A/N - As promised here's the second half of the previous chapter, this time with a lot more angst so enjoy that. Well imma go take a year long nap now and play some video games, later taters.
"He forbid me… Who does that? I can't believe he forbid me, Jesus, I mean, did he forget that I was alone before I met this group? I don't think so. This is supposed to be a relationship, not a dictatorship. Well that's it Daryl cos' I'm here now, on the outskirts of this town, alone, how do you like them apples?" Your mind chuntered angrily as you observed your surroundings.
"Ok you know what, forget him for now, it's time for business mode."
The shops looked completely destroyed from the outside, each place had definitely been raided, several times by the battered doors and windows. There was only one lone walker lingering in the middle of the town, it had a small build and a swaggering gait which made you all the more confident about taking it down or sneaking past it, should the need arise.
You saw a small street-sign which stood tall next to the walker: Walmart – 1 Mile.
"Great, if I can get to the Walmart there could be a tonne of shit that people were too afraid to take, right that's it then. But there's also a Baby-Gro right there and it's getting pretty late in the day…" you thought through the two options, determined to do both if you could but prioritising one on the off chance that you wouldn't have time. "The others are after supplies and Judith comes first, Baby-Gro it is".
You ran to the shop taking out the lone-walker on the way with a quick hit to the back of its knees with the hatchet and a strong chop t its head.
The shop was small with only two isles but at the back of it there was a set of stairs, which presumably led to an apartment and a boarded up room, there was nothing of use in the isles so you decided to head up the stairs trying desperately not to make them creak. Your prior guess had been correct, it was indeed an apartment at the top of the stairs, the room on your left held a ransacked bathroom, the middle room held an adult bedroom with a crib in it, and the final room was shut and bolted from the inside.
You kicked the door lightly, trying to draw any walker out that may have resided there, when nothing happened you kicked harder, and a dead ended shuffle paired with the gasps of the dead resounded in the air "Alrighty then, never a dull moment when dancing with the dead" you whispered.
The moans had become louder and there was now a desperate clawing at the door, you steeled yourself ready for your next move and crashed all your weight against the door; the move didn't do much other than make your shoulder hurt "Fuck… Who ever said "They don't build them like they used to" was a lying asshole".
"Alright, fine then, plan B" you raised your hatchet and swung hard against the door handle, sure enough it came off and the lock with it on the other side, you kicked the door open; two walkers on the other side fell back with the weight of it, two males, one large, the other lean and skinny.
You swung your hatchet hard into the large one's skull before it had the time to recover, the other one was attempting to get back up and would soon be walking again, the problem with that being that your hatchet remained firmly trapped within the skull of the first walker.
"Oh come on, this is no time to be playing fucking Excalibur".
The walker had recovered and was ambling towards you, arms outstretched. You abandoned the hatchet, deciding instead to knock it over, you ploughed into it using all your weight against it, much to your success the walker toppled clumsily over. Instinctively your hand reached for your belt where your hunting knife usually stayed before the realisation hit that Carl had the knife now, a quick scan of the room revealed no other effective objects "Old fashioned way it is then" you raised your leg high and brought it down on the walkers' skull, you had to do this several times before the skull finally cracked and the brain was completely destroyed.
"There better be something worth it for this" you panted as you tried to quell the sickly feeling in your stomach.
You stood outside the lone Walmart a little dejectedly "Huh… For some reason I thought it'd be… bigger. Well it's only a small town so I don't know what I was expecting, a mansion perhaps?"
The pack you wore wasn't even half full though you did feel a little better that your trip to Baby-Gro provided half a pack of nappies, seven tubs of baby food, and one tub of baby formula.
Several walkers were walking past the doors inside the building and if you looked carefully you could see more in the back "Fuck… looks like this one's going to be stealth mode" you whispered, wishing the whole tie that there was a lone walker around so you could mask your scent with the entrails.
"Alright, I've just gotta think about this…" To the left side of the building there stood two dumpsters which made for easy access to the flat roof of the building, from there it wouldn't be a far stretch to the buildings air ducts; there was also the back door that you hadn't yet checked.
"Great so if I check the back door and don't like my odds then I can go in through the vents and see how it looks from there, plus if it's too overrun then I can leave the way I entered."
You made your way the back of the building, hunched over to avoid the dead stare of any stray walkers, only to find that your first guess had been an educated one, just like the front a few stray walkers were milling aimlessly around, not many in retrospect but enough to make it a dangerous fight with only a hatchet to defend yourself "Note to self, get a new bloody hunting knife" the thought left you bitter and annoyed.
You soon discovered that army-crawling through dusty vents without making a sound was not as easy as it was made to seem by great heroes like James Bond and Indiana Jones; The views of the isles below, however, seemed to be a good payoff for the hard work.
