Chapter 4: Too Close for Comfort

For an old man, Dale was fast. In a matter of seconds, e was up on the roof of the RV with Andrea, his hand covering her mouth. Her eyes were bulging out of her head, and muffled screams were still escaping through Dale's fingers. Towards the farmhouse, I saw Rick and Shane. They'd stopped arguing and they were now pounding on the farmhouse door. Lori, Carl, T-Dog and Glenn were all running for the house.

I went back to my tent, frantically searching for my crossbow. I cursed under my breath. I couldn't find it. However, I did find a shot gun. No ammo. Perfect. All I had to defend myself was my father's knife. I ran from my tent to the farmhouse.

"Let us in, dammit!" Shane yelled.

"Hershel, please be reasonable! You're killing us if you leave us here!" Rick raised his voice. "You're killing people by leaving us out here!" He banged his fists on the door yelling for him.

Losing hope, I looked over my shoulder, searching for some safe haven to magically pop up out of nowhere. I saw Dale and Andrea scrambling to get into the RV. They closed the door tightly.

My eyes moved over to the huge group of walkers headed right for camp. They sniffed the air, inhaling our scent. Some of them, faster than others, they were about halfway to the RV. Turning back to the farmhouse, I looked over at Lori, who was scared out of her mind. She held Carl close to her, comforting him as he sobbed. Rick, Shane, Glenn and T-Dog remained calling for help. From inside the house, arguing was heard. Probably between Maggie and Hershel. Looking at everybody's face was when I got it. I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed earlier. Carol was nowhere to be found. Ah, Shit.

"Where's Carol?" I cried out.

I practically leaped off the porch, calling her name. I ran to the RV, praying she was in there. I was just about to open the door, when I spotted her. Oh God. Oh God. No. Not this way. Not now. No!

The walkers picked up their pace as they breathed her in. She kept walking towards them. Her eyes closed, she ignored my yelling. I raced down to her, pulling her by her arm. She slapped my hands away, yanking them off of her.

"Daryl! Get off of me!" She yelled in my face. "Just let me go! I wanna be with her!"

With the walkers advancing on us, I knew we didn't have time to argue. I scooped her up in my arms and threw her over my shoulder. I ran as fast as I possibly could, Carol flailing the entire time. They were right on our tail. I looked up at the farmhouse. The door opened, Maggie ushered everybody inside. I tried to yell out to her to keep the door open for us, but I had no breath. She slammed the door shut. We had already passed the RV. I had to think, and I had to think fast. As much as I didn't want to, I headed for the barn. Carol finally stopped struggling against my grip. I probably could've put her down at that point, but there was no time to. They were maybe three yards away from us when we finally made it to the barn. I put her on the ladder as she started to climb. I was right behind her.

"Faster, Carol! Move!" I shouted.

We both made it up to the loft. The walkers were pouring into the barn. Dammit, Shane. Did you hafta break that lock? They looked up at us, their arms reaching. It seemed every walker for miles had come to grab a bite to eat. I looked at Carol. She looked back at me, scared out of her mind.

"What in the hell were you thinking?" I growled, wiping the sweat from my brow, regaining my breath.

"I didn't mean to put you in danger." She said it so quietly, I could barely hear her over the shrieking walkers. "I just want my daughter back. I want to be with her." She didn't dare look into my eyes.

"You're so fucking stupid." I blurted out, letting my temper get the best of me, yet again.

She almost killed herself. The reality started sinking in. Sitting silently, we listened to the undead wailing for us. I couldn't wrap my head around the idea that I'd almost lost the only thing that sill mattered. We sat there like that until dark. The walkers still hadn't budged.

"Are you thirsty?" she asked.

Yes. So thirsty. "Yeah." I answered flatly.

She moved into the moonlight as she searched the interior of her bag. To my surprise, she pulled out a bottle of wine. I felt my eyebrows rise. Taking a swig, she smiled at me. Blushing, she offered me the bottle. I took it from her and held it up to the air, grinning.

"Never been so thankful fer liquor in my life." I said, taking two huge gulps.

It was warm, and probably cheap. But hell, I was in Georgia heat during a zombie apocalypse. I didn't care. I felt my head throb after I took another mouthful. I winced. Carol's smile faded.

"That probably wasn't a good idea." She said, scooting closer to me.

Feeling uncomfortable as she put the back of her hand to my forehead, I replied, "Ah, I'll probably be dead tomorrow anyway."

"Geez, Daryl," she said, disregarding my comment, "you're on fire."

She moved her hand to my cheek, leaving it there a little longer than was necessary. She pulled her hand away, and started going through her bag again. In her hand were two pills. Fever reducers.

"Take these," she said, dropping them into my hand, "we have to get rid of the fever."

I popped them in my mouth and washed them down with the wine. I licked my lips, savoring the taste of the alcohol. I looked at her. She had bags under her eyes.

"I'll take watch, you should sleep." I said on impulse.

Crap. I had let her know I cared. She simply nodded and retreated to the back of the loft. I rested my backside against the wall. I replayed the events of the day back over in my head. We were really in the shithole, weren't we? I thought about what Carol almost did. She almost died today. She wanted to. Just the thought of her dying sent chills down my spine. Wait. Why do I even care about her? She ain't my kin, my blood. Merle is. Why ain't I so afraid for him? He can take care of himself, but I ain't scared of him dying. My thoughts drifted to the roof in Atlanta. I'd been upset, sure, but that was nothing compared to the fear I'd felt when I saw Carol about to give herself up to the geeks.

The undead finally shut up after a few hours. Carol mumbled in her sleep. I couldn't make out much of it, but once or twice I could've sworn I heard my name. While I was staring up at the moon, I heard her scream. Whipping my head around, I saw her sitting up, looking back at me with eyes full of terror and tears streaming down her cheeks.

She pulled her knees to her chest and hid her face from me. Her shoulders shook as she tightened her grip around her legs. Not knowing exactly what I was doing, I crawled over to Carol, trying to comfort her as best as I could. I placed my hand on her shoulder lightly, hoping that would be enough.

"Bad dream?" I questioned, as quietly as I could.

Picking up her face, she nodded. The zombies stirred below us, growing steadily louder, as they tried to trace the scream. I wanted to badly to hold Carol and tell her everything was gonna be alright. But I knew it wasn't. And it wasn't ever gonna be. Looking into my eyes, she said in a gentle, raspy voice,

"Don't leave me."