Notes: Although technically a sequel to "Life As We Know It" I am treating this as a stand alone also so no need to read the previous story. As time goes on I'll be reintroducing my OC and her relationship with Daryl and the others in the group. It gives me a chance to clean up all the things I felt I could have done better with the last story. A few small details may change, but I do plan to keep the backstory mostly the same as it happened in the previous story.
It looks like they may be doing a Carol x Daryl pairing in season 3. While I may acknowledge some aspects of it (hard to tell where they'll take it as of yet) this will ALWAYS remain a Daryl x OC story even if that means changing some things from the show.
Chapter 1: Keep on Keeping on
Survival. It's not just a word. Not just something you try to do. It's a very basic instinct buried somewhere deep inside each species' genetic makeup. Despite whatever hardships they face and despite the odds every species has an innate drive to survive. In the Antarctic penguins will spend months huddled together in the most bitterly cold and unforgiving habitat on the planet. With no food the penguins struggle simply not to freeze to death until the season changes and they can again trek across the continent in search of food.
Humans may have been unique in that they were the only species that would think: this just isn't worth it. After the Wildfire outbreak had hit bad there had been a rash of people who had, as Dr. Jenner had aptly put it, opted out. During the months that followed the thought had crossed the mind of most everyone who was left at some time or another. Darwin would have looked at what was happening as an event that would shape the future of the species. Only those people that still possessed that increasingly rarer gene that drove them to press on no matter what would be left in the end.
One of those people would be Autumn River Thompson. Giving up just wasn't in her nature. River and her Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Liam, would keep on running. No matter the odds they would keep on keeping on. Life didn't end just because bad shit happened. They had to press on. All the little cliches and mantras she'd had drilled into her ran through her head.
Besides, River didn't just have something she was running from. Sure the Walkers were close on her heels. That was nothing new. What she had was something to run to. Daryl Dixon was out there waiting for her.
It had been a long and rocky road between River and Daryl. Just when things were starting to come together between them, it had fallen apart all around them. River made one of the hardest choices she'd had to make in her life and left the man she'd come to love. Now all she could do was trust that she'd be able to find him again.
Right now though River needed to escape with her life. Behind her the farm burned. An inferno lighting up the black night sky. A herd of Walkers hundreds strong stumbled across the farm and into the woods. All she had was her rifle and a pocket full of ammunition, her legs to carry her away and her dog to fight by her side. The odds were definitely stacked against her.
To make matters worse River was getting tired. They'd been running for a long time, her and Liam. Still the undead pursued them relentlessly. If they didn't manage to break away from them soon it would be too late. No matter how driven she was to survive, eventually their bodies would just give out... And the dead didn't get tired.
Two Walkers stumbled out in front of the fleeing duo. Their rotting jaws gnashing hungrily at the sight of a warm, fleshy meal. River glanced behind her. The dead were still coming. They couldn't turn back. The only hope her and Liam had was to push through the risen corpses in front of them. There were only two, she reminded herself. Two were manageable.
Hastily River loaded the magazine into her rifle. Her trusted .308 had served her well. With it she'd taken down her fair share of big game and Walkers alike. Tucking the butt into her shoulder she took aim at the first Walker and fired. She missed.
"Bastard," River cursed as she cycled the action loading another round. Her muscles were exhausted and she was shaky. Shooting was a lot more difficult than it ought to be.
The next two shots that River fired connected and the two Walkers blocking their way crumpled to the ground. Anxiously she glanced behind her. The dead kept coming. Her and Liam couldn't keep running forever.
River glanced up. The tree branches above could provide her an out. They would be a safe haven for her, allowing the horde to pass unaware below. Except that Liam couldn't climb and the Chessie weighed a good ninety pounds. River was strong, but she couldn't pack the muscular dog up the tree.
"C'mon buddy," River called, patting her left leg for Liam to follow. It was no choice at all. They had to keep running.
Soon River's lungs began to burn. Though she gulped the air greedily she never seemed to be getting enough. Stitches formed in her side, causing her to double over in pain.
