CHAPTER NINE:

"Come on!" I groaned as I was jolted around by a pair of arms. "Get her legs!"

Slowly, I opened my eyes and saw the blurred form of a very damaged car. Where those my legs in front of me? One side of the trouser leg was ripped at the calf. "Shane...?" I rasped.

"I'm sorry, Sydney." Lori had a stricken look on her face.

"What happened?"

"The car crashed and there were two walkers."

I blinked my eyes a few times. "Why're you sorry? Was I bitten?" I wanted to check if I was injured anywhere, but my limps didn't seem to want to obey me.

"I - I don't think so."

"Oh..."

Shane managed to get me into the back seat of his car as Lori sat beside him. He was about to turn around, but awareness finally returned back to me. "Wait!" I coughed.

"Rick is back," Shane quickly replied.

I frowned at him. That hadn't been my question and how quickly he had replied made me actually anxious to know what he had done to the other man or whether Shane was lying, but I had other things to worry about right now. "No, I need to go into town and get sedatives for Beth."

I could see him wanting to turn back, but when he started the car, he drove on forward. I sighed and relaxed into the seat. How do I always end up injuring myself? It never happened when I was alone.

We arrived in town with nothing eventful happening. Shane was undoubtedly a better driver than Lori.

I limped over to the pharmacy and began to look through the shelves. I headed off behind the counter and finally managed to find the bottle that I wanted. I also retrieved some painkillers, sleeping pills, allergy pills, iron supplements, and antibiotics. Who knew when we'd have to leave?

"Got it," I mumbled to Lori who were aimlessly browsing around, while Shane was at the entrance with a gun in his hand.

We returned to the car and arrived back at the farm. When I stepped out, Daryl was in front of me with an angry look on his face. "Whattaya think ya were doin'?"

"Getting medicine for Beth!" I said, rushing over to the house.

He was at my heels. "By yerself?"

"Lori was with me."

"Fuck, yer injured." He grabbed my arm and twirled me around. My chest was pressed against his. "Shoulda told me. Woulda gone with ya."

I touched his cheek with the back of my hand. "But I'm alright. I should've told you. I'm sorry if I made you worry, but I have to get to Beth, right now. She needs this." He nodded and let me go, but followed closely behind.

Hershel was sitting beside Beth when I arrived. His hand was grasping the pale girl's.

"I brought the sedative," I told him in a hush voice. "Sorry, it took so long." I was early afternoon when Lori and I left and it was dark, now. I didn't know how much time actually lapsed when I was unconscious.

He stood up with a grateful look on his face. "No, you risked your life to get this for my daughter. I'll take a look at your head, in a minute."

"It's alright. I'm fine."

"You're bleeding."

That was news to me. I rubbed my head until I found a wet patch at my hairline. How did I not notice? There was a crusty trail of dry blood down the side of my face.

Hershel administered the serum and told Patricia to take care of Beth. He ushered me to the room that I had become tired of seeing and told me to sit down. Daryl, who had been waiting just outside the door, walked quietly behind us.

"You can't repeatedly injure your head." I winced as he dabbed the wound with a cotton swab that was dipped with antiseptics. "Take care of her," he told Daryl who nodded.

"Hard ta control da spitfire."

I smiled and whacked him.

Fortunately, I was let off easy, this time, with only a butterfly bandage on my head.

Back at the tent, I laid my head on Daryl's chest and completely relaxed. My entire body felt like silly putty. "'M surprised that no one's asked about us, yet."

He snorted. "Trust me - they have. T-Dog's been askin' all day. Dem girls been whisperin' 'bout it, but probably too scared ta talk ta me."

"I know for a fact that Carol is most definitely not scared of you," I told him.

"Ain't wanna talk ta me, either." That was probably my fault. "Rick 'nd dem brought back a boy."

I looked at him, curiously. "A boy?"

He told me that there had been a small shooting between Rick, Glenn, and Hershel with another - possibly hostile - group. While the other group was fleeing, one of the members had fallen and injured his leg. Rick had decided to bring him back. They had made sure to blindfold him on the way to the farm.

"Where is he, now?"

"In da farm. Locked it."

I bit my lips. A group of men with guns. I knew of only one other group stationed near here, but I was hoping that I was wrong.

