AN: This is something that has been playing in my head for a while. I started it before the MSF but then was worried about the outcome of the MSF...then IT HAPPENED-and well, then I didn't have the heart to post it...but now I am fully a part of Team Delusional...so I thought I would contribute to the fandom I have enjoyed so much these past months...

Daryl Dixon sighed as he double checked the bay doors of the garage. It was dark out and had been for a few hours already. He picked up the take out garbage that had been left beside the truck he had been working on. The burger inside had long since gone cold past its edibleness. He sniffed at a fry and opted to throw the whole thing into the garbage can, thinking the mice would probably raid the thing over night but too tired to care. Someone might as well get use out of his eight bucks.

The extra hours were long and lonely and not all the profitable yet. But he had no choice. The baby had cost them dearly financially—hospital bills and all those many things babies needed and seemed to keep needing more of everyday. Diapers alone probably cost him the money from 4 oil changes a week. There had been no baby showers to help out, no family to help ease the burdon or give them hand me downs. His wife was on maternity leave right now so they didn't have her income coming in either. He wouldn't trade it for anything though, he thought, smiling to himself and speeding his locking up routine that much more. Maybe she'd still be awake when he got home and he could hold her for a bit. More often than not though in her short 6 weeks of life his daughter had been asleep when he got back to their little apartment. And sadly, with all her energy taken up by little lady bug more often than not his wife would be sleeping too.

It was all for them, though, all to get them back on track and to build them a life together. He was determined to give his wife and daughter the life he had not been given, to be a thousand times better than the father he had had. Daryl got out to his truck and looked down at his phone before starting the ignition. He had left it in his truck after picking up the take out. He smiled, a new photo of his daughter looking wide eyed at the pink elephant he'd brought home yesterday flashed in front of him.

Beth: Had to send you this—her face was priceless.

And then two hours later….

Beth: Wide awake and making noises. She misses you. Me too…

And then one from about an hour ago….

Beth: finally got her to sleep. Made pasta for supper….are you coming home soon? Can U grab some milk on the way home? Grumpy Bug wouldn't let me leave the house today. Love you lots

The texts ended there. He turned the key in the ignition and backed out of the parking lot, fiddling with the radio knob while he did so.

The radio sounded jumbled. Daryl couldn't find music on any station, just seemed to be news right now. Something about the hospital, something about people with a virus…..he didn't have the patience tonight. He flipped the CD button and turned off the radio in favour of some Rolling Stones.

Pulling into the mini mart Daryl yawned. He knew milk would cost more here but honestly he didn't have it in him to walk all the way into the big supermarket down the street. He got out of the car amazed at how many people seemed to need quick purchases tonight. Inside the store it was crowded and loud. A man pushed past him with a case of water under one arm, yelling at the clerk and throwing a $20.00 bill at him. Other people seemed in just as much of a hurry, grabbing at things on the shelves. The poor clerk seemed disoriented and flustered.

"What's goin on?" he grunted at the clerk who just ignored him and turned to the woman who was grabbing behind the counter at a carton of cigarettes. She pulled away, obviously not intending to pay for them. Daryl grabbed her arm as she brushed past "Hey!"

She glared at him and yanked her arm away from him. "Get off me! Haven't you been watching the news? All shit's breaking loose!" She pulled away and headed swiftly out the door, the bells banging loudly.

"wha….." Daryl whipped his head around suddenly panicked. He needed to get home.

Pushing out past the crowd he made his way over to the door. He heard someone scream in the back ground. He hurried back toward the driver's side of his truck. He heard it before he saw it. The groaning, deep growling—not human and yet….not animal either. Daryl had been a hunter all his life. He had never heard a sound like this. It sent a cold shiver down his spine.

Suddenly a strong hand reached up and grabbed his shoulder. Daryl whipped his body back and away, years of instinct against being touched unexpectedly saving him at the last moment as he watched wide eyed while the….person? thing? creature? snapped it's teeth into the air where his shoulder had been. It's eyes were wild, unseeing and it continued to snap it's jaws at him while he body checked it away. Daryl pushed at the thing as hard as he could his hand landing in a wet sticky substance covering the thing's chest. He jumped into his truck slamming the door on the thing. He started the truck as the creature threw itself against his driver's door window. In the moment before he put the truck in gear he saw the thing's face clearly against the window—wild clouded eye, drooling mouth, covered in blood? He looked down at the hand he had used to push the thing away and saw that it too was covered in blood. The thing—the woman?- had a wound on her chest that looked like it had been festering for a while. He was amazed she was even standing.

All of this happened in the blink of a moment as he pulled the truck in a circle around the parking lot trying to avoid the thing as he desperately tried to get back onto the road. All at once in front of him stood another creature, this time it seemed to be a male. He had no time to stop and he hit the thing head on with the front of his truck.

Daryl skidded to a stop breathing heavily hearing the horrible thunk as the tires went over the man he had hit. For a moment he didn't know what to do, surely he had killed him. Then in the rear view mirror he watched in horror as the creature stood up and began growling and walking towards his truck again, as if nothing had happened. It's leg was now dragging behind it though, seemingly dislocated and partially crushed.

"Fuuuuuccckkkkkk" he yelled as he slammed his foot on the gas and pealed out of the parking lot onto the road, speeding the last mile to home, his wife and daughter his only thought.