Rick yelled as he struggled, trying to push the walker back before an arrow pierced the skull in front of him.
Daryl slid another arrow out as Merle rushed forward, yelling as he stabbed a piece of rebar through the skull of the one Rick arm-barred against the fence.
Rick didn't have time to give it a single thought before another one came at him and he hit it in the face. Merle grabbed another one coming from his side and beat it to death with his metal stump while Daryl quickly reloaded.
Rick turned to face two more on his right and something in him that he hadn't known was tense, relaxed as another bolt sailed through the closest one's skull and let Rick catch his breath before he dealt with the last one.
As soon as the danger passed again, Rick met Daryl's eyes and the two shared a nod. Then Merle's 'heheh' behind darkened Rick's mood in an instant. The grim truth of knowing he doesn't have a choice but to bring him in this time.
The three of them turned towards the fence and stared heavily at the field that was already swarming with walkers, more streaming through the broken gate by the minute.
Daryl didn't waste another second, heading straight for the opening in the fence and leaned his crossbow against the chain-link while he undid the cord binding the hole shut.
Merle sneered at Rick, "Nice to see ya again, officer friendly." but other than that he was unusually quiet, not pushing his luck, which didn't put Rick's nerves at ease in the slightest but it sure as Hell gave Daryl's a rest.
Once they got into the fence, they laced it up behind them quickly and made their way through the fenced path to the lower gate. Only a single gate standing between them and a space that used to be safe, now blocking their usual way of getting back up to the others.
They were right to keep all these individual gates locked even though it was a bit of a pain to unlock them every time.
"Go across and up to the other tower." Rick and Daryl shared an understanding look, words weren't needed between them for this, Daryl said them more for Merle's benefit.
Rick unlocked the gate and closed it behind them as the three brandished their weapons and ran directly across to the other side. The brothers protected Rick while he unlocked the other side and slammed the gate shut behind them, locking it behind them as Daryl ran ahead on the enclosed path, up towards the other guard tower. A small pool of blood had gathered on the ground, dripping from above where the body of a gunman laid, his rifle having fallen to the ground.
Daryl avoided the puddle while Merle grabbed the rifle and Daryl got the outer door to the guard tower open as Rick caught up, also avoiding the puddle, casting a brief glance upwards to the source. As soon as Daryl got the inner door open and the three of them got to the safety of the upper courtyard, where the others were getting out of the truck they had just let through the gate.
Walkers lined the fence just like they had when the alarms had blared and flooded the place with walkers, scattering the group and had nearly claimed several of their lives.
Daryl's eyes searched but were washed with confusion when he didn't find who he was looking for.
"Is everyone ok?" Rick called and was met with a round of nods and yeses and an 'I think so' from someone.
The only person who obviously wasn't ok was Tiny. He sat on the metal bench in the yard, sweat rolling down his forehead and expression twisted in tremendous pain, holding tight on his arm where Carol had used her outer sweater as temporary gauze to tie over the gunshot wound in his upper arm. Axel stood next to him, not knowing what to do but trying his best with words like, "Hang in there, Tiny. The old man will fix that right up."
Hershel had yet to take a look at it as he had just been rescued from the field along with the others but just as he was about to, a sudden shout rang like a warning bell from the top of the guard tower.
"Hershel!"
Daryl recognized Eve's voice in an instant and T-Dog barely managed to rip the guard tower door open before a blue streak ran past him and bolted up the steps — three at a time.
Daryl's stomach leapt into his throat as he rounded the corners until he reached the door at the top and ran into it at full speed, the door banging before he was able to rip it open.
He ran out into the enclosed part of the upper tower and his feet froze in their tracks by the sight of Eve on her knees on the ground, caked in blood up to her forearms, her jacket clamped tightly between Randall's teeth, putting all of her weight on his leg. Her shirt looked like the bottom half had been through a shredder, just barely enough left intact to reach the end of her sternum. The rest in pieces, strip after strip of the old cotton tied around the gushing wound on Randall's leg, soaking with more blood and becoming heavier by the second, making the already dark cloth an even more abysmal black.
Eve looked up at the door and her shoulders, tense up to her ears, dropped. "Daryl."
Her eyes stung at the sight of him, lost in the tide of relief, but she quickly reigned it in as warm sticky blood gushed between her fingers.
Daryl dropped next to them on the other side of Randall and Eve glanced back at the young man's paling face.
Daryl quickly pulled the jacket out of his mouth, "What's your blood type?"
Randall cried in pain as soon as the leather was gone, before managing to get an answer through grit teeth, "O negative."
