"There are more tracks," Daryl said, trying to speak clearly as he pointed at them. Connie gave him a stern look and then looked down at the ground. She didn't smile even once since the others left while they were looking for tracks. She hardly looked at him anymore and when she did, she had that stern expression on her face. Daryl wondered if she was only concerned about her sister or angry at him. Maybe both. But wasn't that what he wanted? Wasn't that better if she didn't like him? Wouldn't it make things easier? He didn't know. The only thing he knew, was that it bothered him more than he would have liked to admit. He had hoped his feelings for her would disappear when he didn't see her for some time, but now seeing her again, angry at him or not, made his heart beat fast and his hands sweaty. He tried to concentrate on the tracks. After finding Luke in that bad shape he knew they probably hadn't much time to find Kelly, if they wanted to find her alive. And by no means Daryl wanted Connie to lose her sister. He would do anything to prevent her going through that pain. Daryl was lost in his thoughts, following the tracks, when suddenly Dog started to bark and Daryl and Connie were alarmed as they saw walkers coming out of the woods. They started to shoot them and fight them off with their knives. While they were fighting them, Daryl saw more walkers in the distance.
"There's too many of 'em," he murmured, but Connie didn't notice it, she was still fighting.
"Come on, there's too many of 'em," he told her grabbing her arm and pulling her in his direction, which resulted in her giving him an ice cold stare. His heart reacted with a sting at this and he let go of her arm again. While they started running away, Connie took a kitchen timer out of her bag. She took some of them with her, since her group often used them to distract walkers. Daryl looked at it.
"Good idea," he told her. She set the alarm and gave him the timer. He threw it as far as he could to his left and then they ran into the opposite direction. They came to a little graveyard and sat with their backs to a wall, catching their breath. Daryl was holding Dog back, as they heard the alarm of the timer in the distance. They were hoping the walkers would walk into the direction of the timer.
After a couple of minutes Daryl cautiously got up looked behind the wall. He saw the walker herd heading towards their hiding place, the alarm didn't seem to distract them.
"What the hell?" He said and sat down next to Connie again, who gave him a questioning look.
He gave her a sign to stay calm. His heart was beating fast, when she took her notepad out and started to write something. Her shoulder touched his and he shivered.
What now? She wrote.
We wait, He wrote back.
When the herd was passing by the wall, Daryl heard their sounds and he was holding Dog closely, afraid that the animal would bark or run to the walkers, but Dog behave and Daryl was thankful to Dog's former owner, who must have trained Dog to stay calm in certain situations. Blood was pulsating in Daryl's ears when the walkers were approaching and he also noticed that Connie was sitting closer to him than before. And then in between the noises, he heard something. Something that sounded like human speech.
"Where are they?" Some of the walkers whispered. Daryl could clearly make out the words. But he told himself that he must have imagined it. Walkers couldn't speak, they were dead, all they could do was walk and eat. Was he going crazy? Did his feelings for Connie cloud his mind?
And then he herd the noise of the gate, which opened with a squealing sound. He was on his feet at once and also helped Connie up. They ran to the other gate and closed it behind them. Daryl wasn't sure anymore, if they closed the gate before they entered the graveyard. But it couldn't be, since the walkers didn't know how to open doors. Still they decided to run and they ran so long until they were out of breath again. In the distance they saw several walkers who were standing around a tree. Daryl watched them closely and was wondering if they saw a squirrel or something there. As they came closer he finally saw that a person was sitting in the tree.