For several hours, I was unable to sleep and I was keeping Daryl awake. I couldn't seem to stop thinking about the boy. "I need some air."

Daryl watched me as I slipped out of the tent. I looked at the barn that stood ominously away from the rest of the buildings. It was where the walkers had resided until recently. Before I knew what I was doing, I was in front of the large doors. The key was hanging on a hook on the wall. I took it. The key felt heavy in my hand.

I slid the metal into the lock and pulled off the chain. The door opened, revealing a dark, huddled form near the side. There were chains keeping him from moving to far, but he looked to be asleep.

I walked in, trying to catch a glimpse of his face. Did he look familiar? I couldn't seem to recall seeing him, but I also didn't stay around that camp for long.

"You," I heard a breathy voice say. "You're that bitch who caused all that trouble in our camp. We lost a lot of good men that day."

"Yeah? While chasing after me, I'm sure." I narrowed my eyes at him. "You can't possibly tell me that your group didn't deserve it - not after what you guys did to Sophia."

"Fuckin' bitch should've died..."

I saw the bud of a crossbow hit him in the head. The boy fell over to the side, cursing in pain.

"Who da fuck is he?"

I kept my eyes on the boy. "He's part of the group who violated Sophia."

"I didn't do anything to her! Not my type, man!" The boy's tone was different in the presence of the intimidating hunter.

Daryl handed me his crossbow before promptly punching the boy in the face. "Yeah? Did ya 'elp her?"

"I couldn't do anything myself! They'd kill me!" he cried out as a kick hit his stomach. "I swear! I would never hurt anyone!"

Oh, how he sung a different tune when he thought I was the only one in the barn with him.

"Yeh? Thought I heard ya threaten ma girl." My heart jumped when I heard him say that. His girl? I couldn't help the smile that made its way to my lips. I was his girl!

The boy scoffed. "Yeah? Do you really think that? Saw her with one of our guys - Dave, was it? Must've done him some nice favours to get him to help her like that. He was real high up with the rest of them. Wouldn't have just left like that."

...

Daryl gritted his teeth as he pulled the kid up by the shirt and punched him, again. "Shut the fuck up."

"You know nothin' about that whore of yours," Randall spat out. "Fuckin' whore."

He couldn't control the anger that was ready to erupt. His fist landed on the boy's already bruised and swollen face, over and over, again. He thought about how Sophia had been captured by people like him and he thought about how his girl had been with the other fucker.

"Daryl!" Sydney wrapped her arms arm him and tried to pull him away from the boy as he landed another punch. "Daryl, stop! You'll kill him!"

"Mutherfucker deserves it!"

"No! Not like this! Please, Daryl... Not like this..."

He continued to glare at the cowering boy. His breathing was heavy, but the anger was finally settling back down as he felt her warm body completely pressed against his back. "Fuck!" He spat at the form before letting the boy drop to the ground. "If I ever find ya talkin' ta her, 'gain, I'm gonna fuckin' kill ya."

He took Sydney by the hand and led her out of the barn. "Shoulda let me kill him."

...

"I don't like him, either, but we can't kill him like that," I told him, rubbing his chest before we both fell into the tent. I straddled his hip. "Stop thinking about it. I shouldn't have gone there. It's my fault."

"Damn righ' ya shouldn't ta gone there." He placed his hands on my hip. His grip was going to leave a bruise, but I ignored pain. If this was going to help him vent off the rest of his rage, then I was completely fine with it.

I slipped my hands into his shirt. He shivered as they brushed against the side of his ribs and pinched his nipples.

"Fuck, girl..." he groaned, grinding his hard on against me.

I moaned and pushed back down. "Daryl..." I leaned down and crashed my lips on to his as our bodies continued to flow together.

The next morning, I was not in the mood to get up or leave the tent. I just wanted to stay in here forever with those arms wrapped around me. I sighed and snuggled against the warm chest. We were both fully clothed, but last night had been extremely de-stressing.

"What the fuck happened to him?!" Both Daryl and I groaned as we heard Shane shout. This wasn't what either of us wanted to deal with.

"Let's just ignore it," I mumbled.

He chuckled. The vibration was lulling me back to sleep. "Good idea."

Unfortunately, the boy must've ratted us out because Rick had stormed over, shouting at us.

