"The hell'd you bring that thing for?"
"I forgot 'e was up there. Ya were the one that brought Bobby!"
"I didn't know he was sleepin' in my fuckin' bag! How the hell can you forget that one was on your shoulder?"
"That's where 'e likes ta sleep. Ain' me fault 'e likes sleepin' on me. I'm 'is momma."
"Uh-huh. You keep tellin' yourself that right up until we eat 'em."
"We are NOT eatin' me babies, Daryl! Neva in a million years! They're ya babies too, Daddy D! Ya married me, I adopted 'em, they're ya's too."
"Don't call me that when you're talkin' about your fuckin' cats, Ania. Just don't."
"Will you two stop arguing over the cats and focus on the road?" Carol asked after they'd been on the road for about twenty minutes, following the car with the cross. "Why are we even following it?"
Daryl told them both about what happened with him and Beth. How they'd made it out of the prison and to a funeral home, admitting that he'd given up hope finding anyone from the prison alive. He'd gotten off track when he looked over at Ania to see her facing forward with tears streaming down her cheeks. He began apologizing to her, briefly explaining how Beth had disappeared and how he found the Claimers and, through them, that she was alive. He still had her dagger on him from that time. Daryl could tell that he hurt Ania when he said he hadn't even done much looking until Beth demanded him to, but his mind had gone dark. He hadn't been able to give himself hope that she was alive or that he could find her. The worst part of the whole thing, telling her, was that when he was done explaining everything right down to how he had gotten beaten by the Claimers trying to save Rick and Merle saving him instead, Ania just grabbed his hand.
"I get it," she said. "I get it. I saw ya escape with Beth, but got cut off by walkas. Couldn' get out 'xcept through the tombs. I didn' know eitha, not really, not 'til I found ya trail. But I lost it at the tracks. Found our cabin a while afta but that was burned ta the ground."
"Yeah, sorry about that."
"Ya were drunk and I can' blame ya and Beth for doin' somethin' I did meself as a teen," she said with a sigh. "But that's what broke me. Findin' that cabin and ya not bein' there and it bein' a burnin' mess. And that's why ya ain' killin' or cookin' Bobby and Catty. I would a died without 'em."
"How did kittens help you survive?" Carol asked from the back, perplexed by the idea. "They're not much fighters."
"Nah, didn' need 'em ta fight. Needed a reason ta keep goin'. They gave it. Pulled me out a me mind jus' 'fore a walka got me. So yeah, they stayin' and livin' and thrivin' in our care, D. And that's that."
"Yeah, alright," he said with a sigh, realizing there was no way she was ever going to get rid of the damn things. "But they piss or shit on my stuff and I'm tossin' 'em."
"Haven' pissed on anythin' yet that I know of," Ani said with a shrug of her shoulders.
"So it was just you and Beth after?" Carol asked, bringing the topic back on subject and away from the topic of consternation.
"Yeah," Daryl answered.
"Did you save her?"
"She's tough. She saved herself," Daryl said. "We were out there for a while. We got cornered, she got out in front of me and I don't know. She was just gone. I came out, a car was pullin' out with a white cross on the window."
"Just like that one?" Carol asked.
"Yep," Daryl said, holding onto Ania's hand and pulling it into his lap after giving the back a kiss, hoping that he could offer her a little comfort as she pet the kittens in her lap.
They drove in silence for a few minutes before Daryl mused, "Rick's gonna wonder where we went. Tank's runnin' low."
"And ya didn' think a that 'fore ya told us ta get in?" Ani laughed, making him squeeze her hand a little tighter and his heart flutter; he'd missed hearing her laugh.
"We can end this quick," Carol said. "Just run him off the road."
"And then what?" Ani asked Carol, turning to look at her.
"If they're holdin' her somewhere, we can get it out of the driver," she suggested.
"Maybe, maybe not," Daryl said. "We're good for a little bit. Right now, we got the advantage. We'll see who they are. If they're a group, see what they can do."
"And then we get Beth back any means necessary," Ani finished for him.
"Damn straight."
"They're heading north, I-85," Carol said as she leaned through the seats and onto the center console.
"That's Atlanta," Ani commented.
They quieted down as they entered the city, Ani tucking the kittens safely back into her bag and holding it carefully in her lap. As soon as both her hands were 'free', Daryl grabbed the one closest to him and brought it back into his lap. Another twenty minutes or so passed as they drove into the Atlanta city limit and through the city itself. Surprisingly, there didn't seem to be much walker activity to slow them down, but that didn't stop the trio from remaining silent until the car in front of them pulled to a stop outside a building.
A few minutes of waiting had Daryl antsy. "What the hell's he waiting for?" he asked as he shut the car off and waited. "There's two of 'em," he commented as the passenger door opened and someone stepped out. "Is that a cop?"
"Sure looks like it," Ani said, leaning forward, pretty sure 'e's from here in Atlanta."
"You can see the uniform from here?" Carol asked. "Even in this light?"
"Saprisin'ly, yeah," Ani told her. "Not makin' any promises, jus' sayin' it looks like."
"He might've seen us," she said.
"Doubt it. Ain' comin' ova."
Waiting and watching in silence, the three of them started badly when a walker came up to Ani's window and banged on it, causing her to move her torso closer to Daryl and him to bristle. She cussed as Carol sighed behind them, all three going back to watching the cop car in front of them and ignoring the walker. It continued banging against the car as the cop came back out with a bike and threw it down on the ground. The walker caught the attention of the cop who was moving junk around, but thankfully they just got in their car slowly rather than investigating. That thankfulness was short lived as Daryl tried to turn over the car and it refused to turn.
"Aw, shit," he said. "Tank's tapped. They'd have taken the bypass and they didn't. They must be holed up in the city somewhere."
"Means we can't stay here," Ani said, Daryl nodding his head in agreement as he looked at their surroundings.
"We gotta move, find someplace to hole up 'til sunlight."
"I know a place," Carol said quietly. "Just a couple of blocks from here."
"Yeah, that's where I was thinkin' too," Ani said.
"You know about it?"
