Killer Love

by awalkerlifeforme

Rain had never had an easy life. Her home life quickly spiraled out of control and she learned to expect the unexpected. What she never expected was for the dead to rise and have to go on the run with a group of people who she never thought she could ever get along with, or even come to love. But when she finds someone more similar to her than she likes, her life gets even harder.

36. Contagion

Light flooded my vision as my eyes slowly opened and I groaned. My head was pounding and my throat felt like the Sahara Desert. I didn't remember much, only passing out. More than likely because I hadn't eaten all day, and I hadn't had anything to drink either. It had been my own stupid fault. I heard the scratch of an arrow across from me and I looked up. Daryl was in a chair, on the side of our cell, and I smiled at him. It seemed like it was almost a bad joke now. I would pass out, and when I woke up he would be at my bedside. Most of the time sharpening an arrow.

I stretched and sat forward. He got up but still stood at a slight distance from me. Neither one of us seemed sick, but too much direct contact with each other, and we could easily infect each other. Daryl sat at the foot of the bed, and I moved my leg for him to sit. My stomach began to growl, and I laughed. I didn't know how long it had been since I'd eaten, but I knew that it was too long. "You were out all day. All through the night too. After you passed out, we made a few adjustments on the fence. It's sturdy for now. We'll make a more permanent solution once we get the virus dealt with. And speaking of, there's a council meeting tomorrow morning."

I nodded at him and laughed. "Damn. Every time that I pass out, I miss all the fun. What the hell guys?" I asked him with a smile on my face. He shook his head and stood up, telling me that he was going to get me food. I nodded at him, no part of me wanting to argue him. I just hoped that there was some meat. But I didn't know how much we had needed to get rid of after we had discovered that the virus was coming from the animals in the area.

A few minutes later, Daryl arrived back at my cell and I smiled at the food. As I had figured, there was no meat. But that didn't matter, there was a lot of food on the plate. More than I had been expecting. Quickly, I downed the water, and Daryl stood up to get me another glass. I grabbed the two protein bars on the plate and quickly gobbled them down as well. There was a small pile of eggs, more than likely powdered, but it didn't matter. I ate them quickly, even though they were extremely dry. Daryl returned a moment later and I drank about another half of the glass. There was a bag of pretzels on the corner of the plate and I smiled, eating them slowly. It wasn't often that I got food like that, so I savored it. There was also a small portion of corn that I ate slowly. Finished with the plate, I pushed it onto the side of the bed and stood up.

I had been in the walker-bloodied clothes all day, and I was ready to get out. As I pulled the shirt over my head, it stuck to my skin like it was rubber. Finally managing to peel it off, I grabbed a blue tank top from the pile of clean clothes and slipped it on. I peeled my shorts off as well and threw them into the corner with my shirt. Those clothes were to be burned. I grabbed a pair of dark blue jean shorts and pulled them on, knowing that I would be working out in the sun today. Now that I was feeling better. I slipped my boots back on and stood, facing Daryl.

"Morning little brother. Morning princess. Glad to see that you're up and about this morning. And looking much better," Merle called to us. Daryl gruffly greeted his brother, and I smiled at the older man. I hadn't seen him at all after the attack in the morning, but I had known that he was alive. It was just good to see that he hadn't fallen prey to the virus yet. Although, with all of the time that he and his brother had spent in the woods, their immune systems were probably iron-clad.

Walking over to Merle, and out of the cell, I smiled at him but kept my distance. "Good morning Merle. Glad to see that you're doing OK. Be sure to keep your distance from everyone. We don't know who might be carrying the virus and who isn't." Merle nodded at me and walked off, squeezing my shoulder before he left both Daryl and I.

As Merle walked out of earshot, Daryl walked up to me, but left a small space in between the two of us. I sighed slightly. I knew that this was what we needed to do to protect ourselves, but I missed being able to hug him, or give him a soft kiss. Hopefully, this would all be over soon. "We need to head out to the river. We need fresh water to help the sick. The damn pump outside is stuck. Rick and Carol are gonna get on it, but they can't do it today. It'll take too long and they have other shit to get done. So if you're feeling up to it, you ready to head out?" Daryl asked me. I nodded softly at him and turned back to the cell.

I grabbed my guns, sticking them into the holster, and then wrapping the holster around my waist. I grabbed my knives as well, sheathing them quickly. My bow was last as I shouldered the quiver, with the bow resting on top of them. I turned back to Daryl and nodded, ready to head out. He walked around the door and we both walked out. It had been a long few days, and I was ready to fall back asleep, but I couldn't. There was no time for lazing around. As we walked out, Daryl grabbed his crossbow that had been sitting at the door. The two of us stepped out of the door to the cell block and announced to Rick that we were heading out. The man wished us luck and told us to be careful. As we always were. But still, some runs got dangerous really fast. We had all experienced that at least once.

The two of us walked down the drive and smiled at Michonne as we hit the gate. She opened it up for us and we both walked out. There were walkers that were surrounding the gate, so we had to run through the grassy area. We made our way through easily and slowed down as we broke the wood line. The river wasn't far from the prison, maybe only two miles. But in this heat, it was a long and miserable walk. I refused to let this day go without something good coming from it though. So I nudged Daryl lightly in the shoulder, and he turned to me.

Laughing before I even got the chance to talk, he cocked his eyebrow at me, looking at me like I was nuts. "Did I ever tell you about the time that I got suspended from school?" I asked him. Daryl shook his head at me and I smiled. "So, I had been dating this guy. Real asshole type. Every guy hated him, well except for the popular guys. But all of the girls, they loved him. He was the type that your mother would have a heart attack if you brought him home. But I was living with my uncle at the time, and he didn't care. So one night, I told him that I couldn't hang out because I had to study. Which was true. But then my uncle asked if I wanted to go to the movies. And he never did stuff like that. So I just had to say yes. And we went. It was Edward Scissorhands. I always loved that movie. I think the fact that my uncle took me to it was why I loved it so much. But anyways, we got our seats and sat down at the top of the theater. Not even two minutes later, that guy walks in. His name was Dylan. There's a girl with him too. Pretty, blonde hair, slim body, she had everything. I hoped she was just a friend, but the fact that they were face-to-face the entire movie told me otherwise. So that night we go back home and I cry all night. Uncle Philip actually consoled me though. It was my first heartbreak. My only heartbreak actually."

Daryl was watching me with dark eyes, nodding at me to continue my story. "So the next morning, I wake up and go to school. Dylan tries to talk to me all morning, but I ignored him. Finally, we were in biology and he asked me why I was being such a bitch. By that point, I was seeing red. Grabbing the Gatorade that I had sitting on my desk, I stood up and dumped it all over him. Kicked him too, and smashed my sandwich on him." Daryl was laughing loudly at my story and I smiled. I knew that he would like that one. "I got a week's suspension for that one. It was so worth it though. Uncle Philip thought so too," I told him.

Daryl laughed and shook his head at me as we continued to walk. "Remind me to never make you angry," Daryl told me. I laughed and blushed lightly. "Eh, I've done something like that before too. When I was in school, girls used to like to try to get me to talk. I was so quiet and so isolated that they always wanted me to say something. I guess it was like a prize if they got me to talk. So this one night, Merle gives me a few shots of whiskey. At the time, it got me on my ass drunk. But still, the next morning, I got up and went to school. Terrible fucking hangover though. This girl, real sweet, comes up to me and starts to talk to me. I tried to tell her that I wasn't feeling well, but no words came out. Instead, I vomited all over her. That girl never talked to me again and I never said another word in that high school." I laughed loudly at the thought of Daryl vomiting on someone and awkwardly trying to apologize.

This was what I had wanted for today. The two of us to talk together like a pair of humans that were dating. If that was even what we were. Honestly, I had no idea what to call Daryl and I's relationship. We weren't engaged or married. That all seemed too serious. But we weren't dating either, that just sounded childish. I guess we could say that we were in a relationship. But it was so much more than that. He was my world, the reason that I fought so hard. We were each other's motivation.

