my tears ricochet

Chapter Seventy Seven

Ivy wasn't moving.

The night was dying young and he couldn't see any reaction from the girl against the wall; just another a shadow in the darkness.

"Open the damned gate," Daryl snarled, yanking it with rage. The headlights from their truck illuminated enough of the scene to set every nerve in his body on fire, livid with fear. They couldn't tell if Ivy had been hit with one of their bullets or had gone down by a walker, but she wasn't moving.

A wall stood in his way.

A yard of death stood in his way.

"Hey, move it!" Abraham snapped. He shoved Daryl backwards with hands strong enough to force him into shifting away from the metal gate, strong enough to catch a fist when he tried swinging. "We'll ram the front door down. Move it, Dixon."

Alexandria looked bad.

He had imagined the worst when they heard the distant shriek of a horn, losing half their entourage in the process. But Ivy had gotten a hold of a radio, had told him everything was holding up, that she was waiting for him to get back.

But then they had been shot at and separated, Daryl delayed by strangers in the woods. Every second was wasted as he tried to reroute and redirect, losing control of the situation entirely.

Glenn was picking walkers off with the artillery weapons from the top of the truck, focused on clearing the park wedged along the wall. Maggie and Beth were barely visible from the look out platform and fear was a tight string that connected every single person in their little unit. Abraham had Rosita somewhere, Glenn could only see Maggie and Beth, and Daryl just needed to get to his daughter.

"Hey!" Tyreese barked, swinging his hammer hard as he jogged down one end of the street with Sasha. They cut a smaller path together and covered each other neatly, bright with frantic energy. "We got this."

"Well, I'll be damned," Abraham said, forcing grim amusement into a mix. "Maybe this place isn't ready to roll over and die yet."

His expression looked manic in the harsh lights of the truck and Daryl wondered if it was a match for his own.

Sasha covered Tyreese as he unlocked each of the locks on the gate. Most of the walkers were tighter near the heart of the community but the outskirts of the swarm were visibly pulling in their direction. Once Tyreese managed to open enough space, Daryl slipped through and sprinted across the pavement to get to the park.

Carefully designed plant beds had been torn apart. Their gunfire left the walkers in a heap of twisted bodies, something for his feet to stumble over as he closed the distance to where Ivy had slumped down tight against the wall. Something moved at her feet and Daryl drove his foot down in a hard stomp, crushing the skull of a partially stunned walker before it could revive itself.

He slid to his knees. "Are you bit?" Daryl demanded, roughly grabbing onto her hands and yanking, ignoring her attempts to pull back. "C'mon, answer me, damnit!"

It didn't matter that Ivy wanted to fight him off of her. Daryl was bigger. He was stronger.

He was fuelled by sheer desperation that she was never going to win against.

The darkness consumed both of them and Ivy let out a half-scream as Daryl forced her away from the wall and towards where it was easier to see. The truck was still running, headlights cutting a hard line of light. "Enough," Daryl snapped at her. His hands yanked her one arm out and he tried to check for bite marks. "I ain't tell you twice, Ivy Dixon. Settle down for a minute."

There was enough light to see by to tell that she hadn't been clipped by a stray bullet. But the light only illuminated how dark her skin and clothes were from blood, how gore painted her from head to toe. Daryl needed to know more, his fingers tracing up her arms as he tried to feel for any damage.