4. The City (He Has Become the Protector)

"The hunger inside given to me
makes me feel alive.
Always out stalking prey,
in the dark I hide."
~
Redeemer, Marylin Manson

Leia was in the car still, holding her knees close to her chest. She looked out into the gray sky. The clouds up above threatened heavy rain. Small sounds of thunder echoed into the horizon. It was only early morning and already the grand Thor was riding through the skies to send rain. Does he know nothing of what is going on here, in Earth? Surely Loki would get a kick out of it. The God of Mischief does so love his chaos. But no… such thoughts were completely foolish. The Gods or the God, whichever one strikes to your belief more closely, are high up in the sky and do nothing. Unless this is some form of His/Their wrath, in which case, way to go God/Allah/Norse Gods/Greek Gods/Japanese Gods/Indian Gods/Any other Gods or God you may or may not worship. It all comes down to the same thing, really.

While she is lost in her thoughts, Daryl suddenly walks out of the small forest that was next to the highway, his crossbow slung over his shoulder like always. He had changed clothes, as well as Leia. He now wore a red sleeveless flannel shirt, a denim vest with angel wings stitched on the back with black jeans and the usual combat books. Leia wore tight yet comfortable jeans and a white band t-shirt with sneakers. She blinked as she looked up at him and he took out two dead squirrels. "This is all I managed to get. Sorry." She shook her head and shrugged, not really caring. Daryl eyed her as he started to make a fire with what little wood he managed to find. He needed to do this quickly or else the rain will start soon.
"Are you okay? You're not still thinking about that little girl… are you?" Leia looked down and slowly held onto her head with a low whimper. Yes, Leia had seen her fair share of guts being ripped apart and a fair share of monsters drooling at the mouth shuffling towards their food, but never to such a horrific and grand scale. Never on the scale of children. Not even the children were saved from this macabre nightmare. And that sudden realization was a slap to the face for her.

Daryl sighed and started to cook the squirrels the way he had seen her do after skinning them. He made sure she never looked because in HER screwed up mental state, she will somehow equate those squirrels to that little girl. And the last thing he needed was her to throw a fit and not eat.
"Listen, I still say you shouldn't blame yourself. From what you told me, it's not like this girl could be helped. You tried. I think it's the thought that counts." Leia looked up at Daryl and watched his back as he worked on the squirrels. She stared only at the angel wings, finding them peculiar.
"Who gave you that vest…?"
"She finally speaks! Anyway, I found it yesterday in one of the houses. Liked it, so I took it." He turned around and waved a squirrel on a stick. She stood up and took it, looking out into the horizon. She nodded slightly as she kept staring at it,
"I like it. It suits you very well." Daryl couldn't help but laugh. He suddenly now had the urge to wear it all the time.

They ate in silence and stood up. Daryl once more got in the car and started to drive towards the city, again in silence. Daryl's hand never once left her thigh. He wanted to reassure her, so his hand staid and said all even though his lips never uttered a word. Leia's hand was curled around his own as a way of telling him she acknowledges it. Once they reached the city, Daryl parked and walked out. "We go on foot from here."
"Alright… but we drive through this City then? Why don't we just go in and make different stops with the car?"
"Because it's a big city. We'll be scavenging here for hours. Plus we need to go see YOUR gun store. It'll be a waste of fuel if we just keep constantly turning it on and off." Leia nodded as they stopped near just the very edge of the city. They parked it near the woods so no human, nor former human, could find it. Leia grabbed the only gun she had, and Daryl slung his crossbow over his shoulder. "We should get you a crossbow too. That way you can keep silent and not get so close to them. You know, risk getting' bit. I also need to teach you how to carve arrows." She nodded slowly and looked down, her expression still sad and full of dread. Daryl looked at her and nudged her with his elbow, smiling slightly, and "hey come on. I'll be with you the entire time now. Ain't nothin' gonna happen while I'm here. Got it?" She looked at Daryl and smiled slowly. His blue eyes held some kind of indescribable form of hope that just made her feel better about everything. Daryl smiled and ruffled her hair.

They walked in and Leia felt her heart about to explode right in her chest. The city was practically infested. "Remember we're here to loot. Try not to get spotted." Daryl explained and Leia said nothing, for fear of her voice alerting the zombies surrounding them. There was a line of stores before them. A clothing store, a bakery (Daryl's mind screamed FOOD!), a car parts and a record store. They entered the clothing store silently, silently taking out the five zombies near the clothing racks. Daryl shook his head, "there ain't anythin' here we can use. We got enough new clothes." "Not entirely." Daryl raised his eyebrows and watched Leia take shirts that were plain, nothing fancy or special about them. She took mostly white t-shirts. "Why are you taking that...?"
"Because if we run out of bandages, and we're not near any cities or houses, these shirts can come in handy." Daryl thought about that and nodded wisely. "Good call." Leia smirked at him and he smirked back. Finally, she seemed like her old self, and that made Daryl feel good.

