When she was twenty five, Kayla ran her first marathon with Angela in Virginia. She could still remember in perfect detail each bead of sweat forming on her body, how hard her heart was pounding, the burning pain that spread up and down her legs as she ran further and further she thought would never go away…those were the sensations she was feeling as she and the group trekked onward, far away from Terminus. They walked the entire day following their escape and walked all day the next. By the time she sat down at the end of the second day, her feet were killing her and she could hardly believe she was still sweating.
While Kayla got Jonathan ready for bed, Angela came over to her. "We need to talk." she said. Kayla looked up from Jonathan at her. She knew what her friend wanted to talk about. The whole group still thought that Angela was another prisoner at Terminus, not a resident. Kayla looked down at Jonathan who began to close his eyes. She ran her fingers through his dirty hair. "Night little man." she whispered. "See you in the morning."
Kayla stood up and motioned for Angela to follow her. Everyone was beginning to settle down for the night and Daryl was off checking the perimeter with Glenn, allowing her to sneak away for a few moments before anyone noticed her and Angela's absence. She guided Angela into the woods, going far enough that no one would hear their conversation but still staying close enough that they could see their campfire.
"Are you just not going to tell them?" Angela asked Kayla. "You know…about me?"
"I don't see what difference it makes." Kayla told her friend as she leaned against a tree. "You weren't killing and eating people like they were. You were alone and afraid with nowhere else to go and no one with you."
"So you're just going to lie to them?"
"Look if you want to tell them, it's your call. But if you are going to, I'd wait a few more days…you saw how Rick was."
Angela nodded. Kayla was right. There was no harm coming out of not revealing to the others that she wasn't a prisoner at Terminus and if she did speak the truth, what if they jumped to conclusions before she could explain herself. She could count on Kayla and hopefully Daryl since it was Kayla's "husband". She still couldn't wrap her head around Kayla and Daryl. The last time Angela saw her, Kayla hadn't been looking for any kind of relationship. Not a one night stand, not a fling, and definitely not something serious. Angela hadn't spoken much to Daryl. In fact she barely exchanged more than five words with him. She was still wary of being around so many unfamiliar faces and has sort of stuck to Kayla's side the past couple of days.
Getting back to the camp, Kayla settled into her spot by Jonathan and laid on her side to get comfortable before closing her eyes. She could feel the earth all around her. The dirt on the ground, leaves in the trees, pine in the air. She could hear the owls and crickets, the crackle of the fire, the rustle of leaves. When her eyes were closed…it was as if all the bad things somehow melted away and she was left lying in the woods surrounded by nature and peace. There were no walkers or cannibals in that moment. Unfortunately the moment was short lived when the snap of a tree branch on the ground somewhere caused Kayla to snap her eyes open. She immediately sat up and looked around, her hands on her gun next to her. She looked around for the source of the sound, but saw nothing. She knew Daryl was walking the perimeter, but he was always silent when he did his patrols. She looked around for a few more seconds before laying back down and attempting to go to sleep.
Kayla was asleep for a couple of hours when she woke up to Daryl lying down next to her. He had his own sleeping bag, but always slept close to her like they always did. Even though his movements woke her physically, she didn't open her eyes because she knew he'd feel guilty if he knew he woke her up. He moved carefully and quietly as he laid down for the night, taking his jacket off and laying it next to him before he got comfortable. Before he went completely horizontal, he pressed a kiss to his wife' forehead. "I love you." he whispered before settling down. Kayla smiled and drifted back off to sleep.
OOOOO
The next morning, Kayla was up first to cook breakfast for everyone. Now that they were back on the road, everything they ate came out of a can and they were down to just about the last of their food. She put a thing of water of the fire to boil as she looked at the food in front of her. Two packets of Ramen noodles, a can of green beans, a can of beans, and a can of corn. She let out a sigh and then got to work. She poked hole in the bottom of the green beans and corn with her knife and drained the liquid out of them. She set them on the rack over the water to steam them. She warmed up the beans over the fire and boiled the noodles, serving them together as a combo. Once she had all the food cooking, everyone began waking up. Daryl woke up first and walked over to where she kneeled in front of the pot of water stirring the noodles and kissed the top of her head. "Good morning." he said as he sat by her.
