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WALK WITH ME

A WALKING DEAD Fanfiction

Previously: Carol brought Daryl to his tent and their conversation did not end well. Emyli spent the night looking out for Beth with Maggie and Andrea.

Chapter 7: 18 MILES OUT

It was supper and it was a shame that no one had the appetite to eat the dishes Lori and Carol made out of the rabbits Emyli caught with her snares. In a few hours, it would exactly be a day already since Rick and Glenn went out to look for Hershel; no one was in the mood to eat and everyone tried to finish their share in silence.

"We have to look for them." Shane had spent the whole day convincing everyone to wait patiently; to not make any drastic move or decision. But now, it looked like he finally realized it had been too long that the others had been away. Lori was the first one to raise her head. "I'm coming with you,"—this was what most of them expected to hear from the woman but she kept her silence while the others nodded to Shane. The group suddenly had the motivation to finish their meal.

Shane nodded to Daryl, T-Dog and Andrea after supper and they gathered around the green Tucson. Emyli looked at them from the camp and her eyes met Daryl's. She wanted to go with them, but Daryl shook his head and averted her eyes. Emyli did not have a moment to sulk as Carol approached her and gave her plates and utensils to wash. She followed her and Lori to the house. Emyli barely finished sponging one plate when people started rushing inside as well.

Rick, Glenn and Hershel were back. Everyone now gathered in the dining area, sitting in front of the table. Rick explained how they ended up bringing a wounded young boy named Randall to the farm; how he planned to send him off once he had healed. Shane reacted instantly when he heard this; he thought that the guy was a threat. But Rick believed otherwise, saying Randall was blindfolded the whole time they were travelling and there was no way his group was looking for him as they left him for dead.

The tension was too much for Emyli and she had never been so glad to wash the dishes—she left the dining room silently to finish her chore. From the sink she could hear Shane's mocking voice followed by Hershel's. The bomb was ticking again. Only this time, the impending explosion might kill more than just a handful of walkers.

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Emyli spent the next two days with Carol on her tail. She had been giving Emyli chores like washing the dishes (she broke 2 plates, 1 glass), preparing the vegetables for cooking (she had 2 cuts each her index and middle finger), having her collect dirty laundry (she actually went to Daryl's tent asking for his dirty clothes—Emyli got shooed by an irritated Daryl). Andrea, from the top of the RV, had looked at Emyli with narrowed eyes, shaking her head. She just shrugged and curled her lips a bit to tell Andrea it was okay.

On the afternoon of the third day, Beth finally recovered; she could now move about and speak. Emyli made lemonades for her and for the others. Maggie wanted to talk to Beth alone first so Emyli decided to distribute the drink at the camp.

"Giving these out to the group?" Carol caught her placing the glasses on a tray. She nodded. Carol took one glass. "Let me give this to Daryl."

Emyli almost reacted but stopped herself as she could not think of a reason why she would. Carol was about to go out of the house with the glass of lemonade when Lori called out: "Carol, do you think you can help me here?" Carol eyed Emyli: She perfectly knew she was not good with cooking (or any house chores). Carol put the glass of lemonade back down and went to help Lori. Emyli gladly put the glass on her tray and walked to the camp with it.

Daryl's tent was at the farthest part of the camp so Emyli walked there with one remaining glass. She saw him sitting near the brick pillar skinning a squirrel. Emyli presented the juice by putting the glass in front of his face, distracting him from his task. Daryl looked at her with an exasperated look and she returned a blank one. In the end, he just snatched the glass from her, drank the contents in one gulp, gave it back to Emyli and returned to skinning the squirrel.

"Beth woke up," Emyli started standing, observing the rodent being peeled from Daryl's back.

"Go away," the hunter muttered not even bothering to look at her. Emyli tried to discover where his temper was coming from. Possibly still from the time she saw his underwear peeking from the top of his pants….

"I'm not here to ask for your laundry," she assured him and then whispered, "I want to hunt again."

Daryl stopped with his task and stood up. He faced Emyli and pointed the side of his knife to her face. "You, just go!" He lowered the knife, snarled and stared at her. Emyli tried to read him but could not place his anger—and she was usually good with discerning what caused people's ire. There must be a different, unusual reason why Daryl was mad at her.

Daryl hissed at Emyli and walked past her shoving her shoulder with his.

Emyli walked back to camp; T-Dog cornered her to give her his empty glass.

"What happened to you?" he asked looking at her holding her shoulder. T-Dog chuckled. "Your face is blanker than usual."

"Got bitten," Emyli announced and T-Dog's smile was replaced by fear and concern. He immediately pulled Emyli's hand away to see what she's covering: Nothing; no bites. "What, man? Not a good joke!"

