A/N: I do not own The Walking Dead or any of it's characters in any way, shape or form.

TRIGGER ALERT: While not in every chapter there are chapters that mention rape and/or abuse.

The song in this chapter is Stand By Me by Skylar Grey

Chapter 18

Adrian had kept her arm around Carl until they made it outside. She seen Hershel and Beth locked in across the yard, and she was so thankful that they had managed to get to safety. Daryl, Glenn, Rick, Axel, and Oscar were standing in the yard. Rick had been saying something but had went silent when the baby let out a cry.

Maggie was still clutching the baby to her chest as she pushed the door open enough for them to walk into the courtyard, the three still in shock from what had just happened. Everyone turned to look at them, a mix of surprise and shock written on all of their faces. Adrian was sure they all looked a sight.

Tears stained all of their faces, Maggie and Adrian's hands covered in bright red blood that had started to dry. Adrian could see Rick's fearful eyes dart around, looking for Lori, not wanting to accept the possibility that the wife he had spent so long hating wasn't going to make an appearance. Maggie kept trying to speak but kept failing, only making the tiniest sounds before swallowing her grief.

Rick stumbled toward them, the axe he had been gripping in his hand just moments ago slipping to the ground with a clatter. "Where...Where is she?" Rick asked looking between Adrian and Maggie. Maggie was trying hard to hold her sobs in but Adrian had long since stopped trying to keep her tears and grief at bay. Maggie couldn't form words still so he looked at her, hoping her answer would be different from what he feared it would be.

"She didn't...She didn't..." was all Adrian could get out before she started crying. Rick's face crumbled at her unfinished sentence, his worst fear realized. Lori was dead. Adrian didn't know when Daryl had walked up to her, hadn't even seen him move from his spot from across the yard, but she was glad he was there. Daryl wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in tight, and it was that embrace that broke what little resolve she had left.

She buried her face into Daryl's neck, wrapped her arms tightly around him and fisted her hands into the back of his shirt before she started sobbing. She could faintly hear Maggie crying and the wails of Rick's grief. She knew that Glenn would try to comfort Maggie but she doubted that anyone was trying to comfort Rick. She wished she could pull herself together enough to go to the man but she knew that if she let go of Daryl that she wouldn't be able to stand on her own, much less be able to offer Rick any sort of comfort.

She knew in the back of her mind that nothing any of them said would give him any kind of relief. She had remembered the pain and grief she had felt after Seth, and she had gotten to say goodbye. Rick didn't get that kind of closure and Adrian could only imagine how Rick was going to handle the sudden death of his wife after everything that had happened over the last 8 months. Adrian managed to calm down a bit, not needing to hold onto Daryl so tightly, when she heard the baby start to cry.

Adrian pulled away to see Rick had gone silent, the shock now written on his face explaining his sudden silence. Daryl started to pull away from her, looking between her and Rick and Adrian looked at him to let him know that he should go check on their grief-stricken friend. Adrian walked over to Carl to gently take the baby from him. He had been holding her fine, but Adrian needed something to focus on other that Lori's death at the moment and the wailing baby was the perfect excuse.

"Let me see the baby." Hershel called to her.

"What we gonna feed it? We got anything a baby can eat?" Daryl asked as he walked to Hershel before she had gotten there with her. Hershel pulled Carl's shirt open and quickly examined the baby.

"The good news is she's healthy. But she needs formula, and soon, or she won't survive." Hershel told them.

"Nope. Not her. We ain't losin' nobody else. I'm gonna go for a run." Daryl stated as he slung his crossbow across his back.

"I'll go with you." Glenn told him quickly.

"Me too." Maggie said, her voice surprisingly steady.

"Yall think about where we're gonna go." he told them as he gently grabbed Beth's arm and pulled her aside. "Kid just lost him mom, his dad ain't doin' so hot." Daryl told her. "I'll look out for him." Beth reassured him. He nodded to her before he stepped over to Adrian and pulled her aside as well.

