"Walking a road other men have gone down. I'm seeing a new world of people and things."
Song to Woody, Bob Dylan
Alex's *POV*
The wind was picking up day by day, making us cold as we walked throughout the woods. Luckily, I had found myself a jacket in some broken down car along the side of the road. If I wouldn't have found it, I would've been complaining to the point where I would've have been able to keep walking, due to the weather. We've been walking for far too long, We stopped along the woods and got some rest, before making our way back to the main road and walking.
"How hungry are you from scale of one to ten?" Rick asked Carl.
"Fifteen." Carl chuckled.
"Twenty eight." Michonne said looking at Rick.
"Fifty." I said. I looked up and saw them staring at me. " I'm pretty sure we all top the scale."
"Yeah well, it's been a while." Rick sighed. "I'm gonna go check the snares.
"Can I go with you?" Carl asked.
"Sure." Rick said. "How else are ya gonna learn? Hey, you two as well." Rick smiled. Michonne and I put out the fire and began following Rick and Carl to the snare.
"We'll stay another day or two. Get some more rest." Rick said, while walking.
"Finish healing up?" Michonne asked.
"I'm almost there." Rick said.
"Well, anyways you look better than before." I spoke.
"We're close now, right?" Carl asked.
"To terminus? We are." Rick said, turning his head to all three of us.
"When we get there, are we gonna tell them?" Carl asked.
"Tell them what?" I asked.
"Everything that's happened to us. All the stuff we've done." Carl explained. "Are we gonna tell them the truth or?"
"We're gonna tell them who we are." Rick said.
"But how do you say that? I mean- who are we?" We stopped walking after we heard a walker heading our way. Everyone took out their weapons and so did I.
"I got this one." I said, walking from behind them with my knife.
"You sure?" Rick asked. I walked up to the walker and stabbed it in the head, causing it to fall down with my knife in its head. I kneeled down and roughly took the knife out of his head, and turned around.
"I'm positive." I smiled, as Rick let out a slight laugh.
"Now, you see how the ground here is sorta like a funnel shape?" Rick explained, as we walked to the snare.
"It's a trail?" Carl asked.
"That's right." Rick said. "That's where you want to set the noose. So you hide it with leaves then you out sticks all around it, so any animal going by has to run this way, right into the trap." Rick showed us.
"Cool." I smiled. "Never thought I'd learn this ever in my life-"
"Help!" A voice screamed from not that far. I got up quickly and looked at Rick when Carl went off running, and all of us chased after him. "Carl! Stop!" Rick yelled.
"Get back! Help!" The voice screamed again. We ran and ran until we reached Carl who held his gun up. Rick pulled him back, causing me to trip backwards but not fall. "No!" The guy screamed. We watched as the guy got attacked by a bunch of walkers in an open field. "What are we doing?" I whispered to Rick. I was curious about why we weren't helping, and why we couldn't.
"We can't help him." Rick said, as we hood behind some trees.
"We've gotta go." Michonne said, as soon as some walkers started to notice us.
We ended up back on the train tracks, attempting to get away from the walkers behind us. Unfortunately, there was a couple of walkers in front of us, eating something unknown to us. Rick and I both ran up to the walkers ahead of us and killed them, causing us to get blood on our front jackets and shirts.
Carl had eventually spotted a broken down truck on the side of the road earlier in the day and that's when we decided to take some rest from running and walking so long. We sat by the low flame fire next go the truck, while Carl was sleeping, or trying to.
"That was one small rabbit." Rick spoke quietly.
"It was." I said. "I don't think I'll ever get used to eating so little."
"It was something." Michonne said. "Gotta hand it to the thing. It traveled well." We laughed softly and what she said.
"Have you noticed? That's all we talk about anymore? Food. I forgot what this feels like." Rick said.
"I hope were able to forget soon." Michonne said.
"Yeah, me too." I said. "But for now, I'm turning myself in. I'm tired, hopefully I get some sleep." I heard them laugh, as I stood up and wiped my pants and shirt off and her Rick talk.
"We're close. Just got to make it through another day. If folks there are taking people in, they have to be strong. They have to have a system." Right as Rick said that, I turned around once we all heard some branches snap behind us.
Suddenly, I felt a guys hand around my waist and neck, with a knife against it. I saw Rick who had a gun to his head, as well as Michonne. "Oh, dearie me." The guy said behind Rick. I was thinking about Carl, and hopefully they didn't know he was in the truck.
"You screwed up asshole." I saw two guys come out from the trees across from me. "You hear me? You screwed up!" He yelled. I thought wrong. I heard the truck door open and heard Carl struggling.
"Today's the day of reckoning, sir. Restitution!" He spoke again. I tried to get out of this guys threatening arms, but held on tight and put the knife on my neck even more.
"Shit, and I was thinking of turning in for the night on New Year's Eve." He laughed. "Now who's gonna count down the ball dropper with me, huh? Ten Mississippi. Nine Mississippi. Eight Mississippi-"
"Joe!" I looked at Rick and saw his and Michonne's head turn towards the voice. I noticed the voice. I didn't want to believe it, but I did. A shadow came out of the darkness near the two guys across from me and revealed him self to us.
"Daryl!" I said, my voice eager and filled with shock as I watch him approach the group. The guy had his hand wrapped around my throat, tightening it by the second. "Shut up!" The guy said.
"Hold up!" Daryl said, staring at all three of us in disbelief.
"You're stopping me on eight, Daryl." The guy Joe said. Daryl walked closer to the three off us, and looked at us then at Rick.
"Just hold up..."
"This is the guy that killed Lou, so we got nothin to talk about." A man behind Daryl said, walking next to him.
"The thing about nowadays we ain't got time. Say your peace, Daryl."
