CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

˙ THE MYSTERY VAN˙

"You know I was broke down, I had hit the ground. I was crying out, couldn't make no sound."

THE ONE THING that could truly offer Reign peace, was riding in a car. She never knew what it was about car rides, but somehow they were the key to calming her down. Right after another argument with her mother or another phone call from the principle, she would steal her mom's rusted down Toyota and drive it around a few blocks, or even take it for a spin down some back roads in which she knew the cops would never be. There she allowed time to stand still, as all that mattered was her and the car.

In a way she felt the same tranquility now just sitting in the passenger side of the black car. She had her head rested upon the window, watching the road up ahead as Damon kept the car going at a steady pace. It was calming, and offered a comforting silence that was much needed after the horrific events the two had seen within the past few hours. For a second, Reign thought about closing her eyes and getting some sleep, but she quickly stopped herself. She didn't want to allow herself to sleep until she found Dylan and Bonnie.

To distract herself, she unintentionally scratched her forehead to get rid of the dried blood, not realizing she had scratched off the scab that had formed over her head wound. "Shit," she murmured, wiping her bloodied finger on her pants.

Damon grabbed a cloth and water bottle from the glove compartment and passed it to Reign while keeping his eyes trained to the road. "Here, you should clean it," he said with concern.

"It's fine. Just a scratch," Reign waved him off. She hated being the centre of attention, and she especially hated people being concerned about her. It made her uncomfortable and awkward.

"Maybe, but it's still bleeding and you're confined in a tight space with a vampire," Damon stated warily, clearly holding in his breath. Reign felt her cheeks flush the slightest, realizing Damon was more concerned about him losing control, thus fearing he would cause harm on her.

She didn't say anything about it, not wanting to ruin the moment. She used the dampened cloth to wipe the crusted blood off her face and neck before pressing down firmly on the bleeding wound so it would stop leaking the red liquid.

Soon after Damon relaxed again, as the bleeding had finally stopped. By now they were quite aways from the church, and well on their way towards downtown Atlanta. They figured it was the best chance of finding any cars with a white cross. However, as they got further and further from the group, Reign began to think about all those they had left behind. She didn't even say goodbye to her father, or tell anyone else where they were going, other than Stefan of course.

"I didn't even say goodbye to Bob," Reign spoke up.

Damon turned his head at her voice, her words surprising him a little considering he had thought she'd be sleeping. "Neither did I," he said quietly.

"Do you think this was a bad idea?" she asked openly, wishing for some reassurance.

"Everyone else was too caught up in finding this bullshit of a cure. If we didn't do something about Dylan and Bonnie, it might've been too late," Damon said slowly.

"What if it already is too late?" she asked hopelessly. "What if Bonnie isn't even there? My dad said he only saw Dylan and Beth get taken. Bonnie wasn't with them."

Before she had been filled with so much hope and determination, however it seems as if that had slowly been drained from her body by her own mind, as she became consumed with her thoughts. She was over overthinking, over analyzing everything and it was eating at her from the inside out. Damon took notice of this, and knew if they didn't find a clue soon they were going to be driving themselves to their deaths. They knew how overrun Atlanta was, so they feared if they didn't find what they were looking for they'd be trapped.

"We won't know until we get there," Damon replied, gripping the steering wheel tightly. He didn't answer her question, but instead steered her state of mind in a different direction lit up with hope.

"If Beth is there, we need to get her out as well. We owe it to Maggie," Damon said quietly, both of them slightly ashamed they had forgotten slightly of Beth who was also taken.

Reign only nodded, not questioning their journey any further. She was about to lean her head back on the window when suddenly a car pulled from the road ahead of them, speeding away from them. Reign gasped and sat up, Damon slowing the car down a bit, not wanting them to be seen. This car unlike theirs had headlights, but it also had a white cross placed on the back window- the exact car they had been looking for.

"That's the car!" Reign exclaimed in excitement. "We have to follow it."

"Yes, your majesty," Damon rolled his eyes.

Damon pressed down on the gas pedal, keeping a safe distance between them and the car ahead of them. So far they hadn't been seen, but they both knew that could change at any moment and if it did, their plan would falter.

