Heart of Dixon

Chapter 11:Separated

Rewritten.

Walking Dead isn't mine, sadly.

Robin's POV

T-Dog woke me up the next morning. I lay in bed for a second thinking. I thought about my brother, then about Daryl, and then thought about what we were going to do next. I know Shane pretty much pressured Rick into agreeing with the plan to go to Fort Benning, but I wasn't so sure about that plan anymore. It just felt too risky. I really didn't want to chance it after going to the CDC and almost exploding along with the rest of the group, but I wasn't going to leave Rick, Carl, or Daryl.

"Whatchu still doin' in bed, Bitty?" Daryl walked in my room. He looked rugged sexy as always in a pair of faded and stained jeans and plaid sleeves shirt. I couldn't help but stare at his arms before replying.

"Sorry, Snookums, I blanked out for a moment." I said trying to put on a smile. Daryl could see through my forced smile and came further into the room, closing the door behind him.

"You heard the screamin' again?" He always referred to my nightmares as the screaming. When I used to have them, I heard high-pitched screaming while all group was eaten by my zombie brother Jacob. The screaming was so bad; I started to hear it even when I was awake. Daryl helped me fall asleep and I stopped hearing it.

"No, just thinking." I replied.

"'Bout what?" He sat down in the chair in front of me.

"Fort Benning, I think it's a bad idea." I looked up at him hesitantly.

"You gonna leave?" He asked. He didn't look at me like I was a monster or crazy. He looked emotionless but as least he didn't look judging.

"No. I just have a really bad feeling about it all. Last time I felt this way, the CDC exploded and then again at the quarry." I replied sitting up in the bed and looked down at the floor.

He came a bit closer, "Hey." He said making me look up at him, "I ain't gonna let anything happen to you."

I smiled, "Why do you care?" It wasn't insulting, but merely curiosity. Daryl had no reason to be so attentive or kind to me, but that was pretty much all he was since I came to the camp. He had me rethinking all my first impressions about him.

He shrugged, "Your brother died to save me and Merle." He replied simply.

No matter what the other group members thought or said, Daryl had honor. Under all the gruffness, he was a good man. I wanted to slap myself for some of the meaner thoughts about him and his brother, granted Merle was nothing like him. If only Merle was he'd still be here now. Though I think this side of Daryl is something that could only appear once his brother was absent.

I smiled, "Thanks, you don't have too, but thanks for watching my back. I'll watch yours too."

He nodded, "We're about to head out, get your stuff."

We've been driving for nearly an hour; I was in the back of the RV avoiding Shane. The man tried to sit next to me and tell me his glory days back in high school and his many conquests with the local girls. After he told me how he banged one girl in a barn, I somewhat rudely excused myself saying I was tired and went into the bed area of the caravan.

I was lying on the bed doodling a picture of Daryl when the RV suddenly stopped. I looked at the window and there were tons of abandoned cars surrounding us. Daryl rode by us on his motorcycle and stopped by the side to talk to Dale, I didn't catch the conversation, but it wasn't long before we started moving again at a very slow pace. Then again we stopped; I left the bed when I heard Glenn call.

"What's going on?" I asked him when Dale was opening the door. When we all stepped outside, I got my answer.

"I said it. Didn't I say it? A thousand times, dead in the water." Dale huffed heading the front of the RV.

"Problem, Dale?" Shane rolled his eyes. He sent me a wink that made me cringe.

My attention was taken away by a car filled with all kinds of stuff. I could use some more clothes since most of mine were either badly stained or ripped. I could find Daryl some more clothes too; his clothes were in the same condition, if not worse. I walked up to the car and started pulling out the clothes; remarkably the clothes were just about my size if not just a tiny bit bigger. I grabbed a bag in the car and started to shove the new clothes for me later. Daryl joined me digging through the car. He bumped my shoulder and gave me a smirk. You keep that up and I'm going to rape you without mercy, you fine ass man with godly arms.

