Ch.10

I watch Daryl as he moves to help Morales pick up one of our fallen. They start dragging him over to the burn pile. "What are you doing?! That pile is for geeks! Our people go over there!" Glenn shouts pointing towards the RV.

They continue talking, then Glenn raises his voice again. "We don't burn them! We bury them! Understand?!" he cries out. I watch them as they move the body over to the respected spot.

"Y'all left my brother for dead! You had this coming!" Daryl yells over at us. He walks away angry barely glancing at me. He's been acting like this all morning. I don't know what else to do. No matter what I try, he just ignores me. I don't know what I did to deserve this.

A walker got him! A walker bit Jim!" Jacqui yells tearing me out of my trance. "What?" I stand up walking towards him. "Show it to us!" Daryl yells. They both get in a stance to fight each other.

"Put it down!" I hear everyone yell at Jim. Daryl lifts up Jim's shirt, and there it is - the bite that's gonna cost us another man. Daryl backs up towards the rest of us, singling out Jim.

"I say we put a pickaxe in his head and the dead girls and be done with it." Daryl says holding up the pickaxe. He briefly looks at me, then looks away when I look at him. I can't hold his attention at all.

"Is that what you'd want if it were you?" Shane asks Daryl. "Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it." he responds. "I hate to say it - I never thought I would - but maybe Daryl's right." Dale speaks up.

I listen to everyone argue about what to do about Jim. Then they come up with an idea to travel to the CDC for a possible cure. All of a sudden Daryl runs at Jim, ready to kill him.

"Daryl, no!" I call out to him. Rick runs up to him pointing his gun at the back of his head. "We don't kill the living." Rick cocks his gun. Daryl lowers the pick and turns around facing the barrel of the gun.

"That's funny coming from a man who just put a gun to my head." Daryl states. I walk up to him. "He's still one of us, Daryl." I reach out to him. He moves his hand out of my reach. "Don't touch me!" he growls at me.

"Put it down, Daryl." Shane tells Daryl. He complies by throwing it down as hard as he can. Then walks away angry after glaring at me. "Daryl!" I holler at him. He doesn't even slow down. In fact, he speeds up. I can feel the tears start to form as I watch him walk away from me.

I watch as Carol walks over to Daryl. I start to get jealous thinking ' he'll talk to her but not me?' Then I figure out she was just asking to pike her dead husband in the head. I ease up a bit.

We both watch as Carol mutilates Ed's face. I bet that felt good, to let all that pent up tension and stress out. All the abuse that she's had to go through. The fear for herself and her daughter. That took guts to do what she did.

I run over to Carol and give her a big hug. She continues sobbing as I look towards Daryl. He gives me a concerned look. I grab the pick from her and hand it over to him. He willingly takes it from me without argument.

I rub her back and cry with her. "It's okay. You're safe now. You don't have to worry about him anymore." I whisper to her as Daryl and I stare at each other. He doesn't turn away from me but continues to stare sadly at me.

We turn around to see Amy had turned. We all walk over to where everyone is crowding the two sisters. We watch closely as Andrea says her final goodbyes. Then she blows her sister's brains out to put her out of her misery.

I look away as I start crying. She was a good friend to us all. I feel sorry for Andrea. She was her only family left. I slowly walk up to Andrea with my hand over my chest. "Andrea? I want you to know that I'm here for you." I say backing up just in case. She nods at me and I walk away.

I walk up with everyone to bury our people. Daryl mutters something about not burning the bodies instead. "We haven't had one minute to hold onto anything of our old selves. We need time to mourn and we need to bury our dead. It's what people do." Lori states walking off.

"Daryl..." I step over to him. He stops me before I can say anything else. "I don't want to talk." he says glancing at me. "Why? Why are you ignoring me all of a sudden and being hateful? What did I do?" I ask pleadingly.

He sighs at me. "I don't want to talk..." he begins. "But..." I interupt him. He's really getting mad now. "I said I don't want to talk about it!" he turns to me and yells. I flinch at his angry tone.

"I don't need you to be riding my ass all the time, Mae! I don't need you!" he yells as loud as he can without letting others hear. The tears are strolling down my face now and turn around to run back down the mountain towards camp.

