A War On Her World | TWD: D. Dixon

09.05.20 Anniversary Part 2

When a seemingly baseless rumour started travelling the large camp, Elizabeth couldn't help but find herself excited. It seemed that someone had heard that the cases of the man-eating virus were dwindling and that maybe, just maybe, everyone would soon be able to go home. Thinking about it, it was hard to believe just for the fact that everyone was in the same place all of the time, how could anyone have possibly heard something different from somebody else?

Even so, all Elizabeth wanted to do was to squeal and celebrate at the prospect, she wanted to tell Benjamin that they were going home, she wanted so much to be told that the rumour was true, but the woman didn't want to seem naive, so she kept the information away from her son and to herself until the night that followed.

"Dare," Elizabeth climbed into bed, placing a sleeping Benjamin in the centre under a couple of layers of thin blankets. She had been talking with Carol Peletier and Lori Grimes while Benjamin played with their children. The older kids didn't seem too pleased with the idea but went along with it anyway as they played some sort of make-believe game. "Have you heard what everyone's talking about?"

"The rumour 'bout leavin'," The man in question stated without care. He didn't believe it and he wasn't about to place any sort of hope in the gossip of parents with too much time on their hands. "Yeah, I know. Sounds stupid t'me."

"No, you don't get it. If- if there is some truth in the words, we could go home." Elizabeth scootched herself closer to Daryl, leaning over her son to place her hand on his cheek. The hope written on her face was painful in his eyes, not for a second did he think that 'we' included him.

Daryl turned away from her touch and rolled onto his side to face away from her,

"...Birdie, jus' go t'sleep."

"But Daryl... This is a good thing." The sentence came out sounding like the woman was begging Daryl to agree, it sounded like she needed him to be happy at the idea of them going home together. But he didn't seem to be having any part of the conversation as he stayed still, not speaking a word in response.

"You- you don't want to go home?"

The man leapt into a sitting position and turned to face Elizabeth with exasperation written across his features,

"Of Course I wanna get out'a here, Elizabeth!" He growled. The sound of him using her full name sounding foreign as if someone else entirely was talking to her. "But ther's nothin' waitin' fer' me. What? Am I meant'a find my brother? I'd be kiddin' myself if I believed tha' he was actually waitin' fer' me somewhere -an' your talkin' 'bout leavin'. You think this would'a made me happy? Now yer' the one kiddin' yer'self."

It was silent and tense between the two adults as Elizabeth took quickly to making sure that Benjamin was still sleeping, she didn't mean to not respond but at the same time, she didn't know what else to do as his outburst left her reeling back, overcome by shock. Daryl had yelled at her, thinking that she was just going to leave him. How could he think that she would leave him? Thoughts ran through the woman's mind as she struggled to find the correct words to say, but what she didn't know was that the longer the silence held up, the more Daryl was drowning in feelings that were unexplored to him.

The feeling was bad. That was the only real way that he could explain it. The feeling sat heavy in his chest, stemming from every word that he had yelled unnecessarily and every thought that came to mind about Elizabeth leaving. To someone who was brought up and nurtured in an appropriate environment, they would have known that the feelings Daryl was experiencing would be guilt and betrayal.

It's not like those were the first times he had felt like that either, he just never found himself with the ability to come to truly understand the different emotions.