"These people... You're gonna let them go. These are good people." Daryl said, raising his hands.
"Now... I think Lou would disagree with you on that. I'll have to speak for him and all. Him right here, strangled him in a bathroom."
"You want blood, I get it." Daryl dropped his bow and stepped back, his hands flying back up in defense. "Take it from me man, c'mon."
My heart pounded even more after he said that. Daryl looked at me with his eyes, trying to tell me that it'll be okay. I didn't think it would be.
"This man killed our friend." Joe said blankly. You say he's good people, you see now that's a lie." He stuttered. "It's a lie!" He yelled. Two men came up and tackled Daryl to the ground.
"'No!" I yelled out, watching Daryl getting beat into the ground by the three men that stood on top of his body.
"Teach him fellas! Teach him all the way." He said. I could hear Daryl's grunts which made me really upset. I heard he truck door open and Carl struggling.
"Carl!" I yelled, pushing the man off me by kicking him straight into his crotch. I got out of his hold and tried running to Carl. Instead, hands gripped me, throwing me to the ground. He was on top of me, his finger-trips digging into my waist.
"Now, do you really want to get killed?" His voice singing is, raspy and threatening, as it rings through my ear. His lips try to kiss me, my eyes close as I struggle in his grip.
I screamed. I screamed like I never had before. My voice became scratchy and breathless when I tried to scream more, as the guy still continue to hurt me. "Get off me!" I yelled. "Get. Off-" I struggled with my sentence as the guy kept pushing me into the ground. "Get the hell off me asshole!" I spat in his face.
He slid the knife over my cheek and began to put two hands on my throat. I couldn't breathe. Everything was happening so fast, I couldn't comprehend what was happening. I heard one gunshot. And two more. Just when I felt dizzy, his hands got lose and fell on top of me. I just realized he got shot on the chest. I tried standing up but I couldn't. I rolled over away from him and saw that he'd been shot again by Michonne. Saving me, Carl and Rick saving himself and Carl. The last thing I saw was Rick walking over the to the man that had Carl, with blood all over his face and an angry stare.
Minutes and minutes later, catching my breath and wiped some of the blood off my face, I crawled towards Daryl, who was currently lying breathlessly on the floor. "I can't believe it." I held his face and he winces because his cuts and potential bruises all over his body. "Daryl? Are you okay?" I could hear him cry into my shoulder as I leaned down. I've never seen this side of Daryl and never thought I would. "Thought I'd never see you guys again." Daryl whispered through his soft tears.
"I'm here," I started to cry. "We're here. We're together." I hugged on him tighter, not wanting to let go. "We're all here together." I repeated. "You'll be okay- we'll be okay." I said, as we laid on the floor.
I woke up in the truck I had laid asleep in the night before, along with Michonne and Carl. I awoke to the sounds of Rick and Daryl's voice. I looked up at the roof of the ceiling and closed my eyes to listen to the sound of his voice. He's here. He's really here.
I sat up straight in the seat and winced still in pain and looked behind me and saw Carl's eyes opened, and Michonne holding him. Michonne gave me the look that it's okay, and I sat back in the car seat and tightly shut my eyes from the feeling of bruises all over my body. I looked in the mirror in the car and looked away instantly, feeling disgusted with the way I looked. Black eye, cuts and bruises all over my face and neck.
I opened the car door slowly and quietly shut it when I got out, I heard Rick say some stuff. I walked around the car, and saw Daryl and Rick sitting against it and drinking.
"How you feeling?" Daryl asked, as soon as he laid eyes on me.
"Not good." I smiled slightly, "How about you guys?"
"I'll be alright." Daryl mumbled. I looked at Rick, and he was still staring off in space. "Will all be." I smiled very slightly at him before walking away to get more of my dry blood off of my whole face and the rest of my body.
Daryl came up to me, while I was sitting on top of the hood of the truck. "Hi." Daryl said, his voice low and deep. I looked up at him and smiled slightly, while squinting my eyes because of the sun. He came up to me and stood between my legs. "You okay?" I asked him, while grabbing both his wrist and holding them while looking up at him, who was currently looking down.
He didn't answer. "Daryl?" I asked.
"Hm?" He mumbled.
"Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine Lex," Daryl sighed, and then pulled away from me and turned around, getting ready to walk away. "Just glad you're here, alive."
"Daryl," I sighed. I pulled his shirt to make him come back closer to me. He turned around and quickly held me close, while I was still sitting on the car, and rested his head in the crook of my neck, taking me by surprise. "Are you sure you're okay?" I whispered in his ear, running my fingers through his hair.
"Tired." He mumbled. "Just when we think we're settled, it all turns to shit."
"Talking about the prison?" I asked, while staring at the road ahead. Daryl mumbled something I couldn't make it out to be. I lifted his head up from my shoulder and looked at him. I wiped some blood from his cut above his eyebrow and stared at his eyes. "I miss looking at those blue eyes."
"They miss looking at you." He said seriously. I smiled at him, then took my hands and cupped his face gently and kissed him. He winced, but didn't move. "Sorry." I laughed.
"Don't be." He said. I kissed him one more time but softly.
"So, before you met this asshole and his group, you were alone?" I asked, curious about what he's been doing before he found us.
"Nah. I was with Beth." He mumbled
"Did she...?"
"No," Daryl sighed. "She's gone. Someone took her in some car with a white cross on it. Makes me wonder if she's safe or not." It stood silent between us. The only sounds were birds chirping and the leaves swishing around on the trees. Daryl rested his head on me again, breathing normally than before.
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A/N:
Sorry for the late update! I wanted to get something up for you guys that's long, interesting and very emotional sorta. Plus Im working on some chapters so I could update while writing chapter 17, 18, 19 20 etc that way you guys don't have to wait too long for another chapter!
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xo