"Just the small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of…" Dale started until he noticed us scavenging, "Ok that was dumb."

"If you can't find a radiator hose here…" Shane left off, if we couldn't find one in this mess then we were all kinds of screwed and someone up stairs hated us.

"There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find." Daryl said beside me, his voice giving me chills. Ugh, I seriously needed to go somewhere and rub one out.

"I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start." T-Dog said looking around at the cars.

"Maybe some water." Carol looked hopeful.

"Or food." Glenn looked even more hopeful.

"This is a graveyard." Lori brought all of our attention, "I don't know how I feel about this."

I didn't say anything as I held a large man's t-shirt up in front of Daryl imagining him wearing it, I decided not and threw it down. He didn't look like a Polo guy; I held another t-shirt up and nodded. It was nothing special, just a plain black T, but it looked like him. Daryl nodded too, he liked it. I grabbed another bag, and shoved it with other shirts like it for him.

"Alright here go." T-Dog helped take everyone out of their stupor.

"It's alright Lori, we really need these stuff. It's getting colder soon and Carl will need warmer clothing." I supplied. She gave me a strained smile, still bothered by our scavenging, and nodded.

"I'm going help T-Dog get fuel." Daryl said.

"I'll look for us some clothes. Do you need anything else?" I smiled.

"Nah, but if you can find me some cigs." With that T-Dog and Daryl walked away. Everyone else went their separate ways looking for stuff except for Andrea. She went off in the RV.

"You getting close with that redneck?" Shane appeared behind me as a looked at a shirt that T-Dog might like.

"Maybe." I didn't turn around to face him; I just kept digging through the car. Yay, I had two packs of cigarettes! I threw them in Daryl's bag.

"I don't think you should." He followed behind me.

"And why not?" I really didn't give a crap about what he thought.

"Because he's trouble. I locked tons of guys just like him; I don't trust him as far as I can throw him. That white trash is gonna get you killed, Bitty." Shane said. I saw red, not only did he talk about Daryl but he called me BITTY!

I whirled around, "First of all, you don't know shit about Daryl. Second, you remember he saved your pathetic life. And motherfucking third, you do not call me Bitty. Only Daryl calls me Bitty." I was really close to snapping off his head, no matter what Daryl said.

"You know since the first day you arrived to the camp, you've been a bitch to everyone! Me and Andrea." Shane got up in a face snarling like a rapid dog.

"I didn't have a problem with Andrea until she starting acting a bitch towards me, Daryl, and most of all Dale." I growled. I could not understand how anyone breathing could be nice to that sweet old man, "I feel terrible that she lost Amy, I really do, but since then I cannot stand to be around her and endure her rudeness."

"What's your excuse of me?" He snapped.

"You're seriously asking me that?" I let out a humorless laugh, "You're a lot dumber than I thought."

Shane raised his hand, prepared to slap me, but he heard a whistle. I wanted it to be Daryl, but it was just Dale looked down at us from the top of the RV. He had his gun pointed right at Shane.

"Walk away, Shane." Dale ordered. His nice elderly voice gone and replaced by a cold one that I didn't know he had.

Shane scoffed at Dale but still walked away nonetheless. I let out the breath of was holding in, I wasn't scared that he was going to hit me; I was bracing myself for when he hit me. I actually wanted him to hit me, it would give me another reason to kill him.

"You alright, Robin?" Dale asked.

"I'm fine." I smiled up at him, "Everything's fine."

Dale nodded then went back to watch duty. I was looking at another shirt when Dale whispered to me to get under a truck. I didn't wait for any explanation; I dove right under the nearest truck. Not a few seconds later, several walkers started to walk past the trunk I was in. There were so many of them, it was the largest herd I've ever seen.