"Hang on Liam," River panted as she tried to catch her breath. Behind her the dead were gaining ground. If they caught up all the running would have been for nothing. Not only would they be back where they started, River wouldn't have the energy to fight them off.
River ejected the magazine from her rifle and reloaded it. Replacing it she took aim and dropped the four closest Walkers. The herd kept coming. River gulped nervously and reached into her pocket for more ammunition. There were only two rounds left. One for each of us if it came to that, River thought morbidly as she looked at her dog.
The last words Daryl had spoken to River came back to her. "Whatever happens ya keep on keepin' on. Ya hear me?"
"We gotta keep moving," River told her canine companion. Though really the words were meant more for herself.
The darkness that had fallen over the forest was becoming impenetrable. River was stumbling blindly through the brush. Often all she had to follow was the sound of Liam crashing along in front of her.
One misplaced step sent the young woman tumbling down a bank. The bottom met her abruptly sending a searing pain through her left calf. At first River feared she'd broken her leg. Out here on her own that would be a death sentence. Groping in the darkness she felt the brach that had stabbed through the muscle.
"Help me up," River commanded after breaking off the branch. She didn't remove it from her leg for fear of bleeding to death. It could wait until morning or when she met back up with the others. Liam stood next to his master. His feet planted firmly in the soft earth as River used his sturdy, muscular shoulders to pull herself to her feet.
Though she could no longer see the Walkers that pursued them, she could still hear them in the trees behind her. If they didn't find somewhere safe to hide soon they'd end up Walker chow. Things were looking pretty hopeless, but the woman hobbled painfully along with her dog in a desperate struggle to survive and reconnect with the man she loved.
Seven months later...
Rick and Daryl stalked side by side through the woods. At first when Daryl had taken him hunting the man had wanted to spend the whole time chatting. It was no wonder they'd never come back with any game. Now though Rick had learned to keep quiet and to muffle his steps. He could make his way through the woods making hardly a sound.
Without a word Daryl stopped abruptly. Holding a hand up he signaled for Rick to stop. Daryl bent down and examined the ground. Finally Rick couldn't stand still any longer. Walking up next to the tracker he looked down at the ground and asked, "What is it?"
Daryl looked up. "River," he said in disbelief.
Rick winced at the name. He knew how much the woman had meant to Daryl. They had connected in a way that most never got to experience. When River didn't show up on the highway with the rest of the group that had fled Hershel's farm it had been near impossible to convince Daryl to keep moving.
Rick tried hard to find a way to break the news. After what had happened with Sophia he had figured Daryl wouldn't have been so ready to hold on to the belief that the woman could still be alive out there. The redneck was, after all, a man of pragmatism and action, not prone to hoping and prayin for the unlikely. In this case, the near impossible.
"Daryl look," Rick said with a deep sadness in his voice. "It's been seven months. Those track's could be anyone's. They could be a Walker's."
Anger flashed in Daryl's icy blue eyes. "It's River," he growled.
"How can you be so sure after so long?"
Daryl pointed to a set of tracks running alongside the one's he'd been examining. "Cause that's her mutt."
There was a clearing up ahead. River could see the sunlight shining through the trees. Cautiously she limped along with Liam at her side. Neither of them moved very quickly anymore and both had grown more weary. The winter had been a long and hard one for the pair.
As they stepped out into the clearing a large structure came into view. It was surrounded by high fences and guard towers. Before the world had ended it had been a prison. Scanning the grounds River could see easily that it had fallen when the Wildfire outbreak had occurred, just like every other corner of the world. The fact that the former inmates still roamed the grounds didn't fool her. It belonged to the dead now.
"It's not safe here," River told her companion. Surely Liam could smell the dead and recognized the threat below them. However the woman hadn't had anyone to talk to in a long, long time. The bulk of her conversations were held with her dog now. The remainder were with herself.
The two of them continued on, looking for some place safe to spend the night. In the morning River and the dog would keep on moving. If for no other reason than she no longer knew what else to do. She just kept on keeping on. With no real hope left of reconnecting with the others, of finding Daryl again, all she could chock it up to was habit and that innate drive to survive.
