Blood Soaked Arrows (On Hold)

(26) Finding Hope

After taking countless back roads and hitting numerous roadblocks, aka Walkers, we came across a shopping mall. Hershel must have said something to Rick about me needing winter ready clothes before we had left because he honked his horn twice signaling for the caravan to stop. I let out a groan and slumped down in my chair. This trip was long enough already with all of the ‘back roads’ and pit stops, we didn’t need to waste time scavenging for clothes when Adam was stuck in Fort Benning terrified or possibly in trouble.

A feeling of urgency hit me and turned and kicked my door open. I stomped my way past the others and went straight for Rick. He got out of his vehicle with his shoulders back and his eyes trained on me, clearly ready for an argument.

“Why are we stopping?” I spat angrily when I was close.

He moved his hands to either side of his hips. “Supplies.”

“This is bullshit.” I cursed when I was even closer to him. “My brother could be there right now, dying and you want to stop!”

He scoffed. “If he’s not already dead.”

I saw red then and jumped at Rick. Possibly the only person in the world who would dare get in between me when I was angry came then and in one fluid motion and wrapped his thick arms around me and lifted me away from Rick just before I stuck.

I started kicking my legs at Daryl but kept my eyes trained on Rick. “Let go of me!” I screamed and tried elbowing him but he evaded it. I tried using the other one and this time I clipped his cheek.

“Knock it off!” He shouted and tossed me to the ground.

I let out a grunt when I landed in the hard dirt and swore that I heard a crack in my wrist. Whatever injury that I had caused didn’t register in my head so it was easy for me to roll away from Daryl using the momentum from his toss and landed in a crouch. I glared over at Daryl as he slowing went to stand in front of Rick.

“This is bogus and you know it!” I raised myself up to my full height and stabbed a finger in his direction. “All this stopping and re-routing is a waste of time!”

I noticed Rick sliding his hand away from his gun holster before stepping forward and standing side by side with Daryl. “We need all the supplies we can get our hands on. We might not get another chance in a while.”

“Bullshit!” I cursed. “This is all a bunch of bullshit.”

Daryl came closer. “Evelyn-

“Don’t you Evelyn me.” I snapped. “If this was your brother’s life on the line you would want to get there as fast as you could, wouldn’t you?” I looked from Daryl to Rick and then to everyone else. “Wouldn’t any of you?”

When I looked back at Daryl I noticed a change in his gaze and realized that I had hurt Daryl, because his brother was already gone. I was still too anger to take his feelings into account however and turned glared back over at Rick. “I’ll go by myself if I have to but I refuse to waste any more time.”

Rick turned to Daryl then and whispered something in a hushed voice. I felt my arms prickle when Daryl’s expression softened and he looked over at Rick. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

Appalled at the fact that Daryl had refused him Rick’s gaze turned hard. “Either handle her or I will.”

Daryl’s eyes turned cold and he glared at Rick. “If it was Lori or Carl you would be the same way.”

For a second Rick’s expression stayed hard and then slowly Daryl’s words started to sink in and he looked at me with mixed emotions. For a long moment that was all he did and I could almost see his mind trying to grasp how urgent the situation was. Finally his face turned hard again and he squared his shoulder. “Still we can’t pass up on supplies. We’ll make one trip in and be out before the cars can cool down.”

“Fuck you!” I screamed flicking him off and spun around. “Fucking waste of my time.”

I heard the scrambling around of feet and harsh command leaving Rick’s mouth. “Get her.”

With an ease and grace that only pros could do, I slipped the two knives I had hidden against my waistband out with a little flip and pointed one at closest person to me. Daryl’s eyes were always alert and his honed senses made him a worthy opponent but at the end of the day I always came out on top, and I knew exactly what would happen if he pushed me too far when I was this desperate.

“Don’t push me,” I hissed out the warning through clenched teeth. “I won’t be able to stop myself if you do.”

As if he hadn’t heard my warning at all he continued a slow but steady pace towards me. “Ya’ said that you wouldn’t lose your head.”

“I said that I wouldn’t if he was dead.” I reminded him.

“He could be.” He clenched his hands together at his side as he came closer. “Could’ve died a long time ago.”

“He’s not dead.”

Daryl extended his arms out on either side of him. “How are you so sure?”

“Because I have hope!” I snapped angrily and jabbed my knife in his direction.

He sneered at me. “There is no hope-

“It’s all we have left!” I frantically reasoned. “We hope that this apocalypse will end, we hope to be alive when it does, and we hope to see our loved ones again.”

He stood in front of me now with the tip of my blade digging into his chest. “You’d risk your life on that small shred of hope?”

“Yes.” I stated firmly and stared directly into his fierce blue eyes.

“Alright,” The corner of his lip twitched, “We’d better get a move on then.”

“What?”

“That’s not what I meant.” Rick snapped angrily from behind Daryl.

He turned his chin to the side a little but kept his gaze glued on me. “You go gather supplies and I’ll go with her to Fort Benning. We won’t be putting the whole group in danger if Fort Benning ends up being overrun, she gets to her brother faster, and you get your supplies.”

“What if she does what we talked about earlier?” He caught my full attention then and I felt my teeth click together. It unsettled me to know that they had been speculating about me behind my back and even more so that Daryl hadn’t said a damn thing to me about it. What did they think I was going to do?

“She’ll come back.” Daryl said and slowly pushed my knife away from his chest. “I’ll make sure she does.”

I let him push my knife away and cautiously started putting the other one back into the waist of my pants while Rick rolled the idea of Daryl’s plan around in his head. Though he practically whispered it I heard him let out a stream of curses before finally agreeing, “Fine but be back before nigh fall, any later than that and I’ll assume that you’re dead.”

I flipped my other blade back into my pants at that. “That’s fine with me,” I grumbled and spun around on my heels. I heard Daryl’s hard footfalls as he followed behind me and together we got into my ‘Tank’.