"Morning." she replied as she looked his way for a moment before looking back at the food. "There are now what, seventeen of us now with the several additions to our group? I think we need to start hunting again."
Daryl looked at the food and after a moment nodded in agreement. "You're right. I'll go out after breakfast."
"Could I come?" Kayla asked as she combined the noodles and beans in dishes.
Daryl bounced the idea around in his head for a few moments. She was right about the group needing some real meat in their diets. Canned goods weren't going to be enough for everyone all the time and some protein would do everyone some good. Even though he knew Kayla was as quiet as he was when he hunted-he took her with him a lot after they began to rebuild the prison-Daryl knew he'd be able to get more game if he went by himself. The logical thing to do was leave Kayla with the group so he could bring in as much food as possible, but the selfish part of his brain wanted to bring Kayla with him so he could spend some time alone with her. Even if they were walking through the woods quietly trying to scrounge up some food, her presence would be enough. He just got her back after being separated after the prison and then thought he'd lost her when he got back to the train car at Terminus and she wasn't there.
"As long as you're quiet." Daryl told her with a smile. The selfish part of his brain won this round
OOOOO
After everyone had their breakfast, they began to pack up their belongings and prepared to leave their campsite. "Hey Rick." Daryl said as he pulled his jacket on. Rick turned and walked over to Daryl. "Kayla and I are gonna go out and see what we can do about bringing in some meat." Rick looked over at Kayla as she spoke to Jonathan, most likely telling him he'd have to do without her for a little while.
"Alright, just don't go too far." Rick told Daryl. "And don't be gone too long."
"You got it."
Daryl headed ever to where Kayla was as she finished up talking to Jonathan. "I won't be long." she told the young boy. "Until I come back just stay close with the others. Maybe talk to Carl or someone else."
"Okay." Jonathan replied. "You promise you won't be long?"
"I promise."
Kayla ruffled his hair and stood up when Angela appeared. "Where are you going?" she asked, her tone worried.
"Daryl and I are going to go hunt." Kayla said. "Don't worry we'll be back soon."
"But-"
"Okay you see Tara over there?"
Kayla turned her friend in the direction of where Tara was packing her stuff up as she talked to Maggie. "She's new to the group, too. Walk and talk with her. Get to know someone." Kayla told as she nudged her friend forward. "I have faith in you."
OOOOO
It wasn't long before Kayla and Daryl were off in the woods, quietly walking and listening for game. Daryl had a better ear for this kind of thing than Kayla did, but she had a better eye for edible plants. She looked for bushes and vines that had any kind of food growing on them that was edible. The air around her and Daryl was quiet, but it had to be if they wanted to come back to the group bearing some meat. Within about thirty minutes of leaving the group Daryl managed to get a few squirrels. As they progressed, Kayla noticed Daryl constantly checking the ground for something. At first she assumed tracks for animals, but then she remembered the noise she heard last night. And if she heard it, so did he.
"Daryl?" Kayla whispered very quietly. He turned his head to look at her. "Yeah?"
"Last night…did you hear anything while you were on lookout? Or see anything?"
Daryl stopped walking. "Did you?"
"Yeah. Just a twig snapping or something but…" Kayla's words trailed over.
Daryl saw the worry play across her face and immediately knew she was thinking of those back at Terminus. He walked over and put his hands on either side of her face. "Hey that hell is over now." he reminded her. "We're alright now."
Kayla met his eyes and nodded. "And if it is someone or something, I'll kill it or them before they get anywhere close to you." Daryl added, making Kayla smile.
"My hero." she said jokingly as she rested her hands on his shoulders and pressed her lips to his. It felt so good to kiss him again. She heard him set his crossbow and squirrels down before his hands found her waist. She wrapped her arms around his neck completely and stood up on her tiptoes to be level with him as his hold on her grew tighter. He moved her his lips against hers as he deepened the kiss. It's felt like he hasn't kissed her for ages. It felt like he was an alcoholic relapsing on his favorite drink and couldn't get enough of it. "Daryl." she managed to say as she pulled her lips away from his. "We can't. Not here. Not now."