I forced myself not to breathe hard or make any noise. The last thing I wanted was to get these guys in a feeding frenzy and then find the other people in my group. Oh God, I hope Daryl and T-Dog were alright. Were they able to hide in time? I looked around at the surround cars, I saw Shane and Glenn huddled together. I hope the others knew but I couldn't see any more without moving around and making noise.

Just as the herd was gone, I heard a scream. It was Sophia, it had to be. I jumped out from my hiding place and ran after her. Behind her were two walkers chasing the poor girl into the woods. I heard movement behind me, but it sounded like it was too fast to be a walker. Turning just slightly while mid-run, I saw that it was Rick.

We saw Sophia up ahead and grabbed her. She let out a scream but calmed down when she saw that it was us.

"Are you alright?" I asked checking her quickly.

She nodded and reached for Rick's gun, "Shoot them!" She squealed.

"No! Those walkers on the road will hear it." Rick reasoned.

"There won't be two, they'd be a hundred." I helped. I jerked around when I heard the walkers finally catching up, Rick picked up Sophia and we took off running. We ran until we reached a small creek, Rick jumped down first then helped Sophia down. I jumped down and followed. We saw a large thicket of roots off to one side.

"Hide in there." Rick said, "We'll draw them away from you."

"No, please don't leave me." She cried.

"We have to, sweety." I said looking out of the walkers.

"If we don't make it back, head to the highway. Keep the sun on your left shoulder." Rick pointed to his left shoulder. Sophia nodded.

"I go right with beautiful there. You go left with sexy pants." I planned. Rick nodded.

"Which one is sexy pants?" I would have laughed if this moment wasn't so dire. Rick looked so serious when he said sexy pants.

"That one." I pointed at the one that was once a black man. Beautiful was once white but now he was gray and so rotted around the mouth all his teeth were exposed.

"Come on, Beautiful." I threw a rock at him, smacking him right in the head. He stumbled off the bank into the creek over to me. Sexy pants was following Rick off to the left.

"Follow Robin." I called to him, "Follow me to your death." When he was concentrated just on me, I took off running to get me far from Sophia as possible. I had my crowbar so I could kill it but I didn't want Sophia to see it.

After ten minutes of running, I turned to face Beautiful. He growled at me again then limped his way to him. When he got close, I grabbed his head and stabbed his brain through his right eye. I yanked it back out, I gagged at the sound it made. I would never get used to the sound of pulling a weapon out of a walker head, the sick wet sound.

I thought it would be best to run back. When I found the thicket of roots, Sophia wasn't there. I knew she was going back to the highway. I saw her mid-run going the wrong way so I went after her. I stopped at the edge of a cliff, about ten feet above a creek.

"Sophia!" I yelled out. She stopped and turned. She smiled and started my way. I was going to take a step towards her when I heard cracking. I looked down just as the earth beneath broke up. My crowbar fell out of my hand just as I rolled down the bank. I was scratched by branches and all sorts of things. Everything went dark when I hit a large rock.

Daryl's POV

I pushed the body off of me, when I heard the scream. I couldn't run off and check because T-Dog was bleeding pretty badly. I pushed the dead fucker off of him and made him sit up by yanking on his blood stained shirt. I pulled my rag out of my back pocket and pressed it to his arm.

"Put pressure on it, or you'll bleed to death." I said. Then I got up to go to the group.

"Hey Old Man!" I called out to Dale, "T-Dog's cut real bad, he'll need some help." Dale nodded and went off in the direction T-Dog was at with the Chinaman.

I saw Carol sobbing on Lori's shoulder. Lori's kid was crying too. What the hell happened? I heard a scream a moment ago.

"Where's Bitty?" I asked more to myself. I didn't see her everywhere. I would have thought she'd run right over to me and annoy me some.

"She ran off after Sophia." Carol sobbed. What the hell, Bitty!?

"I'm going out." I'm looking for my Bitty…ugh, this my Bitty shit is getting old. She ain't mine. She'd never be mine.

"Wait, there's Rick." Shane stopped me. Rick climbed up the hill onto the highway, alone.

