Wounded Warriors-CHAPTER ONE
"Where are you taking me?" Katelyn asked, trying to peek through the blindfold Daryl put on her.
"You'll just have ta be patient." Daryl drawled, deliberately accentuating his accent playfully, making
Katelyn giggle.
Daryl stopped walking her and reached for the chain so he could unlock the gate.
"Are we there yet?" She asked, wondering if stopping meant that they had arrived.
"Hold on." He chuckled, shaking his head at her.
"How much further?" She whined, deliberately drawing on the typical childhood trips in the car.
In response, he swatted her on the rump.
"If you don't behave, you're not gonna get your surprise." He warned, laughing at her outrageous behavior.
Steering her forward again, he stopped about ten feet outside the fence. She felt the tug of him pulling the blindfold and the light hit her eyes. Blinking at the blinding sunlight, she shielded her eyes with her hand and looked around, puzzled over what he was showing her.
The only thing sitting there was a beat up truck with the hood lifted.
Daryl started laughing when he saw the expression on her face.
"What am I looking at?" She turned around with her hands on her hips, looking at him with a sassy expression.
"I swore that when I got you back, I was gonna teach you how to hotwire a car so that next time you're running away, you can actually get away." His mouth started to form a smirk, but he tried to stifle it.
The look on her face was priceless. Wadding up the blindfold, she threw it at him.
Daryl was too busy laughing to see it coming.
Hitting him right in the face, his eyes popped open with surprise. Reaching up to grasp it, he slowly pulled in down and looked at his darling Katelyn who now stood in front of him with a smirk of her own.
"Oh, it's on!" He grunted, bolting forward to grab her in a frisky tackle, taking her down to the ground, and rolling her on top of him.
The minute Katelyn felt his arm snake around her, she squealed with merriment, and began laughing.
"Why you ornery…" She chided mishieviously, not finishing the sentence as he put his arms behind his head to stare up at her.
"Ornery what?" He urged, taking in every curve of her face.
Leaning down slowly, Katelyn's smile turned impish as her lips grazed the hair above his ear causing goosebumps all over him.
Her lips grazing the tip of his ear, he shuddered, tingling shooting up his neck. He noticed he was holding his breath as he waited. The tiny tip of her tongue snaked out to touch the creased edge of his ear. He could feel her hot breath on his skin and couldn't take it anymore.
In one move, he growled voraciously, rolling her under him.
Stretched out underneath him, she could feel his body pressed against hers and her breath quickened. He gazed down, waiting for her to meet his eyes and when she did, he lowered his mouth to hers. Running his tongue lightly along her lip, she moaned and grabbed the back of his head to pull him closer.
"Daryl!" They both heard the shout at the same time and froze.
"Daryl! Katelyn!" They heard it again, Daryl dropping his forehead to hers, and sighed in frustration.
"Shit." Daryl muttered, hearing Glenn calling his name again.
Kissing her on the forehead, he pushed up and off of her, slowly standing before yelling back so Glenn would shut up. Holding out his hand, he offered Katelyn his hand to pull her up.
Grasping it, she popped up quickly and stood in front of him.
Rubbing the back of his neck, Daryl took a couple of deep breaths, trying to cool his ardor. Looking at her again, he started smirking when he saw her blush and duck her head.
"You gonna ever not be shy?" He asked jokingly.
"You gonna ever not be stubborn?" She retorted causing him to shake his head in amusement.
"Don't worry. We can come back to this lesson later." He replied, winking at her before turning and walking back inside the compound.
God, she loved that man.
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"We need formula. We're running low." Glenn stated, showing Daryl the nearly empty container.
"Aight." He replied, trying to thinking of where he was going to find formula.
Rubbing his chin while he thought, Katelyn entered the room behind him. Turning his head for a second to see who entered, he smiled, before turning back to Glenn.
"Grab that map o' yours." Daryl said as Katelyn came to stand beside him. Lazily draping his arm over her shoulders, he pulled her close.
