*Authors note*
Thank you all for reading my little story, posting has been difficult lately and I'm sorry about that but I'm hoping to get back on track with lots of lovely new chapters, I do have some ideas on where I'm gonna go with this story it's just writing it all down that's the trouble lol. So hang tight because your gonna love it. (I hope)
Chapter 11
I woke eyes wide blinded by the sun shacking and panting for breath beads of sweat running down my face a single though racing through my mind 'trapped' I felt trapped I panicked sitting up my eyes went wide, why couldn't I move I began struggling but the feeling got tighter and tighter something someone was shaking me someone was talking whispering loudly into my right ear but I was so panicked I couldn't hear. I closed my eyes tried to breath tried to calm myself, breathing, the tight feeling slipped away. I could hear the loud whispers again assaulting my right ear.
"You alrigh' marc are you alrigh" A hand turned my head.
"Marcy" Daryl whispered again
I opened my eyes I could feel the tears fall down my face as I looked up at Daryl's face inches from my own his eyes were wide he looked worried scared even. My body was still shaking Daryl squeeze me tightly, I wiped away the tears quickly embarrassed at my outburst.
"I'm fine" I said sheepishly "It was just a bad dream" I quickly turned surveying the group they still lay sleeping scattered around us. I breathe again this time a sigh of relief that my outburst hadn't woken the men.
Daryl's arms fell from around me and I move sitting beside him and crossing my legs I looked down at the ground before looking up to meet Daryl's eyes.
"It was just a bad dream" I said again more for myself than Daryl I looked back over to the sleeping men. "Do we have a plan" I asked still looking at the sleeping men.
"We grab what we can and run" Daryl paused
"Or" I asked turning back to Daryl
"We stick around see where we end up" Daryl finished. The thought of sticking with the men turned my stomach, but if we ran there was the chance they would find us the constant fear of checking over our shoulder.
I knew we were both processing the situations and both coming to the same conclusion.
The sun was now high in the sky today was going to be hot and long, me and Daryl had been sitting in silence waiting for the rest of the men to wake and at this point I was starting to think it would have been easier to run. There was a low growl coming from the distance I watched as the rotting flesh crept up on the sleeping men. Daryl placed a hand on his bow then slowly removed it. I watched as the walker fell against the wire, which sliced the falling flesh on its face a black blood like ooze crept down the ripped hanging flesh and fell in clumps on the woodlands fallen levers.
One of the men woke hearing the clattering of the cans he started swearing scrambling desperately for a knife as he crawled on the floor. I wondered for a second how these men and survived this far.
The other men woke to the commotion more swearing followed before one finally finished the walker. The men spoke amongst themselves before they turned to look at the two outsiders sitting quietly by the sidelines, me and Daryl.
"Well well, look who stuck around" Joe announced walking towards us, Daryl stood offering me a hand which I took.
Joe spoke directly to Daryl so I took the time so look around while listening to Joe.
"We are sending a man out to see if he can't pick up some game or something, then we will pack up and hit the road continuing on those roads back on the outskirts" Daryl didn't speak he simply nodded.
"Maybe you wanna join our man, see who can catch the biggest beast" the man laughed before coughing and spluttering.
"She's coming with me" Daryl said firmly.
"Fine" Joe said smiling crookedly "She is all yours after all" My head snapped round to meet his slimy grin. I had to stop myself from walking up to that smug face and planting my fist in it.
Daryl bent down picking up and passing me my bow before he retrieved his own. We watched as the other bow man headed out into the woods not waiting for us we followed in his general direction tyring not to get too close we decided to split up but not to go too far into the woods we were to meet back at the camp in roughly 15 minutes.
I wasn't worried about catching anything today although I could have happily eaten anything my head just wasn't in it, my feet landed too heavily on the ground even my berating sounded too loud to me. I found a small opening where I decided to take a moment to enjoy being alone, I sat on the soft grass and found myself thinking back to my little barn I had been hauled up in until Daryl had come along. Before on my own there was no one to calm me down when I woke for a nightmare. Once I had Lauren and we would help each other, when I lost her it was like losing everything all over again. Id tried not to think about her for so long. But the memory was still fresh and raw. Just as I was starting to regret the solo walk I saw it out of the corner of my eye, halfway up a tree a squirrel clinging to the bark I quickly and as quietly as I could raised my bow and fired an arrow. I hit my target and there it stayed attached to the tree. Just then I heard Daryl's voice he sounded angry I ran over to retrieve my catch and head towards the direction of Daryl's voice.
I ran though the trees till Daryl was in my view he appeared to be fighting with the bow man I was relieved to see him unharmed the man glanced at me quick before returning to the argument.
