Author's Note:
It's me! Seriously, I can't believe it's been two months. Time is flying, you guys. I just have a few things to say before I'll let you go...First of all, 1,000 followers. Is this real life???? Thank you, thank you, thank you! To those of you who have been around since the beginning, I'm sure you remember when getting a couple hundred views and maybe a follower or two a week was a big deal. This is insane to me. I never expected this story to be where it is today. I won't ever forget you guys are the reason why! Second of all, send me some messages, leave me some comments! I like talking to you all. Let me know what you think about the story, any suggestions you have, or even just say hello. I'll get back to you, even if it takes a few days.
Okay, that's all. Here's the new chapter. I hope you enjoy! Oh, and a disclaimer: the chapter is rated 'M' for a very sexual reason. You can skip it, no biggie. Just thought I'd let everyone know. Love you guys!
PS- ONE MORE THING
I've had a few people ask me to do a Q and A, so I've agreed. Send me a message with your question and next week I'll post a new story with all the questions and my answers. Ask me anything- about my stories, my writing, my life, whatever you want. I'm an open book.
Try to send me the message before Friday next week (I think that's May 29th? Not sure sorry, lol)
--
"What do you mean by 'he let her go'?" I asked uneasily, crossing my arms over my chest.
Daryl leaned back against the wall, shutting his eyes. He looked tense all over, which told me that he was just as upset about it as I was but trying harder not to show it. "Exactly what it sounds like, Charlie. She messed up, he cut her loose."
I pushed my hand through my hair before letting it fall back to my side. I was torn. On one hand, I was mad. Carol was more a part of this group than I was. She'd been there from the start. She'd been there for me when I didn't know who else to turn to. Yet, on the other hand, I could see Rick's side of things. Reluctantly, though, which made me feel a little guilty. She'd killed two people. "She was just doing what she thought was best for the group." I said out loud, more for myself than Daryl.
He let out a sigh, pushing himself off the wall. The metal frame of the bed squeaked as he sat down next to me, his arm brushing against mine. "Ain't you the one who used to tell me what's best ain't always what's right?" He perked an eyebrow and I turned away, frowning at the cement floor.
"Yeah," I admitted, pausing for a second before continuing. "I know I don't agree with what she did...but I wouldn't have just sent her off by herself. It's Carol." My eyes flickered back to Daryl.
He nodded. "I know."
"I was kinda counting on her to be here." I said quietly. "For when the baby came." Because I sure as hell didn't know anything about taking care of such a tiny human. The thought of Carol, a mother, not being there to guide me in the right direction made me more nervous than I already was.
I felt Daryl's arm around my shoulders, gently pulling me into his side. Then his lips brushed the top of my head. "We'll figure it out together. So stop worrying."
I turned my head and nuzzled my face into crooked of his neck, inhaling him. The familiar muskiness of his scent always made me feel better, safer. "Fine." I finally exhaled, defeated. I pressed my lips against the warmth of his neck.
He shifted, angling himself to face me on the narrow mattress. I felt his hands on either side of my face, before he closed the space between us and placed a long, lingering kiss on my mouth. One that shot sparks of electricity racing down my spine, filling in ache inside me I always felt after we'd been separated for too long. I slid my hands over his chest, gripping the rough fabric of his shirt tightly in my hands. And just like that, a sweet kiss that had started at as innocent became something else. His fingers were were suddenly trailing down my side, gripping either side of my waist as I pushed myself into his lap, one leg on either side of his hips. I heard him groan underneath my mouth and I realized how long it'd been since we'd been able to do anything like this. It only made me want more. But as our mouths moved together, somehow both desperately hungry and achingly slow, I heard the sound of voices down the hall and remembered where we were. His hands pushed up the back of my shirt, making me shiver. He grunted his disapproval as I forced myself to pull away.
"Too many people around. Remember?" I murmured. I opened my eyes to see him looking at me with a dazed, hungry expression that I swear almost made my heart stop.
