Blood Soaked Arrows (On Hold)

(17) The Choice

“If ya’ don’t get your ass up soon I’m gonna eat your damn food.”

I let out a groan and turned my body away from Daryl. There was a sudden sting on my left shoulder when I rolled onto it and it caused me to wince.

“Dumbass.” Daryl snorted from my other side.

I looked over my shoulder at him and glared. “Shut up.”

Daryl smirked mischievously before he leaned over and snatched a piece of food from the plate he had balanced on his thigh. “Well ya’ are.” He scoffed before taking a greedy bite out of a piece of bread.

“I hope that bread is moldy.” I spat as I slowly sat up on the makeshift bed I had been resting in.

For the first time since I had awoken I took the time to take in my surrounds. From the looks of things I was in the bed of the 1990 Chevrolet Suburban that Rick, Glenn and Hershel had come back in after taking in an injured Randall. My fingers scrapped against the made up mattress of clothes and blanket, making me realize that the group had actually taken care of me.

“How long have I been out?” I asked still fiddling with the pieces of clothes underneath me.

Daryl raised up his arm and wiped off pieces of crumbs from his face with his sleeve. “A day an’ a couple of hours.”

“Mmm.” I sounded so that he knew that I was listening and then slowly I moved my gaze over at him. Coming back all torn up and bleeding must have surely worried Daryl, at least that was what I assumed, but Daryl hardly seemed phased by my wound at all. I didn’t think that he would be fretting over me because he had this secret crush or something; it was just that we had known each other before the world had gone to shit and to me Daryl was all that I had left to remind myself of what the world had used to be. I had assumed that Daryl had felt the same way but maybe I was wrong.

I let out a disappointed sigh, letting my shoulders drop as I exhaled. A sharp stab in my wounded shoulder made me regret the action and I let out a hiss at the pain. “Damn it.”

Daryl frowned when his eyes met me and he moved the plate off of his leg before sitting up and taking a few step over to me. “Let me see it.”

I met his gaze firmly. “I just forgot that there was a wound there. It’s fine, no need to worry.”

Daryl didn’t stop though until he was kneeling by my side. “If ya’ snapped a stitch or something you’re just going to be a bigger pain in the ass so shut up and let me take a look.”

I blinked up at him with a loss of words and before I could even think of anything to say he was already tugging the bandage around the wound off. I let out another curse at the feeling of my skin being tugged on around the wound. Daryl didn’t seem to notice though as he lifted up the corner of the bandaged and examined the back half of my shoulder.

“Looks like that dental floss is some tough shit.” He scoffed before easing the corner of the bandage back onto my skin.

I smirked a little at that. “Handy is more like it. I can think of a few other good uses for it too.”

“I didn’t give ya’ a compliment woman I just said that the floss was strong, no need to get cocky.” He murmured as he scooted away from me.

I rolled my eyes over at him dramatically but couldn’t manage to suppress the smile that was on my face. “Fine then I’ll keep it to myself.”

He nodded his head at me and then wondered over to the ledge of the bed that he had occupied earlier before taking a seat. “That’s fine with me as long as ya’ don’t pull anything stupid like back at the farm again.”

I felt my nose crinkle. “What are ya’ talking about?”

He reached down and picked back up his plate. “Runnin’ off like that alone when there were Geeks everywhere. It was stupid and ya’ know it.”

In my own defense I said. “Rick and Carl were trapped in the barn-

The sharp intensity in his blue eyes cut me off guard. They were so filled with hatred and anger that it actually scared me. His lips were pressed into a firm line and his posture was hard and ridged.

“Don’t.” Daryl’s hardened tone brought chills to my body. “Don’t give me any half assed excuse. Ya’ were stupid. Ya’ were damn stupid to risk you’re life like that and if I catch ya’ doing it again I won’t go easy on ya’.”

