A/N Thanks for stopping by to check out my newest Donnie story. Enjoy!
Daryl Dixon and Connie
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When he stepped out his door that Monday morning he knew it was time to go, but he wasn't going without her.
At first Daryl Dixon doesn't pay much attention to the news stories. All those talking heads jabbering about some new virus. That's what news-people do, right? They're always trying to get everyone riled up about one damn thing or another.
A week or two later you're not hearing anything about it. Shit, you'll never hear about it again.
That's because there's always some new imaginary catastrophe they're talking about.
That's what he thinks at first.
Then one night he's at the tavern having a quick beer after work. He hears a guy talking about people with this damn virus. The guy's telling his buddy how his uncle works at the hospital in Atlanta, and he says when folks die from it they don't stay dead. They come back to life as some kind of flesh-eating monsters.
Even though it sounds like some bullshit from an old horror movie, for some reason he can't explain even to himself, Daryl thinks it's real. He starts paying a little more attention to the news, and he digs a little deeper into the internet.
Then he's convinced.
He's always thought of himself as a survivor. Growing up with the people he grew up with, shit he'd have been dead by the time he was ten if he wasn't a survivor. His Dad was just plain mean, physically and verbally. His Mama was too drunk and too emotionally bankrupt to leave the old man, and his brother was mean, loud and on the dope by the time he got out of middle school.
They weren't exactly living the American dream.
Now he's thinking that might have been a good thing. He's prepared for whatever the hell is coming next.
So when he decides for himself the world is about to tip on its axis he begins getting ready. He already has a lot of the gear he figures he'll need. A pickup with a cabover camper he uses when he goes hunting and fishing. He has a shitload of other camping gear too, and plenty of weapons. Knives, guns and his favorite, a crossbow.
What he needs to do is make sure he has plenty of food, water, ammo and fuel.
Folk's haven't started to panic yet, and he tries to keep the fact he's stockpiling supplies on the down-low. There's no reason to alert anyone to his plan or his preparations.
He goes to every grocery in the county and buys a few items, things that will keep a while. A case of beans here, a case of corn there, and packaged goods. Whatever he buys, he's careful never to buy enough at any one store to arouse suspicion.
He even buys a Costco membership and does a little stocking-up there. It's easier to go unnoticed at Costco because it's all about buying in bulk, but he's cautious anyway. He doesn't overdo there either.
He does the same thing stocking up on fuel and ammunition.
He isn't stupid enough to believe he's set forever, but he's set for a while. Long enough to figure shit out. And where he's planning on setting up camp there's game for meat and a river for fishing and for water to drink.
He'll have everything he needs to survive. Except her. She'll be the only thing missing.
He noticed her the first day she came to work there. She's pretty, really pretty. Her skin is a rich caramel color and it looks warm, soft, almost silky. She has big dark expressive eyes and soft corkscrew curls. He's heard the expression, "her smile lights up the room" a million times. He never bought into bullshit like that.
Not until Connie smiled. The first time he saw her smile he was a believer.
It's too late now and damn him, why didn't he just step up? Why didn't he talk to her more? What the fuck is the matter with him?
All along he tried to make excuses for himself. At first he almost had himself convinced it was because she was too different. She was the brainy type and he was the working man type. She wouldn't be interested and they wouldn't have one damn thing in common.
After a couple of days of being around her he knew that was bullshit. So then he tried to tell himself it was because she's deaf. How could they even communicate? That excuse didn't hold water either. He'd seen it over and over, again, she was perfectly capable of communicating with anyone willing to make a small effort.
The excuse he cooked up then was that he just didn't have the time or the inclination to get involved with a woman, any woman.
Bullshit piled on top of bullshit.
The real reason was simple. He was chickenshit.
Now that the world's ending he has all kinds of ugly realities to try and accept. It's too late, he waited too long. He made too many bullshit excuses.
The biggest reality is, he wants her with him. If there's a new world coming he wants to be in it with her. He wants them to start a new life together.
It's probably too late. He figures at the most he has two days left before he has to pull the plug and get the hell out of town.
But can he really go and leave Connie behind? How the hell will he do that?
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She's nervous. Whatever this is it's been going on for a while now. People are coming down with some strange virus and it seems like the government is trying to hide how bad it is. She's not the only one whose seen them hauling sick people off in military trucks.
