Chapter 40

KATE

"The Pistons?!" Tara exclaimed in mock disgust. "That's so disappointing!"

Glenn laughed. "You're a Hawks fan Tara, you should be used to disappointment."

"Let me guess, you decided Detroit was your team in 2004, went and bought a pretty new Rasheed Wallace jersey to wear for the playoffs."

"Wrong! Grant Hill baby!" Glenn said loudly, lifting his t-shirt at the shoulders with his fingers as if he was still wearing the jersey that was probably gathering dust in a closet he'd abandoned when the world ended. "My family is from Detroit. I'm not a band-wagoner."

Kate watched Abe, who'd been leading the group down this abandoned highway since they broke camp this morning, stop in his tracks and wait for Glenn and Tara to catch up to him.

"While I hate to interrupt your shitty conversation about two teams that don't fucking exist anymore, I'd like to remind you that there are dead people roaming the Earth and if you don't shut the fuck up they're gonna be all over us like dingleberries on a dog's ass."

The group fell silent.

"Geez." Kate whispered to Daryl from their position at the back of the group. "I'm afraid to even talk, Abraham is going to come over and rip my head off."

"He talks to you like and I'll rip his fuckin' head off." Daryl snarled. "I don't know who he thinks he is, but I'm gettin' tired of him walkin' around actin' like we're all part of his fuckin' personal army, just existin' to get the idiot to DC."

Abraham resumed his position at the front of the pack. He always marched along with his back straight as a stick and his gun in his hands, prepared for whatever danger might threaten Eugene, who trudged along behind him, his plump hands slack against his sides. Rosita, as businesslike as Abraham, guarded him from behind.

Kate wondered again how a man so seemingly dull could possibly hold the secret to life. She had tried, a few times, to get to know him, but he'd answer her questions in such odd and stilted speech that she found it hard to carry on a conversation with him.

The road stretched out endlessly before them as they plodded along at a painfully slow pace. Under the beating sun, the heat rose off the asphalt in wavy lines, and it made Kate feel dizzy. They'd done this before, walk for hours on end, most of them anyway, and she was sure they'd do it again, but wandering always made her feel homesick and this was no exception.

Kate knelt down on the deteriorating road and dug in her pack for a granola bar she was only half sure she hadn't eaten. The cracks in the neglected asphalt spiderwebbed in every direction and the grass that lined them was thirsty and brown. Kate was sore from sleeping on the ground the night before, and she hoped they'd find some place better to sleep tonight or at the very least a vehicle they could all fit in so they could get to their final destination quicker. They'd abandoned the bus just the day before, shortly after they'd crossed the state line into South Carolina. It wasn't the first time the bus had come to a shuddering stop, but it was the last. Glenn had tried his best, but they had to abandon it and head out on foot. The idea, of course, would be they could find some transportation at the next town they came across, but it was proving more difficult than they thought to find functioning vehicles and enough gas to get them anywhere. It was their second day of walking, their second day of feeling discouraged and tempers were running high.

Kate's fingers finally felt the slick packaging of the granola bar, and with relief pulled it out and tore open the wrapper. It was stale and practically disintegrating, but she was grateful she still had it. She broke a chunk off and offered it to Daryl, but he shook his head.

"Naw. You need it more than I do." He insisted.

"I do not." She offered it again, but he refused.

"I can find plenty of things to eat if I have to, things you ain't gonna wanna try."

She wrinkled her nose and chewed the granola, trying not to image what he was talking about, but absolutely knowing he was serious.

"I kiss those lips you know. Don't eat any road kill please."

The stretch of two lane highway they had spent the better part of the day on, was surrounded by a forest of gnarled, leafless trees that left walkers little room to hide. There had been plenty of them to deal with today, but it was easy to spot them coming and the low, cement guardrail that ran along the road gave the dead an extra hurdle making it even easier to put an end to them. In that way the road had been good to them, today anyway, but she wondered how long they'd be able to continue on like this when Hershel had only one good leg and they had a baby whose cries had drawn walkers to them on more than one occasion.

Up ahead the trees dropped off and Kate could hear the sound of moving water. Daryl made a bee-line for the side of the highway bridge and hung his head over the side to watch the muddy brown river move lazily under them. She stopped and waited for him, finishing her granola bar and watching for walkers.

"Ain't much of a river," Daryl scoffed. "And it don't look no different than nearly every river I've ever seen in Georgia."