"I was bitten by a mad dog," Emyli insisted.

"You're talking about Daryl?" T-Dog asked finally realizing; he took a quick glance at Daryl's tent then shook his head. "Might as well be poking a bear."

"Yeah," Emyli replied coolly. "Moodier than Lori. Sometimes I wonder who is pregnant."

T-Dog laughed curtly.

"Hmm," Emyli blurted in afterthought, "you really thought if I were bitten by a walker I would just walk to camp with a blank expression?"

T-Dog smiled and shrugged. "Not hard to imagine. That look is all you have."

"Right," she muttered, unoffended.

Emyli walked back to the house once she had collected the empty glasses. Halfway there, she met Andrea who just stormed out of the door. Even from afar Emyli could tell she just argued with someone.

"Are you okay?" Emyli asked her.

Andrea let out an exasperated breath. "You…T-Dog said you could shoot a target without looking at it. And you saved Daryl's life," she said. "You should be one of the people guarding, securing this farm."

Emyli waited for her to continue as she did not understand her point yet.

"But instead, Carol and Lori have you running around asking for laundry, giving out sandwiches and lemonades," Andrea went on with a frustrated look on her face.

"Hmm…who did you have a fight with?"

"Lori," Andrea exhaled again as if to fan her anger. "She said I'm not contributing to the group: Me sitting there on top of the RV with a shotgun…working on my tan."

"Keeping watch and working on your tan…it's called multitasking," Emyli said casually, "far from being unproductive."

That seemed to put a break on Andrea's rage, and then she stared at Emyli, almost in awe. "Lily, what do we do without you?" she said, smiling.

Emyli shrugged. "You won't play truth or dare without me."

Andrea giggled, obviously not upset anymore. "Beth hid a knife when Lori served her food," she said on a serious tone now. "She told Maggie she wanted to die." She walked past Emyli. Emyli, in turn, was to run towards the house but had to stop when Andrea called her name. "By the way, your lemonade sucks," she said grinning playfully.

"I knew it," Emyli mouthed as Andrea walked away to the camp.

Screams could be heard coming from Beth's room. Emyli saw Lori and Carol staring helplessly at the closed door. She did not know what to say or do. Emyli thought of what she could have felt if Kate had wished for death instead of choosing to fight with her…and she had herself caught in a loop when she realized she also could not figure out what she would have said or what she would have done.

Emyli stayed in the house until they had to prepare supper. Lori and Carol went back to the camp to prepare dinner there so Emyli helped Patricia in the kitchen instead. There was no shouting anymore but Maggie still had not come out of Beth's room.

"Hmm…can you just go fetch Hershel, sweetie?" Patricia courteously asked Emyli frowning at her sliced carrots. "I'll finish this." Emyli went out of the house wondering why she could clean kills properly but could not cut vegetables fit for cooking.

She saw Andrea stepping on the porch. "I'll look out for Beth so Maggie can eat supper," she told Emyli who nodded.

Hershel had been absent since morning. Emyli suspected he was yet to fully recover from the barn incident. She searched the shed, borrowed binoculars from Shane to look at the fields (and noted that Daryl did not join the group's dinner) but the old man was nowhere in sight. Emyli had a hunch where she could find him but she saved that place for last.

And she was right: Emyli found Hershel in the barn, sitting on one side, staring at something across. By the looks of it, he had been cleaning the place up the whole day; it almost bore no clue of what its previous occupants were. Hershel looked up as Emyli approached him.

"We stopped in a town on our way to Georgia," Emyli recalled. "There was a doctor and he had a big house. His neighbors ran to him with their bitten loved-ones." Emyli stopped walking and stood beside where Hershel is sitting; she also looked at the opposite side. "He accepted everyone and did not discriminate. His house was full of people with fever and walker bites. Once they'd turn, I think they'd lock them in a certain room. My father, Kate and I, we had tried to save people from walkers and we knew it's over once people get bitten. We tried to point this out to the doctor; we told him that he should end the suffering of those who have turned."

Hershel remained silent as he listened to Emyli. She continued: "But the doctor told my father: What if he kills them and then somebody finds a cure? There's still hope. All illnesses have a cure just like there's a key to every lock. We just need time to discover what it is and give chances for those who are ill."

"And then what happened?" Hershel asked in a low voice.

"Someone unlocked the room one night without permission," Emyli said. "The house—and the whole town got overrun."

"Same thing could have happened if Rick's group did not do what they did with this barn," Hershel said guiltily.

