Rose leaned against the wall near the kitchen, biting her nails nervously as she waited for Daryl to get back. It was dark now, and there was still no sign of any of them. Jamie was sitting on the couch beside Andrea holding her knees to her chest as she sucked her thumb; a habit Rose was never able to break her from.
"I'm going after them," Andrea says standing up, Rose walking over to follow her lead when Lori shakes her head.
"Don't they could be anywhere," She starts looking up at the two women as Rose pulled her gun out, checking her ammo. "And if Randall comes back we're going to need you." Lori says her eyes falling to Rose as she sighed. The front door opened and Jamie was up, running at the sound when Daryl and Glenn came in, Jamie wrapping her arms around him before he could even say a word.
"Rick and Shane ain't back?" He asks his hand going to Jamie's shoulder to push her along in front of him as he moved further into the room.
"No," Lori says standing up shaking her head.
"We heard a shot."
"Maybe they found Randall." Rose throws in, trying to reassure him as she crosses over to him, Daryl shaking his head.
"We found him," He says looking down at Rose as she looks at him, waiting for him or Glenn to explain what happened.
"Is he back in the shed?" Maggie asks Rose glancing over at her as she looks at Glenn.
"No, he was a walker."
"Kid should've stayed where he was," She mutters running a hand through her hair as Hershel asks if they found the walker that bit him.
"Yeah the weird thing is he wasn't bite." Glenn says, catching everyone's attention and Rose shook her head.
"He had to have been bit, or he wouldn've been a walker." She says, and Daryl sighs looking down at her.
"His neck was broke,"
"So he fought back," She says making Daryl shake his head.
"The thing is that Shane and Randall's tracks were right on top of each other, and Shane ain't no tracker so he didn't come up behind him, they were together." Daryl explains, Rose looking over at Lori as she comes up and asks Daryl to go back out to look for him. He agrees and Rose following him out to talk to him.
Daryl stops Rose as soon as he sees the scene, Rose's jaw dropping as she sees all the walkers on the farm.
"Oh fuck," She says turning around as everyone makes their way out having about the same reaction as her. "We have to get out of here." She says, feeling Jamie grab her hand as she let out a whimper.
"Carl's gone," Rose hears Lori's voice and bites her tongue as she thought about making a snaky comment. "He...He was upstairs, I can't find him anymore."
"Maybe he's hiding," Glenn throws in trying to reassure her but she shakes her head.
"He's supposed to be upstairs; I'm not leaving without my boy." She snaps and Carol goes over to comfort her then leads her back inside to look for Carl. Rose squeezes Jamie's hand tightly, knowing she wasn't going to let her out of her sign for one second.
"We've got to get out of here." Rose says looking over at Daryl as he nods, and she leaves him pulling Jamie alongside her. "Come on Jamie, get everything you can, we'll start putting it in the trunk." Rose says quickly, gathering up clothes the boxes she had yet to unpack, and hurried back out the front door not even stopping to look at the now aflame barn. Her SUV was parked to the side of house still, and she opened the unlocked trunk throwing her things in, Jamie doing the same. Rose goes to run in again, and Daryl grips her arm pulling her to him.
"What are you doing?" He asks in a whisper pulling her away from the front door where Jamie was running in and out, throwing things into the trunk.
"I'm getting my daughter the hell out of here," She whispers back impatiently, looking back at the walkers that were getting closer.
"We're going to defend the farm, the group wants to stay." Daryl says and Rose looks at him before shaking her head.
"I can't, do you see the walkers? This isn't safe." She says desperately looking up at him as he looked towards the walkers.
"We have cars, guns, ammunition; we can take them out, and then lead them away from the farm." He says letting go of her arm. "We can take the farm back, just stay...Please." He tries, taking her face in his hands. "I'll make sure nothing happens to Jamie." He says and Rose bites her lip before nodding.