Eve sighed in relief for the second time. Your luck is out of this world, kid.
Daryl shared a look with her, and Eve nodded, knowing that he's aware of her blood type.
"Hang on."
Just as he spoke, several others came out of the stairwell and quickly ascertained the situation.
Daryl and Rick worked together to pick Randall up and Eve ran down the stairs, jumping down 4 at a time until she reached the bottom and immediately told everyone to get inside.
At the sight of her covered in blood, their first thought was that she was the one injured but before they could ask, pained cries echoed in the stairwell behind her.
"Where was he hit?" Hershel guessed straight away who it was, he's familiar with those specific cries.
"The leg. He lost a lot of blood." Eve helped Hershel move quickly inside while Glenn, Beth, and Maggie ran for the medical supplies and hurried to set up a makeshift operating theater.
Eve didn't even notice that Merle was here too until they got Randall inside and they passed by him and Rick to get into the cell-block.
Hershel ordered everyone out except for Maggie and her, to be his assistants and Eve quickly glanced at Daryl who nodded straight away without even having to wait for that look, he already knew. "I got it, go."
Eve nodded gratefully and returned all her focus onto the matter at hand as the three took Randall "into surgery".
Thanks to Hershel, Carol was able to determine Tiny's injury could be managed until Randall's was dealt with, and she went around dealing with cuts and minor bullet grazes that almost a third of the group had sustained.
Rick took charge again while Eve was indisposed.
Everybody was tense and at the sight of Merle, a huge fight broke out.
The shouting reached all the way into the inner cell-block and Eve glared at the doorway with half a mind to go maim them and come back, but she quelled the urge and stayed where she was needed without complaint; passing Hershel what he needed and giving Randall a hand to squeeze, someone to focus on.
It was an excruciating process because Hershel had to sterilize his hands and dig around in the wound a bit to determine whether the artery was hit. With this much blood, it came as a surprise that it hadn't been, but it was a close call.
Randall squeezed Eve's hand until his knuckles turned white, while Hershel stuck a needle through his skin again and again. Something he's experienced before but had hoped to never have to go through again, especially without those pain meds. Thank goodness it was his bum leg or else he would've been in even more trouble.
It was a long, painful, and arduous process, Randall passed out halfway through, but eventually Hershel managed to stitch him up and the shouting outside had finally stopped. Either because of the group reaching a consensus or simply being too exhausted and strung out to continue. The latter more likely.
"I can't decide whether or not this young man is the most fortunate or most unfortunate person I've ever met." Hershel took a cloth handed to him by Maggie and cleaned his hands before wiping the sweat on his forehead with the back of his hand.
Eve nodded as she took one as well and finally started to clean the blood off herself. She was covered in more red than Hershel.
She didn't even need to open her mouth as she looked at him before Hershel answered the question, he knew she was gonna ask. "If he survives the night, he'll be ok, but it's too soon to tell whether or not his body can handle the shock. I'll give him the last of the antibiotics in the morning if he pulls through but for now, Maggie, help me set up a transfusion."
Eve finally sighed and tossed the bloody rag in the water bowl with the mountain of others (including the shreds of her own shirt) and took a seat, preparing her arm for the needle and the home-made blood transfusion kit that Hershel cobbled together.
Eve lost track of time, zoning out as she sat there holding Randall's hand, and giving him blood until Hershel said it was enough and the two dismantled it.
Eve stood up slowly, more exhausted from the events of today than from the transfusion itself. She didn't have to give as much as she had given Carl when he was shot, but it was still nothing to sneeze at.
Maggie rubbed her back as she helped her get to the door even though she was fairly steady on her feet. "Go on, go rest. I'll have Beth make you something to eat as soon as I'm done here."
Eve nodded and braced herself before taking the plunge into the cell-block, not looking forward to dealing with the aftermath of the attack but as soon as she stepped out, the whole room perked up and turned their attention, like they were waiting for her.
"If he makes it through the night, he'll pull through." she relayed Hershel's words and the whole group relaxed for a moment before Axel spoke up anxiously, "What do we do now?"
Eve waved her hand at him in a steadying motion that told him to calm down and quickly addressed the unsettlement in the room. "They won't attack again today."
They'll probably wait to see if this will finish us off first. Eve kept that part to herself.
They haven't had a chance to calm down from what just happened, if they start this discussion off like this now, they'll panic themselves into a frenzy.
The ambush was truly unexpected but in hindsight she should've seen it coming.
This time though she was willing to let herself off because so many things have happened in just a few days that her head was spinning like a top. The only reason it hadn't fallen was thanks to its own torque.