She smiled. Until two days ago, Daryl had never left Georgia and ever since they'd crossed into South Carolina, she'd been amused at the constant comparisons he was making between the two states.

"Might be some fish in it though." He looked back down at the river and then up at her hopefully. "We could climb down. Try our luck."

Kate looked from him to the group that was moving slowly away from their sight-seeing detour.

"I don't think Abraham would be too happy, when Carol had to stop and pee I thought he was going to have a heart attack."

"Fuck that asshole." Daryl shrugged, throwing a stone he'd collected onto the ground. "We can catch up."

She laughed and he grinned back at her and she saw a glimpse of the boyish Daryl who had been gone for too long.

"Maybe stopping would be good. I think Hershel is slowing down, his leg is pretty bad, but I don't think he'll say anything."

Hershel was at the back of the pack, walking alongside Maggie, his gait uneven and hesitant and Kate saw Daryl's face twist in anger when he saw him struggling. He didn't even respond to her, just charged determinedly towards the group.

"Rick!" Daryl hollered. "Wait up."

He had everyone's attention, and they turned to watch him as his boots pounded the pavement, Kate trotted to Hershel's side. Daryl bent his head to Rick's ear and spoke low enough that no one else heard, but Kate watched Rick closely. He nodded in understanding, his eyes bouncing only momentarily towards Hershel before fixing in the direction of the river.

"Daryl thinks he can get us some fish." He announced to the group. "Let's stop for awhile, see how it goes, maybe make camp here tonight."

Kate waited for Abe to protest, but it was Rosita instead.

"We have hours of daylight left, why would we stop now?" She demanded, her hand on one hip, the butt of her rifle resting on the other and attitude to spare. "Doesn't make sense."

Kate heard Hershel sigh.

"Eating. Eating makes sense to me." Rick replied. "We don't have any food."

"Making camp here tonight is a waste of time Rick and you know it." Abraham added. "I don't want to sit around and scratch my ass when we could be tickin' off the miles to our final destination."

"Don't then. Why don't you take a team east, see if you can't find some transportation. That'll get us there that much faster."

Kate held her breath as she watched the men stare off. She said a silent prayer that he would give in, that they could stop without a battle. She knew Daryl was ready to explode, and she didn't want it to come to blows.

Abe nodded curtly and turned abruptly to head back towards the river, but Kate didn't miss the look he gave Daryl as he passed him. She hoped he'd do as Rick suggested, hoped he'd leave for a few hours and take Rosita with him. She had a feeling they could all use some time apart from one another.

Kate clambered over the guardrail onto the leaf littered forest floor and turned to help Maggie and Glenn get Hershel over. Beth was next and as she handed Judith to Kate the baby gave a squeal of protest. Beth, once on the other side, quickly took the baby back and the reunion silenced Judy's tears.

"She's kind of going through a clingy stage." Beth explained apologetically.

Kate smiled and pushed away the ache that started to stir in the middle of her chest. She turned quickly and walked towards the water, trying to put space between her and the adorable reminder of her own loss.

The river was small, and she wondered if it even qualified as one, but she had no idea if size played a part in labeling bodies of water. The water moved slowly, and even stilled in the shallow pockets near the shore. Perfect for mosquitos and Kate instinctively slapped at her neck. Mosquitos loved Kate and in the summer months she was usually covered in bites. She planted her boots on the muddy shore and watched the other insects skim across the top of the water.

"They're really pissin' me off." Daryl muttered from behind her as he sidestepped his way down the slippery banks to stand next to her on the water's edge. He settled onto the muddy ground and pulled his pack into his lap to dig inside. His movements were frantic and quick, as they always were when he was warring with an emotion, and Kate was grateful he had an occupation to distract him from his frustration.

"I know. I'm sorry."

"Hershel is in pain and they don't give a fuck."

Kate sat down next to him and looked across the river. Out of habit she scanned the balding trees for any signs of walkers and wondered if there were any of them under the murky water.

She sighed. "We've got to get off the road."

Daryl pulled a spool of fishing line and a small, plastic box of hooks out of the deepest part of his bag. He'd found them in a pack attached to a walker he'd killed on the road just yesterday. He got back to his feet and started searching the ground.

"Ah, here we go." He said, leaning down and picking up a long branch. He held it up straight and sent his boot crashing down on the middle and it split into two.

"You fish like this before?" She asked. She'd been plenty of times in her life, but it was always with a pole and a tackle box full of tricks.

