A/N: -This chapter was SO long that I had to split it in two, so here's the first part, and the second part is just about done, just needs to be cleaned up.
-I have to thank everyone that has been with me so far in this story, and i have to say; i honestly never saw myself making it this far.
-this chapter was kinda the peak of my imaginings (which is why it's so long), and i never really saw myself going past this one. That being said i'm really not sure what will happen from here on out. If there will be more chapters to add after part 2 or not...
-I definitely want to write more stories though, now that I got my feet wet!
-Moving on...If you're a fan of the comic, you're going to find a lot being referenced here, with some things altered as i input my own flare to it
Disclaimer: The Walking Dead and its characters, both tv and comic series, definitely definitely DEFINITELY do not belong to me!
The black smoke was so thick she could barely see her hand in front of her face as it consumed everything in the vicinity. Its toxin clouds invaded her lungs choking her and caused her eyes to burn in their sockets. Carol inched with slow steps closer to the wreckage, ignoring the heat of the flames bursting forth from the overturned truck that lay in ruins.
'Please be alive…Please, just please...' Her own voice echoed in her mind desperate as she took in the devastation that she knew no being could survive. Bodies littered the ground all around the wreckage; some in pieces, and a tire rolled passed her that once was attached to the flaming vehicle. She stepped over various items strewn all across the cement from the run, and searched desperately for any sign of life. Noticing the back of a familiar head face down on the ground she bent down to get a closer look. Her eyes welled with hot tears as she forced back the sobs that threatened to overtake her. Carol gently stroked the back of Glenn's bloodied head not daring to turn him over and reveal what she knew she couldn't stomach. She turned away continuing her trek through the remains. As she began to circle towards the back of the truck her accelerated heart rate told her she was getting closer to what she prayed not to see, but she pushed forward needing confirmation.
Turning the corner, she fell apart. "NOO!" Carol screamed hysterically falling to her knees in front of the crumbled body that lay amongst the remains. She fell over him wailing uncontrollably into his back. Tearing herself away from his body she pulled back to observe him noticing a large deep gash on the side of his ribs. It was deep enough to reveal bone and she passed her hand over it wondering if it was the main contributor to his passing.
Footsteps approached behind her, but between the roaring flames of the fire and her sobbing she didn't notice until the hairs on the back of her neck told her the person was right behind her. Carol turned sharply startled by the presence of another, and was immediately bashed in the face with a blunt object knocking her to the concrete. The force of the blow dazed her, blurring her vision but she managed to catch a glimpse of thick black boots and a long slender object with a cylinder-like shape…A pipe? She wasn't able to clarify before the object was brought back down crushing her skull...
Carol jolted, her eyes opening slowly.
The light filtered in through the window between the blinds rousing her from a fitful rest. She pulled the sheets tighter around her body reflecting on what her dream was clearly telling her.
They were in trouble.
She was sure of it now, that there was something more to their being late than just coming across a simple herd.
It was almost too much to deal with now. She had been kept up most of the night still swimming in grief over the trauma she experienced just hours before. There was no way she could bring herself to sleep in her own bedroom so soon after what took place there, so Carol and Rick both slept in Daryl's room last night. Rick had curled up on the floor with a pillow by the bed while Carol burrowed herself deep in the hunter's bed sheets. She pulled the covers up to her nose burying herself in his scent. Dirt, musk, pine...earth. It was everything associated to him, and she wanted nothing more than to imprint his scent forever in her body.
Rick informed Michonne he would be keeping Carol company for the night after she had experienced a meltdown to which she was embarrassed, and asked her to look after Judith for him. She happily obliged, understanding the false pretense that Carol wouldn't want to be crowded with worry. She let Rick handle it.
Carol cocooned herself tight in the bed sheets drowning in his essence that still lingered, and let her thoughts carry her back to more pleasant memories involving his intimate contact. She soon fell back into sleep.
"CAROL! C'mon get up!" She woke with a start to someone violently shaking her.
"Rick!?" Wasn't he still asleep at the foot of the bed?
There was an urgency to his voice that had her fully awake in seconds. "Get up! C'mon we gotta go quick!"
"What's going on!? Is everything alright?"
"I-I'm not sure, but something's happening-just come!"
She tossed aside the covers, quickly re-adjusted her attire and followed Rick down to the living room. She was surprised to find the members of their group already there looking just as antsy and bug-eyed as she was.
The morning light blinded Carol as they all walked along the sidewalk heading towards the main gates. She caught Michonne's eyes silently questioning what was happening, but the dark beauty shrugged just as confused as she was. They all followed Rick as he rushed out of the housing district towards the main plaza.
Their trek slowed to a stop upon entering the main streets. There was indeed something going on.
Citizens were suddenly speeding by them in a flurry of motion. The scene exhibited bedlam, and panic exploded all around the group as residents were rushing in the same direction at once.