Liam's ears perked up. River stopped and looked, dreading the the thought of having to fight off more Walkers. What little energy she had left had been sapped by their journey. Instead she saw a little squirrel poke it's head around the side of a tree. The critter chattered angrily at the intruders.
At the sight of the animal River's heartbeat quickened. It wasn't much, but it was a meal. She licked her lips and pulled out the slingshot she had raided from an abandoned house. Loading a small rock and pulling back on the rubber band she took aim. It hadn't been as easy to figure out as a rifle, but over the winter she'd got plenty of practice. It paid off. The shot connected and the squirrel fell to the ground.
There was a grumble in River's stomach as she smelled the roasting meat. Days had passed since she'd last eaten. Going without had become so common place as her and Liam struggled just to stay out of reach of the dead that she no longer bothered counting the days.
The little squirrel had barely come off the fire and River was peeling the flesh from it's bones. A little too hasty to get at the food she burned her fingers on the hot meat. As she licked her burnt fingers she looked to Liam. The dog was staring at her expectantly waiting to be fed. Watching the meat in his master's hands intently, Liam whimpered and whined.
The sound broke River's heart. That dog meant the world to her. He'd been her friend, offering her unconditional love through the last five years. He was her companion, her watch dog, her hunting partner, and her trapline helper.
Before the Wildfire outbreak there had been two others with whom she shared her life. The Jackson brothers, Dane and Jason. Both were dead now. Honoring a pact that the trio had made River had had her hand on the weapon that ended Jason's life after he'd been bit by one of the herd on the highway. His older brother Dane, her best friend and surrogate big brother, had died defending the group at Hershel's farm as they tried to escape. Liam was all she had left.
That's not true, you have Daryl, River told herself. If he was even still alive. Surely if anyone had survived from the group she'd banded together with back at the quarry and later at the farm, it would have been Daryl.
"Ya got me, don'tcha?" Daryl's voice rang through her head as if her were standing right next to her.
Liam whimpered louder bringing River back to the present. It was a pathetic, pitiful sound. His amber eyes stared sadly at her. Tears welled up in River's eyes and she wrapped her arms around the animal's neck.
"I'm sorry Liam. I'm so sorry," River sobbed.
At least she could understand why there was always hunger in her belly. All the dog knew was that his master wasn't feeding him when he wanted food. That he was always hungry. The once beautiful dog was as skinny as his master. River could see every rib in his once muscular body. His brown coat was no longer thick and shiny. The dog looked sickly.
Slowly but surely they were both starving to death. The odd squirrel or bird that River managed to snag was never enough. Was it cruel of her to drag him along with her, she wondered. Reaching into her pocket she felt the smooth surface of the last two rounds of ammunition she'd been packing around for the last seven months. One for Liam, and one for her, just in case. She could choose to go on through this hell, but maybe it would be kinder to end his suffering, she thought.
The tracks led out into a clearing. Rick and Daryl stood staring at a prison. A smile spread across Rick's face. A plan was forming in his head. Those walls still held the former inmates. From where they stood, everything seemed relatively intact. Maybe if the fences could keep the dead inmates in, then they could also keep the rest of the Walkers out.
"We need to take that Prison," Rick told the man he'd been hunting with.
Daryl nodded. There was an understanding between him and Rick. The former deputy had earned his respect as they fought side by side to survive. Likewise the redneck hunter had earned Rick's respect in the way that he provided for and protected the group with fierce loyalty.
"We take the prison, then I'mma go find River," Daryl responded gruffly. There was no room in his tone for argument.
"After we're safe inside those walls I'll help you look myself," Rick promised even though he felt certain they would never find River alive. It had been too long. No one could survive that long on their own out there. Still, he felt like he owed the man that much.
Again Daryl nodded. "Best git the others," he said, slinging his crossbow over his shoulder.
There was a hard pit in Daryl's stomach as they turned and headed back to the group. Those were River's tracks, he was sure of it. More sure than he'd ever been of anything in his life. Still, the tracks could be days old. Rushing off after them without a safe place to stay would be foolish. If River had survived this long, she could survive another night. That girl was as tough as nails. Tomorrow Daryl would go out and find her. Then he'd bring back the only woman he'd ever loved.
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