I let my gaze fall down to my lap. Daryl being angry at me made me feel as if I was a child being scolded and even though I hated it I knew that he was right on some things. It had been reckless for me to venture off on my own, even if I was armed and well trained. I knew that it had been but I hadn’t thought about the consequences of my actions. I’d never thought that my actions could have gotten me killed if I was a bullet short or to slow.

The realization of this made me feel absolutely horrible and suddenly I found myself apologizing to Daryl. “I’m sorry.” My hands were clenched on my lap and I focused on them so that I wouldn’t be tempted to look at Daryl. “Ya’ right. I wasn’t thinking straight….I was being reckless and I’m sorry that I worried ya’.”

Daryl stared at me for a moment as if debated on whether of not I was being serious. When I didn’t say anything else he turned around until his back was facing me and just looked outside. I sat on my spot anxiously wondering if he was still mad at me or not but I knew that Daryl wasn’t going to make things that simple.

With a sigh I let the conversation drop and asked. “How are the others?”

He folded his arms over his chest. “They’re fine.”

I nodded even though he couldn’t see it. “Everyone made it?”

“No.” He sighed. “We lost a couple.”

I felt my throat grow tight as I looked up from my small hands and over to Daryl’s tones back. I knew that Sophia, Carol and Hershel were all okay because I had saved one and heard the other two but the rest of the group had been a blur. “Who?”

“Shane, Andrea, Patricia, and Jimmy.” He answered.

I couldn’t bring a face to Jimmy and I had only vaguely remembered Patricia so knowing that they were gone didn’t really affect me. I was relieved to know that Shane was gone but Andrea… I hadn’t known her all that well but we had just started to get along. The loss of Andrea was the only thing that made me sad.

“I see.” I spoke in a low tone and turned my attention back to my fingers. “Where are we now?”

“Same place since yesterday. Rick was going to head out as soon as ya’ were fixed up but no one can get into your car. Rick didn’t want to leave it behind. That thing is a fully armed tank it’d be waste to leave something like that behind, especially with the vaccinations all locked inside.” Daryl explained with a shrug.

“Yeah it would.” I smiled lightly. “Did ya’ all discuss what the next move is since we can’t go back to the farm?”

“Tossed around a few ideas, T-Dog wants to head east and some of the others want to find another farm that the Geeks have already passed through.”

“That’s not such a good idea.”

Daryl finally turned and looked over at me. I kept my gaze on my hands but I could sense his frown. “Yeah?”

I gave a one sided shrug with my uninjured shoulder. “Ya’ know with Bryan’s gang looking for me and all it might be better to head somewhere else.”

“They’ve been lookin’ for nearly two weeks and still haven’t found ya’.” He scoffed.

I bit my lower lip a little as I twined my fingers together. “They were closer then ya’ think Daryl.”

I felt his frown grow harder as his gaze board into me. “How would ya’ know that?”

“On that run Glenn, Maggie, and I took…” I twisted my hands together nervously until my knuckles were white. “We kind of came across a small group of them and I overheard them talking about how they were searching the whole area. They were looking at farms Daryl and I’m sure that whole fire and guns ablazin’ thing the other day might have drawn them in.”

“Why didn’t ya’ tell me this before.” He yelled angrily from the edge.

My head snapped over to his direction and I hesitantly met his fierce gaze. “We were a little busy with the whole Randall incident.”

“Fucking shit.” He cursed sliding off of the bed. “Ya’ didn’t think to tell Rick about this?”

I frowned at how this was all blowing back onto me. “I wasn’t the only one who knew about this Daryl. Glenn and Maggie could have told ya’ too.”

“Jesus Christ Evie don’t blame this on them, ya’ should have told me.” He snapped.

I pressed my hands up to the side of my head. “There was no fuckin’ time to Daryl!”

“Make time.” He shot back and picked up his cross bow that must have been leaning against the outside of the truck. “Stay put. I gotta go tell Rick.”

I looked from my wounded shoulder and then glared back at him. I had lost too much blood from the bite and if I moved around too much chances were that I was either going to faint or get extremely nauseous. “I ain’t goin’ anywhere.”

