Chapter 3 -

"Thought I told you to stay on your feet." Daryl murmured to Ariel.

She wiped sweat off her brow and flipped him off, forcing herself to her feet. "I'm tired as hell man." she sighed, looking up to the skies. She handed him a pickaxe and shook her head. "I can't do this anymore; I haven't even recovered from yesterday."

"You recovering' is the least of our worries, I think." he mumbled, nodding at Andrea and the little girl Sophia. "Can't believe this shit." he crossed his arms, the pickaxe hanging awkwardly from his hands.

Ariel nodded. "I have to say, it was not this exciting when I was alone." when Daryl frowned at her she added. "Okay, maybe exciting isn't the right word..."

"Don't think so." he agreed, walking away from her.

Ariel sighed and walked over to the little girl Sophia, weeping openly in front of her dead parents. Ariel could relate to that, after losing both her parents she most definitely felt like a lost little girl in a big crazy world. It was even harder for this poor thing, barely older than twelve it seemed, she would not be able to make it in a world like this. Not without help.

"Hey honey." Ariel sat by Sophia, wrapping her arm around the crying girl's shoulders. The girl didn't know Ariel even a little, but pain and sorrow had taken her by a storm and so the girl immediately wrapped her arms around Ariel, hugging her tightly. It hurt a little, but Ariel hugged her back. "I know." she whispered.

"W-what am I gonna d-do?" she wailed.

"You're going to stick with this group here." she told her. "Rick and Shane and Daryl, and all of them, Lori too, they'll all protect you." she smiled slightly. "Just like they did with me. I was a lost little girl too." She frowned at herself, hoping Daryl hadn't heard her call herself that.

Sophia looked up not bothering to wipe her eyes. "Did you lose your mommy and daddy too?"

"Yeah." she said sadly. "I know what you're going through darling."

"I miss them so much already." she sobbed. "Is it supposed to be this hard?"

"Death?"

"No, life."

"No honey," Ariel said sadly. "It's not supposed to be this hard."

Sophia sniffed and wiped her nose, looking at her mother. "She protected me from him." she whispered. "Now who is going to protect me from everything else?"

Disgust burned in Ariel's stomach as she realized that the 'him' Sophia was referring to was her father. She didn't want to know what he did to his daughter, or tried to do, but she was sure that if she had known while he was alive, she probably would have tried to kill him herself.

"I'll protect you hon."

"Promise?" she sniffed.

"Yeah of course, and I just know Lori will too. She's a good mother." Ariel was pulling words out of her ass now, not knowing anything about anyone she was talking about. All her assumptions she was basing after barely more than a day. Still, she would do anything to make a little girl feel better.

"Thank you." she said.

"Come on, how about you go sit by Carl? It's better if you don't sit here alone."

"Can't I come with you?" she asked.

"I have to go help with..." she looked down at the dead bodies in front of her. "I have to help."

Sophia nodded in understanding and stood up, walking away. She sighed and got up, tying her brown hair up in a bun. She had removed her bandages by this point; it was only her muscles that were still very tired from the beat and the running from the previous night. She had changed into a white tank top and black shorts, wearing her combat boots all the same. She walked back to the group and met up with Daryl, Rick, Shane, Dale and Lori who were watching Andrea hold a dead Amy from a distance.

"Y'all can't be serious." Daryl was saying. "Let that girl hamstring us? The dead girl's a time bomb."

Rick was looking tired. "What do you suggest?"

Daryl looked at him as though he were an idiot. "Take the shot. Clean, in the brain from here. Hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance."

"No," Lori said sternly. "For God's sake, let her be."

Daryl walked away in a fit, Rick looking to Ariel for help.

"Don't look at me." she said. "I'm with Daryl on this one."

Lori frowned. "Really?"

"Well, he's not wrong. The girl is going to change, and then what? Then Andrea gets bit and you have to put down two sisters instead of one."

"She's mourning."

"We're all mourning, we've all lost people." She said, then before anyone could argue she grabbed Lori gently by the hand. "Can I talk to you, privately?" She ignored Daryl and Glenn arguing in the background and took a concerned looking Lori aside.

"Look, it's about Sophia..." she started.

Lori looked even more tired than before. "That poor child."

Ariel nodded. "I promised I'd take care of her, but honestly, I'm no mother, I mean I was engaged and...but...anyway...look, I will take care of her, I just need help in the process of taking care of her."

Lori smiled. "We pull together, that's what we do. You're not alone, and neither is she."

Ariel smiled back gratefully.

Another one of the group members, yelling interrupted Lori and Ariel's discussion. Jacqui was backing away from Jim, yelling, "A walker got him, a walker bit Jim!"

Lori touched Ariel's hand. "I'll go to the kids." she murmured.

Ariel nodded, moving forward with the guys, finding Daryl in the mix and moving close to him. He was like gravity, she thought, looking at him. He was a hard man and he helped keep people safe. She wondered if he was hard before the world went to shit too.

"Show it to us." Daryl said.

