Sorry this chapter has been a long time coming, have finally found the time to sit down and carry on with the story, I'm really eager to see it through...thanks for all your reviews, they've been a real boost...keep them coming!
We reached the house again just before the rain began to hammer the ground. The daylight had been quenched completely and the whole house was bathed in gloom. I shook off my coat once more and strode through to the front room flicking on a lamp in the corner and running to the front door to check all the locks were in place. I could hear Daryl locking the back door as I ran to the phone and checked the answer machine: there were still no messages from my folks. Suddenly the fear of everything hit me violently and I turned to find Daryl watching me from the doorway.
"My folks", was all I managed to say and suddenly let out a barrage of exhausted painful sobs and turned away from him clutching at my hair letting the hurtful realisation that they might be dead completely engulf me. I felt him come up behind me and place his hand on my shoulder so I turned into him and buried my head in his chest. He awkwardly tightened his arm around me, his crossbow still hanging from the other and we stood locked in that position for what seemed like hours. I eventually broke away from him and moved to the couch where I lay down in exhaustion and eventually fell asleep.
When I woke up Daryl was perched on the window seat surveying the street and panic suddenly gripped me as the peaceful state of sleep evaporated and was replaced with grim reality.
"Are there any out there?" I exclaimed as I jumped up into a sitting position. He turned to me and rested those piercing eyes on my face but there wasn't a trace of his former aggression in them, they had softened completely as he took me in.
"Naw, we're safe," he replied without breaking his gaze. "Don't worry none about your folks neither alright? They'll be fine."
I nodded grimly trying to banish any unwelcome thoughts about their possible circumstances. My mother was a serial phone caller and for her not to call suggested something quite sinister but I pushed this resolutely to the back of my mind.
He got up out of his seat and without taking his eyes from mine he moved towards the couch.
"I'm going to go to the john, you gonna be alright?"
I nodded and attempted to smile reassuringly but had to lower my gaze as my heart was aching with worry too much for me to sustain it. Daryl reached down and clasped my chin gently in his hand, lifting it up so he could see my face. He didn't say anything but his eyes were passionately reassuring and I felt my stomach lurch with longing at the feel of his touch. When he left I fixed my eyes on the scene through the window, the rain had subsided but it was night time now and when I glanced at the clock it read almost nine. A great pounding noise jolted me to my senses and I froze with terror without realising in which direction it was coming from. The pounding continued once again and I realised it was coming from the front door.
"Hey! Come on hun it's me!" A voice sounded through the door which I realised, after a tremulous heartbeat, was Connie's.
"Shit," I muttered as I breathed a sigh of relief and went to unlock it. Connie stood in the doorway in a ridiculous pose with her mouth open in an affronted manner and her hands held with the palms face up.
"Uuuuh, where the fuck you bin? I've bin calling you all fucking day!" She shrieked without breaking her pose before pushing her way past me into the hall. I turned to follow her but collided into her back almost sending her flying across the floor.
"Connie, what the fuck?" I exclaimed, as her presence began to increasingly irritate me. I noticed instantly why she had halted so suddenly in the hall as there on the stairway was Daryl looking menacing and hanging onto the banister as if about to pounce. I glanced back at Connie and her eyes flashed with excitement. I knew she had always dreamed of bagging one of the Dixon brothers even if Merle was old enough to be her father, that wouldn't have stopped her.
"Daryl Dixon as I live and breath," she purred. "What the hell you doing here?" She frowned and turned towards me with a look that demanded an explanation.
"It's a long story," I replied as I quickly shot a look at Daryl whose glare was still fixed on Connie. Why was he looking at her like that? I scowled and moved into the kitchen, grabbing a beer from the fridge and taking a seat in the window. The two of them were still in the hall and I suddenly felt my heart beating quite fearfully with jealously as they were locked in that tableau. I heard Connie whisper something towards him but couldn't make out what it was. Daryl looked her up and down but didn't take a step towards her. She moved away with a smirk on her face and when she saw mine her face lit up and she grinned in that way she always does before trying to win over one of her conquests. Her crafty little eyes managed to seek out the anger in mine and with a bemused looked she perched herself coquettishly on the sofa and watched Daryl as he moved cautiously into the room. I didn't even realise that he was looking at me the whole time but my mind was so clouded with anger at her presence that I only noticed the roaring of the blood in my veins.
"You know Johnny has been pining for his baby," she whined with a fake cutesy voice as she crossed her legs. "He wondered where the hell you'd gone when you just took off like that".
"I didn't take off just like that, I let the asshole know what I was about and he couldn't give a shit! It's over anyhow," I replied with a swift glance in Daryl's direction. She noticed my look and immediately realised that there was something going on between us.
"I see," she smirked. "Now just how did y'all come across each other? You aint never spoke a word to each other before."
"I bumped into Daryl after I left the bar, I was drunk and it was dangerous, he very kindly escorted me home."
"Quite the escort," she said in a soft voice as she eyed him greedily.
"I'm gonna get a beer if that's alright?" Daryl asked with an irritated look before stalking out into the kitchen.
"Why are you really here Connie?" I snapped. Her presence was like a pestilence, I hated everything about her at that moment and I knew that she had probably gone home with Johnny that night herself. I knew that they had probably been fucking ever since I had gone away to college.
