DARYL'S POV:

The next day, I was on my bike heading for town, in search of Laila again. As I usually did, I shut the bike off quite a ways down the road, pushing it off the street and angling it so it wasn't immediately visible. I walked the rest of the way, checking to make sure I still had a loaded bolt in my crossbow.

Just at the edge of the town, I saw the back of a huge crowd of walkers, wandering aimlessly through the streets. Cursing under my breath, I ducked into a shaded alleyway. From the mouth of the alley, I glanced around, sizing up the herd. There were enough of them to fill up the entire road from one block to halfway up the next.

"Looks like ya need some help this time," I growled to myself, glaring across the street where her apartment building was being flooded with undead.

My eyes followed the height of the building, lingering over the rooftop, searching for the best access point from one of the neighboring buildings' roofs... There. A fire escape that had been knocked halfway loose and now rested against the side of the building next to it caught my attention.

I threw my crossbow over my shoulder and dodged my way across the street, through alleys and side-streets until I had reached the building the fire escape leaned against.

Above, I heard the slamming of a door, coming from Laila's apartment building's roof.

Swallowing my apprehension at eyeing the rickety set-up of the fire escape, I carefully set a foot on the metal grating. I cringed when it produced a loud squeal. As I took a few more steps, I heard thwap, thwap, thwap! in rapid succession from the roof. I was about halfway up now, still working slowly upward. Then a small, dark figure appeared at the top of the fire escape.

Coming from the roof was Laila, attempting to rush down the fire escape, looking like she had done it many times before. However, she had been in such a rush that she hadn't noticed I was in the process of ascending the broken stairway. I felt sure that if I hadn't been standing there, she would have made it to the bottom without a problem. But my weight threw off her normal foot placement. To make matters worse, the moment she caught sight of me, she froze in shock and the whole metal frame gave a shudder.

The bolts holding the top of the fire escape stationary popped away from the building. Laila fell to her butt on the metal, holding her upper body up with her arm, strung over the handrail. I managed to jump forward a few steps before the whole thing came crashing down.

I felt the empty air beneath me for a fraction of a second before the heart-stopping sensation of falling took over. I could feel that I had something warm and living in my hand, it was still there when the structure hit the ground. I could feel slight bruising already beginning over my ribs where I had hit the metal grating. I gave a small squeeze of my fingers to discover that I had snatched up Laila's hand on my last lunge to the top.

"Oh, fuck," I heard her gasp. "I think I broke my leg."

I lifted my head, blinking through the debris laying around us and the wasted fire escape. Laila was laying on her back, leg twisted at an odd angle and pinned beneath the collapsed handrail.

Struggling with my shell-shocked legs, I forced myself to think through the distracting background noise of walkers moaning with interest after the huge metallic crash. I finally reached a somewhat upright position, though the soreness in my ribs only intensified with my standing. I tightened my grip on her hand and used my other one to grab at the handrail. I met her eyes and gave her a nod.

She glanced between me and the handrail with a clenched jaw, then nodded back and squeezed my hand. As I yanked upward on the handrail, her body gave a few silent jerks. I was surprised; the most noise coming from her was the occassional sharp exhalation through her nose. Finally, after three or four painfully loud tugs, the handrail released her leg.

I strung her arm over my shoulder, attempting to hold her up, though her face lost its color almost immediately after she straightened up.

"My bow," she whispered weakly, turning her head halfway back to where we had made impact with the floor of the alley, with nothing but a metal death trap between us and the pavement.

I glanced over almost without thought and ascertained what I had already assumed. "It's broken. We'll have to leave it."

"No, damn it," she snarled, voice strengthening as she shoved me away and fell without my support. She dragged herself up onto her one useful leg and stumbled over to the weapon that was snapped in two. She managed to grab the shattered pieces, as well as her quiver of arrows (some broken, some intact), before I scooped her up and tossed her over my shoulder.

We got a lucky break for once and found an alley that housed only a single walker. I took care of him with the butt of my crossbow, then continued on, not pausing to look behind me.

