Different Worlds |Daryl Dixon Fan Fiction- The Walking Dead|

Seventeen: None of Them

                 I stared down at the body, unimaginably bent in ways no human should go. The scenario replaying in my head on constant repeat...
"I'm sorry." I muttered, before jutting my head back and into the man's vulnerable gut. He fired the gun, causing my ears to ring and I was momentarily dazed. I blinked several times, clawing in the direction the man should've gone. I grabbed hold of him, bending his arm until it cracked. The gun fell at my feet, and I smashed my knee into his gut, my face was sprayed with his sputtering coughs.
I stumbled for the gun, finally able to see straight. The man grabbed me and we tousled, his back to the edge of the ledge. Daryl watched in silence, just behind the man. I tried not to look at either of the men as I shoved the barrel of the gun into the man's stomach. I knew that he knew, right before I pulled the trigger, that he was at gunpoint. The man stumbled back crazily, and I shot him multiple times in the stomach, and Daryl stuck out his foot with all of the energy he still had, making the man trip and fall backwards. His head cracked on the little bit of rugged dirt that sloped down to the ground, and I knew that his neck had been broken by the way his head flopped to the side. He landed on his stomach, blood soaking the ground beneath him.
"I-I-" I stuttered, unable to tear my gaze from the dead man below.
"We gotta go, Grace." Daryl reignited my sense, snapping me back to our current situation. I looked over to see him still bleeding, although it wasn't as bad as before. Not to mention that we were surrounded by people who could possibly turn at any time. We really did have to get going, back to the farm to see how it coped with the attack.
I nodded my head, bending down and helping Daryl to his feet. The horse ride was going to hurt like hell, but we had to get back as fast as possible. It'd be easiest if he just rode with me, just in case he fainted or we got into trouble. So, I helped him up onto Boot where he lay forward, his head on Boot's neck as I got Thunder and led him over to Daryl. I held onto Thunder's reigns as I mounted Boot, and Daryl took on leaning against my back and breathing heavily. He snaked one arm around my torso as we took off back into the trees.
Daryl passed out as we came to the sunny fields. The sight was something I was happy he wouldn't have to see; dead people lay across the yard, and even a cow was being put down by Rick. Only my father sat on the porch awaiting my arrival, everyone was likely inside... Which worried me, because that meant someone had to be hurt.
"How bad are they? Daryl's pretty and and could use immediate attention." I didn't stop and wait for him to answer before trying to get Daryl off of the horse gently. Dad sauntered over and casually lifted Daryl up carefully, and carried him to the front door. I opened it for him and followed him inside the cool shade of the living room. There was a commotion coming from Rick's bedroom, and my heart jumped at the thought of Carl or Judith being injured.
We laid Daryl on the couch and my mother came out of the room to meet us. "Carol's taking care of Maggie..." I hated the way she trailed off. I had to know Maggie was alright, what was wrong with her, and whether she was going to make it through this. She had been the member of Rick's group that had encouraged my trust because I knew her.
"What's wrong?" I asked, helping as we stripped Daryl's shirt off. He was still out cold, and I was still happy about it. We wouldn't have the awkward exchange of me taking his clothes off with my mother's help.
"Gun shot to the shoulder." There was an ear piercing scream, causing me to flinch. "Didn't go all the way through." Mom finished. That meant they'd be taking out the pieces. At least she had Glenn to help her through it, and hopefully someone to give her blood if she needed it. I assumed both Daryl and Maggie would need blood, with how bad a shape he was in and the fact that her bullet had broken.
We couldn't stitch Daryl until Carol was done with Maggie, so I decided to go in and help her while Daryl rested. She was sweating and breathing hard, close to passing out by the looks of it. It seemed Carol was on the last piece when she finally fainted. Mom concluded exactly what I'd thought, which was that Maggie would need blood. Luckily, her and Glenn actually shared the same blood type, and she didn't need very much since they'd done the procedure so quickly. After cleaning her up and stitching the wound closed, dressing it up and getting her comfortable, she was doing a lot better and eating.
"Alright, everyone, clear out and let her rest." Glenn ordered, herding everyone out and into the kitchen. Sasha and Michonne started on dinner while Carl, Rick, Dad, Bob, Tom, Jake, Carol, and Tyrese worked on clearing out the yard. It turned out that almost everyone had gotten a beating, but nothing worse than Maggie. Everyone knew Daryl was hurt, but considering he was passed out, nobody said anything. I decided I'd just tell them the story when he woke up, because I knew I couldn't recount what I'd done. There was just no way I could say it out loud.
Mom and I set to work on cleaning, stitching, and dressing Daryl. He finally woke up while we were stitching him and immediately tensed. "Hey, hey. You're alright." I soothed. He collected himself quickly, dealing with the pain well. It turned out that Daryl needed blood, and a lot of it. We tried giving him food but he visibly gagged.