"I know. It's the only thing stoppin' me from tearin' your clothes off right here." He growled playfully in my ear.
I grinned at him, although my heart was hammering in my chest. "Last time you did that, I ended up knocked up. Remember?" He let out one his very real, but incredibly rare laughs. It always sent a thrill through me whenever I heard it. "I can't wait to get the hell out of here. So we can be alone." I groaned.
"Who says we gotta wait?" I looked at him in surprise and he smirked at me in response. My insides felt like they had turned to jelly. How did he do that?
"I can't leave the cellblock yet..." I said slowly.
"Plenty of places inside this cellblock where there ain't nobody else." He said gruffly, finger tips trailing up and down my spine before hooking into the waistband of my jeans and tugging gently. The look in his eyes reminded me of the same mischievous one he'd had when we were kids. I grinned at him, knowing I'd already agreed before even saying anything.
I stood up from the cot, and held out my hand. He smirked at me as I tugged him to his feet. "Come on, Dixon."
I led the way out of the cell, down the stairs, and towards the very back of the cellblock where a creaky steel door led deeper into the prison. I expected to run into Sasha or Glenn on our way out, and to get a knowing look, but the door was swinging shut behind us before I could see a single familiar face. It was dark, almost pitch black, and I was wondering how the hell we were going to find out way around when a single, weak beam of light flickered on behind me.
I turned around, eyebrows raised. Daryl had a flashlight in one of his hands. "Do you always carry a flashlight? Or was sneaking off with me into the dark your plan all along?"
He gave me a crooked grin and my laugh echoed throughout the tunnel as I turned back around, leading us further back into the tunnels.
This was an area that hadn't been much explored, since everything we needed was in cellblock C anyways. It didn't take long, though, to find a door marked 'Staff Only'. I turned the handle and nudged it open with my shoulder. A tiny, rectangular window near the ceiling shed a thin beam of light into the room. In the center was a long table covered in papers and mugs, counters lined one wall, and an old microwave was tucked back in a corner, next to an empty sink. And shoved up against the opposite wall was a single, dusty couch.
I turned back to look at Daryl, hands playfully on my hips. "Well, it's not a bed but it'll work."
"Shut up and get the hell over here." He said in a low, husky growl, that weak-knee inducing smirk tugging at one corner of his mouth. I didn't hesitate.
I slipped my arms around his neck and the second our lips touched, all coherent thought was out the window. There was no slow burn, no teasing or taunting. It'd been too long for that, these kind of moments too few and far between. In my head there wasn't enough time. I wanted him too badly, needed him, to the point where it felt like I'd explode if I didn't have him soon.
My hands were tangled in his hair as he pushed me back against the table, and one of the coffee cups that'd been precariously close to the edge shattered against the floor. It was like neither of us had heard a damn thing, though, as his hips pressed against me and his hands found their way up the back of my shirt. I could heard the ragged sound of my own breath as his lips trailed down the side of my neck.
My hands were shaking as I fumbled with his belt before finally managing to tug both his pants and briefs down with one tug. I pushed him back into the couch eagerly, shimmying out of my own clothing until I was naked from the waist down. I could feel his eyes on me the entire time, fueling my every movement. When I finally lowered myself onto him, we both let out a gasp. I felt his hands on my waist, gripping my skin tightly as I rocked against him. Then, he was pushing my shirt up and over my head. For a second, I felt completely exposed on top of him, but forgot it just as quickly when his mouth found its way to my chest. A loud moan escaped me. Trying to be quiet never even crossed my mind. It almost felt it wasn't possible for anything else to exist outside of the room, outside of that exact moment.