We reached the river and I took out two of the jugs that I had been handed before we had left. Filling up the first, I snorted lightly. Daryl's story had reminded me of the only friend that I had ever had. Daryl looked at me with a confused face and I smiled at him. "Oh come on, we've all done something like that. When I was younger, and still living with my parents, I did something almost like that. Me and the only friend that I ever had, Lisa, got into my dad's liquor cabinet one night. Took out a bottle of Scotch. We had no idea what it really did to you, so between the two of us, we drank almost the whole bottle. I don't remember much after that. But anyways, the next morning I got up and Lisa said she didn't feel very well. My mom drove her home. I was trying to make breakfast, but the food smelled so awful that I fell to the ground. My father came over to me to see what was wrong, and when he pulled me up, I vomited all over him. He was so angry when I confessed what we had done that he beat me senseless. I had to go to the hospital after that, and I missed a week of school. The worst part was that he made me stop being friends with Lisa," I told Daryl. He looked like he was sorry for me, but I shook my head. "Don't be sorry. It was hilarious, my dad's reaction at me vomiting all over him."

Our laughter skyrocketed as we both pictured my father covered in my vomit. It had been hysterical back then, and it was still hysterical now. As I filled up the second of my jugs, I motioned to Daryl, telling him that I was ready to go back. On our way back he told me about the time when he had beaten up a kid for telling him that hunting wasn't a real sport, and I told him how I used to steal the little magnetic rocks from stores and keep them in my sock drawer. That was how the majority of our day went. We would grab canteens, bring them out to the river, fill them up, and bring them back. We would deliver them to Hershel, who would bring the fresh water in to the sick people. All the while we were telling each other stories from our past life.

Once we had filled up our last canteens, Hershel warning us that it was too dark to continue going out, we dropped them off and made our way to get dinner. I was so exhausted from all of the walking and hauling that I dropped into my seat and gobbled down the small portion of chicken and rice that had been left out for us. Once we had handed our plates off, the two of us made our way into the cells, knowing that in the morning we would have another council meeting.

I walked into our cell and laid down on the bed. Looking up, I saw that Daryl was standing outside of the cell, looking in at me. I cocked my head to the side, silently asking him why he wasn't coming into the cell. He sighed and took a few steps forward, leaning onto the side of the cell. "You know what they said, Rain. It's too dangerous for us to be close together. That includes sleeping. Last night, I slept in the cell next to yours and checked on you every once in a while. I'll sleep there again tonight and until this thing clears up. Just yell through the bars if you need me, OK?" Daryl asked. I nodded at him and sighed. I didn't like the fact that none of us could be close together, but I knew that it was better safe than sorry. "I love you," Daryl told me softly as he walked out of the cell.

I smiled at Daryl and laid my head back onto the pillows. "I love you too," I told him softly as he walked out of the room. I heard the cell door next to mine open and close again. A few moments after, I heard the soft thump of Daryl's body hitting the mattress and I closed my eyes. Today had been nice. One of those days that we rarely had anymore. Taking in a few deep breaths, I sighed shakily as I turned onto my side. My body was killing me, probably from walking all day. The last thing that I thought of, before drifting off to sleep, was how nice it would be if masseuses were still around.

My dream had been one of the better ones that I'd had in a while. With the physical separation of Daryl and I, my mind let itself wander a bit. It was one of those moments where I hated living in the cells. I knew how badly these walls echoed, and I could only hope that I didn't talk, or make other noises, in my sleep. I stretched my body out, feeling my bones cracking all over and grunted at the pain in my lower back. Damn it, I was too young to be feeling pain like this. Laying my body back down on the mattress, I closed my eyes once more, but the slamming of the front door woke me back up.

I heard footsteps pounding on the stairs as they ran up, and from the sound of the boots, it was more than likely Daryl. Just as I had thought, he burst around the corner and flung open the door to my cell. "Rain! Get up, we have a problem." I jumped out of bed, knowing that if he was worrying like this, it was something bad. I leaned down to get my clothes, but Daryl grabbed my hand, shaking his head at me. "No time, don't worry about that stuff right now."

I nodded at him and grabbed my gun, running out of the door with him. Daryl led me down the halls, back to where the boiler room was. I hadn't been all the way back here in forever. The tunnels behind the boiler room were dark, and hard to find your way around. The last time that any of us had been back here, the prisoners were still alive. And that had been a long time ago. I rounded one more corner, and spotted the back porch where Rick had trapped Andrew all those months ago. Why the hell were we back here? Daryl pushed open the door, and the two of us walked outside. Rick, Tyreese, and Carol were all already out there.

For a moment, I had no idea why we were all out here. But then I saw it. I looked down and spotted two charred bodies. And they clearly hadn't been walkers when they were burned. The area stank of rotting flesh, and it was filled with a hazy black smoke. These bodies had been burned. And judging by the blood marks on the floor, someone had killed them first. But why would someone have stabbed them, and then burned them? We would figure out who they were eventually. I looked at the clothes on both of the burned bodies, and the identities were easy to find after that. It was a male and female. The female was easy, she was wearing the necklace that Tyreese had given her. It was Karen. The male was wearing the same shirt that I had seen him wearing last. It was David.

It was the two people that we had first known were sick. Those we had known that were some of the first two to contract the virus. So someone had killed them to try and stop the spread of the virus. I looked at Tyreese, and it was obvious to see that he wasn't happy with the turn of events. "You found them like this?" Rick asked Tyreese. So it was him who had found them. But how had he known to look out here? I was sure that he hadn't killed them, but why had he come out here?

Tyreese turned to Rick and gave him a dark stare. "I came to see Karen and I saw the blood on the floor. Then I smelled them," he growled. So that explained how he had found the bodies. "Somebody dragged them out here and set them on fire. They killed them and set them on fire! You're a cop. You find out who did this and you bring 'em to me. You understand? You bring 'em to me!" Tyreese yelled as he closed in on Rick. I knew that Rick wanted to push the other man off, but Tyreese was on edge right now, and anything that we did could be the thing to set him off.

Part of me hoped that Tyreese would back off and realize that he wasn't helping, but I knew that he wouldn't. He was angry right now, and I didn't blame him. I would have been beside myself if someone had done that to Daryl. Thankfully, with Rick having been in a calming life for so long, he nodded at Tyreese and kept his cool. "We'll find out who-" Rick began to say to the other man, letting him know that this wouldn't go by without any action being taken, but Tyreese cut him off.

The other man stepped closer to Rick, and was now standing chest to chest with our former leader. For a moment, I was sent back to the vengeful Rick, after he had lost Lori. I knew that something would need to be done about Tyreese, or he would go down the same path. Hopefully Sasha could snap him out of it. "I need to say it again?" Tyreese growled.

Rick shook his head at the man once more, clearly hoping that Tyreese would let this go. "No. No. I know what you're feeling. I've been there. You saw me there. It's dangerous," Rick told him. I nodded, even though I knew that no one could see me, and no one was watching. Tyreese and his old group had been the ones to see Rick and what he had been like firsthand after he had lost Lori. It was dangerous to lose your head and want revenge. All it did was cause more trouble.

"Karen didn't deserve this," Tyreese growled, throwing his hand back to where Karen's charred body lay. I felt my hand drop down to the side of my gun. I would never shoot Tyreese, but I might hit him with the gun if it came down to it.

"No," Rick agreed softly.

Tyreese threw his hand back once more at David's body, and I could tell that he was getting angrier by the moment. "David didn't deserve it," he growled once more.

Rick nodded at the man and softly replied to him. "Nobody does."

Leaving my side, Daryl walked up to the pair, and I was shocked to see how gently he was trying to handle this situation. "All right, man, let's-" Daryl began, laying a hand softly on Tyreese's shoulder. But Tyreese cut him off and grabbed his hand. To my shock, he turned away from Rick and pushed Daryl back into the gate, his fists balling into Daryl's shirt.

