Daryl's Angel (Book One in the Apocalypse Angel Trilogy)

Chapter 29: Danger

I hate funerals. They're so depressing, and I hate seeing the people that I care about cry. But, I guess that's gonna happen when almost the whole population of earth wants to eat you.

I help Carol up. "Don't look at her....you'll make it worse for yourself."

Carol smacks my hands away, glaring at me. She turns and heads to the RV.

Beth runs from our group towards the pile of dead walkers. She goes to one walker, a female with fuzzy brunette hair.

"Ma? Ma..." she cries, turning the walker over to look at its face.

Its eyes fly open and it growls. Beth screams and tries to get away, but the walker has a hold on her ankles. Rick and Jimmy run forwards, pulling her away and Andrea puts a skythe into its head.

Beth cries more and Jimmy holds her. The five of them start walking back to their house.

"We were combing those woods for that little girl, and she was in there the whole time! You knew!" Shane accuses Hershel, following them. Rick, Glenn, Daryl, and I also follow, ready to stop Shane if he has another...incident.

"I didn't know," Hershel claims.

"That's bullshit! You knew," Shane repeats.

"Otis put those people in the barn. Maybe he found her and put her there before he died," Hershel says.

"You expect me to believe that?" Shane spits.

"I don't care what you believe! Get off my land!" Hershel yells.

"Everybody calm down!" Rick says.

"You know what...?" Shane advances on Hershel.

"Hey! Don't touch him!" I slap Shane across the face, hard. I feel my nails take skin as I do. He stumbles back, shocked. "Hershel says he didn't know, and I think he would tell us the truth. This is on you. You, not Hershel, or anyone in his family. You fucking piece of shit!"

I storm away, the group staring at me in complete surprise. It's the kind of moment that would end up on the internet if we still had that.

Daryl whistles, following after me.

"Damn. Didn't think you had that in you." He smirks.

"Yeah. Whatever. This Canadian is fed up with him," I say. "I'm going to comfort Carol."

"I'll go too," he says.

We walk to the RV. Carol sits inside, staring out the window. Daryl and I sit down on the counter. I rest my head on his shoulder, and Carol looks at us. She turns to the window again.

We sit like that for a while. There's a small knock on the door and Lori walks in.

"They're ready," she says quietly.

Carol shakes her head.

"Come on," Lori begs.

"Why should I?" Carol asks.

"Cause that's your little girl," Daryl says.

"That's not my little girl. That's some other thing. Sophia died a long time ago."

I nudge Daryl, and we get up, leaving Carol alone in the RV. We walk to the little grove of trees where some of our group dug some graves. We lower Sophia, Hershel's wife, and his stepson into the ground and cover them up. We don't say anything. We just stand, looking at the mounds of dirt. Slowly, everyone disperses. I sit by the graves before walking off into the woods.

I walk for a bit before I find what I was looking for; Cherokee roses. I pick some and carefully arrange them in a halo. I start searching for sticks. I find some easily and I carry them back to the camp. I find string and tie the sticks together in a cross. I plant the end of it into Sophia's grave, so it stands up straight. I place the halo of roses over top of the cross and step back to look at my work. It looks nice.