"Okay…Alright." Rose says sighing, and Daryl nods pressing his lips to hers, Andrea runs passed with T-Dog, the two both blushing at the site of Daryl and Rose as they part for each other.
"We're ready," Andrea says smiling over at Rose as she sighs, catching Jamie as she runs out with her rabbit.
"Mom everything important is in the car." She says gripping her bunny to her chest as Daryl starts talking to the two behind her and she nods, crouching down it front of Jamie.
"Baby we're staying here," She says and Jamie nods slowly Rose looking up as Carol came out, "I want you to stay here, stay with Carol." She says and pulls out the small pistol from her pocket, handing it to Jamie as her eyes widen. "Don't you play with this baby, remember what mommy taught you." She says and Jamie bites her lip nodding, taking the small gun carefully, not touching the trigger.
"Where are you going?" Jamie asks and Rose glances out at the walkers.
"I'm going to go protect you; I promise I'll be back. You stay with Carol okay?" Rose asks and Jamie nods, tears building up in her eyes as Rose presses her lips to her forehead then stands, looking over at Carol as she puts a hand on Jamie's shoulder. "Take care of her for me?" She asks, Carol nodding at her before Rose turns and takes the gun Andrea hands to her, then follows Daryl to his motorcycle.
"Ever been on one of these?" He asks as he climbs on, Rose snorting as she gets on.
"I'm a country girl Daryl, course I have." She says, cocking her gun as he laughs. "Let's go kill these fuckers." She says, and Daryl nods starting up the bike, and heads towards the walkers.
At that moment Rose wasn't real sure what she was thinking, but all she knew was that she needed to keep Jamie safe, keep the group safe, and keep Daryl safe. She held the gun in her hands tightly; taking aim at a walker that was so far gone its face was mostly bone and rotten muscle. She brought it down without a problem, and took aim for another one close to it, reloading her gun as Daryl drove towards the fences. He stopped the bike and started firing as the rest of the cars drove past, firing away at the geeks, running some over in the process.
"Daryl we have to move now." Rose says slapping his back as a few walkers started to get closer, and Daryl kicked down on the start and shot off as Rose fired away at the walkers.
Rose kept a hold of the bike as Daryl drove around, taking out every walker she passed, before she had to reload her gun. She tapped Daryl's side, and he stopped the bike, taking over killing walkers while she reloaded. As far as she knew Jamie was either gone or still in that house and the walkers were getting closer to it, she had to be sure she was out.
She glances back at the farm that wasn't too far and she takes a breath and climbs off the back of the bike, Daryl gripping her arm.
"What the hell are you doing?" He snapped, taking out one of the walkers that were heading towards them and she shakes her head, pressing her lips to his.
"I'm going to go get the SUV," She had to lie about that part, he'd try and talk her out of it, reassure her Jamie was safe. But she had to be sure. "I'll meet you back at the highway I swear." She says looking at him as she hears car honks, "Daryl I'll be there I swear." She says and he nods slowly.
"You better be there Rose." He says and she smiles pulling away.
"Get to the highway Daryl, I'll meet you there!" She says and turns, running to the house dodging the bloody, rotten arms that reached her way.
Rose would have never admitted it out loud, but right now she was scared. Her heart was pounding in her chest, it was all she could hear other than the sounds of the walkers moaning hungrily as she ran passed them, the stench something she was used to now. She looked down at the ground as she neared the house seeing the body that used to be Patricia on the ground, her middle missing as she reached up towards Rose who held back as sob before running into the house, "Jamie!" She called, knowing her daughter would call back if she were in the house, and when there was no answer she nods.
"Okay, okay. You can do this." Rose mutters to herself, heading towards the kitchen, seeing her machete lying on the cot that used to be hers and grabbed it, heading towards the it, she opened the door slowly a walker turning at the sound of the hinges creaking and she swung the machete, taking its head clean off.