My hand tightened on my gun, and I was ready to do anything if Tyreese got out of control. "Man, I ain't going nowhere till I find out who did this!" He yelled to Daryl. So that was it, he thought that we were trying to get him to forget about it. That was far from the case though. We wanted to know who did this. And when we found out who did this, they would be getting in a ton of trouble for it. Hell, we would probably make them leave, or kill them. This should have never happened to David and Karen.

Daryl kept his hands back against the fence, and I could tell that he was trying to handle the situation as delicately as possible. "We're on the same side, man," he grunted out. Tyreese had his arm digging into Daryl's side and it looked like the man was having trouble breathing.

Once more, Rick walked up to the other man. I briefly flinched as Rick approached Tyreese, I knew that he was grieving right now, but Rick also had a nasty temper. The temper that he had gotten after he had killed Shane. It had changed him in more ways than I could count. Of course, killing someone changed everyone. "Hey, look, I know what you're going through. We've all lost someone. We know what you're going through right now, but you've got to calm down," Rick said softly. He placed his hand gently on Tyreese's shoulder, but it was clear that the other man wanted nothing of it.

Tyreese dropped off of Daryl and threw Rick's hand off of his shoulder. "You need to step the hell back!" He yelled at our former leader. This was going nowhere fast. I wanted to step in, but I had no clue what to say. Tell him that I was sorry and that we would figure this out? A simple sorry would do nothing, and he knew that we would try to fix this. But right now all he wanted was revenge. I understood that, but we couldn't afford a fight right now. Not with the virus spreading.

There was a small movement and I turned to the side. Carol was walking up to Tyreese, most likely trying to be the peacekeeper. "She wouldn't want you being like this," Carol said softly to him. Tyreese merely scoffed harshly and walked past her. As he made his way past Rick, he shoved into our former leader, and I saw the fury flash through his eyes.

With nothing more than a brief flash of fury for warning, Rick grabbed onto Tyreese's shoulder and punched him square on in the eye. I shrieked at the crack of the impact and rushed forward. I tried to grab Rick but he shoved me away from him roughly. I grunted as I hit the ground roughly. Daryl looked at me with worry, but I brushed him off. I needed him to try to stop the fight, not focus on me. Carol ran over to me and grabbed my arms, helping me up.

As soon as I hit my feet I once more ran over to where the fight was. Rick had Tyreese pinned to the ground, who was bloody in the face, and clearly not responsive. Rick was laying blow after blow onto the other man, with Daryl wrapped around his midsection attempting to pry him off. I ran over and grabbed Rick on his arm, attempting to push him off of the side of Tyreese. "Stop! Stop!" I yelled at Rick as Tyreese's eyes began to roll back in his head.

"Stop!" Carol shouted behind us. Between the grunts from Rick, and the sounds of strain from Daryl and I, I could barely hear the groans of Tyreese, who looked to be on the edge of passing out.

I attempted to grab onto Rick's arm, but I didn't have a tight enough grip. As I tightened my hand around his arm, he brought it down to hit Tyreese in the face, and I lost my grip. I yelped as I slipped back onto my ass and growled. This was all gonna leave one hell of a bruise in the morning. "That's enough. That's enough," Daryl grunted as he grabbed Rick and attempted to pull him off. "Rick," Daryl tried to call to his friend, but he was too busy taking his anger out on Tyreese. The man in question was groaning at the pain, and I felt horrible for him. He had lost the woman that he loved, his sister was sick, and now he was being beaten to a pulp. "Stop," Daryl growled once more as he was finally able to pull Rick off of Tyreese.

"Let go of me!" Rick shouted, attempting to make his way back over to where Tyreese lay. I knelt over the man, trying to pull him to his feet so I could get him to Hershel. With all of the force that Rick had been putting into his punches, I wanted to be sure that Rick hadn't done any lasting damage. "No. No. Let go of me! No," Rick was howling at Daryl who was leading our former leader out of the back area. Once I knew that they were gone, I motioned over to Carol to help me pick up Tyreese.

The two of us grabbed the man and hauled him over our shoulders. I knew that I was taking the brunt force of his weight, but it didn't bother me. I knew that it was hard for Carol to pick him up. I coughed as we walked back to the cell block, where I had last seen the older man. The two of us walked him through the halls that led back to the cell block, stumbling the entire way. My breath was getting short from his weight, but I had to ignore it. Finally, we hit the living area of the cell block and I shouted out to Hershel. He quickly came out and helped us lay the man down on his bed.

As Hershel got to examining Tyreese he asked the both of us what had happened. I told him about what had happened to Karen and David, and I told him about how Rick had gone haywire. Carol had said a brief part about what had happened before I had gotten to the scene before she walked off and headed back into the yard. Hershel began to stitch up Tyreese and I watched as he asked the younger man questions. After a few minutes, Tyreese began to respond and Hershel informed him on what had happened to him. He ordered that Tyreese stay in his cell for the best part of the day so that he could let the stitches sink in.

Tyreese merely nodded at us, clearly not in the mood to say anything else. Both Hershel and I said a soft goodbye to Tyreese before walking out of the cell and heading to the council room. The walk was silent as I listened to the soft thump of Hershel's prosthetic leg. So much had happened to the man, but he had never let any of it get to him. We turned the last corner and the two of us walked into the room. Everyone was already there, so I took my usual seat besides Daryl. I looked around the table and sighed. Both Sasha and Tyreese were gone, but they had been replaced by Carol and Maggie. Michonne was there too, with Merle at her side. He wasn't on the council, but any input that we could add today, we needed.

Hershel took his seat at the front of the table and his quiet sigh told us that he was ready to start the meeting. Even though no one had been speaking before, we all still shifted our positions and looked at the older man. "It's spread. Everyone who survived the attack in cell block D. Sasha, Caleb, and now others," Hershel informed us.

"Oh, Jesus," Maggie sighed softly. "So what do we do?" She asked her father.

Hershel shook his head at her and tried to look like he knew what we should do, if nothing else, for the sake of keeping his daughter sane. "First things first. Cell block A is isolation. We keep the sick people there like we tried with Karen and David." I looked around the room to judge the reaction of the others, but their faces stayed even. I figured that when Daryl had come in, he must have told the others what had happened.

Daryl shook his head at the older man and dropped into his chair. He shifted the old wooden thing so that it was facing towards him and he sat in it backwards. I smiled briefly at him as he dangled his arms off of the edge of the chair. "What the hell we gonna do about that?" He asked Hershel. It was too hard to figure out who was sick and who was getting sick. Plus, we didn't know exactly who was in the cell block when it was attacked. There had been too much commotion and chaos to keep track of everyone. And at that point, we had had no idea what the attack had been about.

The room was quiet for a while as everyone tried to think about what to do. But it wasn't an easy question, and we all knew that there would be no easy answers. "Ask Rick to look into it. Try to make a timeline- who's where when," Hershel told us. It wasn't a solution, but for now it was as good of a start as we had.

"But what are we gonna do to stop this?" Carol asked.

I shook my head at her, we had no idea how to stop this. It seemed like once it started, it was already too late. It would just kill you, and it would kill you fast. There was no time to experiment on what to do. "There is no stopping it. You get it, you have to go through it," Hershel answered her, voicing my thoughts.

"But it just kills you?" She asked again.

"The illness doesn't. The symptoms do. We need antibiotics." I shook my head at his answer. We had already looked through other pharmacies that were around, and we hadn't found anything. The closest hospital we had checked out too, but when they had come back they had told us that it was too overcrowded with walkers. There was no way that we could get anything more, and the stuff that we had wasn't even enough to help one person.

Daryl voiced my thoughts next to me, and I nodded subconsciously as he spoke. "We've been through every pharmacy nearby. And then some," he said to the older man. He was right though. We had searched every little place that we could find within 50 miles. And anything more than that was a far stretch.

