❛ SURVIVOR'S HEART ! ❜
chapter eighteen ―― family
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ JOSH LOOKED OVER AT CHARLIE as she threw the ax into the door over and over again, she had tears in her eyes but she didn't stop. He made his way up the ramp, stopping out of range of the ax as Daryl threw his into the door. "Charlie."
"I'm not-" She grunted, throwing the ax into the door again. "-gonna stop. Not till I'm dead."
"I don't think this is helping." Josh shuffled closer to her as she turned to look at him but Daryl continued to assault the door. "You're only gonna hurt yourself worse."
"We have just under five minutes left and I'm not gonna spend it sitting on my ass not doing anything." She told him. "I need to do something. I can't just sit by and let this asshole kill the only people in the world that I care about."
"But this-"
"Just back the hell off." She huffed, turning towards him again, the ax at her side. "We had sex, that does not make me your responsibility."
"Okay, got it." He nodded, clearly upset by what she had said as he turned and made his way down the ramp.
She turned, bringing the ax back and Daryl looked over at, his ax on his shoulder. "Don't ask."
"Wasn't gonna." He shrugged and she threw the ax into the door only for it to open and she nearly tumbled forwards with the weight of the ax. "Come on!" He shouted to the others as he steadied Charlie and she let the ax clatter to the floor as the others looked over at them.
"Come on, move it!" She shouted, clapping her hands as Carol and Lori ran by her, their kids in tow. Then Glenn and Mason. "Rick!" She shouted, looking over at the man who stood next to Jenner.
"We've got four minutes left, come on!" Glenn shouted then Charlie took Carl's hand, following Daryl into that hall as Lori turned back to get her husband. She turned back to see Jacqui and T arguing ― she wanted to stay ― but Charlie didn't dwell, she just pulled the kid down the hall.
"Carl?"
"I got him!" Charlie shouted back, looking back at the woman who let out a breath. They made their way to their rooms to grab their things before they rushed up the stairs and to the front of the building.
T ran ahead of the group when they reached the lobby area, but the doors wouldn't budge, even after he tried the keypad. Charlie let go of Carl's hand, chewing at her lip as Shane and Daryl hit the window with the axs but it wouldn't budge. Her hands shook as she tried to think of something, anything, then she looked over at Mason.
"Hand me my knife." She held her hand to him and he didn't ask why, he handed it over and she made her way to one of the windows and bent down, she held the point of the knife to the edge of the window and hit it with the palm of her hand, nothing happened so she moved closer to the corner.
Josh rushed over to her, his eyebrows pinched. "What are you doing?"
"Looking for a weak spot." She told him, doing the same thing over and over again until a bruise had formed on her palm. "Come on." She groaned as she did it one more time, the end of her knife broke through her skin and blood dripped out but she didn't seem to notice as she tried again.
T-Dog walked over and hit the window with a chair but all it did was scrape up the glass, and Charlie kept looking for weak spots, despite the blood that started to pour from her hand. "Charlie, Charlie, stop." Josh grabbed her arm but she shook him off and he stumbled backwards, falling to the floor.
"Back off." She muttered as she hit the knife again, winching a little at the pain that shot up her arm but she moved her knife and did it again.
"Dog, Charlie, get down!" Shane shouted as he aimed his gun at the window and the black man moved, but Charlie didn't. "Charlie!"
Daryl looked over at the brunette, she was unmoving as they all shouted her name, but no one else moved towards her so he ran up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Come on, princess."
"Let me go!" She struggled against him as he pulled her away from the window, he ducked his head to the right when she swung her hand back, the blade slicing through the air just inches from his cheek.
"Not til you stop." He told her, tightening his grip around her, then she saw that Shane had a gun and she stopped. He fired it but the bullet just bounced off the glass. "Look, your hand's all tore up." He put her on her feet and turned her to face him. "Let me see." She held her right hand out, her bleeding palm up, her breaths heavy as he pulled the rag from his back pocket and wrapped his around her palm a few times before knotting it to stop the bleeding. "Does it hurt?"
"Not much."
"Rick, I have something that might help." Carol rushed over, her hand in her bag.
"Carol, I don't think a nile file's gonna do it."
"Such a dick." Charlie huffed, shaking her head at her brother and he cut his eyes to her, but she was looking down at her hand as she slid her knife into its sheath ― her blood still on the handle.
"Your first morning at camp, when I washed your uniform I found this in your pocket." She pulled out a grenade, her hand shaking a little.
"Look out!" T shouted as Rick rushed over to the window with the grenade, and everyone ran, all ducking behind something or laying as close to the floor as they could. Mason looked around to find Charlie but she was too far away from him, he couldn't do anything.
Daryl had his body covering hers and she had her arms tucked to her chest as she gripped the front of Daryl's shirt, keeping him close as she squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the explosion.
"Don't get any ideas." She mumbled and he looked a little confused, but before he had time to process what she had said the building shook with the boom and she pulled him closer to her, burying her face in his chest as he ducked his head down next to hers. Once it was over, he pulled back his blue eyes on her brown ones, both were breathing hard. "Thanks." She breathed out.
"Let's go!" Rick shouted, then Daryl quickly pushed himself up and extended his hand out to the girl. She took it and he pulled her up before they collected their things and followed the others out the window and towards the cars. Rick and Shane took out a few walkers, Charlie shot one then she jumped back when Daryl chopped one of the walker's heads off, but she quickly caught up to him and followed him to the truck that still had the motorcycle strapped to the bed.
She sat her gun in the seat between them and leaned over to make sure the others had gotten into their cars, a smile pulled at her lips when she saw Andrea and Dale jump out the window. "Look." She hit his arm and he leaned over to see them running towards them before they ducked behind a pile of sandbags as Rick honked the horn of the rv.
"Get down." He pulled the girl towards him and covered her head with his arms as the building they were in mere seconds ago exploded and crumbled to the ground in flames. "You good?" He asked as they sat up.
"Yeah." She nodded, pushing her hair out of her face as she looked at the flames. "We're all okay." She let herself relax into the seat as he started the truck up and followed behind T-Dog in the van he was driving.
"You really see all us as family?" He asked, looking over at the girl before looking back at the road.
"Family has a lot more to do with than just blood." She looked over at him, keeping her head against the back of the seat. "It's sacrifice and love and, at the moment, it's figuring out how to survive this hellhole that the world has become." A small smile pulled at his lips but he kept his eyes on the road as the girl shifted in her seat, groaning a little. "And now my hand hurts." She mumbled adjusting the rag on her palm and he chuckled, getting a punch from the girl in return.