"What the fuck's got them so riled up?" Abraham huffed. Turning to each other confused, Rick and the others started to follow the crowd curiously when they noticed the direction they were headed.
Something was happening at the front gates.
Understanding of the pandemonium began to settle over Carol as they got closer, and she felt her heart rate speed up considerably. Her legs started to move more quickly of their own accord, pulling ahead of the group and trailing after the panic-stricken crowd.
Please...She thought wildly, now matching the pace of those rushing around her. Her heart was pounding in her ears at what would be revealed at the gates but she advanced nonetheless.
The truck rolled through the gates and there were a collection of gasps and howls of grief just at the sight of it.
Carol tried peering in-between the gaps, and over the heads of the crowd being stuck near the back, but felt her heart stop when she did catch a glimpse of it. It looked like the aftermath of a bloodbath.
Congealed blood matter splattered all across the hood and on the grill of the truck, remnants of walker parts stuck in between. The blood covered thickly across the windshield obscuring the view inside the car at its passengers. Its paint was corroded, chipping and looked like it would fall off with its blackened, tattered edges. The tires were shredded as it scraped to a stop, the front driver-side mirror was missing and all the windows were shattered. But the thing that captured her attention most were the bullet holes littered all across the car.
The jeep rolled to a stop in the entryway as some of the men slammed the gates shut behind it. The town waited in anticipated silence for movement of any kind, and Carol silently sent a little prayer up to whoever was coordinating the freak show that was their lives anymore.
The driver's door swung forcefully open, and she held her breath.
Fearfully, she took a step back, positive that if he were to emerge from this; he would be undead remembering the last time she was reunited with a loved one returning to her. She felt Rick's hand on her back to stable her.
Carol's mouth hung open in silent suspense as her eyes bore into the figure that emerged from the truck.
Her heart stopped beating.
Daryl appeared within view of the town that held their breath; his emergence signifying the hope they each secretly held in their hearts for seven long days, although his battered state left doubt. The hunter was almost unrecognizable as he stepped down from the truck. The blood was caked to him in curdled mess over almost every inch of exposed skin. His clothes were tattered hanging in shreds, and he sported a nasty split lip among various other nasty cuts and scrapes from head to toe. There was some form of head trauma as she took notice of the blood that dribbled into his eyes from his hairline. She noted his eyes were unseeing as he stumbled incoherently out of the driver's seat.
He looked like death warmed over, but it didn't matter. None of it mattered because he was the first one out.
He was the first fucking one out!
Carol pushed aside bodies as her legs started to move a little unsurely at first, but then picked up in speed. The tunnel vision narrowed her sight to focus only on the haggard, soiled man as she hurriedly rushed towards his battered figure.
The tears were coming now. The tears she'd been keeping held at bay for seven long days. Carol ran like she were a gold medal Olympian shoving anyone that dared block her path. Sobs broke free from her lungs and the world around her was falling apart, but it wasn't because he was there.
He was alive!
Daryl stumbled away from the truck and made it a few steps before collapsing to a crumpled heap on the ground and she broke through the crowd flying to his side without wings.
Carol fell to the ground where he lay, a small cloud of dust kicked up around them from her frenzied feet. She was vaguely aware of Rick and the others coming to crowd around them as her arms crushed Daryl's limp body to hers. She wrapped her arms around him and sobbed into his neck cradling him tightly in her embrace.
He was alive. Her life had meaning again and she could continue to breathe because he was alive!
Maggie's loud cry rose among the uproar of the crowd at her discovery of Glenn. The boy walked out of the truck almost in the same condition of Daryl, but was conscious. He and his wife embraced hard as they both collapsed to the ground in joyous despair. There was one other man that emerged from the truck, but Rick stepped forward when Tyreese and Sasha soon followed, helping Tyreese who was limping. It was a blessing for them as their group was once again reunited.
The town began to circle around as tears of happiness and loss were shed. Douglas had come rushing out, trying to organize the mayhem and console his people. Unfortunately, not all that had gone on the run, returned.
Carol hadn't taken notice of anything as her entire focus was on the body in her arms. The blood coating his body was smearing on her, but she couldn't care less as she nuzzled her face in the crook of his neck breathing in his tainted scent letting out a choked laugh. Her tears pelted his neck mixing with the blood, and she pulled away from him brushing his matted hair away from his soiled face. She smiled at having him in her arms again relief flooding all throughout her, but then suddenly she panicked. Her hands darted all over his body checking for bite wounds and injuries sustained. She gasped sharply when her fingers ran across a deep, angry gash on his side, her eyes widening at the familiarity of it.
It was the same one she saw in her dream. Gloom washed over her.
But then upon closer inspection she breathed a tiny sigh of relief at realizing that the one in her dream was much deeper and gruesome in comparison to the one now. This could be repaired. He would live.