Once more, the room quieted down and I thought about everything that we had seen. There had been the drug store near Hershel's old farm, but that must have been at least 100 miles away. There was no way that we could spare a trip that far. Half of the prison might be dead by the time that we returned anyways. Hershel finally seemed to come up with something though as he perked up, and I could practically see the light bulb go off. "That veterinary college at West Peachtree Tech, that's one place people may not have thought to raid for medication. The drugs for animals there are the same we need," he told us happily.

"That's 50 miles," Glenn said with shock evident in his voice. It was way too far, and it might take us more than a day to get there and get back, but it was the only thing that we had.

Daryl shrugged his shoulders at the younger man and sat up straight in his chair. "Took big risks before. Ain't now. I'm gonna take a group out. Best not waste any more time," he said. He stood up quickly, grabbing his crossbow off of the wall where it was propped up. I stood up with him as well, knowing that there was no way that he could do this alone.

"I'll go too. That place was probably busy during the early days of the outbreak. It'll be surrounded by walkers. You'll need someone to go with you. Can't do this one alone," I told him. He nodded and I grabbed my bow off of the floor where I had left it. Everything was on me, I was just ready to head out. We needed to get this medicine and get back fast. There were people that were getting closer and closer to dying every second.

After a beat of silence, I heard the scrape of a chair and I turned to the noise. It was Michonne that had stood up and was now grabbing her sword. "I'm in too," she announced.

Hershel shook his head at her, clearly not ready for her to leave. "You haven't been exposed. Rain has. Daryl has. You get in a car with them-" he began before she cut him off.

"He's already given me fleas," with a small smirk. I laughed with her as she stepped over to join us at the far wall of the room. The light hearted moment had been nice, but unfortunately, things were at too high of a serious point. "I can lead the way. I know where everything's kept," she told Hershel, now trying to prove that she was useful.

Hershel nodded at the three of us and we all walked over to the doorway. Before we walked through the doorway though, Daryl turned back to Hershel. "When we're out there, it's always the same. Sooner or later we run," he told the older man.

Though it wasn't exactly a happy thought, he was right. We had all known that the quarry wouldn't last us forever. And thinking that the Greene family farm was paradise was a fools thought. It wasn't safe, it was just out of the way. The more reasonable of us knew that the prison wouldn't be our home forever too. One day, the prison would fall and we would run again. "I can draw you a map. There are other precautions I feel we should take," Hershel told us before we could walk out the door. I turned back and walked into the room once more with Daryl and Michonne right behind me.

A chair scraped in the corner of the room and I turned to look at Carol. "Like what? There's no telling how long it'll be before Daryl and his group return. Wouldn't it make sense for us to separate the most vulnerable? We can use the administration building. Separate office, separate room," she suggested. I nodded at her. It could be days before we returned and we needed to make sure that as few people would get sick as possible. And for those who were already sick, we needed them on as tight of a lock down as we could get.

Maggie shifted in her chair and looked at her father before stealing a quick glimpse at her husband. "Who is the most vulnerable?" She asked him. Out of curiosity, I looked over at Glenn as well.

He had a thin veil of sweat running down his face and he looked a little pale. I wanted to think that it was because he was just tired, but it looked like he may have contracted the virus. That would explain why he was sitting so far away from everyone. Oh god, poor Maggie. What would she do when she knew for sure? I debated on saying something, but I figured that I would let it go for now. Best not to start a huge panic. He would probably say something to Hershel after the meeting was over and he could be in private with his father-in-law.

"The very young," Hershel answered.

"What about the old?" Carol asked. I tuned out for the rest of the meeting as it was decided who would be quarantined and who would still be able to perform tasks around the prison. The meeting finally ended and I walked out of the prison and into the yard. We were with Daryl, who was making sure that the cars were working before Michonne finally made her way up to us. I hadn't seen her after the meeting and for a while I had thought that she had changed her mind about coming with us.

Daryl looked up as the woman walked up and nodded at her. "Hey. I'm glad you're here," he told her, wiping a bead of sweat off of his face. The part of me that I couldn't control immediately looked him over, making sure that he wasn't too pale and didn't have any dark spots on him. Having grown up in the woods, I didn't think that it was likely that either Merle or he would contract the virus, but still, I didn't want to be too confident. Glenn was strong and so was Sasha but they had both contracted the virus.

Shifting onto one foot Michonne cocked her eyebrow at Daryl after nodding a greeting at me. "Where else would I be?" She asked him as she sheathed her sword.

"Running off," Daryl answered her simply.

She shook her head seemingly surprised that he had said something like that to her. But I suppose that was what it was that she was doing. Every week when she went to hunt for my father, in a way she was running off. But that would mean that Merle was running off as well. "You know I'm not running off. So it's just gonna be me and you and princess, like in the old days?" Michonne asked with a twinkle in her eye as she looked at me. I laughed slightly and shook my head, leaning down to check the air pressure in the tires.

I heard Daryl shuffle around me and I watched his feet as he walked to the front of the car. I shifted slightly to let him lean over the engine, making sure that we would be able to make the trip. "Yeah, and Bob. Still, feels like we could use another person," he said. I nodded to myself. This was a big task and I wasn't sure that we would be able to get everything we needed in one trip with only three people. Albeit, three talented people, but walkers could overtake even the best fighters.

"Who else isn't sick?" She asked him. I thought about maybe Merle, but he was helping get together more food to try and boost the immune systems of the infected and the healthy. He and some other healthy group members were going to head over to one of the supermarkets later to see what they could pick up.

Rattling through the list of other healthy people that we could ask, my thoughts were interrupted by Daryl. "We don't ask Rick. He wants to stay here with Carl and Little Ass-Kicker. Keep them safe. Plus there's plenty of stuff he could do here," he said. Once more, I nodded to myself. There was the water line that needed fixing. Hopefully he and Carol could get that working again.

"So who else we got?" She asked. Daryl poked around in the hood for a moment before he stood straight up. I went to move to the final tire, but Daryl grabbed my arm and tugged me behind him. I asked him where we were going, as did Michonne, but I got no answer.

We walked back up the walkway, passing by both Rick and Beth. I smiled at the younger girl and greeted her politely. She smiled at me and brushed past me. My heart broke for her. She had lost two men that she cared deeply about and she had lost most of her family. All that she had left was Maggie and Hershel. But then again, she had more than that. She had all of us. That was the way that it was. No matter who we had lost, we all had each other. And we were all the family that we needed.

Walking through the door to the first of the many thick doors that led to where the sick were being kept, I noticed that Tyreese was standing against the glass doors. He was holding a large gun and seemed to be waiting for something. Catching his face, I saw all of the bruises that littered his face and neck. Damn, Rick had done a number on him.

Daryl and I walked up on him, and I grimaced as I heard the coughing that was surrounding us at all angles. "Oh, there you are. Took us damn near forever to find you," he told Tyreese. I waited for the other man to say something, even for us to go away, but he said nothing. He just kept his eyes firmly set on the sick, mostly his sister who was limping around, looking like she was trying to stand. But by the looks of it, she was about to keel over. "Whatcha doing?" Daryl asked again, hoping for an answer.

Not bothering to look away from the window Tyreese merely nodded his head into the sick room. "Somebody needs to stand watch," he told us lowly. I shook my head at him. This place was well protected, we didn't need a guard. What we needed was people to come forward and help us with the medicine run. Or else everyone in there would die.

Daryl shook his head at Tyreese and grabbed him lightly on the shoulder. "Man, I want to find them, too. Put a bolt in them for what they did," he told the other man. "These people are cut off. Ain't no way anyone's getting in and out without a whole bunch of people seeing 'em," he reassured Tyreese. I cocked my head at them for a moment before I realized what Tyreese had really been talking about. He didn't want to protect these people from walkers, he wanted to protect them from the person who had killed Karen and David. But it was too late for that. The person had killed them in hopes of preventing the virus to spread, but now that they knew that it was everywhere, there was no use in trying to stop it. The best that we could do was contain it.

But still, Tyreese shook his head and kept his eyes locked on his sister. "Sasha's in there. I ain't going nowhere," he told us. The man was clearly determined to stay, even though we knew that he would be of more help if we could get him to go on the run.