His breathing quickened, and my own chest was starting to sting. It was still hard to catch my breath. His mouth was suddenly on mine, hand tangled in my hair as he pulled me closer against him, kissing me franticly. I felt my stomach clench, limbs suddenly quivering. He breathed my name against my lips and I was done for. I pressed myself against him, stifling my voice against his shoulder as I shuddered in his arms. I was out of breath, as his hands found their way to my hips one more time and he bucked against me, letting out a groan as he finished.
I buried my face into his shoulder as he turned his head, pressing his lips against my temple. I rolled off of him and he pulled me down onto the couch with him, his arms securing me close to his chest. The room was silent and still, and I knew that neither of us wanted to be the first to move because once we did, the moment would end and we'd have to go back to the world outside that door. So we stayed that way for a little bit longer, his fingertips trailing up and down my spine.
Finally, though, I felt him shift as he propped himself up. "We better get you back, before someone notices you're missin'." He smirked, brushing a strand of hair out of my eyes.
I let out a groan. "The end of the world beckons."
He let out a low chuckle and I willed myself to start moving, gathering my clothing from the floor. We got dressed in silence. Daryl was done first, leaning back against the closed door. I sat down on the couch as I pulled my boots back on, lacing them up. When I'd finished, instead of getting up right away, I sank back into the cushions. I looked up at Daryl, his head tilted slightly to the side.
"I know that look." He said, with a small, barely there smile. "You're gonna hurt yourself if you think any harder."
I rolled my eyes. "Ha, funny."
He crossed the room and sat on the arm of the couch next to me and I immediately sank into him. I remembered, a long time ago, complaining about couples who couldn't stand to be a part for more than a few minutes. It was like they were magnets, and unseen force kept drawing them closer and closer. Now I got it. When you loved someone that much, it was almost impossible to not want to constantly be touching them. Whether it was something as simple as holding hands, or leaning into each other while walking, or knees brushing against each other's while sitting side by side.
I let out a deep breath. "Is it weird, that sometimes I'm not as upset as I should be by all of this?" I gestured with a nod of my head towards the window. "I mean I am, of course I am. All of the people I've lost...but then there's you and me, and now this baby. And I wonder if I'd have any of that if none of this had happened in the first place." I shook my head. "That sounds awful, doesn't it?"
"No, ya' think I haven't thought about it before?" Daryl shook his head. "I screwed up so badly with you, Charlie. I thought about it every damn day. I've told you that a hundred times." He suddenly reached over, grabbing my hand. He brushed my palm with his thumb before glancing at me. "You're the reason why any of this is even a little bit alright."
And for about the thousandth time, I wondered how it took an apocalypse for me to realize I was in love with him. I leaned in and brushed my lips against his. "You think if the world hadn't changed, that maybe we would've ended up together anyways?"
He shrugged, and tilted his head, giving me a tiny grin. "Maybe...It might've taken me fifty years, but I would've come after you eventually and hoped to god somebody else hadn't gotten to ya' first."
I let out a laugh. "Pretty selfish of you, to let me wait around fifty years for you."
"And that's why you shouldn't feel guilty about bein' okay with all this shit." He tugged gently at a piece of my hair before kissing me. I smiled into his lips, kissing him back, feeling like I could handle anything as long as I had little, tiny moments like to keep me standing tall.
____________________
I sat up straight, the entire ground shaking underneath me. A book that had been sitting on the tiny makeshift table next to my bed teetered back and forth before another loud 'boom' knocked it to the ground. I was on my feet in seconds, scrambling into the hallway as the entire building quaked beneath my feet. In the pit of my stomach, I had a feeling. A gut wrenching feeling that made me want to be sick. It was always when it felt like the worst was over, that the ground opened up beneath you.
It made me feel not so guilty for stealing away secret moments with Daryl whenever I could.
As the trembling stopped, I froze, my blood running cold. It got deadly silent inside the cellblock, all of us looking at each other. Thinking the worst. There was another loud boom and I gripped onto the railing of the catwalk as the floor trembled underneath my feet. I glanced at Glenn, his expression rigid. Our eyes finally met and I knew what we both were thinking. The next second we were both rushing to the opposite side of the cellblock, to look through the barred windows. My heart dropped when I saw the convoy of vehicles lined up outside the fence line. From here, they looked small. Like a toy army. I knew that was far from the truth. Very far.
