I sat in a corner by the door with my hands tied behind my back. I kept my eyes on that door hoping that Daryl would come to my rescue, so far no good. Two guys were sent out a little bit ago to go find my brother and "take care" of him as they said. He better be okay.

"Don't worry, Darlin'." One of the guys said and came over to me. "Just be good and we won't hurt ya." He grinned at me and touched the side of my face so I spit at him. He jumped back and wiped his face off then gave me a look of shock. "Why, you little—" He slapped me hard across the face. It hurt but I didn't let it get to me. He bent over and got really close to my face. "I sure can't wait to have my way with you." He said then smiled evilly. I grimaced then shivered once he walked away.

"Where's Johnny and Mark?" Another guy asked. "They've been gone a long time, I think it's about time someone went to look for them."

"No. They're fine." The man that kidnapped me said. "We just have to wait." There was the sound of gunshots outside somewhere. "Guess they found him." He smiled. My eyes widened. If they hurt my brother I— My thoughts were interrupted by a weird noise outside the door. "Dom, go check it out." The guy who kidnapped me said to another guy. He held his gun up and slowly walked over to the door. He looked around outside then came back in.

"I'on see nothin'." He said stupidly and shrugged. Just then, somebody came up behind him and slit his throat then threw something inside that filled the room with smoke. It happened so fast I didn't even get a chance to see that it was Daryl. I covered my mouth and coughed, there was gunshots coming from everywhere.

"Let's go, Le!" I heard my brother's voice. I looked up but could barely see him. He helped me up and we ran out. We ran down the hillside into the woods and onto the shore of the river.

"How'd ya do that?" I asked my brother. "How'd ya find me? Where'd ya get the smoke bombs?"

"I found 'em." Was all he said. "Come on, let's go!" We kept running until we reached where the bridge was. We stopped and rested for a minute underneath it. I leaned up against the brick panting. "Are you okay?" Daryl asked me.

"I thank so." I said quickly still panting. "Are you?"

"Yeah." He looked down guiltily. I gave him a confused look. "I'm sorry this happened. I just wanted ya to have a nice time fer once."

I gave him a sideways smile. "I did. I had a great time." I said excitedly. I knew you'd come fer me!" I suddenly looked at my leg. "But…we left our bags back there."

"Yeah, so?"

"…my brace was in there." I gave him a nervous look.

He paused for a minute and looked down at my knee. "Damn it!"

"It's okay."

"It ain't okay!"

"Daryl! I don't need it no more!"

"Like hell ya don't! What if somethin' happend to ya? Huh?"

I inhaled deeply. "Well, looks like I'm just gonna have to do without." My brother was about to say something else but we heard a noise in the bushes.

"We'll talk later." He said. "Come on, we gotta go find shelter fer the night." He put his hand on my shoulder and rushed me out of there.

Back on the road where we were before we went to the water park, there was a shopping center so I was able to find some dry clothes and get out of those gross wet ones. I felt so much better.

We were able to find some food, too. I filled my new bag with needs. While I was trying to get a jar of jelly off the top shelf, a walker attacked me. I fell backwards onto the hard floor, it hurt pretty bad but I killed the walker and got up before Daryl saw a thing. I don't need him to be more worried. He was being more overprotective than normal. Probably because I just got kidnapped. He kept asking me if I was all right like every five minutes. It was starting to get on my nerves.

"I'm ready when you are." My brother said to me.

"Yeah, let's go."

"Find anythang good?" He asked with his hands on my shoulders.

I shrugged. "Usual stuff. Canned and jarred shit."

He sighed. "Yeah, me too."

"It's somethin', though, ya know?"

"Yeah."

We walked up a big hill and passed a few more stores. We didn't waste our time checking inside because they looked pretty empty, not much supplies inside. We passed a house, too, but Daryl didn't want to stay there. We saw walkers inside. I told him we could take them, but he said he didn't want to risk anything. He's just being overprotective of me like I said.

We ended up back in the woods. I was not okay with that, I wanted to sleep in an actual bed tonight. I wasn't feeling too great after what just happened, plus, I would feel safer being inside than outside right now. Besides, it looks like it's going to storm at some point.

"We can set up camp right here." Daryl said.

"No, Daryl! I don't wanna stay in the woods tonight!" I said desperately. "Please, let's just find a house."

My brother sighed and and bent down on one knee in front of me. "Le…" He trailed off. Suddenly, we heard a gunshot. Daryl was on his feet in a second and pushed me behind him.

"Drop your weapons!" A familiar voice said. The guy that kidnapped me and three other guys emerged. They all held us up. My brother stared at them angrily breathing through his nose. He started putting his gun down and nodded to me to put my down, too. I obliged. Two guys came over and took our weapons. I nervously stood close to my brother.

