I made a promise to myself to not post anymore WIPs but...well. Haitus80 and me agreed awhile back to start a story each for each other. It was about Caryl and breaking them down...making them more primal. More animal and watching the devolution. I'm not sure where this is going and what could happen. I don't plan and write as I go. So hold on people.

I'm going to go ahead and slap warning on here. It will be violent. There will be some disturbing themes and character deaths. I make no promises other than the ones Haitus80 has asked for in this (Since this is written for her.) Other than that I hope you all enjoy it.

Boots thudding on hard packed ground she moved without thought. She ran forever but she felt like she couldn't get very far. The Earth was shaking inside her and her breath was coming fast exploding from her. She had an earthquake in her mind and devastation in her eyes. Something was pulling her. Like a tether wrapped around her driving her hard and pumping her blood with a life of it's own. With his life. She felt a panic clenching her heart and a taste for blood. Picking up her pace she gave no thoughts to the noise she was making. Walkers be damned.

She would cut any and everything down in her path. She'd been adrift since Rick threw her out of her home and away from everything that mattered. She'd tried but there was nothing left. Nothing. No signs of where anyone went and she was left with a soul crushing abyss of pain clouding her eyes and heart. He'd left his bike behind and she'd stared at it for awhile before she snapped back to herself. He'd left his bike, he left Merle's bike. He didn't leave by choice. That's when she felt it. That pull and drive. She didn't question it, she knew enough about this world to trust her instincts now.

She's seen Daryl do this. Move like something otherworldly was guiding him and every time they came out on the otherside. He'd always had a glint in his eyes, a glow that seemed to wash over her and she wondered if this is how he felt. Did he feel the panic she was now? Was he worried for her in the way she was in him? When he found her in those tombs it was like a godsend but she knew it was something else. It was like an instinct had taken over and he'd hunted her down and swooped in. He'd carried her out of there while she'd been on deaths doorstep and every since he'd been there and she'd felt it. They understood each other on a level the others completely ignored and she embraced it. Daryl was always a bit wilder, a bit untamed and she told him they were a pair.

She needed Daryl. She loved him. They'd not had enough time together and she would be goddamned before she seen this world take him from her. Rick Grimes be damned, walkers be damned! This fucking world be damned because she was going to have him. He was apart of her and she was apart of him.

Bursting out into the open she was met with a chain link fence. Gun fire was popping off all around the compound in front of her and Carol clung to the forest watching. She could hear people calling out and yelling but nothing was really distinct. There was a ringing in her ears blaring and harsh. She couldn't make much out but she knew a fight was taking place. Moving closer her breath wheezed out when she see Glenn and Maggie. Both were fighting walkers while others were rushing from a train car. Her eyes scanned rapidly around the group but she didn't see him! Where was he! She knew that Daryl would be here. That tether and pull was almost cinching her heart with how hard it was moving her in his direction.

Carol growled something in her chest unfurling and wrapping around her entire body. The group was moving and right in the lead was Rick. Carl just behind him with Michonne caging the younger Grimes between them. The rest of the group were tearing ass out of there without a backwards glance and as her eyes ran over in disbelief she felt it then. It was all consuming and felt like fire was reaching from her body outwards to burn everything. They'd never leave Daryl. They wouldn't. He couldn't be dead...they'd never leave him! Right? She questioned her own conviction in the words and her mind recoiled from the fact that she'd been tossed away so easily.

Her eyes shot to the group and she seen a few she didn't know. She disregarded them immediately and that tether snapped tighter in her chest aiming her back towards the compound. He was here. Burning rage and wrath in a way she'd never felt before lit up her spine and she started over the fence. he was in danger. She would get to him. Whatever held him back, whatever was the issue she'd make sure he was okay. There was no Daryl without her and no her without him.

What Rick failed to realize when he'd torn her from her family was he was ripping her and Daryl apart. They'd been together a short time. But that didn't matter because acknowledging it out loud didn't take away the time they'd already put in. She'd been Daryl since the moment their eyes met and he hers. Rick had no goddamn right to do what he done.

Carol moved low to the ground the cold metal of her knife wrapping around her knuckles like a hug. She heard talking and they sounded young. She skirted them and moved towards a further back room. She could hear talking and it seemed that the Rick and the group had took out a good amount of this groups people on the fight out of here. Carol sneered and felt her lip curl hearing them talking. They were talking about the group like they were cattle to be slaughtered and kept. It was sickening hearing them.

"Mary said it wasn't all a loss." One voice started, "We still have him and they're getting him ready now. She seemed pleased with him."

Carol tensed and slid into the shadows trailing them silently. They kept talking and she licked her lips her chest expanding to encompass her full anger. She was going to get him out of here. It had to be him.

"Yeah Gareth said that we needed to go back there and help her with him.I reckon he's a big one."

They moved on then and Carol watched high and low. They were alone. She moved then and followed them to where they were going. They had to be talking about Daryl. Hunting humans wasn't nothing. She felt sick thinking it but when it came to Daryl she'd hunt and stalk what she had to. You didn't abandon part of your soul to pieces of shit like this. You don't abandon your people and someone you claimed to be family.

