Freedom, Love and Sacrifice - A walking dead sequel

"Be careful." I whispered, my love for him so evident in my voice that Daryl shot us a warning glance. It was clear that he disapproved of us being together but there was nothing he could do.

Caleb nodded and squeazed my hand gently before letting go. "Always am. Love you." He said. The words he'd once kept to himself before he had gathered up the courage that night we had first kissed in the wood.  He had said them after Rick's dictatorship had come into force. He smiled at me and disappered into the house with Rick and the others. 

Even though I was annoyed that I was being left out of the action, I sat down and talked with the girls and Glenn. My worry for Daryl and Caleb's safety crowding my mind.

"Are you ok?" Cori asked me, smiling like she always did. She had such brilliant optimisim regardless of everyything.  It was very admirable.

I nodded and smiled back, only slightly.  There wasn't much to smile about these days.

"Yeah. Just worryin'." I admitted. Cori was one person I could tell everything to.  In a way, she had replaced Dale as like a sort of therapist; listening to all my worries and laments. No, she hadn't replaced Dale. Dale was still alive - in my heart at least.

"About what?" She asked, concerned. I noticed her gazing at the house, her eyes hungry and eager for a sight of Daryl. I stifled my laughter. Mainly cause this wasn't the time for laughter. But partly I found it kind of weird and sweet that Cori had a thing for my annoying older brother. I mean with the greasy straggly matted hair, he wasn't really Prince Charming at the moment.

But I didn't object.  I was kind of pleased with it since I had a gut feeling that Cori and Daryl would be cute together. But apart from that, I was worried about how Carol would feel if they did miracously got together. Carol and Daryl had got close in the last eight months ever since he had saved her that night.

Cori waved her hand in front of my face and clicked her fingers, snapping me out of my thoughts. "He-lo! Earth to Angel. An answer would be pretty nice about now." She teased.

I blinked and smiled at her. "Oh, sorry Cori. Ya know, stuff." Like the fact Rick's slowly going pysco like Shane and that you may loose Caleb forever no matter how much you try and save him. The annoying voice in my mind had started up again. It had began right after we had been travelling through Georgia. Everytime I was just thinking, it would creep in and cast doubts on me. And I would shake it off each time. I mentally told it to shut up and just smiled again at Cori.

"Anyway,  never mind me. What's goin' on between you and my brother?" I enquired with a teasing tone.  Cori flushed red and shrugged.

"Nothing. I'm lucky if I can say one word to him. He's always with Carol." She replied.

"Yeah, they seem to be joined at the hip lately. Don't worry, it'll blow over. They're not into each other like that." I assured her and I knew it was true.  They were just friends.

She smiled again. "I know.  And I'm happy for you and Caleb. I never thought my little brother would find love. He was never interested in girls when he was younger.  In fact I thought he was gay for a while." She laughed.

I smiled at her and then suddenly I began laughing as well. In the middle of everything, I just laughed. The others stopped talking and glanced over at us. I read the expressions on their faces. They were shocked but happy to see us laughing. Even Glenn started laughing as well. Maggie and his relationship was still going strong and Maggie hadn't found out about Glenn kissing me on the cheek. That was a win-win as far as I was concerned.

Rick came out of the house then flanked by Carl and Daryl. "It's clear." He announced and went back inside. We followed him and gasped at the walkers that were lying around dead. Caleb walked up to me and smiled. I smilled back, loving the way his dark eyes sparkled when he saw me.