is Sidney?" Her voice grew more panicked by each word she spoke.
"He, like you, is in good hands. He has found his father."
"His father? I thought his father was gone.."
"Doesn't feel good to be lied to, does it?" The man mocked.
"Lying?" Rose's grew raspy in desperation. "Sidney wouldn't lie to me!"
"Wouldn't he?" The man backed away from the cell bars and, taking one last glance at Rose, whispered, "Think about it," before exiting the cold, dark room.
               Rose shivered and sunk back into the cell corner; the men had taken her jacket and weapons. Fragile light streamed through a small window just outside the cell's bars; barely enough to alight anything but dust that floated through its path. A rattling noise alerted Rose, but it came from the darkness; she beat on the bars, which uttered another rattle and a groan.
             From the darkness burst a hand into the light, stained with old blood and flesh torn off to reveal some of the bone. It scratched the concrete floor, leaving subtle marks before retracting back into the dark.
               Sidney rejected their father's advances, pushing him roughly away. "Sidney what has gotten into you?"
"You abandoned me and left me to die, and I would have died if it weren't for Rose! I want to go see her!"
"You can't right now, Sidney. She's wounded and needs help."
Sidney bit their father's arm that had been wrapped around themselves as a restraint and shouted, "She's only wounded because of you f*ckers!"
"Sidney! Don't you-"
"Actually, Mr. Ross, your son is free to go visit her, but, being yourself, I'm sure you'd like to accompany them?"
"Of course, yes. Sidney, let's go," the father gently grabbed Sidney's arm and redirected them.
             Sidney, however, yanked their arm out of the other's grasp and walked on ahead, even if they didn't know where they were going. Their father's large stride helped him catch up with his son, but he didn't dare to speak to them now. "In here, Sidney. I think they put her in here." After a pause,  he added, "Her name was Rose, right?"
                Sidney ignored him and barged into the room, exclaiming upon the sight of her, "Rose!"
Rose shuffled up to the bars. "Sidney! Are you okay? Did they do anything to you?"
"That one asshole kicked me a bunch of times, but yeah. Did they hurt you?"
"No. Other than the gunshot wound, I think I'm fine."
"Sidney watch out!" The man shouted, pushing the youngster out of the pouncing walker's grasp.
"What the hell? Why are there walkers in here?" Sidney demanded. Thankfully, the chain around the walkers neck flung it back to the wall.
"I don't know, son, but you two need to move quickly."
"Why? What for?" Sidney questioned, frazzled by the swift man.
"I'm getting you two out of here. This is where we usually put wounded," he paused and continued with a bit of remorse, "to turn them. I have the keys to this cell, being the only one with medical experience, in case something happens to the brain."
"Then hurry! Get her the hell out of there!" Sidney urged.
The man finally managed to unlock the door despite his shaking hands, and Rose wasted no time in hobbling herself out.
"Are you okay? Are you sure you can walk?"
"I think so," Rose grunted, pain wracking her side. "But we have to move slowly for my sake."
"Yeah, sure."
Rose looked up at the man. "What's your name?"
"Joseph. Joseph Ross."
"I'm Rose; Rose Tristen."
"When you're out," Joseph put his hands on Rose's shoulders, "take good care of my son."
"Of course. It's what I've been doing since I met them," Rose assured with a smile.
"I can tell. Thank you, Rose, for everything with Sidney."
"Not a problem, Joseph."
"You two should go on now; I'll keep watch for you."
Rose looked back from the doorway Sidney was all-too-eager to get through and said, "Thank you," before being rushed out by Sidney who didn't bother to say a word.
                  Rose held onto Sidney's hand as she creaked open a door to a room. Evidently, the man inside noticed and spoke, "Someone there?" He got up and strolled towards the door, and Rose jumped up and pushed him against his desk at just the right moment. The man threw her off of himself and slammed her against the wall, which Sidney registered as their cue to join in. Grabbing a lamp from the floor that had rolled off the desk, Sidney held back no strength as they smashed it against the man's bald head.
                  Rose watched as he fell to the ground, knocked unconscious by the force of the lamp. "No need to kill him. Come on, let's go," Rose whispered, exiting the room and finding herself in a hallway. Sidney and Rose walked silently down the long hallway, and, before long, they heard shouts from below.
                    Rose hobbled down the stairs with Sidney's aassistance and found the same man that had spoken to her in the cell as well as a group of other men standing in the middle of the room. "Nicholas..?" Sidney whispered.
They were close enough to faintly hear his speech, "So, we've found our little theif, have we?" Nicholas sighed. "Do you remember what I said if I ever caught you in the city again? Much less, stealing from us? A fate worse than death, some would say. Don't you agree?"
Muffled noises ensued.
Nicholas made a 'tch' sound and stared down at her.
Meanwhile, Sidney had been long aiming their firearm at Nicholas. "Rose, we need to help them," Sidney begged in a coarse whisper.