"They hit us hard today but they're gonna have to do better than that to get rid of us. Everybody go get some rest. T-Dog count how much ammo we have left. Axel, Glenn take watch. Stay out of sight, keep your heads low, take the rifles and don't risk the guard towers. Stay close."
The three of them nodded and dispersed.
"Carl, take stock of our medical supplies and bring me a list when you're done."
Carl nodded, knowing what to do and ran off after the other 3 who had just opened the gate where Merle is. Glenn glared at him like he'd enjoy nothing more than to tear his insides out and feed him to the crows but didn't say anything after slamming the gate shut behind them and locking it, with his eyes fixed on Merle.
Eve sighed and looked around the room, noting that Merle was standing outside the closed gate door; that must've been their solution to prevent a fist fight, but she didn't see Daryl.
Rick glanced up at the railing above her, knowing who she was looking for and she tilted her head back, finding blue eyes above her.
Eve finally stated, "We'll talk about it after we know what we're working with. Until then, treating the injured and finding out how much damage we took are the priority."
The group seemed satisfied with that for now and dispersed to do like she said.
Daryl was filled with questions about why Eve was the one issuing orders but he saved them for later as Eve made her way up, dragging her tired feet to him like they were cemented in cinder blocks and crashed into him, her forehead landing heavily on his shoulder.
Eve wanted to ask, "Why weren't you there?" but she was so exhausted she couldn't even open her mouth. All the tiredness that she should have felt last night rushed through her like a fast acting poison and Daryl returning the embrace was the reason she stayed on her feet and at the same time was just another reason why she wanted to drop into a coma for the next 24 hours.
Daryl stood holding her tightly, finally able to relax himself. That persistent anxiety while he was with his brother melting away like a cold night being illuminated and warmed by a fire. He was content to simply stand there for an untold amount of time before the urge for a little more privacy started to prick them both.
It was unusual for them to show PDA (public display of affection) in the first place, but especially odd that they'd been content doing it for longer than just the heat of a moment. Rather than heat, it had cooled down completely and left only a sense of contentment that was frankly unbefitting of the dire circumstances the group is facing now.
A person can't help how they feel. As opposed to the alternatives, this feeling is far more pleasant.
The two private people finally untangled and tangled their fingers instead before disappearing into the cell directly across from the area on the perch they'd claimed, Daryl pausing only to grab a spare shirt that had been hung over the railing next to him. He had already changed his torn shirt while Eve was with Randall, but hers was still in pieces.
Eve can't tolerate being in enclosed spaces like this for long but with the cell door open and Daryl here, she found it rather pleasant actually. Like a little pocket just for hiding. Like that thunderstorm that had accompanied her through the night in the shed that made her afraid of small spaces in the first place. A comfort.
Eve quickly changed her shirt, realizing only after she'd put it on that it was one of Daryl's and not her night shirt. Eve only has— had two shirts. She's down to just one now.
Eve had turned her back to him as she changed, watching outside the door to make sure she wasn't putting on a show for anyone. Normally she wouldn't feel comfortable changing like this even in front of Daryl but with a sports bra instead of the weird clasp ones (eegh, uncomfortable), for some reason it made her less conscious of it.
Daryl's eyes drifted up the curve of her spine that had long been exposed already to the scars on the back of her shoulder as she pulled the tattered shirt over her head, accidentally yanking her hair tie off in the process and scattering thousands of strands into her face.
Daryl looked down, realizing that he was staring and awkwardly cleared his throat, the tips of his ears turning red, but found his eyes back on her after just a few seconds.
Eve unceremoniously pulled the mess out of her face with a fast, practiced sweep of the hand over the crown of her head and let the hair tie roll onto her wrist, not bothering to redo her ponytail and just let it be for once as she turned around, buttoning up the shirt.
Daryl's shirt was bigger than hers, obviously, but not as much as she expected. It hung like a larger t-shirt. Being a similar height definitely helped for it. Although, very much in keeping with his style, it had no sleeves, so when the two of them sat on the bed together and leaned back against the wall, their bare shoulders rested against each other.
Daryl finally remembered the question he'd shoved off after being distracted by how the yellow/black shirt made her eyes look like liquid gold.
"Did something happen while I was with Merle?"
Eve raised a brow in questioning.
Seeing her confusion, Daryl elaborated. "Before, you were tellin' everyone what to do instead of Rick."
Eve sighed, lowering her eyes to her lap. She totally forgot that Daryl didn't know she had taken charge.