"Some cases require a forensic psychologist ta come in and talk ta the people," was her simple reply.
Daryl grabbed his bag from beside Ania's legs before she handed him the crossbow. Carol opened the back door and took care of the walker banging on the car, allowing Ani to exit as well with her bag. Making a run for it, they killed five more walkers on their way to the women's shelter, finding it boarded up tight. Handing Ania his crossbow, Daryl took his big hunting knife and started working at the boards keeping the door shut. Even though his bow was bigger than hers, Ani managed to kill two more walkers with it while he was working on the door, earning a look from Carol that said the older woman was impressed she could use it. To be fair, it had a much heavier drawback than hers.
"There's two more in the alley," Carol informed them as Ani retrieved the bolts.
"I've almost got it," Daryl told her.
"Cars, don'," Ani said, stopping Carol in her tracks as she went to go down the alley.
A loud crash from behind them announced Daryl having opened the door, but that crash brought on a slew of walkers. They heard them long before they could see them, something that had Ani's breathing coming out sharper than normal and her entire body rigid. As the multitude of walkers came growling into sight, Daryl pulled Ania into the building and waited for Carol to enter before he slammed the door shut.
"You okay?" Carol asked, looking at Ani strangely.
"Nychtophobia," Daryl growled, going to his wife and wrapping his arms around her as she shook her head to clear it. "Don't like the dark 'cause of that kind of stuff. Somethin' could sound a mile away and be right on top of you. Hell, you look like you're about to shit yourself, can't blame her for needed a minute."
"Didn't think you were scared of anythin'," Carol commented towards Ani.
"Nychtophobia, arachnophobia, claustrophobia, cleithrophobia, entomophobia, aerophobia, mild thalassophobia," Ani recited. "I got a lot a phobias, though, don' see the last two bein' viable anymore."
"Why's that?" Carol asked, entirely amused by the string of phobias Ani had said, not knowing what half of them were.
"Well, airplane travel ain' really a thing any more and there sure as hell ain' any cruise ships goin' around. Things goin' bump in the night, spidas crawlin' all ova me, bein' confined in small spaces, bein' trapped, and bugs I still gotta deal with, but I ain' gotta worry 'bout flyin' or sailin' no more," Ani said as they began moving further into the building, Daryl taking the lead.
While there were no walkers, they did find human remains of one of the workers. Carol bent down and took the keys from the corpse as Ani and Daryl stood watch. Moving ahead, she unlocked and opened the door that led into the inner part of the building. Both she and Ania knew where they were going, and while he could guess why Ania knew, he had to ask Carol how she knew this place.
"You used to work here or somethin'?"
"Somethin'," was her quiet reply as she and Ani moved the desk in from of the door that lead to the outside.
Daryl held a flashlight up over Carol as she unlocked another door leading back into the living quarters. Following behind Ani and Carol, he asked, "What is this place?"
"It's temporary housing," Carol responded.
"Battered and abused women and teens can come here, get set up for a few days 'til they can find a place ta stay or get their abusa's arrested," Ani said.
"You came here?" Daryl asked Carol.
"We didn't stay. I imagine you know the story?"
"I do," Ani said.
"I'll take the top bunk," Carol said as the three of them began taking off their bags, Ani letting the kittens explore. "I think that one's more your style," she commented, mentioning the pink-clad bottom bunk, making both Ani and Daryl scoff. "You two should sleep. I'll take first watch."
"It's pretty safe," Ani mentioned.
"Yeah, this is locked up pretty tight," Daryl agreed.
"I know," Carol said, moving to the only window that looked out onto the roof.
"Then we're good then," Daryl said as he took off his jacket, leaving his arms bare.
"I'll keep first watch," Carol repeated. "I don't mind. Maybe give you two some time alone."
"Nah, not in the middle of the city. Ain' takin' any risks like splittin' up or gettin' distracted," Ani said, although if she had to admit it, she was already distracted the minute Daryl's arms came into plain view.
"If you say so. I've got watch."
"Suit yourself," Daryl said as he sat down, pulling Ania with him to sit on his leg, wrapping his arms around her and holding her back against his chest, giving her a kiss on the temple as she leaned her head against his shoulder.
"You said we get to start over," Carol said from the window, still looking out even though there was nothing to see.
"Yeah."
"Did you?"
"I'm tryin'," Daryl said.
And he was. He hadn't given up on Beth and he had been able to shove away the negative thoughts about Ania leaving him for a while. He was trying to take care of people and keep them safe instead of shoving them away. Those Claimers, he'd've been a part of them whole heartedly back in the before times, him and Merle both, but they'd both been turning over new leaves thanks to the girl in his lap. Holding her just a little tighter, he realized just how much he had changed thanks to her being a part of his life, same as Merle. All that realization did was make his desire to keep her by his side even greater.
"Why not jus' say what's really botharin' ya?" Ani told her, her own arms holding onto Daryl's as she sat on him.
"I don't think we get to save people anymore," Carol told them.
"Then why are you here?" Daryl asked, confused; the whole point of this trip was to save Beth after all.
"I'm tryin'," she said quietly before coming and sitting next to them on the bed, flopping back to lay down.
"When we were out by the car," Daryl asked, toying with a string on Ania's shirt. "What if we didn't show up?"
"Still don't know," Carol said without missing a beat.
Daryl moved the pillow and laid down next to her, Ani moving to lay next to him on her side, watching the woman they had brought along. This wasn't either hers nor Ani's mission, but they'd come nonetheless. It seemed to Ani that the woman was having some sort of mid-life crisis in the middle of the apocalypse without even realizing she was having one. The woman she had once been was gone, the woman she thought she was was gone. All she had left was this creature she didn't recognize. Ani could relate to that as she had gone through the same turmoil a few years ago. The difference was that Ani knew exactly what was happening to her and didn't fight it. Carol was actively fighting or running away from who she was, and that was only going to become the spark that ignited a breakdown.
"Ya know," Ani started, but a distant thud had her sitting up and looking towards the door instead of speaking.
