Once again I am forever grateful for the support of this story!
Right now, I have a question for you guys, when you're leaving your review could you tell me when you think Daryl and Nikki should get together? I'm purely curious.
Should it be on the Farm, in the Prison, Terminus, Alexandria, or should they just not be together at all? Let me know in your reviews!
Thank you so much once again guys!
We were stood still, Mom and I. Both of us scanning the trees in what we could only assume was the direction the gunshot had come from.
After what felt like an eternity we had no other choice but to continue on after the others back to the highway.
"You still worrying about it?" Andrea asked Mom who had stopped for the umpteenth time to scan the forest around us.
"Why one?" She mumbled. "Why just one gunshot?"
"Maybe they took down a walker?" Daryl shrugged.
"Please do not patronize me." Mom snapped at him, spinning to face the rest of the group.
"Neither Dad nor Shane would have wasted a single gunshot on just one walker." I reasoned back, daring them to argue with me.
"Shouldn't they have caught up with us by now?" Carol asked quietly.
"Exactly." I mumbled, scanning the trees one more time.
"There's nothing we can do about it anyway," Daryl shrugged once again, the slight boredom in his voice made my jaw set stubbornly as my eyes narrowed at him. "Can't run around the woods chasing echoes."
"But it was okay for us to risk our necks going into a walker infested city for your thick as shit brother?" I knew my voice was rising but the anger inside of me was making it difficult to control.
"It was your old mans fault that Merle was stuck in that infested city in the first place!" Daryl argued back, walking towards me.
"Guys, there's no point in arguing." Glenn mumbled from somewhere behind Daryl.
"If it wasn't for my old man no one would have made it back alive from that city." I was holding his gaze as strongly as I could, barely letting myself blink. We were so close now that I could feel his breath washing over my face, fast and hot as he tried to keep his cool. His blue eyes seemed to stand out now more than ever, probably from the thick grime that now covered his skin. Or maybe it was from the rage that was burning behind them. The rage that he was trying to keep control of.
"So what do we do?" Mom asked, trying to diffuse the tension that was vibrating off of me and Daryl.
"Same as we've been," Daryl answered, breaking our eye contact to look over my shoulder at Mom. "Beat the bush for Sofia, make our way back to the highway."
"I'm sure they'll hook up with us back there." Andrea reasoned with me and Mom.
Letting out a breath I didn't know I was holding I continued on through the bush, keeping my distance from Daryl and making sure to stay beside Glenn.
"Told ya he's an ass." Glenn muttered just low enough for me to hear. I smiled slightly but didn't reply, Daryl got on my nerves but I felt like I was the only one that was allowed to call him names.
"I'll tell ya what it's worth." We turned to see Daryl making his way over to Carol and Andrea, I sucked in another breath as I fought the urge to roll my eyes. "Not a damn thing. It's a waste of time all this hoping and praying. We're gonna locate that little girl, she's gonna be just fine. Am I the only one sane around here? Good Lord." He finished before taking up lead in the front of the group once more.
"He cares more than he likes to think he does." I mumbled back to Glenn who only nodded absently in response.
After a while of walking I found myself in stride with Daryl, he made tracking seem so effortless but up close I could see how his eyes scanned the ground and the trees around us.
"What're you looking for?" I heard myself asking him after a while.
"Marks from where we walked through." He grumbled back, not looking at me. "You can see where we moved some of the earth and the leaves from before."
"How'd you learn how to track? I can't see any marking at all, everything looks the same."
"Been doing it since I could walk." Was his only answer.
I knew when to stop the conversation with Daryl, maybe that's why I seemed to irritate him less than the others. They pried too much, tried to make too much of an effort.
When Daryl is done talking I didn't see the point in pushing the conversation, simple as that. It was something the others hadn't seemed to get yet.
So after this short conversation I let myself fall back in step with Glenn.
"I think we should call it." Daryl announced after another while of walking. The sun was beginning to set, tinges of orange beams were making their way through the tree tops to the forest floor, it could be pretty under different circumstances.
