A Painful Place (Walking Dead Fanfiction)

Chapter 7: Nightmares

“Honey, I’m home!” Tilly called as she shut the door to her apartment and placed her keys on the hook.
“Oh, thank God!” Lana rushed her and wrapped her in a hug. “I’ve been trying to call you all morning!”
Tilly pushed her friend back to arm’s length, “I’m fine, Lan. I was just installing some light fixtures for Mrs. Harding at the bakery.”
“So you haven’t seen the news?” Lana’s eyes grew wide, and she drug Tilly toward the living room after she shook her head no.
The television was blaring, and as Tilly stepped in front of it she suddenly understood her friend’s panic.
“Unofficial death tolls are in the thousands at this time,” the newscaster announced, her hair disheveled and eyes bloodshot, like she had been up all night. A bright red chyron flashed at the bottom of the screen. ‘Breaking News: Infection has spread worldwide’
“Holy shit,” Tilly declared, “I thought they said they had that all contained just the other day.”
“Apparently not,” Lana replied. “The local news was reporting cases of it in Paducah this morning, but they’ve been off-air for a couple of hours now. You don’t think…”
“That they got hit?” Tilly finished. “God, I hope not. That’s less than an hour from here.”
Lana reached over and flipped off the TV. “Did you see anything in town while you were out?”
“No,” Tilly shook her head. “Everything seemed pretty normal. Fewer people out than usual, maybe, but that’s it.”
Tilly went to the kitchen, poured each of them a cup of coffee, then walked over to the living room window after giving Lana her cup. The streets were all but empty, which was a little unusual, but with what she saw on the news she figured people had just decided to be cautious and stay inside.
As she sipped the warm liquid, something caught her eye just east of their apartment.
“Looks like Tyler has been day drinking again,” Tilly announced. She knew the teenager from the gas station where he worked. It wasn’t uncommon for him to show up to work drunk or stoned, but he was a nice enough kid as far as she was concerned.
Lana walked over to join her at the window, laughing at the sight of the boy stumbling down the sidewalk.
“Didn’t you make out with him once?” Tilly teased.
“Fuck no!” Lana replied defensively. “He’s like 19, Tills. You’re thinking of his older brother.”
Tilly laughed, “Ah, yeah. Wasn’t he the one who sent you flowers?”
Lana shook her head at the memory, “That guy was nuts. I let him get to second base once and all of a sudden the dude is sending me flowers and blowing up my phone. What a psycho.”
As the girls reminisced, they saw a woman walk out of a house a block from where Tyler was. She had a large purse draped over one arm, and was holding the hand of a little boy with her other. All of a sudden, Tyler’s head whipped toward the two of them. His mouth fell open and he began to shamble quickly toward them.
“Something isn’t right,” Tilly said, panic in her voice. “Lana, I don’t think he’s drunk.”
“The infection,” Lana whispered.
They heard a piercing scream come from the woman as she noticed Tyler approaching. The girls looked out of the window and saw their first glimpse of what would soon be their new reality. Tyler’s teeth were sunk deep into the arm of the woman as she tried to fight him off. He pulled his mouth away, taking a chunk of her flesh with it and chewing it like it was a gourmet steak.
Tilly sprinted toward her bedroom and came back holding a baseball bat in her right hand.
“What are you doing?” Lana yelled.
Tilly ran toward the door, pausing to answer her friend. “I’m helping.”
She slammed the door behind her, leaving a stunned Lana in their apartment.
When Tilly made it over to the woman she was weakly pounding Tyler with her purse, but he maintained a death grip on her arm. Her little boy clung desperately to her other arm, eyes wide with shock. When he saw Tilly running toward them with the bat, he let out a scream.
At the sound of the shriek, Tyler dropped the arm of the boy’s now-limp mother and moved to grab him.
“No!” Tilly yelled. “Tyler, stop!” She ran as fast as she could toward the boy, but no matter how fast she went they seemed to only get farther away. Tears ran down her face, and she watched helplessly as Tyler sunk his teeth into the neck of the terrified child.
All she could do was scream at the sight in front of her. Her feet still pounded the pavement but got her nowhere.
“Tilly!” She heard, and felt something grab her arm. She jerked it away quickly and began swinging her bat with all of her might. “Matilda! Stop it!”
________________________________________________________________________
“Matilda! Stop it!” Daryl yelled, hands wrapped around Tilly’s biceps. He shook her harder. “Tilly, it’s a dream! You have to be quiet!”
The next thing he knew, Tilly’s foot connected with his stomach and he let go of her arms as he fell backward. Tilly sat up with a start, breathing heavily.
“Oh, shit. Oh, my God.” There was sweat dripping down her forehead as she finally became aware of her surroundings. She wasn’t in the street outside her former apartment, but lying in the middle of the railroad tracks. She noticed Daryl sitting on the ground in front of her, rubbing his stomach and she realized what had happened.
“Fuck, Daryl, I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I thought you were-“
“I know,” he groaned as he got to his feet. “Trust me, we all get those nightmares. It’s all good, you don’t kick that hard.”
He offered his hand to her, and pulled her to her feet when she took it.
Dusting herself off and stretching a bit, she turned and saw that pretty much everyone else was staring at her.
“Which one?” Lana asked, walking up and putting her arm around her friend’s waist in comfort.
Tilly put her arm over Lana and pulled her into her side, Lana’s head only reaching to her shoulder. “The boy,” she answered. “I tried to stop it…”
“You couldn’t have stopped it,” Lana told her. “You never would have made it there in time.” Lana knew this dream well, and had a similar one herself occasionally. They weren’t able to save the boy in real life, and it seemed they’d never be able to in their dreams either.