The officials have been telling the public not to worry, they're only sending the sick folks to quarantine. They say it's just until they get better. They'll be safer where they're going and they'll get excellent medical care.
She's been investigating those claims and she doesn't believe the officials. She's become convinced that what's really going on is her own government is killing sick people.
It makes her wonder what the hell this sickness could possibly be that it spreads so quickly. And why would the government behave in such a brutal manner toward it's citizens.
There's something else that's equally disturbing. She's read about it on the internet. At first she chalked it off as a bunch of crackpot fearmongering, but now she's starting to believe it might be possible. The dead don't stay dead.
How can that be? How can something dead come back to life? And that's not all, when they do come back they're no longer themselves. Instead they've turned into some sort of horrid creatures. She's read one particularly terrifying story that claims when the dead come back, they eat the living.
So far the strange virus has been mostly contained to large and very congested metropolitan areas. Places like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and a city much closer to home, Atlanta.
There are plenty of signs it's rapidly getting worse. Lately television and internet reception have been spotty and the news sketchy. The power keeps blinking on and off and she's even worried about the water being safe. She's begun boiling any water she plans to drink.
Whatever is happening in the world she's sure it's about to blow wide open. The virus reached pandemic proportions more than a month ago and there's still no vaccine. There's no known treatment. There's no end in sight.
Things just keep getting worse.
She hasn't seen many signs of it in Smithton. There have only been a few cases and a few "incidents." Still she's been doing her best to be prepared. Even though she doesn't much care for canned food she started stocking up on canned goods weeks ago. Anything that won't spoil too quickly.
There's another way she's preparing for whatever may come. Self-defense.
She hadn't given any thought to slingshots in years. When they were kids her Dad taught her and her sister Kelly how to use them. They'd gotten pretty darn good. They didn't use them for hunting or anything like that, just for target shooting. Her Dad said it would help them develop good hand-eye coordination.
Their father also warned them slingshots are lethal weapons and they should never aim them at people.
In the past few weeks she's decided she might need a lethal weapon to protect herself, so she's been practicing. She purchased a new modern slingshot with ergonomic grip, arm support, some replacement parts and plenty of steel shot.
She set some targets up in the backyard and she practices before work and after work. She's proud at how damn good she's gotten. Much better than when she was younger. She has near pinpoint accuracy.
Maybe it's because now she sees the slingshot as a weapon, not as a toy.
She's needs to be ready in case things turn really bad. What if the government just indiscriminately starts hauling off everyone? She doesn't want to be around. She plans to go into hiding.
She's seen on some TV crime drama's that the agents carry what they called "go bags." The bags contain clothing items and crime scene supplies.
She now keeps her own version of a go bag with her at all times. It's an old canvas backpack that holds one change of clothes, a large bottle of water, some rations, and most important, right on top, is her sling shot and a bag of ammo.
She isn't sure exactly where she'll run to or where she'll hide. She hasn't been in the area long enough to know her way around that well. She's checked some maps, looking for likely locations but her only real plan is to get in her car and start driving toward the country.
She'll find somewhere remote where she can wait out the virus.
What worries her most is what her sister Kelly will do, and if they'll ever see each other again. Kelly's still up in Virginia and lately when they've been able to get enough reception to text, her sister tells her how bad it is there. Kelly's getting ready to head to some place more remote too.
As worried as she is about her sister, herself and everything else, for the present she's still trying to live a normal life.
She works at a publishing house as a writer for a host of online news magazines. What's so different in the past few days is, some days she can do her job, and some days she can't. It's lack of power or lack of internet, usually both, that prevent her from doing her work.
The other thing that's different is she doesn't just have her go bag close by and handy, now she keeps it right at her feet. It's ready to grab and run if she feels even the slightest inkling that's what she needs to do.
For some reason when she wakes Monday morning she feels it, an undeniably strong sense that this is it. She manages to get enough phone reception to text Kelly and her sister agrees. They name a place, a place where they used to camp when they were kids. If either of them can ever make it there again, that's where they'll meet.
She's the responsible type and she tells herself she's just going to run in the office for a minute to let her boss know she's got to leave. Not why, just that she's got to.
