The Fear (The Walking Dead / Daryl Dixon)

Chapter 67 - Unluckiest of Lucky Charms

Maggie was asleep nearly instantly. As was Carl with Judith still in his arms and Luke not far away. Kat began to make her way over to the camp after a while. Deciding the fire might be nice.

"When I was a kid," Rick was saying as she approached, "I asked my grandpa once if he'd ever killed any Germans in the war. He wouldn't answer. He said that was grown up stuff so... so, I asked if the Germans ever tried to kill him. He got real quiet. He said he was dead the minute he stepped into enemy territory." Kat took a seat between Glenn and Daryl. Glenn was leaning close the fire while Daryl sat back, his knees pulled up to his chest. "Everyday he woke up... told himself, rest in peace now get up and go to war. And then after a few years of pretending he was dead... he made it out alive. That's the trick of it, I think. We do what we need to do and then... we get to live. But no matter what we find in DC, I know... we'll be okay. Because this is how we survive. We tell ourselves that we... are the walking dead."

Kat looked up from the fire then. She'd already been saying it to herself for days and just hearing him say the words she became alert. Daryl's eyes moved from Rick and then to her, the words not quite sitting right with him and less so when he saw her interest in them. 

"We ain't them." Daryl finally spoke  as he got a up a little to reach for more kindling, beginning to break it and place it in the fire.

"We're not them. Hey." Rick called his attention to look up. "We're not." He reassured.

Daryl began to stand, picking up his crossbow and saying one final time. "We ain't them." Before walking off to his own section of the barn. A tear ran down Kat's cheek as she continued to look into the fire. She didn't know why.

They all saw it. That tear. Nelly's whinny snapped her head back around before she jumped up to move over to the horse that was beginning to pull against it's rope. She was panicking. And one by one people began to realise why. Daryl was the first to run to the door and try and hold it shut as the herd outside began to push against it next was Maggie and then Sasha. Everyone around the fire soon got up and when Abe's group jumped to action, them being the closest to Kat, her attention was drawn to the door as well. She left Nelly to her own devices to run and help the others. The lot of them pushing against it, against the corpses on the other side. The storm got worse, it got louder. The kids woke up and stayed back, Carl guarding both Luke and the baby as Nelly neighed in a frantic panic and her rope finally snapped. But she had no where to take off to except the doors and she recognised them as danger. She reared up as lightning flashed through the barn and the group continued to push until slowly it got easier. The wind became louder than the rain and soon it all just stopped.

The walkers no longer pushed on the doors, but no one dared to look out. After a long, long while they decided it was safe again and slowly began to step back. Everyone eventually succumbed to exhaustion, except for Daryl. Who sat awake on the wall opposite the doors, watching. Kat left Nelly to trot about as she pleased, not bothering to tie her back up once she had settled again. Luke fell asleep next to Carl, but Kat eventually moved over to Daryl.

First she sat down next to him and then she let her head rest against his shoulder. By morning he was still sitting as he was, watching the doors while Kat lay stretched out, her head in his lap. Maggie woke first, looking about and then seeing the two.

She moved over to them, sitting down next to Daryl. She glanced down at her sister and then back up at him. "You should get some sleep." She said quietly.

"Yeah." He nodded, but didn't sound very convincing.

"It's okay to rest now." Maggie took another look down to Kat and then over to Sasha who slept soundly off to the side.