"You're my best friend and I was worried about you? What happened to, you know, our friendship? You're treating me like I was some sorta stranger. What the hell has happened to you Moll? You've changed girl!"
I laughed heartily at her insincere words and she looked as if I had just given her a slap across the face.
"Jesus Connie, there's no one else quite like you is there?" I smirked derisively before taking a big gulp from the bottle. I looked across the room which led to the kitchen and saw Daryl there leaning against the counter with a beer in his hand smirking approvingly while listening to the conversation.
"I'm gonna go upstairs and get changed out of these damp clothes and when I come back I want you gone, you understand? I don't want anything to do with you anymore. I know exactly what you're about and don't think for one second that I don't know what you get up to behind my back."
Without waiting for a reply I made my way up the stairs and into my room shutting the door behind me and letting out great big exhilarating breaths as I turned to face the door with a satisfied look. Finally I'd managed to say what I really wanted and felt as if a great weight had been lifted from me, as if I had removed a malignant growth. I changed hastily into a fresh pair of jeans and a clean tank top before making my way back down but half way down the stairs the sight of Connie pushing herself up against Daryl arrested me. He was pushed back against the wall in the front room and she slowly hitched up her leg as if to wrap it around his waist, her skirt riding up as she did so exposing her creamy white thigh. Her face was up against his and she was whispering something to him provocatively. He glanced down at the exposed thigh and smirked and with that gesture I became frozen to the spot, suddenly stricken by panic. What if he did actually want her? What if he didn't even want me after all? What if he didn't even give a fuck who offered it up first as long as one of us did? Had I imagined all the passion that had built up between us? I suddenly felt sick not just with the scene that lay before me but with myself because I wasn't going to let any man compromise me ever again and I certainly wasn't going to gratify them both by making a scene. I turned as silently as possible and made my way back to my room with a heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach. I defiantly held back tears of disappointment and stood at my bedroom window looking out into the street below once again. It seemed like merely seconds but suddenly the sight of Connie being flung into the driveway below the window by an unseen force greeted me. She almost fell over and dropped her bag in the process, scrambling about on the ground trying to pick up objects that had fallen out of it. When she had recovered she looked up disdainfully towards the door with a blotchy humiliated looking expression.
"Fuck you Dixon! You don't know what you're missing!" She shrieked before stumbling towards her car. I watched her angrily slam the door and reverse off precariously with no lights switched on before swinging the car around wildly and speeding away.
I couldn't quite believe the sight that greeted me and in a state of euphoria I burst out of the room and went stamping down the stairs to catch the sight of Daryl slamming the door shut with a grin fixed firmly on his face.
"I thought you were going to fuck her!" I shouted with marked relief at him, betraying my real emotions.
He looked up at me curiously and I felt my face flush as I realised that I had betrayed the fact that I had been spying on them. His expression suddenly changed from playful to serious as his smile faded and his eyes looked anxiously up at me, he took a step towards me but the tension of the moment was shattered abruptly by the sound of a woman's piercing scream coming from the direction of the main street and the two of us froze, looking up in the direction where the chilling sound had come from.
"What the fuck?" Daryl whispered and moved in the direction of the window. I followed him and at the sound of another piercing wail he went straight for his crossbow, moving towards the door. Oddly enough in my galvanised state of my mind I suddenly remembered that my father kept a shotgun in the back of his closet 'for emergencies'. I couldn't think of one more suitable than the present situation we were in now and when I came down the stairs brandishing a shotgun Daryl's eyes widened with disbelief.
"What the fuck?!" he repeated at the sight of the gun. "You don't have a clue how to shoot that thing".
"Sure I do, point and fire, it's easy".
"Fine, but don't come moaning to me when you're shoulder feels like it's ripped out of it's socket," he replied and we both moved out into the street.
The sound of the woman's screams were eerily muffled and as we moved round the bend in the driveway we could see a whole host of the infected bearing down on one of my neighbours as she held up her arms feebly and pointlessly against them. They swarmed in around her and that was all I could make out before Daryl shook me and pointed further down the street. There were groups of them everywhere along the street and the main road into town looked fairly populated as well. It was a shock to see so many of them together after only seeing one or two stragglers up until now.
"We need to get the fuck out of here," he said shunting me back into the house and locking the door.
"Where are we going to go? They're everywhere!"
"My Place, we'll go round back and head t'wards it from there, you need to pack a bag with everything you need cos we aint getting back here once we're gone," he said.
I could feel myself shaking and looked down at my hands, as I did so he reached out to hold one of them and I looked up into his eyes which were burning with both tenderness and impatience to be gone simultaneously.
"Go on girl, get your butt upstairs," he said.
I hastily ran back upstairs pocketing a photograph of my family as I did so and once I had packed what I felt I might need into a backpack, although I wasn't entirely sure what it was I would need, I headed back downstairs to meet him. We went out into the kitchen and after checking through the window we left through the back door. I stood for a moment just staring up at the house wondering if this was goodbye and not really feeling too sure of anything at that moment. Daryl laid a hand on my shoulder and I turned to face him, his eyes imploring me to move and yet showing some kind of understanding for the sorrow I was feeling at the moment. I nodded at him and he dropped his hand, turning towards the back gate and leading the way into the fields.