Both Eyes Open - Daryl Dixon (under editing)

Losing Game.

Lara stepped out of the RV after everyone else, looking aimlessly up and down the havoc of cars that wrecked the road. Taking a seat in the shade, on the steps into the RV, she took a deep breath and a long drink of water from her bottle. She then went to put the bottle back into her jacket, but groaned when remembering the loss.

"You really miss that coat of yours, don't you?" Dale asked, walking to the rear end of the vehicle after Rick instructed everyone to search for supplies.

Lara looked up at the older man, blinking in the sunlight reflecting off one of the cars, and shook her head for yes.

"Tell me what it was again?" He asked, resting both hands onto the first couple rungs on the ladder.

Lara smiled, "It was my own little tardis jacket. It held everything. It was deceptively bigger than it looked." She explained. "And now it's ash, thanks to Jenners bonfire and Daryl trailing me out the door."

"Do you blame him?" Dale asked, almost surprised.

"Nah... Just a damn coat. At least I got my bags." She shrugged, standing up and fixing her guns; one in its holster, one in the belt of her jeans behind her back.

She began pacing the cars nearby, occasionally shadowed by Dale on lookout on the roof of the RV.

Stopping by one blue Mercedes, she peered in through the window, drew her knife and slowly tried the door handle. Pulling the door open, she found the car empty, and she rummaged around the bags strewn about the inside. In her search she found a box of breakfast bars, and a blank, black baseball cap, which she immediately fitted onto her head around her ponytail.

Suddenly she heard laughing without much warning, and spun on the spot, her knife armed ready to strike, only to see Glenn laughing at Shane cleaning himself up with a few gallons worth of water from the back of a truck. Shaking her head and smiling at the antics, she made her way back to the RV slowly, inspecting a small grey rosary she had found on the back seat of the car she raided.

"Oh, Christ..." She heard Rick say, turning and running frantically towards the groups from a few cars down the road.

He looked to his wife and son first, instinctively ordering them, "Lori, under the cars. Carl, Sophia, get down now. Carl and Sophia, down..."

He then looked to Lara, pushing her towards a nearby pickup truck, "Get under." He demanded, fear etched onto his dirty face.

Lara wasted no time in dropping and rolling onto her belly under the truck, pulling all of her own limbs close together and protectively under the bottom of the vehicle. In one hand she still clutched her clip-point knife, whilst in the other she had now drawn her gun from her back pocket, as a safety precaution.

They waited an agonising ten, nearly fifteen minutes, for a whole crowd or gathering of walkers all passed there way, as if they had pack mentality. Lara's eyes were fixtures on the car in front, underneath which was Sophia, who glanced around frantically every few seconds, like a meerkat hiding from prey.

Just as things grew silent, Lara remained on the ground, her forehead touching the cool tarmac, trying to steady her shaken breathing. She didn't have long however, as soft panicked shrieks met her ears, and she looked up to see Sophia had left the safety of the underneath of the car, only to now be pursued by two walkers.

Crawling quickly out of her cover she hauled herself onto her feet and began to run down the road, just as Rick was doing ahead of her. She made her way to the edge of the road before she was stopped by one arm around her waist pulling her back to the road, flush against someone's chest.

She pulled and struggled as this single arm became two, at which point she clawed, unsure of whether it were human or walker, until one scrape from her nails and a welcome, "Ow!" greeted her ears, and she was let go. Fuming, tears boiling her eyes, she spun found to face Daryl, who was staring at her with indifference.

"Rick'll look after her. Don't need you runnin' off now too." He grumbled, his accent thick as he squinted at the breathless, angry woman in front of him, who slowly calmed down with each passing second.

~~~

"Sure this is the spot?" Daryl asked Rick, both hunched over and calf deep in water looking under a few tree barks.

"I left her right here. I drew the walkers way off in that direction up the creek." Rick said pointing up the slope into the forest, his hands resting of his knees.

"Without a paddle-- seems where we've landed." Daryl sighed, moving through the water.

"She was gone by the time I got back here. I figured she just took off and ran back to the group. I told her go that way and keep the sun on her left shoulder." Rick said guiding Daryl in the right direction to a bank facing the way back to the highway. Shane and Lara stood on one side squinting through the forest.

Daryl walked up to the edge of the pond, and waved at Glenn, "Hey, short round, why don't you step off to one side? You're mucking up the trail."

"Assuming she knows her left from her right." Shane commented.

"Shane, she understood me fine." Rick retorted.

Shane all but groaned, turning on the spot to confront Rick, "Kid's tired and scared, man. She had her a close call with two walkers. Got to wonder how much of what you said stuck." He said patting the gun rhythmically in his hand as he spoke.

"Got clear prints right here." Daryl pointed along the mud, straightening up. "She did like you said, headed back to the highway."

"Let's spread out, make our way back." Daryl said, pulling himself up the bank in the same direction as the trail led. "She couldn't have gone far."

"Hey, we gonna find her." Rick reassured everyone as Shane gave him a hand up the slope. "She'll be tuckered out hiding in a bush somewhere." He said as the group began making their way back, Lara trailing behind, armed and vigilantly on guard, not knowing the area and unsettled after the recent encounter of so many walkers in one pack.

Daryl stopped and knelt to the ground, inspecting the foliage. "She was doing just fine till right here. All she had to do was keep going. She veered off that way." He pointed in a way similar to where the group had just come from.

"Why would she do that?" Glenn asked.

"Maybe she saw something that spooked her, made her run off." Lara suggested.

"A walker?"

"I don't see any other footprints. Just hers."

"So what do we do? All of us press on?" Shane asked, looking up at Rick from Daryls side.

Rick shook his head in protest, "No, better if you, Glenn and Lara get back up to the highway. People are gonna start panicking. Let them know we're on her trail doing everything we can. But most of all, keep everybody calm." He said pointedly.

Shane nodded, "I'll keep 'em busy scavenging cars. Think up a few other chores. I'll keep 'em occupied. Come on." He said nodding to Lara, beside him, and Glenn, behind Rick, and the trio slowly trod their way back.

Before leaving the area however Daryl stood to his feet and, as he walked by Lara, he whispered, "Don't get killed." And kept walking, oblivious to the baffling look she offered his back, assessing the meaning of his statement, only to draw a simple conclusion.

He thought she was most likely to get killed.