DARYL'S POV:

We made our way to the living room where everyone was already sitting, bleary-eyed and thin-looking. Kaiya and I looked to be the only ones truly awake.

"Where's the food?" I asked, looking around at the lack of sustenance in the room.

Lori pulled something out of a bag. It was a couple cans of fruit. She tossed them to us. "That's the last of it. Eat up."

I frowned but consented, trading Kaiya my pears for her peaches. I would have to go hunting later.

I noticed Glenn watching me eat with an odd look. Andrea must've told him what she walked in on last night... Awkward.

I ate in silence and watched as everyone carried on quiet conversations and even laughed. I didn't get how they could laugh like that when food was running so low. Hell, I didn't get how they could laugh like that when there were walkers around.

I supposed they all had something that enabled them to laugh. Andrea and Dale had each other. Rick, Lori, and Carl. T-dog and Emily seemed to have formed some sort of a friendship. Glenn and Kaiya had each other. I had Kaiya and Merle. Carol had Sophia.

The only person who didn't have some type of moral/emotional support was Shane. I supposed that was why he had seemed so insane lately.

When I was done eating my peaches and Kaiya had finished her pears, I stood and gestured for her to follow me out into the hallway.

"What's up, cowboy?" she asked with a grin.

"I'm gonna go huntin', ya comin' with me, er not?"

"Wow, straight to the point. I'm coming, lemme just go grab my gun."

I nodded and went to the door to wait for her.

KAIYA'S POV:

It seemed like my whole body kicked into overdrive when I heard Daryl yell "Walkers!"

I grabbed my two bags from my room, as well as my guns, and ran out into the hallway where everyone was freaking out and running to hide. I went to Daryl. "How many?"

He pulled a tiny bit of the black blanket we had put over the glass door back so that he could peek outside. He immediately pushed it back down and whispered, "Shit!" under his breath. He looked up at my inquisitive gaze. "It's a whole fucking army o' those things."

I groaned quietly as Shane, Rick, and Glenn came up next to us. "How many?" Rick asked, checking the bullets in the chamber of his revolver.

I eyed it. "Too many for that gun."

He looked down at me and then did the same as Daryl had and looked outside. "Oh my God," he breathed, pulling away slowly.

"Kaiya, Daryl," Rick said quietly, addressing us. "Do you guys think you can hold down the front of this place while me, Shane, and Glenn sneak the others out the back?"

I nodded. "You got it boss."

Daryl nodded as well.

"Right. When we're all out, run."

We nodded again. As the others ran down the hall to the rest of the group, I grabbed Glenn's arm. He looked back down at me.

"Take my stuff for me?" I held my bags out to him.

He nodded and took them. But he seemed to not want to leave when he hesitantly turned.

I grabbed his arm again and lifted my fruit loop necklace from under my shirt so that he could see it. He gave me a small smile before running back down the hall to everyone.

The walkers were wandering around the cars outside. Daryl and I would have to cause a distraction from the inside to get their attention so the others could get to the cars.

"What's the plan?" I asked as Daryl and I sat with our backs against the see-through, sheet-covered doors and double-checked our ammunition. I turned my head and looked out of the glass door through a hole in the fabric. There were at least 20 of them. Easy.

"Just make a lot of noise, I guess. We're gonna have to make sure we time it right, so that we have time to let the others get to the cars and we can get out there with them."

I quickly ripped one strap off of my backpack and fastened it around my shotgun so I could hold my rifle without the awkwardness of also holding that handful of artillery. I strapped the gun around my torso and put my bags over my shoulder so I could fight easier.

"Here, lemme get one of those so you don't got so much."

I consented and handed one of my bags to Daryl since he had none with him himself. After he had the bag over his shoulder, we stood up.

"You ready for this?" I asked, turning to him.

He gave me a cocky grin that only Daryl Dixon could pull off in a moment of danger like this, and grabbed my wrist, tugging me toward his chest. He leaned down and swiftly placed a kiss on my lips that was, despite its fleeting duration, was nonetheless deep and passionate. He pulled away, his grin even wider. "I am now."

I pulled away and peeked out of the sheet covering the door. I could barely see the fence along the side of the motel that went on for a yard or so after the building stopped and then turned straight back, fencing in most of the area around the motel as well. Behind it were overgrown trees and bushes, behind which I could see the bright red of Carl's shirt.

He stepped a bit too close to the fence and I'm guessing he stepped on a branch or something because immediately, two things happened. A walker a bit close to them snapped his attention up to where the rest of the camp was hiding as well, and I could see clearly a thin, feminine hand (Lori's most likely) flatten out against the red fabric of Carl's shirt and pull him back until only green was visible. But the walker wasn't having that. It was slowly sneaking closer to inspect.

"We're up," I said urgently, turning back to Daryl.

He nodded.

"I love you, Daryl Dixon," I said, readying myself.

"I love ya, too, Kaiya Caston," he didn't sound worried at all considering what we were about to do and for some reason, his words made me feel the same easy confidence in our possible success.

That emotion quickly evaporated, though, when I looked outside once more and saw the walker still snooping around the fence. "Lets do this," I said grimly, grabbing the door handle and pulling it toward me so no walkers could get in until we wanted them to.

