Zirconia: I don't own the Walking Dead or any of the characters. I only own my oc who is Catori. No flames, please. While trying to edit, I probably screwed up and copy and pasted more than one of the same sentence or misspelled a lot of crap. Heck, there's probably words joined together without meaning to be so bare with me. Some of the dream bits and bits that are supposed to be like read from something were supposed to be in italics but I don't know if all of them copied like they were supposed to onto the document thingee. The part where her friend dies in school is based on what happened to one of my friends when I was in high school.
Everyone was still upset and depressed about Jackie being gone and the CDC not being able to find a cure. Catori rested her head against Daryl's back as they rode. She just said to hell with the helmet this time. She felt closer to him without it, anyway. Once she felt him slow down she looked up and saw the highway littered in wrecked and stopped vehicles.
"How are we going to get through that?"
"We'll manage." He pulled around a few vehicles then stopped. Behind them the RV was stopped and several people got out and Cat climbed off the motorcycle.
"This is a graveyard…" She heard Lori say.
They proceeded to search the cars, some separating from the others.
In the cars they found plenty of batteries, which were a perfect fit for their flashlights. Carl and Sophia had found a few boxes of snacks foods, which was happily accepted.
Catori looked in a truck and found a handgun with plenty of ammo in a box. It was packed with a bunch of food and hunting supplies, fishing rods and such in the backseat. Of course, everything was taken. The driver of the truck was dead, his neck looking as if it were snapped in two with a gunshot wound to the head. A thought that came to her head was that the man had been bit, turned into a walker then shot before anything could happen. The body was still buckled up but then again walkers weren't the smartest things in the world.
"What'd you find, Kitty?" Daryl's voice behind her was followed by a pair of hands on her waist.
"Fishing supplies, a gun, ammo." She smirked, "Mine now."
He laughed, "Can't go wrong with fishing gear."
"Think Dayle will think the fishing stuff worthy?"
"Hell yeah, that shit is worthy!" He pecked her on the cheek and went to scout out the other cars.
The woman picked up the tackle box and fishing rods along with the big box of ammo with the hand gun and made her way back to the RV. Rick met her half way there, "Look what I found!"
"Thank God for rednecks." He said, taking the box of ammo from her and walked along side of her the rest of the way to the others. The items were packed up and she was off through the mess of cars again. She didn't want to take everything she saw since more survivors would probably come along and need some things but something told her that the group really needed it and that there weren't many survivors left.
It was then when Cat heard something that sent chills down her spine so turned around and saw that which she really did not want to see. Her first reaction upon seeing the herd of walkers was to find Daryl. Once her eyes found him, he looked back and motioned for her to duck down.
Cat laid down and rolled underneath a truck, praying like she never had before. The many walkers had not seen any of the people in their group, thankfully. At least, not yet.
Why was it that when you are filled with fear, seconds seemed like never ending hours? Cat didn't even notice she had curled up in the fetal position as the dead passed them by. A scream filled the air and Cat rolled out to see Sophia running down an embankment, followed by two walkers. Rick stumbled after her. In a silent panic, Cat ran in the direction Rick and Sophia went. It didn't take long at all for Daryl and Shane to follow with Glenn.
"Stupid, stupid! Why didn't she wait until we knew the coast was clear?" Shane complained as they ran.
"Shut up and run!" Daryl yelled at the cop, "She didn't know."
They all met up with Rick and saw Sophia wasn't with him. He looked inside of a fallen tree as they approached. Shane looked at his friend, slightly out of breathe. "Where is she?"
"I told her to head that way and to keep the sun on her left shoulder!" Rick almost yelled, clearly he was trying to calm his panic.
Daryl found tracks and began to follow them, Glenn and Shane going back to the highway.
The couple along with Rick tracked down the girl, eventually finding another walker. Daryl wasted no time in taking it out with a head shot from his crossbow.
"It has fed recently. There's flesh in it's teeth..."
"Only one way to find out." Daryl startled both Rick and Cat by ripping the walker's shirt and cutting into it's stomach. The only thing that slightly worried the cop and the woman was the fact that he knew exactly where everything was when he found the stomach and pulled it out.
Cat couldn't help but laugh when they cut open the stomach and Daryl pulled out a set of teeth. "Looks like he had himself a woodchuck for lunch..."
"At least we know..." Rick shuddered, turning a bit green.
It broke Cat's heart to see the sadness within the entire group when they brought the news of not being able to find Sophia.
She wasn't able to look at the look of horror on the distraught mother's face so turned around and went to look more. The others didn't question Cat's sudden turn around.
'She's not going to make it if we don't find her right now...'
