Had two hours of people telling me how terrible my writing is today so I needed to enjoy writing something again, and who wouldn't enjoy some Daryl?
After Shane and T-Dog returned the group said their goodbyes to Jim.
"Hanging in there?" Ava asked as she approached the sheriff Deputy, he wore the last few days of exhaustion but still gave her a soft smile as she approached.
"Something like that." He mumbled, his hands finding his hips like always.
"How long do you think it'll take us to get to the CDC?" Ava asked him as she glanced around the open spaces behind Rick.
He adjusted his hat and gave her a long suffering sigh, "A few days, we're going around the long way in case a lot of walkers followed Glenn in the sports car."
Ava ignored the reference to the sports car, undoubtedly something stupid the group had done, "But I thought we were running low on petrol?"
Rick gave her a look, "Petrol?"
Ava clicked her fingers and tried to think of the word her sister-in-law used to use before she became a flesh-eating monster, "Gas."
Rick nodded, "We are, with any hope we'll find something to keep us going."
Ava rolled her eyes slightly as she turned to walk back to the back of the convoy, "And with any hope all the walkers will change their diets and go vegetarian as well."
Rick scowled at her retreating form as the young woman slipped into the jeep next to Shane before gesturing for convoy to start.
\/
They'd been driving for a while when then passed an abandoned looking house on the edge of the woods, the RV veered off into the woods and about a mile in the RV stopped and the cars parked in a circle with it to form a perimeter. Shane slipped out the jeep and he, Dale and Glenn began to set up a tin can perimeter, should anything attempt to get too close to them.
Rick approached Ava as she was sticking her head into the RV to check on Kyle, who was with Carl and Sophia being taught a card game.
"Daryl and I are gonna check the perimeter, make sure the coast is completely clear," Rick told her, "Will you keep watch until Dale gets back?"
"Happy too, I'm not good for much else." Ava gave him a soft smile and took the sniper rifle and binoculars from Rick and climbed up to the top of the RV.
After the men had been gone a while, Ava looked down at the sound of Lori sighing loudly.
"Problem?" Ava asked.
Lori stuck her hands on her hips, "Just wondering if you're actually going to do anything today?"
"I'm busy, if you want an extra hand go get Andrea out the RV." Ava told her.
Lori gave her a horrified look and hissed, "She's just lost her sister."
"Well I'm protecting your ass, and your sons. Can you shoot?" Ava asked her.
Lori stammered, "Well , I-I –"
"I said can you shoot?" Ava snapped.
"No." Lori huffed.
"Well when you can come back and we'll swap jobs, okay? Or better yet why don't you stop pretending that making the camp 'homely' is a priority."
"I'm trying to make things normal for the children."
"Yeah normal until a dead guy comes up and eats their face because the person that should have been on watch was ironing clothes. Now piss off."
Lori huffed, her cheeks flushing an angry red as she spun on her heel and stormed off, shouting for Carl to stay in RV.
The men came back in trickles and Dale climbed up to the top of the RV, "I can take you off now."
"I'm fine for a while, it's not like I have a tent to put up." Ava smirked as she rose so that Dale could take the chair.
"I hear you and your boy are sharing with Shane?" Dale asked, he looked slightly worried.
"Yeah we are, he says he's got room." Ava offered with a shrug.
"With Amy being…with her being gone I'm sure there'd be room for you two on the chairs or to bunk on the floor?" Dale offered and Ava gave him a sad smile.
"Thank you for your offer but I'll have to get back to you on that. Kyle is seems excited about it and I'd like to check out the state of the tent first."
"Whatever you think best." Dale gave her a smile as she stepped down from the top of the Rv and entered it where Rick was sat with the children.
"Everything okay in here?" Ava asked.
"Yes everything is fine," Rick said standing, he took his hat from Carl's head and gestured to Ava to follow him out of the RV.
"I thought everything was fine." Ava asked when they stood outside the RV and Rick placed his hands on his hips.
"We need someone to go to house we passed on the way in and look for supplies." Rick told her, his expression grave.
"And what? You want me to go?" Ava asked, eyebrow raised.
"Not alone, Daryl is going hunting around the area anyway but I don't want him to go alone in case he runs into trouble." Rick mumbled, "I don't want to ask –"
"Then don't," Ava interrupted, "What if the camp runs into trouble while I'm gone? Who will look after Kyle?"