"Now…" the guy continued, "feel pretty stupid, don't ya?"

"What the hell do ya want from us?" Daryl snapped.

The guy looked taken aback and held his arms out. "You killed a lot of my guys when you barged in our hut guns ablazing."

"That's cuz ya took my baby sister, you motherfucker!"

The man put his head back and laughed. "Yeah." He nodded. "It's been a while since we seen a woman." He laughed. I cringed. The man was sick. I looked up at Daryl and I swear if he could glare any harder he'd shoot fire out of his eyes.

"Yeah, ya ruined everything." The guy said. "Still…we knew we'd find you. We wanted our weapons back first. So, here's what happens now…We're gonna have the girl, each of us, and make you watch." I breathed nervously and held onto to my brother. "Then, we'll kill you for killing our men then we'll be even." He smiled.

Everything seemed to just stop for a moment. I breathed heavily waiting for them to make their first move. Right now, it was like we were having a stare down.

"Get her!" The man yelled. Two men came over to me with their guns up.

"No!" Daryl yelled with his arm on me.

"Don't make us kill her now!" One of them said.

Daryl just starred angrily at the man. The other guy grabbed my arm and pulled me away from Daryl before he could even do anything. He took me over to a tree and slammed me against it. I struggled to get away but they were way stronger than me. "Daryl! Daryl!" I cried.

"He can't help you now." One of them laughed in my ear. I heard a loud clap of thunder just then. I had an immature thought that lighting would strike these men and they would all die so we could get away. But…I know things never workout like that. I heard my brother getting beat up by the two guys.

"No!" I yelled. The guy pushed me against the tree again. "Don't worry. We'll take care of you." He quickly pulled my pants down and ripped them off of me. I screamed. "No! Please!" I was crying now. Please, God! I silently prayed. Please, don't let this happen to me again, please! It thundered and lightninged some more then rain started pouring down. I felt the man reach down and grabbed the waistband of my underwear, I just tightly closed my eyes and waited for the worst…

Suddenly, I heard two gunshots, I looked back as did everyone else. Lightning stuck and I could see there was someone standing there holding a gun, they had their face covered. I looked down and noticed the two dead bodies of the guys. There were two left now. Before anyone could do anything, the mystery person turned and ran off. My brother took his chances and grabbed the other man's gun, shot him then quickly shot the man that was going to rape me.

The rain was coming down very hard by now, we heard moans as walkers were coming out from the woods. "We gotta go!" My brother yelled to me over the noise. We grabbed their weapons and our bags. The man threw my pants somewhere and I couldn't find them in the dark. "Le, let's go!"

"I cain't find my pants!"

"Leann!"

I looked over at the herd of walkers coming closer. "Oh." I said nervously then ran. Daryl and I ran out of the woods and down the street in the storm. We didn't stop running until we found a small neighborhood. We picked the first house that looked all right and went inside. We checked it thoroughly, there was nothing or nobody threatening inside.

I sat on the couch in the dark with a blanket wrapped around me as I shivered. Daryl and I haven't spoken yet. I felt…weird. Not like scared or sad, just…nothing. I was so close to getting raped. And that person! Whoever they were, they saved us. I wish he wouldn't have taken off like he did. We didn't even get to thank him.

"You all right?" My brother asked me. I did not reply to him. I laid down on the couch so I could get more comfortable. I couldn't stop thinking about what almost happened. Why does all this bad stuff keep happening to us?

I must have laid there for hours with thoughts going through my head before I finally fell asleep. I can't do this shit no more.

I opened my eyes and it was light out. I felt like I didn't sleep at all, even though I know I did. I just laid there for a while before actually getting up. I saw that Daryl wasn't in the chair he was in when I went to sleep. It was too quiet in the house, but he wouldn't leave without telling me, would he?

My thoughts were halted when I heard footsteps and my brother walked into the dining room from the kitchen holding a pan. He noticed me sitting up. "Hey, baby." He said spooning something onto two plates. I got up and walked over to him. "I made us some corn beef hash."

"I ain't hungry." I said quietly.

"But ya gotta eat."

I sighed. "I guess." I sat there tiredly and slowly ate my food. I felt so weird. It was like my mind was not thinking clearly and I didn't feel like myself at all. It was like I was on autopilot: spoon pick up food, lift spoon to mouth, open wide, chew slowly, swallow, repeat until plate empty. I wasn't thinking about anything else. When I was done, I just sat there.

"Leann, are ya okay?" My brother asked me.

"I don't know." Was all I said. I could see Daryl giving me a concerned look, but I didn't care. He was silent for a moment.

"…why don't ya go upstairs and see if ya can find some pants or somethin'?"

"Okay." I said without thinking and got up. I actually didn't even care that I still didn't have pants. After all, it was just us here and besides, Daryl saw me last night.