Emyli sighed. "In these times, hope is a luxury that only brave people can afford. And oftentimes, brave people are not the wisest. Hope is a double-bladed sword that inspires desire to continue to live, but at the same time triggers death if reacted on incorrectly." She looked at Hershel. "I don't think it's bad to hope. I'd sooner buy hope than apathy. It's not your fault—not anyone's fault—so start forgiving yourself. Maggie and Beth need you."

Hershel nodded and stood up. As they made their way back to the house, they saw Andrea running towards it as well. Maggie came out and by the looks of it, she was shouting at Andrea.

"She wants to live," Andrea said nodding with a slight smile, "she made her decision.

"She tried to kill herself!" Maggie argued. Then, when she saw Hershel, she immediately ran up to him and told him what happened. Hershel hurriedly went inside the house. Maggie turned to Andrea again. "Stay away from her," she hissed at Andrea then turned her back and left for the house.

"What happened this time?" Emyli asked Andrea.

"Beth cut her wrist," she told her. "I left her with a knife so she can make her own decision."

"The end justifies the means?" Emyli challenged Andrea.

"They've been shouting at each other for half a day and Beth still wanted to die," Andrea defended. "Tell Maggie I'll cut my own wrist if Beth attempted suicide again after what I've done," she said then walked away.

Hershel stitched Beth's wrist. Maggie and Emyli stayed in Beth's room after.

"I'm sorry," Beth muttered for the hundredth time. Maggie, sitting on her bed, held her hands. "Please don't be mad at Andrea," she pleaded. "When I saw the blood…it was only then I realized I didn't want to die. So please don't blame her."

Maggie looked at Emyli as if to get her opinion. Emyli nodded in agreement to what Beth said.

"Okay, sweetie, I'm not angry anymore," Maggie told Beth. "Just sleep now."

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Beth spent the next day resting. Andrea had approached Maggie to apologize and Maggie told her it was alright now and that they were still friends. That night, Randall woke-up. Shane and Rick secured his blindfold, roped him to the bed and locked him in the room. They planned to take him out tomorrow morning.

Next morning came and Carol and Emyli prepared some food and drink for Randall. Shane and Rick put him at the back of the green Tucson all tied up with a pair of earphones and a bonnet covering his head and they drove away.

In the afternoon, Emyli asked permission from Maggie and Hershel if she could take Beth out for a walk in the field. In no time, the two girls were out there. They were a few meters away from the brick pillar and on the other side, a few meters away from the woods. They were sitting on the grass facing where the sun will set.

"Now that I have decided to live, my worry is keeping me and the others alive," Beth confessed in a low voice. "It's just us against a whole world of those…things. Rick will save his family and you and Daryl got each other. We have no one to protect us but dad and Jimmy…."

Emyli shook her head. "We are one team now," she said. "And Beth, we don't need people who want to die protecting each other," she told her firmly. "What we need are people who want to be strong for each other so no one has to die saving someone else." Beth looked at her pondering on what she said. After a few seconds, Beth nodded. "I want to be strong. Like you."

Emyli smiled at her. "I just thought of a game," she said. "Do you think you can run now?"

Beth shrugged. "The cut wasn't big and deep and I've rested yesterday."

"Good. Walkers are slow and part of basic survival is outrunning your predator," Emyli told her. "Let's go around and ask them who wants to play tag with us."

After a few minutes, Beth has dragged Maggie and Jimmy to the field while Emyli has T-Dog and Andrea.

"No Carl?" Andrea asked looking around.

"I couldn't find him," Beth answered.

"We need someone really fast lest this will not be a good training," Emyli announced.

"Hey! I can be fast!" T-Dog argued jokingly.

"Not as fast as Glenn," Maggie remarked.

"I was hoping we could get him too but it's his shift with the watch," Emyli explained.

"Daryl," Andrea blurted looking teasingly at Emyli. "Go get Daryl."

It took a few seconds for Emyli to react. "Okay, I'll ask him. Just…warm up for now. Run around the field."

Emyli walked towards his tent. She did not ask him earlier because she knew he would find the idea ridiculous and would just scold her for being silly.

"Ahm…do you want to join us?" Emyli found Daryl eating a grilled squirrel behind his tent. "We're going to play tag near the woods. We thought it'd be fun if you play with us because you run fast and—"

"You should have stick with the laundry," he scoffed at her. "I ain't playing yar stupid game." He stood up and walked past her towards the tent's opening.

"I don't understand you," Emyli blurted as she turned to Daryl's direction. "You pull away from the group; you're here like eighteen miles out, away from us." Daryl stopped on his tracks and Emyli stepped towards him until she was facing him. "I know you can fend for yourself. You can leave anytime you want. Instead, you pull away—not run away." Emyli smiled at him. "You must like this group. You just don't want to admit it." She turned her back on him and started to run. "We'll just be out there if you change your mind!"