She was gone for a good long while but she came back empty handed once again. This time, she couldn't block out Carol's sobs.
The brown and green haired woman sat down next to Andrea and watched as she tried her best to fix her father's gun. She thought about helping her but figured it'd be a rerun of the last time she tried to help her. She really didn't feel like getting yelled at tonight.
Upon watching the blonde and the pieces that were a gun, she laid her head down on the table and fell asleep.
Sophia was scared, lost, alone. Her screams were painful to listen to.
But Cat stood and saw a barn with a rather large man standing in front of it. His eyes were red from crying as he walked away. She felt herself walking closer to the barn door…
Cat opened her eyes and shot up off of the table, falling out onto the floor backwards with a rather loud squeak.
Carol's voice was the first thing that alerted her that she was not alone, "Cat? You… Are you ok?"
Catori turned to see the woman staring back at her as if she had lost her mind, "I-I'm good… Um… This never happened, k?"
The mother responded with a nod and a sad smile before she stepped out of the RV.
The fallen woman had to use the walls to pick herself up.
About an hour or so later, the group were back out in the woods searching for Sophia once again. So far, no luck. They had only found a tent with a dead guy in it, which Daryl very bravely entered long enough to grab the dead man's gun. The smell was horrible as they zipped the tent back up, planning to go far away from the stench.
Church bells interrupted their thoughts on the dead body's smell.
"Sophia could be there!" Carol began to run, "She might've heard the bells and ran to them!"
"Carol! Wait!"
All of them ran until the church along with a small cemetery was in sight. The run through the graveyard seemed so long as if the church were getting farther and farther away but they were sure the little girl had to of been in there.
The entire group wasted no time in running inside, stopping when they saw people were sitting around. They all began to calm down until the people faced their direction.
'Walkers…' Rick thought, disturbed by the fact he almost mistook them for praying people.
Him, Shane and Daryl ran ahead of the group, taking out the three dead beings. Daryl stopped, wiping the sweat off of his brow and looking at the statue of Jesus, "Hey, JC. You takin' requests?"
After the area seemed calm, Carol approached the statue with her voice almost whispering a soft prayer for her little girl.
Cat had never believed much, she was more Atheist than Christian but at this point…she figured anything dealing with prayers and gods would help everyone feel a bit positive in this now dead world so dropped to her knees and began to pray.
"Kitty, you ok?"
She heard Daryl's voice behind her and she stood up with a nod.
"We're heading back to the highway." He took her hand in his, "Unless you want to stay, of course." He picked on her and she smiled. "You okay?" He asked.
"Just have a bad feeling is all. Daryl, I don't think we will find this girl alive."
"You're just paranoid. We'll find her."
On the way back, a gunshot echoed through the woods. Lori was instantly worried about Carl, Rick and Shane, who had gone in another direction to look for the missing girl.
Everyone assured her that the group of three were ok until a girl came galloping through the area on a horse.
"Lori Grimes?"
Lori stepped forward.
"You need to come with me, there's been an accident. Carl has been shot."
Lori gasped and ran to the girl, jumping up on the back of the horse. Daryl tried to protest, "We don't even know this girl!"
"She has a trustworthy aura around her, let her go." Cat said, placing a hand on Daryl's back.
"What?"
"Trust me."
Daryl seemed to growl for a moment but managed to nod before leading the rest of the group back after the farm girl gave directions to their house.
Glenn was worried. In his mind he was thinking of how the world had taken away the only kids in their group in such a short time. Such innocent lives didn't deserve such things. It was hard for him to think his next thought but it seemed the kids no longer had time to be kids. It was time for them to grow up if they wanted to survive in this new world.
Daryl had led the rest of the group to the farm house on his brother's motorcycle. By the time they got there, Carl was ok and Tdog had been stitched up and bandaged. Shane seemed a bit off and out of character and the man that owned the place was just plain mean in Cat's opinion. Other that that…
Everything was peaceful for the moment.
Cat was sitting in her tent, thinking. She had a bad feeling about Sophia but didn't want to tell anyone. Daryl had faith that she was alive, that was why she didn't have the courage to discourage him with her thoughts. It had only been a day or so but Cat feared the worst and began plotting ways to cheer up the child's mother. She seemed a bit jealous after seeing the attention Carol was giving to Daryl but she pushed the childish thought away. Cat told herself it was just a mother thing, trying to cling onto someone for comfort since her husband was dead and her daughter was missing. Anyone would need comfort in that kind of situation.
'How can I be jealous at a time like this?' Cat thought to herself, feeling childish, 'The woman needs comfort, I shouldn't think that way.'