Daryl shook his head at the man but sighed. He knew that there was no way that we would be able to get Tyreese to move. "Standing guard ain't gonna do no good unless we come back with them meds," he said in a last ditch effort. After a moment of silence, Daryl finally nodded and motioned for me to head out of the room. "All right. We're gassing up by the front gate in case you change your mind," Daryl called to Tyreese as we left the room.

Quickly we made our way back to the prison yard and without a word Daryl dropped back under the hood and got to work on the car once more. I dropped down to the tires as well, checking the last one that I had been checking before we had left. As the gauge hit the right number I nodded to myself and stood up. "Everything look all right?" Bob called from behind us as he walked up. I smiled at him as he laid his gear down at the base of the car. I opened the door and swung the bag inside, dropping it with the other minimal amount of supplies that we were carrying with us. Some food, any medical supplies that we could spare, and bags to put the medicine in once we got to the school.

Daryl popped up from the hood as I slammed the door shut and he dropped the hood. I looked over the car and nodded. It would work just fine, a sports car like this one would get us where we needed to go, and fast. "Yeah. Zack kept this thing running pretty good," Daryl told the other man.

I looked up in shock, along with Bob. I knew that we had found Zack close to a car, and I knew that we had taken in back with us, but I had no idea that this was Zack's car. For a moment I felt sick about getting into his car, but I shook it off. This was the fastest car that we had, and we needed to get gone and back fast. "This is Zack's car?" Bob asked, looking as uncomfortable as I felt.

Daryl nodded at Bob, looking like he understood that Bob felt uncomfortable with what had happened. I didn't blame him, he probably felt like what had happened to Zack was his fault. "Yeah, fastest one we got," Daryl answered.

I opened the doors to air the car out and turned back. The car was nice but its black paint job held in way too much damn heat during the scorching Georgia summers. Turning away from the car and grabbing an extra canister of gas, I spotted Tyreese walking up to our small group. I nudged Michonne who met the man halfway. "You all right?" She asked him.

He stood still for a moment before looking at the rest of us. I glanced away when he met my eyes, still uncomfortable after what had happened with him and Rick this morning. The morning that felt like an eternity ago. "You really want me coming along?" He asked her, apparently not believing the fact that we needed another person.

She twisted her hips and smirked at the man, although his face remained stone cold. Clearly she was trying to lighten the air, but he was suffering loss after loss. It might take him a while to make it back to us. "What's that word? "Zanamivir." Yup, we need you," she told him. I had no idea what that meant, or even what language it was, but I shrugged my shoulders and gave Tyreese a small smile as he walked over to where Daryl was doing last minute checks on the car.

"What's up?" Daryl asked as Tyreese walked up to him.

Tyreese shuffled his feet for a moment, actually looking ashamed for the way that he had acted earlier. Maybe this was a way of saying he was sorry. Or maybe it was just a way to take out his anger on the walkers. Either way, we needed all the help that we could get, and he was more than welcome here. "Still got room for one more?" Tyreese asked.

Daryl smiled slightly and nodded at the man. "Hell, yeah," he said to Tyreese.

The man nodded and gave Daryl a grateful look. I had thought that he might smile, but it didn't seem that he was quite to that point yet. "Good. Just got to get my gear," he informed Daryl.

"All right," our temporary leader nodded as Tyreese walked off. With the checks of the car over, I hopped into the passenger seat, and dropped my empty messenger bag at my feet. Michonne climbed in too, in the back seat, right in the middle. Bob hopped in next, behind my seat, the two leaving room for Tyreese to sit behind Daryl. I heard the trunk slam at the back of the car and a moment later, Daryl slid in next to me, starting the engine. We all sat for a moment, giving the engine a moment to warm up before Tyreese finally hopped in the car.

With our final passenger in his place, the door slammed shut and Daryl started the engine. We pulled down the drive and waved a shirt goodbye to Carl, who was manning the gates. I glanced up into the rear view mirror and watched as the prison disappeared. Once I could no longer see it, I sighed and sunk into my seat, reclining my chair slightly and kicking my feet onto the dashboard.

Despite the fact that the school was only 50 miles from the prison, it would probably take us near two hours to get there. Since these roads aren't super safe anymore and we have to drive the way on the back roads to hopefully avoid walkers. But who knows, we could run into a herd and have to reroute, or we may have car problems. That had been the reasons that we had packed food to last us about three to four days. But I doubted that we would be gone that long. More than likely we would be back within 36 hours.

Tipping my head back and snatching a hat from the dashboard I closed my eyes and attempted to take a small nap. But the roar of the engine kept me awake the entire time. Still, I kept my eyes closed and waited for any announcement that we were close to the school. "Hey, I know you weren't running off," Daryl said. I cracked my eye open, but I realized that he was talking to Michonne, not me. I closed my eye once more, but I still listened to the one sided conversation. "The thing is, that trail went cold. You know that, right? If it was any different, I'd be right out there with you," he told her. I waited to see if she would respond, but she stayed silent. After a moment I heard the static from the car radio crackle. It would be nice if we could get a station or listen to some music, but there were no radio stations in existence anymore. Daryl fiddled with the radio for a moment, probably trying to find an emergency station, but nothing was broadcasting. "Would you hand me one of them CD's right there?" He asked me as he fiddled with the dials.

I nodded at him and began to dig through the CD's. Zack had actually had a good taste in music. He had an old KISS and Black Sabbath CD. But I figured that we would probably be better off with a country music track. I began to throw the CD's across the car floor. But I stopped as a faint voice sounded from the radio. "...find sanctuary," the voice called before the static started again.

I stared at Daryl in shock, and saw that he was giving me the same look. What the hell was that? Someone was broadcasting the voice. A person that had somewhere safe to go. A sanctuary. A place where we could live our lives, a place that might have medicine for us to heal the remainder of our group. Daryl was screwing around with the dial again, hoping that he could connect to the voice once more. "Was that a voice?" Bob asked from the back.

"Shh," Daryl immediately shushed the man. The radio was quiet enough without someone talking. I turned back and saw that all three of our companions were leaned forward, curious as to what we had really just heard. Tyreese looked curious too, the first emotion I had seen from him today, other than anger.

Turning back to the front of the car, I watched the dial swerve back and forth as Daryl tried to find the same station. We all watched the dial, praying that the people would come back on the radio and say where they were. Or at least who they were. Finally, a voice came back on the radio, and Daryl immediately dropped his hand off of the dial. "Those who arrive... survive..." the same voice that had told us there was sanctuary earlier droned. It sounded like an older woman, but I couldn't tell.

The voice once more turned to static and Daryl went back to fiddling with the dial. After a moment, I looked up and saw a huge horde of walkers. We had all been so busy looking down at the road that no one had been watching the road. Daryl swerved the wheel off to the side and I yelled as we began to swerve back and forth. Daryl was trying to avoid the brunt of the walkers, but it was no use. They were evenly spread throughout the road and in big clumps. I could hear the growls of the walkers as they all grabbed onto the cars. "Grab something!" Daryl yelled as he hit the brunt of the walkers. I grabbed the handle on my side and grunted as we smashed into the walkers. I looked all around us, but we were surrounded on all sides by the walkers. There was no way that we were driving out of this. We would have to run, and there was a damn good chance that we could get overpowered by them.

It seemed that I wasn't the only one that was looking for a way out. Michonne seemed to catch a way out of the back of the horde. "Go to the left," she yelled up to the front. Without saying yes or no to her, that's what he did. We tried to back out of the horde, but there was nothing that we could do. We were on top of a pile of walkers, and there was no way that the tires would be able to get out of the area. We were going to be forced to run.

"We're jammed up," Bob gasped. Clearly, he didn't believe what had happened. I didn't either. A moment ago, we had all had hope for the future, and now we were fighting for our life once more.