Glenn returned with the map and they all began studying it.
Daryl studied the map, looking at all the roads and towns along the way. He didn't know this area very well.
"There." Katelyn pointed to a small town of Newport Hills, "It's an upper class community, gated and everything. Lots of young, wealthy couples with lots of kids."
"Gated?" Daryl asked, thinking to himself that could be a good thing. If they could clear it out, it might not be a bad place to move to.
Daryl was still very aware that the Governor was out there and he was likely looking for revenge. He, Rick, and Tyreese had many conversations about moving, but without knowing where they'd go, this was still the safest place. He planned on making this a scouting trip as well. A gated community might be their best shot for a new place.
Looking at Katelyn, he smiled, squeezing her shoulders in a hug.
"Good thinkin'." He complimented, "Glenn, let's round everybody up and put together a group."
Before Glenn could respond, Katelyn volunteered, "I'll go."
Daryl shook his head.
"No." He stated emphatically, but Katelyn wasn't taking no for an answer.
"I'm going, Daryl. I know the area better than anyone and you've been teaching me how to fight." She stated quietly, looking Daryl in the eyes confidently.
Daryl shook his head. "Not a chance."
"Daryl Dixon, I am going on this run. I realized that you're worried, but we have to find out how well you've taught me at some point and I would rather it be before an emergency." With hands on hips, she raised her chin, squaring off with him determinedly.
Daryl didn't know whether to be proud, or pissed, but he took a deep breath and said, "All right, but you stay right next to me the whole time."
She nodded, a wide grin spread across her face and threw her arms around him excitedly.
"I've never known anyone ta be so excited about walkers." He muttered.
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Glenn, Maggie, and Tyreese loaded up in truck while Daryl and Katelyn rode the motorcycle. It was an 50 miles journey back toward Atlanta and to the west. Katelyn enjoyed riding on the cycle, especially since she got to wrap her arms around Daryl the whole way.
It was a relatively clear ride, only seeing a few stray walkers in the fields as they flew by. They turned off on the exit only 7 miles from Newport Hills. The forest line receded opening up into clear fields and small copses of trees. A few houses were sprinkled along the hills in the distance. Rickety fences lined the fields where a few horses grazed openly. Up head, Daryl could see the gated community walls, tall and made of beautiful stone, giving Daryl hope that walkers hadn't been able to infiltrate and there would be relatively few to deal with.
Slowing down, they turned into the driveway of the development. Glenn hopped out of the car and approached the gatehouse. Hopping the fence, he went into the small shack and noticed that the power was down. Stepping out, he waved everyone in. They would have to walk.
Daryl pulled his cycle over to the side and turned it off. Katelyn climbed off the back, and made sure that the axe she had was secure inside her belt. Daryl handed her a large machete style knife with a scabbard too and she strapped it onto her leg while everyone else geared up.
From where Daryl stood, the neighborhood appeared void of any movement and it gave him hope. He figured there would be a few stragglers in the streets and inside the million dollar homes but he was hoping that was all.
"All right. Let's roll." Daryl said, taking the lead, while Katelyn fell in behind him.
Daryl hopped the fence with ease, reaching up to help Katelyn and Maggie down. Looking around, he decided to head to the right where a beautiful castle-like home stood tall against the sky.
It was only about fifty feet that they had to walk before they got to the front door. Testing the doorknob, he found it locked.
"Glenn, check out the windows. See if you see anything movin inside." Daryl instructed.
Hopping off the porch, Glenn peaked in the window and looked around. The home was furnished beautifully, with marble flooring and white carpet. He didn't see anything inside so he nodded to Daryl.
"Nothing so far."
Daryl lifted his leg and kick the door as hard as he could. The door gave immediately and flew open.
"Million dollar house and they have a shitty front door…" Daryl commented as he entered the house, with Katelyn right behind him.