Daryl had found some good evidence on little Sophia but she still had the worst feeling in her gut.
When he walked into their tent, Cat looked up at him.
"Daryl… We need to talk. I…don't think Sophia is alive…"
"Not you, too..." Daryl seemed to snap a bit.
Cat was at lost for words for a second but managed to speak once again, "I just...have this really weird feeling that something happened to that little girl."
"Just stop. You don't know that she is dead!"
"Daryl, think for a sec-"
"No! Why is everyone so set on giving up on this kid? Shane was being a complete bastard now you're telling me-"
Cat grabbed his arm and tried calming him down but he just jerked away from her.
"Daryl... She is only a child, alone in a world filled with walkers... If this were a normal situation...I would have faith that she was alive but right now, the way the world is...I know something has happened..."
"Just shut up to me, ok? You're being a stupid bitch just like everyone else! She is not dead!" He snapped and she just nodded to him, proceeding to leave the camp area.
Daryl just sighed and shook his head. He was not giving up on this little girl, but everyone assuming the worst was annoying him to the point of almost going insane. The hunter heard Rick announcing he was going with Cat into the woods to search for Sophia, yet again, and laid back in the tent. His gaze made it's way to Catori's side of the tent and he saw her notebook. 'Curiosity didn't kill the cat, it had kittens.' He thought a bit angrily, grabbing it. She wasn't here and he was bored, looking for reading material.
On the inside cover was a picture of a couple. A real redneck man in hunting gear standing beside a woman who was wearing a cowboy hat and cut off shorts with cowboy boots, 'Damn. She's hot.' He looked on the back and saw the names.
'Virgil & Ann.'
Her parents, huh?
He could see Cat took after her mother more than her father and somewhat smirked. Upon opening the book there were poems and writings of events and such along with some pictures in between the pages.
"Note to self, never trust happy people in school when they invite you to their table."
Daryl leaned back on the sleeping bag, reading more of the notes she had written, making sure to keep the feather that was in between the two pages in place.
"Never go out with a popular guy. He'll find a reason to beat you and make you a joke amongst everyone." He read this and became a bit mad but saw a picture of Cat with a group of artsy type people on the next page. He noticed she had a bruise on the side of her face and a wrist brace on in the pic. Below it said, "Never judge people by appearance, those who look bad are usually the nicest and most loyal friends anyone could ever ask for."
Reading on, he then saw something that startled him a bit.
"Note to self: Never let people know when you can see spirits and know when something bad has happened to someone. They'll either make fun of you horribly or just freak out and cause a commotion."
Daryl became a bit nervous as he got to a more diary-ish entry, "October 30th, 11:28 a.m.: I woke up with the most horrible feeling after having a dream where my good friend died. Can't sleep now but it really worried me. I'll try calling him before school."
The page was flipped and the next entry was read.
"October 31st, 3:30 p.m.: I called Josh this morning but he didn't answer. He wasn't at school. Around 1:00 p.m. I heard from his girlfriend that he was in the hospital. Apparently, he got drunk at a Halloween party then overdosed after sucking the juice out of morphine patches. He's nothing but a vegetable in the hospital now, hooked up to life-support and in a coma."
"November 1st, 3:00 p.m.: Life support plug was pulled, Josh was brain dead. I don't think I can go to the funeral. I can't see him like that…"
"November 2nd, 7:00 p.m.: I told father about all of the dreams I had when things happened the following day. He says I have a gift but to me it feels more like a horrible curse. I just won't let anyone know about it. Father said my mother and grandmother were the same way. Some kind of psychic crap runs in the family. When I wake up from nightmares to find out the nightmares were visions, it makes me feel useless. I can't help anyone because I'm always to late. I can't tell anyone other than my father because they think I'm playing some kind of sick joke."
Daryl sighed, flipping through more pages. He wasn't sure what to think. The last pages is what made him worry the most.
"I had some weird dream about a big guy, no idea who he was. Rick was screaming for his kid and Shane was shooting someone but it wasn't clear. I don't know what will happen." He noticed the date for this entry was a few hours before they escaped the CDC explosion. But he couldn't stop reading…
"I had yet another dream but this time Sophia was running around in the woods by herself. Random places flashed into my head and I have no idea what it means. I'm hoping this is just a dream, not another vision. But there was another dream where Daryl was hurt very badly. Maybe I should tell him. I don't want him to think weird of me but I don't want him to get hurt, either. Why can't I live a normal life… I feel like this whole walker thing is a bad dream but I don't want to wake up. Bad dream or not, if I wake up then I lose Daryl…"
Daryl closed the book and put it back in her book bag, not sure what to think. His girlfriend was afraid of the gift she had. If everyone knew of it, they would understand. Rick would, anyway. How was Daryl supposed to act towards her now? Something happened to him in a dream as well as Sophia and Carl.
