Disclaimer: I don't own The Walking Dead.
A/N: I'm really glad you guys all like Roxy. I was trying to make a character with an appearance most girls (for some reason) resent, but a backstory, solid personality and depth people wouldn't expect from her. I just feel the whole brunette with not the best body who is short and is kind of shy and reserved thing is very overused, and that the anti-Sue has pretty much become the Mary Sue in recent years. And I didn't want her to be some badass female version of Daryl. So I'm trying to go in the opposite direction… which is what I always tend to do in my stories. This story is just flowing like Niagara from my fingertips right now. I will have to take a homework break at some point this weekend, but expect a couple of updates. And the more reviews I get, the more updates you'll probably get.
Gimme Danger
Chapter 9: Live Through This
"Shit!" The loud curse echoed through the quarry and the nearby trees, followed by an accompanying shriek.
Daryl was running towards it from the treeline before he could think, Merle behind him. They'd just started to head into the woods to find some firewood when it had happened.
It was coming from the edge of the water, which, when they'd left, had been where Roxy and Amy were doing wash. "Daryl help!" Amy cried once he came into view. There were two of them, one walking towards Amy as she dodged it and backed away while the other was in a lockup with Roxy one second, then had her on the ground on her back the next.
"Fuck!" Daryl swore, already taking aim with his crossbow. He couldn't fire right away. They were so close, all she'd have to do was raise her head an inch and it'd be through her skull instead of the walker's. Roxy kicked at it and used her elbows to crawl away on her back. One strong boot to the chest set the walker in perfect position and Daryl fired, not about to miss the one opportunity he may have to get a clear shot, spearing the brain through the top of its head. The unmoving body collapsed, covering her lower half and she scrambled to get out from under it, terrified noises and gasps passing through her quivering lips.
Meanwhile, Amy had led the other geek towards the spot where Daryl and Merle had come from, and Merle had begun beating its skull to a pulp with the butt of his shotgun. He spit on the fallen corpse once he was sure it wasn't going to cause any more damage.
Daryl jogged forward, grabbing Roxy's forearm to help get her out from underneath the dead weight of a grown man's corpse and brought her to her feet. She was hysterical, shaking like a chihuahua, hot tears streaming down her face. She spun into Daryl immediately, gripping the flannel of his sleeveless shirt in her hands so tightly her knuckles turned white, burying her face away from the terrifying remainder of the once reanimated corpses.
Had his adrenaline not been pumping through his body the way it was, he probably would have gone stiff from shock, regained his composure, pushed her off, and told her to stop touching him, something he'd actually been meaning to do. Instead though, he pushed her shoulders back and stared into her eyes. "You get bit?" he asked, a demanding tone in his voice, though he was concerned she had been. The thing had been on top of her.
This wasn't a game. If she'd been bitten, something was going to have to be done about it.
Her eyes were still huge and scared while she shook her head briskly. "N-no. I don't think so." Her voice wavered and she rolled her jeans up, glad she hadn't put shorts on this morning, and checked herself for any broken skin.
When she stood upright again, Daryl checked her arms and back, afraid she'd been clawed. There was a lot of dirt and mud, but none of her blood. No broken skin anywhere he could see. That calmed the whole situation just a little. At least there had been no casualties.
This time anyway.
Amy rushed over, asking if Roxy was okay, fussing over her as women did.
Tensions were still high from this morning and when Shane finally got down to where the scene from a horror movie had just unfolded, Daryl abandoned the girls' side, storming up to him. "Ain't you s'posed ta be on watch?" he hollered. "She almost got bit!" he continued, gesturing wildly to Roxy, who was being held close by Amy, the older blonde sending Shane an accusing look. Both women looked traumatized and were trembling with fear. Andrea and Glenn jogged up seconds later, winded, as if they'd been on the far side of the camp. The struggle had only lasted mere seconds, but that's all it would've taken for one of them to be bitten. The others soon came too, everyone afraid of what all the commotion meant.
These had been the first walkers this close to camp that they'd seen so far.
Shane was dumbfounded. How? How could that have happened in the few, quick seconds he'd let himself become distracted by Lori on the other side of the camp, talking to Glenn. He'd felt the spark of jealousy he always felt when she talked to other men and been captivated, watching their interaction through the binoculars instead of keeping an eye out for walkers. He couldn't defend himself; there was no excuse. He was supposed to be on watch, and he should have seen those walkers before they got anywhere near Amy and Roxy.
So he said the first thing he could think of.
"The hell were ya'll doin' down there with no weapons?" he scolded, and Andrea sent him a disgusted look.
"Shut up! You were supposed to be paying attention. What the hell were you doing?" she demanded, leaving her sister's side to step up to him.
T-Dog and Jim began trying to cover and clean up the bodies and take them farther away to be burnt so no one had to continue looking at them while hostile voices broke the serene silence of nature, many in the group beginning to argue. Carol, Jacqui and Miranda all rushed the children away, not wanting them to see more of the bodies than they already had, while Lori came down the path to defend Shane, something she hadn't proven to be very good at most of the time. Morales took over watch, while Ed stood at the edge of the path, half-chuckling to himself. Dale made his way down the path in order to try and keep peace between Shane and the aggressive Dixon brothers, who didn't appreciate his carelessness forcing them to risk their lives. The rest of the campers dispersed, going back to whatever tasks they had been doing previously, but with more caution, every breaking branch or rustle of leaves keeping them on edge, more so than usual.