Her office is in the largest building in the county and a guy named Daryl's in charge of maintenance for all of it. They've spoken a few times and he knows a little about how to communicate with her. One day he even showed her a paperback book he bought on learning ASL.
He knows she reads lips and that he should look at her when he talks. And he waits patiently when she writes things out for him. It's all been about work stuff and small talk, but she's noticed the way he looks at her. She thinks he's interested. She knows she's interested in him.
She doesn't know a lot about him. She knows his name, Daryl Dixon, and she knows he's very good at what he does. Before the beginning of the end of the world there never seemed to be any problems with the building's infrastructure. The plumbing, the heat, the air conditioning, the lighting, he kept everything in perfect working order.
She knows that about him, and she knows he's one fine looking man. A little rough, a little disheveled, but that doesn't take away from how handsome he is, or how nice he's always been to her. Maybe he'll be at work and she can at least say goodbye.
It's so crazy on the street she almost thinks she'd have a better chance making it on foot. But if she abandons her car how will she get out of town?
It seems that overnight the streets have become unusually crowded, as if people suddenly realized there was something really terrible going on. The crowds of people seem angry and on edge, it feels like a riot could break out at any moment.
She can't hear what they're saying but she can see the anger and desperation in their faces and in their body language.
She weaves her way through the crowd wishing she'd never left her house, but she's come far enough it seems to make more sense to continue to the office rather than turn back. She pulls up right in front of her building, runs to the door, and dammit, the door's locked. There must not be anyone inside.
She's already starting to panic a little when she sees one of "them" approaching her. She's never seen one before and yet she knows exactly what it is, it's one of those undead people. Except they're not really a person. How can they be? What are they then? What the hell is happening? Her head is pounding. The world is upside down and everything is so confusing.
She's scared but that doesn't matter, she has to do something to protect herself. She quickly slides the backpack off and she's just about to reach in it for the slingshot. But first she makes one last effort, she hits the big glass and metal door as hard as she can, several times.
That's when she notices and learns something. The undead thing is attracted to the noise she's making. A noise she can't hear at all. That doesn't matter, IT hears, and the dead thing starts walking faster in her direction.
She hurries to open the backpack, first pulling out the slingshot and then the bag of ammunition. Just as she grabs it the door swings open and someone grips her upper arm, pulling her inside. She's caught completely by surprise. The door shuts, the bolt slides and she looks up.
It's him.
Now she knows one more thing about Daryl Dixon. It's very possible he just saved her life. He looks at her with concern in his eyes and asks, "Ya okay Connie?"
He got to the office building about 45 minutes before she arrived and no one else was there yet. As head of maintenance he has the building key so no problem, he let himself in.
He was only there for one reason, to try and convince her to come with him. He locked the door and waited, hoping to God she'd show up. And berating himself. If he wasn't such an idiot he'd know where she lived. He had no idea.
While he was waiting he heard a commotion in the back and went to check. He'd never seen any of them before but he knew right away what they were. There were three of them. He recognized them, they used to work in the sales department. They're all dead now, but not really. They aren't dead and they're aren't alive, and he knows they'll kill him.
He's not going to give them a chance. He uses his knife, at first stabbing one right in the heart. It only seems to stun the creature for a moment, then it's coming after him again. The second time he goes for the head. It's the perfect kill shot with an animal, right to the brain. Sure enough the thing dies instantly.
He tests his new theory on the second one. A stab to the gut only slows the thing down for a moment. A stab to the heart just stuns it. Then Daryl plunges the knife in its head, and it's gone. Now he knows how to kill the undead once and for all. He makes short work of the last one.
Then he hears the noise. It's faint but it sounds like someone's banging on the door. He hurries that way and thank God, it's her. It's Connie. Then he sees she's about to come face to face with one of those things. He quickly opens the door, grabs her and pulls her inside to safety. To him.
She seems to know, just like him, it's time to go. She has the canvas backpack he's noticed she's been keeping with her.
He clutches her upper arms, looks right at her pretty face and tells her, "We go together."
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A/N There's our start. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think. If you'd like to check it out, there's a chapter photo on my tumblr blogs, gneebee and fortheloveofdonnie. I'll be back next Sunday with Chapter Two of We Go Together and I hope to see you here. Until then remember, I love ya large! xo gneebee