With that Daryl turned away from me and then quickly rushed off to find Rick. I let out a sigh once he had left and slowly leaned myself against the side of the car. The strange metal curves of the car pressing into my back was uncomfortable but compared to the whirl wind of emotions I was dealing with right now it was nothing.

It didn’t really to matter to Daryl what I did I was always in the wrong. I ran a hand through my tangled hair as I thought about the infuriating man. One second we would be getting along just great and the next he was yelling at me for something stupid. I swear not even my commanding officers back the CDC had ever yelled me this much and half of them used to be drill sergeants. For once I just wished that Daryl and I could have a nice conversation without him blowing up on me.

I thought about how striking his blue eyes had gotten when he had glared at me and after I thought about that the entire memory just seemed to transform. When Daryl Dixon got angry it sure was something frightening and yet it held a sort of fascinating quality as well. His hard chiseled chin had been set making his cheek bones look high and defined. The memory of his firm chapped lips made my stomach melt and I wondered if they were be rough and hot or smooth and gentle is kissed. Yes Daryl Dixon was certainly one to watch out for.

I shook my head once I realized where my mind had wondered off too. What the heck I had been doing thinking about that Redneck like that? The man was a brute and backwater hick, I shouldn’t have been thinking of him like that. I brought my lower lip into my mouth and bit it gently. Even if he was attractive in a sort of southern badass way this was not the place or time to be goggling over him.

I ran my hands through my hair as I slowly cooled myself down. In the distance I could hear the raised voices and stomping feet against the pavement. I let out another sigh as the voices grew louder and knew that the group was coming this way.

In a matter of seconds they were lined along the edge of the car, trapping me in the bed. Daryl’s cool eyes demanded my attention and when our gaze met I quickly looked away.

“You met with Bryan’s group and you never told us?” Rick asked in an angry tone.

I frowned over at him. “There was no time to tell ya’ anything. Ya’ were all on a man hunt and I didn’t see ya’ again until the burning farmhouse. I explained it to everyone else besides ya’ and Daryl because I assumed that someone would fill ya’ in.”

He let out an angry sigh before running his hand along his jaw. “You’re right I didn’t give you all that much of a chance to chat about it.”

“Thank you.” I breathed dramatically and clapped my hands down onto my thighs.

“But we still have a problem on our hands. Those men that are after you are going to show up here soon so we need to leave.” Rick said in a commanding tone.

“Where will we go?” Carol asked tugging her daughter a little bit closer.

“Right now it’s doesn’t matter. We’ll head east for now, get some distance from this place and then we’ll decide where to go next.” Rick explained.

Daryl nodded. “Stay off the main roads. The bigger the road the more chance of running into them or Walkers.”

“Alright then it’s settled.” The group nodded in grievance before separating and heading off to their cars but Rick stayed where he was. His eyes held mine until I started to feel nervous. “Will you be alright to drive your car?”

I blinked up at him for a moment. I had been silently working on an argument to make sure that I was going to be the only one driving my ‘tank’. I figured that Rick or another member would want me to stay in the back of this car with the excuse that I needed rest, than they would realize how much firepower I had in there and maybe get a little greedy. But here Rick was surprising me.

Slowly I nodded my head. “I can drive.”

“Good.” He gruffly spoke before placing his hands on his hips. “I like to think of you as a member of this group Evelyn. You’ve had our backs more than once. You’ve earned you’re place with us so if you need anything just ask.”

Something light swarmed in my chest at what he was saying to me. I felt a little prickle on my eyes and realized that I was on the brick of tears. I gave my head a little shake before letting a smile consume my face. “Thank you.”

He nodded. “Do you need any help getting out?”

I moved the blankets off of my legs and carefully scooted off of the makeshift mattress. “I’m a big girl.”

He gave me a weak smile before nodding his head again and walking away.

