A Painful Place (Walking Dead Fanfiction)

Chapter 15: Live

They ran as quickly as the terrain allowed, trying to find a place to hide until the herd passed. The ground was thick with leaves and limbs, and Tilly couldn’t help but feel like she was back in high school running hurdles as she leapt over the debris.
As she cleared a particularly large log, she heard a bang beside her.
“Fuck!” Daryl yelled from the ground, holding his ankle. She stopped and rushed back to his side, but he waved her off. “Go on! I’ll catch up.”
“That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, Daryl Dixon,” she accosted as she bent down to place his arm over her shoulder. “Get up, we gotta go.”
With her assistance, he got to his feet and the two of them continued hobbling through the woods. As they crested a hill, they were greeted by a small cabin, the yard grown up with weeds.
“There!” Tilly pointed. “It’ll be dark soon and you’re in no shape to make a run back to the church. We’ll wait them out here.”
Daryl grunted in agreement and she led him to the house, the geeks out of sight for the moment.When they were inside, Daryl hopped to a nearby chair as Tilly quickly locked the door and pushed a couch in front of it before taking a seat herself.
“You alright?” she asked, trying to catch her breath.
Daryl was busy rubbing his ankle. “Hurts like a som’bitch but I just twisted it, ain’t broke. I’ll be fine.”
“Let me see,” Tilly ordered, walking over to him and taking a seat on the floor by his feet.
“Nothin’ to see,” he insisted, but she had already lifted his foot into her lap and was unlacing his boot. He leaned back in the chair in defeat and allowed her to examine it.
Tilly gently tugged off his boot and rolled his sock down below his ankle. The skin was a little swollen, but there was no bruising to be seen.
“I don’t even think it’s sprained,” she explained, “but you should still stay off of it for a while. Seems like we’re stuck here for the night anyway. I’ll see if I can find something to wrap it.”
“Don’t worry about wrap-“
“Stop it,” she interrupted. “We don’t want you to hurt it worse once we get moving again. I’m not packing your ass all the way back to camp.”
“Whatever,” he huffed, crossing his arms across his chest.
Tilly shook her head as she went to explore the rest of the cabin. The place was too small for someone to live in full-time, and from the taxidermied animals on the walls she decided it was most likely a hunting cabin.
Daryl found it hard to sit still while he waited for her to return. The livingroom where he sat was connected to a small kitchen, and he rose to go see what he could find in the cabinets. Hobbling as well as he could on his aching, bootless foot he made his way into the dark area, pulling out his lighter to ignite a candle that sat on the small table. The sun was getting lower, and the small windows scattered around the cabin didn’t let in much light.
He picked up the candle and raised it to each of the cabinets as he opened them. They were mostly bare, but he found a couple of cans of ravioli, a deck of cards and an unopened bag of barbecue chips. He set them on the table and bent to open the cabinet under the small sink. In the back corner he could make out the outline of a large bottle. As he wrapped his hand around the glass bottle and pulled it into the light he smiled at the dark liquid inside.
“What are you doing up?” He spun around to face the redhead, who stood in the doorway holding a roll of bandage in one hand, the other hand shoved in her pocket.
He stood and motioned toward the table. “Found us some food,” he answered. “Found this, too.” He smirked as he held up the half-full bottle of whiskey for her to see. “I’m gonna call your bluff on being able to hold your drink.”
A smile washed across Tilly’s face as she slowly pulled her hand from her pocket, holding it out to him. “And I found something besides a bandage that might make your ankle feel a little better.” In her palm sat a small plastic baggie. Daryl laughed as she passed it to him and he examined the dark green buds inside.
“Looks like we got us a party,” he said. “Better make sure this place is secure before we let our guard down, though.”
Tilly nodded and tossed him the bandage. “Wrap your ankle. I’ll make sure we’re all locked up.”