Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay again. I'm not doing so hot in my classes so I'm trying to dedicate more time to studying. I hope you guys like the chapter and please review so I know how I'm doing!
~Disclaimer~ I do not own The Walking Dead, only my OC's
Piper stayed in her tent with Bailey the next day. Daryl found her the night before, attempting to dig a grave for her mother among a bed of Cherokee Roses, beside the soft moss bed where she lay, with her bare hands. If it weren't for the small trail of blood coming from her head, Daryl would have sworn she was sleeping.
When he saw what Piper was doing, he went back to camp and grabbed a shovel, brushing off the questions being thrown at him as he made his way back to Piper. She had ignored him when he first approached, figuring that when he saw what had happened he would stay away, but when he came back she looked up from her dirtied and bloody nails.
He nodded at her once and gently pushed her away. He slammed the shovel into the ground, making quick work of removing the soft earth. When a sizeable hole was dug, he helped Piper lay Claudia in the grave. Before he started to toss the earth over her, Piper picked a large bouquet of flowers and placed it in her mother's hands. She then stepped away and crouched to the ground, slowly taking handfuls of dirt and tossing them over her mother.
Daryl gave her a moment before shoveling the remainder of the dirt into the grave. Piper placed a large stone at the head of the grave along with another bundle of flowers. Tears streaked down her cheeks, but she controlled her sobs, knowing she had to return and comfort Bailey.
She turned to look at Daryl, who was leaning against the shovel watching her. She slowly approached him, and he watched her cautiously. What he was not expecting was for the woman to hug him tightly, pressing her face against his chest. He stiffened, but didn't pull away as he waited for her to release him.
When she finally pulled away, she gave him a grateful smile. "Thank you, Daryl. For everything. We wouldn't have made it as far as we did without you guys." Daryl knew she was talking about Merle, but said nothing. He just nodded and bumped her shoulder with his gently before silently leading them back to camp.
Piper lay in her tent, staring at the ceiling while Bailey slept fitfully in the small sleeping bag next to her. Piper had gathered her mother's belongings, handing out her clothes to the other women and keeping a few things for herself and Bailey to remember her by. The woman tried to protest, but she explained that her mother would want them to make use of what she had, even though she herself felt it was wrong to be handing out her dead mother's belongings.
No one tried to talk to her that morning. After a few hours of lying motionless, she heard Bailey whimper and felt her as she crawled over and snuggled into her side. She wrapped her arm around the little girl and kissed her head. Bailey turned to look up at her, eyes full of questions.
"What is it baby?" Piper asked tiredly. She knew what questions were coming, and despite the absolute loathing of having to talk about it, she knew it had to be done.
"Where's gamma, mommy?" She looked at Piper innocently as she waited for an answer. Piper had to hold in the sob that threatened to tear from her throat. She looked at the little girl sadly.
"She's in heaven baby. Remember that talk we had when you're Grandpa went to heaven?" The little girl looked down before nodding, tears filling her eyes.
"I wanna see gamma…I no want her in heaven…" She started to cry and gripped Piper's sleep shirt tighter. Piper rubbed her shoulders soothingly as the little girl cried.
"You know sweetie, Grandma is in a better place now. She won't have to do this anymore. She can be at peace. And someday, if you're a very good girl, you'll see her again. When it's your time to go to heaven. But not for a long, long time. I can't have you leaving me, baby." Bailey considered this and nodded.
"Momma?" She asked innocently. Piper's heart both swelled and broke every time the little girl called her Momma. She was happy that she felt so close to her that she could call her 'mom', but she was sad that she had been away from her actual mother long enough that she either forgot her, or just decided to replace her.
"Yeah, honey?"
"Can we go outside? Wanna see Shaney and Cawl and Sophia." She gave Piper puppy dog eyes as she asked and Piper couldn't help but agree. She knew it would be hard to face everyone, but also knew she had to do her part cleaning up the camp.
"Yeah, we can go outside." Bailey hopped around excitedly while she waited for Piper change her clothes and pick out clothes for her.
Piper changed into a pair of dark jeans and a black tank top. She pulled her hair up into a messy bun and laced up her tennis shoes before grabbing a light purple sundress decorated with white flowers for Bailey.
She sat her niece in front of her after getting her in the dress, brushing through her hair and French braiding it tightly and shooing the little girl out. After Bailey had left, Piper took two deep breaths before stepping out of the tent.
She was met with the survivors shuffling around camp, mourning their loved ones or piling the dead bodies. The sight was almost too much for her. Every body that she saw was her mother's, and every sniffle and sob reminded her of herself mere hours before. She watched as Bailey ran to Shane, who had been hefting a walker onto the growing pile. When he saw Bailey coming, he dropped the body to the ground and crouched, lifting her up and settling her on his hip as she talked to him animatedly.
Piper scanned the camp when her eyes suddenly landed on Andrea, huddled over someone. She felt her heart clench. She ran up to Andrea, who cocked her pistol and aimed it at her before realizing who it was. When she made eye contact with Piper, both girls burst into fresh tears. Piper wrapped her arm around Andrea's shoulder as they looked down at Amy's body.
