BEST EASTER EVER! I got a poster of Daryl Dixon, man! Now I can stare at his gorgeous face while he's holding that crossbow, and those arms, all I want! I could care less about the looks, truth be told- his personality is everything! This chapter has some awesome Jamie and concerned Daryl! Please review! :)
"No!" the walker fell, and Lizzy screamed. Mika stared, shocked, and Lizzy ran at Jamie, screaming.
"He didn't want to hurt you! He just wanted to make you his friend!" she was clawing at Jamie, now, and she shoved the girl back. Lizzy fell and landed, spread- eagle, on the floor.
Still, the shot had aroused all the dead who'd formerly been in their cells, and it was now a chorus of undead moans and the wails of the terrified living.
Jamie hit her knees for a moment, covering her ears, overwhelmed. Walkers, locked in cells, the living screaming, the rythemic drip, drip of blood on the floor and the wheezing as the living struggled to breathe... It was as close to hell as it could possibly be.
"Mika." Jamie looked at the closed door between them. "Lock the door."
"What!?" tears were streaming down the terrified girl's face, but Jamie shook her head.
"Do it, Mika! I know you're scared! But you have to be brave!"
Mika picked up the keys, shaking like a leaf, but managed to lock the door.
"Whatever you do- do not open that door! You hear me!?" Jamie yelled over the commotion.
"B-but what do I do!?," Mika asked, terrified.
"Get Carl!" Jamie ordered. Mika turned and ran from the room, and Jamie knelt beside Lizzy. The girl had curled into a ball and was shaking, crying, forlorn...
"It would've killed you." Jamie said quietly. "Haven't you seen them kill people before?"
"They don't kill you- you come back." Lizzy muttered between her tears. "T-they save you... from all the other people like you who murder them!" she was yelling now, and Jamie stared.
"Carol told me to keep you alive! That's what I'm doing. I don't give a damn what you think those things are right now- but get one thing through your head. They are not people!"
Lizzy curled into a crying ball. Just then, Mika returned, Carl in tow.
"Jamie!" he ran to the window between cell blocks, staring. He turned to Mika, anxious. "Where are the keys?"
"No." Jamie said firmly, and Carl looked up, shocked.
"We have to get you out of there!" he protested.
"I've been exposed, Carl. Besides, Carol told me to watch out for them. I can't leave Lizzy here. Not with so many dying and dead."
Lizzy was still sobbing, clearly not going to be able to defend herself, and Jamie gave the girl a pitious glance. "I need you to look out for Mika for me."
Carl nodded. "Right. I... what if you get sick?" he put a hand to the glass, as though trying to touch her, brown eyes concerned.
"I won't. Just... watch out for her, alright?" Jamie said, a pained look on her face. Mika would've been in tears again, but the poor girl seemed to have cried herself dry.
"It's okay, Mika. Everything's gonna be okay." Jamie promised. She held Carl's solemn gaze for a full minute- though they hadn't spoken, they knew the unspoken words. I love you.
"I need to get her somewhere safe..." Jamie said quietly. "Be strong for me, Mika. Take care of her, Carl."
Carl nodded, giving the small girl's hand a reassuring squeeze.
Jamie turned to where Lizzy was sitting, picking up the sobbing girl bridal style. Lizzy seemed dead to the world, just sniffling pitifully. She didn't even notice she was being carried upstairs by a girl she hated. She cast one glance over her shoulder at Carl, who nodded, a weak smile on his face. At least he was trying to be brave, for her.
She returned the half-hearted grin, walking down the catwalk, trying to find an empty cell.
She noticed a cell with a dead woman on the bed, the glassy eyes, the greyish skin... She set Lizzy down. The girl wasn't in any state to go anywhere, so she didn't have to worry about her running off.
She unsheathed her knife, moving silently into the room, poised, ready... The walker didn't move. She figured it would be easier this way, with the walker lying down, and all at once she lunged forward and stabbed.
The walker was already dead, though. A bullet through the head. She seized the corpse by the wrist, dragging it off the bed. It hit the blood that'd pooled beside the bed with a splash, and crimsion flecked her jeans. She dragged the body out of the cell, though, onto the catwalk. The blood trailed behind them, the corpse like a paintbrush...
Lizzy just stared on in mute horror for a moment, blinking, the starch knocked out of her...