They went on to the bakery and nearly stuffed their bags with food. It was junk food and some pastries (most of them for Daryl because Leia isn't fond of sweets). Daryl almost ate a loaf of bread then and there until he saw blood on it. He made a disgusted face and let it fall to the floor. Leia watched him and chuckled, taking bread and as many bottles of water as she could. Daryl carried whatever heavy object Leia picked up. It didn't really bother him. It didn't feel as heavy for him as it did for Leia. They only picked up tools at the car parts. They walked back to the car slowly and put their findings into the trunk.
"We should go get the gun store. Do we have enough bags?" She looked back and saw the duffel bag full of clothes.
"We can take out the clothes inside that duffel bag and use it for the guns and the ammunition." Daryl nodded and took out the bag from the backseat, opening it up in the back seat and taking out all of the clothes, piling them up in the trunk. She took the bag and slung it over her shoulder.

They ran back into the city, taking advantage of the alleyways to get around the city. Leia stopped and pointed at the gun store infront of them. Daryl smiled and nodded. He took her hand and looked both ways. The streets were practically full to the brim with zombies. He ran with her quickly into the store and looked around at all the untouched guns. Daryl smirked, "we'll have a party in here."

As they searched, Leia picked up rifles, shotguns, handguns, two magnums, and a crossbow as recommended by Daryl. Daryl picked up his share of guns and the ammunition, counting how much it would be if they were to split it in half, half for him and half for Leia. Leia walked around, scavenging for scopes and silencers when she noticed signs of people having been there. The storage room read "PANTRY: SAVE ENOUGH FOR ALL OF US." She tilted her head to the side and opened the door slowly, and looked at the amounts of canned food and other items of nourishment before her. "Daryl…!"

He quickly walked over to her and tilted his head to the side, "yeah?" "Look at this… gun store storage rooms are supposed to have the supplies for the guns. Not loads of food. Someone's made this their home…" "In a gun store? I guess it makes sense… and it makes even more sense since there are way more guns than I had thought…" He began to think and gasped when he heard a voice say,
"I told you man! I heard voices down here!"
"Naw man… you must be hearing things!"
He heard footsteps. Daryl took Leia's hand and hid her behind one of the shelves. Leia took the bag and kept it close to her chest, biting her lower lip as she heard the two men getting closer.

"What the… WHERE THE FUCK ARE ALL OUR GUNS?!" One of them yelled, making Leia flinch. Daryl squeezed her hand and kept a firm grip on his crossbow. Leia kept her gun tightly gripped in her hands.
"I TOLD you man! I TOLD you there were people down here!"
"Search the ENTIRE. FUCKING. STORE!"

Daryl took Leia's hand tight in his once more and began to sneak around the shelves as the men tore the place apart. They stopped near one shelf, waiting for the angry Asian male to walk away. Leia heard a hiss and saw a zombie stepping into the store, reaching down towards her. In a fit of fear, Leia gasped and tried to stab the knife in its eye. Daryl, startled by her sudden movement and the zombie falling towards them, he jumped back, knocking down one of the ammunition shelves. "SHIT!" He whispered and the two men, one Hispanic and one Asian, took notice of them. "HEY! Those are the cabrones that took our guns!" "Leia, go!" He pushed Leia out the door, keeping his head down to avoid the bullets.

Leia kept running, and gasped when she noticed that the herd of zombies also took notice of them. She saw them start to shuffle quickly towards them, making Leia shoot a couple of them in the head, and Daryl followed suit. "GET BACK HERE!" More gunshots. Leia whimpered when she felt the bullet graze her shoulder. Daryl grabbed her hand, shot over her shoulder to try and hit one of them, turned around and kept running, running so fast the wind pushed their hair back. By the sounds of pain, the bullet did its job. Daryl smirked to himself.

Their footsteps, plus the pulsing moans and hisses of those undead beasts, could still be heard. Daryl stopped when the alleyway hit an intersection. "Daryl!" Leia whimpered and Daryl pulled her close to him instinctively. He could feel the poor girl's heart beat going so fast it felt like it could beat the miles per hour on a car. He gulped, "you take the left, I'll take the right!" "Daryl-!" "LISTEN TO ME! Both of these will lead us outside, back to the large street near the edge of the city where we left the car. Just keep going forward, you'll be fine! I promise you'll be fine, okay?!" "It's not me I'm worried about damn it!"