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I made sure to avoid moving my left shoulder as much as possible. Driving was very hard to do with just one hand so it made my task even easier. We had been driving for a few hours Daryl in the front of our caravan on his motorcycle, followed by two cars carrying the rest of the group, and then my ‘tank’ taking up the rear. The car that I had previously been sleeping in gave out a honk and the caravan rolled to a stop. Rick pulled the little red car off to the side of the road before getting out of the driver’s side. I wasn’t sure what was going on but by the looks of it Rick wasn’t happy. Everyone else started to file out of their cars so I followed suit.

Rick looked around the group and dragged a hand down the side of his face. “We’re running on fumes.”

I looked back over to the red car and understood the reason for stopping now was because they had run out of gas. “We can’t stay here.” I pointed out.

“We can’t all fit in two cars can we?” Glenn asked looking from Rick and then back to my tank.

I gave a slight shake of my head. “I have room for one person on the passenger seat but that’s it.”

Rick looked down the road that we had been heading. “We’ll have to make a run for some gas in the morning.”

“Spend the night here?” Carol looked around the road. We were in the middle of nowhere with an endless amount of woods on either side of the dirt road. There was no form of protection save the cars leaving us wide open for an attack from walkers or men.

“I’m freezing.” Carl complained and instantly Rick shed his coat and handed it over to his son.

“We’ll build a fire, Yeah?” Lori asked.

“If ya’ go looking for firewood stay close,” Daryl warned. “Only got so many arrows. How are you doing on ammo?”

The question had been asked to the other group members so I didn’t bothering answering. Rick walked along the side of the road a bit scoping out the darken woods. “Not enough.”

“We can’t just sit here with our asses handing out.” Maggie explained.

“Watch your mouth.” Hershel scolded his eldest daughter. “Everyone stop panicking and listen to Rick.”

Rick looked back over to the group. “Alright we’ll set up a perimeter. In the morning we’ll find gas and some supplies. We’ll keep pushing on.”

“Glenn and I can make a run now, try and scourge up some gas.” Maggie offered.

“No we stay together.” Rick said. “God forbid something happens and people get stranded without a car.”

“Rick we’re stranded now.” Glenn informed him.

“I know it looks bad,” Rick agreed. “We’ve all been thought hell and worse, but at least we found each other. I wasn’t sure, I really wasn’t but we did. We’re together. We keep it that way. We’ll find shelter someplace. There’s got to be a place.”

“How about that.” I pointed over to a random set of bricked walls that might have at one point been part of a house. “It might not have a roof but it can give us something to hide behind.”

The group all looked over to where I was pointing and after a second Rick nodded. “That should do for tonight.”

“What about tomorrow?” Carol asked worriedly. “What are we going to do then. Move on and hope some decent shelter will appear?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there Carol but for now we will take shelter there and head out tomorrow.” Rick said.

“Where exactly are we heading?” T-dog piped up switching his gun from one hand to the other.

Rick was about to say something but I suddenly spoke up before he had the chance. “About that,” Everyone turned their heads towards me. “I’ve been thinking. Why don’t we try Fort Benning?”

Glenn started to shake his head immediately. “Those group members that we killed at the bar said that it was over run.”

I frowned over at Glenn. “You’re really going to take their word for it? They were sick mutilating bunch of pigs. Why would ya’ believe anything that they said?”

Glenn’s eyes grew wide as he looked between me and Rick. “Why do you suggest we go there?” Rick asked.

I gave a shrug. “My brother was last stationed there. If it’s standing there might be a chance that he is immune to the infection and alive. Even if there is a slight chance that he is alive I wanna go check it out.”

“If they are still standing then we could reload on ammo too maybe even stay there.” Daryl added taking a step closer to me.

I smiled over at him briefly before turning my attention back to Rick. His forehead was wrinkled as he thought about his options and personally I didn’t think he had very many. His eyes met directly with mine when he answered. “We’ll go over some more details tomorrow but Fort Benning doesn’t sound all that bad.”