After passing several isles you could see there wasn't much worth having and the shop floor held many walkers though they were all a fair distance apart from one another. You changed routes in the vent, taking a left this time and looked down into a small, separate room "Jackpot" you whispered; the room you currently hovered over was a storage compartment which held no walkers and the shelves appeared to be moderately stocked from what you could see in your limited space.
The room was easy enough to jump down into after removing the grate above it, upon entering it was easy enough to see that there were more items then you could have hoped for, medicine bottles lined the walls, followed by bandages, antiseptic wipes, fruit bars, and more small tubs of baby food. You stuffed your backpack with everything it would fit, which still left a lot to be desired, and decided to get out while you still had the chance. You looked around for something to climb to get back into the vent but were perplexed to find nothing available, the bookshelves proved too heavy to move and they were too far away from the vent to make a jump; elsewhere the room was bare.
"Ok then… door and dash it is." A small look through the keyhole revealed no walkers nearby in your limited field of vision and you steeled yourself ready to pelt through the shop to the front doors, your hatchet in hand to clear the few at the front. The plan was clear in your mind but before it had even begun it was doomed to fail by the one thing you hadn't anticipated, the door was locked.
"That's it, when I get back from this little excursion I refuse to tell Daryl that I locked myself in an oversized broom cupboard." You inspected the steel door's handle ready to repeat your earlier action of chopping the door handle of "Shit… this hatchet will break before it makes it through metal… ok just gotta think straight, there has to be a key somewhere around here."
"Oh, and what if there isn't?" your mind quarrelled.
"Hey, don't answer back, if there isn't then we'll look for something else or at least attempt hacking at the door."
"Go ahead, it's your funeral."
"Self-depreciating little bastard… Oh good grief, this is the first stage of madness."
It didn't take long to find the door key on a hook towards the back of the room "Ha ha, I told you we'd find the key." There was no reply to your inner monologue "Oh, I see how it is, you're only there to argue when you think you're in the right, but the moment I get it right you don't want to talk… Ok, I really am going balmy but at least I have a reserve frenemy to big myself up".
After one final cursory check you put the plan into action, launching yourself out of the room keeping as much speed as you could; as you ran through the maze of isles towards the front doors a large gathering of walkers had started following behind much like the ghosts to Pac-man, the difference being that these 'Ghosts' were ready to tear Pac-man limb from limb at the drop of a hat.
As you headed towards the exit you were forced to turn rapidly as the walkers around you converged into a horde; it was only a matter of minutes when you cornered yourself in the freezer isle, backing up as far as you could with the walkers closing in, "Shit… How could I not realise that there were this many here?!"
You gripped your hatchet tight with both hands, turning the knuckles white, as you backed up further, your legs were knocked out from under you when you hit a ledge belonging to one of the freezers; acting fast you got up and pulled the door shut trapping yourself in but keeping the walkers at bay, temporarily. The walkers began pawing at the glass, making it squeal as they dragged their hands down it. Being on the inside of the freezer was a strange experience, claustrophobic but in a safe and slightly comforting manner, the shelves (some of which could be seen on the floor outside the freezer) had been removed on prior raids which allowed you to fit with relative ease.
Further investigation of your icy keep revealed a slim chance of escape, should you be so lucky to pull it off, for it turned out that what you were standing in wasn't one of many freezers in an isle but instead one large freezer with many doors and a gap wide enough to allow you to shimmy to the end of the hallway "If I can shimmy down then I can bolt out of the door on the end and make another break for the front door, hopefully enough of the walkers will stay here too distracted to follow".
You began shimmying down the ice like barricade trying to out-pace the walkers in the small space you had, time seemed to be going too slow as you tried to hurry onwards, the majority of the walkers had remained distracted as hoped but a few had noticed what was going on and were trying to break from the horde "Don't notice me, it'll only take one to follow me to get the hordes attention, just stay where you are you rat-bastards" but it was too late, though they weren't keeping pace the horde had took notice of the attempted escape route and were turning to keep pace.
It was still too close to leave the confines of the freezer without being caught but you weren't seeing much choice as the horde began catching up, "Oh God… I'm not gonna make it, I'm going to die here… What have I done?" The thoughts filled you with despair, your pace slowing to match them when suddenly the crippling fear was cut off by yelling and gunshots "COME GET SOME YOU EVER-LOVING FUCKS." A tall figure on the other side of the glass had got the walkers attention, making them turn, "(Y/N) I SEE YOU IN THERE, I'LL LEAD 'EM ROUND BACK, GO TO THE FRONT AND I'LL MEET YOU ON THE ROAD." The voice sounded strained through the glass and the gunfire but you knew it instantly, you didn't know how or why but there was no doubt about it, the voice belonged to none other than Abraham.
