Chapter 54: No Surrender


It had taken all day to get up to the highway, thankfully my stitches had held together the whole way.

Unfortunately there was no one on the highway, as soon as we got a car we drove to where we had lost Sophia. There was almost no sign of anyone….me and Merle had looked around all the cars.

It wasn't until we gave up and were heading back to our stolen car that I passed a white car covered in so much dirt it was almost brown….there were marks on it that I knew only Daryl could've put there.

It was four letters, "S.B. M.D." also one of his broken bolts lay on the hood of the car, and it was facing in the opposite direction of the farm.

I looked at it and then to Merle who didn't notice that I stopped yet.

"Merle!" I yelled when he was making his way to get in the car already.

He stopped and it seemed I had shocked him out of the stupor he was in, he hadn't said a word since we got out onto the highway.

He looked at me and I motioned to the hood of the white car, it wasn't much…but it showed that they were here. Daryl was leaving us signs, he was pointing us in the right direction.

"Damn, of all the things he coulda done….my baby bro had to go doin this. He didn' even leave us a snack or bottle of water, he left a damn arrow" Merle grumbled, stalking off back to our temporary car.

I grabbed the broken bolt off of the hood, it was the only thing of Daryl's I had now. I sighed and limped back to the car.

"Hey! Least he left us somethin, he's pointin us in the right direction. And ya gotta take into account they prolly don't have any food to spare also. They had no idea if we'd even come here or not, there's more of them" I said almost in one breath, as I got into the car.

"we'll least they have food Girl, ya haven't eaten in bout two days now, I haven't had anythin in over a day….we needa find water at least." he said as he turned the car back on and put it in reverse.

He was right, I was starving…it felt like my stomach was starting to eat itself.

I felt practically naked without my weapons, I just hoped that Daryl realized I didn't have them and made sure nothing happened to them, they were still in the vehicle I saw Rick and Carl get into.

"Let's go get my car then, if the farms still over run…we can drive around n lure them away from it. We'll have to be fast." I said making a plan sorta, but I still hoped it was all clear.

Maybe if it was we could gather up whatever supplies was left around the house. Like more food and water….we could fill a barrel of water or something from one of the good wells. Depending on how big the herd actually was it should be all past now.

I really hoped we found them soon, I wanted my bow back, and the ache in my heart wasn't going away…I missed Daryl.


(3 months later)

Merle and I had gotten my car with little to no problem, there had been only a couple stragglers left on the farm. We emptied the house of anything useful, I grabbed all of Maggie's jogging pants and shirts that fit me…she was smaller than me so I couldn't grab that much.

There was a ton of canned food left, and we grabbed as much water as we possibly could, I was glad I remembered a few blankets too cause it was close to winter now. It was freezing and we usually stayed in the car now a days.

We found a hotel a couple weeks back, we secured one room for a few days. Unfortunately another herd past through there and we had to leave.

Even with all the food and water we got from the farm, it was starting to dwindle down to nothing now. The food I had in my car already lasted us two weeks, we were always searching for food at every place we stopped.

I never found another bow to use, pretty much every hunting shop in the small towns we stopped in were picked clean. I did find another gun and a knife to use…though I wasn't comfortable with the knife it was better than nothing.

We fallowed Daryl's broken bolts for a few days…and then we couldn't find any, I don't know if we just looked in the wrong places or we took a wrong turn somewhere along the way.

I never stopped looking for signs though, any sort of little detail I could see that would tell me that he had been there.

It's been over a month since we came across any inkling of the group.

I couldn't imagine being out here alone, Merle and I relied on each other more than anything now.

"Hey, stop up here Girly. Looks like that cars got lots of supplies left on it" Merle said pointing up the road.

We didn't talk much, it wasn't awkward to say the least…we've been on the road together for a while now. Sometimes words just weren't necessary, and sometimes we talked just to keep the silence from getting to our heads.

I nodded to let him know I heard him, my leg was fully healed now so it was a lot easier for us to get things done. For a while though Merle didn't let me do anything to help him, he learned the hard way that I wasn't one to just sit on my ass jus cause I was told to.

"Alrighty, keep yer eyes peeled, looks like it hasn't been left here long, could still be people around or walkers even" I said pulling up on the other side of the road from the car.

It was relatively clean so I wasn't sure if it was exactly abandoned….I couldn't see anyone around though.

"Maybe they walked up to the town up ahead. Doesn't look like anythin went down here" I said glancing at Merle as he walked around the car like he was examining it.

"Why the hell would they leave all this stuff? This ain't right Girl….we should get outa here. We don't need this shit" he said after he circled around and came to stand beside me again.

I nodded, something wasn't right around here and I didn't want us to be around when whatever the hell it was went down.

Going straight wasn't really an option now, so we jogged back to my car and got in.

"Guess we can try go down that other road we seen a while back, ain't no way we're goin to that town now. We'll try come back in a few days n see if the cars still here" I told him, not waiting for his opinion on the matter I just put the car in reverse.

I relaxed again when we got a safe distance away from the weird car, I hoped it was gone when we came back this way. So far we haven't found anything around this area. I wanted to keep going on to see if Daryl left us any signs.


(Daryl's POV)

It's been 3 months since the farm incident, and we've yet to come across another place to call home.

