FACING THE ENEMY-122
Walking a few steps behind her father, Cassidy knew her father was angry, not just from what happened back at the cave but also at her. She followed him—not the best choice of action on her part, but when he saw that she was following him his composure had fallen.
He raised his voice at her; not quite yelling at her, but close to it, expressing that he had told her to stay with the others and that he wasn't thrilled she followed him. As he took his frustration out on his daughter, Cassidy seemed to be calm and understood her dad was upset about what happened.
Especially since he was close with Connie. He cared about her, he really did. And she saw it. Her father cared for the woman like a friend, a family member. And to him, family meant everything.
Her father was blinded by rage and wasn't thinking rationally about what he was about to do, but she wasn't going to stop him. He wants Alpha dead, and in honesty, so did she. She's smart; she understands that Alpha is the enemy and understands the concept of life and death.
It was a sacrifice to live in a world like this. She was born into it, like her little brothers, her friends, and Jude. To survive in a world like this, the concept of life and death is important. Knowing life is as dangerous as death is—if you're speaking about humans and walkers, human life is as dangerous as the creatures that walk among us.
That's what Max taught her, most of things in this world was dangerous. He didn't teach her this to scare her; no, he taught her the concept of life and death because he knew she would ran into a bad person in the future.
Cassie watched as her father shot a Walker in the head with a arrow, dragging it into the middle of the woods between a few trees and slid down a slope into a ditch. She followed him like a shadow, crouching down behind next to him as he raised up a bit to see of over the dirt.
A Whisperer made their rounds, the leafs on the ground crinkled as they walked towards the corpse of the Walker. Daryl's steps were almost nonexistent as he followed the whisperer with his daughter on his heels. Her footsteps were light, barely making any noise, just like he taught her.
As the whisperer pulled out the arrow, her father climbed up the slope of the ditch before stealthily creeping up behind the person. Just then, Daryl spotted another whisperer coming out of a cave entrance causing him to rush down the side of the ditch again, hiding from sight.
Cassie didn't follow him when he climbed up the first time and stayed in the place she was as she watched the two whisperers talk to each other and saw Alpha come out of the cave.
She had her skin mask on, tilted her head—telling her followers to follow her as she lead the horde out of the cave. Cassie dropped down, hiding in casing any walkers saw her and crawled towards her father.
The pair trailed after the horde and the whisperers until they got to a creek that Alpha was going to get her walkers across. Cassidy glanced at her father, meeting his eyes before loading up a arrow on her bow and released it. The arrow flew through the air, straight into a Whisperer's chest.
Alpha and her two followers parted from the herd when the person who was shot was tackled by a couple of walkers. They crossed the creeks, their weapons out as they backed up on to the bank.
Daryl was the first to move, he rushed up behind the first whisperer stabbing them in the head before going after Alpha. Cassie hurried out, pulling out her knife and throwing it into the back of the second whisperer.
The whisperer grunted as they charged out her, swinging their knife wildly. The little girl ducked, crawling underneath their legs but not before grabbing her knife on the way. Cassidy swung her hand backwards causing her knife to lodge into the person's knee sending them on the ground.
The person screamed as Cassie stumbled to her feet, pulling out her knife and plunged it on the head of the whisperer. The sound of her father grunting and moaning in pain alerted her, making her whip around to see her dad holding his face.
"Dad!" She yelled as Alpha tried to attack him.
Cassidy quickly loaded her bow and shot an arrow at the woman, lodging an arrow in her shoulder. Alpha yelled out, clutching her arm as Daryl swung a large stick wildly around.
It hit the woman across the face sending to the ground, giving Daryl the opportunity to thrust the stick into the woman's already wounded arm. Alpha screamed, gripping onto the stick.
"Where are they?!" The little girl's father shouted, twisting the stick deeper into the woman's shoulder. "Tell me!"
The herd of the walkers were coming towards them, Cassie started firing arrows until she got hardly any left. Saving the last three arrows, the eight year old hurried towards the Walkers, swinging her bow into a leg of a Walker and slamming it down into its head. She did that to a few of the walkers before her father came to help.