Rick shook his head lightly as Lori, Shane, Daryl, Glenn and Dale approached them roused by Ava's expression, "We'll look after him."
"Like you looked after Amy?" Ava asked, tucking her hands into her pockets and ignoring the venomous look that Lori was giving her.
"We fucked up, we got too relaxed, it won't happen again." Shane reasoned.
"Look, he's not your responsibility so why would you look after him if I was go look at this house?"
"Because you're both part of the group now." Rick told her, his kind eyes imploring her to consider the dangerous task. He hadn't wanted to ask her but, as Lori, had pointed out, she could shoot.
Daryl narrowed his eyes at the group, "Ah don need no fuckin' help."
"Daryl this isn't up for negotiation, we're vulnerable, we need to stick together." Rick scolded and Daryl scowled at him.
Ava looked up at Dale, who looked about ready to burst at the idea of two of the groups best fighters leaving on a whim, "I'll go, with the condition that Kyle stays in the RV and if he steps foot out of it, he'll have someone with him."
Dale nodded his head, "Of course he can, the offer was open anyway."
"And we'll keep an eye on your boy." Shane told her laying a large paw on her shoulder which she moved away from and told Daryl she'd be ready to leave in five minutes.
Ava approached the RV with her and Kyle's bags in her hand and when entering put them underneath the table.
"So what you're moving in now?" Andrea asked from her position on the bed and Kyle glanced up from his book, looking back down when Ava gave him.
"Kyle is, at least until I'm back. Do you mind?" Ava hinted towards the door and Andrea rose with a heavy sigh, "No of course don't mind me."
Ava slipped into the seat next to her nephew and smiled when she saw him put down him book and fix her with the hard stare her brother used to give her when she did something stupid. "Are you leaving?"
Ava pushed his hair back slightly, he looked so mature right now, "I am, but I'm coming back. I have to go out and find food. Just like in Atlanta remember? You've gotta stay in here, in the RV, until I get back."
"When will that be?"
"As soon as I can." Ava told him, "Your bag is under the table I've put a gun in it, if anything happens, if any walkers show up then you take the gun and you protect yourself, you hear me?"
Kyle nodded and Ava kissed the top of his head.
/\
Since there was no preservation of time, other than Dale's watch, Ava could only guess how long they'd been away. To her it felt like she and Daryl had been walking for a few hours, she felt the familiar sting of an old injury at the top of her leg from running from Atlanta to the Campsite and the subsequent fight, walking on it was certainly not helping.
"You having fun dawdling back there, princess?" Daryl drawled at her about ten feet ahead of her.
"Up yours Dixon." Ava snapped as she passed her hunting knife over to her left hand and rubbed just under the hip of her right where the scar ached from over use. Daryl turned to look at her and scowled, "You can massage yourself later girly, we gotta find this house before ah can get us dinner."
"You get us dinner?" Ava asked, "What do you intend me to do? Go back to camp and wait for you to bring it?"
"Ya'll too loud for hunting." Daryl shrugged as they began to approach the house from the back.
"So why wasn't it you that heard me sneaking around in Atlanta?" Ava smirked as they came to a stop in front of a wooden fence taller than both them.
Daryl ignored her question and inspected the fence, he shook his head and gestured for her following round to the front of the house on the roadside they had driven down earlier. Daryl kept his crossbow raised and Ava kept her hunting knife drawn, they were too open out here.
Following the hunters lead, Ava crept into the back garden, trying to ignore the children's garden furniture as they inspected the back door. It was made of glass.
"We could break it but it could draw unwanted attention but picking the lock could take too long, I'd need a smaller knife too." Ava mumbled as Daryl inspected the small lock.
"Ya can pick locks?" Daryl asked her, almost amused.
"I had adventurous teenage years," She smirked.
Daryl narrowed his eyes in slight amusement and picking up a thick rock from a plant pot next to him he smashed the window with it and lifting up his crossbow he stepped over the broken glass and into the house, "Yah weren't the only one." He told her when he heard her follow him into the house.
They both advanced up the stairs and at the top went separate ways with two rooms to cover each. Ava pushed the door open slowly her knife steady in her hand. She stepped into the bathroom and quickly checked behind the shower curtain, relived when she found nothing there. She opened the medicine cabinet and upon seeing boxes of painkillers, tooth pastes and a first aid kit amongst other things, she opened her bag up and swept the contents of the cabinet into it.
