Chapter Four
The rest of the day had gone pretty well. Emily had asked around camp for odd jobs to do so that she felt that she had a place. Dale had asked her to get firewood (which she did), Carol asked for help with the fire itself (which she also did), and she had done more little things as the day went on. She had even spoken up a little bit when she asked for things to do.
As night came creeping, the fire kept going strong. She wasn't quite tired yet and at this point, the only people she could see that were awake were the people on watch. She stared at the flame as it danced and her eyes grew droopy. As they began to flutter shut, her body leaned lazily towards it. There was a tap on her shoulder and she looked behind her. She felt more awake for some reason.
"Don't go fallin' asleep in front of a fire." Daryl spoke. "You'll regret it."
"Thanks." She smiled and poked the fire, sending sparks and some ash floating into the warm Georgia air.
"So," He said, sitting next to her. "Mind tellin' me how you survived out there?"
he was still curious about how she had made her way from Alabama all the way across the state, defended herself against walkers, slept at night (let alone at all), and kept her heart beating. It was dangerous out there; he knew from experience. Seeing that she was awake now with nothing to do, he figured he'd ask her.
"Not at all. I need something to do." She set the poking stick down on the ground and tried to find a place to start.
*Flashback*
The sun was setting, making the Alabama sky turn a gorgeous yellow-orange. It was something Emily remembered all too well. A few birds flew across the sky, making the twilight seem almost normal...if it weren't for the moans and groans of the dead it would have been one of the most beautiful things in Emily's life.
She twirled one of her pigtails, looking out the window of her small, quaint house. Her brother, Aaron, was sitting behind her, a shotgun in his lap. He was prepared for anything to come, although nothing could be seen from where they were looking.
"You alright, baby sis?" He asked her. She seemed uneasy to him. But, then again, what thirteen year old wouldn't be in the apocalypse? He was only two years older than her and was overprotective. No boy would even talk to her or ask her out due to the fear of Aaron. He towered over most people (he was unusually tall for his age) and his light brown hair and biceps from football made him intimidating.
"I'm fine." She answered.
"Do ya'll want any dinner?" Their mother asked. Through all of this, she still kept some humanity in her by cooking dinner and acting like nothing was going on outside. She seemed unfazed even when the neighbor's screams of pain could be heard. The people around them were being eaten alive and yet she still acted like nothing was happening, that everything was normal, that everything would turn out fine.
Emily wasn't like her mother, nor was her brother. But it was odd for Emily. She barely had a Southern accent (unlike the rest of her family) so she didn't fit in much anywhere.
"I'm good. Em? Aaron?" Their father answered first.
"No thanks." The siblings replied.
"Oh well then." Their mother, Mary, began to put the dinner into jars and containers to store away. Hopefully they would eat them before it went moldy.
Emily moved away from the window, her heart saddening. She missed normal life where she didn't hear the moans that the wind carried. Aaron stood up also, being sort of a bodyguard to his younger sister. The whole family sat down at the kitchen table.
"All right." Father started. "Let's pray for a safe night and even safer tomorrow."
"But it didn't work." Emily spoke gravely, her eyes looking from Daryl to the fire and so forth. "We were ambushed not much later by a horde of walkers."
"Emily!" Aaron shouted, barging into her bedroom. "Wake up! Grab your bag! We have to get out of here! Ambush!" Aaron left the room and through groggy ears, Emily heard gunshots from downstairs and outside.
She grabbed her purple backpack (she had packed it a while ago in case something like this ever happened) and ran out the bedroom door fully dressed. The family had been sleeping in normal clothes and shoes in case they needed a quick escape. Thank God they had or Emily might not have made it out that night.
She rushed down the stairs and out the front door, looking for Mother and Father and Aaron.
"AARON?" She screamed, searching frantically.
She heard a growl and spun around. An ugly, smelly corpse stood behind her. It's mouth had been chewed off of its face, leaving the jaw bone and tongue hanging out. One of its eyes were falling out of the socket and was hanging by a thin muscle on its cheek. It outstretched it hands and opened its broken jaw but was blown away by a bullet from Aaron's shotgun.
