Chapter 9

He'd speared himself on his own bolt through his left flank. He was breathing ok, so I don't think he got his lung or anything else important. I was moving a little closer to see how injured he was, when he bolted off the ground and came right at me.

BPOV

He plowed into me so hard it knocked the air out of me when I hit the ground. I wasn't expecting a man that injured to move like that; I didn't have any time to evade or counter besides making sure I didn't break any thing when I landed. We went down in the mud hard. I started to try and flip him over, but the mud was suctioning me down. He had me pinned good, using all his weight to hold me and had a hold of both my wrist. Stupid Bella for underestimating your opponent.. damn it, I guess this is what Alice meant by a "rough start" I couldn't even roll my torso because of the mud, so I did the only thing I really had left and head butted his ass. He groaned out but other than didn't let up at all, if anything he seemed to get heavier. He was heavy as fuck and didn't seem to feel any of the pain he should be in from his wound. I could hear Sofia yelling at him to stop as he moved his fore arm under my chin keeping my head back while still holding my wrist. I was unable to breathe well and started to panic. If I had been paying attention, I would've noticed he wasn't really fighting back, just trying to contain me. I looked over to Sofia and saw a walker coming up behind her. It groaned out and she turned, pulling her knife as she did. The last thing I saw before things went black was her kicking out its knee and putting a knife through its skull; I'm sure I went out with smile on my face as she killed her first zombie.

DPOV

This girl just head butted my ass, prolly busted my brow too, so I moved my arm to keep her from doing it again. She was stuck in the mud good but never stopped thrash'n round; every once in a while pushing on the bolt lodged in my side. Hurt like a bitch too. I could hear Sofia screaming at me to stop but damn, I'd seen this broad hold'n her in a head lock and Sofia kick'n her little legs trying to get away. I would'a killed her but that damn horse threw my ass right as I was take'n my shot; bitch was lucky. Ain't nobody fuck'n with kids like that while I'm round. Right as the broad went limp in my hold somethin' fell on my legs; turns out it was a walker. My eyes musta been big as half dollars at the sight of little Sofia standing there with walker gunk dripp'n off her knife. Lett'n go of the girl in the mud, I kicked off the walker try'n to get up, and Sofia comes to her knees screaming at me "Why did you do that? Did you kill her?!" She was touch'n the other girls face try'n ta wipe some of the mud off. "Naw girl, she just passed out. What the hell 'ya care for anyway, when I came round the bend up there she was choken ya." I asked, really puzzled. I thought she'd be glad I came ta save her. "We were just practicing Mr. Daryl, she's been teaching me lots of stuff. Like hunting and how to find my way around the woods. She gave me this knife and has been keeping me safe for the last few days… you didn't hurt her, did you?" She asked me on the verge of tears.

Damn, I misread that situation badly. I ain't no good with no tears neither, "She should be alright when she wakes up girl, where the hell you've been for da past few days?" I said try'n ta keep her from cry'n. I don't think I hurt the women too bad, didn't hear noth'n snap when we went down; little shit can't be more than five foot somethin' try'n ta whoop my ass. I didn't wanna admit that if it weren't for all that mud, an' with me bein injured, she prolly coulda done it too. Sofia was try'n to pull the broad outta her mud hole so I went over 'n helped drag her ass out the best I could with the bolt stuck in me. "She found me running from the walkers. I waited like Mr. Rick said, I did! But one of the walkers came too close and I ran away. I fell in the creek and started running. I don't know how long I ran, but when she found me there was three of them chasing me. She killed all of them. She always gave me a choice and didn't make me do anything I didn't want to. We went back to the highway to find ya'll but some men showed up. They are bad people Mr. Daryl, they wanted some more women for their camp. I almost ran out when one started calling my name but she saved me. She climbed a tree and saw the message but there wasn't a way for us to leave one back without them knowing, they were going to come back that way after going into town. So we decided to look for ya'll. Yesterday we searched northwest from the house, and went to some houses to get me some more clothes since my other ones were growing mold on them. I got a bad rash from it, but she knew what to do. She's an EMT, isn't that neat? She's been showing me plants I can eat and I skinned my own rabbit this morning! This is the first walker I ever killed! She even put a pack together for me, I got my own clothes, medical stuff, food and some soap! She's probably going to be upset when she gets up, we just took a bath Mr. Daryl." Sofia said goin on and on.

She sure was pretty, even covered in all that mud. My ears burned hot at tha thought of her take'n another bath. I shook that thought away, wincing at the grow'n pain in my head. I leaned against a tree and slid down, try'n figure out what ta do bout the bolt in my side. I couldn't reach round back to pull it out right. I felt the blood runn'n down into my jeans. I didn't know what we was gunna do if tha walkers showed up with just Sofia standing upright. The chick started cry'n in her sleep, talk'n too; "Sorry… Alice" was all I could make out. Then she started groan'n and comin to.