Cassidy let out a scream as Alpha swung her knife at the little girl, slicing her shoulder. Blood pour out of the wound as Daryl attacked the woman with the stick again but missed and was also caught with a knife slicing his back.
The eight year old fell on her knees, burning pain seething through her wound. Cassie scrambled up, grabbing her knife and lodging it into a walker's knee. She pulled out a arrow, thrust her hand upwards and stabbed the Walker through the jaw and head.
Pulling the arrow out, Cassie heard her father scream out in pain, making her turn towards the scene and saw he was stabbed in the thigh with a knife. She charged at Alpha, pierced the woman in the back with her arrow.
Alpha grunt as Cassie kicked her legs out from under her sending the woman on the ground. As she picking up her father's abandoned knife, Cassie was hit in the head by Alpha slamming the butt of her gun into her curing her to fall.
The little girl hit the ground, her head bounced off it as she laid unconscious. When she woke up, Cassie grunted, her fingers reaching up and was meet with warm liquid trickling down the side of her face.
Her vision was slightly blurry as she blinked. Pushing herself off the ground she wobbled on her feet before graining her balance and grabbed her head as a pounding ache washed over her.
As her vision cleared, her surroundings became visible. Dead walkers were scattered around her on the bank of the creek, she looked around and saw that her father and Alpha were gone.
Cassidy stumbled over to a Walker, pulling out her knife that was still lodged in its leg and scooping up her father's abandoned one. She noticed tracking leading into the woods; following what her dad and Max taught her about tracking.
There are two sets of prints; one was more erotic, indicating that these are her father's tracks, and the other footsteps was drawn out like Alpha was limping. She ran through the woods, until she got to abandon gas station.
Cassie quickly took out the walkers that were heading towards the building by the loud banging that came from inside before hurrying towards the entrance. Her footsteps were light, almost nonexistent as she crouched against the wall of the building.
With both knives in her hands, Cassidy moved closer to the door, peeking over so slightly around it and saw a hand slammed a gun against the wall of the building. In one swift motion, she lunged forwards, grabbing the gun out of the woman's hand and throw it out of the door.
It slide across the gravel as Cassie swung her knife into Alpha's leg before blocking an incoming attack. Alpha growled as she went to grab the little girl's neck when Cas had blocked her. The woman stood from where she was sitting causing Cassie to stand to as Alpha applied pressure to the block.
Cassie let out a grunt as she used her strength to push back, only for Alpha to raise her knee, kneeling her in the stomach. She collapsed, a gasps of breath escapes as the woman grabbed a handful of her hair, lifting her up.
"I like you. You're resilient." Alpha said, taking the knife out of her leg as Cassie struggled. "But weak at the same time."
The woman thrust the knife up, plunging it in to the little girl's side. Cassidy screamed as she was dropped on the ground landing with a loud thud. Agonizing pain inflamed her as she was picked up again and was thrown across the room.
She screamed, landing hard on the concrete floor. She laid on her non-injured side, sobbing as her small body shook. Her eyes meet her father who was sitting a few feet away from her, staring at her as he cried.
"D-daddy." She murmured as she tried crawling over to him.
Suddenly growling of walkers alerted the Dixons, Cassie looked over at the door and saw three walkers stumbling through the doorway. Alpha was sitting again with the little girl's knife in her hand.
Daryl kicked the deck in front in panic making a fire extinguisher roll of it and land on the floor. He grabbed it as two of the walkers stumbled towards him, leaving the third one shuffling towards his daughter.
He kicked a crate at the first Walker making it fall over as he slammed the fire extinguisher against it's head, killing it. The second Walker fall over the first one landing on top of Daryl, it snarled at him reaching out as the redneck pulled out the knife in his leg and stabbed it through the creature's head.
His wound spewed blood out, he held it grunting. His breathes came out in pants, the pain was excruciating. Daryl ripped a piece of his shirt sleeve and wrapped it around his thigh before collapsing on his back.