"It's him. He found us." Glenn whispered.
I swallowed hard. Of course it was. Although I never had the pleasure of meeting the Governor face to face, I had experienced just what he was capable of while trapped in Woodbury. He wasn't here for a negotiation, or chit chat. If he was here, he was planning on doing whatever was necessary to get what he wanted.
"What do we do?" I looked at Glenn.
He shook his head, keeping his eyes locked on the tank in the distance. "I don't know."
I caught sight of movement and inhaled sharply when I saw some of the others huddled together behind the fence. I could recognize Daryl's lithe form from even a mile away. Gabe, too, with his head of untidy, dark curls. "We need to get out there." I made to whip away from the window, but Glenn's arm suddenly shot out and his fingers curled around my wrist.
I furrowed my eyebrows. "What? Everyone is out there, Glenn. We can't just sit in here and do nothing."
He looked conflicted, finally turning away from the window to look at me. "We're not gonna do any good out there, Charlie. The best thing we can do to help is to get everyone in here ready to go, and get as much supplies together as we can. Hershel's still gone so it's up to us."
"Hershel's still not back? Do you think-?"
Glenn shook his head, cutting me off. "He has Michonne with him, they're fine. Let's get moving...I have a feeling this place is about to go to hell any second."
I sucked in a deep breath and let it out through pursed lips before slowly nodding. My stomach was twisted into knots, the urge to run out and join the other outside clawing at me. I knew that Glenn was right, though. There were still dozens of people in the cellblock recovering that needed help.
"Okay." I agreed. "You start getting whatever supplies we have in here together, I'll go warn everyone else." I pivoted on my heel, my heart starting to pound as I realized time was of the essence here. If the Governor was at our doorstep, I doubted we had much of it left.
"Charlie! What's happening?" A small voice called out and I felt a hand curl around mine as Lizzie fell into step with me. I glanced down at her to see her looking up at me with wide eyes. "What were those loud sounds?"
I slowed down and crouched down until I was at her eye level, our gazes locking. I saw her tense at my grim expression and I bit my tongue for a moment, not wanting to scare her. It would be worse, though, to not tell her what was happening. She'd already been through the unimaginable, especially for a kid.
"There's a very, very bad man out there, Lizzie. If he and his people get inside the prison and we're still here, we're all in trouble." I said slowly, carefully choosing my words. "We need to warn everyone in this cellblock and get them ready to go if it comes down to that. You understand?"
She nodded quickly, her head bobbing up and down. I watched as her expression shifted from fearful to determined. "I'll help you."
"You're a brave girl." I wrapped an arm around her shoulders, drawing her close to me for a quick hug. I felt her arms wrap tightly around my waist. When we pulled a part, we went in opposite directions.
As I quickly moved from cell to cell, I braced myself for another wall shaking shot from the tank outside. The quiet was almost more disturbing, though, and I wondered what was happening outside the cement fortress. I knew the others were more than capable of holding their own, but I couldn't get the image of the tank and the fleet of cars out of my head. He basically had a small army out there, one that clearly outnumbered the small number of capable soldiers we had here.
It didn't take long before the cellblock was full of noise, people quickly packing what few belongings they could carry and making their way down to the metal doors to impatiently await an evacuation. When talk had first started about the Governor finding his way here, plans had been made. Including a school bus gassed up and ready to go, for the kids and the elderly. I hoped to god that bus was still prepped because right now that was the only option we had besides making a run for it on foot.
Glenn had a few duffel bags piled by the doors. He had just dropped one at his feet when we both froze. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and it felt like the air had been sucked from my lungs. The far-off, tinny sound of gunfire. A lot of it. I swallowed hard as Glenn and I shared horrified looks and I knew we were both thinking about the people we cared about the most out there in the line of fire.