Daryl slammed on the wheel for a moment before he sighed and took a look around. The majority of the walkers were at the front and back of the car. If we could do it fast, we might all be able to make it out of here. "Make a run for the gaps right there," Daryl pointed at the sides of the herd. "You three, you make a run for the woods and you don't stop for nothing, you hear me? Rain, you stay with me," Daryl told me and I nodded. "Now! Move!" He yelled to everyone. Michonne stood up and jumped through the sunroof of the car. Bob threw open the backdoor and he jumped out of the car. A moment later, Daryl opened the door and I opened mine as well.

A walker quickly spotted me and I threw my door out as hard as I could. I heard the snap as the door was released off of its hinges. But still, it hit the walker full on and made the thing drop before it could get to me. I ran past the door and pulled my gun out. Shooting two walkers that were close to me, I brushed by a third. I felt its raw skin peel off and I screamed as the skin peeled off, falling onto my arm. I quickly shot the walker and brushed the skin off. Picking up my speed, I shot at the walkers as I ran by, and I could finally see the clearing in the walkers. Trying to get out of the area, a walker that jumped out in front of me. I pulled my arm up to shoot the thing, but my gun clicked as it was out of bullets. I put the gun away and went to reach for my knife, but it was too late. The walker grabbed onto my arm, and it leaned its head down. Its mouth opened and I screamed at the walker. This was it, the end of my life. But just as the jaws of the walker clamped around my arm, an arrow shot through the head of the walker. I breathed a shaky sigh of relief and dashed out of the area.

Daryl was standing at the edge of the field and I ran up, he grabbed onto me and pulled me into a tight hug. Despite the fact that we weren't supposed to be touching each other, I had damn near just been bitten. I would have been bitten had Daryl not gotten out of the horde before I did. Once more, he was the reason that I was alive.

"Ty! Ty!" I heard Bob shout from across from me. I turned back and was relieved to see that both Bob and Michonne had made their way out of the horde. But Tyreese was still in the car, in almost a comatose state. My god, he was so devastated over the loss of Karen that he was willing to die at the hands of walkers.

I took a few steps forward and wrapped my hands around my mouth. "Tyreese! Come on!" I shouted to him. But he still just sat there. Right as I was about to give up though, I saw him move in the seat.

Tyreese scrambled out of the car and we were watching as the walkers immediately surrounded him. With nothing else to attract their attention, all of the walkers were going after Tyreese. "Go!" He yelled to us as he fought off the walkers that were quickly surrounding him.

"Come on!" Daryl yelled at me as he grabbed my arm and attempted to drag me after him. But I was too busy watching Tyreese. I refused to believe that he was going to die here. He was strong enough to get out of there, besides, he had a sister to get back to.

"Come on and get me!" Tyreese yelled to the walkers that were surrounding him. That was when it hit me. He wasn't trying to get out of the horde, he just wanted to fight them. He wanted to take his anger out on them. He looked back up to where we were and his eyes widened. "Go! Go!" He yelled to us. But we all stayed put where we were. "Come on. Come on and get me!" He yelled.

We all wanted to stay and help Tyreese, but a few of the walkers that had been in the back of the horde finally seemed to notice that there was a perfectly good meal only feet away. "Go!" Daryl hissed as we began to run. I looked back at Tyreese once more, only to see him covered in walkers. I grimaced at the scene and debated running back, but Daryl ran over and grabbed my arm. "Come on,' he groaned at me as he dragged me into the woods. "Hold up," he said as a walker cut through our path. He raised his crossbow and shot the thing down, and once more we were running. "Come on," Daryl told us as we walked over to a clearing.

There was a rustling in the bushes and I walked back from the sound. Michonne had her sword up and Bob and I had our guns. Daryl was standing the closest to the sound though, with his crossbow up and ready. The trees rustled for a moment, and finally a figure popped up. I raised my gun but dropped it when I saw that it was Tyreese. God, how the hell had he gotten out of there? I smiled at the man and ran up to him, pulling him into a hug. Tyreese thanked me as I let go of him and took my spot again.

Everyone greeted Tyreese, happy that he had been able to make it out of the walkers. With everyone back together, the sun was now setting, and we had no way of making it to the school in the night. Daryl made the call that we should all take a rest for the night and get moving again in the morning. And that was exactly what we did. Making a small camp, I laid down with Daryl at my side. Michonne and Tyreese would be on watch tonight. I heard the soft snores coming from Daryl and I smiled at him. Turning onto my side, I coughed once. There was a small pain in my ribs and I couldn't help but wonder if I had hit them on something.

Shrugging it off, I closed my eyes and settled into the hard dirt. It wasn't very comfortable, but it was all that we had for the night. After a fitful time falling asleep, memories of the breath of the walker on my skin, I finally fell asleep to the sight of the sun rising.

The next morning Daryl nudged me awake and I grabbed a nutrition bar out of his pack. We only took a few minutes before we had all of our stuff together and we were ready to move out. We kept to the woods in the event that there was another walker horde on the road. It must have been midday before we finally hit a small stream. I smiled at the area and dipped my hands into the river, grabbing some water in my hands and downing it. Daryl walked up to my side and we all stood together, waiting to see where we would have to head to next. "This is Turner Creek, so Barnesville must be a few miles downstream. Sounds like our best chance at finding a new ride," Daryl told us.

I nodded and walked with Daryl, Michonne catching up at our sides. "Yo, Ty. Come on, let's go. Vamonos!" I heard Bob call behind us. I turned back and saw that he was standing by the river, absolutely still. "Ty. Ty!" Bob yelled again. Finally, Tyreese seemed to shake out of his stupor and began to follow us, a few feet behind.

After another hour, Daryl finally made the call that we should hit the main road again. Luckily, we hadn't run too far into the woods, so it was a short walk out. There was a sharp incline to the road and I groaned. We had been doing so much walking today that my legs were killing me. All I wanted was to lay down and go to bed. As I made the incline, I began to cough. I hadn't drank anything and I had barely eaten anything in the past day. Once I hit the road again, the coughing went away and I sighed. Once I got back to the prison, I would need a damn good meal. "There should be a town a few miles south," Daryl said as I walked up next to him.

We all nodded and began to walk once more. We were tired and talking only made the fatigue even worse. As we walked, we fell into a pattern. Daryl and I took the front, myself standing a bit apart from the others. Michonne and Tyreese were behind us, and Bob was bringing up the rear. "Lost a whole night. My sister, everybody else- they're probably dead," Tyreese said after a few miles of walking. Normally, I would have just ignored the comment, but right now I felt like I was about to keel over and die. Tyreese's negative attitude was making things even worse, and I was about ready to turn around and shoot him.

I could tell that Daryl was getting upset as well, but he refused to snap at Tyreese. It would only make things worse, and we didn't need another fight. "Well, it helps to keep moving," he told the man without looking back.

"No, it doesn't," Tyreese grunted back.

I rolled my eyes at his attitude but continued walking anyways. We all walked in silence for a bit longer when Michonne finally spoke up. "Maggie wanted to come, you know. Someone had to stay back, watch over things," she told Tyreese. I knew that she was trying to make him happier, but there was no use in saying anything to him. He would only listen to what you had to say and then turn it into something negative. He would be that way until he got his revenge for Karen.

Just as I had expected, Tyreese grunted once more and when I turned back, I saw that he was shaking his head. "Someone you trust, you mean," he growled at her.

Silence once more fell over the group as we walked back towards the town. Only minutes after the conversation, we finally came up on the town. Just like every other town that we had seen, it was completely deserted. We walked through the industrial sector and stopped at what looked like an old paper mill factory. There were cars that were all around the area, but most were either trucks that were too small or cars that were too slow. I walked through the area and followed Daryl. Dust kicked up as the wind blew and I coughed harshly. I had never known myself to be allergic to dust, but I knew that anyone could develop allergies.

Once the dust settled and my coughing fit went down, Daryl came over to me, asking of I was OK. I nodded at him and told him that I was fine. Which I was, I was just tired. I wanted to find a car and get the medicine and get back. Food, water, and sleep was everything that we all needed right now. Daryl and I walked forward and came up on an old soccer mom minivan that was a light blue. Daryl looked to me and I nodded, it was just what we needed.