Cassie knew she couldn't pull out the knife, her life was at stake if she did. Her eyes caught sight of a crowbar laying a couple of inches away from her, she crawled towards it, ignoring the raging pain that shot through her body as she pulled herself as fast as she could to it.
The Walker snarled lunging out her, just as her fingers wrapped around the crowbar and swung it. She swung her arm back, plunging the bar into the skull of the Walker, killing it. She panted heavily letting crowbar clang loudly on the ground as she laid her head on the ground.
When Cassidy came to, her eyes blinking out the blurriness and her surroundings became clear, she was still laying on the cold cement. Her cheek was pressed against it, her breathing coming out in pants and wheezing.
She didn't move, knowing full well if she moved the pain will become worst until when she stays still. She could hear her breath uneven breaths near her as he laid a few feet away from her.
"Can you see beyond the darkness?" Alpha suddenly spoke, her voice shaking. "Into the light?"
"Nah." Her father answered.
Alpha exhaled sharply. "I'm tingling with joy...as I see the ones who broke me...all around us, standing there...Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for making me strong. Pain made me. Pain made you. Pain made your little girl. Pain made my Lydia."
"You lost her." Daryl panted, heavily. "You drove her away. Because you didn't love her."
It was silent for a moment before Alpha sneered. "What did you say?" The woman wheezed as she pushed herself on to her feet, stumbling. "What did you say, boy? I can't hear you."
Cassie watched as Alpha swayed on her feet, trying to walk towards her and her father. Her knife was clutched in the woman's hand as Alpha stopped.
"I'm all ears." The insane woman stumbled and fall, landing on her knees a few feet away from Cassie.
Alpha tried crawling towards them before collapsing on her stomach and rolled over onto her back. Cassie's eyes fluttered as she began to lose consciousness and everything went black.
***
Cassidy woke up with a start, grunting as a dull pain shot through her body. The arms were wrapped around her moved and rested on her shoulders as someone whispered something to her.
She blinked, clearing her vision and looked around. She was in the middle of the woods, leaning against someone and her father resting against the tree opposite on her. Cassie placed her on her side, looking down and saw the knife was removed.
Her side was wrapped with a white bandage and blood strained on it. The pain was bearable but it still hurt to move. Cassie jumped when she felt who was holding move and whipped around to see Lydia.
"Hey, Cas." Lydia murmured, giving the little girl a small smile.
"H-How did I get here? And my dad." Cassie asked, reaching up and touched her head.
Lydia sighed. "I brought you here. It was really difficult. I carried you on my back and dragged your dad all the way here."
The little girl pointed towards her patched up wounds. "And you did all this?"
"Yeah." The older girl nodded, looking down at her blood covered hands. "I stole some medical supplies before I left. I stitched you and your dad up, used most of the supplies I had. You were the worst, actually. Stabbed in the side of the stomach, thankfully the knife didn't hit anything important but you were bleeding out. I stopped it the best I could, stitched it, and wrapped it. It's not the best but it will do the job until you get medical attention."
It was silent for moment before Cassie spoke. "Thanks, Lydia. You saved my dad and mines life."
Lydia didn't respond, only giving her a smile. She handed the little girl her canteen, making Cas take a drink of it as Daryl gasped awake.
"Easy, easy." Lydia said, reaching out towards the redneck. Cassie gave the canteen to her.
"How long I been asleep for?" Daryl asked as Cassie crawling to him.
He checked her over, his identical eyes laced with concern, landed on her wrapped side and the bandaid on her forehead. Daryl carefully wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against his chest, hugging her.
"Most of the day." Lydia answered as he pressed a kiss to his daughter's hair. Her small arms wrapped around his neck.
"And you were just out here?" He asked.
The teen nodded. "Yeah. Just watching you. Watching them. Deciding."
"Deciding what?" Daryl said as his daughter curled against him. "Did you kill her?"
Lydia looked at him, her eyes showed nothing. "If it was your father, could you have?"