“One woman scorned and covered with scars still strove with her last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable stars; and the world was better for it.”
Rated: Mature - Romance/Horror - Chapters: 10 - Daryl x Oc
~ Teaser ~
“I looked for ya.” Daryl blurted suddenly, startling the silent calm that had enveloped the cab of the truck while I lost myself to memories of days long since past.
I looked over, my neck straining from the odd angle it took to look at his face fully. He was upset. More than upset and it showed in everything from his bloodshot eyes to his cherry red nose.
“What?” I asked, confused. I almost felt stupid the moment the question escaped my lips. There could only be so many things he was talking about but I guess I needed to hear it and the question fell from my lips in a an automatic response.
His breathed hitched in his throat and rushed out his nose. “When all this,” he gestured to the world around us. “happened, I went lookin’ for ya?”
Oh. Oh. And I wasn’t there.
I wondered when this would come up in conversation. I guess now was as good as any other time.
It didn’t surprise me in the slightest that Daryl waited until we had the loud roar of an engine and several hundred feet separating us from the others of our group before saying something. His reaction to his own words were enough for me to not want to be around anyone else.
“Oh.” Because lets face it, what else could I possibly say to that?
Sure there were probably a lot of things I could have said. I probably should have apologized for being such a spaz and leaving Trenton to begin with, it was a stupid move and it damn near got me killed.
But I didn’t say I was sorry for doing it and I couldn’t. I wouldn’t apologize for something I felt was right. All I knew in my present apocalyptic meltdown when the amazingly idiotic notion came to me; was what my instincts were telling me and that was to find Daryl. Daryl was all that mattered.
I did however have something to apologize for but I wasn’t really sure how to do it without pissing him off. “I’m sorry I worried you.”
When he growled low in the back of his throat like some wild fuckin’ animal, I knew I had been correct to assume he’d be pissed. “Sorry?” He said loudly, turning his face to the window as he removed the arm across my shoulder to wipe at the corner of his eye.
“I was goin’ out of my fuckin’ mind, Lil!” He barked, his voice rising with each tear that slipped from the hard walls within him. He furiously wiped at them with the palm of his hand, growling over the sniffles like I couldn’t hear them.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated, trying to sooth him the best I could by rubbing circles into the soft material of his plaid button down. Unfortunately for me, he was in mood to hear it yet and was in even less of a mood to be coddled.
With jerky movements, Daryl sat up a little straighter his eyes narrowing on the road as the white van in front of us crawled to a stop. He muttered something under his breath before he wiped his face again and grabbed the 30-06 from the gun rack above my head.
“Stay here,” He commanded, shoving the heavy rifle at me. “We’ll talk about this later and you will tell me what happened to ya.”
It wasn’t a question at all. I knew it. He knew it. It was just a question of when we would have the chance to be alone again, really alone. As much as I hated to even think about the past events that led to my Franken-face, I knew that for Daryl not to completely lose his mind I was going to have to suck it up and spill. I just hoped for the sake of the group that when that conversation went down, when his emotions got the better of him, no one would be stupid enough to pry at the noise.
That being said, I most assuredly didn’t have to like it and I was pretty damn sure that when he heard the story in all it disgusting detail, he wasn’t gonna like it either.
Daryl appeared around the front of the truck several minutes later, cursing up a storm and motioning me to get out. I did so hesitantly, trying not to step on the landmines around Daryl. It was like walking on eggshells. I could only hope the others were smart enough to pick up on the extremely hostile vibes Daryl was practically vibrating at the moment and left him the hell alone.
His shitty mood and mine was only further spurned by the breakdown of the R.V., Jim’s rapidly declining health and the now encroaching dusk. We still had a ways to go before we arrived at the CDC and we would be just making it before dark if we left like five minutes ago.
About halfway through the fix of Dale’s radiator hose, Jacqui came scrambling out of the back of the camper. Her eyes were frantic as she stumbled up to me of all people and told me she didn’t think Jim could take much more.
Which to me was the code for “Holy Shit, Jim’s turning into a walker!”
No shit, lady. He should have never been in that R.V. to begin with.
I honestly had no clue what it was she wanted me to do about it. I wasn’t particularly close to anyone in the group, well except for the obvious and my obvious had already tried to solve this problem once only to have it shut down and slammed back in his face like he was some kind of homicidal monster. Not really adhering to my softer side, the side that actually wanted to help, my decision was clear.
Fuck that. They could decided what fate had in store for Jim now, I wanted nothing to do with it.
It didn’t really matter in the end anyways, her panicked voice really carried well and by time she was through with her terrified rant everyone was gathered around us.
Awkward much.
Even more awkward than that was the morbid funeral we held for a living man who was sitting under a tree just before we left him there. Rick had offered him a gun to do what he had to but I didn’t see Jim as the suicidal type of guy, plus he was actually reasonable enough to know we’d need the damn thing later. Why Rick didn’t just let Daryl or Shane kill him, I’ll never know. Not that I’d let Daryl put that on his conscience now and let the others treat him like a barbaric outcast for it later.
They could kiss my ass.
~
The rest of the drive to the CDC was uncomfortably quiet. Daryl was stewing in his grief and anger and I knew it wouldn’t be long before it all came to a head, one way or another.
The smell was pungent enough to make my stomach lurch so and made it evident that we had arrived before Daryl ever put the truck into park. He glanced at me out of the corner of his eyes and I knew without him having to open his mouth that he thought this was a bad idea.
I was quickly starting to agree with him.
The point was further proven when we stepped out and took in the surrounding mass of corpse and bloodshed. It was devastating. It was complete devastation. The entire yard of the building and then some was completely covered in guts, gore and flies.
My god, the flies were horrendous.
“I don’t want ya outta ma sight, ya here!” Daryl commanded, thrusting his rifle back into my arms with a deep scowl on his face. He was scared. It made every bit of the female rights worthy argument die in my throat before it could bother to slip out. I wouldn’t argue with him right now, not when we were in such a detrimental situation. Not when he was close to blowing his top in the first place.
As a group we maneuvered through the sea of the half eaten torsos and decaying limbs it was plain to me that the massacre here didn’t bode well for our safety in the future.
Shielding my face from the hordes of flies and stench, I used one of Daryl’s handkerchiefs to which earned me a look of displeasure from Lori and Andrea. I just glared back and went about my tiptoeing, sniggering mentally at their jealous faces. Even Daryl looked a little miffed about not having the hindsight to think about it ahead of time. Sorry babe, you fell in love with me for a reason.
More gnats, more flies and more dead soldiers…
It seemed that was all that was left of the CDC. Destruction and the dead.
With the sky turning darker by the second, I pushed closer to Daryl not wanting us to be separated when the inevitable happened. Dark always brought out the walkers and we were all sitting fuckin’ ducks at this point.
~
There was some kind of quiet argument already underway when we approached the what used to be some kind of perfectly maintained entry way. Now it was splattered with guts, both walker and human. Wonderful.
“Then why are these shutters down?” Rick hissed over his shoulder and then went back to his study of the doors, like they might hold all the answers to the universe.
I could feel a nasty retort building up in the back of my throat but Daryl shouted exclamation of “Walkers!” overrode it and allowed the panic to set it. This was our camp all over again. Only this time we had even less ammunition and our people were already traumatized.
“Ya led us into a graveyard!” Daryl shouted over the shots being fired, his eyes immediately seeking me out, though I knew it wasn’t me he was yelling at. No, Rick was the privileged one to get Daryl’s temper this time.
Dale stepped forward, “He made a call!”
“It was the wrong damn call!” Daryl shouted back, his face beet red with murder in his eyes.
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