He jumped inside the car and I walked around, looking through the vines that were attached to the building. I couldn't see anything inside but the growls of the walkers were clear. The place must have been flooded with them. I heard Daryl start the engine and I hoped that we would be good to go, but the sputtering of the engine told me otherwise. It sounded like we needed to find a new battery, but I wasn't exactly sure. Hopefully it was though, that would be easy to find.

The engine of the car turned off and Daryl stepped out, slamming the door behind him. "We gotta find us a new battery. Got some friends inside. Come on. Let's clear a path, see how many we got," he told me as he walked up to me. The good thing was that it was the battery, and with all of the other cars here, a battery was a sure find.

We walked back to see that everyone was tearing the vines off of the building. Michonne was slowly chopping through them with her sword, careful that nothing was about to fly out. Bob was tearing away the vines, which most tore away easily. Tyreese though, was ripping through them with the pointed end of his hammer. I gave Daryl a sidelong glance and he nodded at me. "Hey, man, go easy. We don't know what we're dealing with," Daryl said as he walked up to the man.

Just as he said that though, a walker lunged through the vines and pushed Tyreese to the ground. He was holding the walker back, but he wasn't trying to kill it. "Ah! Tyreese!" Bob yelled as he ran up to the man. I tried to pull the walker off of Tyreese without getting bitten, but for some reason, Tyreese was holding onto the walker, and wasn't letting go. "Ty! Ty, let him go," Bob grunted as he tried to pull off the walker. I finally got a grip on the walkers arm and managed to pull it free. Stumbling back, I jumped out of the way just as its jaws snapped at my feet. Daryl ran over to the fallen walker and slammed his boot into the things skull. I sighed softly and waited for him to calm down and walk back over to the rest of us.

Tyreese stood up slowly, and I was out of breath from the encounter. I watched as Daryl stormed up to Tyreese and stared him down. "Why the hell didn't you let go?" Daryl growled out. I wanted to walk over to Tyreese and strangle him, but I knew that it wouldn't make any difference. Tyreese merely stormed past Daryl and I scoffed at the man. He was upset, I understood that. But if he didn't snap out of it soon he was going to get himself, and the rest of us killed.

Following Tyreese's lead, I stormed away from the group and walked back over to the car. Jumping up on the hood, I kicked my booted feet up onto the headlights. Daryl cleared away from the group as well, pulling Bob with him to find a battery. Michonne on the other hand walked over to Tyreese, and looked like she was trying to start a conversation with him. Both Bob and Daryl were pulling apart an old van which apparently had the battery that we needed.

As I laid my head back I sniffed gently and must have sucked some dirt in. Leaning over the edge of the car, I coughed a few times before shaking my head clear. As far as I had known, I was never allergic to anything, but that was growing up in southern Florida and living recently in northern Florida. I easily could be allergic to something here in Georgia. But the longer that I watched my list of symptoms grow, the more nervous I became. I was showing all of the signs of someone who had contracted the virus, but if that was what it was, I was still in the early stages. No matter though, because if I was sick, I would be dead by tomorrow night.

For now I had to stay away from everyone. I would manage it for now, but if it came down to it there was no way that I would get back in that car. Maybe hot wire a car of my own. I couldn't risk infecting everyone else. Daryl's hand shook me from my thoughts as he pushed me gently off of the hood. I nodded at him and jumped down off of the hood standing back as Daryl went to work on replacing the battery. "You never told us about the group you were with before," he said after a while, looking at Bob.

The man in question shrugged his shoulders at Daryl, and immediately I knew that he had lost his group. He was too casual for someone who had been out on his own the entire time. "Which one?" He asked, both Daryl and I choosing to remain silent. "You know, when you found me out on that road, I almost kept walking," he told us.

"Why is that?" Daryl asked.

Bob shook his head and shrugged his shoulders gently. "'Cause I was done being a witness. Two times, two different groups. I was the last one standing. Like I was supposed to see it happen over and over, like it's some kind of curse. But, when it's just you out there with the quiet. Used to be I'd drink a bottle of anything just so I could shut my eyes at night. Figured the prison, the people, thought it'd be easier. The run to the big spot, I did it for me," he confessed. I cocked my head, that day when I had seen how Zach's death had affected Bob, I knew that there was something more than the case had just fallen.

Once more Daryl shrugged his shoulders, clearly not getting where Bob was going with his story yet. "You gotta keep busy," the hunter answered, with his hands still working at the battery.

Bob seemed to want to come clean though as he shook his head and sighed deeply. "No. I did it so I could get me a bottle. Of anything. I picked it up, I held it in my hand, but I put it down. I put it down so hard it took the whole damn shelf with it. That's what brought on the walkers, and that's what got Zack killed," Bob admitted. Daryl looked up and for a moment I thought that he might yell at Bob, but instead he huffed and shook his head.

Pointing at Bob, she shook his head once more. "That's bullshit," he growled. Daryl looked back down right after though as I let my thoughts wander. I knew that there was no way that the shelf had just fallen. Finally, it seemed that Daryl was done working as he looked up and motioned for Bob's attention. "Why don't you get in there and try the engine? It's a red and a green wire. Go on. It ain't rocket science," he said. Bob hooked the wires together quickly and gave Daryl a thumbs up. "Give it some gas," Daryl ordered. Bob did as told and the engine roared to life.

I cheered softly and hopped into the passenger seat. Daryl yelled out to Michonne and Tyreese, who both began to walk over to us. Bob hopped out of the driver seat and let Daryl take his place. Everyone jumped into the car and quickly, we were off. I sighed as the car went back onto the road, knowing that we were really only a few minutes away from the school. We could have walked the rest of the way, but if we needed a quick getaway, a car was exactly what we needed.

As we pulled out of the area, I noticed that Bob was leaning forward so that he was talking in Daryl's ear. "Sasha and me picked that spot. He took you with us," Bob said, his voice laced with guilt.

Daryl shook his head at Bob, clearly hoping that he would drop the topic. Despite the fact that no one of our group but Beth had been particularly close to Zach, he was a presence that was much needed in this world. "There ain't no way anybody could've known. You ain't gonna be standing alone, not no more. Let's go," Daryl said as we pulled out of the drive.

Once more we were on the road, about ten miles from the school. Luckily, we arrived to the school quickly, and I was brought back to my days as a college student. I probably would have been a year and a half into my job and possibly getting ready to settle down with some boring guy that was nice and had an inviting mother who fawned over me. In the past that would have been exactly what I wanted, but now it was something out of a nightmare. I had my ideal family here. People that loved me and that would die for me, and vice versa. Then there was Daryl, the imperfect man that I would have never known that I had wanted. The one person who meant everything to me. This world might be a harsh and cruel one, but there was no other way that I would have wanted it.

Daryl stopped the car and we all quickly jumped out. I had my gun cocked at my side, ready to pull it out if need be. We made our way into the building and it was clear that the first floor was all of the administration and professor offices. I caught sight of a small opening that was the staircase and pointed everyone to it. It would have been easier to talk, but not knowing what was out there, it was smarter to motion to each other. Running up the stairs, I saw the medicine cabinets in row after row. Picking up a bottle with a long name that I couldn't read, I realized that this bottle had expired right after the outbreak. Every bottle that I picked up had an expiration date that we were already far past. "It's all expired by at least a year," I heard Bob say from the next shelf over.

I grabbed a few bottles with names that I recognized and coughed lightly. My coughs continued this time though and I dropped onto my knees as a wave of fatigue hit me. Grabbing a shelf I stood up, the room spinning around me. I nearly cried, knowing now that I had the virus. I had been covered in walker guts, it was no shock that I had gotten it. But it was too late to lay down, I had to get the stuff so we could get out. "Better to take it. Let Hershel decide what he needs," Daryl said.

