Chapter 1: She Goes Too
" Say hello to the night, lost in the shadows. Say hello to the night, lost in the loneliness"
The whole city smelled of an overwhelming decay, rotted from the inside out. One by one, the small group crept through the seemingly baron city streets, with Rick heading them and Daryl tailing, his bow drawn. There was never any certainty when they were excavating for new supplies or something that could help them. They had almost made it to one of the buildings before the Walkers started emerging behind them.
They were thankful that the heavy doors weren't made of glass and seemed sturdy enough.
It was a sprawling library, books scattered everywhere as far as the eye could see. It had also looked rather ransacked as well, pages littered the floor and desks were tipped over as if someone had violently ransacked the place. The sound of the persistent storm still had yet to reside and the rain beat ceaselessly against the roof of the abandoned school. Daryl's crossbow were raised as he searched around the nooks and crannies of the library. So far, this looked like the safest place in a building infested with walkers.
Something caught his attention. Against the sound of the downpour, there was something else. Something closer, something that sounded like extremely labored breathing. He shushed the rest of the group with a death glare and one finger to his lips.
He followed the sound to a vent on the ground, just underneath a large mahogany desk. He gave the desk an admirable kick with his boot clad foot, sending it toppling over. He bent, bow positioned on his knees, to peer through the slanted vents. All he could see was a large set of blue-green eyes staring back at him.
" You alive or you a walker?" he grunted.
He watched as the eyes bounced from side to side in a "no."
" You aren't alive or you aren't a walker?"
More sporadic head shaking.
" Well, which is it?"
There was silence, those eyes just trained on him, unblocking. He was unable to tell if anything even registered in it.
" Well, c'mon out." Daryl drawled, making light work of getting the vent out-of-place so that the small figure could emerge. From what he could see, they were clutching their knees so tightly to their chest that there small hands were nearly white.
" Come on." He coaxed, reaching his hand out for them, the other fingering the an arrow. You could never be too cautious. Not in these times.
The person didn't accept his hand only stood on their own shaky accord. Daryl was slightly taken aback. When in the light he could tell that this was a young woman, older than what he had originally pegged her for. It was her face that gave her away, because despite being covered in a minuscule layer of dirt and grime, her face had a kind of maturity that one only required from age.
Her blouse was slightly torn at the bottom and her hair was matted and dirty as were the jeans she was wearing. Daryl did a twice over for her and put his hand against her forehead without hesitation. He was silently relieved that her head was as cold as ice, no sign of a fever.
" You been bit?" He questioned from the side of his mouth as he trailed her over for the third time now. Her only response was another head shake and a long, silent stare. Her eyes looked like that real crystal clear color you found on your mom's nice white China, and her eyes were about as big as one of them plates too.
" You have a name? Do you even talk?" Daryl kept questioning as he instructed that Lori come forward. She had more ease dealing with woman. Daryl did not.
As soon as Lori came close the girl dropped back to her knees and put her hands over her head as if the simple gesture might bring her protection.
" Whoa, whoa, whoa there little 'un." Daryl said raising an eyebrow and returning to the squatting position next to her violently shaking frame.
Lori looked bewildered as she stood at bay, trying to assess the situation. She had never had someone react so strongly to her before, especially someone that she didn't know.
" Lori is a friend of mine. Her husband led us here. We just want to take a look at you okay? That way we know that you're safe." Even though Daryl's voice was anything but smooth, he had a strange way of comforting people with his directness. Which was more than they could say about his degenerate brother Merle.
" Is she okay?" Rick asked, penetrating blue eyes stood out from a gaunt face, hair matted against his skull.
Daryl reached toward her and pulled the neckline of her shirt towards the center of her chest, exposing her collar bone and upper chest to his inspection. If the situation wasn't serious, he might have found the way that her eyes widened in alarm comical. He pulled her shirt to the side to check her shoulders.
" I'm only making sure you haven't gotten bitten by one of them things, you feel me?" He had a feeling that she didn't, her body stiffened in a way that made him feel uncomfortable just handling her like that. He did the same for her torso and legs, moving as quickly and thoroughly as he possibly could before coming confirming his earlier theory that she was clean. It never hurt to make damn sure.
Rick's line of focus reached his and Daryl gave him a quick lift of his chin so that they could have a word. Rick nodded and motioned him towards the other side of the library. Together, the two of them walked in silence, the sound of shoes scuffing the floors was the only noise between them.
" Talk to me Daryl."
" The girl hasn't been bit. Now, it's up to you what we do with her, if we do anything with her at all."
" I can't just leave her here. She's surrounded by walkers, she doesn't look like she hasn't had a thing to eat in God knows how long.."
Rick wasn't a young man by any means, but the things that he had gone through had carved a tiredness into his body that he couldn't have ever imagined experiencing in his wildest dreams...that was then. The only thing that had pulled him through was the thought that he would find his wife and his son. Then by the grace of God, there they were. He found them and his partner and they all were safe. He could not imagine what it felt like to be alone in this world like this girl obviously was, scared beyond words, and left alone with no one there with you.
" She stays." Rick concluded, knowing that he couldn't leave here without her and let his conscious rest easy with that decision. Too many people had he seen die already. They had lost Jim already and Amy too. God, how could the numbers rack up so easy? He had to ask himself that every day.
" You sure about that? What if she has some friends of hers waiting in the wings ready to ambush us and take our guns?" Daryl prodded, his suspicion well placed.
" It's a chance we'll have to take...but look at her Daryl. Unless she's a damn good actress, have you ever seen a woman look that traumatized unless something awful happened?"
Daryl had looked at her, more than what the rest had. He had seen that fright alive in her eyes, seen the marks on her skin as clear as day. You didn't get no marks like that from every day living. Healing bruises for days and marks that were evidently created by a rope burn addled her wrists. She didn't fit the profile for a fugitive...but that didn't mean she wasn't one. Though his instinct told him that wasn't her MO, that captive was more like.
" Alright, I'll keep any eye on her just to make sure she doesn't try anything. I reckon we can leave here tomorrow morning when we have some light."
Rick agreed and then headed off towards where Lori and Carl sat, a safe distance from the frightened mess that was still ducking on the floor as if a bomb was about to go off. Normally, he would have never taken all of his people with him to go for supplies, but they needed them so badly. His only condolence was that the libraries doors seemed strong and durable and that they would keep the walkers out.
There was one thing that he knew for sure though, the girl was going too.