After securing her bag shut and holding out her knife in front of her, Ava advanced to the next room but upon seeing the child's decorating, the English woman simply checked it was free of walkers before closing it again.
Hearing a noise on the wind, Ava crept downstairs, her eyes glancing over the mess they'd made when they'd broken and made sure nothing had wondered in. Ava followed the noise, her knife raised high. Her heart was beating in her ears and she swallowed around the dry lump in her throat. Her stomach quivered with excitement but her hand was steady as a surgeons. She'd missed this. The thrill of the fight. Adrenaline. Heart pounding, fighting for yourself and the person beside you. In her haste she rushed into the room, knife up in defence and stopped herself when she saw the crossbow aimed at her.
"What ya doin' creepin' bout?" Daryl snapped at her putting the crossbow back on the kitchen counter. Ava stepped fully into the room and shut the door behind her. She stabbed her knife into the kitchen table so it stayed upright and gave Daryl a coy smirk as she dropped her bag next to her knife, "And here's you saying that I'm too loud."
He glared at her but continued to pack cans into his bag and Ava saw the rolled up blankets at the bottom of the bag that he must have taken from one of the bedrooms.
"I've got more room in my bag, no need to overfill yours." Ava suggested as she began to check the cupboards on the other side of the room.
"On that leg, I don't think so." Daryl mumbled as pulled some pans out of the back of a cupboard.
"How did you know about that?" Ava asked, not denying it.
"Your tracks," He gestured to her feet, "Your right print isn't as solid, so you're trying not to put all your weight on it, what happened?"
"That's pretty amazing." Ava gave him an honest smile at his intelligence, "I got shot."
He nodded seeming to take that information in, "Life's a bitch."
"Ain't it just." Ava smirked as she took the pans from beside him and put them into her bag before Daryl could protest. They worked in silence for a while and divided up the forty cans of canned food, the pans, utensils, a pack of matches and the antiseptic hand wash they found. When they'd finished they glanced out the window to see the sky beginning to darken.
"We can go hunting tomorrow, we have enough to get us through for now, we shouldn't be out at night." Ava told him.
"Ah'll be fine, you can head back and Ah'll go hunting on mah own, ah don't need yah there." He mumbled tightening his bag shut.
"Safety in numbers," Ava almost sang at him, smirked at the look of annoyance of his face, "Besides, imagine the kind Officers' faces if I came back without you."
Daryl let out a dark chuckle, "Imagine their faces if they knew how much you wanted me to be a walker."
"Is that a bad thing?" Ava crossed her arms, instantly on the defence.
Daryl snorted, "That shit'll kept yah alive." He stepped over and pulled at the straps on her bag to make sure she'd done them right, ignoring the annoyed glare Ava shot him for his actions. Daryl turned to her and opened his mouth to speak up quickly shut it, putting a dirty finger to his lips and with his other hand grabbed Ava's upper arm and pulled her to the floor with him. She let out a hiss as her shoulder hit the counter and Daryl's large paw covered her mouth. Then she heard it. The unmistakable bang against the window.
Ava pried his fingers away from her mouth and leaned into his side to whisper into his ear, "Human or walker?"
"Walker." He breathed, his lips barely moving.
"How many?"
"Two that ah could see."
Almost on cue, something was knocked over outside of the kitchen door, near where they themselves had broken in. A groan. Another.
"That's four." She whispered as she began to slowly move away from him, and taking the hint he moved slowly. They both stood and tied their backpacks on, ignoring the heightened growls of the Walker outside that clawed at the window now it saw its prey again. Daryl had his crossbow trained at the door when it nudged open slightly.
Ava pulled her knife out of the table and spun it around in her hand until she felt comfortable. Ready. She took the lead, one foot in front of the other and when the door nudged open again she yanked it towards her and ploughed her knife between the eyes of the walker that fell towards her snarling. She pushed the corpse off her and kicked it away. She was about to step into hallway when another came at her grasping. Growling.
The body fell with an arrow in its before Ava could swing her knife up. She pulled the arrow out of its head and passed it back to the redneck.