Daryl put his forehead against hers. "I know." he said as he looked at her. "Come on. Let's see what else we can scrounge up.
OOOOO
After spending a little over an hour away from the others, Daryl and Kayla headed back with a dozen squirrels and several Ziplocs full of berries. The squirrels wouldn't have a ton of meat on them, but it would be enough until Daryl could go out and get bigger game.
When Daryl and Kayla first arrived back at the group, their footsteps startled the others and next thing they knew they had several firearms pointed their direction. The couple held up their hands. "We surrender." Daryl said. Everyone lowered their weapons and continued on as Daryl and Kayla rejoined them. Jonathan beckoned her over and she took his hands as they walked with Glenn and Maggie. "Anything happen while we were gone?" Kayla asked the couple.
"No." Maggie replied.
Kayla looked ahead and saw Angela and Tara talking quietly amongst themselves as they walked, drawing a smile out of Kayla. It was good seeing her friend get to know the other members of the group. She kept wondering if she should tell Rick and the others about Angela being at Terminus, but realized at the end of the day there was no difference. Angela said she didn't cause any harm to anyone and Kayla believed her. She was Kayla's best and oldest friend.
The group wasn't walking long after Kayla and Daryl rejoined the group when they heard the shouts for help from somewhere. Whoever it was wasn't far away and the group immediately tensed up. Carl was the first to react. "Come on!" he urged his dad. "Come on!" the young boy took off the direction of the shouts and Rick chased after him, the rest of the group following after the two.
It didn't take long for the group to reach the site of the screams-a large rock surrounded by several walkers grabbing at a dark skinned priest who was on top who was frantically trying to get out of a walker's grip. Carl shot first, taking out one of the five walkers. Rick and Michonne took out another two and Kayla broke away from Jonathan, leaving him with Maggie, to take out the one on the far left. She used her knife and drove it into the skull of the walker, successfully getting her blade stuck in the bone. She tried yanking it out when she noticed the last walker coming towards her, but the second she saw it, it fell forward. There was an arrow in the back of its head with Daryl standing a few feet behind the fallen body.
"My hero." Kayla repeated as she yanked her blade out of the walker. It fell to the ground and Daryl and Kayla returned where the group gathered. Maggie stood with Glenn and Jonathan on one side with Rosita, Abraham, and Eugene on the other-Sasha, Bob, and Tyreese in the center and Rick Michonne, Daryl, Kayla, Kayla, and Carl at the front with the priest. "We won't hurt you." Kayla told him. "Why don't you come on down?" The priest nodded and climbed down off the rock, but wore a sick looking expression. An expression Kayla and Angela both knew too well from working in an emergency room. "You okay?" Rick asked.
The priest held up a finger and then turned to the side, the side Kayla stood on, and threw up everything in his stomach onto Kayla's shoes. Kayla looked straight ahead as he vomited on her shoes, the rest of the group turning their heads. When she worked at the hospital, it was bound to happen on an every other day basis and she didn't mind it then since she could easily buy another pair of shoes but she's been wearing the same shoes every day for over two months.
Seeing where he threw up, the priest looked up at Kayla's face. She didn't look angry, but she did look annoyed. "I am so, so, sorry." he apologized. Kayla gave him a fake smile as she looked down at her feet, Daryl on her right wondering if she was going to completely explode or remain calm.
"It's fine." she said through a breath. "What's your name?"
"I'm Gabriel." the priest told her before looking at the others. "Thank you…for your heroics."
"Do you have any weapons on you?" Rick demanded, his face stern.
Gabriel laughed at the statement as if Rick told a joke or made a witty pun of some kind. "Do I look like I'm the kind of man to have a weapon?"
"We don't give two shortened curlies what it looks like." Abraham's voice sounded.
"I have no weapons of any kind." Gabriel told him and the rest of the group. "The word of God is the only weapon I need."