"Let's just keep ignoring them."

"DARYL! SYDNEY!"

I clenched my eyes shut before finally detaching myself from Daryl. Bloody hell..

As we both crawled out, Rick was watching us with narrowed eyes. "What did you do?"

"Bastard deserved it," Daryl muttered.

I ran my hair through my tangled red hair. "He's from the group who had taken Sophia. Daryl and I went into the barn and... one thing kind of led to another."

The anger in Rick's face softened before it was replaced with another rage that was redirected at the brunet boy chained up in the barn. "Did he...?"

I shook my head. "He said he didn't, but I don't trust him, Rick. I don't want him here in the farm, especially not with Sophia here. How do you think she'd feel?"

"We'll drop him off when his leg is better."

Hearing this, Shane didn't look to happy. "We shouldn't be held responsible for him and we can't let him go back to his group. He'd lead them all here!"

Daryl and I both agreed with Shane, but Rick was hesitant. "Let's vote on this."

Shane cursed loudly. "Why the fuck are we even debating on this?"

Despite three out of four of us being opposed to keeping the boy alive, Rick was adamant to ask the rest of the group first. I could see how restless Shane seemed to be. Something about him always unnerved me, but he usually made decisions that I was more inclined to support. I wonder what that said about me?

"Come on, gonna go hunt." Daryl shouldered his crossbow and beckoned to me. I gave Shane one last glance before following the hunter.

"Wait!" I grabbed a spare hunting knife and slipped it in my holster. I'm really running through these quickly... I should probably go find some before there are none left and the entire group hates me.

We travelled through the woods together. Daryl thought it'd probably be a good idea to teach me to hunt deer. He probably just got bored of me bringing in squirrels all the time. "Whattaya see 'ere."

I blinked and looked around. "Trees... leaves... dirt... more leaves... dead leaves... a bush.. leaves... some branches..." I picked a particularly sharp one up and slipped it through my belt

He snorted. "Look 'ere." He knelt by a patch of dirt that seemed to be recently disturbed. How did I not notice that? "Come on." He began to quietly move forward with his crossbow pointed forward. "Shh..."

I made a face behind his head before following him. After five minutes of silence, I finally spotted the deer. Daryl stopped and motioned me to get in front of him, which I promptly did, my eyes completely fixed on the oblivious animal.

He wrapped his arms around me with the crossbow in his hands. "'Ere." He moved my hands on to his weapon.

"What are you doing?" I whispered to him. "I can't use this."

He ignored me and continued to reposition my body until he was satisfied, but he remained pressed against my back. "Look through this."

"I don't want to do this, Daryl," I whined, turning to look at him.

He nudged my head back to the front with his chin.

I sighed and did as he instructed. I squinted my eyes and shifted my hand a little bit to the right. I pulled the trigger and watched as the arrow pierced through its head. The deer fell over - dead. "I did it!" I exclaimed, flinging my arms up and nearly threw the crossbow.

"'Ey! Careful with that." Even with the quick scold, there was a small smirk on his face. "I did mosta da work, though."

I tilted my nose up. "My kill." I walked up to the dead animal and pulled the arrow out. "Here. Your arrow."

"Bolt," he corrected me. "Not an arrow - bolt."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Yeah. Yeah. I got a deer!"

He bent over and began to lug the deer towards the farm. "Gunna be 'nough."

I was nearly skipping back as we travelled.

Unfortunately, the people on the farm didn't share my satisfaction. While we were hunting, Shane had somehow managed to convince Rick that Randall couldn't stay at the farm, so they drove off to somewhere they could let him go without having him coming back to find us. During the time that most of the men were away, Beth had finally become lucid, but had tried to kill herself.

I went into the house, wondering if I could help them in any way as Daryl began to gut, clean, and portion the deer meat. "Beth...?" The blonde girl was sitting in her room with bandages around both her wrists. "Beth, are you alright?"

"Yeah..." she replied, refusing to look me in the eye. "I just thought that it'd be so simple, you know? Just a few seconds and I wouldn't have to face all of this, again. I tried to convince Maggie to leave with me." I paled, wondering what would've happened if she had succeeded - how the entire group atmosphere would deteriorate. "But then, when I started... I didn't want to do it anymore." Her voice cracked. "I didn't want to die. I don't want to turn into those things, but I don't want to die. I'm only seventeen!"

