Living On A Prayer (Daryl Dixon/ TWD)

Chapter 24

"I got tha numbers," Daryl said as she handed one to him. "It's no use."

"You can go if you want," Herschel grunted, pulling back the hammer on his shotgun.

"You gonna take 'em all on?" I asked, a smirk tugging at the corner of my lips. If this had happened a week ago, Herschel would have tried to figure a way to trap them all. Now here he was, a new man and a total bad ass, ready to protect his farm and his family.

"We have guns, we have cars."

"Kill as many as we can," Andrea said, loading up her clip. "And we'll use the cars to lead the rest of them off the farm."

"Are you serious?"

"This is my farm - I'll die here."

"Alright," Daryl chuckled, "It's as good a night as any."

He leaped over the railing on the porch and as soon as his feet hit the ground he called out my name. I looked down at him, and he was standing there impatiently. "Grab a gun, some ammo and get yer ass down here. We got some walkers to take care of."

I smirked, "Yes sir."

••

"What the hell?" I asked over the loud roar of Daryl's motorcycle. "The barn just went up in flames!"

"That's where we'll go first," Daryl responded.

We drove up to the fence surrounding it and started picking off the closest walkers. Jimmy pulled up a couple of minutes later in Dale's RV, leaning out the window, taking down walkers like a pro.

"Yo!" Daryl shouted, driving over to where Jimmy was parked. "Must've been Rick or Shane who started that fire! Maybe they're trying to get out back, why don't ya circle 'round!?"

"Got it!"

We sped off and I kept one arm around Daryl and the other on tightly closed around the handle of my gun, taking out any walkers that got close to the bike.

"They're all over the place," I spat. "There's no corralling them. We'll run out of ammo before we make a dent!"

"It's time ta go," Daryl yelled back.

"No! We have to get back to the house, Ashlynn is back there! I'm not leaving without my sister!"

Daryl started revving up the engine and I knew he was about to drive off so I jumped off the back of the bike. I could hear him calling my name over all the growls, walkers surrounding me the minute my feet hit the ground. I took out the ones closest to me, trying to find a way through them all to get back to the house.

"Adasyn, damnit!"

I tried snatching out of Daryl's grasp, his hand locked around my arm tightly, but it was too strong. "You will not make it back! We have ta' go!"

"I can't leave her," I cried. "She's the only thing I have left Daryl I can't just leave her to die!"

"She ain't stupid, Adasyn. She probably left with tha others! I just seen a truck leave here, crammed with people. We'll head to tha highway, wait it out and see if we see anyone else shows up but we have got to go!"

"What if she wasn't - what if she wasn't one of them? What if she's in trouble, I have to go back to the house!"

I shot at a few more walkers gaining in on us, only drawing more attention our way.

Daryl grabbed me by my shoulders, forcing me to look at him. "I aint loosin you, you hear me? I can't do it. Not you. I ain't ever lied to you, I've helped you look for her before. We have to go, but we will find her ok? We always do."