All three got off the bed, Daryl grabbing his bow while Carol grabbed her gun. Ani simply pulled out the dagger she still had and a throwing knife. Quietly leaving the room, Daryl took point as they moved down into the bigger living spaces meant for larger families. The banging got louder until they came to the end of the corridor. A walker behind a frosted glass wall was the source of the banging, making them all relax. Ani sucked in a sharp breath upon seeing the one walker joined by two more little ones; why it bothered her now of all things, she wasn't sure. She stood staring at the walker children even as Carol got in the way, attempting to go for the door to take care of them.
"You don't have to," Daryl told the woman, stopping her from entering before she tried again. "You don't." Carol walked away, past Ani who was still standing and staring. "Ania? Ania, you okay?"
Ani broke out of her trance and looked over to Daryl before back at the door, "I jus'...I forget sometimes, ya know? That it ain'...that it ain' jus' the adults. Haven' had ta put a kid down since Luke."
"You don't gotta either," he told her.
"And let ya take the burden yaself? Nah, D, nah. Ain' happenin'. I eitha do it meself, or we do it tagetha, but let's wait 'til Cars is sleepin'. She don' need this right now."
"Why you say that?"
"She's in crisis mode," she told him sadly. "That's why she's always tryin' ta run. Why she's given up on me and Phia. She don' know who or what she is anymore, and it's got 'er eitha numb or runnin' for the hills. Don' know who she's supposed ta be, what she's supposed ta do. She's tailspinnin'."
"So what do we do?"
Ani sighed, "Honestly? It's hard ta deal with in the best a times. Councilin', medicine, routine, and changin' one's thought patterns would be the ideal. But we ain' got time for routine, medicine is outta the question, and changin' one's thought patterns in an age where anxiety keeps ya livin'? D, this is an uphill battle we might a already lost."
"So, what do we do?" he asked her again, a little quieter and lower.
"For once, I don' know," Ani said, looking completely lost and defeated. "I ain' Wonda Woman."
"Never said you were, baby girl," he told her, bringing her in and kissing her forehead before they went back to the room.
True to her word, Carol took first watch, watching out the window and occasionally looking back to the two squished on the bottom bunk together. Ani spent half the night lying half on top of Daryl while he kept his arm around her and trapped one of her legs with his own. She couldn't help but smile at them. They didn't know it, but she'd heard their little conversation earlier. Carol understood enough of what she'd said, and had to admit that the girl was right. She didn't know herself anymore, and that was the scariest thing in the world, scarier than even the walkers, making her want to run and hide. Ani was too smart for her own good sometimes, and knowing what Carol was dealing with was one of those times because now that Carol knew Ani understood her, Carol wanted to run away even faster.
When Carol woke up in the morning after switching with Daryl, Ani waking up with him, she noticed smoke outside. Carefully making her way to the roof, Carol stopped as she saw Ani and Daryl out by a fire, Daryl carrying the final body from the room and placing it on the pyre as Carol came out. Ani was just staring at the fire, pale faced, before she had to leave. It was too much, knowing they were children and then the smell. She went back inside to find Bobby and Catty while Carol and Daryl had their little powwow.
"Thank you," she heard Carol say before the door closed.
~x~
A little while later, they were packing up as much as they could from the little room they'd stayed in and getting ready to head out when Daryl spoke up, "That car was headed downtown. I say we get up in one of them tall ones, get ourselves a view, see what we can see."
"We can stay close to the buildings and keep quiet," Carol agreed. "But sooner or later, we're gonna be drawin' 'em."
"Ain' ya a little ray a sunshine, Cars," Ani quipped.
"You feelin' alright?" Daryl asked her. "Lookin' a little pale."
"Yeah, not a fan a tall buildin's eitha. Ya can add megalophobia ta the list I gave ya last night," she said as she shoved the twins back in her back, much to their ire. "Ain' lookin' forward ta 'gettin' a view.'"
"You jumped off two stories back at Terminus, but you don't like heights?" Daryl said.
"Yeah, 'bout that," she laughed, turning an even paler shade of white. "Ain' so much the height as the buildin' itself; fear is relative. Outside, alone, chances a survival if I play me cards right are high, even fallin' from a good height. Inside a buildin'? If it collapses? I'm dead. Climbin' things is one thing; always loved climbin' up high in trees, rock walls, the hangin' obstacle course back at the academy. But bein' stuck inside a buildin' and lookin' down? That's entirely different."
"I don't see how," Carol said.
"'Cause I was in New York, Cars!" Ani shouted, her nerves finally shot about it. "I was in New York City on me senior trip with me class when the towas went down." The look of understanding that crossed both of their faces was enough for her to sigh and say much more calmly, "I ain' eva liked tall buildin's since, not towarin' above me, not bein' in 'em, not lookin' down and seein' how far it'll be ta fall or how much rubble I'd be trapped unda."
"You could stay here," Daryl suggested.
"Nah, ain' leavin' ya side again," she said, grabbing hold of his arm as if to make her statement mean more. "I'll handle it, jus' might be a bit more grabby hands at ya when we're in the buildin'."
"Alright," he said, taking her hand and kissing it before telling Carol, "let's go."
Moving slowly and quietly, they made it downtown without any real threat to their survival. Daryl and Carol had their weapons at the ready while Ani carried knives in both hands and a couple of angry kittens digging into her back. They weren't even supposed to be there, Ani thinking she had left them at the church, but now she had an extra layer of responsibility to deal with until they got older and she could train them. In the city, letting them roam was a death sentence, though, so their little act of rebellion, as long as they stayed as quiet as they had been, was nothing to her.
They'd gotten lucky at not having drawn attention from the walkers yet, even with the bit of mewling coming from Ani's pack. Carefully running down one street, Daryl stopped their little procession and snuck a peek around the corner of a building. Noticing the walkers as well as the sky-bridge that connected the building they were leaning against and the next one over, a really tall high-rise, he began to plan how to get inside.
"Alright, we can get up there," he told the girls. "There's a bridge."
"Joy," Ani said as she watched Daryl pull a pad of paper out of his bag and his zippo out of his pocket. "That thing's still got juice?!"
