Chapter 38
Everything was on fire at the church including some of the trees. The building was reduced to a fiery pile of rubble and burnt body parts. There was absolutely no way anyone could have lived through the explosion.
Emma crouched down in awe of what had just happened. She had wondered what that thing was that Daryl carried, but she never expected it to do what it did. She watched the rest of the group take out any of the surviving guards one by one, until the only thing left alive was the burning fire.
Rick walked over to Daryl and put a hand on his shoulder. "We did it, man. Negan is gone. The Saviors are blow to fucking bits!"
Daryl looked at the RPG launcher in his hand. "I love this fuckin' thing," he laughed. "Too bad we only have one RPG left."
"We'll make that one count too when we need it. Let's go in and make sure that there's nothing left alive," Rick said.
"Will do, let me get Emma," Daryl told him.
Daryl walked back to Emma and when she saw him she threw herself into his arms. She kissed him and pulled back with a huge smile on her face. "That was unbelievable!" she exclaimed. "What was that?"
"It was an RPG."
"A what?" she asked.
"It's a military weapon…a rocket propelled grenade. I took out his other men with one before you came back. Abraham found them, so it was fitting that we blew Negan to bits with it." Daryl dropped a soft kiss on her lips before grabbing her hand. "C'mon we going in to see if anything is left and take care of them."
"You are an amazing man Daryl Dixon," Emma told him.
Daryl smiled at her, but didn't say anything back to her. He never took praise well, as he never had received any of it during most of his life. It always made him slightly uncomfortable. He turned towards the opening in the trees where the church had been and pulled Emma behind him.
Glenn and his crew came around the building to meet up with everyone. They hadn't lost a single person, while every one of the Saviors was dead. They had taken out all guards and no one escaped from the explosion. All of the leaders of the Saviors were gone.
After a careful examination of the area, the group all came together in the yard and watched the low burning fire finish consuming what had been the old church. It was a bit overwhelming, but satisfying at the same time.
"We did it," Rick finally said to everyone. "We did it at no cost to us and took all of those assholes out." Rick raised his gun in the air, "To Abraham!"
Everyone shouted together, "To Abraham!" It was a solemn moment as they remembered their unique friend. Abraham was a one of a kind guy. Several of the girls brushed away tears.
Rick had them check out any of the undamaged vehicles to see if they were worthy enough to bring back and they found that three were in good shape with a decent amount of gas in them, so the caravan of four cars was now up to seven.
Daryl drove one of the new vehicles back with Emma beside him in the front seat. It was a black Honda Pilot that was in better than normal condition. The rest of the group split up between the other six cars and everyone headed back to Alexandria.
"Do you think this is it for us and the Saviors? It's over?" Emma asked him as they drove down the deserted road behind Rick's car.
"Hope so, but only time will tell. They lost their leaders so Rick hopes they just fall apart. We'll have to keep the watch posts on a high alert in case they try anything," he told her. Daryl reached over and took her hand in his. They hadn't driven alone like this since before they got separated.
"Do you think they will know it was us?"
"Maybe …maybe not. We didn't leave any survivors and nothing there will lead them to us, but we'll just have to see, but we can handle it if they try anything." Daryl had confidence in their group. They had screwed up once, but they were quick learners, he and Rick would never do that again. Their learned their lesson the real hard way.
Emma looked over at Daryl and smiled at him. He felt her looking at him and glanced over. "What?"
"I am so lucky and I can't believe I'm saying this but I owe it to Merle."
"What are you talking a about, Em?" What the hell could she owe Merle? He did nothing but be a pain in the ass when they were together.
"If Merle hadn't conned his way into being the new maintenance guy, you would not have moved next door and we would never have met. Merle brought us together, unintentionally, but ultimately he did. Right?" Emma explained. Merle was the creepiest guy she had ever met and that he and Daryl were brothers never made sense, but without Merle, they would have never met and fell in love.
Daryl thought about it for a second. "You're right now that I think about it," he agreed. "I can't think of one think he did right in his life, 'cept this." Daryl looked up into the blue sky through the dirty windshield of the car, "Thanks bro, she's the best thing that ever happened to me."
Emma leaned her head on his shoulder for a little bit and they drove in silence. The bucket seats didn't allow her to hold that position for too long. Emma watched a small group of walkers try to reach out to them from the side of the road as they drove by. Out of her side view mirror she saw a couple bounce of the side if the car behind them and tumble into a small gully.
"Can I ask you something?" she said to Daryl.
"Anything."
"Why did you bring me today?" Emma asked. It had been on her mind since he told her she was coming with them. She wasn't a strong fighter, so I didn't make any sense on why Daryl made her come along.
Daryl kept looking at the road as he started to talk. He wasn't good at talking about shit like this. "I'm a selfish sumbitch. I wanted you with me."
"Why? I certainly can't fight or shoot like everyone else."
"Because I wanted you were I could see you. It was stupid of me to bring you along, but I would do it again." Daryl hesitated for a bit and Emma could see he was trying to find a way to tell her. "You see Em, the day this fuckin' world fell apart and I couldn't find you was the worst day of my sorry life and every day after that got worse and worse. Ask Rick, I was the biggest dick when he met me. You weren't home and I couldn't find you anywhere. Having you so suddenly gone from my life was like having my heart ripped out of my chest. You were the only person in my whole life who ever cared about me and who I ever cared about and loved. Then you were gone. I just can't handle that happening again."
Daryl finally looked over at Emma to see what her reaction was. She had tears streaming down her face that had a huge smile on it. "I will love you Daryl Dixon until the end of time," she told him. This one of a kind man was hers and Emma had no intention of ever being separated from him again. She completely understood what he was telling her. She felt the exact same way.
He took her hand and brought it up to his mouth and kissed the back of it. "I love you too, Emma Raines."
The rest of the drive back home was done in a happy silence. Neither felt the need to talk as just being together was enough. Their actions that day pretty much guaranteed their life in Alexandria would continue. Daryl knew only time would tell if they experienced any retribution from the remaining Saviors.
Meanwhile, Daryl was making plans in his head for them. It was time for him and Emma to start living the life they should have had years ago. If the apocalypse hadn't happened Daryl knew they would be married for a couple years by now and maybe even have a kid or two. Him married? What a thought! He never imagined that would happen or that he would even want to get married until he met Emma. She had changed him and his way of thinking in so many different ways and all for the better. Emma showed him what he had been missing his entire life.
As screwed up as this world was right now, he wanted some normalcy for them. He laughed to himself as this world wasn't anything but normal, but that's what he wanted…finally. He lived his life differently than any of his friends as he was always the loner, the one that always stayed slightly apart from everyone. That was another thing that would change as he didn't have that need to be by himself anymore. He had friends now…really good ones. Ones he could count on no matter what and they were as close to a family as he ever had.
When he was young and his mother was still alive, that was the closest he had to a real family. At least she would make dinner most nights and he would have semi-clean clothes. When her drinking got out of control and she died in that fire, was when what little bit of a family they all were died too. His father's drinking and abuse skyrocketed and Merle was an out of control teenager, whose behavior followed him through his adult years.
Daryl saw normal families when he was a kid through his friends and had always wished for a family like that. As he grew older, his friends faded away because they didn't want to deal with his brother or his father. Everything just kept spiraling down as he got older, until he left home and never looked back.
His friends now, Rick, Glenn, Michonne, Maggie and the others were his family now and they gave him the emotional support and trust that he never had until he met Emma. They were the reason he survived losing her and he was a better man for knowing them. He was the man Emma deserved.
It was time for him make some big moves and this time he was going to go shopping for a ring …Glenn-style.