"The rules of the hunt don't mean jack out here and that rabbit you holding is mine its claimed whether you like it or not " the man cried as Daryl bent down retrieve the rabbit the two appeared to be fighting over. Daryl's face looked stern I could tell he wasn't giving up this without a fight. He trudged back over game firmly in his left hand as the two began to argue again I wasn't concerned with their words I just didn't know what this man was capable of, though I knew what Daryl was capable of.
"I bet" the man started "Your just pissed over your bitch" He flung his hand in my direction turning slowly watching as Daryl circled him "What aint she putting out" the man smiled smugly.
"Fuck you!" I shouted from the sideline.
"Well then maybe you aint his type sweetheart" He said turning to face me his back now to Daryl, an unwise move in my opinion. "Maybe he would like something a little younger than yourself, no offence sweetheart your plenty young enough for me" I could hear Daryl's growls from where I stood.
"Screw you" I called back at him. Keeping my eyes on Daryl as he stood back to back with the scrawny man, I could see his shoulders were tensed even through his shirt. I could tell Daryl was near boiling point and I needed to get him out of there.
"You must like them younger types, shame the kiddys don't last long now a days" Before I had time to act Daryl had turned knife unclipped form its holster he went to launch himself forward.
"Hay wow there boys" Joes called stepping forward between the two men. He placed his hand on Daryl's arm which held the knife. The two men backed away from each other Joe still between them.
"Problem over the game" Joe asked Daryl only glared in response.
"Yes boss" the other man piped up.
"You claim it" Joe asked
"Hell yeah, hand it over" the man cockily called to Daryl. Daryl held the game tight.
"You know the rules Daryl, you claimed it and its yours or would you like to share." Joe looked up at me, I looked down unable to meet his eyes.
"Keep it" Daryl said dropping the lifeless rabbit to the ground and walking over to me.
We headed back to the tracks where the rest of the men stood waiting. The rest of the day we trudged along in silence only stopping briefly for lunch me and Daryl again sitting away for the other men Daryl cursed under his breath as the scrawny man he had fought with earlier pulled the rabbit triumphantly from his bag smug smile on his face. I remembered the squirrel I had caught earlier taking it from my bag Daryl gave a small smile that made me smile back. We kept our usual distance from the rest of the group as we continued following the tracks. As the day light faded exhaustion set in I felt like I was dead on my feet, as we slowed my feet scuffled over the ground I tripped on a piece of track that stuck out of the ground into Daryl's waiting arms.
"You alright" Daryl asked making sure I was stable again.
"Tired that's all" I felt exhausted and not just physically I felt as though the past few days had been mentally draining, now I had to constantly be on guard around these men and keep an eye on Daryl making sure he wouldn't get himself or the both of us killed.
"We'll stop off here for the night" Joe called signalling to the men to enter what looked like an abandoned car workshop.
A few of the men scoped out the inside before giving it the all clear we entered the building. The cars sat in what seemed like a semi circle, Daryl whipped I sheet of tarpaulin off of one of the cars revelling a vintage model in not bad condition , I thought about jumping in that car and driving as far away as possible, I wish.
"Claimed" I man called out standing in front of the car. As Daryl went to walk towards a broken down beat up looking truck the bow man threw his back pack into the trunk.
"Claimed" He called out for the whole room to hear.
I noticed in the far corner of the workshop that there were a couple of removed car seats tossed aside I headed over I could feel eyes on me as I bent over to move the car seats, Daryl was quickly by my side lending me a hand we got the car seats up pushing them together there was enough space for the two of us to lay comfortably and it wasn't long before I felt myself falling into a natural sleep.
Although it wasn't the comfiest thing to sleep on I was I felt relaxed enough and safe enough to sleep, and I knew it was all down to Daryl. My own guardian angel.
I could hear heavy breathing, creeping footsteps. I sat up quickly reaching for the nearest thing to defend myself, which happened to be Daryl's crossbow. I held it up and pointed it straight in the face of the man with the bow as he stood staring over us.
"What the hell do you think you're up to" I hissed through the darkness Daryl stirred beside me, he looked up.
"What the-" Daryl started sitting up
"Cool your boots girlie" The bow man said raising his hands in a sign of surrender before slowly retreating I to the darkness. I lowered Daryl's bow.
"What the hell was that" Daryl asked looking down at me.
"I dunno I just woke and there he was" It was a little more than unnerving to wake and find a man standing over you in the darkness.
I handed Daryl back his bow apologising as I did so explaining it was the first thigh I could grab in the confusion. He didn't seem to mind in fact he looked confused at my apology, I'd never really asked about Daryl's crossbow he had told me he had it way before the apocalypse. But that was as much as I knew other than there seemed to be a special kinda connection between him and that piece of metal, and that was a relationship I understood it was that way with bow people or so I was told.
"You ever used a crossbow" Daryl asked looking over his own bow.
"Nope, only my own" I answered looking down at where my bow lay at the end of the makeshift bed.
"Maybe I'll teach ya" Daryl said placing the bow back onto his legs and laying back down.