He just looked at her and made a face before lighting the pad of paper on fire and tossing it across the street. Ani was sure it was going to go out by the force of the throw, but it managed to stay lit and even lit some more of the papers and leaves around it on fire. That gave them enough distraction from the walkers to slowly slip around the building and in to the car park, Daryl taking out a walker as soon as they entered. Once again, Ani counted themselves lucky as the ramps were empty of walkers.
They were on the third level before they found the entrance to the sky-bridge. Daryl opened the door, Ani entering first to make sure there were no walkers in the immediate area. After Carol and Daryl entered, the trio made their way to the bridge, Ani commenting on how it smelled in the hall. They found the source pretty easy as they entered the sky-bridge itself to find walkers zipped in sleeping bags and tents. Ani began killing them right away, Daryl and Carol both helping her as they wouldn't be able to get through otherwise. Examining the walkers, the only thing Ani could come up with was suicide turning these people, which explained the ones zipped in the tent.
"Some days, I don't know what the hell to think," Daryl commented upon reaching the same conclusion Ani had.
"Ya and me both, D," Ani agreed before following Carol and moving on.
Ani jumped back in fright right into Daryl as one of the walkers in the tent fell, causing the tent to collapse momentarily. "I got you," he told her, running his hand down her back as she took a deep breath and started forward again.
"It's this damn city. Place has me all kinds a stimulated," she told him. "Feel like someone's watchin' us, followin' us, all the damn time. Know it's jus' the walkas, but damn if it don' got me ready ta jump outta me skin."
"I know, baby girl," Daryl assured her as Carol reached the door on the other end and opened it, only to find it locked with a chain. "Once we get Beth back, we'll hightail it outta here and never have to come back."
"Now tell me I ain' gotta go inta no high-rise and I'll be good."
"Sorry, Ania, need the view," he told her before motioning for her to give him her bag so she could slide through the small gap behind Carol.
The going had been easy for Carol; her small frame and build allowed her to slide right through the door after putting her pack and gun on the other side. Of course, Ani's arms, head and shoulders went through just fine. She had to squish her chest to get through, cussing about the fact that she had to be well endowed. When Daryl told her to stop complaining, she asked him how he'd like it if it felt like his nipples were being scraped by sandpaper, effectively shutting him up as she got her chest and stomach through. Her ass was another wiggle fest, earning another comment from Daryl, who then smacked her ass as a form of 'help'. When she finally got through, he handed her her bag, minus the kittens who had gotten out of it and begun climbing on Ani as she squeezed through.
Handing her his bow next, Daryl began grunting and groaning as he squeezed through the door, stating, "Good thing we skipped breakfast."
"And ya were gripin' 'bout me gettin' through!" Ani chuckled at him as Bobby started batting at his arm.
"Get this thing away from me," he grunted as he pushed through.
"Aw, Bobby jus' likes 'is daddy," Ani teased, grabbing both kittens up and holding them in her arms.
They walked along the mostly well lit hallway until they came across a stairwell. Ani thanked her lucky stars that the well had enough windows to keep it lit, though only dimly in some places. She stayed between Daryl and Carol the entire time as she held the kittens in her arms. It seemed like they'd been traveling upward forever when Daryl finally decided they were high enough by looking out the window across from the stairs. Leaving the stairwell, they entered and equally lit hallway that obviously housed some big wig offices. She shared a look with Daryl at some of the decorations used for just the hallway before he found an office with a view of the city.
The poshness of the office was only outdone by the view itself, Ani turning pale and becoming nauseous at the sight. Honestly, they weren't all that high up, but looking down at the burnt out city, the corpses melted to the ground, the ones walking around in tatters, it was even more sickening than just being so high off the ground. Even if she was safe in a building, she really, really, did not like the view. Carol went up to the window to look out, Daryl walking up to stand next to her while Ani ended up cleaning to his back, astutely keeping her eyes closed to not see anything.
"How did we get here?" Carol asked.
"Mm-mm," came Daryl's oh so helpful reply, causing Ani to chuckle.
"It was rhetorical, Ani, I don't need the details," Carol said just as Ani opened her mouth to tell her just how they had gotten there.
Ani stuck her tongue out at Carol in true childish fashion before saying, "I was jus' gonna say 'cause we're idiots, that's all."
Both Daryl and Carol shared a laugh at that, agreeing whole heartedly as they went back to looking out the window while Ani moved to standing beside Daryl, clinging to him as she too looked out at the city. "You still haven't said anything about what happened," Carol told Daryl.
"Ain't much to say. You're here, they're not. That's all there is to say," he replied, bringing an arm around Ani and holding her to help her stay grounded; she was shaking terribly just by looking out the window. "You good?" he asked her.
"Good as I'm gonna get," she said with a nod of her head.
"I had to kill her," Carol told them, needing to get it off her chest. "I had to kill Lizzie to keep Judith safe."
"Cars," Ani said softly. "She wouldn' a stopped at Judith and ya know it. She would've taken out the entire world ta get 'er point across. Some people, their wires jus' ain' where they should be at all, and there's no fixin' that."
"And your wires?" Carol asked with a look.
"They're where they were always supposed ta be. Were shuffled 'round a bit as a kid, but they're settled where they should be now, like ya's are tryin' ta do. Should quit fightin' it and accept the change in ya 'stead a runnin' from it."
Carol got really quiet as the two hunters watched her, prompting Daryl to speak up and say, "The reason I said we get to start over is 'cause we gotta. The way it was..."
"Yeah," Carol said as Ani moved closer to the window and squinted her eyes.
"D? Ya see that?"
"You see somethin'?" Carol asked her.
Daryl leaned closer to the window and looked the way she was pointing before telling Carol, "Hand me that rifle, will ya?" Handing his bow to Ani, he took the rifle from Carol and looked through the scope. "Right there," he said, pointing for Ani and then Carol to look.
On an overpass, jammed into the side railing, there was a van that had white crosses in the back windows. "It's been there a while," Carol commented. "Definitely one of them."
"It's definitely a lead," Daryl agreed.