A door swung open and Carol was gifted with a glimpse of steel tables. Carol licked her lips and bared her teeth rising to her full height. She stepped in behind the smaller of the two and brought her knife around the same time she caught his hair. Jerking hard she wrenched his head back and split his throat wide enough that any chance of scream sprayed on the door and wall.

First body to hit the floor.

Carol stepped over him and rolled her wrist. She was in the room now and shadowing the other male. Daryl had taught her well enough over the years. She learned how to fight and fight smart. This man was bigger than her and she knew she needed to be quick. Stepping in behind him he must have thought her movement were that of his dead friend. Stepping into him before he turned she sunk her knife into his back and drove it up piercing his heart, just where Daryl showed her.

Second body to hit the floor.

Carol watched the blood spread and puddle around her boots. It was thick and warm the scent cloying as she stood there. There was a rhythmic swing in the distance and she felt that heat and unfurling in her chest expand. Her breathing was slow and even. She wasn't in shock. These men didn't deserve that. They were monsters but picked the wrong prey. If she couldn't bring Daryl out of here she'd leave it burned to the ground.

"Now we don't have all day. You know you both have clean up after this mishap today."

Carol cocked her head to the side moving like ink through water. She clung to the shadows the stickiness of blood forgotten as it dried on her hand. The voice was decidedly feminine.

"It's a shame he was with them. He'd be an asset to our group. I know we could have turned him...kept him." She hummed.

Carol felt like glass was fissuring in her mind. Her eyes were sharp and sweeping looking for the woman. She stepped into the door to another room and that fissure turned to a canyon in seconds. Blood was dripping and sliding down over his face from his chest and from in his hair. He was laid out on a steel table stripped of his shirt and barely in jeans.

The woman moved then and Carol felt that canyon expand to under her threatening to swallow the world. Something inside her snapped to focus the second her hand met Daryl's chest. Her hand slid over him and down over his ribs as she hummed to herself. He was unmoving. Completely still. His chest wasn't even moving. That hand slid further down and over his stomach before meeting his low slung jeans.

"Yes, it would have been nice to keep him." She lamented.

Who the fuck did this woman think she was? Daryl would die if he knew he was being touched like this. By this woman! Carol felt a growl building in her chest at the woman stroking over his body almost lovingly. He was HERS! Daryl was hers. Would always be hers; like she was his.

Carol stepped out then and the woman turned smiling. She expected the others but what she got was something completely different. Carol snarled and moved quick before she could grab anything. The noises leaving her were inhuman and she slammed her knife into her stomach feeling the knife catch just right. Just like Daryl taught her. With a jerk it caught again and she wrenched her hand upwards splitting her stomach and sternum wide. Gutting her just like a deer and laying her out. The grand irony wasn't missed on her but she spun and was on the table over Daryl instantly.

He wasn't moving. Carol turned his face into her, "Wake up." She pleaded. "Come back to me!"

His eyes opened and she was gifted the flash of blue. He tried to talk but his voice was raw and his words broken. Confusion lifted from his eyes and she watched as realization burned through his eyes. It was followed by a deep sadness and regret. His hand lifted to her face and she felt the tackiness of his blood coat her face as his hand cupped her cheek. It was a sweet metallic taste that burned into her senses.

His eyes dimmed and his hand slipped, "Ilov..." His hand dropped and his chest shuddered.

He was unmoving. She felt that deep all consuming fire really take root and start burning and charring her thoughts. It was washing over her in waves and that ringing and chiming in her ears sounded again. It was burning and starving for Daryl. She wasn't no phoenix burning but it was spreading out into her limbs now. It wouldn't be long before they were discovered and she'd kill everyone who got close to him if she had too. Hell if there was a heaven and hell then the birds of hell were waiting for her already for the things she'd done. She done what she done and there was no going back but she'd not regret these deaths. Daryl was worth more. Her vision focused on to him and she felt fury. It was too soon! He deserved more than to be left die like this! He deserved so much more.

Slamming her hand hard into his chest she threw her head back a baleful sound escaping. That tether was slackening against her own body. That pull that'd always been there from the first moment they'd met eyes. She could feel it start to ebb with his life. He was leaving her. Slamming her hand down again she hit hard enough to jar his entire body and scoot the table. Carol kept it up over and over each hit delivered with a howl of pain and sorrow. There was a longing in her body that only Daryl had ever rid her of and she felt it clawing into her body like talons shredding what was left of her. Slamming her hand again she snarled and demanded he return! He promised forever and she'd have it!

Straddling his hips Carol clung to him and buried her face in his throat. She refused this. How the fuck was she supposed to move on now. Her body felt hollow and the world didn't seem worth it. They were never supposed to end up like this. Never this. Her chest heaved with sobs that were wrenching the life from her and begging Daryl to take it. She'd give him half her heart so theirs could beat together again if that was what it'd take.