But Shane…
"Daryl!" Dayle ran up to him with a very concerned expression, "It's Cat..."
"What about her?" He asked, still a bit peeved from their earlier argument.
"She's hurt..."
He looked up, a shocked expression crossing his features, "Where is she? What happened?"
"She wasn't bit but it was a walker that caused her getting trapped in some old barbed wired fence in the woods with Rick when they were searching for Sophia."
Without a second thought, Daryl jumped up and ran towards the house. Feelings of guilt and regret were nagging at his mind. This was his fault. If they hadn't gotten into that damned argument she would be safe!
He entered the house and found one of the rooms he assumed Cat was in.
"-always had barded wire fences there, over the years they rusted and were hidden by leaves. You might have a little trouble walking for awhile. I'm sorry your pants are ruined."
"We'll find her something."
"I'm leaving now."
"You need to stay off of your leg, young lady!"
"Don't 'young lady' me. I have things I need to do." She snapped at the old man.
"Is Daryl one of them?" Shane's voice was sarcastic.
A punch was heard and the door opened. Daryl saw Shane holding his face next to a concerned Rick and an angry Cat. Hershel was just shaking his head, not wanting to deal with any of these people. But he moved to Rick's arm which was torn opened.
"Cat…"
"Hey…"
Daryl took her in his arms, "I'm sorry 'bout earlier."
"Why? It's me who should be apologizing. Now help me out!" They both smiled at each other as they took each others hand.
Gold eyes watched Lori as she went about her schedule. Cat knew something was off with her but she didn't want to automatically assume. She had a friend once that acted the same way when she found out she was with child.
Daryl had left earlier on a horse, he probably didn't even ask to use, and another group which went another way into the woods. The other group had returned but there was no sign of Daryl. She started worrying but tried getting her mind off of it by reading a random book she had found in the RV. Falling into a light sleep was not on her to do list…
She opened her eyes and saw herself standing in front of the barn. Though the sky was dark as if a horrible storm would hit at any second, she just stood there. The door moved a bit as if something had bumped against it from the inside. She was reaching to open the barn door-
"Walker! WALKER!" Andrea screamed, startling everyone near her and waking Cat from her cat nap. All of the men picked up their weapon of choice and ran.
"Andrea, no! Don't shoot!" Dayle had said, strictly.
Andrea aimed, not listening so Cat joined in, throwing the book down, "Don't fucking shoot! I don't feel like hearing the old farm man's shit! Put the gun down!" But she didn't listen. "Andrea! Stop! Don't shoot!"
They could all see the men had stopped around the said walker and were just standing. Then Cat remembered the dream she had had. "Andrea!" A shot rang through the air from Andrea, hitting the walker.
"Yes!" Andrea said with a smile.
But a yell from the area where the men were caught their attention, "No! No!"
Dayle looked through the binoculars again and gasped, "Oh no…" Then looked at Cat who had her hands over her mouth.
"Oh my God, no…" She looked and saw them carrying the 'walker' up to the house, "DARYL!"
"He's ok, just unconscious!" Rick exclaimed. "Just grazed him." They pulled him in the house and Cat stopped just outside the door. She fell to her knees with her hand over her mouth, tears falling from her golden eyes.
"Cat…" She heard Andrea say behind her.
"You… You bitch!" She cried and lunged towards her but was caught by Dayle, Shane and Glenn. "You BITCH!" She tried to speak but her words were just jumbled from her crying. But they did understand,
"You shot my boyfriend in the fuckin' head!"
"He's ok, Cat! He is just unconscious! Calm down!" Dayle assured her.
Andrea held her hands over her mouth, tears in her eyes now, "I'm sorry…"
Only Daryl had seen Catori cry so this was new to them all.
"Oh my God…" She clutched at her chest.
Andrea almost asked but kept her mouth shut, "Look, I'm so sorry."
After a few minutes, Rick came out with the news that he was awake and ok. Cat walked into the room and saw Daryl all bandaged up on the bed.
"Daryl…"
"Hey, Kitty…"
Cat walked over to him and sat down, gently touching his bandaged head. "You ok?"
"Do I look ok?" He smiled at her and she smiled back.
"Love your new necklace, by the way." She picked up the cord which had ears decorating it.
"Yeah, figured I'd start taking trophies."
"Thank God you're ok…" She laid down beside him, wrapping her arms around him as gently as possible. Daryl closed his eyes, laying his head against her chest, thinking of his brother's words.
