Thanks for the reveiws/follows. I love writing this story. This story is AU, and contains elements from the comics, show, and my imagination. If you haven't read the comics or watched all three seasons then this story may contain spoilers. If you're a fan of The Walking Dead then you already know that this story will contain strong language, sex, and violence. Read at your own discretion.
8. Into the Woods
Michonne drummed her fingers on the steering wheel to drown out the monotonous noise of the tires on the road. Besides a few walkers there was nothing to break the scenery, just an endless stretch of road and rolling green fields. She wondered how she was going to survive the next two days alone in a cabin with Daryl. Once a man let you do something like cry all over him you couldn't go back to thinking of him as just some guy.
"Get out of my head Dixon." Michonne said to herself, but it was pointless she'd let him inside and he was there to stay. If she had to put into words what it was between them she wouldn't be able to, and maybe that was it, they didn't always need words. She had never felt so comfortable in silence around someone as she did with Daryl. She could let her guard down around him because she knew he understood her in a way the others could not. They were two loners who found solace in each other.
Michonne looked out of the window, pulling herself out of her deep thoughts, the sky was getting dark and the wind was picking up, the air had changed and she could feel a storm coming in, the smell of rain was heavy in the air and Michonne welcomed it, she couldn't remember the last time it had rained. She rolled her window all the way down wishing she could get out of the truck, with the rise in the humidity it was beginning to feel stifling. After what seemed like an eternity Daryl finally pulled over onto the side of the road.
"What's up?" Michonne called getting out of her truck.
"Gotta piss." Daryl said running down a path that lead into some woods.
She waited for him on the side of the truck, the sky was getting even darker and the wind was blowing in faster, over the smell of rain came the smell of death. Walkers! Michonne could hear them now moaning, they didn't sound very far away, she whirled around and off in the not so distance she could see them coming, a whole herd.
"Shit!" Michonne took off running for the woods she'd seen Daryl disappear into. "Dixon shake it off and put it away we got a herd coming." She called out as loudly as she dared.
"What?" Daryl asked coming out of the trees.
"We can't go back to the trucks a herd is passing that way.
"Fuck, how many?"
"Way too many to fight, look" She walked with him to the edge of the woods, and pointed in the direction the walkers were coming from. They watched for a moment as walkers swarmed around the truck and down the road with no end to them in sight.
"C'mon. Daryl said taking her by the wrist and guiding her into the woods, up that tree, with all this shit we're covered in they cain't smell us, and we'll see them, but they won't be able to see, we'll jus hafta wait em' out."
Michonne nodded. She didn't like the ideal but what other options did they have?
"You go first an I'll keep a look out." Daryl said.
Michonne was thankful the tree Daryl picked out had many low thick branches, it made climbing up easier. Daryl came up behind her having no trouble at all, it looked like it was second nature to him. Up,up,up he climbed as if the branches were stairs.
Walkers stumbled down the path into the woods, but they never looked up into the trees, they didn't smell fresh blood so they didn't bother to stick around, but even if they had walkers were too stupid to climb trees.
"Ya Comfortable?" Daryl asked when they'd found a branch high enough, wide enough, and thick enough to support them both.
"It's not the worst time I've had with my legs between wood."
Daryl gaped at her and she shrugged carelessly.
"Look at them, the fuckers, two different herds must have met up to make this big ol' clusterfuck right here. I hope we ain't up here fore hours I'm getting hungry." Daryl said.
"Try and think about something else."
"Like what?"
"I don't know, seen any good movies lately?"
"I got sometin', where'd ya go to college?"
"Stanford"
"Ain't that one of them brainy colleges, no wonda you always use big words"
"Both of my parents were professors, My father was a tenured chemistry professor, and my mother was head of the linguistics and philosophy department, she spoke five languages, education was the top priority in my house, the only time my parents ever really showed me affection, or seemed comfortable talking to me was when it was about studying, or school. They're not to blame though, they grew up with their noses to the grindstone, and never really learned to be social, education was the only way they could relate to me."
"Oh so that's why you always use big words."
"Don't do that"
"Do what?
