Chapter 26

He just smirked and said "Come on, maybe I'll take ya out for a little yard time tomorrow." I glared at him harder, taking his hand and said "You better!" as we hobbled back inside. I collapsed onto my bunk quickly falling asleep, exhausted from the small walk and pain in my leg.

BPOV

I had woken up this morning excited to hold Daryl to his word about taking me out for some yard time in the day light. I also had other ideas that I didn't know for sure that I could convince him of. It had been a week; it was time to go to the bunker that Alice and Jasper built with all the supplies. The problem was that I didn't want everyone to know where that bunker was just in case I needed a place to get away. Daryl and Glenn seemed like the best choices; they were both my friends and they were strong enough to move things, because knowing Alice, there would be a fuck ton of stuff.

It was midmorning when Daryl finally showed up. I eagerly finished the game of cards I had going with Sofia, then she went off with Carol to do her morning lessons with Carl. I felt like I had more strength today to hobble around as we slowly walked around C block. The sun felt amazing on my skin. I could still smell the scent of the morning dew on the grass, even over the stench of the dead that were piling up at the fence line. As we walked in silence, I thought about what Ali had said. She said to take Rick and a few others to clear out the cache sight… I really didn't want to take Rick, but Alice probably had her reasons. I wonder if she saw his mental health decline in her visons.

We came to a small table that someone must have dragged outside from the common area and sat down. I knew I needed to tell everyone about Shane, Jimmy, and Randall; but I wasn't really ready to deal with that shit show just yet so I thought about how to bring up going out of the fence to Daryl when he called me out "What's the problem Swan?" Damn, couldn't get anything past him. "I need a horse" I said stopping as he raised his brow at me, "You know, to ride. Unless you want to carry me…" I challenged, raising my brow to match his. His response was immediate "No, 'ur fuck'n heavy" he stated simply with a very serious face. My jaw dropped as I looked at him in disbelief, all the while he just stared at me waiting for me to continue about the horse…

"Did you just call me fucking fat?!" came out of my mouth slightly hysterically. I knew I was in good shape and all that but damn, it took me forever to get over my body issues after Edward. He looked slightly confused as his ears turned red "Nah girl… I jus' didn' think someone so small could weigh so much" he said looking at the table as he nervously chewed on his thumb. Deciding that I probably overreacted and Daryl just didn't seem to know that much about women, I tried to make light of the situation to get back to the topic on hand "Well it's like they say, I'm 'a BRICK house'" flexing my arms while doing my best imitation of 'The Commodores'. It worked to lighten the mood back up as I caught a small twitch of his lips.

"I need a horse to get to where we need to go, there's no way I can make it there in my currently fucked up condition before nightfall. I also need you, Glenn, and T-dog to come. And here's the real kicker… I need Rick to go as well." I said with a grimace. From what he had told me yesterday, Rick was on the edge of needing to be put in solitary confinement. He stared at me with those piercing blue eyes from under his hair, probably wondering what I needed all of them for, but he didn't ask. He finally looked down at the table before standing, "I gotta' let tha' D Block prisoners out for a bit, I'll see if Glenn can start on getting' people ready ta' go. Ya' gonna' stay out here?" he asked, looking around the prison yard.

I nodded and said "Thank you Daryl" with a small smile. I watched him walk over to D block, and Mmmhhm, was it a sight to see…"Want some fries to go with that shake?" Beth asked me with a big smile, as she walked by with a laundry basket. My face immediately erupted into flames as I turned my gaze down quickly, deciding to ignore her for now. I eventually looked up to observe what everyone had been up to since I had been stuck inside for the past week. They had put sides on the barn that we had built for the animals and also had been busy at the surrounding farms collecting bales of hay for the winter months ahead. Hershel was busy with what looked like a start to a small winter garden, Beth was hanging up the laundry, Carol looked to be reading to the kids and Daryl had just reappeared with the prisoners.

There were only 4 of them now though. I thought back to the last time I had seen Big Tiny; he had been sweating profusely and looked to be in poor health. I bet he got bit by a dead one when we were clearing the halls and didn't tell anyone out of fear for his life. Which is really sad; maybe he thought we would kill him immediately and wanted to live as long as he could, or thought that he could beat the fever. Either way we could have at least made him as comfortable as possible before he died and made sure he didn't turn. Two of the prisoners were sitting on the grass seemingly enjoying the day and the other two seemed to be fucking with Daryl. His arms were flexing even though he didn't raise his bow and he was widening his stance slowly as if preparing for something to go down.

They were about 15ft away from me and I could start to hear the argument about wanting to be out of D block. The other two prisoners started to make their way over with their hands raised as if to say we don't want any trouble. They kept trying to get the other two to calm down when I saw one of them reach behind his back like he was grabbing something; Daryl was trying to keep an eye on all of them but the two aggressive ones were moving around frequently. From the corner of my eye, I saw Rick and Glenn making their way across the yard, but I was too focused on the man that had his hand behind his back. I gripped the knife in my boot, hoping he wasn't about to try what I thought he was; but of course, he did. He lunged at Daryl, and my knife flew at the same time. It landed right in his neck at the same time Daryl's bolt hit his eye; he dropped to the ground as the others stared in disbelief.

Daryl, while keeping an eye on the others, reloaded while doing a double take in my direction. Rick and Glenn arrived to help get the prisoners back in their cells and I was left looking at the body on the ground. I just killed someone else or at least helped kill them with no hesitation… I didn't really know how to feel about that, but thinking back to him trying to stab Daryl with whatever he had in his hand, I felt I made the right decision. Struggling to get up from the table, I hobbled over and pulled out my knife and Daryl's bolt. Looking to his hand, I found a very rusty knife, probably from the prison kitchen where we found them. When I looked up, everyone was staring at me once again… With my head down, I hobbled back to C block to get my pack. I was going to go to the cache sight one way or another; I needed to read Alice's letter.

I'm Back! Sorry it took soooo long. Christmas, Birthday and another birthday… my car died and had to get a new to me one…. Busy busy.