"Sounds good" I smiled to myself laying back down next to him.
"You get some sleep ill keep an eye out case peeping tom comes back" Daryl said placing an arm under his head propping himself up.
"You'll wake me in a bit then" I asked turning to look at his as he played with his lip with his free hand. Daryl nodded in reply and I tried to relax enough to fall back to sleep.
When I woke it was morning.
"Thought you were going to wake me" I asked as I woke to find Daryl in the same position I'd left him.
"You looked pretty peaceful, though id leave ya be" Daryl said making me blush a little.
"We'll now I owe ya" I smiled back before sitting up and looking around, again it looked like we were the first ones up.
"I don't trust them Daryl and I don't like being around them" I whispered looking round make sure no one woke. Daryl sat up by my side.
"We are gonna get out just gotta wait for the right moment"
"What are we even doing here Daryl" We had just fell into this uneasy alliance with these people.
I turned to look at Daryl in the eyes, he looked at me blankly like he didn't have a real answer.
"Today" I asked
"Today" Daryl replied.
Another day of what seemed like endless walking followed only this time when we had out brief lunch stop today there was no lunch involved, Daryl and I had kept an eye out on the side of the tracks all morning but hadn't seen any sign of life.
I could feel Daryl watching me as I chewed on my nail trying to distract myself from the hunger pains, he looked away as I looked up. I felt like I was a burden to him like he was taking responsibly for me and blaming himself for me going hungry. The group was fairly quite this afternoon. So quiet in fact that a small creature had the chance to sneak up on us. I grabbed the knife from my holster and threw it past the men pining another squirrel to a tree. I stood up to walk over and colect my prize when all the men started cheering.
"Hot damm girl" one man called out.
"Wow little lady" another man called wolf whistles followed as I pulled the knife from the bark.
As I turned back to walk over to Daryl I was stopped by the bow man standing before me.
"And all this time I thought he was carrying you, turns out I was wrong you clearly got the balls" I looked him dead in the eyes all fear I had felt melted away and I could see what this man was clearly, he was pathetic.
"Move" I said eyes still locked
" Manners" the man said
"She said move" Daryl grumbled now standing behind him.
"Calm down boys" Joe bellowed
The bow man shifted from one foot to the other he suddenly seemed on edge like he was losing it.
"I said Manners!" The man shouted stepping towards me I backed up, but he followed.
Another man stood grabbing Daryl holding him back I watched them struggled over the approaching mans shoulder and two more men stood to reframe Daryl on Joes command.
"There aint gonna be another fight now is there" Joe hissed but not at me or Daryl but the man before me.
"I'm done with his Joe I don't care if its claimed its mine, he's an outsider he can't play by our rules she's free game and I'm claiming her" He was talking about me.
Suddenly he lunged forward and grabbed me pinning me against the tree, I felt like the squirrel trapped against the bark. He grabbed my right hand which held the knife, he slamed it against the bark till I dropped it, in the background I could hear Joe speaking trying to reason with the man and Daryl screaming for him to get his hands off of me.
He pushed his body against mine so I could barely move he leaned in closed to my face I could feel his breath on my skin.
"Claimed" he whispered smiling, I leaned back as far as I could before I spat in his face.
He recoiled for a moment but simply continued smiling.
"Bitch"
"Enough I'm warning you" Joe called out from the distance.
I tried to move but was still pinned, the only thing I could move was my head. So I did giving it everything I had I leaned back before throwing my head forward where it collided with his nose, causing him to stumble back.
"Last warning" Joe shouted louder this time but the man's eyes stayed on me and again he lunged forward screaming in my face, and then. Bang.
Blood splattered my face and a lifeless body lay before me. Joe had given his final warning and it had been ignored. I stood frozen wondering how things had escalated. The men let go of Daryl to go and deal with the walkers that had been attracted by the commotion.
I picked up my kill and knife before walking back over to Daryl's side. He cupped my face in his hands and began to whip the blood away his thumbs.
"You okay" Daryl asked a question I found we were asking each other more and more often. And my reply seemed to always be the same.
"Yeah fine" I answered unable to look into Daryl's eyes.
We continued in silence. This time it was eerier, the sudden death of the man shocking not only myself. The light was fading though we didn't seem to be letting up anytime soon. Daryl whispered to me about making a break for it though it seemed talk was all it was. The men at the front of the group gathered talking to each other, the Chinese whispers when down the line of the group stopping at us something was up. We were tracking. Daryl pointed out a set of footprints in the dust at the side of the track.
"Think we found them" Joe told the group. "Stay close and follow us" Joe called out to us at the back. We followed the men into the outskirts of the woods watching them move in military formation.
I could hear voices low whispers in the distance. We had found our target. Daryl grabbed my arm.
"Hold back" He said panic building in his voice.
"What's wrong Daryl" I asked concerned.
"I knew them, There my group"