"You gonna be alright while I'm gone?" he asked her, his hand on her shoulder. "I'm just going to focus on her for now. If I don't do something to keep me moving I'm going to want to just curl up in a cell and cry until I can't anymore. So you do your job to bring back what this baby needs to keep living and I'll keep her safe and alive until you get back." she told him, tears still streaming down her face and her voice cracking slightly.

Daryl could see in her eyes that it was sheer willpower keeping her together right now and he hated to leave her like this, but they were both in agreement that finding formula for the baby was the most important thing right now. They had already lost three people today and he would be damned if they lost that baby too. "Go." she whispered, her chin trembling as she tried to keep it together. Daryl nodded as he turned and ran toward the cars they had lined up.

Adrian kept her eyes on Daryl and Maggie until they were out of sight before she turned and saw the mixed emotions on everyone's faces, sadness and worry were the most prominent. Rick was nowhere to be seen and she could only imagine what had happened to him. The baby let out a short but loud cry and Adrian looked down at her. She knew the first order of business as she looked down at the baby.

"Beth, get some water heated, but just barely. Be sure to check the temp of the water on your wrist, we need to get her cleaned up and dressed. Hopefully they'll be back soon." Adrian told the young blond who ran off to do as she was told. Adrian looked at Hershel and seen he was looking at her as well, his blue eyes filled with sadness.

"Was there anyone else besides...Lori?" she asked hesitantly.

"Carol and T-Dog. He was bit closing the gate before he and Carol disappeared into the prison. Rick and the others found T-Dog's body, but not Carol's." he told her.

"Was he a...did T...?" she could bare to finish the question but Hershel understood what she was trying to ask.

"No, he hadn't turned yet." he told her.

Adrian nodded at the information, glad for that small mercy at least.

"And Lori?" he asked her.

She knew what he was really asking.

"She was brave. She knew what had to be done for her baby to live and she refused to let us back down. She was brave until the very end." she told him, hot tears scolding her face as her voice cracked.

Adrian looked to see Oscar and Axel standing off to the side, looking as out of place as they probably felt.

"I see you two weren't kicked out. I'm glad." she told them, needing a change of topic.

"It was Andrew. He came back, opened the gate to let them freaks loose and turned on the alarms." Axel told her.

"He tried to kill Rick but I killed him instead." Oscar said.

"Well, I can't say that I'm sad to see that fucker gone for good. Thank you, for saving Rick and helping us." she told them before she turned and walked inside.

Beth was waiting for Adrian when she walked inside, a bowl of lukewarm water and a clean rag waiting on one of the tables. Beth helped Adrian clean and dress the baby and by the tiny girl's loud shrieks, she wasn't a fan of her first bath. Once the infant was cleaned and dressed Adrian took her and cradled her in her arms and attempted to sing to her. It worked a little bit, Adrian's voice broke often from her attempts to push back her emotions.

It took at least an hour before Adrian's voice was steady enough for the baby to recognize and calm down some but soon after she became inconsolable, most likely from hunger. It broke them all to have to listen to her scream because she was hungry but there was literally nothing any of them could do until Maggie and Daryl got back, and they all prayed that they came back with formula.

The others wanted to hold the baby as they all waited but Adrian refused to give up the baby no matter what anyone said. Holding and singing to the baby was the only thing that was keeping the memories as bay, both the fresh and the old ones. Adrian knew it wasn't healthy to cling so tightly to the baby so she could keep it together but the only other person she wanted at the moment was risking his life to help save the life of the little girl in her arms.

It was after dark before Maggie and Daryl ran in, Maggie calling for Beth as she pulled out a few cans of formula and a few bottles. Daryl walked over to her and she looked up at him, feeling a bit more steady as she looked into his clear blue eyes, even in the darkness of the room. "Let me see her." Daryl told her. He softly took hold of the baby and gently pulled the baby from her arms, a feat none of the others had been able to manage. Adrian didn't know what had compelled her to let Daryl have the baby when she had refused the others, but she had a feeling that it was probably because it was him.