"We have to get that bus, Glenn. Is it still ready to go?" I finally managed to ask, steadying my shaking voice.
He nodded. "Yeah, I checked on it last week. One of us is just going to have to make a run to get it. Hopefully we can bring it around the back and not catch too much attention."
We exchanged a look, knowing that a bus wasn't exactly subtle. And for a heartless person like the Governor, it would be the perfect target.
"Listen up!" Glenn suddenly yelled, and the nervous chatter died instantly. "Be ready to move at any second. When that escape bus pulls up, we need to be on it as fast as possible. The people on the other side of the fence aren't gonna hesitate to point their guns at anything that's moving." He turned back to face me. "I'll make the run for the bus."
I shook my head. "I should do it, Glenn..." I could tell by the look on his face he knew what I was thinking about. How not even two full days ago he was lying on the cement floor, choking and gasping for air.
Before he could argue with me, the cellblock doors were thrown open.
"Gabe!" I exclaimed, relief pumping through me at an alarming rate. I stepped forward and threw my arms around him. He gripped me back hard, and I could hear his shaky, uneven breath in my ear. When I pulled away, his expression made my stomach plummet. I glanced over at Maggie, who had followed him inside. Her face was streaked with fresh tears, but her expression was hard.
"What happened?" I was almost afraid to know the answer. I'd never seen Maggie look that way before and it made me on edge.
Gabe shook his head, giving Maggie a wary glance. "Not now. We need to get the hell out of here."
"The bus is out front. Beth's getting the kids and the older folk on it, you're the last." Maggie added.
I nodded, biting back the urge to ask again what had happened out there. I glanced back at my little brother, who looked shaken and so much older than his actual age. "Daryl?" I finally asked.
He nodded, watching as Glenn and Maggie started ushering everyone out the doors. "He's fine. Told me to get you on that bus."
I felt my eyebrows shoot up. "I'm not leaving without him."
I heard Gabe sigh. "He said you'd say that. Come on."
He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me in the direction of the others, just as a loud 'boom' rattled the walls. The tank sounded even closer now. Even knowing that, and hearing the roar of gunfire, didn't prepare me for what was outside.
A small, barely audible gasp escaped me as we stepped outside in the sunlight. My first time out in days, and the relief of breathing fresh air was quickly taken away but everything I saw. It looked like a war zone. Like the pictures I'd seen of WWI...The fences were down and the ground was littered with bodies. Walkers or people, I wasn't sure. Part of the prison wall was in shambles, giant slabs of cement in pieces on the ground. Fire. Smoke. Blood. Bullet casings. I was hardly aware of Gabe steering me towards the bus and reminding me to keep low to the ground...because this was war and we were right on the front lines.
I hovered in the doorway of the bus as everyone else climbed on, Gabe at my side. I was too busy looking for Daryl, becoming more and more panicked when I couldn't find him. "Where's Daryl?" I heard myself ask out loud.
"He's fine, Charlie. You know he's the best shot we got at getting out of this." Gabe answered me. Once again, I felt his hands on my back, trying to push me onto the bus.
"Beth isn't here. Where the hell is Beth?" Maggie's panicked voice suddenly caught my attention and swiveled around to look at her. She was turning in circles, her expression fearful, as she tried to catch sight of her blonde, younger sister.
"She's not on the bus?" I asked.
Maggie shook her head, barely giving me a glance. She looked over her shoulder at Glenn, who was leaning against the side of the bus looking winded. I hadn't noticed, but my own breath was coming in uneven, short bursts. My lungs trying to keep up with the rest of my body, still not 100% even after all the antibiotics that were pumping through me.
