Never Look Back
Chapter Eight
The sun rose and I sat up and looked over at Daryl sleeping peacefully next to me. It was cold and the snow was covering the entire length of the prison. Everyone was asleep except for Rick who was standing guard and pacing around. Normally Daryl would have been up by now along with Shane but both men were out like a light. I lay back down and stretched getting comfortable before I felt his arms wrapped around me pulling me against his chest like I was a teddy bear. My face was pressed against his neck.
I froze but he seemed relaxed against me. I just quickly shut my eyes and pretended to sleep and soon I felt him wake up against me and he pulled away gently and got up off the ground and walked away quickly. I heard mumbling between the two men and I slowly pretended to wake up and sit up but rick shot me a look saying he knew.
All of this physical contact between Daryl and I was slowly starting to get to me soon. I wanted him physically at least since I wasn't getting anything else around here and I sort of felt something for him. I wanted him safe was for sure but I wanted something more than what we had.
I groaned and flipped over and pulled on my pants since I kicked them off during the night and zipped them up then got out of the sleeping bag. I grabbed my knife put it in my shoes after lacing them up and put my gun on my hip.
We were going to have to get rid of the walkers today. Soon everyone started to wake up and I wasn't the only one up and preparing to get them a bit dirty. Maggie and I stripped to our tank tops in winter and pulled our hair back in pony tails.
Rick was gathering everyone around and assigning a spot when Glenn pointed out across the field was a fence that needed to be locked so we could take the prison out in sections. We would have to get the field and courtyard cleared out today and at least one block section cleared out.
"Alright well since this was my idea I'll go in" Rick said but Lori quickly jumped in protesting.
"You can't go in you have way too much to live for. We're going to have a baby" She was nearly in tears trying to explain her reasoning. She made a valid point and he was a leader of the group and everyone looked to him for things.
"I'll go" Maggie volunteered but Glenn put an end to that.
"We need someone small and stealthy. Well cover their backs and they have to be able to be fast" He said and I knew he wanted me to go in there. I was the psycho that would take them all out and I didn't have any family attachments so if I died then I died.
"Alright well give me the damn lock" I stepped forward with my hand out.
"Oh hell nah! She ain't goin in there" Daryl said pulling my hands away from Glenn.
"She's the only one" Shane pointed out to Daryl and he growled at Shane and got in his face and both men were about the same height.
"Why don't yeh go do it yerself then? I don't see yeh saying send in fucking Lori or Maggie cus one of Ya'll had to knock her up and Glenn would be upset if his girlfriend died well I'd be upset if she fucking died" He yelled but by the time he had let me go I grabbed the lock from him and walked over towards the gate.
"Get in fucking positions. Either you cover me Daryl or I may die" I said and crouched slightly like a runner would and Lori grabbed the gate. Rick, T-Dog, Shane, and Maggie went up to the guard towers and took positions silently but we all knew what a possibility was. Carol and Beth along with Carl took position with their metal objects to draw as many walkers away from me as possible and Daryl was livid standing next to me trying to get me not to go.
"I'm fucking going" I told him.
"No you ain't let me go" He tried to take the lock from me till I pushed him away and stood a foot from him. He was getting extremely pissed that I wasn't even talking about it with him and I had decided to go. His fists were clenched around his crossbow.
"You hunt you're valuable. Now either you give me a proper goodbye or I have to go anyway as soon as rick gives me the signal" I told him and he just stood there with a glare on his face. I was really getting frustrated with his damn attitude. I could do this after all I had survived the whole thing without him for five months. I stood up quickly and grabbed his shirt pulling him down to my level and I kissed him. I pressed my lips hard against his and he froze and didn't kiss me back. He must have been shocked or he didn't feel like that but I wasn't about to die without ever doing that. His lips sure were soft though even though they were slightly chapped from the winter.
I let go of him and Rick gave the signal to let me lose. I looked at Daryl one last time and the gate was opened. I ran as fast as I could through the field. Walkers started to follow me and I had my gun with me and shot a few in my path while the rest were taken out by the people above me. One shot was close to me and I jumped. I felt an arrow roar past my head and one of the walkers was taken out that was on my right. The ground was soft and my boots were sinking in the snow and goose bumps started to appear on my arms and legs.
Their blood was splattering all over and it was like walking through a mine field of them. I shot one that was on the ground, its body severed in half. Most of them still in their prison uniforms so they never had a chance to even see the outside.