I could feel Laila over my shoulder attempting to crawl down, beating on my shoulder, kicking her good leg. I gave her a quick shake, efficiently taking care of that problem. I was in sight of the end of town that I had come in on, but there was a sea of walkers between here and there.

I gently set the girl down against the wall. Her eyes were closed, but she was still concious, that much I could tell from the tense set of her face and the uneven breathing.

Taking my eye off her for only a moment, I crouched and leaned out of the mouth of the alley, watching for any opening in the hoarde, any break in the madness. A few buildings over was a street running almost parallel to the road I had come here on, one that would be more safely accessible, thanks to the buildings blocking the street's view of the city exit.

"What's the matter? All out of bright ideas?" the girl whispered venomously.

I looked over at her. Her eyes were narrowed, hardened by anger and pain equally. "I don't wanna hear it," I snapped quietly, turning my attention back to the open expanse of street between us and anything considered close to safety. "Ya really think ya woulda made it outta there alive on yer own?"

Though it must've taken her immense effort (and though she showed it very little), she leaned forward away from the wall, to look straight into my eyes, fury lighting every feature she possessed. "I've made it through worse." It was impossible not to believe her.

I turned away from her as she gave a sigh and collapsed back again. "We're gonna head down that way as soon as a few more of 'em clear out of the street." I nodded in the direction of our escape.

She didn't look at me, choosing instead to glower down the alley the other way, but she asked, "What if they find us first?"

I looked her over, with her bent leg, the tangles and dust in her hair, the scratches from the fall in the fire escape scattered across every bit of exposed skin. "We just gotta hope they don't." I rocked back from my heels onto my ass, leaning against the other building in the alley. "I'll watch the main road. You watch up 'atta-way," I pointed down the other end of the alley.

We sat in silence, her fuming, me not caring, in the shaded alleyway for a good fifteen minutes before I saw the perfect opportunity to make our escape. A few yards away, an abandoned car sat, doors ajar and hood propped open. It was far enough away that it could serve as a distraction for the shambling masses. I squinted one eye at it. My eyesight was good, but it wasn't quite that good.

"Yer a good shot, huh?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I guess so. Why?"

I pulled the crossbow from my back and held it out to her. "Ya ever shot a crossbow before?"

I watched as she attempted to fight a grin, and then gave up. "It's never too late to learn."

I helped her to stand, bent low to let her rest her elbow on my shoulder to steady her shot as she gazed down the length of the arrow. She drew in a large, slow breath and, with a relaxed exhale, jerked the trigger back and sent a bolt flying in a controlled line straight into the opening of the driver's side door where it embedded itself in the center of the steering wheel. Noises galore began exploding from the car.

I took the crossbow back and replaced it between my shoulder blades, smirking at her.

She shook her head at me and rolled her eyes, smile slipping from her face. "Just because we share a love of violence doesn't mean I'm not mad."

I frowned and bent down to let her throw her arm back around my neck to help her limp along.

We were doing fairly well. The car was doing a better job than expected at distracting them, and we were almost under the cover of the buildings leading out of town.

Suddenly, Laila's foot slipped out from under her. She was looking pale again, I noticed as she began to fall. Luckily my arm was hooked under her's, holding her up as best I could.

"Shit," she hissed. "Are we almost there?"

"Close," I nodded calmly. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a few of the walkers on the outer edges of the crowd around the car looking up and taking notice of us.

She followed my gaze and urged me on. "Come on, let's go!"

We had a hard time running for our lives with how heavily she needed to rely on me for mobility. "Time to bite the bullet, sweetheart," I murmured, grabbing her up bridal style and continuing to run along, her hands scrabbling to find a hold on my shoulders.

We rounded the corner and came in sight of my motorcycle, with just a little bit of distance between us. I figured her consciousness was too inconsistent at the moment to trust her ability to hold onto me on the back of the bike without flying off. Without wasting any time, I seated her in front of me on the bike, cranking the engine on and up to a loud roar. We sped off with a few walkers' hands reaching out and barely brushing against the fabric of my bike jacket.