The baby's cries quietened slightly as Daryl held her, talking to her softly, and Adrian was pretty sure the heart's of everyone in the room melted at seeing their once surly and distant friend cradling a newborn baby as if she were made of glass. Beth gave him the full bottle and, with a tiny bit of encouragement, got the baby to start suckling the bottle, finally able to feed her hunger. Daryl looked up in bashful joy to see everyone looking at him as he fed the newest member of their group.

"I think I just felt my ovaries explode watching that man handle that baby." she muttered to Maggie.

She seen Maggie's slight smile widen at the red head's words. And then what little joy they had all found in watching Daryl with the baby was crushed into dust.

"She got a name yet?" Daryl asked Carl.

"Not yet. I was thinking maybe...Sophia." he replied quietly. "Then there's Andrea. Amy. Jackie. Patricia. Carol. Or maybe...Lori, I don't know." Carl said, the long list of lost members depressing everyone.

Daryl then looked down at the baby and melted everyone heart's again. "You like that, huh? You like that, Little Ass Kicker?" he said before looking up at everyone grinning. "Right? Little Ass Kicker." he told everyone, making them all chuckle.

TWD

She didn't want to be there.

Not again.

Never again.

Anywhere but the boiler room.

Even as her mind screamed no, Adrian's body walked further into the room, toward the voices in the room. She finally made it to the voices and felt her heart seize. There they were, Maggie, Carl, Lori, and herself all on the floor. Lori said her tearful and heartfelt goodbye to her son before Adrian forced him from that side of the room.

Lori then turned to her and Maggie and spoke. She could hear their voices, but not the actual words, not that she needed to hear them to know what was said. Then Maggie whispered "I'm sorry" before she made the first deep cut on Lori's abdomen, causing Lori to scream a bloodcurdling scream. She watched in numb horror as she and Maggie worked together to save the baby as they killed their friend. Movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention and she turned to see Carl had stepped out from around the corner, watching as she and Maggie cut and pulled at his mother's stomach to free his sibling.

Adrian didn't know if Carl had actually watched them without their knowing or if this was just some sick and twisted thing that her mind had cooked up but it tore at her gut either way. She prayed to every God she knew that Carl hadn't seen them butcher his mother to save his sister. All she could do was look between Carl and Lori and say "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry" repeatedly as tears flowed hot rivers down her face.

Daryl woke the next morning to see the sun barely up and to find that he was alone in his bed. He looked around to see that Adrian wasn't out in the open of the cell block, so he got up to have a more thorough look around. He checked all of the cells in the block and in the common area but she was no where to be found. He couldn't honestly say that he was surprised that she was awake so early but he was surprised that she had managed to sneak away without waking him.

He had woken in the middle of the night to feel Adrian moving around restlessly. He opened his eyes and turned to look at her in the dim light of the moon from the windows. Her hair was a tangled mess from her moving around so much, he could see the tears falling from her eyes as she repeated "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry" over and over again. His first instinct was to jerk her awake and out of her nightmare, but he knew that if he did that that she'd likely never fall back asleep. So instead he gathered her into his arms and whispered soothing words into her ear, hoping he was reaching her in whatever nightmare she was having.

It took a while but she eventually settled down and once Daryl had been satisfied that she would be okay for the rest of the night, he fell back asleep. But when he woke up to find himself alone in bed, he knew she wasn't okay. He didn't know where she was but he knew that wherever it was that it was a safe place. She wanted solitude so the last place she would go right now would be into the deadly tunnels of the prison, unlike Rick who had ran in with his axe and had only been seen twice since Adrian, Maggie, and Carl walked out of the prison with Ass Kicker.

Adrian would come out of hiding when she was ready so Daryl decided to run a small errand before their day started. He quietly walked outside into the courtyard to see all of the bodies that had yet to be cleaned up from the day before. He walked over to the gate that separated the yard from the field and spotted his missing red head. She was sitting in the middle of the field, looking out toward the creek.

