Chapter 8

It had been almost 24 hours since Shane brought Krista to our camp. I stuck to her side like a thorn on a rose. I felt like her being out there for so long, all alone, was my fault. I'm sure it was; it was always me. No matter how hard I tried to make things better I always seemed to fuck things up in the end. Why bother to try and break that trend now? But still I sat there next to her. Not moving. When she breathed, I breathed. When she moved I moved; like magnets.

"You don't have to babysit me Daryl. Go, off and do whatever it is that you do." she motioned for me to leave.

"I'm not leaving you Krista. Never again." She looked over at me with almost pain in her eyes.

"You didn't leave me before; I left remember?" she said it without any sort of tone in her voice.

"It was my fault you left, and I'm sorry. If I didn't chase you out of the house that day, you would've been with us from the start and maybe, none of this would have happened. I mean the Merle thing; the zombie part was kinda outta our hands." She blew air out through her nostrils loudly; I guess that was supposed to be a laugh.

"You, didn't come after me." I knew she wanted to cry, I could hear it in her voice. But her pride wasn't going to let her.

"I didn't know you wanted me to." I said sympathetically. She rolled her eyes at me.

"You honestly think I'm going to believe that Daryl? If you think I'm that stupid then you don't know me at all." She was angry, I could see that, but I really meant it. I was never tapped in with my feelings, how was I supposed to know that's what she wanted me to do? I didn't know. Shane walked past us, glancing over at Krista.

"You wanna come help me with sumthin'?" he asked her. She looked over at me and I looked away. She was going to go anyways, why bother even trying to stop her?

"Yeah, sure." She replied without any sort of character in her voice. She got up and followed him and he walked away. I was kicking myself. I'm going to make things right by her. Merle kicked my ass into shape the day she left. I'd regretted every minute she was gone and I didn't go after her. But this was my second chance; this time everything was going to work out; this time I was going to keep her safe.

Dinner that night was loud. Everyone was laughin' and carryin' on; reminiscin' bout their childhoods or stories about their kids. I hated it. I wanted to go far away from them, but Krista was enjoying herself. She sat across the fire next to Shane and Glenn. I felt my eyes go back to her every time I tried to look away. I kept looking back to her. There was some shouting back by the RV, Ed and Carol; again. I wanted so badly to put a bullet in the back of his brain; but I didn't want to cause trouble in the camp. Not anymore anyways.

I could hear her crying, as he continued shouting. Nobody said anything; they just tried to ignore it. Lori would look up startled when he would scream loudly and then went back to her food. Sophia sat by me and she jumped at everything that went on around her. I shifted a little closer to her; trying to make her feel a little safer. She shivered; not because of the cool night air, but because she was crying. I did nothing but sit there. She wasn't my kid; she wasn't even my friend's kid. She was just a little girl that I sorta looked out for.

"You're okay kid, I promise you, you're okay." I whispered as I rested my elbows on my knees and my chin on my hands. She sniffled a few times and then stopped crying. She scooted closer to me and locked are arms with mine. My eyes shot up, only my eyes, to see if anyone saw what she did. Everyone saw, but no one said anything or stopped their conversations. I took one of her hands and squeezed it gently; I felt her exhale deeply. "I ain't gonna let him hurt you ever. I promise." I whispered and she tightened her grip on me.

After everyone was finished eatin' mostly everyone went to their tents. Krista sat by the fire; pokin' and prodding it with a thin stick, and then watching it burn. Sophia was with her mom, I made sure Ed was asleep before lettin' that little girl anywhere near that tent.

"So um, you can stay in my tent if ya want. Got a extra sleeping bag if ya want it." I said to her. She didn't look up from the fire that was slowly burning out. I sighed loudly so that she could hear me and sauntered over to her. "Look Kris, I get that you're pissed about me not chasin' after you, I understand; I really do. But your gonna have to get over yourself and forgive me; you ain't the only one here wit issues. So please, just fuckin' talk to me!" I noticed afterwards that I was yelling. I watched as she masticated her bottom lip.

"Yes, Daryl I am pissed at you. And I don't know how long I'm going to be pissed at you… And you're right; I do need to get over myself. And I'm sorry if I'm not the same girl that you remember me being; because I'm not." She looked down at the dirt between her feet and I shifted my stance. "I killed three people. People. Not zombies, living, breathing, people Daryl. I had to stab them in the brain because I couldn't let them come back. Do you know how long I had their blood stained on my hands? Like physically stained, on my hands because I couldn't fine a stream or a puddle to wash it off?" I shook my head. I felt bad for not even realizing how traumatized she'd been. Before, in our old lives, I'd be able to detect the slightest mood change in her.. But now, she seemed like a completely different person.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't realize." I stopped talking; I didn't know what the fuck to even say. I could see the pain on her face; fighting tears. "Merle wasn'tcher fault Kris. It was something shitty that happened and we gotta live with it." I paused, debating on whether or not I should say what I wanted to say next. How much more could she possibly hate me right? "I don't blame you in the slightest. I can see it when you look at me that you think I blame you for it… I just wanted you to know that I don't." she didn't say anything, and I was tired of talkin'. I started walkin away when I said something over my shoulder. "My tent is your tent Krista. The blue one by the truck; I'll keep the sleeping-bag warm for ya, if ya change yer mind." And toddled over to my tent, leaving her by the fire.