I tried my hardest not to pull myself away from the group…it was hard without her here though. She was the main reason I even talked to any of em before.

It was almost winter now, the air was getting colder and our group was gettin stronger and yet weaker at the same time. We needed food, I tried to bring one of the other guys with me every time I hunted…but they weren't Merle, they couldn't hunt like I could.

We were staying in a small secluded camp ground we found, this was our second day here so I was guessin Rick would want to move out again soon.

It was getting too cold at night for us to be stayin outside for much longer, we only had three tents so I let the others share em, I preferred sleepin outside anyways…I could keep a look out better that way.

I sat down against a tree and lifted my pant leg to grab the knife in my boot, I never knew why I didn't give it back to her.

It belonged to her, so why did I keep it?

I look at this damned thing every single day, and I try convince myself that she's alive somewhere out there. She just had to be, I couldn't explain it to anyone else but I jus had the feelin she was alive. They both were, and I'd find them again.

I don't think I could've made it along this far if I truly believed they were dead.

"Daryl, can I have a word with you?" Rick said as he walked towards me, it wasn't a big camp…but I still managed to keep the distance between myself and them.

"Yea, man what is it?" I said stayin seated on the forest floor, not lookin up from the knife in my hands when he approached me.

"I was wonderin' if you n T-dog could go down to pond n fill our jugs up so we can get it all boiled n ready for tomorrow. We're headin out first light, too cold to be stayin outside now" he said and I glanced up at him.

He was looking at the woods around us, he was never off guard anymore, and his eyes were always scanning the area.

I nodded, though he wasn't lookin at me. I looked down at the knife and ran my finger over the small initials carved into the handle. S.B.

"A'right, I was thinkin. We should go check out those storage lockers we saw 'fore we came here. Could have some things in there…blankets at least." said as I tucked the knife back into my boot before I stood up.

"Okay, good idea…I'll let everyone know what the plan is then." He said nodding before turning and going back to the small camp, there was rarely a time he disagreed on my ideas.

I went over to my bike to grab my crossbow, I was never more than two feet away from both of them.

The bike was all I had left of Merle, the knife was what I had of her…and her bow and other weapons that were left in Ricks car. I never touched those things, I left them right there for her.

I tried to still leave little marks for them, hoping that maybe they've been just a few moves behind us every time…I was startin to feel like it was all jus a Pipe Dream now though.

I heard my name being called again, and I looked up to see T-dog holding up the four milk jugs we used for water. I nodded and swung my crossbow over my shoulder as I walked over to join him.

The little pond I found a little ways away from this camp ground was pretty much untouched, I had hoped since there was a source of water here that there'd be a lot of game around the area…but I hadn't had much luck.

We walked in silence, they all knew I wasn't one for talkin, especially after I was separated from Merle and the girl.

They all use to try comfort me or some shit like that, telling me we'd find them, and they're both strong and still alive out there….I got sick of it and told them to fucking stop it, I didn't need their pity. I knew they were alive.

Also I couldn't stand them saying her name so much, the tight feeling in my chest only got worse when I heard her name.

"We headin outa here tomorrow hey? Any idea where we're headin this time?" T-dog asked when we got to the edge of the pond.

"Ya, storage building down the road a ways…gonna check it out" I said reaching for one of the jugs.

He nodded at what I said and we got the water in silence, everythin I did was in silence these days. There was jus no reason to talk really.

We were back at the camp before too long, we handed the water over to Carol and Beth so they could get to work on boiling it.

There were little fire pits here and that's what we've been using, we only light it once a day. To boil the water and so the women can quickly warm up somethin for our supper.

We didn't want the smoke to attract any unwanted guests.

I went back to sit at the bottom of the tree I had claimed, I was tempted every single day to just leave these people. I wanted to leave and find my brother… and my girl.

But I would sit here and look around at them, some of em were so frail, and they looked so lost sometimes. I couldn't just up and leave them, she had promised Rick that she would do everything in her power to keep them alive for at least a little bit longer.

Now she wasn't here to fulfil that promise, so I would do it for her.

Lori was starting to get bigger now, and the cold was getting to Hershel…he was old and I could tell sometimes it's getting harder for him to move around. I hoped it passed once the winter was over, he was a strong old man and it'd be a shame to lose him now.

Carl was growing up, he was getting better with a gun now that his dad's been teaching him. Maggie was stepping up a lot more to help protect the camp, with her, Glenn, T-dog, me and Rick so far nothing bad had really happened to any of us.

We've ran into more herds yeah, but we always get out just fine, all of us together.

Carol and Beth do most of the cooking now, and neither of them have really stepped up like Maggie has. They needed more training, but there was no time on the road for anyone to teach them.

Thinking of all this made me miss her even more, she was a pretty good shot, she could hold her own pretty well in tough situations…she would know what we should do.

She was always the one with the plan, always thinking ahead.


I Already have some of the next chapter written XD I had this chapters longer...but I decided to cut it off here, so i already have a bit of the next chapter.

ya... i did do a bit of a time jump here...and i may do another one, since this is the time between season 1 and 2 that we didn't see.

i wanna thank all of you who review! and even those who just fallowed my story! i can't believe how well this one doing, it really makes my day soo much brighter when i get a new review/follower/ or favorite!

thank you all so much! 3