He thought about letting her be until he got back because she clearly wanted to be alone or else she would've stayed inside with him, but then thought against it. He would check on her, even if she didn't say anything to him, he at least wanted her to know that he was there for her when she was ready. He walked up to her, being sure to make noise as he walked so he didn't scare her, and stopped beside her. Her face was a little paler than usual and he could see the tear tracks on her face but he said nothing. He pressed his leg against her shoulder before he placed his hand on the side of her head and pulled her head against his leg, which she willingly did.

"Goin' on a quick errand, wanna come?" he asked her softly.

"No. I just wanna sit here for a while." she whispered.

If he was going to be honest with himself, he hadn't expected her to answer his question, verbally or otherwise. He felt a small measure of relief that she wasn't so deep into a depression that she refused to speak. They hadn't lost anyone since the farm, and once her deep depression had set in she had refused to speak to anyone for days. The losses were hard on all of them, especially Rick and Carl who had lost a wife and mother, but none of them had watched any of the friends they had just lost die.

Maggie, Adrian, and Carl had been there for Lori but if he knew anything about Adrian when it came to Carl it was that her maternal instinct would've kicked in with the boy and she would've done whatever she could to keep him from watching his mother die. Maggie and Adrian hadn't been so lucky because they were the ones that had been covered in red blood when they had all walked out with the baby.

"A'ight. I'll be back soon." he told her, looking down her head pressed against his leg as he ran his fingers through her tangled hair. He had discovered early on that his woman liked being petted, whether it was her hair or her body. She lean into his touches, sometimes even stretching and moaning at the feel of his hands but he didn't do it often because no matter how far they had come in their short time together, him showing her unconditional affection was still something he was trying to work up to even though she had no problem whatsoever showing him any kind of affection.

"Okay." he barely heard her whisper. He petted her hair one last time before he turned and made his way toward the front gate. He unlocked and relocked the gates he needed until he got to the hold in the fence they had made. He re-secured the wire after he was on the outside of the fence and made his way into the woods to find what he was looking for.

He didn't know how long he had been gone but it hadn't been long because the sun hadn't moved far in the sky from when he had left. He seen that Adrian was still in the field, only she was laying on her side this time, whether she was sleeping or just laying there awake he wasn't sure. He made his way over to the freshly dug graves and stopped before Carol's before he pulled something from the inside pocket of his vest and gently placed it inside a small circles of stones. He touched the wooden cross to mark the grave, saying goodbye, before he stood up and walked over to Adrian. He didn't say anything as he sat beside her, leaning back on his hands as he stretched out his legs. He took a quick peek at her face to see that she was indeed still awake. He heard Adrian move beside him before he felt her lay her head on top of his leg, using it as a pillow. He reached inside his vest once more and lowered the object until it was in her line of sight. She reached out and gently took it from his fingers.

"Cherokee Rose." she whispered as she twirled the flower in between her fingers.

"You've never given me one before. Why now?" she asked him.

"Just seemed right. Last time I went lookin' for 'em was when Sophia was missin' and after the farm I knew no flower in the world was gonna help you feel better after loosin' the kid." he told her as he started to pet her tangled hair again.

They were quiet for a few minutes before she spoke.

"I wish we had never come to this place." she whispered.

"What?" he asked, confused why she would say that.

"We may have food and shelter and fences now but out there we were together, all of us. We had two whole nights of peace in this damn place before everything went to shit. First Hershel gets bit and Rick's forced to chop off his leg to save his life. Then a man who had survived 10 months here was brutally murdered by one of his own before that same man tried to kill Rick twice in a span of minutes. Then one of the prisoners who we thought was dead came back and his actions killed three of our own. T-Dog. Carol. Lori." she told him.

"Lori died so Ass Kicker could live. If ya hadn't done what yall did they both would'a died." Daryl told her.

"True as that may be, it was Andrew's actions that drove us to hide in that boiler room. Forced us to have to..." she trailed off.

She didn't finish her sentence but he felt the grip she had on his pants tighten at just the thought.