"Let's get outta here!" He said, running up to her and grabbing her arm.
On their way to the woods, Emily's foot hit something. A dead body; one that was recognized by her eyes.
"DADDY!" She screamed, feeling a sudden loss. She reached down to touch him but Aaron yanked her away. She got out of his grip and grabbed the 9mm from the limp hand and ran off.
"Later, from my view of the woods, I saw Mother's neck be bitten off by one of those things. Aaron and I made it into the woods that night and slept there. He kept watch all night just to keep us both safe. In the morning, we made our way in a straight line to wherever. He gave me his hatchet to go along with my gun, which only had about six or seven left out of the ten it held. At night, while I was asleep, we were attacked once again."
A zombie bit into Aaron's arm, making him scream in pain. Emily watched in horror as the thing munched away on her brother. More approached from behind it so she fled farther into the darkness.
"EMILY! I'm sor-"
"I'll never forget that." She poked the fire, he face emotionless. Daryl listened closely to her, absorbing all of what she was telling him. Her brother seemed a lot like him. Maybe that's why she was so attached to him? "Aaron's last words, his last goddamn plea, was cut off by him choking on his own blood."
Daryl looked at her. He never heard her swear, although he had known her very long, but the last time he saw someone that young cuss was when he and Merle were kids. Maybe after that, he couldn't really remember. All of her talk about her brother made him think more and more of Merle every second. Was he suffering the same fate as Emily's brother? Was Merle going to die a slow, painful death?
"So..." He spoke, trying to tear his mind from thoughts of Merle getting chewed on by a walker. "Ya fled into the woods. What did ya eat?"
"Twinkies." She giggled a little bit. "There were two of them in my pack, along with a bottle of water. I rationed but still expected to die in the forest."
"I was lost in the woods once. But I wasn't lucky enough to have Twinkies. Ate berries for nine days." He thought of mentioning the poison oak but decided not to. He'd save that for another time.
Emily was going to reply but just yawned. She was tired now, probably from watching the fire dance and telling her story.
"I should probably get to bed." She stood up, setting the poker down. She pulled her hair over one shoulder. Her neck was getting hot.
As she walked three steps, she realized that she didn't have anywhere to sleep. She spun around and sat back down by the fire, thinking of nowhere else to go.
Daryl looked at her, an eyebrow raised. He thought she was tired?
"Nowhere to go." Emily said simply.
The man thought. He knew of nowhere she could really go. She couldn't just sleep by the fire, she'd roll into it and burn herself. She couldn't sleep in the open either. There were mosquitoes buzzing around. He sighed.
"Need somewhere to go or are you gonna be all independent and find somewhere y'rself?" He asked.
"Please?" She begged, assuming that he was implying that she could stay in his tent.
"C'mon. Just this once, though. Ya have to find somewhere tomorrow." He got up and walked to his tent, Emily closely following.
He reached the tent, it was farther away from the group then the other ones, and unzipped the entrance.
"I ain't got any extra pillows or anything." He said, stepping inside after her.
"I'll be fine." She told him, laying down already and yawning once more. "I camped out like this in Alabama once."
There was silence between the two as Daryl lay down for sleep also. His crossbow lay not far from him, only an arm's length away.
"Thanks." She said softly through the dark.
"Welcome." He returned, sounding tired.
The two of them fell asleep not long after that final word.
The next morning Daryl awoke before her. He stretched slightly and grabbed his crossbow. He unzipped the entrance to the tent and stepped out into the daylight. Carol was the first to walk up to him.
"Have you seen Emily? Did something happen?" She said worriedly. She was afraid of losing yet another child form the group.
"She's fine. She slept in my tent last night, she didn't have no where to go." He assured her.
Carol smiled a little, making a look of pure confusion stretch across Daryl's face.
"You see Sophia in her, don't you?" She asked.
The question took Daryl off guard. The name alone sent his mind somewhere else. He was silent for a second before speaking again.
"Huh?"