Entering the front room, they could see that the house was immaculate. Moving inward, they found two living rooms, one of which had a playpen set up in it. As they surveyed the first level, they easily found the kitchen and raided the cupboards. Surprisingly enough, it was fully loaded, and there were fresh vegetables in the bowl on the counter.
"Those are fresh." Maggie noted.
"How the hell are they still good?" Daryl asked, picking up a cucumber to inspect it.
"Somebody must have been here within the last couple of weeks." Katelyn answered.
"Maybe we should search the house before we load this stuff up." Tyreese suggested, before falling silent at the sound of a loud floor squeaking from upstairs.
"Someone's here." Daryl whispered, putting his finger up to his lips.
Crouching, he began heading for the stairs, Katelyn and Tyreese right behind him. Slowly moving up the stairs, he was startled when he saw someone bolt across the landing above. Not wasting any time, he charged up the stairs, slinging his crossbow onto his back as he ran. He knew they weren't walkers. They moved too fast.
The slamming door caught Daryl in the face, but he had been running too fast to stop and fell right through the door. Fortunately, the door also knocked the fleeing figure to the ground. Realizing that the door had the mysterious person pinned, Daryl slowly slid off and crouched down to look beneath it. Scrambling out from under it, Daryl was able to grab the hood of the person and yank them toward him.
Dragging the shrieking figure from underneath, Daryl held them up to get a better look.
It was a young woman.
Surprised, Daryl dropped her.
"Woh…easy." He said calmly, putting his hands up to show her he wasn't a threat.
"We didn't know anyone lived here." Katelyn added, trying to explain their presence there as she heard the others come up behind them.
The woman eyed both of them suspiciously before sighing in surrender.
"I found this place about two months ago." The woman explained, rubbing the back of her head where the door hit her.
"By yourself?" Katelyn asked.
"Yes. Everyone else was…" The woman paused, taking a deep breath, "…killed."
Daryl nodded.
"We came looking for baby formula and thought this might be a good place to search." Katelyn supplied.
"There's plenty of that I'm sure. They had a whole cupboard of it downstairs in the basement and some food storage as well." The woman said, "You're welcome to take it."
"Thanks." Daryl replied.
"My name is Madeline." She offered, extending her hand to shake theirs.
Katelyn took it readily and smiled at her in return.
"Where were you before?" She asked, curious about the woman.
"Atlanta." She answered.
"That's where they were." Katelyn explained.
"Yeah, we all met up outside of Atlanta, but it was bombed in an airstrike." Daryl stated.
"They were trying to control the spread of the outbreak." Madeline supplied.
Daryl's eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"How d'ya know that?" He asked pointedly.
Madeline sighed, and sat down on the bed behind her.
"I was the government liaison to the CDC. We were frantically trying to sequence the DNA of the virus. It was us, France, and Switzerland, but the outbreak happened too quickly." She stated.
"We were at the CDC and there was only one guy left inside. He said everyone else fled." Daryl said irritably.
"Yes. I was with the mobile group, trying to stay one step ahead of the virus. They put us on a semi, rigged with a lab. We were being moved out because we had 99% of the sequence identified but then there was an attack on our caravan…" She threw up her hands, "…now I'm here and they're all dead."
"An attack?" Tyreese asked, stepping forward now.
"Yes. We were attacked by some sort of militia group led by a man called the Governor." She answered.
Katelyn's hand flew to her throat and she gasped, shivering in fear. Daryl's hand went to small of her back, letting her know that he was there and she was okay.
Madeline looked at Katelyn with a questioning glance.
"You know him?" She asked.
"Yeah, we know im." Daryl answered.
Madeline jumped up excitedly.
"Then you can help me!" It was an exclamation filled with hope.
"Uh…I'm not sure what you mean." Daryl asked.
"He took the sequence. It's on a flashdrive and when they raided the caravan, they took it. If I could get the sequence back and find a way to upload it to the French or the Swiss, we could find a cure." She prattled enthusiastically.
Everyone looked at each other with shock on their faces.
It was possible that this nightmare could end.