The group had started their journey off at a run but now they were all walking getting their breath back. Daryl walked ahead of everyone still fuming about Merle, Rick and T-dog behind him Rick worried about the rest of his family. Cassie and Glenn walked together at the back in a comfortable silence before Glenn broke it.
"Soooo" he dragged out the word clearly unsure about where to go next.
"Spit it out Glenn" Cassie said with a laugh. She knew he was stalling because whatever he was going to say she probably wouldn't like or want to hear.
"You and Daryl" he started as she let out a sigh "what's going on there?" He asked and as Cassie went to respond he cut her off "and i know what your going to say 'it's nothin Glenn' that is 100% not true. I'm not blind your falling for him."
"I am not" Cassie argued feeling her cheeks heat up,a heavy blush spreading across her cheeks that she hoped Glenn wouldn't see in the dark.
"Oh my god look at your face!" Glenn said too loudly causing T-dog to turn around and slow down so he could walk with them "Oh you so are"
"What going on here" T-dog chuckled.
"Cassie here is trying to deny her love for Daryl." Glenn explained with a laugh making T-dog laugh too.
"Ugh you two are so annoying I am NOT in love with Daryl I don't like him like that" she hissed at the pair. "I mean sure he's handsome in a way and he's got those eyes an-and he can be funny sometimes and his arms." Cassie rambled on her mind wondering. Once she finished Glenn and T-dog stared at their friend shocked truly realising the girl had a crush on Daryl. Even though she would never admit it. "Don't look at me like that" she scoffed deciding to run ahead and walk beside Daryl knowing he wouldn't pester her and she could walk in silence.
Daryl noted the presence of the girl beside him but didn't say anything. She confused him. Whenever she was around him he felt this weird feeling in his stomach that he always pushed far away not wanting to admit to himself he could feel anything right now. He was redneck trash and knew whatever he felt there was no way she'd ever return whatever those feelings were.
Rick then decided the group should start to pick up the pace so the group began to move at alight jog their light pants the only sound. They were jogging up the path towards the quarry when all of a sudden screams were heard from camp.
"Oh god" was all Rick could mutter out before the group started sprinting back to camp.
When they arrived emerging from the forest there were walkers and dead bodies all around. Shane had Carl,Lori and Carol up by the rv all of them huddled together. The group started shooting at all the walkers around them joining their campmates in the fight. Cassie was about to run over to her family when she heard a child scream. It was only when she heard Carol cry out Sophia's name did she know who the screamed belonged too. She ran as fast as she could and found the same girl running from a walker only to trip up over a rock.
Cassie took out her knife and ran towards the walker and stabbed it in the head pushing her knife in with all her force and then pulling it out again. As the walker body dropped to the ground near Sophia she instantly got up and ran for her mom despite Cassie calling her name. As Cassie went to pick up her knife she had dropped whilst cleaning on near trouser leg she heard a groan from behind her but before she could grab her knife to stab it the walkers dropped down on top of her pining her body to the ground. She was know laid down on the ground ricks hat having fallen off her head as she fell.
She kept one hand on its shoulder desperately trying to punch it off as she frantically searched for her knife in the grass beside but couldn't find it. Cassie had to put her other hand on to the walkers other shoulder or else she'd be bitten in the face.
"Rick! Glenn! Daryl! Help please anybody" she screamed out of her not sure if her cries for help would be heard by the men. She felt the hot tears come rushing down her face as nobody came. Her arms were growing weak from keeping the walker off her her body desperately wanting to give up but she couldn't. She decided to make a reach for her knife in one last effort to save herself.
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Back at camp everyone safe and all the walkers around dead... or so they thought. Sophia had came running from the trees around camp safe to which Carol was very happy about holding her daughter tightly. No one was talking everyone still in shock from the attack.
As Carl looked around he noticed a person missing. A person he knew had to be close. "Where's Aunt Cassie?" He sobbed making everyone realise the blonde girl was missing. Daryl immediately grew worried but that worry was quickly replaced with anger at the fact no one not even her own twin had realised she was gone. But he couldn't really say anything he hadn't noticed either.
"Where the hell is she" he shouted as everyone looked around them as if she'd suddenly appear out of nowhere. Just then they heard a scream coming from the direction Sophia had came from. "Cassie saved me" she told them before another scream was heard before Rick,Glenn and to everyone surprise Daryl started running in the direction Daryl in the lead crossbow at the ready.
When they arrived they saw Cassie underneath a dead walker who's head had been smashed in by a rock so much in fact you wouldn't even know it had a head it was just a body now.She had walker guts and blood all over her upper half as she slowly pushed the walker off her and tried to get up. The three man ran over Rick reaching for her hand but instantly seeing she had a cut on it.