Denise was pushing her way through the mass of people reaching the front where injured bodies lay. She went to Carol first addressing Daryl's fallen body. She knelt in front of the two assessing the damage. "Carol he's still losing blood. We have to move him to the infirmary, now." Her voice was urgent with authority, and she reached for Daryl's body.
Carol hadn't heard the words through her mind's haze, and only reacted when someone was trying to remove him from the safety of her arms. She clenched on tight to him fighting against Denise's hands. "Carol!" the doctor shouted exasperatedly.
Michonne moved to help Denise crouching down to Carol's eye level. She grabbed her friend's tear drenched face forcing eye contact. "Carol, he's going to be fine, but we need to get him to the infirmary. He needs treatment now, and we need you to help us get him to the clinic, okay?" Carol nodded weakly still refusing to fully let go of his body. She watched helplessly as Denise, with the help of other men lifted his limp form over their shoulders. Carol scrambled to her feet, and followed closely behind with a hand on his back as they dragged him to the infirmary leaving a trail of blood in their wake.
Daryl…
Carol still clutched his hand in hers long after they had finished working on him. She watched as his chest rose and fell steadily with each breath. How he had managed to go so long with his injury was a mystery to them all, but he made it. Now he just needed to rest. It would be a little bit until he woke up.
She was beside herself when they brought him to the infirmary earlier. He proved to be difficult as he started fighting Denise and other infirmary members while they tried to hold him down onto the table to start an IV. The clinic was a ruckus as Denise began shouting orders, Carol was screaming for them not to hurt him, and Daryl was flailing about wildly knocking things over, and even striking a nurse in his confused and delirious state. Rick, with Tyreese's help, had to hold him down for them to sedate him.
Carol couldn't watch. She had never felt more helpless in her life than seeing him in the state he was in.
Denise forced her to take a step back so she could take over working on him. Carol in her hysterical state proved to be useless as she looked on. Thankfully, with the aid of her helpers, Daryl's injuries were sustained by Denise, and Carol breathed a sigh of relief as they bandaged him up.
Carol sat at his bedside watching him sleep and wished he, and the others didn't have to endure what they went through.
They all got the story from Glenn as he received treatment from Denise once Daryl was taken care of.
Just as she thought, it wasn't the haul from the town that was the problem. It was transporting the goods where they ran into trouble.
It was an ambush.
He spoke of how their supply team easily wiped out the herd the previous team had succumbed to. They took whatever they could from the abandoned wreck and its goods, and packed up their supply wagon ready to leave. As they were driving back on the road, they ran over what he could only imagine were police road spikes, shredding their tires.
Glenn paused swallowing thickly as he reflected on the story of their journey. Maggie squeezed his hand reassuringly. "It's okay baby, you go at your own pace..." nodding weakly, he continued.
He, Daryl, Tyreese and another man had gotten out to inspect the tires baffled, when they all heard an object being thrown onto the pavement and rolled near the back of the supply wagon. Daryl had barely managed to scream out the warning before it exploded demolishing the wagon, setting it ablaze. The blast from the grenade sent shrapnel flying through the air, a piece slicing open Daryl's side. Three of their team that had ridden in the wagon, perished from the explosion while others that had stepped out of the car to stretch their legs were thrown from the force.
Carol stifled a horrid gasp unable to fathom the fear they must have felt. The amount of pain Daryl must have been in all this time.
It was chaos as gunfire erupted all around them and they army crawled through the black smoke, ears ringing, and struggling to get their bearings. Bullets whizzed over their heads, and it was hard to pinpoint the location of the attackers, but they were being shot at from seemingly all directions at once. It was a trap.
Miraculously their car was able to start as they all jumped in and sped away on what little tires they had left, initiating a car chase. Glenn, with some others, would hang out the shattered windows firing back at the pursuing vehicle as Daryl drove like a madman clutching his side. They were run off the road and into the woods by the jeep full of masked men, and were forced to take off on foot. Somehow, they were able to lose the men and took refuge in an abandoned lodge in the middle of nowhere for two days trying to mend the injuries sustained.
It was during the middle of the night, when all hell broke loose. The supply team was cornered as they were found, commencing an all out brawl in the lodge. A single shot wasn't even fired that night as the attackers caught them off guard and gained the upper hand in hand-to-hand combat brutally beating them.
Glenn paused in his story breathing heavily. His palms were sweaty and he leaned forward placing his head in his hands. Carol looked away at his pained expression. It was obvious he was struggling. His eyes glazed over as he replayed the gruesome scene he was about to tell.