"Nearly my whole life." He replied, not bothering to raise his head as he stripped the twigs and leaves from the two sticks.

Daryl tied the line to the bottom of the first stick and wound it up to the tip where he tied another knot, he pulled a length of line from the spool and cut it off with his knife, threading the end through the hook eye and handing it to her.

"Now we just need bait." He said, pulling himself off the ground again and walking a few feet behind her, kicking some of the damp leaves away before crouching down and digging with his fingers through the dirt. It wasn't long before he returned with two writhing, pink worms in the palm of his hand. He sat back down and offered them to her, she plucked one up, speared it through the middle and slid it onto the hook. She dangled her line into the shallow waters and waited. Daryl sat next to her and started lining the second stick. His worm wiggled around on the leg of his pants.

She watched his fingers, caked with dirt and somehow nimble despite their thickness, work at lining the second stick and she realized how badly she missed having them on her body. For a second she let herself pretend the prison was still their home, and this was just a fishing trip. In a few hours they could return to the safety of the cement walls and collapse on their bed. She closed her eyes and imagined the cool feel of the quilt that covered their mattress, how she would trace the starred pattern with her finger. When it was cold she would slip under the covers, shivering between the freezing sheets until Daryl would lay next to her, his bare skin perpetually warm. She knew that it had only been a thin piece of fabric hanging over the cell bars that gave them the illusion of privacy, but it seemed such a luxury to her now. She spent a few more seconds in the comfort of this daydream before she ripped herself back to the present.

"Do you think they'll find something we can all ride in?" She asked, trying to ignore the fresh wave of homesickness that flooded over her. She wanted to be somewhere permanent, somewhere for more than just a night and inching along the back roads like this was never going to work.

"Hope they find more than one so I don't have to sit in a van listenin' to Tara and Glenn argue about sports all day."

Kate laughed and Daryl looked up long enough to grin at her.

"What if they don't? How long do you think we can go like this, on foot? It doesn't make sense with Hershel or with Judith."

"Abraham don't give a shit about that." He replied, squinting down at the hook as he pushed the line through.

"Daryl, I don't think he's a bad guy. He's just got a one track mind and it's set on getting Eugene to DC."

Daryl scoffed. "He's gonna get someone killed."

It was amazing what a change full bellies and a break from the road brought upon the group. As they sat around the low fire that Carl had built, tearing chunks of fish meat off the bone with their fingers and watching the sun sink low behind the bare trees, Kate was comforted by the sounds of laughter and easy conversation. Even Abraham was wearing a wide grin and rubbing the back of Rosita's shoulders affectionately.

Kate sat Indian style on the forest floor between Daryl and Carol, picking the last pieces of fish from the bones. Daryl shoved the meat in his mouth like a hungry animal, afraid at any moment it could be taken from him. He finished it off, threw the bones to the ground and started sucking the juices off of each finger when he caught Kate and Carol starring at him in amused disgust.

"What?" He growled.

They both laughed.

"Leave me alone." He said playfully, rising to his feet with an indignant smile and slinging his crossbow over his back. "I work all day to get these fish for you two to eat and this is the thanks I get."

"Hey, I caught at least half of these." Kate shot back. "Where are you going?"

"The trees." He said, tipping her head back and planting a quick kiss on her lips. "Ain't gonna have a group of walkers come up on us and ruin the party."

Kate watched his silhouette disappear into the forest and forced herself not to follow him. She knew he could take care of himself, knew that she couldn't expect to be right next to him every minute, but something about this night, despite the food and the cheerful mood, wasn't sitting with her easily and she couldn't figure it out. This felt familiar, and not in a good way.

"I feel like I have deja vu. Like we've done this before." She said to Carol.

Carol tossed her fish bone into the fire and wiped her hands on the sides of her pants.

"We have. Remember the night at the quarry? Andrea and Amy caught all those fish."

"That's it!" Kate said, surprised she hadn't thought of it herself. "The night Amy was killed."

"And Ed." Carol said quietly.

Kate suddenly felt like an idiot for bringing up Amy, without remembering what had happened to Carol's husband. Amy's death had been awful. It was the first walker attack she had witnessed and Amy was the first person she knew who had been killed by one. She had hated Ed, she was relieved he was gone, but still, it seemed so selfish to not have remembered what Carol had gone through that night.

"I'm sorry Carol, I should've remembered. I do remember."

"Don't be sorry, I'm not."