As she began to sob, I sat on the bed and hugged her. "It's alright to be confused, especially now, but remember... There are so many people here who care about you; who will miss you when you're gone - your father, your sister, Patricia, and Jimmy. What about us? I care about you; our entire group cares about you."

"I know!" she wailed. "I'm so sorry! I think Maggie is angry at Andrea, now, but it's not her fault!"

I stroked her hair. "Don't worry. Maggie won't be angry for long. You know that your sister is very reasonable."

She nodded into my slightly damped shirt before pulling away to wipe her eyes. "I'm sorry about your shirt, too."

I smiled back at her. "It'll dry. This is probably the cleanest my shirt has ever been.."

She managed to let out a laugh. "Thanks, Sydney. So... everyone's been talking about you and Daryl." A mischievous smile made its way to her lips. "Well...?"

"Well what?" I avoided her eyes and pulled on the lint stuck to the comforter.

"Tell me!" Hearing her squeal with anticipation and curiosity made it difficult for me to even imagine the state she had just been in. "What's it like?"

"Haven't you had boyfriend's before? Jimmy?" I tried to redirect the topic, but she wouldn't have any of it.

She waved her hand dismissively. "Jimmy and I just dated a while back. Nothing happened, but come on! Daryl is such a loner. It's hard to imagine him opening up to anyone."

I smiled to myself. "Daryl's actually really nice. He'd do anything for the group." My smile widened at the thought of him searching endlessly for Sophia. "He's amazing, Beth. I never thought that it'd only take the end of the bloody world for me to find someone like him."

Beth let out an excited squeal. "Oh my God, do you love him?"

I blushed. "I'm not sure. I've never actually fallen in love before. I've really only dated once, but it didn't last very long. You know, with school and everything. It was my life."

She smiled knowingly back at me. "The way you look at each other reminds me of how momma and papa used to be. You should tell him!"

I shook my head fervently. "I can't! I don't even know it myself. Besides, I don't even really know what he feel about me. What if... What if it's not like that for him, at all? I don't want to push him to do things or feel things that he doesn't."

Beth rolled her eyes at me. "Like you said, it's the end of the world. Why are you even worrying about things like that?"

I ruffled her hair and stood up. "Leave the adult stuff to adults."

"Hey! You're only a little older than my sister! Don't treat me like a child!"


AUTHOR'S NOTE

I still don't understand why Lori wanders off, so much. I'm sure her wandering had passed off to Carl who does the same.

I have also implied some stuff that is not quite rated M and I'm not sure I'll ever cross that line with this story. What do you guys think?

Thank you galwidanatitud for reviewing!

galwidanatitud: I completely agree with you! I really question a lot of the characters' decisions, but I guess that's what makes the story interesting and something for me to write and expand with!

Thank you as well to everyone who has favourited and followed this story.

I'd like to take this little spot here to just write a blurb about all the tragedies that had occurred the past weekend. Christina Grimmie, R.I.P. I love making music covers myself and to see someone I had looked up to and watched for so long on Youtube to just be murdered like that is absolutely heartbreaking. After the entire thing with her mum battling cancer, but Christina being the one to die first… She had done nothing but try her hardest to be her best, whether it's to help her family or entertain her fans or just be a wonderful person in general. She had so much talent and even more potential to reach. No one had the right to take that away from her and for him to just kill himself right after. I feel like there's no closure to her death. My heart goes out to all her family, friends, and fellow fans.

Secondly, the shooting at the Orlando nightclub was absolutely horrific. I can't imagine being in a dark, enclosed space with panic all around. People shouldn't die for being who they are without harming anyone. There has always been a saying that we can't choose who we love, so why would gender suddenly come into play here? For so many people to die like that… I know there has been a lot of talk regarding religion, I believe there are always two extreme ends to any spectrum. Some people are kind and caring to a fault, while others have a mentality that if they don't like something, they will purge the world of it. Despite saying all this, I'm not here to start a religious debate. I don't want to see any of those comments later on at any point.

I just hope that everyone will spend more time with their love ones now and cherish every second of it.

Thank you reading and I hope that the next time I post, I won't have to do it with a heavy heart.