"Is that what you was dreamin' about last night?" he asked her. She didn't say anything to confirm nor deny his question but he felt her body stiffen and knew he was right. "You were talkin' in your sleep last night. Kept sayin' you were sorry." he told her.

"It's what she wanted, Adrian. She loved Lil Ass Kicker and did what she had to do so that her baby could live. Any mom who gives a damn about their kid would'a done the same thing." he told her, trying to reassure her guilty mind.

"I know. I understand why she did it, hell, if I had been in her situation I would've done the same thing. We knew what we were going to have to do when we realized that Lori couldn't deliver the baby, but actually doing it...it was so much worse than I had imagined." she told him.

"She made me promise to help look after them. Rick, Carl, and the baby." she told him after a few silent minutes.

"We'll all help take care of 'em. It's what we do, but she knew that you'd do right by 'em all." he told her.

They had all seen how Adrian was with Carl, and even Ass Kicker before she had been born, so he could understand why Lori had wanted Adrian to watch over the family she was leaving behind.

They didn't speak anymore, content to sit in the silence, before finally making their way inside to plan the rest of their day.

TWD

Everyone was jerked out of their sleep by a loud sudden scream echoing throughout the cell block. Glenn, Maggie, Carl, and Oscar instantly reached for their closest weapons at the scream, while Hershel, Axel, and Beth looked around their cells for the reason for the scream. Beth rolled out of her bed to soothe the now screaming baby. Daryl had jerked awake at Adrian's piercing scream, his heart racing as he looked for the reason for the scream, but found nothing in the darkness of their sleeping quarters.

He turned to see Adrian sitting up, her hands covering her face, her chest rising and falling quickly at her rapid breathing. Adrian stood up from their mattress and started down the staircase without a word to anyone. After the fog of her nightmare had cleared Adrian could clearly hear the cries of the baby and decided to help Beth out since she had been the one to wake everyone up in the middle of the night.

"I'll take her, Beth. You get some more sleep." she told the young her, holding her arms out for the crying baby and bottle Beth had just fixed.

"I can do it, it's okay." Beth told her.

"I'm the one who woke her, and everyone else, up. I'm not going back to sleep any time soon so I'll take care of her while you get some more sleep." Adrian insisted. Beth nodded as she handed over both the baby and the bottle.

Adrian cradled the now whimpering infant in her arms before she nudged the nipple of the bottle against the baby's lips to see if she wanted the bottle, which she did.

"There we go sweet girl. Is that better? How about a song to help you go back to sleep, huh? Would you like that?" Adrian cooed at the girl. Adrian felt the girl kick one of her feet and she gave a small grin, taking the girl's action as an answer to her questions. "A song it is." she told her

When the night has come

And the land is dark

And the moon is the only light we'll see

No, I won't be afraid

No, I won't be afraid

Just as long as you stand

Stand by me

So darlin', darlin'

Stand by me, oh, stand by me

Oh, stand, stand by me

Stand by me

If the sky that we look upon

Should tumble and fall

Or the mountain should crumble into the sea

I won't cry, I won't cry

No, I won't shed a tear

Just as long as you stand

Stand by me

So darlin', darlin'

Stand by me, oh, stand by me

Oh, stand now, stand by me

Stand by me

Whenever you're in trouble, won't you stand by me?

Oh, stand by me

Oh, stand now, stand by me

Stand by me

Everyone had fallen back asleep before Adrian had finished singing.

She had managed to catch a few more hours of sleep before the sun rose into the sky but she didn't sleep in, despite having been up for a while in the middle of the night. Adrian knew that she needed to keep herself busy that day or risk being drowned by her guilt and memories and had decided on doing the hardest task she could think of.

Laundry.

Before doing laundry was a breeze. Need something clean for the next day? Just throw it in the washer with a little detergent and start the machine before transferring it to the dryer and you had clean clothes in almost no time at all.

