Blood pounded my eardrums as I ran faster than I'd ever run before in my life, ravenous zombies hot on my heels, drooling blood in desperation to finish me off. My tattered black slip-ons slapped the Tarmac as I sprinted down the street where I lived my entire life and while the tears poured down my immaculately clean face, I made my peace with Jesus and readied myself for the jagged teeth of my undead family sinking into my flesh. As I reached the end of the street, a dusty and dented blue pickup truck screeched past and slammed its brakes a few yards in front of me. Two large men were sat outside in the back of it, one was African-American and wore a large white t-shirt that covered his tall, well built frame and the other was a tall white guy wearing a ragged red and white checked shirt that had both sleeves inexpertly torn off it. The second guy scrambled across to the end of the truck as I reached it and kicked the back panel down so that it was effectively a chunky metal shelf. He leaned out and held a well toned arm out and the other man followed his lead, while his eyes bored into mine.
"GET YOUR ASS UP HERE WOMAN OR WE'LL LEAVE Y'HERE!" He screamed in a heavy southern accent, waving his hand desperately at me to grab hold of. I took one last look at my family as they ran down the street behind me, trailing slimy, red guts out behind them and felt my heart crack, before clasping the hand of the southern stranger and letting him haul me up into the back of the rattling, blue pickup. My sister tried to climb up behind me, her rotting fingers scrabbled manically at the metal while her once perfect teeth gnashed and snapped at me and her bouffant style blonde hair billowed in the September breeze. The man who hauled me up swiftly pulled the blue shelf back up and then drove a huge, jagged hunting knife through the once stunningly blue eye of my dear sister. She stopped moving and flopped lifelessly off the back of the truck before we sped away from the rest of my stumbling, decomposing family.
I watched as we pulled away, my heart fracturing into about a million tiny pieces and I slid off my knees and pressed my face against the bumpy metal of the truck, uncontrollably sobbing at the horrific memory that was burned into the back of my eyes of this man...the man who rescued me, plunging a knife into the head of my once gorgeous sister. After a few minutes I managed to control my weeping and I lifted my head up a small way to look through the watery veil at the two men who saved me. I noticed a dirty, sliding glass window that allowed communication between us and the cabin slid open and a man's hand poked out to give the first guy a tissue. He smiled at me kindly and handed it to me. I threw him a watery smile and cleaned myself up, before leaning over and clutching the southerner in a close embrace, burying my pained face in his shoulder as I did so.
"Thank you so much." I whispered, my breathing still unsteady and catching in my throat as I tried to speak. He clearly wasn't very comfortable with me clutching needily at his shirt, so he gingerly patted me on the back and left one arm wrapped awkwardly around my shoulders. He glanced uncertainly at the other guy and didn't move much, but widened his eyes, while frowning and nodded down at me slightly in confusion, as if asking him 'what the fuck?'. The other guy just smiled and laughed a little before putting a hand gently on my back to get my attention. I detached myself and looked at him, wiping my eye one last time.
"Mhm?" I replied, visibly dazed. He still had a small smile on his face.
"What's your name? I'm T-Dog, he's Daryl. You weren't too far away from becomin' walker food, what happened?" He asked, the smile gradually deserting his kind but worn face. I swallowed and tried desperately to clear my head and give him a coherent answer.
"Emma." I said firmly. I turned away from T-Dog, looked at Daryl with hard eyes and steeled myself for what was going to come out of my mouth next.
"And Shirley." I said bluntly, and was met by a confused gaze from the both men. "That was the name of the girl you just killed." I said with nerves of steel until the very last word. As soon as the last word came out of my mouth I broke down in fits of tears and cried until my chest strained and the world went very dark and all the pain of the last few hours melted away into an undisturbed sleep.
It's very different from 'Daryl Dixon- Looking out for your own' but I hope you enjoy this one just as much! Sorry it's been a few months, but I wanted to settle in at college before committing to another...this required more thought than the last one but I hope it pays off! - Hannah