A/N: Oh my gosh! I can't thank you guys enough for all the follows on this story! It encourages me so much to continue it! I don't know how offer I'll be updating, my neighbor and I share internet and theirs has been a bit off so just bear with me. I will continue writing chapters and post them when I get a chance! Much love. Here is chapter 3.

Chapter: 3

As their small caravan continued on their path, a quick short honk sounded behind Daryl and Carol on the bike. Daryl pulled off to the side and shut off the engine. He waited as Carol slowly untangled herself from him and the bike, steadying herself as she almost lost her footing. Together they walked back towards the group to see what was going on.

"We need to set up camp for the night, the way I see it, we've got about 2 hours of daylight left and we need that to make sure everything is set up." Rick looked around at the group, waiting for any disapproval of his idea. He was met with small unsure nods from everyone. " Ok good, Daryl and I will take a look around to determine which spot is best for now. Everyone else just sit tight and keep watch." With that he motioned to Daryl and the two wandered off into the woods.

Carol watched the two retreating backs with a sigh. He had agreed this morning to teach her how to fight and defend herself this morning, but when he agreed he didn't sound to happy about it. She walked back to the bike to sit and wait for the men to return. She had her back away from the group, trying to make herself feel useful by keeping watch of the road ahead. She almost didn't her soft growl that the woods emitted. Instinctively she withdrew the blade from her hip and whirled around, there were at least a dozen walkers making their way to the group. She let out a small yelp when one came from her blind side and grabbed her shoulder. Without even thinking about it, she gripped the handle of the large knife and brought it full force into the things rotted skull. With a sick squelch, it dropped at her feet. She quickly put her booted foot on the head and yanked with all her might to release her knife. Looking around she realized that the group had been alerted to their presence by her yelp.

She pushed her fear aside and went to join the group as they battled the walkers. Lori had been resting in the truck when the chaos began and had woken up to the battle just beyond her small sanctuary. Her eyes were wide as saucers when she noticed Carl was not in the vehicle with her anymore. Just as Carol got to the group, she saw two walkers quickly advancing on an unarmed, terrified Carl and her little Sophia's face presented itself in her mind. With a new boost of adrenaline, she stalked like a mother lion to the two undead fiends. She made quick work of the first one, who had looked like she had once been a teenager. The second one, well he was a lot bigger than her. He stood at least 6'5 and looked as though he weighed a ton. She didn't let his size deter her though, she was not letting what happened to her angle happen to this sweet boy in front of her.

All the pent up grief and frustration that had been building up was let out in an inhumane scream as she leapt nimbly on the large walkers back and drove her knife though the top of its skull. As soon as she pulled the knife out, the thing fell. Hard. It landed face first on the ground with a sickening crunch as the road smashed its face. Carol got up off the ground and stalked to where it lay and began stomping viciously on the back of its head, making it eat the concrete as the back of it head quickly became a soupy mess of bone fragments, brain, and blood. She didn't realize she was crying 'til she could no longer see. It didn't stop her from taking out all her emotions on the dead son of a bitch though. She would have kept going if the same strong arms that had saved her from running to her daughter that day on the farm had not picked her up and buried her in his chest.

Daryl and Rick had come running out of the woods when they heard Carol scream. When they finally arrived at the scene, there were two walkers left and Daryl was lining up his shot when Rick stopped him. "Watch."

"Come on man! I am not letting what happened to Sophia happen to Carl!" He lined up the shot again when Rick stopped him once again. Daryl let out an angry breath ready to hit Rick when he heard the most heart breaking scream and saw a flurry or activity. He watched as Carol cleanly shoved the buck knife she found this morning through the base of the small one skull and ripped it back out. The look on her face could even scare Merle right not. She then did something no one expected. She jumped on the damn walker's back! Did this woman really have a death wish! The pair stood and watched as she gripped the handle with both hands and brought it down with a nasty crunch in the middle of its head. She quickly retrieved her knife and jumped back off the thing before going back to it as soon as it fell its last death to the ground.

Daryl's chest tightened as he watched the small angry woman in front of him brutally smash her foot repeatedly into the back of its head, tears streaming down her face the entire time. When no one moved to stop the obvious break down in front of them, Daryl swore under his breath as he replaced his crossbow on the hood of the car nearest him and started to where Carol was have an emotional break down. "Som' bitch. Can't no one see the damn woman needs help. Bastards dead already." He picked Carol up by her waist and turned her around and allowed her to bury her head in his chest and cry her eyes out. He Gently lowered them to the ground and cradled her in his lap.

He hugged the frail woman to him not knowing what else to do. He wasn't any good at this shit! Maggie or Beth or hell, even Lori should be comforting her not him, anyone but him. He wasn't much on physical contact, much less trying to help someone through a break down. After a few minutes, Daryl heard her crying soften and eventually stop. The rest of the group had already moved most everything to the spot he and Rick had scouted not too long ago. Deciding it was best to get up off the highway and into the secluded area, he picked Carol up bridal style and noticed the reason her cries had stopped. She was fast asleep in his arms. He felt a small grin gently tugging on the corners of his mouth but he fought the urge to do so.

As soon as he got to camp, he laid Carol down on his bedroll and went to stand up to go talk to Rick when her hand shot out and gripped his shirt. He looked at her face and she was still asleep but had a very troubled look on her face. She started shaking and big fat tears started leaking from her eyes once more. "Oh Sophia! No. No. Not my Sophia no." She whimpered the last part and it was all Daryl could do to push his own grief at not finding the little girl to the back of his mind. He was about to flag one of the other girls down to take of her but stopped in his tracks when she started talking in her sleep again. "No, no, no! Daryl NO! Please... Can't... No you can't.. Jus can't leave... Need you.. No.." He thought for sure he was going to keel over right then. She was dreaming about him? More over, she was scared he was leaving? Where did she get that silly idea from. He sighed and resigned his fate to being her keeper once again.

He'd never admit it out loud, hell, he even had a problem admitting it to himself inside his head! But he loved caring after her, protecting her, making sure she was safe, he just wasn't any good at it. He let a quick whistle out and got Rick's attention. He made his way over to the hunter and exhausted woman and crouched down. "Um... She done grabbed ahold o' me and won' lemme up." To demonstrate his point, he once again tried standing to only be yanked down by the small, yet powerful woman. He shrugged his shoulders and ran a hand through his dirty hair.

"Don't wanna wake her, go ahead an' take the night off for now and stay with her. She needs her rest, she hasn't slept more 'n 3 hours atta time since Sophia went missin', she needs it. And so do you, I'll send someone for you if I need anything." He looked like he was going to reach out and pat Daryl on the shoulder but thought better of it, knowing how the man pretty near despised physical contact, and stood up and left to let the others know what was going on.

"Might as well get fuckin' comfy, gonna be in fer a long one." Daryl nestled a spot in the leaves and sticks by Carol, making sure he didn't get too far away for fear of waking her. As soon as he laid down, it was a matter of minutes before his heavy eyelids got the better of him and he was off to another kind of hell. One with no undead, but one with beatings, and whippings and many other horrors no child should have to go through.

`A/N: Ok so my chapters are gradually getting longer! Yay! I would appreciate if I have any grammatical errors or spelling errors if y'all would let me know. I am loving how many followings and reads I'm getting! I've tried my hand at Harry Potter FF but I think this will be my forte! Let me know what you guys think! 333