They sat in silence, eyeing the car ahead of them all the way to Atlanta. Time didn't seem to exist at the moment. All that mattered was following this car to it's destination, and from there they would be forced to think of another plan.

They had followed the car all the way to downtown Atlanta, making sure to keep a distance from both walkers and the car. The mystery car had taken all the back roads, avoiding any herds of walkers that may have been wandering the urban streets, as if they had memorized the safest routes. The car had finally reached it's destination allowing Damon and Reign to park a while back, watching as the vehicle occupants exited the car and walked towards the one and only Grady Memorial Hospital.

Damon parked the car far enough from the hospital so that they were hidden, but close enough so that they could watch. The two of them watched the front doors of the hospital until sun rise, in which they then began to form a plan.

"How are we going to do this?" Reign huffed in frustration, grabbing hold of her sword and preparing to fight. The streets of Atlanta weren't as overrun as first thought, but there were still walkers roaming about.

"We go through the parking garage and back doors, and make our way to the top. If they're smart, they'd settle up near the top of the building, which means we need to be careful. Judging by the amount of white crossed cars parked here I'd say they've got numbers. It's only a matter of making it in unseen. From there we grab Dylan, Beth and Bonnie, and get the hell out of there," Damon said, speaking clear and precise.

Reign raised her brow at the raven haired vampire, surprised to say the least by his words. It was if he had preplanned everything, taken his own time to think things through. She could tell he was serious about finding her brother, Beth and Bonnie, and that only made her feel more determined to get them back. "Did you have this whole thing preplanned?" she questioned him with a smirk.

Damon's icy blue eyes were open wide, slightly from embarrassment seeing as he had thought this through. Truth be told he'd been in these types of rescuing missions before in his vampire life time, but for this case he was especially prepared because he didn't want to let Reign down. She had finally begun to trust him, and out of all the people in the group, Michonne, Daryl, Carl, and Glenn, she had chosen to take him along with her. She put his faith in him, and that wasn't something Damon was going to take for granted. Yes, he wanted Bonnie back too, but he also knew how much Dylan meant to her, seeing as he had a brother too.

"Well, we did have all night to prepare for it," he joked lightly, hoping she didn't see through his cover up.

Reign only smiled before grabbing the door handle to exit the car, taking down the first walker she saw. "I guess we're going then." Damon muttered to himself, his lips curling up in a faint smile as he opened his door, kicking back a bunch of walkers that had rushed towards him.

He used vampire speed to reach Reign's side, grabbing her hand and pulling her along with him. With their hands held together, they ran side by side until they reached the parking garage, Reign using her sword to slice through walkers while Damon used his strength to send them flying away. They were in such a rush and in such focus to reach the hospital that neither of them seemed to notice how close they were to each other, despite the fact they were holding hands.

They ran past abandoned cars and entered a stair well, closing the door quickly to conceal the walkers that were after them. Once the door was closed, Reign took in a few short breaths and glanced down at their hands, her stomach tying in a knot. It felt so natural, and for some reason she didn't want to let go. Little did she know Damon felt the same way, but both of them were interrupted by a series of noises coming from up above the stairwell.

"Someone else is here," Damon spoke lowly, releasing Reign's hand to glance up the stairs.

"Could be a walker?" Reign suggested hopefully, not really in the mood for human confrontation at the moment.

"No. I hear a beating heart," Damon whispered, just as gunfire erupted.

Several bullets shot down the stairs, nearly missing Reign. The shooter was standing several staircases above, but it took Damon less than two seconds to climb five flights of stairs to meet the shooter face to face.

"Damon!" Reign yelled, taking off up the stairs.

Damon was already holding the shooter in his grasp, their attacker being nothing but a teen with dark skin and brown eyes. Without even realizing it, Damon bared his fangs and beamed the veins under his eyes, only trying to scare the teen more. The kid was shaking and clearly thought Damon and Reign would be easy targets. Boy was he wrong.

"Please tell me kid who the hell you are before I rip your heart out of your goddamn chest," Damon growled furiously.

"I-please, just let me go!" the teen screamed against the vampire's strong grasp.

