Chapter 29:

It rained the entire next day, but neither complained. They did, however, agree that even if it was still raining tomorrow, they had to leave. The entire day they laid around and just enjoyed each other's company. Occasionally they traded light touches, she would sometimes turn her head and give him a light kiss, and he would randomly trace her skin with his fingers. They didn't really talk, and that was ok.

When they fell asleep that night, she knew it was her final chance to leave. She was torn between staying with Daryl and leaving to get away from the people that she would have to face the next day. While Daryl slept she fought to stop herself from tossing and turning. The rain was stopping and she knew she had to make a choice soon or be forced to go back to the prison.

Taking a steading breath, she shifted away from Daryl's side. "Where ya goin," he murmured sleepily.

"Bathroom," she whispered and kissed his forehead. He grumbled something and rolled onto his side. She pulled the blanket up over his shoulders and fought back the tears that threatened to run down her cheeks. "Go on," he mumbled, "urry, up."

She smiled at his sleepy voice and got dressed. She grabbed her small bag and exited the tent. The moment she closed the tent, she let her tears fall. She walked normally until she knew he wouldn't be able to hear her, and then she broke into a run. It wasn't too far to her truck, but it was still going to be tough to get there. She was still sore in some places, and running just stressed her injuries. But she knew that Daryl would be waiting for her, and when she didn't come right back, he would come looking for her. She had to put a good amount of distance between them.

She cried as she ran and she tried her best not to think about Beth and Judith and Daryl and any of the other people that she had started to like. She welcomed to the pain from her injuries, she focused on it just to keep other thoughts out of her mind. When her hands touched her truck she was sobbing. She fumbled with the keys until she was able to unlock the truck. She stumbled getting in and her heart leaped fearing that Daryl had caught up with her. But when she looked over her shoulder, there was nothing but nature. She pulled the door shut behind her as a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, followed by a roll of thunder that covered the sound of her truck starting.

She threw the truck into drive and smashed her foot onto the gas pedal, spinning the tires before they caught enough friction to get her out and onto the road. She didn't slow down until the rain stopped and the sun had started to rise. She looked down and noticed that she was starting to run low on gas again and she frowned. She knew they hadn't put much in her truck, but still, she wished she had gotten further. She knew Daryl would be awake already and looking for her, and when he noticed her truck was gone, he would either go back to the prison or forget about her, or he would get a car and come looking for her.

Either way, she didn't want to be so close. She knew she wasn't strong enough to face him and walk away. He would somehow convince her to come back, and she couldn't.

She pulled over on the side of the road when she saw a few cars gathered together. She looked around, grabbed her weapons out of her pack and carefully got out of the truck and started looking around. She picked through the cars and found nothing but one bottle of water and a stale half gone pack of cigarettes. When she was done with the cars she walked a little bit down the road to see what else there was around.

About ten minutes or so into her walk, she started seeing houses that looked as if they had been empty for quite some time. She listened and looked around outside before walking up to the first house and knocked on the window. She waited, and when nothing moved inside, she opened the door and let herself in. She looked around, clearing each room as she went.

Once she had cleared the entire house she took a deep breath and plopped down in one of the chairs in one of the upstairs room. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. That was the first time she had realized how tired she was, and how sore her body was after last night.

Just thinking about what she had done, had tears threatening to come out again. She did her best to shrug them away, but she was too tired and too hungry to keep them away for much longer. She picked up one of the cans she had found, opened it, and did her best to eat it slowly.

Once she was done, she went downstairs and did her best to block off the doors and the windows before going back upstairs. She pushed the bed in front of the door and laid down, sighing the moment her head hit the pillow. She knew she would be asleep very soon, and she didn't fight it. She just prayed that she wouldn't dream.

Daryl had woken up when the thunder had rumbled through the sky. He turned and reached for her, thinking that she had come back and he just hadn't heard her over the rain. But when his hand touched nothing but empty bed he bolted up right and started getting dressed. His first thought was that something had happened to her when she left. He hardly had his shirt over his head as he ran from the tent.

He looked for her tracks and found them leading away from camp. At first he didn't think anything of it, but when they didn't stop right outside of camp, he started to think that something else was happening. He picked up his pace and readied his crossbow just in case. He slowed down once he got closer to the truck, and when he reached the area where they had left the truck, he stopped completely. She was gone. She wasn't taken. She wasn't hurt. She wasn't coming back. She was gone.

He took off running after the tire marks hoping that she had made it to the road and stopped and was sitting there waiting for him. But when his foot hit pavement, he knew she wasn't there. The rain had washed away what little tracks she had left, so he knew which direction she had gone in, but he didn't know how far away she had gone. He dropped to his knees. He thought he had gotten through to her. He thought that she believed him when he told her he was going to take care of her, protect her. She would've been ok when they went back to the prison. He would have made sure of it.

But she left.

He sat there for a long moment trying to figure out when she had planned this. He started to grow angry when he started thinking that she had planned this from the start. But, he knew it didn't matter when she had planned this. He needed to find her. She was still hurt and now she was alone. He wanted to make sure she would be ok. So, he was going to head back to the prison. He was going to talk to Carol and demand answers, then he was going to get on his bike and find her and bring her home.

The sun was setting when she woke up. She stretched and let her eyes adjust to the lighting. She placed her hand on her weapon making sure that it was still there before she got up and started walking around to get herself to wake up more. She listened and looked out the window several times to make sure that she was safe.

She thought about staying in the house overnight, but she knew that she needed to keep moving just in case Daryl was coming for her. She knew he wouldn't hurt her, but she also knew she couldn't go back now.

She moved the bed and grabbed her things before looking out the windows and then leaving the house. She stayed in the shadows as she ran back to her truck. She stopped at the cars and managed to siphon gas out of one of the cars. She filled her truck with what she found and started it. She looked around one more time and only saw one walker. She pulled away from the side of the road and avoided the walker as she drove away. She wanted to put a good amount of distance between her and the prison tonight before she went back to sleep.

She knew she wasn't going to make it far with how tired she was. She had taken a good nap, but she was emotional and physically tired and driving had always made her fall asleep quickly.

When her eyes drifted shut a few hours later, while she was still driving, she knew it was time to pull over. If she wanted to or not. She pulled out a map and marked where she thought the prison should be and then started looking around to see where she was. When she had mapped out her travel, she saw that she was about a day or so away from the prison, and she decided that was a good enough start. She pulled the truck further off the side of the road and did her best to hide it in the tree line before getting out and locking herself in the back of the truck to try and get a good night sleep.

(A/N – I'm sorry that this chapter is so short, but this is where I wanted to leave this chapter! And I didn't want to just add a bunch of words to make it longer… so I hope you like it! Either way! I'm excited for the Walking Dead to start tomorrow! Well today… anyway! Leave me a review and let me know what you think of the story! Thank you to all my followers and reviewers! Love you all!)