"Stay here. I need to get Beth. If I'm not back in time, leave without me. I'll find you." Maggie suddenly said. She pressed her lips swiftly to Glenn's and was off, running across the yard and ducking behind a car fifty feet away. Glenn was still protesting, staring after her in a horrified, kind of shock.
Seeing her run off, triggered something in me. I whirled around to look at Gabe. "I'm with Maggie. I need to find Daryl, Gabe. I can't go without him." The thought of being separated from him yet again made me feel sick to my stomach.
Gabe tensed, looking like he either wanted to argue or carry me kicking and screaming onto the bus and drive it off himself. I stubbornly held his gaze, flinching when a gunshot came too close for comfort and ricocheted off the back corner of the bus. He finally let out a defeated groan, running a hand through his hair and tugging at the ends. "Fine, I'll go get him. You wait here."
My eyes went wide. "What? No! You stay here and let me go. Or at least me go with you, Gabe! You can't run out there alone!"
"Charlie, I can still hear the wheezing coming from your chest. I have a better shot at finding Daryl anyways. I know where I saw him last." He insisted. He suddenly grabbed one of my hands and squeezed it. "I'll get Daryl for you, okay? Only because I don't wanna spend an entire bus ride listening to you whine about it." He joked, giving me a weak smile.
"No, Gabe-" I argued as he tugged his hand out of my grasp and took off in the same direction Maggie had gone not even a full five minutes before. I felt Glenn slide closer to me, his shoulder brushing mine. My heart was slamming against my ribcage, my mouth dry. 'He should've have let me go, it should be me out there...should be me' , the thought echoed in my head.
"This place is about to be overrun." Glenn muttered. I peered around the front end of the bus to see he was right. With the fences down, walkers were stumbling closer and closer. They were coming from every direction, drawn by the noise and the chaos. I swallowed hard and pressed my back against the bus.
"We need to get out of here. Are you on or off?" The man who had volunteered to drive the bus suddenly called out to us.
My eye flickered from him to Glenn who met my gaze with an anxious expression. I nodded once, knowing what he was asking without even having to say a word. "Go." Glenn said, turning back to the driver. "Get out of here."
The bus engine roared to life and Glenn grabbed my arm, tugging me towards the cellblock doorway, where we ducked behind the corner as the bus pulled away. The gun shots were becoming scattered, happening fewer and farther between. I hoped that meant people were making a run for it. "I'm gonna find Maggie." Glenn said quietly, peering around the corner before looking back at me.
"I know." I said, knowing this was his way of saying goodbye. He must've felt it too then. That this might be the last time we'd ever see each other. He pulled me into a tight hug and when we pulled away, I squeezed his shoulders. "Good luck."
He gave me a small smile and didn't say another word before disappearing around the side of the wall, and sprinting away. I waited until his footsteps had faded to peer out. It was all hazy smoke now. The only movement that I could see was the staggering limping of the walkers. I took a deep breath and pushed myself off the wall and into the open.
"Gabe?" I yelled, not bothering to stay inconspicuous. The fighting looking pretty much over now, though it was hard to tell which side had won. "Daryl?" I jogged in the direction of cellblock C, weaving around a walker that was trying to lunge at me with a single arm. I called out their names again, but there was still no answer. I swallowed hard and tried not to panic. I realized then that I was unarmed. If this was it, if this was the time to go, I needed my gun at least. I bit my lip, torn, before veering off into the old cellblock.
The silence inside was heavy and suffocating. Everyone had left in a hurry, and it was eerie the way plates of food were still on the tables, jackets hung up on the back of chairs. Like at any second, every would just come back inside like nothing had happened. I took the stairs two at a time to the cell I shared with Daryl, grabbing my gun from the table and tucking it into the waistband of my jeans. My bat, untouched for what felt like months, was leaning up against the wall. I could still remember the day Gabe, so little, had given it to me. There was no way I could leave it behind. I kneeled down and pulled my backpack out from underneath the bed, brushing off the dust. After I'd filled it with what I thought was necessary, I realized I almost missed the tiny red sneakers that were peeking out underneath a shirt on the desk. I grabbed them and tucked them into the very bottom of the bag. Suddenly, and I had no idea why, those shoes felt like my most prized possession.