"Yeah, we should, but now would be our chance to escape. If there were more than one gunshot, we'd alert the whole building."
"But that person needs help. Did you hear what he said?"
"Yeah, but I don't have a weapon; and I'm certainly not in the shape to help you," Rose informed, her hand still placed on the wound.
"Then maybe they can help themselves; find something to fight back with once I shoot one of these f*ckers."
"Be careful," Rose advised.
        Sidney narrowed their eyes and pulled the trigger, landing a shot in one of the poor man's legs. They didn't hesitate to fire another, this time landing one on another man's arm. Nicholas had caught on after the first fire and had brandished one of his own guns. He pressed it against the stranger's temple and mocked, "You shoot; I shoot. Come out, and nobody else gets hurt."
              Sidney's weapon remained raised, and they contemplated what to do. "Just wait," Rose whispered. "Hand me your gun," She insisted, aiming when Sidney did as they were told. "You might be surprised, but archery's done a lot for me." Rose squeezed the trigger, hitting Nicholas's hand, which forced him to throw the gun down. The stranger saw their open window and dove for it, kicking Nicholas's feet; Rose then shot one of the guards' legs, causing him to topple over as well.
          The stranger kicked their guns away and punched the remaining guard's stomach, following it up with a kick. Sidney rushed down to the stranger, a limping Rose in pursuit. The woman, from the looks of it, picked up Nicholas's gun, shot him without hesitation, and pointed it at the two of them. "Who are you?" She demanded.
"I'm Rose, this is Sidney; we were just getting out of this place," The other woman explained. "We really need to go; the gunshots would've alerted the others in this building by now. You can come with us."
"Sure, I'll follow you out, but I'm not going with you."
"That's fine. We just need to go."
                 Rose, Sidney, and the stranger rushed out of the building, but they had other problems at hand: soldiers still roamed the city. "How're we going to get past the soldiers in the city?" Sidney questioned, peeking around a corner.
"Not my problem," the woman answered, already off on her own way.
"You're welcome, asshole!" Sidney half-shouted to the stranger, enraged that getting abandoned was all of a thank you they were going to get.
The stranger audibly sighed and half-heartedly glared at them. "Meet me outside the city, and we'll talk," she muttered.
                Thankfully, the snow had calmed down considerably, and Rose could see without having to strain her eyes. "Where do we go, Rose?"
"I think I might be able to help you with that," a man spoke from behind.
          The pair turned, only to find Joseph smiling a little pridefully. Sidney groaned and turned their back to him, but Rose offered a welcome, even if it was only because he'd be able to find them a way out. "Glad you showed up," Rose said. "How are we getting out of here?"
"Well, I suppose you could just walk with me. They all recognize me; won't think anything of it."
Sidney muttered, "Whatever.."
Rose sighed. "I hope you're a good liar."
"I'm sure he'll do just fine on that part," Sidney grumbled.
"C'mon, let's go," Joseph demanded, poking Rose's back with his firearm.
             Sidney stood and joined Rose in being herded around by, what they considered, their no-good, lying father. Joseph lead them through the thick, deep snow that had taken its place in the roads, but Sidney soon stopped in realization. "What about Micheal and Lidia?"
Rose intently looked at Sidney, clearly hoping that they wouldn't have thought of them. "We have to leave, Sidney, and get somewhere safe. After we do, and get sorted out, we'll look for them, okay?"
"But, Rose, what if something bad happened to them?" Sidney asked, their voice laced with despiration.
She shrugged, her face showing her remorse on abandoning them. "I don't know, but chances are, if nothing happened to them, that they're looking for somewhere safe, too."
"I know you're right, but I can't help but worry," Sidney whispered, lowering their gaze to the snow beneath.
"It's alright." Rose rested a hand on their shoulder. "We need to go now."
          Sidney nodded, and Joseph urged them on, until the three reached the familiar shop where this started. The corpse still laid there; the blood pooled around his neck. It couldn't be long now until he turned, if he wasn't frozen yet. The corpse caught Joseph's eye, and he nearly did a double-take, stopping in his tracks at the sight. "Did you two do this..?" He whispered, lowering his weapon.
"Actually I did," Sidney answered, a mocking smile plastered on their face.
"O-Of course. It was necessary, though, wasn't it?"
"Depends. Maybe we could've gone around him, maybe not, but you weren't there," Sidney said, their words merely a whisper as they added, "You never were.."
"L-Let's go before something else happens; we're nearly there."
"We're not stupid," They muttered, not even bothering to look back.
             Joseph hid his hurt expression and trudged onwards, and, finally, the group exited the city with minimal complications. Not even yards out of the city, Jonathan merely said, "Rose?"
She turned, freezing as his weapon was pointed right at her. "Y-Yes..?"
"You can go on, now. Sidney and I'll be just fine together."
Sidney cast a disgusted glance at the man and whispered, "Told you he was a good liar."