I dug around in the closets in the bedrooms upstairs. The first room I checked in had clothes that were way too big. The next was all too small. I finally went to the third bedroom and found a pair of jeans that just fit me. I looked at myself in the mirror, I didn't even know who I was anymore. I looked down at my legs. I hate jeans…

I pretty much moped around the rest of the day. Daryl kept trying to get me to talk, but I wouldn't say more than three words. He kept giving me glances, I know he wanted to say something to me but probably didn't want to push me. I know he's just concerned for me. If I was myself right now, I would probably feel guilty but that's just it. I wasn't myself. At all. I actually think I know what's bothering me, but I can't even dare bring myself to say it…

"Who do you thank that person was?" I finally said to my brother. I guess my question caught him off guard because he just looked at me for a minute.

"I don't know." He finally replied. "But I ain't sure he did it outta the kindness of his heart."

"How do ya know? And we don't know it was a 'he'."

"Yeah, well…cuz they ran off instead of killin' the other two guys." He said roughly.

"Maybe they was scared."

"They should be." He squinted at me. I nervously rang my hands together. I don't know why he feels that way. We basically owe that person ours lives. "All right, Leann." Daryl said. "I wanna know what's goin' on with ya. Yer actin' mighty strange." I just shrugged. "Is it cuz 'a what happened with them guys?" I nervously rubbed my arm then nodded. My brother sighed then walked over to me where I was laying on the couch and sat down. I was about to sit up so he could have more room but he stopped me and lifted my legs and put them on his lap. "It's okay." He rubbed my leg. "Yer okay. I told ya I wouldn't let nothin' happen to ya."

I gave him a stupid look. "Daryl…if it weren't fer that person, you'd be dead right now. And I'd be raped and left alone to die."

He stared at me. I couldn't read his expression. I didn't know if he was going to cry or punch me in the face. "What are ya sayin'?" He finally said. "That I cain't protect ya no more?"

I raised an eyebrow. "You've kept me safe a long time, but…there was nothin' ya could do this time. I mean…do ya not see that?" I put my head down because I didn't want to look at him anymore with the look he was giving me. "It could happen again."

"No, it's not." Daryl finally said shaking his head. "That's never happenin' again cuz you ain't goin' nowhere ever again. Yer glued to my side from now on…or if we find a safe place again, yer stayin' home while I'll go out. It'll be like yer grounded fer life."

I gave him a disbelieving look and pulled my legs up sitting up. "Yer punishin' me fer somethin' someone else did?"

"I ain't punishin' ya at all! I was just usin' that as an example."

"Sure sounds like yer punishin' me." I snapped.

"I'm done with this conversion, Leann."

"Oh, so I don't even get a say or anythang?"

"You were almost raped!" Daryl yelled almost making me jump.

"Yeah, I know. I was there." I said angrily. "I'd rather be killed than be raped."

He was glaring at me. I knew I was pushing him and pissing him off, but I didn't care. He was pissing me off, too. We sat there staring at each other. My brother can be pretty scary at times but I wasn't backing down. He was acting ridiculous. He couldn't protect me this time, I wasn't blaming him, that could happen to anyone. It just made me mad that he wouldn't admit it. I always looked up to him and he was always my hero, but for once in my life…my brother didn't look like superman to me. And that's what was really bothering me.

Daryl and I hadn't said a word to each other since our little argument. And it was weird because no one really yelled or anything like we usually do when we argue. Daryl usually hollers at me and I end up feeling guilty like I did something wrong. But that wasn't the case this time. It was like we had a "disagreement" as opposed to an "argument." There was no name calling, either. We had an adult conversation. I feel like that's why things feel so weird now. We didn't feel anger towards each other; well at least I didn't, but things just felt…awkward. And, so, neither of us were talking.

I sat on the floor poking at the fire in the fireplace with the poke while Daryl sat at the dining table messing with the weapons we got from those guys.

Suddenly, we heard a noise like someone was outside and we shared a look. My brother jumped up grabbing his crossbow. I followed and pulled out my gun. "No." He whispered. "Just stay back."

"No!" I said through gritted teeth. He glared at me but we heard the noise again. Daryl looked out the window, there was a man on the porch. He quickly opened the door with his gun up.

"What do ya want?" He yelled.

"Whoa! Whoa! Don't shoot!" The man said with his hands up. "Just take it easy, okay?"

"Why should we?" I pointed my gun at him.

"I'm not a threat. I was there before! I saw you! I helped you guys!"

I raised an eyebrow at him. "That was you?"

He nodded. Daryl put his crossbow down. "Why?" He asked the man. I put my gun down as well.

The man shrugged. "I saw people that needed help…so, I helped." He looked down at me and smiled. "And besides, I love children."

I stared at the man for a minute. Then, Daryl and I shared a look.