Daryl sat quietly and listened, his eyebrows furrowing every so often as she explained what happened as soon as they got back to the prison, about Rick's outburst and wavering his gun around, chasing those other people out who had wandered in. Eve never even learned their names until after she'd dealt with Rick. It was scary seeing him snap like that. It's not the first time in her life that she'd watched someone lose it but thinking about it now… watching it happen to someone she cares about; someone she'd call family… It was like being back with that older girl that she told him about before. The who used to cry herself to sleep in Eve's bed when Eve was a child. When she had enough and decided to do something about it.
Taking that gun from Rick was as terrifying and resolute as when she heard the squeaky step on the stairs and stepped out of that upstairs bathroom to kick that man down the staircase.
Daryl noticed her unconsciously roll her shoulder and slipped his hand into hers again, gently rubbing his thumb back and forth as she looked down at it, the gesture grounding her back to the present.
Eve took a breath and finished explaining that she finally had to make good on a threat that she made a long time ago and took over in place of Rick. Daryl was confused about when she possibly could have made such a threat without him knowing about it but continued a different train of thought.
"You sure about this?"
Eve nodded and a beat of silence passed before she shook her head.
If anyone else had asked her that question she wouldn't have bothered to correct herself but not with Daryl. She doesn't need to do such things with him.
She leaned her head back against the wall, staring at the dull grey smooth concrete across from them in the 4x8 cell.
"I honestly don't know if it was the right call."
Daryl didn't hesitate, speaking with complete irrefutable faith. "It was."
Eve looked at him.
"Man just lost his wife and has been losin' his mind for a while. He ain't in no condition to fight a war."
"You noticed too, huh? That this has gone way beyond just a fight." Eve wrapped her arms around her knees, resting her cheek against them as she stared at Daryl, her dark hair falling like a curtain of black silk in the dimly lit cell.
Daryl nodded, unaware how long his eyes had lingered over her vaguely red hands. The contrast between her almost black hair and red hands made her face look ghostly pale in contrast, accentuating the dark circles under her eyes and the bruises that looked worse than when he'd left. He knows what she'd say if he mentioned it too. "Bruises always look worse before they heal."
Daryl nodded and raised his hand to brush his thumb lightly on her cheek without thinking but didn't care to retract it even after he noticed. Too deep in his thoughts, wondering how just a person's presence could make him flip like a switch between anxious and calm.
It made it seem like the mild unease he felt outside the prison yesterday was maddening and he just didn't notice how bad it really was until it was gone.
That's not true. He had noticed. He had noticed how uncomfortable it was for it to be just him and Merle, and he will never forget what it was like feeling her absence in everything he did and everywhere they went, and how he spent all night rolling back and forth on the uneven ground unable to sleep. Ultimately using her trick of staring at the sky, at the stars that peeked through the canopy as the wind blew it around, until he finally fell asleep thinking about the first night they spent alone together. The night after Merle had gone to Atlanta with the others and he went hunting.
It took him so long to work up to asking her that one question. He had been thinking about it every time he saw her for days by that point. If Merle had been there, he might have thought about it for days more before asking her. Now he doesn't have to think for very long at all to ask her things, and she gives him actual replies.
He noticed this a long time ago, but the less familiar she is with someone, the less likely it is that she'll respond. It's weird thinking about how he spent most of his life not knowing her and in one short year (give or take) it feels like there was never a time when he didn't. He can think back on his life and imagine her being there so easily he can almost convince himself that she really was.
Eve stared at him and quickly turned her head, stealing a kiss from his palm. "Whatcha thinkin' about?"
Daryl pulled his hand back and glanced down, the corner of his lip sneakily pulling up, and a mirthful little fire lit in Eve's eyes watching that little smile and his ears turning red, it was unexpectedly child-like and out of nowhere she was hit with the overwhelming urge to make him smile like that again.
It is truly terrifying how many possible ways that she came up with in just a few seconds. She's always been a little mischievous but sorry Snowflake, teasing you just became the absolute funnest thing in this adult-child's life.
Is it weird that the end of civilization is the best thing that's ever happened to her?
Before Eve could finish her thought, Daryl leaned over, pulling her head down and planted his lips against her forehead, one of the few places that she doesn't have bruises.
When he pulled back, he looked at her like she was the sun & moon, and with a small smile spoke without an ounce of insincerity.
"Nobody said one person has to take on everything. We can handle it together."
Daryl's not good with words, he doesn't have any fancy vocabulary, all that came to mind for the smile that pulled across her lips was that it was indescribably beautiful.
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