Kayla couldn't stop the laugh from escaping her lips, causing Gabriel to look at her. "I'm sorry." she told him, not meaning it and laughing after she did. "It's just we just saved you from getting torn to pieces by five undead beings and you still think there's a God?"
"God promised a resurrection of the dead." Gabriel pointed out.
"But do you think God would have the dead rip apart and eat the living?"
"Do you have a camp?" Rick questioned, breaking off the encounter between Kayla and Gabriel.
Gabriel looked at Rick and then the rest of the group. "I have a church."
OOOOO
The church wasn't far from where the group found Gabriel, only a ten minute walk through the woods. Kayla held Jonathan's hand as they walked, listening to Rick, Gabriel, and her husband talk up ahead. "Can we trust him?" Jonathan's voice sounded. Kayla looked down at him, surprised at the question leaving the ten year old's mouth. He's never asked that kind of question before and she was a little…shocked. "I don't know, sweetie. Maybe. But I wouldn't put all my money into this stock quite yet."
"Stock? Like the stock of a gun?"
Kayla chuckled. "Not that kind of stock. I'll tell you about them later."
When the group arrived to the church, they did a quick sweep through it to make sure it was completely clear and Gabriel wasn't luring them into some sort of trap. Once it was cleared, Kayla took a seat on the church benches with Jonathan and Carl who had Judith in his lap. She half listened to Rick and Gabriel talk about Gabriel's easy start in the apocalypse. He was lucky enough to have a ton of canned food in the church from a canned food drive that occurred right before shit hit the fan two years ago. He scavenged a few places nearby once the food in the church ran out, but now was the time he finally had to enter full survival mode. The man has never killed a walker and didn't take a step out of the church for the first few months after the outbreak. Kayla couldn't even imagine that. Not going outside for that long other than to maybe use the bathroom. She'd get cabin fever within a couple of days of that kind of living.
Not long after arriving at the church Rick took Sasha, Bob, Michonne, and Gabriel to go find food at a nearby food bank while Glenn, Tara, Angela, and Maggie went on a separate mission to see if they could scrounge up some ammunition at a nearby gun store. Kayla doubted there'd be anything left at this point in time, but maybe luck would be on the group's side today. "Just come back." Kayla told Angela. "I lost you once and I don't want to again."
"Be back in a flash." Angela reassured her friend before giving her a hug.
Once everyone left, the church was next to empty with the exception of Carol, Kayla, Daryl, Carl, Jonathan, Judith, and Tyreese. While Kayla tried to clean up her shoes a bit from Gabriel's earlier sickness, Daryl emerged from the back with empty plastic gallons.
"Up for a water run?" Daryl asked her. "There's a river not too far from here. About a mile, maybe mile and a half. Be easier to fill up there then the tiny stream."
Normally Kayla would have said yes, but her eyes landed on Jonathan who was with Carl. Carl was holding Judith while Jonathan held his knife in his hand examining it. Her mind jumped to his earlier question and suddenly remembered Lori. Her distant parenting from Carl that started on the farm and carried on to the prison caused the boy to become very reckless and rebellious. As bad as Kayla felt for thinking of Lori as a bad parent…she kind of was. She was constantly running of somewhere and not keeping a proper eye on Carl. There were countless times that Kayla ended up watching Carl after the fall of the Greene farm because Lori became too preoccupied with something else.
"I think I'm going to hang here." Kayla told Daryl. "Help Tyreese watch the kids. You should take Carol."
Daryl looked at her for a moment. "You sure?" he asked. Kayla nodded. "Yeah. I may actually take Jonathan over to the stream Gabriel mentioned on the way here that was close by to wash my shoes. He wanted to learn about stocks anyway."
That made Daryl raise an eyebrow. "Stocks?"
Kayla laughed. "Yeah. I'll tell you later about it. Go with Carol."
"Alright."
Daryl leaned in and gave her a quick kiss before gathering Carol and some more empty gallons before taking off. Once he was gone, Kayla did as she told Daryl and took Jonathan to the stream that was only half a football field away from the church. Daryl was right, it was too small to gather water from. It was barely three feet across and there wasn't a lot of water running due to the lack of rain. There was enough though however for Kayla to wash the vomit off her shoes.