I shook my head clear and grabbed all of the bottles that were on the shelf with names that I recognized from Hershel's list before we had left. "Anything ending with -cillin or -cin, C-I-N, grab it. We'll dissolve the pills in the IVs, put 'em right into the bloodstream. Dosage will be tricky but considering the time we lost- How'd you do?" Michonne asked as Daryl walked up to her with his bag.

"Bags, tubes, clamps, connectors. Everything on the list," he said shaking his bag lightly. That was good, he had gotten all of the medical supplies and we had gotten all of the medicine that we needed. "What about y'all?" Daryl asked, turning his head to me. I knew that I was pale and sweaty, so the concerned look that he was giving me wasn't shocking.

I coughed into my arm, hoping that he wouldn't call me out here. If he said something I wanted him to say it in private. "Yeah, we got it all. Yeah. We're good," I awkwardly stumbled over my words. "All right, let's roll," I called to everyone, hoping that we could leave so I could get the medicine pumped in me. We began to walk forward, but just as we rounded a corner, I saw a bundle of walkers. They were stalking around, just through a door and I knew that there was no way we could go back the way that we had come. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Up ahead," I called out, letting everyone know that there was no way we were getting back.

Bob walked off to our side and tried a door that we hadn't gone through yet. I could see through the window and there were no walkers. We just had to hope that it would get us back downstairs. "Hey! Door's busted," Bob told us.

"Oh. Hold up. There," Daryl pointed through a window to a door. It was frosted so we could see the outlines of the walkers, but I couldn't clearly see how many there were. Every time that I turned I felt my head spin even more. I couldn't be standing out here much longer or I would surely collapse. "How many?" Daryl asked.

"I can't tell," Michonne answered.

Bob turned back to the walkers in our immediate way and shook his head. "We can take 'em," he said pulling out his gun and beginning to make his way over to the walkers.

Quickly Michonne grabbed Bob and pulled him back to her. "No! They're infected. Same as at the prison. We fire at 'em, get their blood on us, breathe it in. We didn't come all this way to get sick," she told him. I nearly laughed at her. I was sick. I had been sick since we had left the prison, I had just been denying it this whole time.

"How do we know the ones in there aren't any different?" Bob asked, pointing down the hallway.

"We don't," Daryl answered.

Michonne shook her head and grabbed her sword, pulling it in front of her. "Well, it's gotta change sometime," she told us. I grabbed my gun out of my holster, feeling my vision begin to blur. Perhaps I should avoid shooting anything. Bob grabbed his gun as well and Tyreese pulled his hammer to his side.

"Ready?" Daryl asked as we faced the iced door that led to God knows where. Michonne walked forward, stepping in stride with Daryl. "Do it! Come on," he yelled as he threw the door open. I could hear Daryl shouting at the walkers and I heard shots going off, but I couldn't see anything. My vision was almost black and my entire body was covered in a thin film of sweat. I was coughing too, and the entire combination was throwing my balance off as I stumbled down the hallway.

The group stopped short and I banged into Bob's back, who turned to me and widened his eyes when he saw me. He went to grab my arm, but I pulled away from him, shaking my head. "Back," Daryl called from the front of the group.

"Don't have an exit," Bob called back.

Daryl made his way to the back of the group, running past me for a moment, but stopped dead short. There were probably walkers behind me, but I couldn't bring myself to care anymore. My whole body felt like it was on fire, and I was pretty sure I was about to throw up a lung. Daryl ran past me and stopped at my side. As he was looking over everyone, he saw me and his eyes automatically turned to the size of saucers. "Oh my God, Rain. Are you OK?" He asked me, grabbing onto my shoulders.

I threw his arms off of me and I stumbled back. I tripped over my own feet and nearly fell onto my back, but Daryl caught me. Once more though, I shoved him away from me. If I was going to die from this, I wasn't taking aryl with me. He would have a long life. "I have it, Daryl. I have it. I need to get out of here now. Away from all of you," I said. I went to walk back towards the walkers, but he grabbed my arm and pulled me back.

"Then we make one. Get down! Come on, move it! Jump down to the walkway below," he called to Bob, who I saw make his way out of the window at the end of the hall. "No! We'll get you out of here. We have the medicine. You just need to hang in until we get back. Come on! We'll get out that window and you will be fine!" He yelled to me. I heard his voice breaking, and I knew that he was on the verge of tears, but he would never admit that.

"They're here!" Michonne yelled.

Daryl vaulted out of the window and pushed everyone onto the walkway. As I launched myself out of the window, I hit the walkway and immediately fell, but was helped up by Daryl. Bob had fallen as well and was currently wrestling his bag away from a walker. "Let's go! Go, go. Move," Daryl called to everyone.

"Bob, let it go," Michonne called to the man.

Daryl ran up to Bob and grabbed him around the waist. Michonne was currently keeping me upright. "Let it go, man. Just let it go. Let go of the bag, man," Daryl told Bob. The man finally wrestled his bag from the walker and when its contents spilled out, it was only a bottle of alcohol. Daryl walked up to Bob and stood chest to chest with him. "You got no meds in your bag? Just this? You should have kept walking that day," Daryl growled.

"Daryl don't. It isn't worth it," Michonne called to him.

Tyreese seemed to finally snap out of it as he walked over to Daryl. "Don't. Just let it go, Daryl. The man's made his choice. Nothing you can do about it. Just gotta let it go. Come on, Rain looks like she's about to drop dead."

Had I been more responsive I would have yelled at Tyreese, but now all I wanted to do was die. If this was what the virus did to you, death was a welcome bliss compared to it. "I didn't want to hurt nobody. It was just for when it gets quiet. Take one sip," Bob tried to defend himself as Daryl picked me up, bridal style.

Cradling me close to his chest, I could feel my legs press up against Bob. "When those meds get in our people, I will beat your ass into the ground. You hear me? If she dies because I couldn't get this into her fast enough, you better run and hope that I never find you. I will kill you if she doesn't live."

The rest of the run went by in a blur, I felt myself get handed off to person after person as they made their way back to the ground. I knew that they were trying to help, but I wanted nothing more than for them to drop me on the ground and let me lay there. Every time that I moved, my bones felt like they were breaking. And now when I was coughing, blood was coming out. I heard the car door open and I knew that I was being placed into the passenger seat. All of the doors were opening and closing quickly and I could hear the engine roar to life. No sooner than when the engine had started, the car peeled out of the driveway of the school.

The windows were down in an attempt to wake me up, but it was no use. I was fading fast and there was no way that they would get me back fast enough. "Rain stay awake. Please. We're almost back. We'll be there in thirty minutes. Just hang on." My eyes slipped shut and I could hear Daryl and the rest of my group yelling at me. "Rain for the love of God wake up! Don't you dare leave me!" Daryl shouted.

I groaned and looked over to Daryl. My eyes were slits and I could barely see out of them. But I could see that the odometer was over 100 and Daryl's eyes were a bright red. "I love you, Daryl Dixon. Be the man that I know you are. Don't let anything destroy the man that you've become. I'll see you again. I just want to sleep," I mumbled the last part out. I could hear the yells of my group members, but they were drowned out. The only thing that I knew right now was the bright white light that flooded my vision. It was like there was an explosion, and then nothing.

A/N: Well, there it is. Clearly no one has been having a good day this time around! So HERE'S MY QUESTION: Should Rain live or die? I love my OC to pieces, but I want to know that you guys are still interested in her. By no means do I want to end the story, but if you guys think that I should end Killer Love here, I will. But either way, I hope you guys liked the chapter! It was a long one, and obviously it covered two episodes from Season 4. If you guys know how the story goes, you know that there are two chapters who star a certain someone, and then a huge return! If Rain lives, there will be quite the interesting next chapter. And if she does live, who would you like her to be separated with? Keep in mind that Merle is still alive! As always thanks for the follows and favorites from MarsPlanetsGirl, Kilalalnara, sweetkitty, MrsElijahMikaelson27, Redflyer08, and Laradhel. And a huge thank you to my reviewers, Sevvus and my Guest! Anyways, til next time -A