Adrian hadn't minded laundry days before, but now, she hated laundry days. She had always felt sorry for the older generations that had had to go without modern day comforts, such as A/C's and heaters, washers and dryer's, and indoor plumbing. But now that she was having to go without a lot of the same things that they had, she realized just how much they had taken electricity for granted.

But while the task of laundry was much more labor intensive than it used to be, Adrian had never been more thankful for all of the work that went into getting the clothes cleaned and dried. She waited until a simple breakfast of oatmeal had been made before she had told everyone to change into their least dirty clothes and then bring her all of their laundry so she could clean them. Maggie and Glenn had offered to help her with the chore but she had told them all that she needed to do it on her own.

Adrian had put all of their largest pots onto the stove to boil, all the pots filled with water from a rain water barrel they had found outside. Then she asked Daryl and Oscar to go to the laundry room and help her gather the supplies she could need, detergent and maybe some basin's for her to use to wash and rinse the clothes out. Thankfully they had found everything she had needed and had run into little trouble in the halls.

Once she had brought all of her supplies outside to the courtyard, she enlisted the help of Glenn and Axel to help carry the water outside and Maggie and Beth helped her take all of the clothes out. Everyone had laughed when they had heard the conversation between Adrian and Daryl when she went to collect his clothes.

"I already gave ya my clothes, now leave me the hell alone." Daryl had grumbled as he walked into the common area where everyone was sitting, Hershel looking up from the baby girl he was feeding.

"My ass you gave me all of your clothes. I know how much laundry you own, you damn hillbilly, and you gave me maybe half of it. It's laundry day, which means all dirty laundry hits the pile and I can name at least three sets of clothes that are missing." she told him as she stalked after him.

"I'm busy, I ain't goin' in there to change and get clothes just cause you're feelin' an itch to wash clothes." he told her, annoyed that she was chasing him around instead of just getting the clothes herself.

"Yeah, you're busy alright. Busy running away from me. It's not like I'm forcing you into a bath, because heaven forbid you actually wash a little of that dirt off your body. I can't even remember what your natural skin tone is. And if you don't go change into some cleaner clothes so I can wash the ones you're wearing, I swear to God Daryl Dixon, I will leave you naked in one of those cells. If you wear those clothes much longer, they're going to become sentient and run away on their own." she threatened him.

Daryl stopped walking away from her and turned to look at her. Any other day he would've taken her words as a joke but he could tell from the determined look in her eyes that she was serious.

Daryl narrowed his eyes, as if thinking of challenging her threat.

Adrian only raised an eyebrow in response to his glare, daring him to challenge her.

They held their starring contest for a long few minutes before Daryl caved and stormed back into the cell block, swearing up a blue streak that had even Oscar and Axel blushing.

It had taken Adrian a large portion of the day to get all of the laundry cleaned to her satisfaction before she laid them out to dry in the sun, placing the clothes wherever she could find a somewhat clean, flat surface. She was feeling extremely tired and sore after her self-imposed chore and had went inside to grab a bite of whatever was left from lunch and to catch a nap with Ass Kicker while the laundry dried.

Adrian was woken up a few hours later by Oscar, having asked the large man to wake her because, unlike the others who would just let her sleep as long as she wanted, she knew the man wouldn't be afraid to wake her from her sleep and would also do as she asked. Oscar had let her sleep until dinner time, which was perfect since she was starving, and they both walked into the common area only for Adrian to jerk to a halt when her eyes found an unfamiliar sight.

Rick was there. His clothes were clean, his hair slightly damp, probably from having washed up somewhere since he had been somewhere deep in the prison for the last few days, only coming out a few times to check on everyone except the baby. Which was why she was so surprised to suddenly see Rick sitting at a table with Hershel and Carl, holding Ass Kicker in his arms. She didn't know what had changed for Rick to suddenly be holding his daughter and looking at her with love in his eyes, but Adrian was thankful for it.

