Sweet Dreams #Wattys 2018

It's Gone

Daryl, Axel and Beth's POV:

Axel took a breath as he watched the bus get away. He grabbed a rifle and calmed himself. He saw Daryl fighting off walkers' and wished he had something other than a rifle, whose bullets were of short supply. He glanced at the tool box, and ran over to it. "Come on," he mumbled to himself as he found a couple of crowbars and grabbed the bigger of the two. He also grabbed a few hammers and nails and duct tape and put them in his bag. "Anything can be used as a weapon," Jewel had told him once. "Just got to get creative," she had said. "Well, I'm not to sure how creative a crow bar is, but we're going to try it out," he told the inner voice. "OK, come on," he told himself as he straightened up and ran toward where Daryl was, using the crow bar as he ran. "Shit...shit that worked! OK I didn't...wow that really freakin' worked."

Daryl looked at him. "It's a crowbar, of course it worked. It's sharp. You want to stand around all day and marvel at the fact that you used a crowbar to kill a few walkers' or you want to get the hell out of here?"

Axel blinked. "Yeah, out of here, is good. But, um in case you haven't noticed, there's a tank coming toward us. And I don't think a crowbar or a bow is going to help us out here."

"Yeah, I noticed the tank," Daryl said. "I can take out the tank, and the asshole inside it."

"Mind sharing how? I mean, you are stuck with me, and you aren't the type of guy to just leave me for walker bait. You like me to much," Axel teased. "Plus, when we find Jewel, she'd kick your ass if you told her that you left me for bait."

"If we find her, or any of them," Daryl said. "I'm not leaving anyone behind," he groused as he took a grenade out of his bag. "I'm going to scare that little shit head in there."

"What do you need? I can help you," Axel told him.

"Take out a walker with your crowbar there, and use him or her as a shield," Daryl instructed.

"A shield?" Axel asked.

"It's better then spreading walker guts all over yourself, so either grab a walker and put it in front of you, or take one and spread guts all over yourself. Your choice," Daryl said with a shrug.

Axel paled at the other idea and grabbed the walker closest to him taking the crowbar and putting it in the middle of it's stomach and pushing him forward with the crowbar still in it. "God, this is really disgusting. I'm not sure I'm gonna make it outside these walls."

"You will, cause you aint got no choice," Daryl said as he threw the grenade into the tank. He counted to himself as the man jumped out.

"Grenade!" the man yelled. Daryl was right in his face with his bow and arrow as he turned around and held up his hand. He didn't give the man a chance to even beg for his life before he took the shot.

Axel looked at him as Beth ran up. "The bus is gone," she told them.

"We got to go," Daryl told them as he looked out at the carnage. "We got to go," he repeated more to himself then the other two.

Axel felt like they had ran forever, before the three of them collapsed on the ground. He hadn't been out side the prison walls in years, and he knew these two knew more about surviving out here then he did, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to try and help. "We should gather some wood, build a fire before it gets dark."

Beth looked at Daryl, who didn't say anything. "I'll help you," she said as she stood up and took a breath. "There's three of us, we should set up a guard schedule. You alright standing guard by yourself Axel? Or should one of us help you?"

"I got it, I'll pull my weight," Axel answered as he glanced at Daryl before they went to hunt wood.

The next morning:

Beth looked at Daryl who hadn't moved all night. "We should do something. We aren't the only survivor's, we can't be. Rick, Jewel, Michonne, Summer, Merle... they could be out here. Maggie and Glenn could have made it out of A block," she told him. "Right Axel?"

Axel nodded. "If anyone could be it's that group."

"You can track, come on," she told Daryl. "The sun will be up soon. If we head out now..." Beth told them. "Fine if you won't track I will. Axel?"

Axel glanced at Daryl. "Yeah, I'll go with you," he said.

Daryl sighed as he followed them.

"We didn't survive this long to give up now," Beth told them. "Look, at these tracks. Small could be Luke and Molly's. That means they are alive."

Daryl looked at them. "No that meant they were alive four or five hours ago," he simply said.

"They're alive," Beth insisted as she looked at Axel. Axel kept quiet as he looked around.

"They picked up the pace right here," Daryl pointed out. "Things went bad," he said.

"Couldn't hurt you to have a little faith," Beth told him.

"Faith aint done shit for us. Sure the hell didn't do anything for your father," Daryl told her as he started to walk away.

Axel took a breath. "So you giving up on Merle? You giving up on Jewel? Summer? Is that what you're telling us? Look I aint got no blood, I lived in those walls a long time. I'm the last man standing of the group when you came to the prison. Me, the one who didn't know anything' about guns, the one willing to do anything to be accepted. But I'm still here. And, if I made it out of there, then the rest of the Dixon's made it out of there. And, that means Maggie and Glenn, Ronnie, all of 'em. So, are you telling us Daryl that we're the last three standing? Do you have that little bit of faith in your family that they wouldn't fight?" he asked as he walked up to Daryl.

Daryl glanced back at Beth who had started crying and shook his head. "Don't want to hold on to false hope."

"You thought Merle was dead before," Beth said as she walked up to them. "They're gonna be hungry when we find them," she said as she started pulling berrys off the trees.

Daryl sighed as he took out his handkerchief and held it out to her. "Figures that I'd wind up with the two sunshine's of the group," he fussed.

Axel gave a small smile. "Well we can't all have you're pessimistic attitude, now can we Daryl. I figure that I survived a year in there with those guys, with Tomas, you two are a piece of cake. You said I would survive outside those walls cause I had too. Same goes for you too. You know your siblings, right?"

Daryl and Beth both looked at him. "What are you getting at?" Beth asked.

Axel sighed. "You, Merle and Jewel were hunters before this right? You and Jewel saved Merle from being killed by the Governor, right?"

"Yeah, so what?" Daryl asked. "You got a point?"

Beth looked at Axel then at Daryl. "If the two of them got out, they'd leave tracks for the other one of you. We should do the same, that way we'd all be headin' the same way. Maggie and Glenn would see it. Summer would know it too, and you've been teaching Rick. So we'd all have a chance to find each other."

Daryl sighed. "Yeah, I guess it wouldn't hurt," he told them.

Axel looked around as he heard noises. "That sounds like a whole lot of walkers'," he said.

"Let's go," Daryl told them. "We need to find something' to leave trails with," he pointed out.

Beth and Axel gave each other a grin as they started running.

Author's note: And with that I've got everyone on day two and out of the freakin' prison! Please review