"Peg me with uncanny accuracy you haven't known me long enough." Michonne said.
Daryl l stared at her, giving her another one of his intense unreadable looks that made his blue eyes seem to burn. She wanted to look away, but those eyes, those eyes looked right into her soul. She always wonder what he was thinking when he looked at her like that, but maybe it was better if she didn't know.
It took over an hour to wait out the walker herd, and it began to rain as soon as the pair were back on the ground.
"Look on the bright side, Michonne said, at least it waited to rain till after the herd left." They ran back to the trucks getting soaked to the bone in the process. The rain was really coming down making the noise of a thousand people clapping. Michonne fumbled with her keys and then turned the wipers all the way on, and was back on the road following Daryl, but after for only a few minutes she had to pull over, the wipers were all but useless in this monsoon, she couldn't see a thing in front of her, She shut off the truck, there was no sense in wasting gas.
A knock on the driver's side door made her jump until she realized it was just Daryl. She opened the door and scooted over to the passenger's side. Daryl climbed into the truck dripping water and sat down with a squish.
"Guess we ain't goin' nowhere for awhile, after goin' nowhere for awhile."
"Doesn't look like." Michonne said peering out the window. Thunder rattled the windows on the truck and a few moments later lightning lit up the sky, as the rain continued to come down in sheets.
"I seen an old school less than a mile out of them woods, it gets any worse we might have to make a run for it." Daryl said shivering even though it wasn't cold out.
Automatically Michonne reached out to feel his forehead. "My god, you're burning up!"
"Think I'm coming down with sometin, thought it would pass, but I've been feelin' shitty for the past few days now."
"Coming down, whatever you've got is full blown by now, why didn't you say something earlier?"
"That's not how things work now, we don't git sick days, we cain't jus go to the grocery store fore meat anymore, I gotta get it."
"That doesn't mean you're not allowed to be sick, it doesn't mean you're weak or the group will think less of you, it just means you're human."
"Ya payin me back fore when we was in the tree?" Daryl asked.
"No I'm saving you from yourself." Michonne said. "C'mon were going to that school, there's probably an infirmary there and you're going to need it." She hastily began stuffing things into a frame pack, that she'd taken from the surplus store, with everything she thought they might need for the next few days. "We should go now, that flu is going to put you on your ass before too long."
"How do you know?"
"I was married with children, trust me I know a thing or two about the flu."
They drove the trucks into the entry of the woods, and then started off down the narrow root filled path to the school Daryl had spotted earlier. It was darker and cooler in the woods, and Daryl's teeth were chattering, though it still wasn't particularly cold, he shivered violently, and when he coughed it sounded as if his chest was breaking apart.
Michonne tried to get Daryl to hurry but he moved at a snails pace, it was obvious he was already feeling like shit. He leaned almost all his weight upon her, taking in labored breaths, while sweating like a whore in church. They stopped for a moment so that he could catch his breath.
"I jus need to lie down for a spell." Daryl lie on the ground with his eyes closed. Michonne sat beside him and closed her eyes too, taking in some deep breaths of fresh air, it wasn't easy supporting Daryl's weight. Leaves rustled in the background and Michonne's eyes flew open, She listened out and heard the low eerie humming moan of a walker. Walkers were entering the woods, and the rain had washed away the sent of blood and guts that she and Daryl were once covered in.
"Come on Dixon, we've got to move, we've got walkers!" Michonne cried. She didn't know where they came from, they must have been lurkers, but it hardly mattered now.
"Just leave me here. Daryl exclaimed, yer jus' gonna git yerself killed foolin around with me."
"Shut up Dixon it's the fever talking, now stop making this harder than it has to be." With a grunt Michonne struggled to her feet lifting Daryl with her, one of his arm was strewn around her shoulder, and one of her arms was gripped tightly around his waist. 'You're just going to have to aim that thing till we get to that school.
"Walker," Michonne said suddenly Daryl raised his crossbow and Michonne swung him in the direction of the walker. The arrow flew out and hit the walker
"Can't reload this thing with one hand, it's no use stop bein' so damn stubborn and leave me behind."