It's my sister! Connie wrote and was nervously tugging his arm, but Daryl recognized her already. They approached cautiously, but the walkers must have sensed them. Some of them approached them and Daryl and Connie started shooting at them. They killed two of them but the third one somehow dodged their attacks. Daryl couldn't believe again what he saw, since the movement the walker made, looked very humanly. He took his knives out and started to fight that human-walker while Connie went to there tree where her sister was. Again the walker dodged some of his attacks, until Daryl was finally able to kill him. He couched down and saw that the walker was a human, wearing a mask. As he looked up again, he saw two more of those strange people approaching Connie from behind and he could clearly see that both of them had knives. He ran to her as fast as he could, afraid that they would hurt her. He got there just in time and held his left hand against the knife which almost hit Connie in the back. He felt a slight pain in his hand and kicked the person with his foot in the gut, then he attacked it with his knife, but the person dodged the attack and placed a cut across Daryl's face. This cut hurt more and Daryl felt blood running down his nose and cheek before he finally killed the person. Then he approached the other masked person which was just standing there, with its knife out, but seemingly scared. As the person saw Daryl approaching, it ran away. Daryl took his crossbow and tried to shoot the person, but missed, since the blood was running into his eye and he couldn't see properly. He went to the tree and together with Connie they helped Kelly to get down. Both sisters hugged each other while Daryl took a handkerchief out of his pocket and wrapped it around his bloody hand. Connie approached him. She wanted to clean his face from blood and patch him up, so she took out some medical supplies out of her bag, but he turned away and shook his head. He could see her face darkening again.
"Not now," he told her wiping the blood off his face with his hand. We better get going before the herd comes."
He looked at Connie out of the corner of his eye while they were running and the look on her face changed from angry to concerned. Daryl was relieved about it.
"Can we take a break?" Kelly asked after some time and Daryl nodded. He was exhausted too.
Connie saw a little cabin in the distance and pointed at it. They all went there.
"I'm so exhausted," Kelly said, as they made sure there weren't any walkers in the cabin and went in. It was dirty and musty inside, but none of them really cared. Kelly sat down, yawning.
"So those people wearing masks attacked you?" Daryl asked her.
"Yeah, they came out of nowhere, first we thought they were sickos, but then we saw they had knives. We ran in different directions from them, I don't even know where Luke is," Kelly was suddenly concerned as she remembered it. "Is he okay, did you see him?"
"He's gonna be alright, we found him. Your friends are bringing him back," Daryl told her.
"Oh thank god!" Kelly put a hand against her chest. She smiled at her sister and Connie smiled back at her. Then Kelly lay down on the floor.
"I hope you don't mind if I close my eyes for a minute, I'm so tired," she said and was asleep in the next moment. Connie and Daryl exchanged a look and both were almost smiling. Then Connie took a bottle filled with water and a tissue out of the bag. She gave Daryl a questioning look and he finally decided to give in. She cleared his face from blood and disinfected the wound, then she patched up the wound on his hand and bandaged it. Daryl was watching her closely while she was doing it. His heart was beating so fast that he thought it would jump out of his chest any minute and he also was holding his breath a couple of times when she came too close to him. The treatment of his wounds hurt a bit and still somehow he had this crazy wish she would never stop doing it. When she was finished she wrote on her notepad:
Sorry, I know you don't like me much, but after helping us, it was the least I could do.
Daryl gave her a long look, not knowing if he should be relieved about her being wrong regarding his true feelings for her or not. Then he quickly looked at Kelly who was sleeping on the floor. He wanted to say something, but didn't know how, so he took Connie's notepad instead. Writing was at least a bit easier.
Why you think I don't like you? He wrote, then regretted it, but it was too late, Connie already took the notepad out of his hand and read what he had written. She started writing and he peeked over her shoulder to see what it was, since he was too nervous to wait for her answer.
You left Hilltop without saying a word, she simply wrote, giving him the notepad. He thought for a minute and then answered:
I'm not used to be around people anymore that's all.
He thought it was a good answer. He didn't want her to be angry at him and he didn't want her to think she was the reason he left.
Maybe you should try. You're a good person.
Daryl finished reading even before she handed him the note. He sighed and wished he could go back to Hilltop and live there and see Connie every day. But something was holding him back, something that he couldn't fight against. I'm not as good as you think, he thought, but still was afraid to write it. She was looking at him in anticipation and he didn't know what to write. He didn't want her to think bad of him, but he was also afraid she would care about him too much and he would disappoint her.
Maybe I don't want people to care about me too much, he wrote with a shaky hand.
He handed her the note, avoiding her eyes again. When she started to write, she moved a bit away from him and he couldn't see anymore what she was writing. He thought she was angry again at him.
She ripped off the note from her notepad and stood up, giving it to him. He watched how she went to Kelly and lay down next to her. It took him several minutes, till he was finally able to look at the note, he was holding in his trembling hand.
What if they already do?