"Oh Andrea, I'm so sorry. If only we'd gotten back sooner…" Andrea shook her head at her and wrapped her arm around Piper's waist.
"It's not your fault Piper. It's not anyone's fault but those damn walkers." She choked back a sob and the two women sat there silently as they mourned Amy.
Piper looked up from her spot to check on Bailey. She saw the little girl sitting with Carl, Sophia and the Morales' children. They were huddled in a circle, drawing in the dirt. She smiled at the scene, glad to see that Bailey had accepted her explanation of Claudia's death without too much distress.
After a while, Piper rose from her place and patted Andrea's shoulder before making her way to the fire. She sat down on a log and started cleaning the left over fish that were going to be cooked for breakfast. She was focused intently on her work and failed to notice Shane's approach.
"Hey Piper. Need some help?" Piper shook her head, but smiled slightly back.
"No thanks Shane. I'm just about done. Shouldn't you be helping with the clean up?" She asked curiously.
"Nah, we're done. Just a few last minute things now." Piper started nodding her head when once again, hell started to break loose.
"A walker got him! A walker bit Jim!" Jacqui cried out as she scrambled away from the scrawny man. Everyone gathered around him, closing him in a circle while Rick and Shane tried to calmly reason with him.
"I'm okay. I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay." Jim chanted as he wrung his hands. When he saw that no one was moving away from him, he leaned over and grabbed a shovel, swinging wildly at anyone who neared him. Shane, Rick and Daryl wasted no time subduing him with Shane wrenching the shovel from his hands and holding him in a sort of headlock.
Daryl lifted his shirt up, and sure enough there was an ovular bite mark on his abdomen where a walker had clearly tried to take a chunk out.
Piper saw Bailey running towards her, and quickly scooped the little girl up and held her tightly. Piper turned to see that Shane, Rick, Daryl and T-Dog were gathered in a small circle with the rest of the group close by. Suddenly, Piper saw Daryl launch himself at Jim, pickaxe in hand.
Rick pulled out his pistol and aimed it to the back of Daryl's head. The gun gave a resounding click as he pulled the hammer back. Daryl froze in place, fixing Jim with a heavy glare.
"We don't kill the living." Rick said firmly. Daryl scoffed and turned to look at him.
"That's funny, coming from the man who's got a gun to my head." Shane took this opportunity to stand between Daryl and Jim.
"We may not agree on everything, but this we do. You put that down now. Go on." Shane said sternly. Daryl hesitated before tossing the pickaxe on the ground and stalking away to pack up his camp.
Piper watched as Rick led Jim into the RV. She saw that the others were finished packing up their camps, so she carried Bailey back to theirs and started packing up their belongings.
Piper heard growling and poked her head out of the tent. Amy was craning her neck up towards Andrea's face, growling and groaning as she was turning. Andrea whispered something softly in her ear before putting the pistol to her head and pulling the trigger. Piper felt a few tears roll down her cheek as she watched Andrea brush the hair out of Amy's face and softly place a hand on her cheek. Piper decided to let Andrea have a moment of peace with her sister and leaned back into her tent.
"Momma…where we going?" Bailey asked softly as she put her few belongings in her little backpack, leaving her stuffed wolf out to hold onto. Piper was throwing clothes and other little necessities into the bags before leading the little girl out so she could take down the tent.
"We have to find somewhere safer baby. Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you." Piper told the little girl with a smile. Bailey nodded her head and sat down patiently while Piper took down the tent.
After their camp was all torn down, Piper carried the tent to Daryl's truck, tossing it and all their bags into the bed. She turned and saw Daryl at the driver's side door, Bailey at his heels as she pestered him with random questions.
"You mind a little company?" Piper asked with a smirk. Daryl scoffed and shrugged before gently shooing Bailey towards Piper and climbed into the truck to wait for the rest of the group. Piper saw that the others were gathered together, so she made her way over with Bailey in tow to see what was going on.
"We're not going." Morales told Rick.
"Are you sure? On your own you have no backup." Rick tried to reason with him, but he wouldn't have it.
"We have family out there. We need to be with our people." His wife said sadly. Sophia and Carl were saying goodbye to their two children. Bailey walked up to the little girl and boy and hugged their waists softly, which they returned, tears in all the children's eyes.
Rick handed Morales a pistol and a box half full of ammo.
"This should help. Be careful out there." He told the family sincerely. Everybody said their goodbyes and the group made their way into the vehicles.
Piper picked Bailey up and settled her on her hip as she walked over to Daryl's pickup truck. She crossed over to the passenger side and opened the door, lifting Bailey into the middle seat and climbing in next to her. After she shut the door, she buckled Bailey's seatbelt as well as her own.
Daryl watched as she did this and chuckled quietly. "What's so funny?" Piper asked curiously.
"You really think those are necessary? Not many people on the roads nowadays."
Piper scoffed and set him with a mock-glare. "Daryl Dixon! There is no way Bailey is riding in a car without a seatbelt! Who knows what could jump out in front of you and cause an accident?" Bailey giggled at Piper's dramatic scene while Daryl smirked and shook his head at her.
