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Chapter 52
Neither Daryl or Andi had time to stop and think or plan what action they were going to do. Tyreese was in the corridor just out of sight from the pair. Andi started screaming and banging her machetes against the cell door as Daryl tried to find the key to open the door again.
"HEEEEY!" Andi screamed, plunging the machete through a number of walkers heads before Daryl got the door open. Both moving through the door quickly and without uttering a word to each other.
"TY!" Andi shouted as she followed Daryl down the hall, both taking down walker after walker that were in their path. "TY ANSWER ME!" She shouted again, worried that the worst had happened to their friend.
"YEAH!" came a strained reply "WHAT'S TAKIN' YOU SO LONG?"
Andi and Daryl exchanged quick glances as they turned around the corner, faced with Ty, his back against a wall surrounded by walkers, his arm dripping red with blood. They each ran to the group surrounding Ty and cut into them one by one, slowly bringing the groups number down. Andi broke off from them to check the walkers coming down the corridor attracted to the shouting, clearing the way.
"Be careful walkin' through these bastards" Daryl said looking down at their handy work and grabbing Ty by the arm, pushing the bigger man down the hallway. 'Go, follow Andi" he said stabbing a walker through the jaw up into it's brain.
"Shit" Andi sighed, walkers had now gotten into the once safe corridor.
It took the three of them just under an hour to get to the spot that Andi and Daryl had been when they first heard Ty's screams.
"Here it is" Andi said turning to Daryl who threw the set of keys to her. The two men stood guard as Andi fumbled with the keys, finally opening the door and letting the two men in.
She flicked the light on in the room "generator" she said simply seeing the surprised looks on their faces. "I was hopin' it would still work, it's connected up to the separate generator to the main prison, the lights in the emergency tunnels are connected to this generator as well."
"Holy crap" Ty exclaimed walking into the room.
As Andi had hoped, the armoury was still fully stocked. By the looks of it no-one had made it down there after the apocalypse had happened. Row after row of high powered rifles, shotguns and a number of handguns, they were also stocked with flares, smoke bombs and grenades. There were drawers and drawers of ammunition for all of the weapons housed in there. "I ain't never seen so many guns in one place" Ty said picking up a shotgun and checking the barrel "we takin' as many as we can carry?"
Andi looked over at Daryl, who had found a couple of prison duffel bags "one for guns, the other for amo" he put the bags down "what should we take?" he asked looking at Andi "a mix? Or just one kind?"
Andi looked at the ammunition "I wouldn't mind some more ammunition for my rifle, couple more rifles, shotguns, can do more damage with the shotgun than the handguns."
"True, ok, a couple rifles, couple shotguns and then fill 'em up with the amo" Daryl started filling up the bag with the guns while Ty picked up the ammunition.
Andi meanwhile checked out their exit, the door was covered with some shelving that Andi easily pulled away. She opened the door and peeked out, the hallway was lit and there were no walkers. "It's clear" she said coming up behind Daryl, who had just finished closing up the bags "at least down the first part of it" she shrugged.
Andi leant against the wall by the door out of the room, her shoulder was throbbing, her abdomen was aching and she had a headache that could split even the country in two.
"You ok?" Daryl asked quietly, suddenly standing next to her, his hand resting on her back as she leant forward, resting her own hands on her knees. She shook her head and looked up at Daryl, too pale, the colour draining from her face.
"We need to hurry" Daryl said suddenly, realising that Andi was on the verge of collapse, he wrapped an arm under her shoulders and hauled her up and out of the door.
They ran as fast as they could through the halls, Ty had taken over carrying Andi who was basically just pointing in the direction they needed to go. As hoped, the hallways were totally clear of any walkers and they made it out of the prison and into the light as the sun reached the highest point in the sky.
"Where are we?" Ty asked, not to anyone as he tried to get his bearings of the prison. They had come out on the southern end of the prison and outside of the main prison grounds.
"C'mon" Ty said running past Daryl, still with Andi under his huge arm "I told the girls to get out of the prison" he said as Daryl caught up to him as they ran through the forest, luckily there were very few walkers around them. "They should be somewhere just outside the prison gates."
"Stop stop stop!" Andi groaned, trying to push herself away from Ty's firm grasp, the two men stopped as Andi staggered away from them.
"Andi, we can't stop here" Daryl said at her side, leaning down slightly to look into her eyes.
Andi was disorientated, her head ached "what the hell happened?" she asked, lifting her hands onto ther head as she tried to figure out where she was "where are we?"
"In the forest" Ty said stepping up to the pair "we gotta move, now."
"Give us sec" Daryl said standing up to Ty "keep an eye out, we wont be stoppin' here long."
"We got out" Daryl knelt down in front of Andi, looking up at her as she bent down over her knees "we got the stuff, we're just findin' the girls, we gotta go Andi."
Andi looked at her friend, and blinked slowly, it was coming back, she straightened up and looked down at her clothes "gross" she moaned pulling some of the guts off her shoulder. She nodded at Daryl "ok, I'm good, I just, need some sleep."
"Ya can sleep all ya want when get back t'the van" Daryl said picking up the bag full of guns and flares, Andi nodded and gripped her machetes, suddenly finding that little bit of adrenalin at the thought of being able to rest once they find the van.
"Let's go then" she grinned at Daryl "I'll take the rear" she twisted the machetes around in her hands and followed the redneck through the forest until they came to the front gates of the prison.
