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Daryl woke up early as he usually did, he wasn't much of a sleeper because that's when he felt his most vulnerable and sometimes he was even plagued by memories of his childhood. He moved leisurely down to the outside area of the prison where he noticed that many of the group were clumped together looking serious. As he approached the groups' eyes all turned to him fiercely as if he had done something wrong.
"Mornin'."
"What happened with you and Katy?" Beth asked with an edge to her voice that Daryl hadn't witnessed before.
"What's it to you?" Daryl immediately became defensive when the questioning began.
"We need to know." Rick said seriously.
"We fought." Daryl shrugged.
"What did you say to her?"
"I said some stuff about her parents."
It went quiet then because Carl Grimes had told his father what the new woman in the group had said about her parents and Rick had told some people not to ask her about it; even those that didn't know about the loss Katy had suffered realised that she had probably lost something because they all had. Rick shook his head and Beth took an upset intake of breath. Daryl felt an abundance of shame overtaking him and it wasn't helped by the looks that were coming his way.
"What's this about?" Daryl asked
"She's left." Rick informed him. "We don't know where she's gone."
"What?"
Daryl's voice raised at the news and instincts overtook him as his blood ran cold. He thought that it must have been the guilt he felt fuelling him, making him grab his crossbow and run out of the gates before he had time to think about it. The group watched him like he was some sort of madman for making the girl feel as if she had to leave and then chasing after her when she did.
➳
Katy knew that she had been impulsive and probably stupid -- Daryl's words hadn't even been that bad, they had just triggered her in some way. She had left the prison because she felt like she was being suffocated and she just needed to get away. She should have gone back after she had experienced the fresh air and calmed down but her antics had made her tired and she had fallen asleep lying against a large tree.
The groans of a walker (a word she had picked up from the group) drew her out of her sleep, she panicked as it stumbled towards her and she thought that perhaps she could kill it even without her weapons but then another two fell out from behind it and she knew that it was almost impossible.
The only option left was for the woman to climb up the tree that she had been sitting underneath and she did it pretty easily because she had always been quite athletic. The walkers didn't give up even when they couldn't get to her, they lingered underneath the tree because they had nothing better to do. Katy was trapped -- starving and sore -- thinking that this could be the end of her life, the same end as her parents.