I rushed back out of the cell, ignoring the stinging in my chest as I ran through the doors back into the yard. "Daryl!" I called again, my voice the one, clear sound over the moans of the walkers and the crackling of fires. A walker came out me through the screen of smoke and I swung at it with my bat. Despite being out of practice, I got in a home run hit, knocking its head almost clean off its shoulders. I went in the direction it had come from, where the tank was ablaze, tangled up in the metal fence. "Gabe!"
"Charlie?"
I inhaled sharply at the sound of the familiar voice, my pulse jumping. I took a tentative step towards the sound of my name and a second later, a familiar slender form appeared from behind the broken down tank.
My knees felt weak with relief. "Thank you, Jesus." I said breathlessly, before throwing myself at Daryl. I slid my arms around him, pressing my face into his neck and breathing in the scent of sweat and smoke. He held me close to him, his fingers digging into my back, almost like he couldn't believe I was really there.
"What the hell, Charlie. You ain't supposed to be here." He muttered into my ear before pressing his lips against my hair. "You're supposed to be on that damn bus." He sounded torn, like he wasn't sure if he was more angry or relieved.
"You're crazy if you really thought I'd leave without you." I said, reluctantly pulling away.
"I know, that's why I told that damn brother of yours to do whatever it takes to keep you from gettin' off that bus." He grunted. I felt my stomach drop at the mention of Gabe. Daryl must've noticed the shift in my expression. "He ain't on the bus either?"
I closed my eyes, shaking my head. "I wouldn't stop asking about you so he went out to look for you." I took in a deep breath before opening my eyes again. "You didn't see him?"
Daryl shook his head. "Not since I sent him to get you."
I felt anxious tears brimming behind my eyes and I blinked them back. I knew I should've gone after him. "We have to find him." My voice was shaking, and I could feel pent up fear for my brother rising to the surface like a swell of waves ready to break. "I-I can't just leave without him, what if he's-"
I felt Daryl's hands suddenly on either side of my face, his blue eyes peering into mine. I swallowed over the lump in my throat as I looked at him. "Your lil' brother is tougher than ya' think. He's fine, wherever he is."
My fingers curled around his wrists. "We have to look for him."
Daryl nodded. "We will, but right now it's time to get gone. It ain't safe...I promise ya' we'll come back. See if we can pick up his trail. Right now it ain't gonna do him any good if we get killed lookin' for him. Okay, girl?" He said in his sure, gruff tone, leaving no room for arguing even though the thought of leaving here without Gabe made me feel physically ill
. 'I should've went after him', the thought swam through my head again.
"Come on." Daryl grabbed my hand, tugging me after him.
I tried not to think about anything, but the evenness of Daryl's breathing in front of me and the sound of our footsteps pounding against the earth. It was all I could do to not look over my shoulder at the destruction that had been the only real 'home' I'd known since the beginning of the end of the world. It wasn't just the prison, but the people. Rick, Maggie, Glenn, Carl, Beth...everyone. Where were they? Were they alive, were they okay? And the nagging question at the very back of my mind, would I ever see any of them ever again?
When we made it to the edge of the trees, we slowed down just for a second. That was when we finally looked back. The billowing black clouds of smoke, the orange flicker of the flames, the gaping holes in the cement walls, the collapsed skeleton of the chain linked fence we relied on to keep us safe...it made that single voice in the back of my head louder and louder and I couldn't ignore it.
I felt Daryl's hard gaze on me and when I glanced up at him, I knew he was thinking the same thing I was.
We were alone.
I gripped his hand tightly, holding on for dear life to the last thing, besides the tiny life growing inside of me, that was keeping me from falling apart.