I slid on the ground into the cold snow as one launched itself as me and got back up and finally got the gate. There was a ton on the other side of it. My eyes widened and I pulled the gate closed and tried to close it quickly. I locked it up tight and turned around with my gun and got a headshot.
They took a few more of the walkers down and the field was cleared. Now we just had to go into the court yard and take care of them.
You could hear everyone roaring with triumph. We had cleared them out and no one died. One was moving while I walked back towards them and they came back onto the field. I kicked it in the head and brought my knife down on its head and twisted it before pulling it out.
"Bad ass" Glenn winked at me and Maggie ran over hugging me.
I let go of her and bowed while Lori slowly waddled over here. She really would sacrifice anyone who wasn't Carl, Shane, or rick which irritated me a bit but I still felt bad for her. I know it was smart not to let Rick go but not for the same reasons as she had.
"Now we just have to go get those fuckers" I pointed to the ones behind me at the fence.
"We'll need to all go in together and stay in a tight formation. No one leaves the formation. We need to have each other's backs" Rick said seriously and we all nodded.
"We can't use guns this time though. Too many and it'll draw unnecessary attention" Shane commented and I pulled out my knife and Carol handed me my bow and quiver. I hooked it on my back and Maggie pulled out a long hunting knife. Daryl had his cross bow and Knife. Everyone mainly had knives that were going however Rick made Shane stay behind to guard them.
I was shoulder to shoulder with Daryl and Maggie as Carol opened up the door for us and we slowly moved in.
"Oh no some of them are special units. How do we get to the head?" T-Dog asked.
"Find a way to the brain" Rick ordered and soon we were stabbing whatever we could get our hands on while not breaking formation. One ran towards us and I kept my knife up and pulled its helmeted head back and stabbed it through the jaw up to the brain twisted and pulled out and he dropped.
"Oh do that!" Maggie yelled and pointed at me. We all got back in formation and slowly cleared out the courtyard.
I turned slightly to see one coming up behind Daryl and it was like watching in slow motion. Almost like in the movies where you see something happen and you think it's sappy because normally it's about a couple running to each other through a field of flowers or some bullshit. This wasn't sweet or cute It was horrifying.
I broke formation since there wasn't many left and threw my body on the walker that had grabbed onto him. I took down the walker sideways and tried to move my body so that it would fall away from him and not touch Daryl.
"Fuck" I yelled when my leg hit the ground and I felt a pain in my ankle once more. I pulled my knife and brought it up to the walker's eye and stabbed in. stabbing towards myself since I had him in a slight headlock.
"Chelle!" I Maggie scream and I looked down at my feet to see another walker crawling towards me. I kicked it in the head and quickly tried to scramble to my feet. We had broken formation and everyone got onto the walker since it had grabbed onto my ankle and brought me down again.
Maggie stabbed it in the head and Daryl pulled me up to my feet and I panted slightly and brushed the snow from my pants. No wonder I didn't need a jacket with all this adrenaline.
"One more up there" Glenn pointed towards the cage that was an entrance to the prison. Daryl lifted the crossbow and shot the fucker in the head.
We all searched the courtyard then.
"Okay we'll send a team of five inside the building while you guys drag the bodies out to the field and then we'll burn them. We need to get this done by nightfall" Shane ordered and they had decided after that Daryl, Shane, Rick and T-Dog along with Hershal would go inside and clear out a block for us. Maggie, Carol, Beth, Glenn and I were supposed to drag out the bodies.
The guys loaded up with knives and anything they could carry that would give them safety. I even handed my bow and arrow over too Glenn and handed over the hunting knife I carried to Shane and he was pretty grateful.
"Dixon" I yelled while they all started to walk into the caged area. He turned around but didn't move from his spot. He had his crossbow clutched in his hands.
"Don't Die. You owe me from before. I don't have cooties you know" I teased him and he got slightly red and turned around quickly and went in with the rest of the men. Maggie clapped her hands together and smiled.
"Alright let's do this"
"We'll each pair up and take put them in a pile. Glenn you go start taking the ones in the field and stack them up" She smiled and Glenn nodded and smiled before jogging off towards the field.
Maggie and I paired up and each got one walker that was close to each other and began to drag the bodies out towards the field where Glenn had started piling on the bodies. We would have to burn them tomorrow morning and maybe the smell of walker flesh being burned would keep the others away.
"So how are things with Glenn" I asked casually making conversation. We hadn't really discussed their relationship in a long time.
"It's good. Sex is amazing of course when we have condoms and your birth control really helped that's for sure. We're strong though. Lots of mutual respect for sure" She smiled and you could see something about her was just right, she had that glow that said she was genuinely in love.