"It seems like so long ago, I guess it wasn't, but you don't even seem like the same person I met back on that road to Atlanta."

"None of us are."

Kate felt like the same person, but she knew it wasn't really true. She shook her head in agreement, but admitting it made her sad.

"Kate, I've wanting to talk to you about something, but haven't had the chance. About what you said back at the prison. When you had the flu."

Kate's pulse quickened and she felt her face go red. She knew right away what Carol was referring to, but had hoped she would never be reminded of that day, the things she said when she thought for sure she wouldn't survive the night. People shouldn't be held to things they say in the throes of death. Her mind raced, trying to think of a way to get out of what was sure to be an extremely awkward conversation.

"I think I was delirious, I don't remember half the things I said."

"You don't remember asking me to promise that I would look after Daryl if something happened to you?"

Kate nodded solemnly. "I do remember that." She confessed.

She couldn't deny it, not when Carol had done exactly that, staying by Daryl's side as they searched for her.

"Then you remember saying that you thought I loved Daryl too."

"I...I didn't mean…"

"No, Kate, you did." Carol interrupted, but there was kindness in her voice. "And you're right, I do love him. Just not in the way you think, not anymore anyway."

Kate looked around uncomfortably, unsure where Carol was taking the conversation and curious if anyone else could hear them. Everyone was absorbed in their own conversations, everyone except Father Gabriel who sat off on his own staring at the ground. No one was paying them any attention.

"I felt connected to Daryl early on." Carol started to explain. "We were both damaged already and that made us different than everyone else in the group and when Sophia disappeared, he showed me more kindness than Ed did for our entire marriage, which I'll admit isn't saying much, but it meant so much to me."

Kate thought back to the awful moment when Sophia emerged from Hershel's barn, her face grayish-green and her eyes sunken and white. Daryl had held Carol back, at first to keep her from running to her daughter, to certain death, and then as she cried.

"I thought maybe, maybe that meant we would be good together and God knows I tried to let him know how I felt." She laughed. "Either he never noticed or pretended not to, because he never gave me even a clue that he was picking up on it at all, but I was undeterred. I had nothing but time. And then one day, when we were first at the prison, I saw him looking at you from across the common room. You didn't notice, you were talking to Maggie I think, but Daryl couldn't stop watching you, I know because I was so busy watching him. If you were in the room, he couldn't help himself. At first I shrugged it off, it bothered me, but I didn't really think it would come to anything. I didn't think you were interested. But then he was gone, off with Merle and I was devastated, but I realized I wasn't the only one. You were a mess, I watched you lay out by the fence and cry, and I knew then that you must've loved him too. And when he came back, well, you know how the rest of it goes."

Carol stared off in the distance and sighed, then smiled.

"For what it's worth, I was wrong, we wouldn't have been a good fit. I know that now." She looked at Kate with her cool gray eyes and Kate knew she was sincere. "There is no balance in two broken people who share the same strengths and the same weaknesses. I realized that when I saw him with you. Daryl needs a soft place to land."

Kate smiled, she felt a little overwhelmed with the confession and the unexpected emotion that came along with it. She and Carol had never been close, and with the exception of her days with the flu they'd hardly had a meaningful conversation, and suddenly she was laying her heart bare.

"I just wanted you to know, felt I owed you an explanation. I didn't want you thinking I still had feelings for your husband. I still love him, but now it's more sisterly, if that makes sense."

Kate shook head insistently and searched for the right words. "You didn't owe me an explanation. I shouldn't of..I…I was always curious, I always wondered about your feelings for him, but it never made me feel differently about you. You have to forgive me for saying what I did at the prison, you have to know, under regular circumstances, I would never, ever have brought that up."

"It's probably good that you did, so I could explain. Clear the air."

A beam of light suddenly shone in their eyes, and then swung quickly away, revealing Tara walking towards them.

"Sorry." She said. "Didn't mean to blind you. Do either of you have to pee? I'm heading to the trees - we could take turns keeping watch."

Carol stood. "I'll go with you."

They walked away and Kate surveyed the rest of the group, her conversation with Carol was a lot to take in and she needed to shake it off, to reset. Daryl was still gone, but everyone else was accounted for, sitting or standing in groups of two or more engaged in conversation. She stood up and circled the camp, stretching her legs and looking into the trees to see if she could spot Daryl.