BPOV

My body hurt, and my head was throbbing. O yea, head butting that guy was probably not my best idea but I was trapped. I knew I wasn't in the mud anymore and thought back to Sofia killing that walker. SOFIA! I shot up and looked around and found her close to me, kneeling on the ground. My head protested the fast movement as my vision got a little blurry for a moment. The guy, Daryl, was leaning up against the tree looking a little pale from blood loss I'm guessing. I figured Sofia spilled the beans about every thing since he wasn't attacking me anymore. I got up slowly and made my way to my pack, pulling out my medical kit. Stopping at the creek to wash my hands; I went over to him slowly, making eye contact before I got too close to make sure he wasn't going to attack me again, and knelt down. I started to open my kit when he said "Don't worry bout it, I'm fine" in a rough voice. "Oh you're fine are you? Nice accessory you have there, are you starting to feel a little woosy from blood loss? Yeah that's what I thought. You're lucky you didn't puncture a lung. So sit back and let me patch you up so we can take Sofia back." I snapped at him. He surprisingly stayed silent after that. I had him lean forward so I could slide the bolt of quickly the way it went in. If he would've yanked it out, there's no telling how much damage the vanes would've caused coming out. I applied pressure to both sides of the wound as soon as it was free. I went to lift his shirt to clean it and see if he needed stiches when he grabbed my wrist giving me a hard look. "I need to clean it and make sure you didn't nick anything important and bleed out on us. I was certified to be an EMT you know. I'm just trying to fix it up and see if you need any stiches" I stated firmly. He finally let go of my wrist and turned his head away from me. The wounds on his face weren't bad but he had bleed a lot leaving trails of blood all down his face, a face with the most beautiful piercing blue eyes I had ever seen.

I lifted his shirt and holy shit! What a six pack that was or was it an 8 pack, rock hard muscle leading to the very, very well defined v of his hips… Damn. Snap out of it Bella, control your virgin ass and don't drool on your patient. Plus this guy had you pinned down to the ground not even an hour ago; a fight you actually lost, the first one in a long time. Don't let him know you think he's attractive too… My face burned from how red it probably was and I was thankful he was looking elsewhere. The front was ripped up pretty bad and would need a few stiches. I cleaned the area while making sure he wasn't loosing too much blood. I went ahead and had him lean back more against the tree so I could do the stitches. As he leaned forward for me to do the back, he seemed to tense up; after I lifted his shirt I saw why he was so hesitant. He had criss cross scars all over his back. It looked like he had been whipped, healed up and then whipped again. I went ahead and got to work on his wound instead of drawing attention to them. I could tell they happened while he was younger, the scars were aged and the skin slightly puckered from stretching around them. I felt terrible for a child to have been treated that way, but I'm sure he didn't want to talk about them at all, like ever. So once I was done and he was all bandaged up, I placed his shirt back how it was. He still wouldn't look at me as he got up slowly and made his way to retrieve his cross bow from a few feet away. I went over and started collecting my things, smiling at Sofia as I did. She came up to me and gave me a hug and I patted her back. She must be so happy and ready to see her family.

I picked up my bow only to drop it again when I was suddenly pushed back up against a tree. "Where the fuck is Merle?! What did you do to 'em?!" He yelled at me. This shit was starting to piss me the fuck off. "Who the Fuck is Merle?" I yelled back. Sofia looked nervous standing off to the side and I didn't like it. I didn't want to fight him and rip the stitches I just sewed him up with, but he's not going to keep shoving me around. "He was in Atlanta, I know you was there, I found 'ur arrow on the roof" He said a little more quietly but no less angry. Aw, handcuff guy, apparently named Merle, is Daryl's brother. So I told him the simple story, leaving out all the Alice stuff, "I shot a key over from the other rooftop after your group left him there with a fucking saw by his feet. He probably would've cut off his hand to get free if I hadn't, so your welcome you ass! I high tailed it out of there after that; I didn't wait around to see where he went. Have you not met people in the apocalypse?! I wasn't about to wait for him to come and find me and take me where ever he wanted. Not that I'm saying he would have but I wasn't going to wait around and find out!" I stated angrily but quietly. He seemed to realize he was still restraining me and dropped his hands immediately. I pushed past him to once again pick up my bow I from where it laid on the ground. He didn't ask me anything else about it, but I don't think the conversation was over and done with yet.

He started to lead the way back; it was slow going. He was still suffering from blood loss stumbling around like a drunk in a bar and it's not like I had fucking cookie and OJ to give him. Sofia was right, his wings on his vest really were an exact match to mine tattooed on my back. My back, which must've been bruised from the hip all the way to my shoulder on my left side, hurt terribly and was causing me to slightly limp from a shooting pain in my hip. Sofia was quiet but smiling as she bounced on her feet, excited to see her mom I guess. We finally arrived at what appeared to be a farm. As we came to the edge of the trees, Sofia once again took off, yelling for her mom along the way. As for Daryl and I, we slowly made our way into camp. Others came running up to greet us; we must have looked a sight, all muddy and slightly limping. Alice's PS came blaring back into my mind as the others almost reached us. I dropped and did a spin kick, taking Daryl with me to the ground; at the same time a gun shot was heard.

I looked up and saw a woman with a rifle on the roof of the RV still pointing it this way, and gave her the finger. I don't know if she was aiming for me or Daryl, but I was once again pissed the fuck off. It was the second time I'd almost been shot in the same day. What the fuck was Alice thinking sending me to these people? Maybe I shouldn't have been just joking about taking some Xanax around this group; I was feeling like I was going to fly off the handle any second. Daryl looked at me and said "What the hell girl?!" I very grandly gestured my arm in the direction of the RV and said "You want to get shot today too? You're fucking welcome universal solider" referring to his creepy ass ear necklace. I got to my feet as the rest finally arrived, staying guarded. These people really are fucking crazy, not to mention fucking Shane was one of them; with a big fucking pick axe...

So there was no instant Chemistry between the two... What will the rest of the group say about Bella. Daryl doesn't even know her name.

Writing in another POV was difficult for me so let me know how I did.