It would be one hell of a walk, especially in a city full of walkers, but if they could manage through the buildings, they'd be fine. At least, if they didn't come across a building full of walkers, which was just as likely to happen as being cut off by walkers down in the streets. Ani wasn't too thrilled as she began detailing a plan in her head and informed the others of how they could get to the van. They would have to be extremely quiet and, in her opinion, they should've covered themselves in walker ick, but Carol nor Daryl were too fond of that idea. To be honest, Ani wasn't really wanting to do that either.
"We should fill up," Carol said, motioning to the water dispenser by the wall.
"Alright," Daryl said, stopping to put his crossbow over his shoulder as he watched Ania contemplating a painting on the wall, looking at it too.
When Carol looked back at them and saw the twin looks of perplexion, she asked, "What?"
"I bet this cost some rich prick a lot of money," Daryl said, drawing out the 'o' in lot and grabbing the canteen Carol offered to him, handing it off to Ania. "It looks like a dog sat in some paint and wiped its ass all over the place," he told her as he gestured widely at the painting.
"That's what ya got?" Ani asked as she snorted at Daryl's comment. "I thought it looked like someone spilled a bunch a paint, tried ta clean the mess, and said 'fuck it' and started a new canvas.
Carol said, "Really? I kinda like it."
Daryl scoffed, "Stop."
"I'm serious," she said while Ani handed the canteen back to Daryl who took a drink. "You don't know me."
"Yeah, 'cause a shit paintin' is really ya style," Ani said through her laughter.
"You keep tellin' yourself that," Daryl told Carol before they headed out of the room.
Going back down the stairs, Ani put the kittens back in the bag so they wouldn't get hurt when they proved they weren't very good at the stairs and started crying for her. As such, she was a few feet behind Carol and Daryl when they got to the door. Carol went through first just like last time, though Daryl just gave Ani a look before going next, figuring he could pull her through this time. He'd just gotten his head through the opening when Carol sounded out a warning.
"Daryl, don't."
"Get up," a second, disembodied voice stated. "And the other woman you're with, get her out here too."
"Ania, give me your bag," Daryl said as he stood, looking at the young kid with Carol's gun pointed at her.
She handed it to him before starting the arduous task of getting through the small gap herself, which was easier with Daryl's help, eyeing the young man suspiciously as he told them, "Hands up. Lay down your crossbow," he said to Daryl.
"You got some sack on you," Daryl said, not bothering to comply.
"Look, nobody has to get hurt. I just need the weapons!"
"Why don' ya tell us why? Maybe we can help?"
"I just need the weapons, that's it!" he insisted. "So please lay down your crossbow!" When Daryl finally relented, a hand from Ani brushing against his arm as if to say it was alright, the boy said, "Back up! Sorry about this. You look tough, she's got a lot of knives, you'll be alright."
"We can still help ya!" Ani tried to tell him, but no sooner had the words left her mouth did he cut open one of the tents, releasing a walker. Daryl took down one easily, Carol the other with her gun, but Ani watched in horror as she aimed at the boy. "No!" she shouted as she smacked the gun down hard than she meant to, making it go tumbling out of Carol's grip just as it discharged a bullet into the ground. "The hell, Cars?! He's a fuckin' kid!"
They ran after the boy who had a decent head start thanks to the walkers, only to hear him slam the door shut just as they got to it. He must have either locked it or had something ready to keep it from being opened because even when they threw their full weight at it it didn't budge. Ani kicked the door in frustration, cussing up a storm before stomping off to the other end of the corridor and out the door that lead to a different car park. Daryl followed behind her, also not able to believe that Carol had been ready to shoot a kid, but then, she'd been ready to kill Ania for being sick, so there really wasn't much of a leap. Not only had Ania changed considerably since the prison, Carol wasn't anywhere near the same person. He wondered if he had changed so drastically too.
"Three bullets," Carol told them, pulling both out of their separate reveries, Daryl's about changes and Ani's about how the kid seemed to need help but refused it. "We're in the middle of a city. He was stealin' our weapons. Did you think I was gonna kill him?"
"Ya would a killed me at the prison, Cars," Ani said flatly. "Frankly speakin', I don' know what ya would or wouldn' do anymore."
"I was aimin' for his leg! Could that have killed him? Maybe. I don't know. But he was stealin' our weapons."
"Did ya forget I'm ya biggest weapon, Cars? And firin' that rifle in the city is askin' ta be eatin'. He was alone!"
"He's just a damn kid," Daryl agreed as he pulled his knife from its sheath and began messily breaking a door open.
"Let me," Ani said, pulling off the same two pins she'd used at Terminus and moving Daryl to the side.
"Without weapons we could die," Carol reasoned angrily. "Beth could die."
"We'll find more weapons," Daryl said calmly as he watched Ania work, neither wanting to look at Carol right now.
"I don't want you to die. I don't want Beth to die. I don't want anybody at the church to die, but I can't stand around and watch it happen either," Carol said as Ani got the lock undone only to find the door had been boarded on the other side.
Ani looked at Carol straight in the eye and asked, "What changed? Ya didn' care if I lived or died at the prison, so why don' ya want me ta die now?"
"Ani," Carol sighed. "It's different. I was trying to protect everyone. And I failed. That's why I can't watch it happen anymore. I can't. That's why I left. I just had to be somewhere else!"
"Well you ain't somewhere else," Daryl told her in irritation, turning to look straight at her. "You're right here. Tryin'."
"Look, you aren't who you were and neither am I," she told them. "I don' know if I believe in God anymore, or heaven, but if I'm goin' to hell, I'm makin' damn sure I'm holdin' it off as long as I can."
"Kill a kid, ya definitely goin' ta hell," Ani reasoned as she watched the older woman furiously collecting the bags they'd brought, dropping Daryl's and spilling it to reveal the book about treating childhood abuse survivors.
Daryl just looked at the woman as he bent and grabbed the book, yanking his bag from her hand as well. It took them until midday to walk all the way out to that overpass, having to go around several blocks and through a few buildings to bypass hordes of walkers. It was exhausting work, and the kittens weren't any help nearly drawing attention with poorly timed mewling, but they finally managed to get to it. The bridge was suspiciously clear of walkers and way too out in the open for Ani's liking, but they needed whatever information was in the van.