Cassie had tried to grab her knife but instead of getting the handle had gotten the blade and cut her hand open. When she cried out in pain she had slammed her hand down in anger and pain somehow finding a large rock and grabbed it smashing it into the walkers head over and over again as the tears ran down her face.
When she stood up the first person she laid her eyes on was Daryl who was closest to her. She didn't care that she was covered in walker guts or that he would probably push her off as she wrapped her arms around him desperate for a sense of comfort. She had killed walkers before but she had never gotten so close to one and it had left her a bit shaken up.To everyone including Daryl's surprise he found himself wrapping his arms round hear waist pulling her close not caring she had gotten walker guts on him.
"Shh yur alright. I got ya" he soothed her as he heard her quiet sobs. Ricks hat that was previously on her head was on the floor next to her bloody knife as Glenn retrieved the items. She pulled away from Daryl after standing there for a minute before wiping her eyes,retrieving her items from Glenn and heading back towards camp not saying a word. Rick instantly went after her grabbing her arm to pull her back.
"Cas-"
"I'm fine" she stated shutting him down and walking away towards camp. The three men stared at her as she walked away seeing her normally blonde hair stained red in some places from the angle she had been at.
"Is she gonna be okay" Glenn asked as he turned to the other men. He hadn't know Cassie a long time but never had he seen her that shaken up. His question was mainly directed at Rick who knew her best out of the three.
"I don't know. She's pretty shaken up but it's Cassie. She'll need time but I know she'll get over it." Rick said before he walked away Daryl and Glenn quick to follow. When they got back to the camp Lori ran over to Rick followed by Shane and Carl.
"What the hell happened to her?!" Lori practically screamed at her husband who was trying to calm her down.
"She had a close call with a walker." After he said this he heard Carl start crying again at the thought of his aunt getting hurt running to his dad who picked him up close to his chest.
"Looks like it came at her from behind,fell on top of her. She lost her knife,cut her hand open then had to smash its head in with a rock" Daryl explained looking down at his feet.
"That's why she was covered in blood?" Shane asked them furious about what happened to her.
"Yeah." Rick sighed disappointed with himself. "Where is she know" he asked.
"In her tent. So is everyone else" Lori told him.
"I want Aunt Cassie" Carl mumbled out his head pressed against his fathers chest.
"Tomorrow but right now Aunt Cassie's really tired so let's just let her sleep okay?" Lori asked the boy gently as she took him from his fathers arms.
"M'Kay" the young boy mumble out clearly exhausted as Lori began to walk them back to their tent kissing Rick on the cheek before she left.
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Once she got back to her tent the first thing Cassie did was pull off her walker gut covered top off replacing it with a warm stripy brown sweater and her tartan pj pants. As she went to run her hands through her hair two things stopped her.
1: the fact that one of her hands still had a massive cut on it
2: there was walker guts in her hair.
She sighed to herself tearing the sleeves of one of her flannel shirts using one to wrap around her hand. After what happened Cassie knew there was a very slim chance of her sleeping tonight so she decided to go relive whoever was in watch of their duties brining some sweets with her in the pocket of her pyjamas trousers.
As she exited her tent she was careful not to make too much noise silently making her way towards the rv seeing all the dead bodies all over the ground. As she approached the rv she could see the outline of somebody sitting on top of it.
Still she walked over and round to the side climbing the ladder up to the roof. When she climbed to the top she realised the figure was Daryl who was sat with his legs hanging over the edge of the rv.
She sat down next to him as he stared over the camp awaiting any danger. The two sat in a comfortable silence nice on the rv mostly because Cassie didn't want to talk and Daryl didn't know what to say to her.
As Cassie went to play with the ring on her finger she remembered the cut on her hand looking to see that the piece of flannel had been soaked through with blood.
"Shit" she mumbled hoping she could find some way to stop the bleeding. Daryl looked over to her when he heard her swear and saw the blood soaked material. Without saying anything he got up and headed down the ladder.
Cassie sat on the roof by herself for at least a minute wondering if the redneck was going to come back before she saw his head poke out from from the side of the rv.
He came and sat back down next to her gently motioning for her to give him her hand. She did so as she trusted Daryl as he gently peeled the blood soaked material away from the cut.
"This is gonna hurt like a bitch alright" he told her wanting her to be ready. She simply nodded at him before he got the alcohol he had taken from the first aid kit in the rv from his side pouring some on a clean rag.