"Where's Sophia? Robin?" Rick was out of breath and his white t-shirt was blood stained.

Carol let out a loud sob, Lori held her again. I felt like something threw a bucket of cold water on me. I felt angry, scared shitless, and worried. Was she alive? Was she dead? Was she hurt? Where was she? Did she have Sophia? How far was she? Was she on her way? A thousand other questions filled my head. All I knew was I wanted her back and safe.

I'd search the whole damn woods if I had too, but I'd get her back. I'd bring the little girl back too; she was too young to be at there alone. But both would be fine. I was already missing that stupid ass grin she did. She smiled so wide with her eyes closed that looked like a damn cartoon.

"Come on, we need to get out looking for them again." I said, "We'll find them. Bitty probably has Sophia and they just lost their way here."

Rick nodded. Shane, the Chinaman, Rick, and I climbed down the side of the highway and back into the woods. Rick led us to the creek where he and Bitty told Sophia to hide. I didn't see any sign of her hiding in there, but there was some water from the creek so it could cover any trace.

"You sure this is the spot?" I asked looking inside.

"I told her to wait right here." Rick firmly nodded then pointed off to the left, "I drew them further up the creek."

"Without a paddle-it seems where we landed." I mumbled, "Which way did Bitty go?"

Rick pointed off to the right, "I thought when I got back and Sophia wasn't here that Robin came and got her. That or she ran off to the highway back to the group." He pointed back to the highway, "I told her to go that way and keep the sun on her left shoulder. "

I went over to the direction he pointed. I saw some small foot prints that had to be Sophia's. The Chinaman was standing right over the trail.

"Hey Short Round, how about to step off to one side. You're muckin' up the trail." I ordered. He didn't look happy about the nickname but he stepped away without saying anything.

"Assuming she knows her left from her right." Shane said.

"Shane, she understood me just fine." Rick snapped.

"Kid's tired and scared man. Who knows how much stuck." Shane tried to reason.

"Got clear prints right here." I said aloud and turned back to Rick, "She did like you said and headed back to the highway. Let's spread out and make our way back." Shane helped me out of the creek then Rick.

"She's couldn't have gotten far." Shane nodded.

"When are we going to look for Robin?" Glenn asked.

"She'll be alright for now. She survived alone before she met me, remember. Besides she'd want us to look for Sophia first." Rick reasoned.

I wanted to look for Robin right away but Rick was right. Bitty would want us to look for the little girl first and she would be fine for right now. I still hoped she wasn't hurt though. Bitty made her way from freakin' Alabama to Georgia; she had a sense of direction. So why didn't she make it back?

"Hey, we gonna find her. Robin too." Shane said to the guilty looking Rick.

I followed Sophia's tracks until I reached a point where she stopped and headed in the opposite direction. They were no other footprints. I told them about it. We were thinking of another plan when Glenn called us. He was standing by a small cliff holding a…

"Is that Robin's crowbar?" Shane asked.

"She never let's go off it. Even when she sleeps." Rick said looking at it.

"Guys." Glenn sounded like he was either about to throw up or cry. He was looking down from the cliff. Rick and Shane joined him first and both let out a sigh. I felt like someone ripped a piece out of me when Rick covered his face with his hands. I joined them and looked down.

Down in the mud and face down in the water was a body. It was wearing jeans and a hoodie that was stained by dirt, mud, and blood. I remembered Robin wearing a hoodie this morning too.

"That ain't her." I said quietly.

"Daryl…" Rick started to say something. He put his hand on my shoulder.

"I'm telling you now that ain't Bitty." He pushed his hand away.

"There's blood on that rock down there. She probably fell and broke her neck or something." Shane explained without emotion.

"It ain't Bitty!" I growled. No way could that be her.

"It is, you stupid redneck. That's Robin and she's dead. Get that into your thick skull. Robin…is…dead!" Shane yelled in my face.