"I'm surprised you guys find time for sex even" and I was. With all of the running that we were doing it seemed like there would be no time to even get in the mood to even have sex especially in the winter months.
"Oh he's always ready and we just make it quickies. That's the only reason were even having sex. It's whenever we think we have time or we slip away into the woods for a little bit. It's remarkable what you can do in so little time" She blushed and we dragged more bodies out onto the pile. They were starting to really pile up and I wasn't sure if we should start burning them now or not.
"I'll go get some of the lighter fluid. We might as well or we'll have a mountain of them" Beth said and she and carol went out to our camp supplies, not the ones outside the gate by the cars.
Maggie and I went back into the courtyard and went to the back of it this time and started pulling those bodies. This time I piled two more on top of one and used it like a sled for the other bodies. Maggie followed my lead and started to pull them with me.
"What about you and your non-lover" She teased.
"It's come to the point where I want to fuck his brains out" I stated and she snorted and laughed.
"I figured ya'll were doing that already. I mean hell you practically have a lifetime of condoms and birth control and you sleep near each other every night. Ya'll are practically like a moon and planet. He moves or you move and the other adjusts slightly. I mean sure it may be a bit weird since ya'll are friends but I don't see anyone else lying claim on him" Maggie stated and we threw our bodies into the now blazing fire. The bodies were slowly turning to ash and it was fogging up the air.
"Well I'm not the last woman on earth I'm sure we'll find more that are more suited for his taste. I kissed him today and he didn't kiss me back. I think maybe he just wants to be friends. He seemed embarrassed when I brought it up too" I said and threw my last body on the pile.
"He's a guy. He didn't make the first move so of course he's embarrassed. Hell Glenn was embarrassed after we had sex the first time in the pharmacy. Though I did make his life slightly unbearable for a while." She bit her lip and looked over at her boyfriend who was hard at work dragging bodies.
"Hey! How long do you think they've been in there for?" I yelled out at Glenn and he looked up and shrugged.
"Not too long. They should be back soon to bring us in. I think they're fine. I men hell they have Daryl. He's indestructible, he rides a motorcycle and he can look as dirty as hell and you still want to jump on him so I think he's got it" Glenn said and I shot him a look.
Beth and Carol were giggling and dragged their last bit of bodies towards us and we helped them throw the bodies on the fire.
"Why is everyone so damn interested about my love life or lack of" I asked.
"Oh that's because we knew Dixon before you. He's a mean son of a Bitch and his brother Merle is mean racist redneck. Daryl's probably the nicer of the two but he's still mean as hell. He's probably the only person chuck Norris is scared of" Glenn said.
"He even fought Rick and Shane at the same time and pretty much one for a two against one person fight. He also has taken down countless walkers and taken a gun to the side of the head and lived. He also fell down into a damn river and you helped him. He calls Glenn Chinaman still and he used to be really crass. He also got drunk at the CDC and almost took and axe to the scientist head" Carol sighed and shook her head.
"Well Damn. Still doesn't mean the love life thing should be interesting" I pointed out.
"It's interesting because we've never seen him even care about anyone else except his brother merle. You guys make an interesting team kind of like Glenn and Maggie because they're so different" Carol said after and looked over at the couple who looked pretty damn happy.
"Where are Lori and Carl?!" we heard Ricks voice scream from the cage.
"They were just there a minute ago" I pointed towards the gate where all of our things were. Where the fuck are they?
Rick came running out but before he could get closer Lori and Carl had made their presence known. Apparently because Lori wasn't helping it was okay for her to be napping on the ground with her son. She was really taking this pregnancy thing and milking it for sure.
"Here you go Grimes" I pointed at them and he looked physically relieved.
"Maggie and Beth there was an accident…" and I looked over towards the caged area to see Glenn and T-Dog come out but not Hershal or Daryl. Where was he?
"Where's Daryl?" I asked and started walking towards the Prison.
"That's the thing Hershal well he got hurt and Daryl tried to save him…."
I didn't hear the rest as I ran towards the prison weaponless. I ran into the cage and ripped open the door and quickly made my way through the prison. I heard yells for me but I didn't know who they were from but I didn't care.
I ran through the halls checking the places they had marked with yellow ribbon until finally I found Hershal and Daryl in a block that was cleared out and Hershal was in a cell lying on a cot while Daryl was sitting outside of it. His eyes closed and his head rested up against the back of the cell door.
A/N: Thank you so much to the people who reviewed! It means so much to me really :)