"Fuck," She mumbles looking at the SUV that was surrounded with walkers, "Fuck, Fuck Fuck." She curses, and runs down the porch steps, letting out a yell as a walker gripped her arm, but she turned and shot it in the face before it could take a bite.
She grips the door handle of the SUV, throwing it open to slam into one of the walker's head before she jumped in, tossing the machete in the passenger side and closes the door behind her, locking it quickly as the walkers started to father around the car, beating the glass leaving blood handprints as they pushed at the car.
Rose reaches into her coat pocket, her hands trembling as she searches for her keys, she hears something crack and she looks behind her seeing the back window starting to break.
"Oh fuck," She cries and grips the keys, putting them into the ignition and starts the car just in time for the walkers to break the back window, she put the car into reverse and backed up, running over a few in the process as she swung the car around, put it back into drive and slammed on the gas pedal, walkers clawing at it as she tried to get away, not able to see herself about to drive into a line of trees.
xXxXx
Daryl watched the barn burn from a safe distance, the walkers making their pursuit to where Rose was, he should have gone with her, now she was probably being eaten alive by those monsters, and he'd have to go and tell Jamie her mother was dead. He heard screaming and the sound of Carol crying for help and he gripped the handle bars of the motorcycle, and turned it to the farm, kicking it into start to go save her seeing her running away from a group of walkers.
"Come on, I ain't got all day!" He calls out to her as she runs a bit faster and climbs on, the walkers right behind them as she screams for him to go, wrapping her arms around his middle.
"Didja see Rose?" He calls out to her, trying to distract her from the walkers as they passed them, he feels her shake her head as she sobs more.
"She crashed," The words left Carol's mouth and he swallows down the lump in his throat, driving faster now, not speaking anymore, not listening to her crying, he just drove to that highway and prayed that she was wrong, that Rose would be there waiting for him.
xXxXx
Daryl could see the figures of three people as he headed towards the highway, but when he parked the motorcycle, and Carol climbed off he saw none of them were Rose. Rick came over to him and greeted him before Daryl climbed off his bike, Jamie running over to him tears streaming down her face and she threw her arms around his legs, hugging him as she cried. He looked around as everyone came out of the cars, scanning the faces for Rose, but she wasn't there…She wasn't at the highway like she had promised.
"Where'd you find everyone?" Not everyone. Daryl thought to himself as Rick asked the question.
"Saw this guy's tail lights zigg zagging all over the road," Daryl gestured with his hands looking over at Glenn, "Figured he had to be Asian driving like that." He says smiling a little, doing his best to try and lightening up the dark mood, making Glenn chuckle as he nodded.
"Good one," Glenn says smiling despite the racial gest at him, looking towards Jamie as she clutched onto Daryl's leg looking around.
"Where's mom?" Everyone turned to look at her, now noticing Rose was absent from the group.
"Where's the rest of us?" Daryl asks, his hand going to Jamie's hair to try and calm her down.
"We're the only ones who've made it so far." Rick says, looking down at Jamie as she squeezes her eyes shut, starting to cry.
Daryl listens as everyone starts to say who they saw killed, Shane was dead, Patricia was dead, Jimmy was dead…Rose was more than likely dead. And Andrea was missing.
"Rose got crashed into some trees," Carol spoke up now when people started asking, "Walkers swarmed the car…I heard gun shots but." She trailed off looking down at Jamie.
"We have to go back," Daryl said now walking over to his bike, "I'll go find them, they're probably wandering in the woods together." He says and Rick stops him.
"We can't just leave them." He says, there was no way in hell he was just going to leave. Not without knowing if she was okay.
"She isn't there." Rick says shaking his head, "They're somewhere else, or she's dead. There is no way to find them."
"So we're not even going to look for them?" Glenn says, and turns at the sound of a walker coming towards them, tuning out what Rick was saying now as he watched it get closer. Rose was gone. She was gone and he had let her go. Jamie was alone now and it was his fault, he had gotten her mother killed. He shakes his head, thinking to himself he was done caring, all it done was cause him pain, if she was alive he was going to be done, but with his luck she'd be dead anyways.