As Ani looked at how much of the van was sticking off the bridge, Daryl opened the back. "Alright, let's get this done," he told the girls.
"It's not stable," Carol offered. "I'm lighter."
"And I'm the lightest," Ani said, not giving either of them a chance as she climbed into the van, Daryl following after her.
She could see the walkers coming onto the bridge through the windows and moved more carefully as to cause less noise, but just being in the precarious vehicle was causing it to moan and groan, especially when Carol entered too. She and Daryl were in the front seats, a gurney the only thing in the back, rifling through whatever they could. They checked the visors before Daryl looked under his seat and Ani looked in the glove compartment, finding nothing of use, but drawing the attention of even more walkers.
"There's more coming," Carol said. "We're gonna have to fight through."
"Yeah, I see 'em," Daryl told her.
"Can' fight through that many! Ain' got no cova! No where ta go!" Ani said frantically.
"We'll make it, baby girl," Daryl assured her, kissing her forehead as he climbed back into the back to leave the vehicle, stopping to look at the gurney. "GMH? What's that? A hospital?"
"Yeah, Grady Memorial ova on Jesse Hill. Always rememba'd it 'cause it sharin' Jesse's name," she said with a shrug when the others looked at her. "Only a couple miles from 'ere."
"Grady, white crosses, might be where they're holdin' up," Daryl reasoned as Carol left the back of the van, coming face to face with more walkers than the three of them could handle.
As Carol used the final three bullets, Ani shouted at her, "Stop ringin' the fuckin' dinna bell ya idjit!"
She and Daryl were doing their best to keep the walkers from ganging up on the three of them too much, keeping the much less battle-tried Carol between them as they slashed walker after walker down. Daryl practically pushed Carol back into the van before running over to Ania's side and grabbing her around the elbow, out of the way of a walker that was coming up from her side. She climbed in the van, pulling her bag around to her front to check on the kittens, who had thankfully quieted down and not moved during the fight; they looked up at her from the bottom of her bag and mewled just as Daryl climbed in. Slamming the doors shut, he grabbed Ania, holding her close and apologizing in her ear as walkers surrounded the van.
"Anything we can use?" Carol shouted over the cacophony of sound from the walkers.
"Nothin' but what we've got," Daryl said.
"Get in the front and buckle up," Ani told them. "Only one way out, and that's down."
"Where are you gonna sit?" Carol asked, Ani astutely not looking at either of them and shoving them to the front.
"Hell naw, Ania," Daryl said, realizing she wasn't meaning to do anything more than brace. "C'mere, girl." He pushed both Ani and Carol into the passenger seat, buckling them in before he sat and buckled himself in the passenger seat. "Keep that bag to your front and brace yourself if you want them kittens to survive," he told her as he handed her the crying sack.
Ani was already shaking like a leaf as she brought her legs up and pushed her heels into the dash, pushing herself back into Carol and the seat while wrapping her arms around the bag. This way, she would be able to help brace Carol for impact as well as herself while keeping her arms free to protect her babies. No matter how this ended, she was doing the best she could to protect the people and beings she cared about. Let's jus' hope the damn thing don' tip, she thought as she closed her eyes, really not wanting to see them falling.
"You hold on, ya hear?" Daryl told her, bracing himself with his arms while Carol did her best to brace with Ani laying against her; she didn't realize Ani was using her own body to brace her.
The van lurched forward time and time again as the walkers pushed it until finally it fell from the bridge. It pitched forward slightly, causing Ani to bite back a scream, landing hard on its front tires and bumper, causing everyone to slam forward. Ani banged her face against her knee hard and could feel her ankles simultaneously pop as the kittens screamed and Carol's body crashed into hers. The first thing she did was make sure Daryl was still awake before frantically checking her kittens. It didn't look as if they had been hurt too badly, though they were both visibly and physically shaken up badly. She was about to check on Carol when a bang on the roof of the van made the scream she'd been holding back rip through her before she started crying as more and more thuds were heard and the windshield became covered in blood.
Ripping the seat belt from them, Daryl grabbed her up from the seat, knowing that this trip to the city was making her face a lot of the things she was terrified of one right after the other. "I'm sorry, baby girl, that was stupid. Let me get a look at you," he held her face in his hand and inspected the black eye she was going to have from her knees. "Can you walk?" he asked as he gingerly put her down, wanting to check on Carol.
"Think so, yeah," she whispered as she clung to his wrists. "Cars, ya okay?"
"Surprisingly, yes. I don't think I got banged up too much at all, just my shoulder hurts," the woman said, being the least jarred of the trio.
After the banging stopped and Ani had enough time to calm down and double check the kittens, who were no longer shaking themselves, they got out of the van and moved on. Daryl carried Ania's bag, including the damn kittens, as he held onto one side of her, Carol on the other using her uninjured arm to help support the limping girl. Daryl was worried about her as she still hadn't stopped shaking from the stress and tears were streaming down her face and yet she still kept going. He knew she was going to have a meltdown soon if they couldn't get themselves out of the city or find Beth.
"You good, baby girl?" he asked as they got back to the relative safety of buildings.
"'Til we get Beth back, I'm good," she said, telling him everything he needed to know about her mental state right now.
"Alright."
"But when we get back ta the church, don' even think 'bout lettin' go a me 'til I tell ya," she added seriously. "Don' think I'm gonna be able ta let ya go afta all this shite. All we need is a giant spida comin' 'round and me mind's gonna die."
Carol chuckled at her, "You really know how to push through, don't you?"
"Had ta me whole life. Jus' happy I got someone ta hold onta when I'm done pushin'. Makes it easia ta recova," she admitted, knowing that all she needed was the comfort and feeling of safety Daryl himself provided once she finally could get it to let her mind put itself back together from falling apart.
"Drink," Daryl told her, handing her the canteen and watching her take a sip before handing it to Carol.
"I'm fine," the woman said.