"How much longer?" I asked, my feet were beginning to throb and my ankle was starting to niggle from where I'd fell on it before. Frustration seeped through me once more when a thought surfaced to my mind that maybe now my ankle was always gonna give me trouble on runs like this.
"'Bout a hundred yards as the crow flies." Daryl answered.
I tried to stay positive as we climbed through the bush, thorns and branches catching at our clothes and skin. I could feel a sheen of sweat gathering on the back of my neck and across my forehead.
A shrill cry sounded through the woods, tearing through my heart as it met my ears.
"Andrea?" Mom called, spinning around to where the cry was coming from. I realized just before this that Andrea was no longer with our group and dread swarmed my body. I didn't even realize I was running until Andrea came into sight, a walker falling on top of her.
My speed picked up, sickle gripped firmly in one hand as I jolted my gun up, ready to use the butt of it as another weapon.
The sound of us thundering through the woods was infiltrating my ears along with Andreas cry and the terrible groaning sound from the walker that was trying to tear at her flesh.
Somewhere in the back of my mind I realized that the thundering sound was too loud to be all of us, we were too thin and light at this stage to make the ground vibrate with each footfall.
Before any of us could take it in a horse had thundered through the bush, Andreas screams had disappeared along with the sound of the walker groaning.
"Lori!" I looked up to the person that was calling my Mom, urgency in her voice. She was astride a large chestnut colored stallion, a bat gripped in her small fist, she was glancing to each of us in desperation as she continued to call for Lori.
"I'm Lori." Mom panted as she stopped running, I felt my chest burning, demanding more air from my running but the confusion of this stranger's appearance was distracting me from the burning.
"Rick sent me, you gotta come now." The girl's heavy southern accent was demanding, almost pleading.
"What?" Mom asked, clearly just as baffled as I was.
"There's been an accident, Carl's been shot." She spoke quickly, and just like that the little breath I had left my lungs, I placed my hands on my knees as my heart rate began to speed up. Pounding against my rib cage.
Flashbacks filled my mind of Mom sitting down beside me, she was wearing a grey dress and her hair was in an up style, a small amount of make up on her features as she told me that Dad had been shot. Another flashed in front of me of us packing the car, ready to drive towards the city with the hope of a cure for this nightmare outbreak that was happening worldwide, Shane bursts in through the front door, his face pale and distraught, shaking his head minutely at the carpet as Mom asked him where Dad was.
"Nikki," Glenns voice brought me back to the forest floor and the smell of the horse, his hands were on my back, gripping my shoulders. "Nikki you need to get it together right now."
I looked up to see Mom mounting the horse, gripping tightly onto the girls small waist.
"Woah woah, we don't know this girl!" Daryl protested, grabbing my forearm as I made my way to the horse.
"Let go of me now." I demanded, I knew on some level that my voice spat warning towards him but he didn't back away from my glare.
"You can't get on that horse."
"My brother was shot!" I shouted back at him, still attempting to free my arm from his grasp. I heard the girl shouting information at the others as Daryl and I argued. "Mom!"
"You'll be able to find us honey but right now you need to stay with Daryl." Mom pleaded back to me and I knew right then I was out numbered.
I watched in desperation as Mom disappeared with the girl through the woods.
"We'll get there as quick as we can." Daryl mumbled, his voice a lot softer now. I noticed his grip on my arm had loosened and he was now gently pulling me in the direction of what I assumed would be the highway.
"How am I supposed to just not know?" I asked no one in particular.
"The sooner we get back to the highway the sooner we get you to your family." Glenn reassured me, placing his arm around my shoulders as Daryl's grip disappeared.
A new determination filled me as I practically sprinted in the direction Daryl was leading us. My subconscious was aware of how slow Andrea and Carol were moving and I couldn't help but be annoyed.
"Dale, Carl was shot." I heard Glenn calling as the railing of the highway came into sight.
"What do you mean, shot?" Dale asked.
"I dunno I wasn't there," Glenn panted back. "All I know is this chick rode out of nowhere on a horse and took Lori."