Taking a seat next to the creek, Kayla took her shoes off and got to work as Jonathan looked around the area, but stayed within Kayla's eyesight. As she looked at him, she made a mental note to give him a haircut-his locks were getting shaggy.
"Hey Johnathan?" Kayla said as she continued to wash his shoes, catching his attention.
"Yeah?" he responded.
"I know things are… hard right now." Kayla began as she looked up at him. "But I want you to promise me something."
"Okay."
"Promise me that no matter what you won't disappear on me. You won't go running off or anything like that."
"Why would I do that?"
"Can you just promise me that?"
Jonathan looked confused for a moment, but nodded his head. "I promise."
Kayla smiled and went back to scrubbing her shoes while he looked for critters hiding under rocks in the stream. "Thank you."
OOOOO
Later that afternoon, Rick and the others who went for food came back with a lot of what they went for. Everything was canned of course, but there was so much. Beans, vegetables, fruit and for the first time since the prison fell there was variety. No more just peaches or pineapples or corn or peas, there was something of everything. It was a great win. Kayla sat with Daryl on her right, his arm around her as they ate while Angela and Tara sat behind them and Jonathan in front of them. Jonathan was scarfing down his food and Kayla told him twice to take an easy.
"You'll get sick." she said through a small chuckle when she saw a bit of food left on the corner of his mouth. She leaned forward and wiped his mouth and grabbed his chin gently so he'd look at her. "I got puked on once today." she reminded him. Jonathan smiled and nodded, making Kayla smile as she leaned back again into Daryl's embrace. She felt him place a kiss on the side of her head and she smiled wider as she rested her head on his shoulder. She felt the past few days of restless nights catch up to her as the exhaustion hit her.
"Hey don't fall asleep." Daryl said as he gently shook her. "You need to get some more food in ya'. You're getting too damn skinny."
Kayla opened her eyes. She glanced down at herself and realized he was right. Her ribs were beginning to show a bit and her thighs were tiny. Her hands were bony as they've ever been in her life and as she placed a hand to her face, she could feel her cheek bones. Like really feel them. Letting out a sigh, Kayla went back to eating the mountain of food she had on her plate.
Once everyone was settled, Abraham stood up and proposed a toast. "To the survivors." he said.
"To the survivors." everyone repeated as they held up their glasses of communion wine and took a sip. (Except the kids of course)
"But is that all you want to be?" Abraham questioned. Everyone looked at him, wondering where he was going with it. He went on to say how Washington D.C was the way to go for food, refuge, supplies, protection…the possibility of a cure…it was all very intriguing and Kayla did want all that not just for her but for everyone. Especially Jonathan. He was barely a decade old living in this ugly world, getting deprived of a childhood. Rather than riding bikes with friends and getting ice cream on Saturdays, he was eating a meal of canned foods in church in the middle of the woods.
When Abraham asked if the group would join him, Rosita, and Eugene on their way to D.C, there was a long silence among the group. Kayla wanted to go, but she wasn't going anywhere without her family.
Suddenly Judith let out a baby noise. "What's that?" Rick asked her. Everyone chuckled. "I think she knows what I'm about to say." Rick told the group. "She's in. And if she's in, I'm in."
Even though it was a democracy again among the group, if Rick said he was going it meant the group was going. They weren't splitting up again for anything if they could help it.
After the toast and finishing her dinner, Kayla began to doze off on Daryl's shoulder. Since she had a full stomach, he didn't try waking her this time. Instead he picked her up bridal style and carried her over to where her bed was set up for the night by the front of the church. Everyone watched as Daryl carried her over, smiles on their faces. He set her down and pulled the blanket over her before kissing her forehead goodnight. "Love ya." he whispered before standing up and turning around only to see a bunch of eyes on him.
"What?" he questioned.
"It's just when we first met I never thought I'd see you do something like that in a million years." Glenn confessed with a laugh.
Daryl just rolled his eyes when he noticed a missing face. And after the conversation the other night and the one this afternoon over her guilt about being around the group when she's done the things she's done, his stomach fell when he realized she may have taken off.
Carol.