"Prove it," he dared her, making her take a drink too. "How bad is it?" he asked her, regarding her shoulder.
"I've had worse."
"Let's see," Ani said, moving her torso to face Carol as they sat next to each other.
She moved her shirt to the side to reveal a very bad rug burn and bruise on her shoulder. Daryl moved over to Ani and carefully took off her boots and socks, one after the other, to check her feet. Both her ankles were swollen slightly, her boots having acted as braces, and she had obviously broken a couple blood vessels from the bruises in her legs. From how she flinched when he touched a few spots on her legs, she probably had more than one hairline fracture according and her eye was black and blue from the socket all the way up onto her forehead and down past her cheekbone. Her knee was similarly bruised and more swollen than her ankles, making him take the rag out of his back pocket and wrapping it to keep the swelling from getting worse.
"Damn that was stupid," he muttered as he helped her back into her shoes.
"We made good time down," Carol commented. "Lucky you didn't break your legs, though."
"Me luck's fuckin' runnin' out, I'm tellin' ya. Ya eva make me do somethin' so dumb again, I'm gonna knock ya teeth in," Ani threatened as Daryl sat next to her and checked her face to make sure there was no fractures there. "There's only a few blocks left ta get ta Grady. See that tall buildin' there?" She pointed to a tall gray building not far away, "We need ta get there. Closest buildin' ta the hospital without bein' seen."
"Alright, get up there, see what we can see," Daryl agreed, taking a drink of water himself before pouring some out in the little bowl Ania had for the kittens, who were rather thankful for the drink.
"You really think we're gonna find out what we need to know just by watchin'?" Carol asked.
"It's where we start," he told her before grabbing the bags and helping Ania to her feet. "Come on."
It only took them about twenty minutes to get to the building Ani had been talking about. She relied less and less on Daryl for support as they walked, eventually able to walk on her own for the most part, only needing help if they had to move quickly to avoid walkers. It hurt, she wasn't going to lie; walking felt like her legs were on fire and honestly, she knew she wasn't going to be able to walk for much longer without taking a break. She knew she was breathing heavy and was obviously making faces as Carol and Daryl looked at her with increasingly worried faces, but Ani didn't let it phase her. Walked with a dislocated hip, I can walk with this pain, she thought, pushing herself off a wall and following Carol to the window as Daryl bent to grab a machete from the hand of a fallen walker, killing it with the weapon it had once owned.
"It's them," Carol told him.
"Alright," Daryl said, coming up and handing them each a bag of chips. "Let's see what we see."
Ani couldn't help the smile on her face nor how she watched and listened to Daryl as he ate because, if she was being honest, she'd missed his noisy, no-manners style of consumption the entire time she'd been away from him. Even though she hated the sound of others eating, for some reason, at that moment, it was music to her ears listening to him. Carol chuckled as she watched the young woman's face light up while she watched the older hunter, who was trying not to pay attention to the fact that Ani was watching him while he ate. It was causing his ears to go red, which just made Carol smile more warmly and Ani's smile widen.
"Stop," he told her. "Eat your damn food."
"Jus' missed it, s'all."
"Missed what? Watchin' me stuff my face?"
"Yep," she said, popping the p before finishing her own bag of chips.
"Thought you didn't like hearing people eat?" Carol asked.
"I don', but I missed it. Bein' alone for a week. Eight nights, seven days. Or was it eight days and seven nights? I dunno, but I missed ya, D. I really fuckin' missed ya," she said, reaching forward and grabbing his wrist, pulling him towards her as she sat on the windowsill, back pressed against the glass.
Daryl willingly stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her shoulders as he watched the hospital below. He couldn't blame her for staring when she said shit like that, but man did he wish she would do it when they were alone. It made him so self-conscious when she stared at him in wonder like that, like he was the only other person on the planet, like he was the sun she revolved around. Daryl didn't feel like he even deserved that adoration since he'd left her and sulked while she'd tried like hell to find him before being forced to give up. He just heaved a heavy sigh while tightening his grip on her, feeling her hands up under his vest, fisting his shirt.
To relieve the silence and mounting tension in his heart, Daryl looked at Carol and brought the subject back to something she'd said earlier. "You said I ain't like how I was before?"
"Yeah."
"How was I?"
"You were a kid, now you're a man," she said quietly, watching as Daryl stared out the window.
"What about you?" he asked feeling Ani turn her head to look at the woman.
She was quiet for a few minutes before speaking, "Ani already knows this, but me and Sophia stayed at that shelter for a day and a half after I found Ed sneaking into her room. And I still went runnin' back to him. I went home, got beat up, life went on, and I just kept prayin' for something to happen. But I didn't do anything. Not a damn thing. That's why Sophia started leavin' me. Why I pushed her away. You did more for her just back at the quarry than I ever did as her mother," Carol told Ani before looking back out the window. "Who I was with him, she got burned away. I was happy about that, I mean not happy, but at the prison, I got to be who I always thought I should be, thought I should've been. I could be a mother and be a friend and a fighter. But then she got burned away. Everything now just...consumes you," she said.
"Only if ya let it," Ani told her quietly.
"We ain't ashes," Daryl agreed.
She was about to respond when the sound of a door banging shut alerted them to the presence of someone or something else. Daryl swept the twins up and stuffed them back into Ani's pack and handing it back to her, giving her a pointed look to stay back. He couldn't take the look of pain that contorted her face every time she was on her feet and he didn't want her to break a bone fighting with her knives. He led them out of the office they'd been in and down a corridor, turning the corner to find a walker pinned to the wall by a bolt through the throat.
"That's one a ya's," Ani told Daryl as he walked up to it.
"Yeah," he said, slamming the machete into the walker's head and removing the bolt, letting it fall to the floor as gunfire rang out.
On instinct, Ani moved ahead, forgetting about the pain in her legs momentarily and rounding a corner. She didn't expect to see the same kid from earlier fighting off a walker, let alone for him to throw it at her. If Carol hadn't have been close behind her, she would have fallen with how it was thrown, falling on her itself. Instead, Carol managed to help her stand up, but not before Ani rolled right ankle, crying out in pain as Daryl passed. Without a second thought, Daryl turned around and killed the walker, meaning to double check on Ani but being told to go after the kid.