Eventually, Bailey nodded off and Daryl and Piper sat in peaceful silence.
Daryl looked over at Piper for a moment before he cleared his throat softly. She turned and looked at him inquisitively. "Sorry. About your mom." He said quietly. Piper stiffened, but forced herself to relax.
"Thanks." She said coolly. She sighed and turned to face him. "I'm sorry. It's just…not something I can talk about right now." Daryl nodded and turned back to focus on his driving.
Suddenly Piper heard a loud 'pop' and the RV pulled over to the side of the road. "What in the world?" She said quietly, not wanting to wake Bailey. Daryl shrugged his shoulders and pulled over. They both got out of the truck and quietly shut the doors behind them.
As they were walking up, Jacqui was walking out of the RV. "It's Jim guys, he's bad…" She said sadly. Rick slowly made his way into the RV to check on him and Daryl and Piper walked up to Shane and the others.
"I'm gonna take the jeep up ahead, see what I can find for gas and supplies." Shane said as he looked through a pair of binoculars. T-Dog walked up to him with a mostly empty duffel bag and his pistol.
"I'll go with you. Back you up." Shane nodded and the pair headed off for the gas station. Dale and Glenn were under the hood of the RV while the women and children stood close together.
Piper walked up to Carol and sent her a small smile, which the frail woman returned. "Hey Carol, how're you and Sophia holding up?" She knew the pair would be better off since Ed was gone, but it could still be hard to lose such a big constant in your life.
"We're getting' by. We'll be just fine." She said as she smiled down at her daughter, running a soothing hand through her hair. Sophia smiled up at her and wrapped her arms around Carol in a tight hug. Piper felt a twinge of sadness for her deceased mother, but couldn't help but smile at the two.
Shane and T-Dog returned after a little while, bringing a half gallon of gas and a new pipe for the RV, as well as a few snacks from the convenience store they found. Rick walked out of the RV as they were passing around the findings.
"Jim ain't gonna make it. Wants us to leave him here." Rick looked deeply disturbed and his look was mirrored by many others.
"I don't know if I can be okay with that man…" Shane said hesitantly. Dale approached them, wiping his oily hands on a rag.
"This is what I was talking about before Rick. I couldn't callously kill a man, but we should take into consideration what he wants."
"I don't know about that…we're so close to the CDC." Rick rubbed the back of his neck anxiously as he thought about it.
"It's not your decision. Any of you. If that's what Jim wants, then that's up to him." Lori said strongly. She was sad for the man, but if that was how he wanted to go then he should at least be able to decide that.
Piper nodded in agreement. "If that's what he really wants then we should let him. I know it sounds horrible, but in this world where so many decisions are made for us because of those damn walkers then I think he should be able to decide how he finishes off his life in this hell." She stated sadly. The others were silent for a moment in consideration before Rick gestured for Shane to help him get Jim out of the RV.
They helped Jim walk to a large tree off the road a ways, resting him against the trunk. Jim let out a heavy breath as he sat there. Beads of sweat poured down his ghostly pale face and his expression was resigned.
"Do you want this?" Rick asked as he held a small pistol out to the man. Jim shook his head.
"No. You're gonna need it. I'll be alright." Jim sent them a weak smile. Each member of the group said their goodbyes before getting back in their vehicles and driving away. Piper climbed into the truck with Daryl and unbuckled Bailey, pulling her up into her lap and holding her tight. Daryl noticed, but said nothing as he followed the rest of the caravan.
A couple hours later, the group finally reached the CDC. Dead bodies littered the grounds surrounding it and Piper was filled with a feeling of dread. Slowly, everyone left the vehicles and huddled together as they quietly stalked forward toward the doors. Piper was clutching Bailey to her chest, with the little girl's arms and legs wrapped around her neck and waist respectively.
Piper walked between Shane and Daryl, feeling safest between the two men. Rick approached the door and tried pulling on the heavy metal shutters that blocked their way inside. After several minutes of poking and prodding, people started to give up hope, and panic started to take over.
Walkers began approaching at the sounds of the desperate yelling of the group. The children began crying while the adults scrambled and panicked.
"We need to get out of here! We can still make it to Fort Benning, Rick!" Shane said anxiously.
"On what? No food, no fuel. That's a hundred miles!" Andrea argued.
"Hundred twenty-five. I checked the map." Glenn said nervously. Piper clung to Bailey and watched nervously as Shane tried to drag Rick back towards the vehicles.
"It moved! The camera, it moved." Rick exclaimed and pointed up towards a motion camera.
"It's automatic, just dying out. Come on man, we gotta move." Shane reasoned as he continued pulling Rick away.
Everyone was slowly moving towards the vehicles, taking down walkers on the way while Rick screamed at the doors. When he finally started to turn and run, Piper heard a loud creaking sound and turned around.
The metal shutters were lifting slowly and a blinding white light exploded from behind them. Hope shined in each person's eyes as they turned towards what they hoped would be their salvation.