'You're really starting to piss me off Dixon." Michonne said. She leaned him against a tree, reload I'll cover you." Two walkers came at them as Daryl struggled to reload his crossbow. "I you told that you were sick, I told you to eat some soup, but you just have to be a Billy badass don't you." She stepped forward and furiously decapitated a walker.
"Ya know what the solutions is don't ya?"
"If you say one more thing about leaving you behind to die I'll kill you myself ." Michonne snapped and chopped the head of the second walker, then went to retrieve his arrow. Daryl reloaded, and the two started off again.
"When we get into the clearing we'll have to make a run for it, I know you feel like death warmed over, but you'll have to do your best."
It had stopped raining, and once they stepped out of the woods the sunshine burst brilliantly upon them almost blinding them. The duo began to run looking like they were in some odd sort of three legged race. Walkers stumbled out of the woods behind them. Michonne used her hip to turn Daryl in the direction of one of the walkers who got much to close for comfort.
"Shoot!"
Daryl did making the shot count, but the arrow was lost there was no way to retrieve it.
"Shit." Daryl said.
"Forget it." Michonne cried, she was worried about Daryl she could feel his legs shaking he wasn't going to last much longer.
"Cain't go on cain't make it."
Michonne looked behind her more walkers were coming, they were far behind, but they were still coming. The school now appeared directly in front of them, and now it was just a matter of getting to it before the walkers got to them. It was easier said then done Daryl would be no help to her before long. His head began to lull about as if he didn't even have the strength to hold it up.
"Stay with me Dixon, you hear me, keep your fucking eyes open." They had a pretty good lead, but that was being rapidly eaten up as Michonne had to take more of Daryl's weight he was fading fast, if he passed out there was no way she could carry him. She was staggering under his weight as it was, and he wasn't able to reload his crossbow, if they didn't get to the school soon they were dead. Huffing, puffing, and stumbling they made it to the parking lot Michonne was practically carrying Daryl now, his eyes rolled back in his head.
She dragged him up the school's steps not sure where she was finding the strength, and leaned Daryl against the brick wall of the school. Two walkers had made it up to the front lawn, and one was attempting to climb the front steps. Michonne gave it a hard kick with her booted foot and sent it flying into the walker behind it and they both hurled off of the porch landing one on top of the other struggling to get up, they looked like insects on their backs. Michonne drove her katana through their skulls then gave them an extra few whacks for good measure
She used Daryl's crossbow, like he had often done, to break the glass door of the school building. Dragging Daryl along with her she managed to find the nurse's office and lay him down on the hospital styled bed.
"Gonna, gonna hurl ." Daryl groaned.
Quickly she found a trashcan, and held it under him just in time. The contents of this mornings breakfast violently emptied themselves in a bright pink trashcan.
"Fuckin' cold." Daryl moaned even though he was burning up.
Michonne wiped his sweat soaked hair out of his eyes. "It's OK to be taken care of too, you know." She told him even though she knew he was past the point of comprehension. She took off his boots, socks, jeans, when she took his t-shit off she gasped. The scars! The man was like a road map of scars. She stared at the scars marring his skin, he had so many that it must have taken years to make them all. She hated to see them because she knew what kind of animal that made those scars, and still he'd managed to be one of the rare exceptions that didn't grow up to be a monster himself. She shook her head feeling sick and wanting to cry, but instead she got a washcloth from the bathroom and dumped water from her canteen on it and used it to gently rub Daryl down he sighed in relief.
Next She took the stolen cache of looted meds, from her frame pack, and forced the pills, and water down his throat. She covered him with some blankets, and he fell into a fitful sleep. In his fevered dreams Daryl called out for his granny, whimpered for his pa not to hurt him, and sobbed for Merle.
It was hard to listen to, but Michonne pulled up a chair next to his bed, and sat by his side, she would stay there all night or however long it took to get Daryl back on his feet again.
"Yer not gonna leave me are ya?" Daryl asked suddenly fighting to keep his eyes opened and focused on her, but he was losing the fight.
"Sssh, I'm not going anywhere." Michonne said smiling down at him as she rubbed his hair until he fell back asleep.