Pissed as hell, Daryl ran after the young man. She wanted to help him and he tried to fuckin' kill her, he thought as he heard grunting coming from down the hall to his right. Slowing his pace to sneak up on the kid, he watched as he tried to move a large bookshelf. Daryl dropped his bag and switched hands with his machete before football tackling the boy into the shelf, rolling out of the way just in time for the thing to come crashing down on top of the kid. Carol was helping Ani into the room as Daryl grabbed Carol's rifle, his bow, and went to retrieve his bag. Ani watched Daryl, knowing he was angry, but hoping he wasn't actually planning on leaving the kid pinned beneath a bookshelf he obviously couldn't move, especially not with a walker trying to get through the door the bookshelf was pushed against.
As Daryl went to usher them out of the room, the kid begged, "Plea—please! I had to protect myself!"
"Why you followin' us?!" Daryl growled a yell at him.
"I-I didn't, I swear! I thought you followed me!"
"Bullshit," he replied lowly, putting his bow down and bending further to pick up a carton of smokes, one last pack in it.
"Come on, man! Plea—please!"
"D."
"Naw, you already helped him once. Ain't happenin' again."
"Daryl," Carol tried, hoping to get a better result as he lit a smoke.
"Have fun with Hauss over there," he said, bending down and picking up his bow before walking away.
"Dammit, Daryl!" Ani yelled at the man who was taking his turn at being childish, though in the petulant way rather than the immature way.
"You almost died 'cause of him!" he yelled at her, both of them talking over the boy pleading beneath the bookshelf.
"But I didn'!"
He looked down at the boy, his anger at seeing her almost bit because the kid had thrown a walker at her winning out over his tender heart. Shaking his head, he said, "Nah, let him be," before turning and walking away, leaving both Ani and Carol in shock over his attitude.
"Screw ya, then!" Ani said, pulling out a knife and throwing it at the walker, killing it before it could even get out of the door. "If ya not gonna help me get this damn shelf off'n 'im, I'm gonna do it meself, D."
"Like hell you will!" he said, coming back towards them pissed at her now almost as much as he was at the kid. "You're gonna hurt yourself even more over a dumb kid that tried to kill you!"
"If ya gonna keep bein' an ass 'bout it, yeah!"
"He fuckin' threw a walker at you, Ania!"
"And I cut off men's dick's and shoved 'em in their mouths and let 'em turn! One fuckin' walka is not a damn death sentence for three well-trained walka killas!" Ani reasoned. "He's a kid, D. Can't be much olda than Beth."
"Beth?" came a breathless question. "You know Beth? Tea and Daryl? Do you know a Tea, or—or Ani, I think she said? I gotta find 'em. Gotta get Beth."
Looking at the kid in astonishment before a shit-eating grin broke out on her face, she looked over to Daryl and said, "Ya gonna help now?"
"Shut it," he growled, going to stand at the end of the bookshelf. "Stay fuckin' there or this stays on him 'til I strap you down," he warned her, making her stay where she was and leaving Carol to help him get the boy out.
"Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you!" he said as he moved quickly to the windows.
"You okay?" Daryl asked Carol, who was having even more problems with her shoulder after helping keep Ani upright.
"I'm still here."
"I gotta go. I gotta go," the kid kept repeating. "They're gonna come. They heard the shot. They're gonna come. If they find me..."
"Who ya talkin' 'bout, kid?"
"Them, the people at the hospital," he answered her.
"That how you know our names?" Daryl gruffed at him, standing between him and Ania protectively.
"You? You're Daryl and Tea?"
"Ani," they corrected in unison.
"Right, right. Beth, she helped me get out but she got caught. She said you'd be looking for her. I've been trying, I mean, I didn't know what your plan was, but I figured I'd watch, wait for the place to be attacked. Way she talked, you've got an army behind you."
"I got roughly twelve trained recruits, a reasonable trainee, and a smart as hell versie with a lyin' problem," she said with a shrug of her shoulders.
"Versie with a lyin' problem?" Daryl asked.
"Eugene," she clarified. "Like I said, don' believe in their mission. Got reason not ta. Eugene says 'e worked with pathogenic microorganisms at the Humane Genome Project. That shite's fucked with at the CDC. The HGP was literally for mappin' the human DNA sequence ta find out what marka counted for what trait. Finished up seven, eight years ago. No way it had anythin' ta do with any a this."
"Well, fuck. Why the hell'd you say we'd go to DC, then?" he asked her before Carol said there was a cop car outside.
"We gotta go," the kid repeated several times before leading them out of the room and through the building a much quicker route. "The building next door has a basement. It's clear. We'll be safe."
Daryl had a hold of Ania around her waste, practically pulling her along as they followed the hobbled teen. He fell, obviously injured himself, causing Daryl to pause in his movements. Meaning to hand Ania off to Carol, he told them to go so he could help the kid, but Ania stayed by his side while Carol went on ahead. She had literally just gotten out the door when the police cruiser she'd warned them about hit her dead on traveling fast enough to fling her up onto the window of the car and back down.
"No," Ani said in disbelief before shouting and starting to run to the door. "No! Ma! Ma!"
Both Daryl and the teen fought to hold her back as she struggled against their hold, the teen telling her, "They can help her! They're the only ones who can! They have medicines, machines, a doctor! You go out there, you'll have to kill them, okay?"
"But ma! I can' leave 'er! I...I can'!" Ani shouted, the fight in her slowly dissipating and being placed by despair.
"She needs their help! If you kill them, she can't get it. Is that what you want?" the teen reasoned.
"We'll get her back, Ania," Daryl promised, bringing her back into is chest as the teen and him hid behind pillars, watching the officers outside put Carol on a stretcher and in the back of their car before taking off.
"We can get her back," the teen promised. "We can get Beth back."
"How?" Ani asked as her voice broke.
"I don't know."
"What's it gonna take?" Daryl asked him.
"A lot. They got guns, people."
"Yeah, well so do we. C'mon."