"You shot at my friend and almost got her killed. Now I'm going to ask you again, who the hell are you!" Damon repeated with more aggression.

Reign had finally reached the platform the two were standing on, and immediately stepped in between Damon and the teen. "Damon, he's not going anywhere," she said calmly, kicking away the kids weapon.

With furious eyes, Damon glanced over at Reign and allowed himself to calm down, concealing his fangs and feeling the veins disappear from under his eyes. Part of him was embarrassed she had seen him that way, and part of him was surprised she hadn't run away.

As soon as Damon released the teen, Reign drew her sword and pointed the blade directly under his chin, pressing enough force to cause pain, but not so much to draw blood. "You have to the count of three to tell me who the hell you think you are, who the hell you really are, and where the hell you came from or else I'll have this blade shoved so deeply down your throat, you'll be able to feel it through your ass," Reign snarled viciously, her rage and determination to find her brother and Bonnie getting the best of her. Damon didn't stop her though, even though he knew he should have. He liked seeing this part of Reign. She was badass, and he couldn't take his eyes off her.

"Okay! Okay, I'll tell you what you-"

"ONE!" Reign started counting.

"My name is Noah!" the teen stuttered. "I-I just need to get out of here okay, I just can't let them find me!" He began to panic.

"Who? Who's going to find you Noah?" Damon asked.

"The cops at Grady Memorial. I need to get out of here, please. Just let me go, and-"

"Grady Memorial Hospital?" Reign snapped, cutting him off.

Noah began to hyperventilate, not answering her question so Reign pressed harder on her sword, drawing a sliver of blood from the boy. "Ow yes! Yes the hospital!" he answered.

"Do you know Dylan and Bonnie?" Reign questioned him.

"Yeah, I know Dylan and Bonnie. They helped me escape," Noah replied, sweat rolling down his face. At the mention of her brother and friend, Reigns eyes lit up in hope.

"Great. Take us to them," Reign instructed.

"What? No! I just got out of that shit place, there isn't a way in hell I'm going back!" Noah protested, looking at Reign like she was crazy, most likely because she was.

"Do I need to remind you what happens if my sword takes a dive down your throat?" Reign pressed in a threatening tone.

"At least lead us to them. Once we have eyes on them, you can go," Damon suggested, deciding to step in before Reign scared the living daylights out of the poor boy, if she hadn't already.

"Okay," Noah nodded. "Okay, I can do that, but you have to promise to let me go once you find them," he added.

"Deal," Reign said, removing her sword from his flesh. "Lead the way," she motioned him.

Noah nodded warily, before walking out of the stairwell and back into the parking lot. Damon had a hold of his gun while Reign trailed tightly behind Noah. They reached the street again, Noah glancing around carefully as several walkers made their way towards them.

"I thought we were going to the hospital kid!" Damon shouted, becoming slightly worried by the amount of walkers approaching them.

"We are!" Noah shouted back. "The proper way in is through the sewers," he explained.

Reign stood in a defensive stance, her sword held out as she prepared to fight the walkers. As Noah glanced around for a clear path to get to the hospital, Reign decided to make a move. "Screw this shit," she muttered, before stepping out onto the street to clear a path.

"Reign wait!" Damon yelled, trying to warn the raven haired girl of an approaching car, but it was too late.

The car busted through the crowd of walkers, accidentally hitting Reign and sending her backwards. Damon's eyes opened wide just as Noah pulled him back, wanting to hide but that was the last thing the Salvatore wanted to do.

He needed to get to Reign, he needed to help her. Just as he was about to call her name, a walker grabbed him from behind, snapping it's jaws against his leather jacket as Noah stabbed him it in the brain.

Turning away from the distraction, Damon went to sprint to help Reign but she was gone.

Noah and Damon watched from the sidelines as the white crossed car drove away with Reign, parking right in front of the hospital in which they were trying to get to all along. As several police officers removed an unconscious Reign from the back of the car did Damon feel a massive wave of guilt washing over him.

He was frozen, in shock and before he knew it Reign had been taken inside the hospital they had initially intended to set Dylan, Beth and Bonnie free from.

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[EDITED: 07/23/18]