She noticed Father Gabriel again, still sitting alone, staring at the ground. Kate hadn't made much of an effort to talk to him. If she had to come up with a reason, she guessed it was because he didn't really seem to want to talk to anyone. He just always looked like he was ready to cry or maybe throw up. His face was perpetually twisted into a look of discomfort. But tonight, when everyone seemed happy for once, her heart went out to him. He must feel so lonely, so out of place and she suddenly felt like a little kindness might do him some good.

She approached him and he looked up at her, his eyes narrowed suspiciously and his mouth agape. It was as if he couldn't imagine what she possibly could want with him.

"Mind if I sit with you?" She asked.

He closed his mouth, looked at the ground and nodded.

She sat a couple of feet away from him and folded her legs underneath her.

"Did you like the fish?"

"Yes. Thank you." He said curtly, avoiding her eyes.

"You aren't used to the road. How are you holding up?"

"I have blisters. These shoes really aren't made for this."

She looked down at the black dress shoes that sat next to him. On his feet were black socks that matched his black pants, shirt and coat. She suddenly wondered if his underwear was also black. It made her laugh.

"No, I guess they aren't." She said, not being able to stifle her giggles.

"You find it funny?" He asked, the bitterness evident in his voice, and she knew she'd offended him.

"No. I'm sorry. It reminded me of something else."

"You know, I've been watching you all tonight. Everyone seems so happy, smiling, laughing, sharing stories. It was like that at the church too, the night before they slaughtered those people. Before they spilt blood in the Lord's house."

Kate understood how upsetting it was for Gabriel, she knew how upsetting death continued to be for her, but Carol was right, they were different now and part of that was the fact that this was part of their life. Considering Gabriel had been sheltered from a lot, locked alone in his church for so long, it couldn't be an easy adjustment. She wanted him to see that there sometimes wasn't a choice and it was definitely not something they wanted to do.

"Gabriel, those people they killed, they were horrible people. The things they had done, you know about where they came from? Where the group had just escaped from, right?"

"You weren't there. You didn't see Rick. You didn't see Sasha. It wasn't right. This group, this group..." Gabriel started to shake.

"Gabriel, we've all done things. Things that in the old world we would never have imagined ourselves capable of. That doesn't make us evil, it just means we're trying to survive. To keep ourselves and our people safe. Believe me, none of us want to, we all wish it were different."

Gabriel shook his head in disgust. "Satan has fooled you into believing that your actions are justifiable, but there will be payment for these deeds."

"What about you?" She said gently. "I heard there were things that you did. Things that you must regret, that others would consider evil, but…"

"And I will pay for those sins!" He cut her off. "...but the difference is, I am not laughing and continuing on with my life like those things didn't happen. I live every day with pain and guilt and I pray for the Lord's forgiveness."

Gabriel's eyes flashed with anger and his voice was strong and full of conviction. It was if he was suddenly transported back onto his pulpit and now that he had an audience he was going to deliver his message.

"And I pray for each of you too, I pray for your souls and that each of you will repent of your sins and turn to the Lord. I've heard things too, I heard that you lost a child. I do not pretend to understand why God allows some to live, and some to perish, but what I do know is that you reap what you sow. You say that the violence is necessary, that murder is necessary for the survival of the group, but God abhors violence. The Lord wants us to live in light and love, and to reap life, but as long as you live in violence you will reap death."

DARYL

The woods were clear, which sometimes made Daryl more uneasy than not. It felt like there should be something in the trees tonight, they were making more noise than usual and the light from the fire was bound to attract something living or dead, but Daryl had circled their camp several times, weaving in and out of the balding trees and hadn't seen a thing.

He was headed back, trying to make out the silhouettes as they moved around the fire, by now they'd be finished with their fish and preparing the camp for sleep by now. He wasn't on watch tonight, and neither was Kate. Glenn and Maggie were taking first shift, and Michonne and Sasha were going to take over and watch the group until morning light. Daryl was looking forward to sleep.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw someone dart quickly from the edge of their camp, into the woods. He couldn't be sure, but he thought he saw a flash of blonde hair and that left only two possibilities: Beth or Kate. He didn't feel comfortable with either of them in the trees by themselves, and so he cut across the forest floor to investigate.

He heard her crying first, and found her in the dim light of the moon leaning against a tree.

"Kate?" He announced himself, knowing how dangerous it was to sneak up on anyone in the dark.

With one sharp intake of breath, her crying stopped.