Daryl's eyes widened slightly. This girl, in the midst of all of this danger, thought more about his safety than her own. Even after he basically showed her that he can survive, even after she became aware of her own mortality, even after she realizes that she cannot survive as well as she had thought. She still doesn't care about her own self and cares more about him. He wasn't used to anyone showing him such care and such worry, and it made his heart clench a little bit.

He wanted to protect her now. More than ever.

But right now… there was no time to think about anything. He took her cheeks in his hand, kissed her forehead harshly and made her look right into his blue eyes, "I. WILL. BE. FINE. I'll see you again, I promise. NOW GO!" He took the bag of guns, turned her around and pushed her into the alley and began to run. Leia was left stunned by Daryl's action. But she couldn't think. She, too, began to sprint, trying to follow the path.

The two men stopped at the intersection. "DAMN IT! What the FUCK do we do now? We can't let them go off with our guns!"
"Of course not you moron! I say… I say we go get the girl. Did you SEE her? She's scared shitless, meaning, she'll be easier ta catch, plus she was the one with the gun bag. Besides, again, did you SEE her? That bitch is smoking. The boss will definitely love her." The Asian smiled gently and nodded.
"So we split up?" "Yeah. If one us catches her, use the bird call to let eachother know." The Asian nodded slowly. He took the right, while his Hispanic friend took the left.

Leia was a fast runner. She kept huffing, already running out of the energy necessary to run. She was so close to that street! She kept running and gasped when she tripped over a dead cat. She twisted her ankle it seemed, at least that's what it seemed from the pain that shot up her leg. She gasped and looked up. The street was over there. She started to crawl, trying to get up. The moment she put weight on her leg, she gasped and yelped in pain, falling to her knees again.

She heard a laugh and turned around. The Hispanic from earlier was standing there with an evil smirk. Leia lifted her gun and pointed it at his head, but he threw himself over towards her and slapped the gun out of her hand, using his other hand to punch her across the face. "Man you are one spry little puta aren't you? I got you now… wait… you don't have the gun bag?! FUCK! That red neck hijo de puta must have it! Oh well… at least now we got a new little girl we can use."

Leia felt despair seed itself deep into her heart. She coughed and felt the blood run down her mouth. The world was blurry. "Daryl… Da… ryl… Daryl…" She whispered over and over, making the Hispanic laugh. "That guy'll come back for you. And he's gonna bring the gun bag, that's for damn sure." He punched Leia across the face with more force than before, finally knocking her out. Blood dripped down her mouth and a bruise covered her cheek. He stood up over her unconscious body and whistled like a bird.

"I got you NOW MOTHERFUCKER!" The Asian screamed as he ran towards Daryl. Daryl hissed under his breath and ran faster. The Asian stopped when he heard his friend's bird call and started to laugh. Daryl stopped and stared at him, "all this runnin's made ya go crazy…?"
"Naw man. Just my boy found your girl." Daryl's eyes snapped open and his teeth clenched in rage. "WHAT?!"
"Yup. Nice girl you got there by the way. Boss gonna take a ride on that! You want her back, asshole? Bring the gun bag." Daryl started to run towards him in fury but stopped when he noticed him jump up to a fire escape and laugh, "see ya later, asshole!"

Daryl watched him go with wide eyes and, in anger, he screamed "I'M GONNA STOMP YOUR ASS! YOU HEAR ME?! YOU TOUCH HER AND I'LL STOMP YOUR ASS!" He threatened and leaned on the wall, stroking his hair back.

Leia. Leia. Leia. Those bastards took Leia, and the way he spoke of her, he was sure those bastards were going to make Leia WISH for the mercy of death. He couldn't let that happen to her. The wings on the back of his vest, the wings Leia said suited him, were the wings of a guardian angel. How could he just let them do with her what they wanted? He couldn't allow Leia to get hurt. He didn't want Leia to suffer. He was going to save Leia. Save her and bring her back.

All those who stand in his way, alive or dead, will be killed.

All those who so much as touch Leia will be killed.

Daryl looked up at the zombie before him with a menacing look and stabbed the zombie's head repeatedly in anger. He looked back to the path that lead back to the gun store. "Hold on Leia. I'll be right there."

To Be Continued in Chapter 5. The Guardian Angel

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I realize it has been a very big while since I last posted. I recently started my Senior year and I take advanced classes as well, so all my time has been spent studying. I really do apologize for being so late on my submission for chapter four. I will try very hard to try and submit chapters during the weekends or during the holidays. A warning, on the 21st of December, I will not be posting because I will be visiting my brother and my uncle in Los Angeles. I am sorry for the extreme delay and will try to be more frequent :)
Cheers,
~Taya Belmont