"What type are you hon?" Mom asked him, setting up the needle. There had to be someone in the group with his blood type, unless it was rare.
"AB negative." He croaked, trying to sit up. I immediately pounced forwards to help him adjust himself. He pulled the blankets close to his chest self consciously.
Mom looked over at me, and I knew what she was thinking. I had AB negative blood, and the look she was giving me told me I had to go and ask around first. I nodded, getting up and opening the door. Luckily, everyone was gather around the truck and loading bodies. I whistled, causing them all to look my way, including Barnie and Mattie who I happily pet. It's been awhile since I'd gotten a chance to see the two.
"We need AB negative blood." I announced, but nobody raised their hands.
"I've got AB positive. I might not know all of the blood type rules, but positive and negative don't sound like they could go well together." I nodded, I didn't know the rules either.
"Let's not take the chance." I sighed, going to go back in.
"Grace." I sighed once more, turning to see my dead walking steadily towards me. "There's no way-" I couldn't believe he was even thinking of telling me not to give Daryl blood. Daryl and I had become close friends, out of all of the people here except for family, I was more than willing to give Daryl blood. Without it he could completely shut down, since he's lost so much and isn't getting it back quick enough, because he's passed out.
"No. You can't tell me to just let him die." I stopped him before he could even say it. "I care about him and I'm not going to just let someone I care about slip away because you don't want me to give him blood. I get it, you think he's shady and I could do better with my choice of friends, but that doesn't matter to me. So return to your guys' business, you still have a cow to dispose of." I glanced over all of them before retreating back into the house. I left my father standing there as the door shut behind me and in his face. I didn't care that I had been rude to my father, when he was just being plain inhuman.
"No takers? Well, let's get you hooked up." Mom smiled softly before sliding the needle into Daryl's arm.
"Wait, what?" He asked, hardly able to look between the two of us.
"I've got your type, I'll give you enough so you can get back on your feet." I smiled, sitting where my mother had been, in the comfy chair next to the couch.
He didn't say anything as Mom grabbed the other needle and prepped it to go into my arm. I could tell he didn't like the idea of me helping him, he didn't like getting help at all. Still he stayed silent, at least he knew this was a serious matter that he couldn't avoid needing assistance. If he had tried to resist my help, well, I would've knocked him out myself.
Carl came inside not long after to visit Judith who was with my mom. Everyone else slowly followed suit, and eventually we had the whole group sitting in a half circle with Daryl and I. They all looked at us expectantly, wanting the whole story of what we had done and how Daryl got into the state he was in. I was thankful that they had waited until Daryl was settled and awake, which meant he could tell the part that I couldn't bear. As long as he stayed awake, that is.
"Well, we found their camp easily. Right where Daryl thought it would be-" I flashed the laying man next to me a smile. He shrugged, as if it were nothing to have been so helpful in the search. "We camped out on top of the ledge, had a nice view of them all. There were a lot. Only about half of them came here." I went on to tell them how we had sniped them out, but stopped once it got to the part where the decapitated man showed up. It was too close to the part I dreaded most.
"Grace thought quick. She knew she was running out of time to convince this guy not to shoot the both of us. She took care of it." Was all Daryl said, and I could help but reach a hand over and squeeze his arm.
Everyone looked over at Glenn, who was fiddling with his hands in his lap. "I'm the one who messed up that guy pretty bad." He admitted, running his hands over his face. "He shot Maggie." I let out a slow breath, I should've known the moment I saw that man that something had gone wrong, none of my people would do something so brutal unless it was for good reason.
"What happened here?" I wondered, looking directly at Rick who seemed to sit straighter. Nobody objected, allowing him to tell their story of defending the farm.
"They came outta the trees, stationed in places so we couldn't fire. We yelled back and forth for a while. I tried to get them to back down, but they would have it. Luckily your dad sent a couple of us upstairs and in the rooms, shot from the windows. If it weren't for them we could've easily lost, but we had the advantage from up there."
Once Maggie got shot, well, we all got a bit of an adrenaline rush. Your mom and Carl rushed her inside while Glenn went berserk." Rick laughed and grabbed Glenn's shoulder, shaking his upper body. "Took out the rest of them easily, but Glenn was so mad when that one guy got away. I told him he'd end up dead with those wounds, either die from blood loss or run into you two, maybe even run into a Walker at least." I nodded, although we hadn't killed him, Joey had definitely run into us.
"His name was Joey." I said, specifically to Glenn.
"Huh?" He looked surprised, only realizing now that I had been talking to him.
"The man that shot Maggie. His name was Joey." I answered, and Glenn nodded. I think he took comfort in at least knowing the man he'd brutally murdered's name. I think Maggie would take comfort, too, knowing that he had a name and he didn't make it.
That none of them made it.