"Stay off the main roads, bigger the roads the more walkers. Just more assholes like this one." He says now as T-Dog suggests they go east, he grabs his crossbow and heads towards it, taking aim. "I got 'em." He says and takes it down. He can hear Jamie crying, and Carol trying to soothe her as everyone starts getting their things together.
"Someone's coming." T-Dog says, everyone standing close together as a beat up black SUV starts heading towards them, the front window bashed it, and the driver's side window shattered.
"Mom!" Jamie cries out as the car pulls to a start, and Rose climbs out. Daryl couldn't believe it as he watches her make her way towards them, her sweater was covered in blood and dirt; there was a gash on the side of her head, blood trickling down her face. She was walking, she was breathing, and she was alive.
Rose limps towards them, her machete in one hand and her gun in the other she sees Jamie and she drops everything, falling to her knees to hold her arms out catching her as she runs into her.
"Oh god baby you're alright." She cries, burying her face in her blonde curls falling backwards onto her bottom as she clutched her to her chest, Jamie crying.
"I thought you were dead, I thought you were gone." She cries, Rose pulling back to press her lips to her face over and over.
"No, not ever, I'd never leave you." She murmurs slowly standing up, Jamie in her arms as she looks to see everyone smiling, tears in some of their eyes. Then she finds Daryl, him standing there by his bike, staring at her blankly as she walks towards him.
"I promised I'd met you here." She murmurs and Daryl looks away from her, he couldn't look at her, he'd fall right back into the place he wanted to get away from.
"What happened?" Rick asked stepping towards the two, and Rose tore her eyes away from Daryl, not sure why he was acting so strangely.
"Couldn't see where I was driving," Rose starts setting Jamie down now, holding her hand tightly. "Crashed into some trees, walkers swarmed the car, I tried starting her back up but she was being pretty difficult." She laughs humorlessly shaking her head, "They took out my windows and I took down as many as I could, then got the hell out of there."
"Did you see Andrea?" Glenn asked and Rose shook her head slowly her heart dropping, there was no way Andrea could have been dead…She was her closest friend in the group.
"She didn't make it out?" No one answered her and she closes her eyes, nodding slowly as a tear slipped down her cheek.
"We need to leave now." Rick said softly, and Rose nods wiping her tear away. Rose stood beside Daryl as everyone started heading for their cars, Carol taking Jamie to the SUV to give the two some privacy.
"You're a real idiot you know that?" Daryl says with a head shake Rose laughing a little as she shrugged.
"Hey, I made it out alive, no bites or anything so you really can't complain." She says and he shakes his head.
"Come on, we need to get out of her." He murmurs and tries to move past her, but she catches his hand pulling him back.
"Hey, don't be like that Daryl…I'm okay." She says, making him look at her, "I'm okay and I'm here now." She says reaching up to wipe the dirt from his cheek but he grips her hand, putting back to her side.
"We need to go." He mutters, and walks past her, climbing on to his bike. Rose frowns as he pulls away, going to lead the group most likely and she heads to the SUV, stopping the grab the gun and machete she had dropped then climbs into the driver's side, glancing back at Carol as she sat in the back, Jamie in shotgun.
"Put your seatbelt on." She says gripping the machete and leans forward breaking the glass so she'd be able to see out of it better, then follows the red truck Rick was driving in front of her.
"Is Mr. Daryl mad at you?" Jamie asks, Rose glancing down at her before shrugging.
"Guess so," She says sadly taking a breath, she'd almost died…She would have been gone, Jamie would have been alone without her, she thinks now that it was a stupid decision to go back, but what if Jamie had been in that house still? She shakes her head, she made the right choice, she didn't care what Daryl thought. Her daughter was her number one priority she always was, and she always will be, even if there was a stupid, socially retarded hick she was starting to fall for flooding her mind.