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The sun was about to set and Daryl had been trying to keep his mind off what the silly girl had said. He was lying on his cot inside the tent watching the orange skies when Carl came running to him from the woods' direction with a horrified look on his face. He instantly pulled himself up and went outside the tent with his crossbow.

"Emyli!" Carl said, panting. "I-I was wandering in the woods when I heard screams…. Someone shouted that she got bitten!"

Daryl's face contorted to fury and he ran the fastest he could to the woods.

It took him a while to find Emyli as it was hard to track while running. There were a lot of prints on the ground—they sure had fun playing tag. Daryl ran with his crossbow aimed and ready. Some walkers must have found their way to the farm. He scolded the silly girl in his head—at the same time, he thought of the possibilities: Where was she bitten? On the arm? Leg? Neck? Would it be somewhere that could be severed? Daryl knew the girl could fight so she must have been bitten saving someone. No use speculating, he told himself, he would know once he found her.

And Daryl did. Emyli was running as well when he saw her; she stopped when she saw Daryl. But when the hunter came charging at her, Emyli ran away from him.

"Emyli!" Daryl called furiously. The girl was fast; he had to speed up to catch up to her. When he did, he caught the girl around the waist and before she could react, Daryl put his crossbow on his back and scooped Emyli off the ground. He lifted her knees with one arm while the other supported her back. Then he ran to a spot with lesser trees—so he could clearly see if a walker was approaching. He laid Emyli down on the ground and unsheathed his knife.

"Where were you bitten, silly girl," Daryl muttered furiously as he pushed Emyli's sleeves up to check her arm. The girl tried to sit-up but Daryl immediately pushed her back and pinned her to the ground with one hand while the other lifted her shirt to check for—

"No!" Emyli screamed. She slapped Daryl's hand and it was only then that he snapped out of his rage. Emyli pulled herself to a sitting position, moved away from Daryl as she straightened the sleeves and the bottom of her shirt.

Daryl looked at the girl looking scared—her stoic façade now gone. She hugged herself as she trembled.

"Daryl!" Andrea came running followed by Maggie…and Carl. "S-she was…she wasn't bitten," she explained between breaths. "That was just our version of tag, you're it." She motioned for Maggie to help Emyli.

Daryl replaced his knife and stood up, mad at everyone. Then he looked at the girl again, now being assisted by Maggie. He could not see her face anymore as they began to walk out of the woods. Carl followed them and when they were out of sight, Andrea approached him.

"What happened?" she asked him. Daryl began to walk out of the woods as well, Andrea walked beside him. "I never saw her with that look before."

"Thought she was bitten," he answered. "I tried to check for bites. I took 'er down and pushed 'er sleeves up and lifted 'er shirt…."

Andrea narrowed her eyes, contemplating. Then she surmised: "I think what she said before was true." Daryl stopped to look at her; he had a confused look on his face. "She told us that she was abused by her father since she was thirteen." It was no news to Daryl as he learned that the night they stayed at the dairy. Andrea continued when she saw his unimpressed look. "Abused. Sexually."

Daryl spat and continued to walk as if to say it was rubbish.

"It's the only explanation I can think of…why she would look that frightened when you touched her—"

"I didn't touch 'er!" Daryl roared then he stormed away thinking, pondering hard on what he had done and what he should do next.

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Next Chapter: Daryl gets advice from the boys.

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Writer's Note

Hi guys!

I'm so sorry it took a while for me to post this chapter—I actually forgot to upload it before our family trip to Hong Kong and I just came home!

How about you, how did you guys spend your Christmas?

I'd like to thank all these awesome readers who put Walk with Me on their Favorite list:

Leo Potter, Rainy Day baby, jalenreedmua

And these wonderful readers who Followed this story:

CreepyDaisy, D. Kenedy, Kris83, Leo Potter, Regin, jalenreedmua, kschu02,

I hope to hear from you guys :)

And for those who left Comments/Reviews…a BIG THANK YOU!

Guest: I'm so happy you loved the previous chapter. I'm sorry it took a while for me to update but here it is

jalenreedmua: Thank you so much! I'm so glad you loved the story. I hope you continue reading

smkelover: Glad to hear from you again! And I'm thankful you are still finding this story loveable

P.S

It'll be January in a few hours and I can't wait for the second half of season 3! I've been having TWD withdrawal symptoms…I miss my weekly dose of Daryl

I have dreamed of Daryl several days ago and it inspired me to write another TWD fanfiction.

Please check it out if you don't mind Daryl having wings: NEW WORLD

(I can't seem to copy the link properly so just type this site's address and then add /s/8820673/1/New-World)

Happy New Year!