8.

"What'd you do that for?" Daryl came at Niko as soon as Rick pushed the door open.

"You mean, why I saved your ass?"

"I didn't ask you to save my ass."

She shrunk at his intense staredown, making small steps backwards as he kept pressing onto her. "But I-"

"That was one fucked up thing to do, lady."

"Well I'm sorry if I-" She stumbled backwards over a body.

"I don't give a damn about how sorry you are. The fuck were you thinking anyway?"

"I thought it was better-"

"Better what? Better for me to watch my friend getting torn to pieces and not being able to do shit about it?"

"It all played out well didn't it?"

They were nearing the wall. He could see she was trying to stand her ground, but her talking back felt like useless barking of one of those tiny, fancy dogs.

"Fuckin more luck than brains, that's how it played out."

He had her against the wall. He didn't even touch her, but he saw she gave in. She averted her head. "I just wanted to help…"

He slammed his palm against the wall close to her face and looked into her glasses really close. "It wasn't your call to make!"

Noticing the others were all staring at him, he scoffed and walked away, giving vent to his anger by kicking and stamping at walkers' bodies.

"Daryl…..Daryl!" Rick called out.

"What?" He answered with an obvious annoyance.

"About that entrance…"

"Mh-mmm," he grunted and searched around some more till he found his bow. He put it over his shoulder and walked back to Niko, who stood by the wall all quiet. He grabbed her roughly by the elbow and pulled her toward him. "Tell us where!"

"Ow…"She rebelled a little, which made him grip her even stronger. She pointed at the other end of the corridor. "It's that way."

"Do you think it's safe?" asked Michonne and took the stick from Niko's hands.

"Safer than before," he replied.

"C'mon. " He dragged her along with no consideration for her hesitant steps. The fury inside him didn't quite settle yet.

He was quiet all the way, so was Niko. It was down to body language between them. Instead of speaking out the directions she rather pointed at or pulled him towards them, where it was necessary. At times she shook her arm to remind him he was holding her too strong. He'd release his grip a little. He didn't want to hurt her, he just wanted to make sure she won't slip away again. The tension that lingered between them seemed to have transferred to the rest of the group as well and they proceeded through the corridors in silence. They didn't encounter a single walker on their way.

Niko led them through an old underground security tunnel, which, judging by the decaying walls, was dug quite some time ago. It must have served as an emergency exit or as an additional access point, either way, it looked long forgotten. There were stairs at the end of it, leading upwards to a round opening, covered with an iron net. The net was half bent, allowing for a single person to pass through. Pieces of flesh and intestines were stuck on its sharp edges.

"I guess that makes it clear where they entered," said Glenn, who climbed the stairs first and dropped on them parts of bowels.

Rick squinted at the light that came from above. "Be careful, there still might be some outside."

After a short while Glenn's head reappeared at the opening. "All safe here."

"You two go, I'll wait here…with her," said Daryl.

"You sure?" asked Rick, eying him with slight suspicion.

"Mh-mmm."

Once alone with her, he pushed her at the wall opposite of him and searched for a cigarette in his pocket. God knows, he needed it. He took a drag, keeping his eyes on her at all times. She didn't say anything, just stood there. He observed her through the smoke; her face was still swollen from earlier and there was a bit of blood on her cheek and her neck, which he presumed was not hers, just as it wasn't the blood, which was all over her t-shirt and jeans. Her skin seemed even whiter and smoother, when contrasted with all the blood.

"Why did you come after me?" she suddenly asked.

"I went after the walkers. That was the plan all along."

She smiled and looked up, towards the opening. "Right."

"Damn right."

Rick climbed down the stairs, while Glenn closed the opening with a wooden lid from above.

"It's inside the woods, but close to the fence. Michonne and Glenn will make sure to hide the entrance properly. It's a good escape route in case we'll ever need one. Your people probably attracted some walkers on their way out and left in a hurry. We found a couple of dead bodies, just by the lid. Looks like ever since walkers were dropping in through the opening. We were lucky to find it and seal it before an even bigger horde gathered," said Rick.

"It's no luck. I told you about it," remarked Niko.

"Yeah, you did." Rick took her by the shoulder and pushed her in front of him. "Walk!"

Daryl threw his cigarette away and went right after him.

"Michonne and Glenn will return through the main door," said Rick and once more pushed Niko, who seemed to be slowing down.

She stumbled but managed to catch herself against the wall. "I see gratitude is not a preferable virtue with you people."

"Well, you get to live another day," retorted Rick. "How's that for gratitude?"

Daryl kept close behind her, vigilant. Rick will let her be. At least for the time being.

The sun was still strong, when they came out of the block. Niko immediately covered her face with her free hand, her other one being in Daryl's tight grip. The three of them walked across the courtyard toward the detention room.

"I'll take her in and keep an eye on her," Daryl offered, knowing Rick must be tired and probably wanting to check on his kids. There were also several other reasons he didn't want to leave her out of his sight – Niko herself, who could not be trusted, Frank, who surely was preparing some sort of revenge, and even Rick, whose current benevolent mood might suddenly change.

Rick nodded gratefully and they were about to part ways, when they saw Sasha and Tyreese coming their way. They were both loaded with rucksacks and bags and Sasha held a cloth pressed against her face.

"Everything all right? You okay Sasha?" asked Rick.

Tyreese responded instead: "We got the supplies, but had an unpleasant encounter."

Rick stepped closer to Sasha and removed her hand from her face. She had a cut across her cheek, not very deep, but still bleeding quite some.

"I'm fine, it's just a scratch," she said, dismissing Rick's worrisome face.

"Walkers?" asked Rick.

"No, I mean, yeah, there were walkers as well, but we took care of them."

"Men. How many?" asked Daryl.

"Just one. Uhmm, don't worry… he won't be coming this way," said Tyreese quickly.

"You killed him then?"

"No, not exactly-"

"The fuck you mean?"

"Relax, Daryl," said Sasha. "He wasn't interested in us per se. He just wanted some information. Besides, it happened in that ghost town, far enough from here. The main road attracts all kinds of weirdoes. He sneaked up on me in the pharmacy, while we were looking for formula."

"An odd looking guy, dressed like some cowboy from an old western movie, all in black, wearing one of those hats, you know. He was packed with guns and rifles, two across his back. He put a knife to Sasha's face, said he'll cut her eye out if we didn't speak the truth… and that he'll know if we lied. He made a cut into her cheek, just to prove he meant it," added Tyreese, shaking his head. "I'm telling you, I was happy we didn't have to lie to that creep. We told him what he wanted to know and he went his own way, keeping his guns on us till he exited the store. Me and Sasha ran after him, but by the time we got out, he was gone, and all we heard was horse's hooves. We didn't think of pursuing him, we still had to take the supplies-"

"Wait…what did he asked about? What information did he want?" Rick asked eagerly.

"He was looking for a blind woman. And he said, if we saw her or if she's with us, or even if we just heard about her, we better tell him. That's all he wanted to know, he didn't seem to be interested in anything else. We didn't lie, we didn't have to. We don't know of any blind woman," said Sasha.

Daryl met Rick's concerned stare.

Sasha tilted her head to the side, taking only now a good look at the person standing beside Daryl. She repeated her words slowly, looking back and forth between Rick and Daryl: "We don't know of any blind woman, right?"

Thanks for reading. Let me know what you like or don't like about it. :)