STRANDED PT 3
They'd been scouring the woods for Sophia all morning when they found the camp. Lana watched while holding her breath as Daryl approached the tent and she wasn't aware of it but she was visibly tense all over with a racing heart. Andrea nudged her and mouthed, "You okay?" and she nodded, feeling herself become relieved when there was not a sign of Walkers only a corpse inside of the tent. As they made their way deeper into the woods, Rick and the others opting to push onward to cover as much ground as they could while they had daylight remaining, Rick stopped them all. "Maybe we oughta split up into groups." he'd been just about to say before the sound of bells rang out in the otherwise quiet afternoon.
Eyes fixed on each other and then at the forest ahead. Carol started to try and rush away but Rick and Lori managed to get her calm again, before finally agreeing to check out the source of the bells before going back to the RV and where it was broken down on the highway. Not a word was spoken as people began to split off into their own little groups, Lana wound up walking with Daryl when Daryl found Lana and said quietly, "We're gonna go this way." nodding to a path in the forest that seemed to be leading towards the source of the sound according to Daryl. They'd gotten halfway down the trail when Daryl spotted the small group of Walkers just up ahead.
"Still got that knife I gave ya?"
Lana dug around and pulled it out of her pockets as well as the gun. Daryl held a finger to his lips and then pulled her into a little thicket of bushes that was so crowded that the two were forced to stand body to body. "You scared the living hell out of me earlier." Lana whispered quietly.
"Yeah, well, Rick ain't no tracker. He needed my help."
"I know. And it's good you went, you just... Taking on that group of Walkers like you did with only that?" her eyes settled on the crossbow as she looked back up at him and added, "You and your risks."
"Don't know why in hell yer so damn worried, woman. Shhh.. They're comin right at us." Daryl held his finger to his lips and nodded to the little group of Walkers as they got closer to view. Lana gripped the knife, ready to strike if one got too close or stumbled upon the hiding spot she shared with Daryl currently. Daryl stared at her lips a few seconds, remembering how it felt to kiss them earlier; wanting to kiss them again, honestly. Then one of them looked dead at their hiding spot and Lana's eyes widened. Before she could scream, Daryl yanked her into a kiss after yanking her deeper into the thicket. He figured it'd be the only way to keep her from screaming her head off because he knew she'd seen them; she had to have seen them.
The fact that her lips are addictive has nothin to do with it. Daryl's mind taunted him as he broke the kiss and held a finger to his lips. The horde passed finally, Daryl said quietly, "Figured I oughta shut ya up."
Lana stared at him; lips still tingling and swollen from the pressure of his rough lips as they claimed hers just seconds before. I wish he'd been doing that for more than just to keep me from seeing the walker horde and screaming. His kisses are going to be my undoing. Lana thought to herself; she managed a nod and kept her mouth shut. He'd been moody all day, she attributed it to none of them being able to find Sophia, to being stranded on the highway because of the RV like sitting ducks, to the situation in general.
Because never in a million years would she suspect that she -or the way he felt about her that is- had a damn thing to do with it. "Yeah... Good idea." she muttered; mentally, she kicked herself. She should have just kept quiet. They stepped out of the clearing and started to quickly catch up to everyone else in the group, finding them at at church.
"The bells we been hearin... Set on a timer." Rick said as Shane grumbled. Lori fanned herself, the heat was scorching today for whatever reason. Carol sniffled, wiping at eyes that already stung from the thousands of tears cried and glimmered with thousands more unshed. The pews were filled, at first the group thought corpses but then those corpses stood and shuffled towards them. Lana was thisclose to being bitten but she quickly remembered the knife given to her by Daryl and shoved it into the head of the walker before it could get hold of her, Daryl following up over her shoulder with an arrow before moving to take out another walker, - a woman- with a bigger knife he kept on him at all times.
"She has to be here somewhere. I have to... I need a minute." she asked Rick, going to sit in a pew, bowing her head to pray. Her prayers, she felt, were being ignored, she was being punished... She'd wanted Ed dead and now he was. And she was apparently going to pay for her wish with the life of her daughter, the only good thing she had left in her life. Her faith was shaken to it's very core and she just wasn't sure how much longer she could make herself believe in a higher being if that higher being was willing to punish a bad thought by taking a child -who'd committed very little or no sin- out of the world, away from a good and loving parent... Sure it was a vengeful wish... She could acknowledge that. But she couldn't bear this, Sophia being out there, all alone.
Daryl eyed the wooden Christ on the cross and mumbled, "Grantin any miracles today, JC?" as he kept Lana close by, not even aware that he was doing it... But Shane knew and internally, he wanted nothing more than to go over and break the rough and rowdy redneck in half. He stiffened all over and stood, storming out of the church, Lori hot on his heels.
Lana rolled her eyes at having seen them. Her sister obviously had absolutely no shame whatsoever. She couldn't help but notice that as Lori rushed past them to chase down Shane, she looked a little green around the gills. She eyed her sister critically and almost stopped her but she thought about it and chose not to instead. If Lori was sick it was her own doing, her own stupidity, trying to ride two horses with one ass. The further out of the loop she stayed, the better off she was. The thought was confirmed when she heard them yelling at each other as she and Daryl made their way out of the church. For a minute, her eyes met Shanes... The hurt there made her feel like the most horrible person in the world but then she remembered why being out, being away from their toxic brand of love was probably the best idea she'd ever had.
"You alright, Lana?" Daryl asked, green eyes glinting with what might be considered as concern for a minute. Lana nodded and muttered quietly, "Just thinking... And a little dizzy." which was true, she'd started to feel a little light headed earlier. Daryl eyed her; his hand trailed through his hair for a minute and lingered there. "Water... We're gon find you water, woman."
"I'm fine."
"I know ya are, but we ran out of that bottle of water about an hour ago. Didn't I tell ya? Stay at the fuckin RV." Daryl mumbled, their bodies, he noticed, seemed to migrate closer like always. He just couldn't get her out of his head lately, or away from him. He knew they'd never work in a normal world, in the old world. He knew he was too messed up for them to probably work in this world, the new one... But for it to be so wrong... It kind of felt right. It made him hope and wish sometimes that he could be wrong, that they could work, that this whole thing feeling right to him could be because it was right. He'd been in a mood because this morning, he'd woken up, he'd discovered that during the night they'd sort of lain down on the bench seat of his brother's truck, she was tucked in front of him. One arm was over her, that hand wrapped around the handle of his crossbow just to be safe.
He was moody now because it was probably the best sleep the rough and cynical redneck had gotten in a very long time.
"I can't just sit around and do nothing. I'm not made of glass. Sophia doesn't need to be out here like this and you guys need all the help you can get to find her." Lana insisted, giving him a firm look, her arms crossing, not backing down. Daryl held his own, giving her a firm look right back as he grumbled swears under his breath. "Damn hard headed woman."
"Stubborn ass of a man."
CAVEAT LECTOR:
Another chapter posted and I am seriously beyond amazed at this point because I now have 28 reviews 41 favorites and 54 follows. And a special thanks to everyone who's favorited and followed and left reveiws because they mean the world to me and they keep me encouraged.
This chapter is sort of got a spin on the events that happened at the church in it... aaaand maybe more kissage? I hope to God Daryl is IC -or as close as he can get all things considered-, For those of you wondering what's going to happen with the baby thing, just wait and see... I will tell you that Daryl and Lana are a great deal closer to being an actual thing, however. I won't say when or how but soon... I promise.