Daryl did the same beside me and we both started banging on the doors and walls and yelling at the walkers on the other side. I could hear a few of the walkers moan in interest at the odd noises coming from behind the covered door, but it wasn't nearly enough, so I quickly released the handle just long enough to rip the sheets down and attract the attention of the rest of the walker crowd.

I felt the bottom of my stomach drop out as the soulless, empty eyes of the walkers lifted to meet mine and Daryl's. I grabbed the door handle again and looked over at Daryl. He was staring with determined anger at the beasts in question. The fear I felt at the prospect of losing him made my insides turn to ice. I could handle dying. As long as Daryl lived.

He felt my eyes on him and glanced at me. "What?" he asked, readjusting his grip on his door.

"Don't die, Daryl."

He looked up at me, seemingly shocked. He looked like he was going to say something, but he closed his mouth when the first walker started to bang on the door.

We both pulled the doors, trying to keep the walkers out. There had to be at least 30 walkers pulling on just my door alone. Or at least that's what my teddy-bear muscles were telling me.

I gritted my teeth against the burn in my nearly non-existent bicep and panted, "Are they there yet?" I couldn't see over the head of the walkers (damn height) and I was afraid, for some reason, that if I removed my concentrated eyes from the door, the walkers would somehow get stronger and rip the door (and me) open.

"Not yet," Daryl grunted, yanking back on the door.

"Well they better fucking hurry, or my arm is going to fall off," I panted.

"Almost there," Daryl said as a crack began to form in my door.

I yelped and tried to hold onto the door tighter, but my hands were sweating and making it slippery. The walker in front banged his head against the door, making the crack grow bigger. "Daryl," I said, trying to alert him to the danger.

"There! Let go!"

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as I released my hold on the door handle and turned, letting Daryl grab my hand in his own. We sprinted as fast as we could down the hall.

I was hypersensitive to everything around me. The sound of glass breaking and some screeches of undead nails on the still-intact glass rang loudly in my ears. As did the labored and hungry panting of the walkers, groaning and grunting excitedly behind us as they ran on their torn up legs. The stench of death, rot, and decay filled the hall almost instantly after the walkers entered.

I kept my eyes trained ahead, but decided about halfway down the hall that it couldn't hurt to turn and blast one of their heads open. I twisted my head around, my hair flying around me as I took my hand from Daryl's and aimed my rifle at the closest one's head and shot.

We continued running, turning down the corner to the back door, walkers hot on our trail. Daryl kicked the door open as I shot at another one. He grabbed my wrist and tugged me out of the door with him. We ran around the side of the building and started to hop the fence when we saw that there were even more walkers than we thought.

There was an even bigger crowd than the one chasing us surrounding the caravan. They had no choice but to start up the cars and drive away. If they didn't every one of us died. This way, only me and Daryl did.

Daryl didn't seem ready to accept that, though. As they cars started up and the walkers came out of the building, he pulled me with him into the brush and trees and we ran,, weaving in and out of trees until we came to the fence. We both jumped it pretty easily.

It would probably hinder most of the walkers who only had basic motor skills to match their broken legs. Most of them. As I thought, about five of them were able to easily make it over and chase after us. I glance hurriedly behind us, immediately looking back ahead so I didn't run headlong into a tree.

"Come on," Daryl grunted, squeezing my hand.

I picked up my speed, ignoring the branches that tore at my skin and the fabric over my shoulders. I tripped over a rock, but Daryl quickly grabbed my elbow with his other hand, so I never really hit the ground all the way. But it was enough to scrape my knee on the hard, dirty ground. "Shit," I swore, straightening up again.

Daryl lifted his arm behind him to point his pistol at one of the closer walkers. We ran for a long time until finally, my lungs felt like they were going to explode.

I slowed up. "Daryl," I gasped. "I- cant."

He kept his hold on my hand and turned to me, trying to keep me at least jogging. "Kaiya, come on, ya gotta. Ya cant just give up."

I looked up into his blue eyes, something in them somehow tapping into my last reserves of strength. My legs pumped faster, my lungs still protesting furiously, but the pain was less noticeable now.

I looked back again; the sound of walkers moaning was getting quieter. Only 2 were behind us now. The others were much farther off and appeared to have either forgotten us or lost interest in what they couldn't catch. These two were persistent, however.

Daryl stopped and quickly pulled his crossbow off of his back. It must've already been cocked because he didn't waste a second pulling the trigger and sending an arrow through the brain of the one on the right.

The other, he walked toward, slinging the butt of his crossbow up into its jaw, knocking its head back a bit. As it stumbled, lifted a booted foot and kicked its onto its back, stomping on its head repeatedly until it stopped twitching and an effective amount of blood was pooled on the ground beneath its head (now turned mush).

I gasped and bent over, resting my hands on my knees as I tried to focus. I gave up on unburying the image before my eyes and closed them instead.

"C'mon, we cant stay around here for long," Daryl said, looking warily around us.

I nodded, noting that he too was breathing heavily, and took his offered hand as we walked further.


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