Jim went for a shovel and Daryl nudged Ariel with his elbow. "Grab him," he said lowly as the others started shouting pleas for Jim to relax. Ariel smoothly did as she was told, coming around the group, kicking his wrist so he dropped the shovel and then caught his arms, pulling them back. Daryl moved forward quickly and lifted Jim's shirt, revealing the wound.

As Ariel let go and stepped away, all Jim did was keep repeating, "I'm okay."


"This is stupid." Ariel snapped. "You're debating about Jim but won't kill Amy? In what world does that make sense?"

Daryl nodded. "I say we put a pickaxe in his head and the dead girl's and be done with it."

Shane's tone was judgemental. "Is that what you'd want if it were you?"

Daryl met his gaze, as he always did when he felt the least threatened or outnumbered and spoke truthfully, "Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it."

"I hate to say it...I never thought Ii would..." Dale started. "But maybe Daryl's right."

Rick shook his head. "Jim's not a monster, Dale, or some rabid dog."

Ariel grunted. "He will be." It was only Daryl who wasn't throwing her cross looks. "Oh come on people, we all know it's true. He's sick and he's going to die no matter what."

Rick was adamant. "We start down that road, where do we draw the line?"

"The line's pretty clear." Daryl said. "Zero tolerance for walkers, or them to be."

"What if we can get him help? I heard the C.D.C was working on a cure."

Ariel sighed. "Rick come on, if the C.D.C is even up with workers who are alive that's an accomplishment in itself. But to have them working on a cure...that's a long shot man, you have to know that." Rick was a reasonable man, but his desire to help others outweighed everything else.

Shane nodded. "We all want what you want Rick, but if anything good exists it has to be at the army base in Fort Benning. If that place is operation, it'll be armed and we will be safe."

While Shane and Rick argued, Daryl took matters into his own hands. "You go lookin' for aspirin; do what you need to do. Someone needs to have some balls to take care of this damn problem!" He turned to head towards Jim with his pickaxe to take a swing. Rick was there, pointing his gun at Daryl's head.

"We don't kill the living."

Daryl turned to face him. "That's funny coming from a man who just put a gun to my head."

Shane nodded. "We may disagree on some things, not on this. You put it down. Go on."

Daryl threw the pickaxe away and walked away. When Ariel didn't follow him, he turned around and yelled, "Hey, you comin' or what?"

Ariel followed, jogging up to him as he walked away. "I thought you didn't like it when I followed you. I thought I annoyed you to no end!"

"Like you a hell of a lot more than everyone else here." he snapped, loud enough to make sure everyone heard him.

"It's a wonder why you have my heart."

"Shut up." he said. "Can't you ever be serious?"

"You don't want me to be serious hot stuff, or else this apocalypse is going to get even more depressing."

"Don't see how that could be." he mumbled. "Just bout as shitty as it can be. People are losing their minds left right and center, and I still haven't found my brother."

"Daryl, he's probably long gone by now." she said softly. "I just don't see how we would find him now."

"I ain't sayin' I'm gonna run off into the forest right now, I'm just sayin'."

"Venting." she nodded. "You just need to vent."

"I don't vent." he mumbled. "Come on; help me get these bodies on the truck."

"Ugh," she wrinkled her nose. "This is disgusting."

Daryl huffed, picking them up by the heads while Ariel got the feet. "Stop being such a girl."

"Stop saying the word girl like it's an insult." she snapped.

Daryl raised his voice a bit, not out of anger, but talking over exertion of using his body. "You one of them women power crazy people?"

"You mean a feminist?" she couldn't not smile at his words. "Yeah, I am, got a problem with that?"

"No," he mumbled, helping her with the next one. "Think it matters now though, when the whole world is shit?"

"Sure it does. Just because the world is a shitty place, doesn't mean people should treat others in a shitty way." she stared at him pointedly. "You should be nicer to people."

"You should talk less."

"Don't lie to yourself Dixon, I know you like it when I talk." she laughed, hauling the last body with him.

Daryl shook his head, getting in the truck. "You got too much of an ego, Ariel." he said.

It was the first time that she had heard him say her name, and for some reason, Ariel found it sounded pretty, coming off his southern tongue than it ever had been said before. She grinned and got in the truck after him, riding in silence all the way up to where Shane and Rick were digging graves. Silence was okay though, with Daryl, she knew he preferred it, and although she didn't, it wasn't uncomfortable.


It was a while before the decision finally came to the group to leave the campsite and make way for the C.D.C. One of the families left them entirely, Rick handing them weapons to keep them safe. Daryl was riding in the truck with Ariel and the little girl Sophia.

Daryl had been annoyed with Ariel from the moment he saw her in the woods. Worst was, she really thought that he hadn't noticed her tailing him from the beginning. He let her have that, he let her think that she had the upper hand on him in the forest. He thought he did that because it was better for people to underestimate him, to think less of him and then surprise them at the last second.

That's what he told himself.

Then when he saw how happy it made her that she truly believed she had snuck up on him, he just didn't want to take that smile away from her.

