"Were you bit?! Oh my God, please tell me you weren't bit!" Adeline cried, her hands ripping apart my clothing as she searched for any signs that I would turn soon. I attempted to fight her off, but she was much too persistent. So instead, I grabbed her arms tightly.

"Please stop," I murmured. "I'm fine. Daryl killed it before anything happened."

From the corner of my eye, I could see the archer lurking about. After the attack on the prison, Daryl had forced me into the building and practically threw me at my sister, telling her to hurry up and check for any bites. Naturally, she had flown into a panic and tried to strip me down right in front of him. I'd dragged her into our cell before anyone was able to see any parts of me I didn't want shown.

"I guess I should thank him then," she whispered, but made sure her voice was loud enough for him to hear, "if it weren't for the fact that if he hadn't abandoned us, this probably wouldn't have happened in the first place!" She ended her sentence in a shrieking yell.

Daryl, who had been standing with his back toward us the entire time, slowly turned his head to throw an angry glare at Adeline. "Yeah?" he questioned. "Maybe if you two weren't so damn worthless all the time, I wouldn't have had to save Harper's dumb ass!"

When we were younger, Adeline was always the one who had to get in the last word in arguments. I expected her to chase after him as he stomped down the stairs of the catwalk, but she simply let out a frustrated huff and planted her butt on the bed. "What an ass," she mumbled to herself.

Shaking my head, I hurried around the barred door and caught Daryl just as he reached the bottom of the stairs. "Hey, Dixon?" I called. He stopped, but didn't turn to face me. "I just wanted to say thank you. I probably would've been turned already if it wasn't for you."

"Yeah," he answered sardonically. "You would have."

o-o-o

"We can't leave."

"We can't stay here!"

I buried my head into my hands as I sat on the stairs. I had woken up with a headache and it just seemed to become more and more painful as the day progressed. Everyone's bickering wasn't helping it either. With every shout, I could feel the dull pain gather just above my left eye.

"Look, if Rick says we're not running, we're not running!" Glenn announced, holding up his hands in an attempt to quiet everyone. It didn't exactly work out in his favor.

"Nah," Merle commented from the locked common area. "Better to live like rats."

Adeline narrowed her eyes at the man. "Sounds to me like you've got a better idea."

"Yeah. We should've slid out of here last night and lived to see another day. Lost that window, didn't we? I'm sure he's got scouts on every road out of this place by now."

"We ain't scared of that prick," Daryl retorted, scowling at his older brother from the catwalk. His voice caused me to jolt in surprise. None of us had seen him all morning.

"You should be. That truck through the fence thing? That was just him ringin' the doorbell."

Rolling her eyes, Adeline pointed a finger toward Merle. "How do we even know we can trust this guy? He almost killed Glenn, for God's sake." Her finger turned to Daryl. "And how can we trust that Daryl isn't on his side? Maybe they're both trying to get us out in the open so the Governor can get at us?"

I'm sure the inside of my cheek began to bleed from how much I nervously chewed at it as Rick slowly approached my sister. I hurried to my feet, readying myself to snatch the gun from Glenn's hand and put a bullet through the sheriff, but Carol placed a hand on my back in reassurance.

"Daryl and Merle were with us at the beginning, and Daryl was with us the entire time," Rick growled. Adeline's eyes never left his, but I could tell from the way her nostrils flared and how tightly her arms crossed over her chest that she was terrified. "We've known you and your sister for only three weeks. What makes me think we can trust you two? Maybe you've been sided with the Governor from the beginning?"

"You're joking, right?" I demanded to know. "You really think we sided with that man? We didn't even know who he was until we joined up with you!"

Merle let out an annoying, wispy laugh. "Guess trust doesn't come too easily 'round this group, huh?"

"Can we put him in the other cell block?" Maggie asked in aggravation.

"No, he's got a point about the Governor," Daryl added, propping his elbows on the metal railing.

"We need to leave," Hershel suggested. "Axel is dead because of him. We can't just sit here."

Rick tapped his fingers eagerly on his gun before turning from the group. He refused to acknowledge that Adeline existed anymore. Instead, he strolled toward Merle, who backed away from the door in expectance that Rick would let him out.

Hershel's booming voice frightened me. "GET BACK HERE!" he ordered. I shrunk away from him, shuffling closer to Carol. "You're slipping, Rick. We've all seen it. We understand why, but now is not the time. You once said this isn't a democracy. Now you have to own up to that. I put my family's lives in your hands, so get your head clear and do something."

I couldn't stand to be around these people anymore. I turned from them, ignoring the arguing that continued, and retreated to my cell. More than anything, I wished they had real doors. Their voices echoed directly to me. Lying on the bed, I placed my pillow over my head, pretending that it would help to block them out. The shouts, name-calling, and sarcastic laughs only stopped when I allowed myself to slip away into sleep.

o-o-o

"Hey." I felt a light tap on my shoulder. "Hey, wake up."

Disoriented and still suffering from my persistent headache, I cracked my eyes open, shielding them from the sunlight that was peering in from the window. Daryl stood above me, a rattling bottle of pills in his hand. As soon as his blue eyes met mine, I thought back to the group gathering earlier.

"What do you want?" I snapped.

"Your sister said you have a headache. I ain't got any water, so you have to dry swallow these."

I sat up and snatched the bottle from his hand. The pale orange color of the plastic automatically turned me off to them, but when I read the word "OxyContin" that had been Sharpied on, I wasted no time handing it back to him. "No thank you," I said. "This has 'drug dealer' written all over it."

Daryl shook his head, pushing my legs over toward the wall to make room for himself. He opened the bottle and shook a few pills onto his hand. "It ain't what it says on the bottle. It's just Tylenol. I didn't have anythin' else to put them in."

He held his hand out toward me, urging with his eyes for me to open my palm. I hesitated, but ultimately let the pills fall onto my hand. Before I had time to regret it, I threw them in my mouth and swallowed hard. After waiting for a few moments to see if my body would burst into convulsions or anything like that, I gave him a small nod.

"Thank you," I muttered, "for helping me once again."

"Yeah." Daryl used the supporting bars of the top bunk to pull himself up. I watched him as he headed toward the rest of the cell block, studying the tattoo on his left shoulder blade that peeked out from his winged vest.

"Hey, Daryl," I called just before he left my sight. He stopped and turned back to face me. "Do you think what Rick said is true? About Adeline and me siding with the Governor?"

Giving a small shake of his head, he pursed his lips together. "Nah," he answered. "You're kind of weak and can't do shit for yourself, but I think you're good."