"Ya." She answered, her voice thick and betraying any attempt she was making to sound natural.

He reached out and pulled her into his arms.

"What is it?" He asked urgently, wondering how he could have left her smiling and joking at the fireside only minutes ago, to find her so upset now. For a fleeting second he thought maybe she'd been pretending that things were getting better, hiding her true feelings from him and that scared the shit out of him.

"I'm sorry." She said, her words muffled against his body. "I'm ok."

"You ain't actin' ok." He asked again, gentler this time. "Please tell me."

She didn't answer at first and then pulled away from, leaning back against the tree and taking a deep breath.

"Gabriel happened." She said, and he could hear the bite in her voice. She was angry. "I tried to talk to him, tried to get him to talk to me. Big mistake."

Daryl could feel the fury start to come alive inside of him. "What'd he do?" He asked, pacing back and forth over the carpet of leaves.

"He thinks we're all evil. Murderers. That the fact that we can do such terrible things and then sit around a fire and laugh with each other means…"

"Gabriel is full of shit. Don't let what that asshole says bother you. Fuckin' hypocrite, you heard Michonne, you know what he did to his own people."

"I know. What he did was so much worse, but Daryl, he knows about the baby. He said that we reap what we sow."

Daryl went still. He felt like someone had dumped ice into his veins.

"How'd he know?"

"I don't know, living as close as we all do he was bound to hear something. I don't really care how he knows. Fuck, I don't even care what he says, he's a fucking coward, I told him he was too."

"Good."

"But what he said," Kate said, and she started to cry again. "I've been thinking it all along and to hear someone say it out loud."

Daryl couldn't sleep, anger kept him awake. He laid on his back and stared at the blanket of stars that dotted the black sky and thought about Kate crying and his stomach churned. It was a clear night and the moon shone brightly on the makeshift camp. The group was scattered around the stone circle where they'd made their fire. He could hear Eugene snoring and someone was talking in their sleep. Glenn and Maggie were leaning against two trees on the outskirts of camp, keeping an eye on those who slept and speaking in whispers.

Daryl turned to his side and faced Kate as she slept soundly next to him, silent except for the occasional shuddery breath that would escape from somewhere deep inside her. She always did that after she cried, she had told him she'd done it her whole life, and every time she did he thought about what Gabriel said to her and his anger grew.

He reached down and pulled the blanket over her shoulders and hoped that tomorrow would be better, that she wouldn't have gone back to that place where he couldn't reach her. Over Kate's shoulder, he saw a figure rise up from the ground and make its way to Maggie and Glenn.

He could hear Gabriel's voice, just a whisper, but couldn't make out his words.

"Gabriel, You don't have to ask permission to pee." Maggie said with a hint of humor and frustration.

Father Gabriel's shadowy figure headed towards the trees. It was exactly what Daryl had been hoping would happen. Daryl stood up quickly and followed. He nodded in Maggie and Glenn's direction, ignoring their curious stares and disappeared into the woods.

Father Gabriel walked slowly through the trees, his head swiveling left and right in search for anything that might hurt him.

Daryl stalked him soundlessly, undetected and tackled him from behind. Gabriel fell to the ground with a groan as the air was knocked from his lungs. Daryl was on him, pinning him to the ground with his weight, his forearm to his throat and his face looming over Gabriel's. Gabriel's eyes were wide and full of terror, it didn't fade when he realized he knew his attacker. His mouth gaped open, but no sound escaped.

Daryl stared into his eyes for a moment before he spoke. He wanted him to think that maybe the only reason he was out here was to kill him. He felt Gabriel's body struggle against him, and his one free arm batted against Daryl uselessly.

"My wife...she is good. But I ain't." Daryl growled, inches from Gabriel's face. His teeth were gnashed together and he could feel his own heart thundering against his chest. He pushed against Gabriel's throat harder "And if I ever, EVER hear you've been talkin' to her again like you did tonight, I will fuckin' kill you."

Daryl let off his neck and grabbed him by the lapels of his black coat, lifting his chest off the ground. Gabriel sucked in a lungful of air and started to cough.

"Understand me?"

Gabriel offered no reply, just hung limply from Daryl's grasp and panted. Daryl shook him. "DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"

Gabriel shook his head frantically and Daryl could smell urine.

"You fuckin' coward." He said, curling his lip in disgust.

He let go of him and Gabriel fell back onto the decaying leaves, still coughing and curling into a ball. Daryl turned and headed back to camp.