Beth and Maggie had made everyone a meal of ramen noodles and no one had ever thought they'd be so happy to see the cheap food, much less eating it. After Adrian finished her bowl she stood up to go outside, only to be stopped by Beth who had told her that she had already collected the dried clothes and given everyone their laundry back. Adrian thanked the younger woman and decided to pay her back by helping with cleaning up the dinner dishes.

After the dinner dishes had been washed and put away everyone decided to light a few lanterns and visit for a while before they retired to their beds for the night. They all told stories, of good times from before and after, Adrian and Beth sang songs and some people even got up to dance to some of them, and Adrian even managed to sing Ass Kicker to sleep, who had refused to sleep through all of the excitement going on around her and had gotten rather cranky having stayed up past her bed time. Everyone had gone to bed in much happier spirits than when they had all woken up that morning.

Adrian had laid down with Daryl when he had gone to bed, but she wasn't tired so she just laid with him until she had felt him fall asleep. Adrian stayed on the mattress with him for a while after he had fallen asleep, finally coming to a decision. She untangled herself from Daryl and crawled out of their bed with all of the stealth of a thief in the night. She lightly walked to the cell directly in front of the perch and walked inside. All of her things were still inside the cell where she had put them days before after they had cleared the cell block, so she threw a pillow and a thin throw blanket onto the bottom bunk before she crawled in and waited until she fell asleep.

TWD

She could see the finish line and it had never looked so far away. She and Seth were in her SUV, having packed their things and the car with all of the grace of a raging tornado. She had been keeping a close eye on the news ever since the first confirmed cases of the dead coming back to life. She had finally made the decision that it was time to get the hell out of Atlanta and to her uncle's cabin, but she had made the decision far too late.

They were lucky they had made it so far in the car because it was utter chaos outside. Random businesses and houses were on fire, people were running through the streets, some were being chased by those horrible creatures that were intent on eating the people alive, others were chasing down the creatures and killing them with whatever weapon they had that could do the job. Bodies and trash littered the streets, most of the bodies were dead, and she tried to avoid driving over any of the bodies but sometimes it was unavoidable.

Three miles, that's how far they were from being out of the city. So close but so far away. Seth leaned forward in his seat and looked up toward the sky.

"Are those helicopters?" he asked her.

"I don't know, Seth, I can't look right now." she told him, a slight tremble in her voice.

Suddenly, a loud explosion sounded behind them, the noise startling her so badly that she jerked the wheel to the right, and barely had time to make a sound before the front of her car crashed into a street lamp.

The sudden stop was jarring and it took her a few seconds to get her bearings. Something caught her eye in her rearview mirror, a color that was unusual to see in the mirror. When she finally understood what it was, she turned around with a gasp, her eyes widening in horror and her mouth hanging open in disbelief. It was as she turned around that another explosion was heard farther behind them. And then another and another.

'They're bombing the city!' she thought to herself before she heard Seth gasp beside her. She turned from the raging fires the bombs had caused to see her son's pale face looking out the back window. When he turned his frightened eyes to her was when she felt something snap inside of her. She had no time to be scared, her one and only mission right now was to get her son out of the city, safe and alive.

"We're going on foot from here. We only take what we can carry but make sure it's only the important stuff because we have a long way to go before we get to the cabin." she told him as she unbuckled her seatbelt. Seth nodded his head in understanding, too scared to trust his voice to work correctly. She got out first, quickly grabbing the gun that had fallen to the floor under feet and tucked it into the back of her pants. She ran to the back of the car and pulled the back hatch open as fast as she could before she started looking into bags she didn't know the content of, throwing the important ones onto the ground beside her.

"MOM!" she heard Seth scream.

Her heart stopped at the sound before she ran around the car, her heart stopping again as she pulled the gun from the back of her pants and raised her weapon.

"NO!" she screamed as she fired the gun.

"NO!" she screamed, her eyes flying open as her scream echoed throughout the darkened cell block. Adrian could still hear the gunshot echoing in her head, her heartbeat and gasping breaths were loud in her ears. She could feel the hot tears streaming down her face and she knew they weren't likely to stop anytime soon. She sat up and pressed her back against the cold concrete wall behind her, pulling her knees up to her chest she buried her face into her knees, and tightly wrapped her arms around her legs, making herself as small as possible.