"Don't think about it. Try not to, anyways- makes it easier." Jamie advised, though she got no response. She wasn't expecting any. She gathered the girl into her arms again, carrying her into the cell. She frowned. The blanket on the bed was bloodstained, and she managed to kick it off, laying Lizzy down on the bare mattress.
She dragged the blanket out of the cell, next, and laid it over the dead walker. Best not to have to look at it... It was harder to cope when the walkers were people you'd seen alive a few days ago.
She sighed, walking back into the cell and swinging the cell door mostly shut. Lozzy was curled up on the bef, clining to the pillow, exhausted, glassy eyes staring at nothing. She watched the younger girl's eyelids droop, until she fell into a restless sleep.
She sighed. Lizzy had been through hell, that was fore sure. But she'd need to pull it together if she wanted any hope of surviving this thing. She couldn't protect the girl forever.
She pulled out her grimy pistol, then, taking out the clip and counting the shots. Four bullets left. She hoped Carol got back soon.
Daryl grinned as he stepped out of the car, holding the satchel of meds. He hadn't trusted Bob to hold it. Not since he'd found the bottle of liquor in it. He made a mental note to keep a close eye on Bob- the last thing he needed was the idiot getting drunk and endangering Jamie.
He looked around, surprised, when she didn't come running over to hug him...
Carl exited the office building, heading towards Daryl. "You got them?"
"Yeah. Where's Jamie?"
There was a flicker of hesitation on Carl's face. Daryl saw it, and it terrified him.
"Where is she?" he growled.
Carl met his gaze. "She's in cell block A."
"What?" he nearly dropped his crossbow, shocked.
"Carol went on a run with my Dad and told her to take care of the girls. Lizzy was in there, there was a walker chasing her, and Jamie just went in..."
Daryl turned, forgetting the meds and running towards the door between cellblocks, shocked. He stared through the window, not seeing her anywhere...
He rapped on the bullet-proof glass, heart in his throat. He watched, horrified, as a walker turned from where it was, stumbling down the stairs towards him.
It was beating on the glass, now, drooling bloody drool, and he was trapped on the other side of the glass, helpless to go and find his little girl, wherever she was...
A gunshot echoed, then, the walker's head snapped against the glass and there was a splatter of dark red, congealed blood on it, like some spatter of paint...
He moved to the side, staring through a clean section of glass, to see Jamie holding a smoking pistol at the top of the stairwell.
"Jamie!"
"Dad?" she was running downstairs, then, pistol still in hand, but shocked, excited...
"You okay, baby girl?" his eyes anxiously scanned her, looking for injuries, but it was hard to tell, since she was covered in grime and dried blood.
"What the hell happened?" he asked, both shocked and afraid. He couldn't get to her- she was on death row, now, walking cell block A among the dying and the sick, at the forefront danger, and he wasn't able to help her...
"Lizzy almost got nailed by a walker. I came in to help- couldn't very well come out. I'm exposed, Dad." she said, a sad smile on her face. "Besides- they need me here, Daddy."she said the last part quieter.
Still, every fiber in his being was screaming for him to go in there after her.
"Daryl- I need your help woth the kids." Beth said from behind him.
"Not now!" he barked, frustrated. "Get Maggie or somebody else!"
"Maggie's in here, Dad. So's Glenn, and Hershel... They need you, Dad. I'll be alright." She reassured him quietly.
"If anything happens, you LOCK YOURSELF IN A CELL, hear me? Don't do ANYTHING risky. Stay alive, alright?" normally he'd be fine with her taking risks, but not right now. It was tearing him up inside, if something went wrong she was her own in there. Glenn and the others had their hands full, it'd be uo to her ti keep herself safe, and he was fucking TRAPPED outside, with her in there...
"Love you, Dad."
"I love you too, baby girl." he muttered it quietly, wishing more than anything she was on the other side of the glass, that it was HIM trapped in cell block A. He could handle it, would be sure to get out alive...
Beth saw Jamie shoot her a desperate look and nodded. Daryl was standing still, apparently zoning out, concern for her etched onto his face. She gently took the rough, work-worn hand in her own and led him away like a small child. He looked back, though, seeing Jamie give him a half-heartsd wave and returning it, before he turned the corner and she was out of sight.
Well? I just really love writing Daryl showing his feelings more- I feel like Jamie's managed tog et him out of his shell some, you know? I love the fact that having her and Carol to look out for makes him feel more vividly, actually express how he's feeling... Review and give me your opinions, please! :)