"Where are they?" Andi asked, horsely, urgently.
Ty scanned the forest, he knew that they wouldn't have gone too far from the prison, Maggie's got a brain in her head "over here" he said quickly, planting his hammer into the head of a single walker.
He ran to a small clearing that had a pile of burnt walkers bodies smouldering on the grass, the van as parked on the small pathway leading into it, amongst the trees. Maggie opened the side door of the van, waiting for them to reach her.
"Oh my god" she exclaimed, looking at Andi and Daryl's bloodied clothes "god damn, ya'll smell horrible."
"Yeah, had ta get past the walkers some how" Daryl grunted, sitting down in the passenger seat, planting is feet on the dash "c'mon, lets get outta here."
Maggie shrugged, jumping in the driver seat as Andi climbed in and fell into a spare seat at the back of the van, her eyes were closed before Maggie had started the engine.
"She ok?" Maggie motioned with her head back to Andi.
Daryl turned around in his seat to look back at her "I ain't sure" he sighed, looking at the sleeping woman in the back of the van "she collapsed, Ty carried 'er most of the way out..."
"What happened in there?" Maggie interrupted him, they were gone for a lot longer than anyone thought they would be "I thought you were just checkin' down the corridor?"
Daryl turned back to face the front, playing with a small green rock in his hand "we did" he said without looking up from the stone "got to the end and they came fer us, we had to hide out, work out what to do. We were on our way out when we heard Ty shoutin' an' hollerin'"
"What about the bags?" came Beth's quiet voice, she was holding Hershey close to her chest as the puppy slept "you found guns."
"And amo to" Daryl said, still without looking up, worry covering his face, he sighed and looked out of the window.
What happened in the tombs with Andi worried him. Not just because if she had collapsed while they were walking through the walkers they would have put him in a position to chose if he saves himself or tries to save her and they both would have died anyway. But because she was more than likely still suffering from the head trauma that she had received at the hands of not only Blake and John but also when Carol had tried to suffocate her. Had oxygen been starved from her brain for too long? Did she have internal bleeding? What about the miscarriage? Had she passed all of the baby? If anything remained inside her that could be causing the abdomen pain she had complained of, and it could kill her.
"Hey" Beth's head appeared between Maggie and Daryl "I think somethin's up with Andi" she said, Daryl spun around in the seat, she was still sleeping.
"Looks ok ta me" he said frowning.
"She's talkin', talkin' in her sleep" Beth said quietly "she keeps kinda wakin' up but then fallin' asleep again, it's really weird."
"Here" Daryl said twisting in the front seat "switch places" he said climbing back through the small space between driver and passenger seat. Beth handed Hershey to Daryl once he was through as she climbed to the passenger seat, taking him back as the puppy woke up with a tiny whelp.
"Shh shh shhhhh" Beth cradled the puppy, her mouth nestled in the puppies growing fur.
Daryl moved passed Ty in the first row of seats, who was staring out of the window, lost in his own world and worries. He sat down next to Andi and leaned over her, she was still clutching her machetes. He frowned again and gently tugged her them free from her hands.
"What?" Andi woke suddenly at the feeling of someone taking her weapons "didn't anyone ever say to ya to never take someone's weapons when they sleepin'?"
Andi had been dreaming, they were a complete mix of good and bad dreams. Memories that she cherished and memories that she dreaded re-living, some were so vivid. Some so real it felt like she was there again, holding her daughter, her husband or being held down by John, she didn't know if she should smile at the memory or curl into the foetal position and cry. But she had dreamed of Daryl as well, his shyness when spreading the guts over her in the tombs, the times when they were up in the tower on watch duty and he had cuddled up behind her to keep her warm. His piercing blue eyes, those same eyes that were staring at her now, full of concern and worry.
"I'm fine Daryl" she smiled "just tired is all, I haven't had a lot of sleep in a few weeks" she laughed sitting up in the seat "where are we?" she asked rubbing her eyes.
"On our way ta the farm, easy run so far" Daryl sat back in the seat, watching Andi closely.
"I was dreamin'" Andi said looking out of the window, watching tree after tree whoosh past "how I treated ya Daryl' she paused before turning around to look at the redneck next to her, taking his hand in hers. "I am so sorry, no listen Daryl" she held onto his hand tighter as he tried to pull away from her. "I know I done some pretty stupid things in my life and walking away from you was one of them, I just..."
"It's ok" Daryl said quietly almost avoiding her gaze, his face as red as a tomato. "Ya already said all this."
"I don't think you believe me though" she sighed. She need him to know that she felt the same feelings but she didn't want to scare him away.
"I know that it'll take time for you to open up to me again Daryl, like you did at the prison" she said looking down at his hand, still holding hers. She smiled as she lessened her grip.
Daryl looked down at their hands but didn't pull his away, in truth her holding his hand, for some reason, he felt calming. He wasn't ready yet to open up to her completely again, if he ever really would, but he liked holding her hand and he smiled.
"What you smilin' at" Andi asked him sleepily, she would not push it any further for now, this was enough for her. Before he could reply though she was sleeping again, her eyes closing and her head resting on his shoulder.
He smiled "nothing" he whispered resting his head back on the head rest, the fact he was courting a girl and holding her hand on the backseat of a mini van made the redneck smile. He felt like a kid on the school bus, only now, a girl actually did want to hold his hand.
One day he will tell her again how he feels, maybe, one day.