There were only six of them left as they were forced to kneel in a line on the floor. Side by side, hands bound, they each released slow steady breaths so as not to aggravate the burning in their lungs from the throw-down just moments before. Unfortunately now that they were caught, broken ribs were the least of their problems. Glenn clenched his teeth wondering what the hell these men were waiting for. They had them all subdued; shouldn't they be eliminating them now? Instead, one of the men just kept walking up and down the line in front of them like he were debating which to take out first. He stopped suddenly crouching low and getting in Daryl's bloodied face.
"Hey this one's kinda pretty..." he taunted licking his lips."He didn't say we couldn't have a lil' fun while we waited, did he?"
Daryl spat in the man's face catching him in the eye. The other men chuckled at Daryl's reaction to his assailant, angering the burly giant. Glenn winced as the man lashed out forcefully striking Daryl so hard in the head with the butt of his rifle, it literally knocked him out cold. Glenn prayed Daryl wouldn't have permanent damage as he fell with a thud to the ground, unmoving.
The door opened then, and Glenn assumed it was the leader that they had been waiting for.
He didn't waste any time.
"Guna make this real quick fuckers." He paced along the line the way the first guy did. "Now not too long ago, Douglas sent some of his lackeys who killed some of my own...See...I don't take too kindly to mother fuckers killing MY mother fuckers." He paused eye balling each of them. "Now I ain't no killer...But you didn't really fuckin' think you were going to get away without punishment?"
The leader suddenly grabbed one of them at random by the hair and dragged them to the middle of the floor in full display of everyone. Dan, the unfortunate victim, panicked pleading desperately for his life. "Please! Please don't kill me-I-I didn't have anything to do with it, please sir I'll do anything!"
The leader made eye contact with each of them swinging his weapon in his hand. "This here's a fucking message."
"NO! NOO!" Dan screamed.
Glenn and the others watched in horror as the man smashed Dan's head in with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. The force of the first blow knocked teeth straight out of his mouth clattering across the floor and leaving a disfigured dent in the side of Dan's head. Sobs erupted loud in the lodge, some screaming while Sasha lost the contents of her stomach at the brutality taking place. Glenn was frozen with fear as he watched Dan's final moments. His body was twitching and he gurgled, choking on the blood bubbling forth from his lips. The man brought the bat back down smashing his head a second time, crushing his skull. Blood splattered on Glenn's cheek as brain matter oozed out of Dan's ears. Glenn paled feeling his stomach flip. The sound of bone crunching would surely never leave his waking mind from here on out. Dan was clearly dead, but the man kept going, repeatedly bringing the bat down smashing his head into a nearly flattened blob of brain content.
And then it was over.
"Now look what you all made me do...Turned me into a damn hypocrite." He chuckled, shaking the bloodied contents from his bat, and turned to leave.
The leader walked towards the door with the other men. "We'll be back to take what's ours of Alexandria Safe-Zone." He paused at the door looking back at Glenn. "Clean this mess up."
His laughter rang through the night.
No one stopped Rick as he abruptly left the infirmary, no doubt in search of Douglas. The man had explaining to do.
Glenn still held his bowed head in his hands as Maggie threw her arms around his back pulling him close in her embrace. She cried heavily into his shoulder, and was so grateful to have him back to her in one piece.
That could have been him...
Tyreese and Sasha had been silent, dark looks falling across their faces as they sat re-living the story.
Carol was terrified. Everything from her dream had been a foretelling.
She had been so close to losing him again.
Sometime after Glenn told his story, everyone had left the infirmary, leaving Carol as she kept vigil by Daryl's side.
She reflected back to when she was watching Daryl being worked on. It was then, she came to the grim realization that her love for this man was so intense; crippling her to the point of incompetence. She should have easily been able to work right alongside Denise in treating him, but she was incapable of even getting her tears under control. Carol was scared to death of losing yet another loved one; especially one she currently valued more than her own life.
She had to be strong. They all had to be strong in this world and ready for any threat that may come their way. Love was a distraction, and they couldn't afford to lose their lives because they were distracted.
It was with hard resolve, that Carol decided once he woke, she would begin the heartbreaking process of making herself scarce. It would prove to be a difficult task, especially considering they share the same roof, but she would pull away, act cold, be indifferent, do whatever it takes to force herself to unlove Daryl. It would be for the best in the end.
And so with a heavy heart, she sat each day by his bedside saying her silent goodbye.
Time stretched on while Daryl recovered, healing the bruise on her cheek erasing any evidence of the dark crime committed. With the commotion brought about from the return of the supply team, and Rick now interrogating Douglas, Clyde's disappearance was of no concern to anyone, and for the moment, they were free of suspicion.
Another long week had dragged by when she received news that Daryl had awaken. She was overjoyed with relief and wanted nothing more than to run to the infirmary and never leave his side, but simultaneously her heart broke at his awakening also signifying the beginning to their end.
-To the comic-goers: I just couldn't do Glenn like that...
-Part 2 to be up soon!
