Silent warrior: A Daryl Dixon Fan fiction

Chapter 16: Plans

"Daryl, this won't work" I confess as he walks towards the door. We stayed in the shed the entire day. He didn't care that no one knew where he was, he wanted to stay and come up with a plan.

He turns around when I say that "yes, it will!" His eyes light up with determination. He walks back over to where I'm sitting and sits next to me again. I look over to him and notice his lips. I felt safe when I was kissing them and I want to feel safe again. I blink and force the thought out of my head. "Don't you want to stay?" He asks

I shake my head up and down "of course but it's not that simple" I return.

He sighs and rolls his eyes "everything that's worth having, comes with trials worth withstanding" he says to me. I squint my eyes at him as his words hit me hard. He may be right but I'm better at running then I am staying. How can I tell that to him? How am I to expect other people to withstand my trials and tribulations with me?

"I can't ask you all to do anything for me, you've all done so much already" I try more to convince him to let me go.

"you don't know Rick like I do, he'd insist. He will come up with a plan. He'll make sure everyone understands this is life or death." his country accent returns when he says this.

"yea but it's life or death for me, not them" I respond.

He stands up with force "say that to your camp that burned down. If they were the ones to do that" he points towards the general direction Alexandria is "we need them gone.. like yesterday!" his words hit me in the gut as the deep tone of his voice comes off with disdain and anger for the men. Although I feel nauseous with what he said, I know that he is right. They'll burn this place down to if they want to. I nod once signaling for him to go. "I'll be back in a couple of hours, and if you still want to go after I explain the plan then I'll drive you out to your motorcycle myself!" He says confidently "just stay hidden and stay quiet" he finishes before opening the door.

"Wait!" I say to stop him. He turns around quickly and I don't know why I told him to wait. I just stare at him for a moment before nodding. He looks to me for a moment longer and leaves the me in the shed. I listen to his footsteps but they quickly fade away. The pit that's been in my stomach since Clint arrived grows again as I wait alone for Daryl's return. I only leave the shed once to use the bathroom. The sun was setting and I wanted to get it done with before it was completely dark. It's not that I was afraid of being out there with the biters, it's just that I was afraid of being out there with Clint still so close to me, with the fear of what could still happen to me while I was alone. I return from relieving myself and take the same position against the wall. I try to search my head for better times to think about but no memories come to view. I take out my knife and begin to carve into the old rotting wood what he was saying to me earlier, about trials.

The full moon shines into the dark room and I look through the cracks at the sky. I start to count the stars. After reaching around 300 I think to myself, what is taking him so long? At that moment I hear footsteps return and I lift the gun off the floor. They get closer and I keep my hand gripped ready to lift it up and pull he trigger if I have to. "I'm coming in" Daryl whispers. I let out the breath I didn't realize I was holding and release the gun. Daryl opens the door slightly and slides in, closing it behind him. "Okay" he says lowering his bow and placing it on the ground. I wait for him to continue "we got a plan" he says as he squats down next to me.

"Ok?" I raise my eyebrows to him.

"Well, they are expecting a virgin so why don't you.." He pauses and rubs his hand around his neck before speaking again "yanno, get pregnant?" He raises his eyebrows while clenching his mouth when he's finished. His jawline strengthens as he does this and my eyes are staring at the rugged line with disbelief.

"What?" I manage to sputter out "you want me to get pregnant?" I ask baffled "that's totally insane! I'm not going to.."

Daryl interrupts me "no idiot, you don't gotta be pregnant, just pretend" I put my head down embarrassed at the fact I didn't think of that before I opened my mouth "then they would have no reason to take you and we can get them out of Alexandria."

"Wishful thinking" I mutter underneath my breath.

"Shannon" Daryl's voice is serious and my eyes flicker up from the floor.

I sigh as he waits "you don't know they'll have no reason to leave. I left Clint to die! At least as a virgin I have something for him to offer to his leader. He wouldn't have a second thought about killing a pregnant bitch, I'm useless then" I explain

"Then what else can we do?" Daryl's voice is lower. He continues to try and convince me this is the way to go. As I stay seated the pain in my leg begins to throb more and I find myself drifting away from what he is saying.

"I don't know" I sigh sadly when he stops talking for more then a few minutes. His eyes are looking over my side at something but I'm not sure what.

"You still want to leave?" He asks. I look up expecting to see sadness in his eyes, or something telling me to stay. Only, I see nothing in them to help make my decision for me. The only way I know to respond is to shrug back at him. "Well if you don't know if you want to stay then you want to go" his voice is scratchy.

I go to say something back but I don't know what and my mouth hangs open a little in disbelief. I didn't expect him to be angry at me. My stomach sits in knots as he moves through the room grabbing the stuff I had and putting it all in my bag. He stands at the door a few minutes later and turns to me "wait, we're going now?" I ask helping myself off the floor

"Ain't got time to change your mind, I've got people to git' rid of" he throws back the shed door and leaves. I follow behind him, limping on my leg.

As we walk forward I'm reminded of when we first walked the woods together. Although it was only a month or so back it feels like years ago I was trying to find a good time to escape from them. I didn't know who these people were or what they wanted from me. I was afraid. I had a good reason to run then, but what am I running from now? Rick, Maggie, Deanna, Glenn, Daryl.. They opened their home to me when they didn't have to. They could have left me in that tree, he could have left me in the woods but none of them did that. Yet, here I am leaving them behind with monsters. I think back to the last few weeks and how comfortable I was there. Daryl's words pop back into my head and I know staying at Alexandria is something worth fighting for. Although all I want to do is run away, I catch myself stopping short in the woods. I wait for Daryl to stop but he continues forward determined. I have to call out to him before he stops and turns around. "I'm not running anymore." I say in a flat tone when he sees me.

His body turns in my direction before responding "then walk, only another mile till we get to the truck" he turns back around and starts to walk forward again.

"No. I mean I'm not going to run away from this. I want to stay" I call forward. My words echo and even in the dark I can see Daryl tense up. We hear a grumble and I grab my knife from its resting position. I slowly inch towards a tree for some cover but hear something behind me. I swing around quickly to find a biter getting closer to me. I raise my arm up ready to strike it, but Daryl shoots the walker between the eyes before I'm close enough to strike. I look down at the used to be human corpse and watch as Daryl pulls the bow from its head shortly after.

My eyes follow the bow up to his eyes as he replaces it in the quiver "you want to stay?" He repeats. Again, I hope for some kind of twinkle or smile to show but he keeps a straight face.

"Yes. But I'm not going to pretend to be pregnant, I won't let them change me or the decisions I've made." I say firmly to him.

He nods "then you got a plan?" His one eye brows raises.

"Yea, I think I do!" I smirk back. I'm not sure where my new found confidence has come from but I'm going with it because I know the moment I don't, it'll fade away for good.

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Thanks for the read! Comment/Like if you enjoyed this chapter.

Q: Do you watch Fear the Walking Dead?

A: I do. It's a good way to pass the time. It took a few episodes to get into though, and it's no walking dead.