A Painful Place (Walking Dead Fanfiction)

Chapter 1: Sunlight

"Hey, Tilly! Tilly! Do you hear that?"
Tilly looked up from where she dozed in the train car at Lana, who had her face pressed against a crack in the wall.
"Huh?" She shoved a piece of long, red hair out of her face and rubbed her eyes. "No, I didn't hear-"
A gunshot rang out, a little too close to the train car for comfort.
Then another.
And another.
People were screaming.
"What do you see, Lana?" Tilly hopped up and ran to where her best friend stood as the gunshots continued.
"I… I can't see much, but there's definitely some chaos happening."
Tilly pushed her out of the way and pressed a blue eye to the crack. "Dammit, why can't this thing have a window or something? I can't see- Hey! Hey, help!" she called as she saw the flash of someone running past.
She felt a large hand quickly cover her mouth and spun around to see Lana's brother Joseph.
"Till, shut up! We don't know who is out there."
"Well, if it's one of the Termites they aren't going to give a shit if we're yelling. It's nothing new to them, but if it's someone else we need to let them know we're in here."
"You think some white hats rode in the save the day?" Lana jabbed.
"Shut up and start yelling!" Tilly ordered.
"Can't do both, Till-"
"Just do it!" Tilly cut Joseph off.
The three of them began banging on the side of the car and yelling as loud as they could manage after nearly two days without food or water.
"Hello?" They heard a gruff man's voice from outside of the car.
"Hey! Yeah! Those fuckers locked us in here!" Lana yelled.
"Yo, Rick! There are still folk in these train cars! We can't run off and leave them here," they heard the voice call to someone else in his group.
"No time, Daryl! Let's go!"
"He's right, Rick! We have to get them out!" It was a woman's voice this time.
"Shit," Rick sighed, "Alright, just hurry."
A moment later, they heard a bang and a few obscenities as the people outside began to pry the door open. It slid open with a loud creak, and Tilly, Lana and Joseph were momentarily blinded by something they hadn't seen in a while: Sunlight.
Tilly lead the way, running toward the door as she squinted and shielded her eyes from the light with her left hand. She misjudged the distance to the door and quickly found herself falling, rather than walking, out of the door.
A strong arm reached out and caught her before she face-planted in the dirt and she looked up, gaze locking with a man with dirty, long brown hair and blue eyes. His face was bruised and covered in blood, his or someone else's, she didn't know.
They both froze as she stood off- balance with his arm around her, his other grasping a crossbow.
Lana and Joseph made much more graceful exits, and took off in the direction all of the new escapees of Terminus were headed.
"Till!" Lana yelled, "Tilly! Come on!"
Tilly and the man quickly pulled away from each other, and he grabbed her arm to guide her toward the others. "C'mon. We gotta run."
So they ran.
Tilly could see Lana and Joseph ahead in the small crowd as Daryl continued to drag her by the arm. The gunfire hadn't stopped, and she watched in horror as people dropped all around her.
"Stay low," Daryl ordered, and they crouched as best as they could while they sprinted.
She heard a scream ahead of her. She knew that voice. Tilly lifted her head and her fears were confirmed when she saw Lana was the source.
"NO!" Tilly shrieked. Joseph lay at Lana's feet, blood cascading from his head. Lana barely had time to begin weeping before a large red headed man with a goatee ran and scooped her up.
"No time, sweetheart," he told her as he took off running, Lana's sobbing form bobbing in his arms.
Tears rolled down Tilly's face. She couldn't even feel her legs anymore, but they carried her along rapidly as Daryl continued to drag her toward the woods. "We have to go back! Joseph!" Tilly yelled as they crossed into the trees and slowed a little.
"No point," Daryl responded. She tried to pull her arm away, but he held on tighter forcing her to continue forward. "I'm real sorry about your friend, but he's dead." She opened her mouth to protest, but she knew he was right.
They jogged for a few more minutes until the gunshots faded. The Termites, the surviving ones anyway, didn't seem to be following them.
Daryl pulled her behind a tree and sat her down at its base as the group ahead of them stopped. "Want me to get your friend?" he asked her, a look of sympathy on his face.
Tilly nodded. Now that the adrenaline had faded she wasn't sure her voice even worked.
"What was he to you?" he asked before leaving.
"My... my..." she croaked, "my big brother. I mean, my best friend's big brother, but he-"
"I get it," Daryl patted her on the shoulder. "Lost my big brother not long ago, but I know family ain't always blood. I'm sorry."
He stood and walked toward Lana's savior. "Hey, Abraham!" The redheaded man turned, Lana still in his arms. Daryl looked at Lana and nodded toward Tilly.
Abraham seemed to understand and brought Lana over. "Oh, Matilda!" Lana cried when she saw her friend. Tilly wrapped both of her arms around her and they clung to each other as they sobbed.
When she finally regained her breath, Tilly lifted her head to look around as she wiped her face with her sleeve. The crowd that began running from Terminus had dwindled down to barely more than ten.
So many dead. Joseph was gone. But they survived.
"We survived."