"Emily. You see Sophia in her, don't you? That's why you're taking care of her, right?"
He didn't answer her. Truth was, Carol was right. When he found Emily, he felt as if he didn't completely fail Carol and the others when he didn't find Sophia. He wanted to care for her because he didn't want her to become a walker like the other little girl who was lost in the woods. He felt like the protector of the group. No matter who he hated in it, he felt like he needed to make sure that they were all okay and alive. Taking care of Emily was like making up for his own failure- a failure that he hated thinking of.
"You do, Daryl. Don't you? You're taking care of her because you feel bad, aren't you?" The last thing Carol wanted was for him to feel guilty about her little girl.
He opened his mouth to speak but Carol hushed him. Emily was awake and was coming out of the tent. She stretched her back and rolled her neck. It was stiff from the hard ground but she'd deal with it. She'd felt worse when she was lost in the woods. She walked over to Carol and Daryl.
"Do you have anything for me to do? Anything that needs done around here?" She asked Carol. She wanted to make herself useful so that she wasn't a burden.
"Well, you could-" She was stopped by the sound of Maggie asking something frantically.
Daryl, not necessarily caring about what Maggie had to say, was making his way to the woods.
"Have you seen Hershel?" She asked, a look of slight fear in her eyes.
Emily listened to her, wondering what was wrong.
"No, why?" Carol replied.
"It's Beth. She was doing the dishes inside and she just collapsed. We think she might be in shock but we can't know for sure."
"Ask Rick, maybe?"
"I'll try."
Maggie was off to find Rick.
Emily watched her as she walked away and saw the boy, Carl if she remembered him correctly, sitting on the steps of the house. He looked bored.
"That's Carl right?" She questioned.
Carol nodded.
"I'll be back," Emily said, walking towards Carl.
The young boy lifted his head, his blue-gray eyes meeting her hazel eyes.
"Hi." She said, sitting next to him.
"Hey." He smiled.
"So...what do ya do around here? Anything?"
"Not much really. Kinda boring."
"Ugh. I know the feeling of boredom." She sighed, remembering the woods. She had nothing to do out there but protect herself and hope not to get eaten in her sleep. "Back in Alabama, when my family and I got bored, we'd go outside and catch minnows. Sometimes we'd eat them but sometimes we'd use them as bait for other, bigger fish and eat them."
"You miss Alabama?"
"Somewhat. I hadn't really put much thought to sweet home Alabama until now."
"What's it like there? Now, I mean. More walkers? Less?"
"I don't know for sure. But my guess would be...probably around the same. Although, I didn't see many out in the woods. Only about three, not including the one that tried to eat me when Daryl found me."
A door to a vehicle shut and there was some dust thrown into the air as it left the driveway.
"I think that was my dad." Carl stood up, looking out after the vehicle to see if he could make out who left.
"Rick?" Emily asked, hopefully getting the name right.
Carl nodded and Lori walked over.
"They're just going to look for Hershel, Glenn and him. They think he's at the bar, drinking again." She explained.
"Oh." Carl sat back down next to Emily.
"So, I see you two are getting along well." Lori spoke. Something about her seemed off to Emily. It was like she didn't fully care about what happened to Carl. Something else was on her mind, distracting her from her own son.
He nodded, blushing slightly. Emily tried her best not to laugh at him.
"We're just friends. I barely know her." He said, his voice cracking slightly.
"He just looked bored. I figured I'd tell him about Alabama." Emily explained next.
Lori nodded. "Well, keep safe alright?"
"We will." Both children said at the same time. Lori walked off, going wherever.
"So...what do you wanna do now?" Carl asked.
"Doesn't matter. Anything's fine with me."
Ok, for starters, the details are not going to be exact. It's been a while since I saw the series so deal with me please. And it's moving a little slow, but it'll pick up eventually.
Thanks to the more people who added me to their favorites and alerts! And thanks to the reviewers!
-Nat
(P.S. I apologize for any errors. I didn't edit this chapter, I just wanted to get it posted so I could start on my next chapter.)