As soon as the walkers cleared you followed Abraham's plan to the letter, tearing through the front door and onto the open road, soon followed by Abraham and a slow trickle of walkers, the horde had thinned out slightly as soon as they'd reached the single back door. After 10 minutes of running down the long road no walkers remained in pursuit and the two of you slowed down to a mild walk, regaining your breath.
"So uh, how'd you know… that I was… there?" you asked between gasps of sweet air that burned your lungs.
"Didn't, that's just where I'd go on a raid, figured you would too." Abraham replied, nonchalant.
"Well you figured right, thank you. Wait a minute, what about Eugene? Why'd you come?"
"The kid was getting worried about you, so I left Eugene with Rosita."
"So… I suppose we're going to have to tell Daryl about this."
"I suppose we are."
"Abraham, thank you, I mean it."
"No problem."
DARYL POV
Daryl paced around the church tirelessly only pausing to look out the windows, Carl and Tyreese watched from the side-lines not daring to interrupt; Finally, Carol had had enough and approached him.
"Daryl, she'll be back soon, you need to stop" she advised gently.
"You can't promise that."
His statement gave her pause "No, I can't but we know her, she's strong and resourceful, and right now we've got to count on that."
"I told her to stay here."
"Well maybe that's the problem, you ordered her around, that's not how relationships work."
"WEL-"
"I would like to take the time to point out that if you both turned your attention to outside you would notice that both (Y/N) and Abraham are outside as we speak" Eugene interrupted drolly.
YOUR POV
Daryl ran out the church making a B-line for you, his face was a painting of pure thunder; his expression made your stomach churn sickly, a lump rising to your throat.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU CALL THIS?" Daryl roared, meeting you head on.
"Daryl" you replied meekly before deciding to just go for it "What happened was-"
"What happened was I decided that (Y/N) was right about the whole sticky situation after you and Carol left so I approached her and we went to town, a quiet trip with a decent haul" Abraham finished.
"Oh yeah, that what happened?" Daryl commented sarcastically "That's great because Eugene didn't tell it the same."
Abraham looked over to Eugene who was watching blankly from the steps of the church, it was a silent message that simply said 'Oh come on'.
"I would like you to know that he dragged the information out of me" Eugene interjected.
"I'm sorry" you yelled cutting through all the interruptions.
"OH, YOU'RE SORRY, WELL SORRY DOESN'T FIX THINGS, SORRY DOESN'T CHANGE WHAT YOU DID." Daryl was getting more erratic as he went on.
Abraham was now pushing Eugene back into the church leaving the two of you with some semblance of privacy.
"Look I-" you swallowed hard fighting off tears "I just- I understand that you're angry-"
"Oh no, angry don't cover this" Although he was no longer yelling Daryl's tone was far from quiet and calm.
"I know and I get it, I took a risk and I made a mistake but I just want to know why, why are you this angry?"
"Why? You wanna know why?"
"Yes, I want to know why" the tears finally started falling but you pushed onward anyway.
"Because."
"Because what?"
"JUST BECAUSE OK."
"NO, NOT OK. BECAUSE ISN'T AN ANSWER."
"BECAUSE I COULDN'T KEEP BETH SAFE."
The silence that followed that sentence seemed alien after all the yelling. You stood staring at Daryl unsure of what to say, his movements became more fidgety while he fought the tears that sprung to his eyes.
"I couldn't save Beth, and if I couldn't save her then how the hell am I going to protect you now" his voice had become merely a whimper.
Your mind cast back to your previous conversation with Carol her voice echoing in your mind 'He'd do anything to protect you. Don't take his purpose away.'
Daryl was staring at the ground, his expression a mask of pain; you approached him raising a hand to his cheek and raising his face to meet yours.
"Look, I know this is tough… you did your best to help Beth, there was nothing else you could have done but I-" a sigh escaped your lips "I'm not Beth, and I think that we both need to learn from this. You need to learn when to step back and let me do things, because there are times when I'm going to need you to protect me but I'll let you know when I need that. As for me, I need to learn that I'm not invincible and I'm not on my own anymore. Before I met you all, I was alone, I had to force myself into situations like that to survive but now… well now I have you and I have to step back on occasion and accept that I'm not always right. Daryl, I need to know is that enough for you?"
Daryl came in quick dragging you into a tight hug "It's enough. I'm sorry."
"Me too" you leaned into the hug kissing his neck.
Carol stood on the inside of the church watching the interaction through the window with only one comforting thought "Maybe there's more hope for them than I thought".