Glenn walked over to her and patted her gently on the back. “You think we’d at least be able to escape this nightmare when we slept. We don’t get a break, even then.”
Though his words weren’t exactly comforting, it helped to know that these new people didn’t think worse of her for her outburst. They understood. She smiled at him in appreciation and stuck her knife in her boot before heading toward the rest of the gang to discuss their plan for the day.
“We head east,” Rick announced, crouched over the map he had spread on the ground. The group was circled around him, watching as he traced the route they would take with a dirty finger.
Tilly studied Rick as he spoke. The man acted so sure of himself, but there was a tinge of hesitation behind his blue eyes. She could tell that he was doing everything he could to fight that doubt and be an effective leader, but she couldn’t help but wonder what had happened in the past to shake his confidence.
No doubt leading them into Terminus was something he regretted, but she had a feeling there was more to it than that. She wondered if it had anything to do with his children’s mother, who obviously wasn’t around anymore.
“It’s a little farther than we’d hoped,” Rick continued. “Probably about 30 miles, but we can make it.”
“We’ll just hunt along the way,” Daryl added. “We can stop at the first town we find and try and gather some supplies.”
“We could all use some clothes, water bottles, weapons,” Sasha stepped forward. “Most of our stuff is still back at Terminus.”
Rick nodded. “We should get moving. I’d like to at least get a third of the way there by tonight. Daryl, I want you and Tilly to stay at the back. Keep a look out. Michonne, you’re up front with me.”
With that, everyone took their places and they were on their way. They followed the tracks only until they reached a cross-road. They had no way of knowing if they were being followed by any survivors of Terminus, so they needed to get off of the tracks as quickly as possible.
Tilly walked slowly at the back of the group with Daryl as they trudged down the leaf-covered road, only stopping for a moment to gather blackberries after Maggie spotted a bush.
Rick told her to keep the rifle she had used for watch the night before, and she had it slung over her shoulder as she cradled a handful of berries, occasionally popping one in her mouth, savoring every bit of their sharp sweetness.
“You sure are taking your time with those things,” Daryl’s muffled voice announced, his mouth stuffed with blackberries.
“No one ever teach you not to talk with your mouth full?” She replied.
“Nope,” he answered, giving her a grin. She couldn’t help but laugh at his purple-tinged mouth. “What?” he asked. “Got something stuck in my teeth?” He leaned his face down next to hers, baring his berry-stained teeth.
“God, Daryl, stop it.” She shoved him away as he chuckled.
She felt him tug on the shoulder of her shirt. “Mind if I use this?” He started moving it toward his mouth, about to use it as a makeshift toothbrush. She jerked it out of his hand and took a step father away.
“I swear, Dixon, if you don’t stop you won’t ever have to worry about finding another toothbrush.”
He smirked at her as he licked the last of the berry juice from his fingers.
“And don’t get any ideas about wiping those on me either,” she added.
“Everything alright back there?” Carol called from the middle of the group.
“Yes, Mom!” Daryl yelled back. Carol just smiled at Tilly and turned back around.
Tilly stepped a little closer and began to talk to him , more quietly this time. “What’s the deal with you and her?” she asked. “Seems like everyone else in the group has accepted her back in. You two not get along?”
Daryl shook his head. “Nah, that’s not it. She and I were really close.”
“Bad break up?” Tilly prodded.
“Ain’t like that,” Daryl scowled. “She was the first one of them to start treating me like I was worth something and not just a carbon copy of Merle.”
“Your brother?” she asked, and Daryl nodded in confirmation. “So what’s the problem? You not agree with what she did?”
“Can’t go around making decisions like that on your own,” he said. “She was reckless. Stupid. Got herself kicked out.”
Suddenly, Tilly understood. “You feel like she abandoned you.”
Daryl visibly tensed at her statement, and began walking a little faster.
“Stop, Daryl!” Tilly picked up her pace a bit, and reached out to grab his arm. He stopped and spun to face her. “I get it. You cared about her, and she wound up leaving you. Doesn’t matter if she wanted to go, but it was still her fault.”
She could see him chewing on the inside of his mouth as he turned from her and began walking again.
“Thought you were an electrician,” he said. “You got some secret psych degree, too?”
“No,” Tilly bowed her head and took a deep breath. “I just know a little about abandonment.”
Daryl’s face softened, and she knew he was waiting for her to elaborate. She had avoided telling him about her family before, but for some reason she was starting to feel not just the desire, but the need, to open up to him.
“This about your family?” he asked, before she even began her story.
She nodded. “My dad left us when I was four,” she began. “My mother couldn’t handle it. She was weak.”
Daryl looked over at her, expecting to see her tearing up, but all he saw in her eyes was anger. “She stuck a gun in her mouth a few weeks later. Blew her brains out while I was playing at Lana’s house. Lana’s mother found her when she went to take me home. I remember her making me wait outside while she gathered some of my things and called the police. I didn’t have any other family, so they took me in.”
Daryl wasn’t sure what to say. She didn’t seem like the kind of person who needed to be comforted, so “I’m sorry” didn’t feel right.
“That sucks,” he offered.
Damn it, dude, he thought. You can do better than that.
“I mean, I get it. Our house burned down with my mom inside when I was young. My dad was never around, and when he was we wished he wasn’t.”
Tilly was surprised to hear him open up to her. Maybe he was relieved to find someone whose childhood was just as dysfunctional as his.
“Makes ya tough, though,” Tilly said proudly. “I mean, look at us. If we hadn’t been forced to learn to take care of ourselves we probably wouldn’t have survived in this world very long.”
“Never thought of it like that,” he said.
“Of course you haven’t,” she smiled. “That’s why you have me.”