"We have to go, now." I spoke to no one in particular as I climbed over the railing.
"Calm down for a minute." The low growl behind the voice told me it was Daryl that was speaking to me.
"We don't know where they are, we don't know who they're with, we don't know if Carl is –" My words stopped in my mouth, they wouldn't come out. I couldn't even think about the possibility of what could be happening to Carl right now.
"That girl said Carl is alive." Daryl argued back, he was keeping his voice low as if he was trying to calm me.
"We don't know how quickly that could change, if he has medical supplies with him." I realized then that there were tears rolling down my face, hot and wet. I swiped at them angrily as I turned away from Daryl, angry at myself for crying.
"We have to organize the group first, do this as best we can." Daryl reasoned, I was grateful to him for not giving me the "He's a tough kid" speech. I heard it too many times when Dad was in the hospital.
"So let's do it." I nodded, sniffing loudly and making sure the remains of the tears were gone from my face as I turned towards the group.
"I won't do it, we can't just leave." Carol was saying, her eyes met mine for a millisecond before she turned back to Dale.
"Carol the group is split." Dale told her. "Scattered and weak."
"What if she comes back and we're not here, it could happen." I looked to the ground, pity welling up inside of me for the woman pleading with us, desperation clear in her voice.
"If Sophia was to come back and we were gone, that would be awful." Andrea nodded.
"All we have to do is organize who's coming to the farm with me." I told them.
"I'd say tomorrow morning is enough chance for us to pull up stakes," My head spun in Daryls directions at these words, gaping towards him as he continued to speak. "We'll leave her some supplies, I'll hold up here tonight, stay in the RV."
"If the RV is staying then so am I." Dale nodded along.
"Carol I feel for you I really do and I want Sophia to be safe but I really need to go right now and find out what's going on with my family." I reasoned, pleading to her.
"Well if you're all staying." Glenn began to speak, before I could argue with him Dale spoke up.
"Not you Glenn, you're going. Nikki has to find out where her family is and what's happening with them but most importantly you have to get T-Dog there. That cut has gone from bad to worse he has a very serious blood infection, get him to that form and see if they have any anti-biotics."
"Why'd you wait till not to say anything?" Daryl asked, striding towards Merle's motorcycle. We all watched as he pulled out a clear sandwich bag from the back of the bike. It was filled with what looked like pill containers. "Crystal, some kick ass painkillers, it's all here."
"Thanks for coming along with me." I mumbled to Glenn as we stocked our bags with more water and some fruit we'd found that was still slightly edible.
"You need to know." He smiled back to me reassuringly. "I think everything's gonna be fine."
"Course you do."I smirked, rolling my eyes and making him laugh. "The day I worry is the day when you think something bad is gonna happen."
"You guys know where you're going?" Daryl shouted to us as he made his way over to the car we were searching for supplies.
"Yeah it sounded like a pretty straight forward route." Glenn nodded before leaving my side to go check on T-Dog.
"Good job Merle was as adventurous as he was." I laughed, looking over to where T-Dog was stood, looking more together and aware the he had in a while. "Sorry about what I said before." I mumbled, turning back to Daryl.
"Nah, you were worried." He shrugged.
"Still it's not an excuse." I shrugged back awkwardly, talking about feelings with Daryl isn't something that comes naturally so I wasn't shocked when he didn't reply.
"You and your Dad are real close." It was more an observation than a question but I nodded along anyway. "Sorry 'bout your arm." He mumbled.
I looked down to see a few light bruises starting to blossom on my arm from where he had gripped me tightly before.
"Not gonna kill me is it? You were trying to keep me safe." I could have sworn I saw a slight tinge of red under the thick grime coating his face. "Besides it didn't even hurt, think you're softer than ya look." I teased, this made him smirk and I was slightly caught off guard, I don't think I'd ever seen Daryl Dixon smiling.
"Oh yeah and what are you? All gunpowder and lead?" He teased back, focusing on his arrow.
"Oh you best remember that." I laughed, leaving him to go find Glenn so I could get back to my family.
