Here we go guys, the next chapter! I worked solidly on this to make sure I felt it was just right so hopefully you enjoy it! Daryl reappears in the second half of the chapter and from here on out he'll be in every chapter (give or take one or two) and I'm going to be doing my best to build his relationship with Lila.

Enjoy and don't forget to review!

Chapter Eight

Lila walked slowly but surely around the outside of the building. Her hands still gripped tightly around the police batons she had managed to steal from the two undead security guards.

The butterflies in her stomach were causing her hands to shake and her skin to grow cold and clammy, she couldn't do anything but push the thoughts of what she was doing out of her head. Lila knew that she was being stupid expecting there to be a radio just sat inside, going by the state of the building it was likely that there was nothing but corpses filling the place. She pushed the side door open with ease, peering inside she analysed all that she could see – a long hallway with a darkened staircase at the end of it, garbage covered a lot of the floor and all of the doors and windows looking into the separate rooms were closed and covered…Lila had a feeling that the internal windows being boarded up from the outside probably wasn't a good thing.

The first room she entered was empty and surprisingly tidy, a dirty desk was sat in the centre, papers covering it, a telephone that had been long out of service was lying limp and abandoned. Lila turned, her eyes meeting with the large map that covered one wall; it detailed the entire layout of the building. Immediately, Lila paid attention to the second floor, the smartest thing for a bunch of survivors to do would be to get up off the ground if they were hiding out, meaning if anywhere, the radio would be up there. Lila exited the room and jogged along the hallway before climbing the stairs, she listened carefully for any groaning or shuffling but soon determined she had no choice but to just go for it.

Her legs carried her up the stairs and along the upstairs hallway. One walker was huddled in the far corner, the door to the room was open and more walkers were visible inside.

"Fuck," Lila muttered to herself as she retraced her steps backwards, hoping that the walker wasn't about to turn around and see her. Her foot came down on the dirtied wooden floor with a creak and an eerie silence took hold of the hallway – the walker turned around unsteadily to face her, its jaw was broken and hanging off to one side, its eyes were dry and cold. With little other choice, she ran down the stairs, her feet beating down on the dusty floor with determination. She could hear the walkers above her, she needed to get out before they found the stairs. That was when the huge clatter came from the locked room beside her, the one with the boarded up windows. She clambered up, her hand gripping onto the windowsill as she pulled herself up to look through the small space between wooden planks. Her heart stopped, her blood ran cold and she couldn't seem to remove her eyes from the scene set in front of her. The window to the outside had been shattered, walkers were crawling over each other trying to get out – it seemed like going outside wasn't really her best idea, at least not anymore. Although it seemed like she didn't have much choice when she turned around to see the walkers from upstairs making their way clumsily down the stairs and towards her.

"Fantastic," Lila muttered to herself, she ran out of the building and along the wall – she peered around the corner but immediately jumped back, her eyes clasped tightly shut. Walker's were running towards something, they spread like wildfire around the abandoned cars and trucks. It had been easy being in a life or death situation last time, when Lila hadn't had a chance in hell…but now, she couldn't help but feel like she just had to get out of this alive, she wasn't allowed to give up because she'd been given a chance at a normal existence…or at least as normal as one can get during the apocalypse. She'd been stupid to leave the farmhouse – she recognised that now.

Lila waited for the majority of the walkers to wander off towards whatever had caught their attention, when just two or three of them were left, she ran towards where the broken window was. She slammed one of the police batons into the first walkers head and repeated the action several times – she swung swiftly around in time to do the same with the next walker before she found a minute to climb up through the broken window, making sure not to catch herself on the shattered glass. She managed to kill off the last couple of walkers in the room, they had clearly been the ones that were trampled by the others and they lay weakly on the ground, reaching out to Lila's ankles.

She examined her surroundings again, making sure nothing else was moving around looking to eat her. It was then that she noticed the door off to the side, she walked over instantly, pressing her ear up to the wood as she listened for any signs of the undead. The door opened, it was a large cupboard, a small window allowed some light to flow in, illuminating the room. Her eye caught the radio instantly; she fell towards it, her hands immediately pressing any buttons she could find. The light flashed green as she picked up the receiver.

"My name is Lila Belle Wyatt, my family were evacuated from New Orleans when the virus started to spread, I'm somewhere outside of Atlanta, Georgia, maybe fifty or sixty miles…I don't know…" She spoke, her hand clasped to her sweaty forehead as she tried to think of what to say…why had she gone through all of this trouble? What had she expected?