Daryl acts like he's gonna say something, but sighs instead as he rubs his neck. He watches me run away in tears with a sad, apologetic look on his face. Lori was watching this interaction the whole time.

As I'm running back to camp, I bump into Lori. "Hey. Mae, you all right? What's wrong, honey?" she stares into my crying face. She looks genuinely concerned for me. "It's nothing." I continue crying as I walk past her wiping my nose. "Mae!" she calls to me as I walk away.

As I make it to the tent, my sobs get more intense. I put my hands over my face to try and calm down, but It doesn't work. I sit down on my sleeping bag with my head on my knees. I stay in that position crying for several minutes until I cry myself to sleep.

Daryl finally comes back to the tent. Afraid what he'd find, he breathes heavily before opening the tent flap. He stares at my sleeping face. Looking sad, he notices the dried-up tear streaks.

"I'm sorry." his voice cracks to a whisper. His eyes begins to water as he recalls the look on my face when he yelled at me. A single tear rolls down his cheek, and he wipes it away quickly.

A couple minutes later, Lori pulls Daryl aside. "Can I speak to you?" she asks him. "Why?" he responds. "It's about Mae. Do you know why she came back crying her eyes out?" she questions him knowing the answer.

"How should I know? Got nothing to do with me." Daryl narrows his eyes. "It has everything to do with you! I saw how you've been treating her lately. What did you tell her?!" Lori screams.

Daryl puts his hands on his hips as he sighs. "What happened? Why are you treating her like shit now? Why push her away? You know, most of the time when someone pushes someone else away they like, it's because they're afraid of something. What are you afraid of?" Lori asks him trying to understand.

"I don't gotta tell you!" Daryl gets up in Lori's face, who keeps a stern look. Yeah, you do! Just tell me why?! She doesn't deserve this. She's a sweet girl, and I care about her." she screams at him.

"Aight, you really wanna know?! It's because I don't wanna be her bodyguard anymore! I'm tired of her getting in my way! She follows me around like a lost puppy! It's annoying! She drives me crazy!" Daryl says with clenched teeth.

Lori pulls her brows together in anger. "Oh, come on. That's not true and you know it! We both know it! You're hiding something! What are you really afraid of? What don't you want her to know?" She looks concerned and angry at the same time.

"I know she means more to you than that. I see it all over your face. You two were inseparable. You sure got one thing right, though - she drives you crazy doesn't she?! That's what made you really care about her! Isn't that right?!" Lori states making him even more pissed.

"No." Daryl looks away angrily. "Bull! You don't want her to know how you feel about her, don't you? Don't you! You're afraid of losing her, aren't you? Well, you keep this up and you will! You two were so great together! Until you screwed up and became the ultimate asshole that you are now!" Lori screams at Daryl with pure anger in her voice.

Daryl's face twitches as he keeps his anger in control. "The hell do you know about my feelings?!" he barks out. "Not much, but I do know that you care so much that you're afraid of letting her in. What is the worst that can happen? Nothing bad will come of it! Only good! Tell me the truth! Now!" Lori tries to make him understand.

"You really care about her don't you? So, quit treating her like this. The way you're acting towards her is really hurting her. She's been beating herself up this whole time. You guys may not know that I notice, but I do! She probably thinks she did something wrong to cause such treatment." Lori paces back and forth.

Lori sighs and continues to grill Daryl. "If you truly care about her, get in there and make up for it! She really cares about you! I can see it on her face. You need to change the way you've been acting! Tell her everything!" Lori unleashes her anger on him again.

Daryl stares at her stunned. He didn't realize how much it would affect begins to rethink his actions. He rubs his eyes, then sighs heavily. He looks at Lori for reassurance. "Will she accept my apology, though?" he asks with a worried look on his face.

"Only one way to find out. Get in that tent and tell her the truth." Lori crosses her arms. When he doesn't move, Lori throws hers hands up in exasperation. "Whatever! I'm done talking! Just remember your actions affect her, too."

Lori starts to walk away, then turns around real quick pointing a finger at him. "You broke her heart, you know that?!" she stomps off leaving Daryl to process her words.