Daryl, along with everyone else in the group, was violently jerked awake by the sound of a bloodcurdling scream echoing in the block. He could hear Ass Kicker crying in displeasure at being woken so suddenly and could hear some of the others asking what was going on. But Daryl, being so close to the source of the scream, could hear Adrian's quiet sobs and gasping breaths from where he was laying on their bed. He quickly got up from the mattress and walked over to the cell that Adrian was in.

He didn't even know why she was in the cell to begin with, she had been beside him when he'd fallen asleep, but he could guess that she'd moved for this very reason, hoping her nightmares wouldn't wake him if she wasn't beside him for him to feel her jerking around. He pulled a small flashlight from his pocket and clicked it on, and his heart broke at what he saw.

Adrian was curled into a tight ball on the bottom bed, slightly rocking back and forth, her gasping breaths and quiet sobs even louder from where he was standing. He hadn't seen her this bad in more than 6 months, and if he was being honest, he had hoped never to see her like that again. Adrian was a strong woman, she'd known the world around them was changing and she'd changed as well to adapt to her new surroundings. She was a kind and loving woman who loved to make those around her as happy as she could, but for the darkness from her past to tear her down like this, it truly tore at his heart.

He stepped inside and sat on the edge of the bed, keeping his light on so he could see.

"Adrian." he called out softly as he gently put his hand on her leg, the touch startling her so bad that she jerked and the crying stopped.

"Adrian." he said again, hoping to get an answer this time.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake everyone up again." she told him, her words muffled from her face being buried so deeply.

"It's alright. We all have 'em." he told her reassuringly.

She was quiet for a long time before she slowly pulled her head from her lap. He could see her face wet from her tears, tears that were still flowing down her face, her face was pale, and her eyes were still haunted from whatever nightmare she had woken from. Daryl said nothing, waiting as her breathing calmed and her tears stopped. She finally looked at him, clearer than when she had lifted her head, but there was still a deep sadness in her eyes. Whatever it was she had dreamt of, it wasn't likely to go away anytime soon.

She finally uncurled herself from the tight ball she was in and slid forward until she was sitting beside him on the edge of the bed. She folded her hands together in her lap and starred at them as she came to a decision she was sure no one was going to like, but after three straight nights of nightmares, two of which she woke up screaming from, but she didn't really care at the moment.

"Tomorrow I'm packing my stuff and moving to D Block. I won't stay there all the time, I'll come back during the day and be here with everyone, but at night I want to be locked into D Block so I won't keep waking everyone up." she told him, her eyes firmly on her hands as she said this.

Daryl was quiet for a moment, processing what she'd just told him, before he snapped out of it.

"No. You ain't goin' over there, especially by yourself. The nightmares'll stop, we just gotta wait 'em out." he told her.

He refused to lock his girlfriend into another section of the prison every night, and he'd shoot anybody else who tried when he refused.

"And how long until the nightmares stop, Daryl? I can't keep screaming everyone awake in the middle of the night. It'll start taking it's toll on everyone eventually, and I especially can't keep waking the baby up like this. I can't keep doing this to everyone, they don't deserve it." she told him.

"So what, you're just gonna separate yourself from everybody every night 'til the nightmares go away?" he asked, glaring at her.

"Yes." she told him, still not looking at him.

"And what if they don't go away? Then what?" he snapped at her.

"I don't know, Daryl." she sighed in defeat.

Adrian could hear Daryl open his mouth, wanting to talk her out of her decision but she didn't have the energy to fight with him, so she stood up from the bed, cutting off whatever he'd been about to say.

"You may not like it Daryl, but it's what's going to happen. It's my decision and nothing you say right now is going to change my mind." she said. "I'm going to get the baby. I'm not going to sleep any time soon and Beth needs the sleep." she told him before she quickly walked away.