"I repeat, my name is Lila Belle Wyatt. I'm somewhere outside of Atlanta, about 50 or 60 miles East…" She clicked the button off a second time as she waited for a reply, but nothing but static sounded from the radio. A loud banging against the cupboard door caused Lila to jump back from the desk, the groaning and scratching was too familiar and she instinctively pushed one of the shelves up against the door. It was only then that her eyes came into contact with the boxes on the shelves. This hadn't just been a cupboard full of cleaning supplies…she picked up one of the boxes and opened it up to find it was filled with ammo. Her eyes widened, but she didn't have time to enjoy her good fortune, instead she just started filling her backpack with the boxes before opening the window and climbing out. The walkers were scattered around but seemed fairly preoccupied with…Lila took a moment to stare towards the school bus, someone was inside, someone that looked a hell of a lot like Shane but not just that, Rick was running away from the bus, leaving him for dead.

She beat her way through two walkers before she ran towards the school bus, her eyes met with Shane's and she could see he was terrified. Her hands rattled at the emergency door, but she couldn't break it open. As more and more walkers began to notice her, she thought she was going to have to run for it and leave Shane behind…this must have been clear by the look in her eyes as Shane began to shout.

"No! You can't all leave me here!" He yelled.

"Who are you with?" Lila yelled back, wanting some clarification that it had been Rick she'd seen running away from the bus.

"Rick, look Lila, I ain't really got time to chat," Shane hissed in reply.

Lila forced herself against the door again until it finally gave way. Shane clambered out just as the SUV swerved towards them.

"Get in!" Rick yelled from the driver's seat, Shane climbed in but Lila paused, looking back towards the walkers, she gave in and got into the SUV with little other choice.

"Fancy telling me what the hell you're doing out here?" Lila asked as soon as they sped away in the SUV, Rick looked back towards her momentarily, a frown on his brow.

"And what exactly did I just witness?" She asked, "You leave all your friends for dead, Rick?"

"It's complicated," Rick mumbled, his foot pressing harder on the accelerator.

"Why were you out here?" Lila asked a third time.

"Why were you out here?" Shane asked and immediately Lila realised she probably had some explaining to do.

"It's complicated," She mimicked Rick's tone, crossing her arms and slumping down in the back seat as they drove back towards the farmhouse.

The SUV came to a halt outside of the farmhouse and Lila was the first one to get out, a few people appeared as she turned to look towards Rick, who had moved around the back of the vehicle and was opening the trunk. It was only then when she caught a glimpse of the man inside.

Her jaw locked and she instantly reached for one of the police batons that were tucked away in their holsters. She flicked it to its full length as she stormed towards where Rick stood next to a cuffed Randall.

"Do you have any decency?" Lila shouted towards Rick, her hands shaking with anger.

"What was I supposed to do? Tell you he was in there? You'd have never gotten in the car," Rick replied calmly, Lila was standing just inches from him now, her green eyes looking up to him with a stern expression, Shane held Randall in place.

"Tell the truth, explain why you both look like shit, explain that you chose that piece of shit over Shane. Explain everything, then see how fucking noble you look."

Lila stepped back from Rick and looked over to Randall.

"I'll kill him," Lila stated matter of factly, "If you don't do whatever the hell your morals will allow you to do to him, I'll kill him. And I wont be doin' it quietly," Lila stated, "Oh and by the way," She pulled her backpack filled with the salvaged ammo from her back and threw it across the ground towards Rick and Shane as the others looked on, "Merry fucking Christmas." And with that, Lila turned around, her head down as she walked away from the others, pushing passed everyone in an attempt to get to her tent.

Lila sat outside her tent, her back up against a tree and a bucket of water between her legs as she scrubbed the police batons clean. She heard footsteps coming in her direction and lifted her eyes to look at the intruder.

"New toys?" Daryl stated sarcastically as he walked past her, sitting himself down on the ground next to her.

"I'm not in the mood," Lila replied.

"Brought this back," Daryl put her backpack on the ground in front of her and she glanced at it momentarily.

"That what you went back for?" Daryl questioned, trying to meet Lila's eyes, "The ammo?"

Lila shrugged in reply, her scrubbing grew even more furious.
"Seems a bit stupid, to go running into a walker infested buildin' to look for a few cases of ammo just to give to a bunch of strangers."

Lila put the police baton down and turned her head to look at Daryl, it was only then that she realised the close proximity, his warm breath tickled across her face and she tried to hide her nervousness.

"I didn't go to get the ammo, it was just a pleasant surprise. Figured it'd come in handy," She replied quietly. Daryl's eyes traced across her jaw line, down her neck as he studied the beads of sweat pooling at her collarbone, he swallowed hard as he glanced away from her.

"I'd have killed him by now," Daryl said, standing up from the ground.
"What?" Lila frowned.

"If it had been up to me, Randall woulda been dead already." He began to walk back towards his tent but Lila felt a sudden urge to stop him.
"Wait!" She called, causing Daryl to turn around to face her, he was biting down on his nails as his eyebrow raised in question.

"What now?" He asked.

"I thought maybe…" Lila began, trying to think of something to say, "I thought you could teach me to shoot tomorrow." Instantly she cursed herself, he'd never go for something so stupid, why would he waste his time?

"Fine," Daryl replied, causing surprise to echo in Lila's expression as she watched him walk away.