"Can I just go lay down? Please?" Roxy begged Glenn, who had her tucked into his side. Everyone arguing wasn't helping anything and was just making her more upset. She just wanted to get away from it. He nodded and pulled her from the group, up the path and towards the tents.
When they reached the tent, Glenn unzipped it for her and let her inside. She got onto her air mattress and faced the tent wall, away from him, body still trembling. "You're shaking so bad," Glenn pointed out. He was worried.
"I almost got eaten," she snapped, instantly feeling bad. "I'm sorry," she apologized immediately.
"It's okay." Glenn closed up the tent and sat on the ground, placing a hand on her arm and rubbing up and down. "You're sure you didn't get bit or scratched."
"Yeah I'm sure. I wouldn't put everyone in danger like that," she quickly defended. Glenn believed her, he just wanted to ask himself.
"Do you want me to stay?" he questioned. He wanted to stay here and watch over her. He felt almost ten times more paranoid than he'd already been now. But at the same time, he wanted to be in on the action and see what was going on down near the water, where voices could still be heard. "Or I could get you water or something," he offered, letting her know she was his first priority.
"It's okay. You can go. I just want to stay in here for a little while." Glenn gave her arm a squeeze and stood up.
"Okay. I'll be around." She didn't respond, her back still to him, and he grabbed the bloodstained bat she had near the tent door, placing it between their mattresses instead so she could reach it quickly. Maybe it would make her feel a little safer. "I'll come back and check on you in a little while," he called into the tent before he zipped it closed and walked back towards the water.
"Think I oughtta be riskin' my tail cause you ain't doin' what yer s'posed ta be doin'?" It was Merle who struggled to say this, as he was being held back from attacking Shane by T-Dog and Daryl. Merle was like a wild beast, doing anything he could to get past the two men, even punching his own brother in the jaw.
"Stop it!" Glenn shouted, catching everyone off guard. Merle stilled, pulling himself angrily away from his brother and T-Dog before he stormed off, back into the woods on his own.
"Nuna ya'll better fuckin' follow me," Merle warned, which meant he was probably going out there to indulge in some kind of narcotic. Daryl was holding his painful jaw, while T-Dog braced his hands on his knees, leaning forward and trying to catch his breath.
"This isn't helping. What just happened, can't happen again. If it does, someone might die." He gave Shane a meaningful look, with hard eyes and a lick of his lips. Glenn had all the qualities it took to be a leader, except for a permanent backbone. He was having no trouble finding it right now though.
"Me 'n Merle hadn'ta been right here, someone woulda died," Daryl reminded everyone, though the right side of his jaw throbbed in pain. They'd been the ones who'd seen it snapping its jaws on top of the little blonde thing as she gave it everything she had in her to get away. He didn't know about Merle, but Daryl was left with an unsettled feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Maybe things would have just been better if he and Merle had never come to this god-forsaken camp. "I dunno when ya'll 're gonna wake up and realize this ain't a fuckin' game! We ain't all here, playin' house! I'm done with this shit."
In his typical fashion, Daryl stormed off, kicking at the dirt furiously, finished with this conversation. There was nothing to discuss. The Asian could play peacemaker with the old man as much as he wanted, but he'd be singing a different tune if that girl's guts had been smeared all over the ground like they were about to be when Daryl arrived on scene.
He wasn't going to let this camp play games with his life, that was for sure.
When Merle got back, he'd talk to him about moving on. Daryl didn't think he'd have to do a whole lot of convincing. Merle was never really on board to begin with. Better to just make a clean break before one of them ended up dead.
He could hear her crying in her tent. She was obviously trying not to make a lot of noise, but it wasn't working. He stared at the tent for a minute before shaking his head and walking up to it. He tapped the door with his boot to get her attention. "Ya okay?" His voice was sturdy and gruff, not really showing his, what he'd label as minimal, concern at all.
Sucking a breath in and sniffling, a small squeak of, "Fine," followed, which was all he needed to hear before he went back to his own tent and began packing some things up, without being completely obvious he was planning to bail.
But he wasn't going to die for them.
Not an hour later, Amy came up with two plates of food. "Here," she offered, holding one out to Daryl, who took it with a nod of his head. Amy's eyes fell on the other tent. "How is she?"
Daryl snorted, sitting in his camping chair to eat. "I look like a mind reader? Finally stopped her cryin'. Prolly fell asleep." It had been about half an hour since he'd heard any noise or movement from the neighboring tent.
"If it wasn't for you, you know…" Amy trailed off, not willing to put what may have happened into words. She cleared her throat, placing the other plate of food next to Daryl on an old stump. "I guess Merle can have this when he gets back. I'll give Glenn another plate for her."
Amy went to turn away but stopped herself, and looked back at Daryl. "You did a good thing today. Both of you. Don't let Shane make you feel like the bad guys." Then she wandered back towards the RV.
"Like I give a damn anyway," Daryl grumbled, no one around to hear him as he stabbed a piece of meat with his fork like it was still living and he was taking it down.
He didn't give a fuck. He was still outta here. If Daryl had his way, he and Merle would be long gone before any of them even woke up tomorrow morning.