"I have to ask you something Though…I don't know why this is botherin' me so much." He looked up at her, "What exactly did your ex-boyfriend do to you?"
"What?"
"Your ex-boyfriend. What did he do?"
She was quiet for a minute or so and Daryl could tell she was all of a sudden nervous, "You actually read my book?" She felt him nod. "I was more of a loner in school, got made fun of a lot by the popular people. This jock guy named Brandon came up and asked me out one day. I had nothing else better to do so I said yes. I thought maybe dating would be fun. He just ended up constantly hitting me, making me sit at the table with his other girlfriends so I could listen to them tell me how hideous I was. He broke my wrist and punched me on my jaw but…that's when I lost it and blacked out. When I came to… He was on the floor in front of me, I had grabbed his baseball bat and beat the shit out of him. The next day his friends tried to jump me at the school and the others in the art club with me took up for me 'cause I was sore from being beat on the night before… He just hit me a lot, said I was an ugly piece of shit that didn't deserve to live."
Daryl was shocked! He forced himself to sit up and placed a gentle hand on her cheek, "I hope I meet this mother fucker one day." He tilted her face up and looked her in the eye, "You are the most gorgeous thing I have ever seen on this planet. Don't you ever for one goddamn minute think you are ugly!"
The woman nodded and pulled him against her, "Thank you."
"You the sexiest thing I ever seen, damn girl."
She blushed, "S-so you read…everything in that book?"
"Yes."
Cat felt faint all of a sudden, a panic attack starting to form in her chest. Daryl felt her trembling and heard her heart beat suddenly. He laid her on her back beside him on the bed, "Cat?"
"You read about Sophia? And…Shane?"
He nodded, "And the random big guy? Calm down. Ain't nothing going to hurt you or anything. Nobody else will find out."
The next day, Andrea was leaving the tent after apologizing to Daryl and ran into her, "Uh- Cat…"
"Andrea, I'm sorry about yesterday… I just… I freaked out, forgive me."
Andrea just nodded, "It's ok, I'd be pissed if someone shot my boyfriend in the head, too."
Daryl looked up when Catori entered the tent. She groan and flopped down beside him, "I'm tired."
"You need some sleep. When was the last time you done any of that?"
"Eh…" She closed her eyes with her hands behind her head. Daryl just snickered and continued reading the random book Andrea had given him.
The damn barn. Why is it so fucking special? She was in front of it again, the big guy from before with his hand on the door. His hands chained the entranced and he walked away, walking through Cat in the process as if she were a ghost. Her head turned to look at him then turned back to the barn. Her pale hands opened the door and saw an entire group of walkers and in the back she saw a flash of dirty blonde hair that seemed awfully familiar-
"Cat! Wake up!"
Her golden eyes flew open and she sat up. He saw her hide a tear from him, "Hey, what's wrong? You were freakin' out in your sleep."
Cat covered her face with her hands, crying softly, trying not to alert anyone, "I can't stand this…"
"What?" He asked, "What is it?"
"I keep having dreams about that fucking barn but now I just opened the door…" She sobbed. "Daryl, I think there's walkers in the barn…"
"What? That can't be possible, we'd have known by now if there were."
The woman shook her head.
A few hours later, Glenn was watching the barn, she knew what would happen, eventually. But Cat didn't want everyone to freak out. She started thinking of ways to keep Glenn's mind off of the barn. If the nightmare was true, she didn't want anyone getting hurt.
Daryl was sitting her with her hand in his, speaking to her softly. She'd giggle from time to time but no one really heard what the two were saying.
"There's…walkers in the barn." Glenn's voice echoed in her head and Cat swore her heart stopped dead in her chest. When following everyone, it was like the video games. Everything was quiet and all she heard was a loud ringing in her ears from her heart beating so fast. They stopped and they all saw the doors moving and heard all of the evidence they needed.
"I'm gonna be sick-!" Catori threw her hands over her mouth.
"Calm down, Kitty."
"I can't stand any of this, anymore." She thought she had said it only loud enough so that Daryl heard it but there was another.
Rick looked at the girl trying to keep her lunch down then looked back to the barn.
While the others argued, Daryl and Cat made their way away from the barn. Anywhere but the barn was comforting at the moment for her.
"Cat, maybe you should tell Rick about these dreams you have."
She shook her head, frantically. "Uh, uh! I can't-"
"Catori?" Rick's voice reached the couple's ears, "Are you ok?"
Her eyes stared into his and he saw her tears. Daryl nodded to his lover and she looked up at Rick, "I…need to tell you something but it's going to sound really weird."