Carefully the redneck cleaned Cassie's wound careful not to hurt her too much. Anytime he accidentally hurt her she'd hiss out in pain and he would mumble a sorry to her trying to be more gentle as he continued.
Once Daryl had decided Cassie's hand was clean enough he grabbed the roll of bandages that sat next to him and started to wrap her hand. As he did he could feel her emerald eyes on him which made the tip of his ears go red a bit. Thankfully for him it was dark out and Cassie couldn't see it.
Once he was done he held her hand in his both of them examining his work.
"There ya go. Did the best I could" he told her thinking she was horrified by what he had just done.
"Thank you it's great. Much better than I did" she chuckled getting a small one out of Daryl too. "You can go to bed if you want I'll take the shift"
"Nah your alright you go ahead and sleep I'll keep watch" he told her. He heard her sigh turning to look at her as she turned the ring on her finger in circles.
"I would if I could but after tonight I'm not gonna sleep so I figured I might as well be useful and keep watch" she explained to him the real reason why she wanted to keep watch. He could tell she had more she wanted to say and normally Daryl wasn't one to sit and listen to other peoples problems but for some reason he wanted to listen to her and help her. He want sure why though.
"You can talk to me about if you want. Don't have to but I'll listen" he explained biting down on his nail as he did. "Either way I ain't leaving you out here alone". He heard her let out a sigh before she began to talk.
"I can normally kill walkers no problem nothing wrong and it's fine but tonight I don't know it was just different. After killing a walker that was after Sophia I dropped my knife whilst cleaning it off When I went to pick it up I heard a groan from behind me and all of a sudden it was just there behind me." She gulped down remembering what had happened earlier that night Daryl looking over at her his gaze softened lightly placing a hand on her knee as she went on with her story.
"It fell on top of me causing me to fall to the ground as well and then I was stuck there. I couldn't reach my knife,I could push it off I was to weak and when I tried to scream the first few times it didn't work. Then as I tried to grab my knife I ended up grabbing the blade cutting my hand open before finding a huge rock smashing it's head open."
As she finished her story he could see she was a bit shaky hands trembling slightly so he moved his hand from her knee to her hand trying to give her some comfort.
"It's alright. You got a shock and nearly died it's alright to feel like that Cass". She sniffled whilst nodding squeezing her ok hand with his as she looked to him their eyes meeting.
This time though instead of looking away their shared look was longer before Cassie leaned forward and placed a light kiss on the rednecks cheek. As she pulled away she turned to her side. Whilst she was distracted he could feel his face heating up from her touch and was yet again thankful for the darkness surrounding them.
"Sweet?"
The two sat on top of the rv all night not really talking more enjoying each others presence. They would sometimes talk about stuff like their bows, people at camp and what they thought was going to happen next but the conversation never got too personal.
Cassie wasn't sure why but she felt safe with the red neck. She felt like she wasn't pressured to be something she wasn't and she could just sit there in silence with him all day. But Daryl he wasn't really a friend was he? Because yes they got along like friends would but Cassie felt something for Daryl that she never felt for Glenn when they were becoming friends. But who's knows maybe she's just hungry.
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As the sun began to rise over the camp Daryl looked over to the women beside him rubbing his eyes. He wasn't sure when but at some point both of them had fallen asleep her leaning on his shoulder and him leaning on her head thankfully not in any walker guts.
He looked down at her and how peaceful she was not wanting to wake her but unfortunately he did before anyone woke up. He gently nudged her shoulder to which she lightly stirred but stayed asleep. Daryl then realised he was going to have to use a lot more force to wake the women up.
"Cassie" he said as he shook her which then cause her to slowly open her eyes and realise what had happened. She got up from the position she had been in siting up right stretching her arms. The two shared a look before Daryl cleared his throat and climbed down from the Rv swiftly making his way to his tent. Cassie went down once he was out of her view Rick walking over to her after he left the grimes family tent.
Cassie began to walk to her tent as Rick ran to catch up with her having not seen her since last night.
"Cassie,Cassie wait up!" He shouted causing her to stop. She turned to see him slowly and out of the corner of her eye so Andrea stumble over to a body.
Amy. After all the chaos of last night she hadn't realised that the dead body by the rv belonged to Amy. She turned her gaze back to Rick.
"Yeah what's up?"
"Listen about last ni-"
"Honestly Rick it's fine. I shouldn't have walked away but I'm okay now I promise"
"Okay" Rick said letting out a deep sigh as he ran his hands through his hair before pulling his twin into a hug "I just want to keep you safe"
"I know you do" she replied as they both pulled away. "I'm fine" she called as she walked away.
"That's what you always say" Rick called after her as he started to walk toward where he was going to make his call to Morgan