"We know there's at least two more out there. Four might be a coincidence but I think guns are a bad idea for now, unless it gets too much." Ava reasoned as one of the walkers from outside stumbled into over the broken glass towards them. Ava rolled the knife around in her hand and when the walker got close enough she sliced out at the air, decapitating it. The duo left the still animated head in favour of fleeing. Daryl shot the walker at the window and it fell with a thumb. They ran out into the main road, both ready for a fight but both stopped short.
At least twelve walkers turned to face them. Snarling. Grasping. Rotting. Daryl and Ava began to walk backwards, both pairs of boots heavy on the tarmac.
"Theres probably more, we can't shoot." Ava hissed and raised her knife in defence. The walkers began to advanced faster. She'd seen their speed before in Atlanta. In a group they're be overwhelmed if they didn't act now.
Ava grasped his wrist as and yanked, so that he'd follow and the pair began to run back the way that they had driven earlier that day.
"We have to keep them away from camp." She told him as they ran. They diverted off into the trees when Daryl pushed towards the woodland. She could hear them behind the pair still but the solider and the hunter where faster. More used to the terrain. They jumped over the large roots and kept their footing in the sludge as they burst through the foliage. They ran until there were only four left following them. Daryl spun, raised his bow and shot three in quick succession and Ava threw her knife, hitting the walker in forehead. They gathered there weapons from the walkers, both being silent as to listen for others.
"We have to get back to camp and get us all out the woods." Ava huffed as she subconsciously rubbed the top of her leg where her scar reached out like a starfish, "How do we even find camp?"
Daryl shook his head and pointed at the almost night sky, "We're not looking for camp, now we just need to get up high for tonight."
"I have to get back to Kyle." Ava tried to Daryl scowled at her.
"Yah don't really have a choice. We go out in the dark we'll end up just getting ourselves turned round. Last thing we need is to be taking walkers back to camp with us." Daryl reasoned.
"Fine." Ava snapped, seeing his logic. She shot him one last glare before slipping past him. "That house couldn't have been the only thing out here, lets see what we can find. If there's nothing we'll just have to stay in a tree for tonight."
"You sound like you've done it before." Daryl mumbled as he followed her.
"Told you, adventurous teenage years."
\/
The sky flashed with lightening over the cabin. Daryl and Ava remained crouched outside of it. This was their last chance before a night in the trees. It looked like an old log cabin if a lumberjack had to be out for days on end. They approached slowly, leaves crunching under their boots.
Ava held the door hand tightly and Daryl stood, bow raised behind her giving her a sharp nod. With a sharp shoulder barge, Ava had the door swing open, Daryl rushed in over her scanning the small area. The pair gagged at the sight of the body. Left, almost open to the elements, the body was bloated and blotchy. He looked to have been a young man, a gun lay on the floor and brains decorated one of the walls.
"This wasn't that long ago." Ava told him and ripped a hand towel Daryl had taken from the house and handed him half of it. She tied her own half around her mouth and nose to stop the smell making her gag. Daryl gave the rag a pitiful look and threw it on the single bed where Ava had already put her bag down.
Ava shrugged, "You'll regret it when we move him." She warned him. And he did. As soon as the pair moved the body the smell worsened, attacking Daryl's nose, seeping into his skin and sticking to the roof of his mouth. They dumped the body a little way from the cabin and when back inside they barricaded the door with the bed side table and chair they found the body in. It left only the single bed in the cabin which they were both sat in. Ava took the rag Daryl had thrown onto the bed and soaked a corner of it in the anti-bacterial hand wash from the house.
"This should help with the smell." Ava offered, holding it out to the redneck who stared at the offering before almost snatching it away and holding it under his nose. Pride be damned. That body was rotten.
"Go to sleep, I'll take first watch." Ava told him as she picked up the gun from the floor and sat on the edge of the bed to give Daryl enough space to lay down.
"Why? Weren't yah on watch with them kids all last night? Why offer now?" Daryl asked, suspicious.
"Don't get your knickers in a twist, hick. You're good with this terrain I'm not. So you need the most sleep because I need you to get me back to my nephew. It's completely selfish reasoning." Ava told him.
Daryl seemed to accept the answer and, after putting his knife under his pillow, he began to fall into an uneasy sleep. He woke once in the night when he heard his bag and flinched when he felt something settle over him. His hand curled around the knife handle under the pillow but he calmed when he heard Ava shh him like she would her nephew and felt her move the blanket to cover his bare arms but not to restrict him. He fell back to sleep for a few hours to prepare for their trek back the next day.