That of course, made him all the angrier.

Daryl Dixon was many things, but he was not a man who cared about someone's feelings. He spoke how he wanted to everyone without caring about the consequences. But every time she was in front of him, trying to calm him down and talk to him, he felt his insides turn to jell-o. He wanted to kill so many times, to punch so many people in the face, but then she was in front of him with her blue eyes and her brown skin and her dark hair and he wanted to punch himself instead.

Yet he was the one who kept calling for her, telling her to follow, deciding with Rick, Glenn and T-Dog to fight for her and the guns when she had been captured. She had backed him, had fought for him and his brother, and because of that the desire to keep her close had settled in him.

He hated it.

This was the zombie apocalypse; this wasn't a time to start caring for people, not when he already couldn't find his brother.

Idiot, the annoying voice in his head said, it's the end of the world. If you aren't going to start caring for people now, you're going to lead an even more shitty life than you already did.

He sighed, but it came out much louder than he intended. When Ariel looked at him with a smile and a questioning gaze, he snapped, "What?"

"What?" she repeated. "You're the one who sighed."

"Just tired is all." he mumbled. "Been one long ass day."

"Daryl, language!" she said, covering Sophia's ears. She giggled for the first time all day.

Sophia took Ariel's hands away and looked up at Ariel. "Not the first time I hear that Ariel."

Ariel smiled at the little girl and Daryl had to look away. He was feeling very claustrophobic in this truck. She was too pretty and too nice, and Daryl didn't understand women the way he should have. He knew she was teasing him to get under his skin, but he didn't know what that was to her.

Probably nothing, the meaner voice told him, this once sounded an awful lot like his father and Merle, why the fuck would she like a hillbilly like you. She's probably smart; you could barely make it out of high school. Don't even use full sentences properly.

Daryl's fingers tightened on the steering wheel.

"Hey," Ariel said. "Are you okay?"

"M'fine." he mumbled. "You?" then he cursed himself because he hadn't wanted to ask even though he wanted to know.

"Been one long day." she agreed, holding Sophia's hand. "And how are you doing sweetheart?"

Sophia shrugged, holding the doll that the girl from the other family had given her. "I'm tired."

"Ya well, don't fall asleep just yet." Daryl said. "We're here."

Sophia tensed visibly and Ariel held her hand, putting a finger to her lips to assure her that she had to be quiet. They got out of the truck, following the others. Daryl made sure he stuck close by Ariel. He looked over her body to make sure she was moving properly and she wasn't still sore. She seemed to be okay. He would make sure she stayed that way.

"Stay close." he whispered.

Ariel looked surprised, so he made sure not to look at her face. He couldn't see whether or not she nodded. There were bodies all around them, dead for a long time. It smelt horrible, but Daryl had grown used to the smell now, after all this time. It was easy to block it out if he had too, being a hunter, he came across unpleasant smells all the time.

They walked forward to the building, reaching it slowly, Daryl could see from a distance that it was locked and shuttered.

Shane was pounding on the door, but T-Dog had already given up. "There's nobody here."

Rick shook his head. "Then why are these shutters down?"

Daryl, who was keeping watch, told them quickly. "Walkers!"

Lori took Rick's hand. "Baby come on!"

Daryl's heart pounded as Ariel took out her dagger, but all he could think to himself was no. He shot the walker in the head. "You led us into a graveyard!" he yelled to Rick.

Ariel glared at him. "Daryl shut up! He made a call!"

"It was the wrong damn call!" he shouted in Ariel's face. He hated her right then, for getting in his face, for taking Rick's side. She looked at Rick like he moved the sun and the moon, like he was the one who put the stars up at night. It made him want to hate Rick, but that was hard too. Rick was inherently good, so Daryl did what he was trained to do, be mean enough to people until they start to hate him.

So in this moment, he hated them both.

"We need to go." Daryl snarled. "I ain't havin' you get eatin' by walkers."

Lori nodded. "Daryl is right, we need to go, and we cannot be this close to the city after dark." While they began to argue, Sophia held on tight to Ariel. Rick said something about the camera, but Daryl had turned watching the walkers. Ariel was close to him.

"We can leave now." he said.

"You didn't leave me, we aren't leaving them."

"I wanted to leave you." he said, getting ready to shoot another arrow at a walker.

"I forced you to bring me along." she agreed.

"No," he said bitterly, looking back as Rick started to yell and sob. "Rick did."

For a moment, Daryl thought he achieved his attention, to hurt her. That was the only way to keep a safe distance from this girl, make sure to push her away as much as possible. But all she did was speak low to him, with a kindness in her eyes that he wanted to erase. Somehow her words, so soft, drowned out Rick's screams.

"Yet you're the one who seems to want me by his side, not Rick."

Daryl didn't have time to figure out what that meant. The doors of the C.D.C had opened.


i own nada, nothing, zip.
hope you enjoy and like it and review. next chapter we explore the darknesses that dwell within our characters *muhahahhahahahahaha*