Chapter 26
(Rose's POV)
My watch begins beeping, urging me to wake, but little did it know, I had been up long before the suns' first light hit the horizon. It feels kind of nice to just lay here, everything so silent, so normal. Although, my thoughts are far from normal as I toil over the winter we had managed to get through and how I got to ring in the new year atop Chenoa's back doing our last perimeter check of the night. Yet, I can't ask for anything more, I've been truly blessed with the group stumbling upon my farm.
-They saved you. You got no right to do anything less than that for them.
"I know, I know." I mumble, answering my thoughts out loud, "I'm doin' the best I can."
-Well there's always better.
With that, I all but jump out of my bed. Feeling like I could pass for a patient in a mental hospital, I shake my head and grab a towel, hoping a hot shower can clear my head. I creep down the stairs and dart into the bathroom without waking anyone I know of. As I strip down, I notice how even my skin had paled over the winter months and how my black hair now hung over half way down my back.
-I'll ask Carol or Beth to cut it later. I muse to myself, quickly raking a brush through it, knowing that even though I loved my long hair, it was a hazard and usually just got in the way.
I step into the shower, letting the steam curl around me, enveloping me with warmth after another cold night. Breathing in deeply and exhaling long and slow, I let my mind go blank. After a short moment, it's not surprising whose face I see next as one memory after the other storm through my head.
Daryl. The Daryl who always rides along side me, even though we relentlessly bicker about one thing or another, the Daryl who never really let's me out of his sight, even if he isn't in mine, and the Daryl that, sometimes, on the rarest occasion, opens his heart to me. The feelings he stirs up within me has never failed to scare and excite me at the same time. I know that deep seeded, somewhere in my soul, he's the part of me that's been missing for so long, the part I need and long for. Yet, I haven't the slightest clue how I can ever tell him that. I could never imagine telling him at all, for the fear of his rejecting me was far too much for me to handle.
-Oh for cryin' out loud! You know he likes you, get over yourself and just tell him! I could just hear my brother scolding me for being so timid.
Ahh, Jake. I still don't know where he is, or if he's still...
-No. Don't you dare.
Admitting to myself that even while my hope wavers from day-to-day, week to week, I still feel him sometimes, like I just know he's still alive, fighting through this just like we are. I send a small prayer up, ever faithful to get some kind of cryptic response soon enough to know I'm heard.
I decide with that, to file away the rest of my contemplating for later and I shut the water off. Wrapping my towel around, I dry off as best I can but still know I'll freeze half to death on the journey back to my room anyway. It's an uneventful climb back up the stairs as I try to stop my teeth from chattering the whole way and once safely in my room, I see the window growing ever brighter and I dress quickly and simply. A dark, fitted long sleeve, a green cargo vest and jeans. I tuck away the tiny gold cross I always wear and run the towel over my damp hair one more time. Finally, I descend the stairs once more, sliding past the still quiet bedroom doors and head for the kitchen. Once there, I notice a pair of boots sitting in the floor.
-Daryl's?
I look around, and wander into the living room to see him posted in the floor by the fire-place, I give a little snicker as I my thoughts pipe up again,
-A couch and two chairs and he chooses the floor, but I know he wouldn't have any other way.
I go to him, sitting down on the big stone hearth, sighing as the embers warm by back.
"Lose somethin' over here?" He says, eyes still closed.
"Actually, I think you did." I reply, "gettin' mud all over my floor with those nasty boots."
I catch the slightest smile play at his lips, and I allow myself a small smile to come to mine. I inhale one good time, and stand, stepping over his still body,
"Well you can at least make yourself useful and come help me with the horses." I say, walking to fetch my own boots and grab my bow and quiver from the wall.
As I'm heading back to the kitchen, I hear movement from upstairs.
-Probably Rick, he's always been an early riser.
Daryl's waiting, propped up on the counter with his arms folded in front of his chest. I also wait for whoever has woken up to come downstairs, and to my surprise, it's Carl I see round the corner. I walk over, roughing up his hair,
"Good mornin' bud." I say with a smile, "You hungry?"
He looks up with tired eyes, but smiles back and shakes his head,
"No ma'am, I wanted to go with you ride the fences this morning." He replies politely, trying to hide a yawn.
I give a small laugh, and tell him to make sure his dad knows where he'll be and that we would be waiting outside. After watching him run off up the stairs, Daryl and I head out into the frosty morning air. It was already turning into a beautiful day, the sun is almost dawned over the trees now and the sky is a pristine, cloudless array of oranges, purples, and blues, like an amazing painting stretched out over our head. Soon enough, Carl is coming out the door to meet us. He's got his dads sheriff hat covering his messy hair, and a big coat on protecting him from the cold.
"Let's get going slow poke." I say, putting my arm around his shoulders.
We get to the barn door and Daryl unlocks it, letting us go through first while he looks around, assessing everything before stepping into the dimly lit barn. I take in a deep breath of the air, thick with the smell of hay and that unique scent only a horse has. It comforts me in a way, makes me think about my grand parents which usually only leads to an aching in my heart.
-At least they didn't have to see any of this. I think to myself, truly grateful that they had passed away before this epidemic had turned our world into hell on Earth.
I try to shut out the memories as best I can by talking to Carl.
As always he'd overly excited when it comes to riding, "I think could handle Raven now." He says, running his hand over her neck.
"Nice try lil' bit, but this'n is mine." I hear Daryl say as he comes back with our saddles.
"Ahh come on!" Carl replies with an exasperated sigh, "Can't I at least ride with you this time then?" He directs the question to Daryl, who meets my eyes, searching for an answer.
I kneeldown, so I can look Carl in the eyes now.
"Raven's too jumpy, and Chenoa can carry our weight together better." I see the disappointment flash through his eyes and my heart twinges. "Hey," I say, gently lifting his chin up, "I promise we'll come out here, just me and you, and I'll get you on her, teach you everything you need to know."
He looks back to me, a smile in his eyes,
"Okay?" I ask, smiling, "..okay?"
"Fine." He finally responds, and I wriggle my fingers through his hair again, getting a little punch to the arm from him as I stand back up. I turn now, catching Daryl's eyes watching me. I feel the flutter in my stomach, my heart beat a little faster. He looks away, walking over to pick Carl up and place him on the mares big back, I follow suit, climbing in the saddle myself, getting situated behind the boy.
"Ready?" I call after a few minutes, looking back to see Daryl sitting tall on Ravens' back. He gives me a nod and a wink, which causes my stomach to whirl all the more.
-Ahh, never fails.
I give Chenoa a nudge with my heels and we're on our way. At first Daryl trails behind us but is soon at our side tuning into the conversation Carl has started.
"But how do they see?" He's started asking questions about walkers, "If they're dead, everything is rotting, so how do their eyes keep working?"
I contemplate this question, I don't know much about how the brain works in a normal human being, much less one that's rose from dead. Daryl answers for me though,
"At the CDC, that Jenner guy said whatever it is restarts the stem of the brain, 'member?" He asks, watching the fence come into sight ahead of us.
"Yeah.." Carl answers, nodding his head slowly.
I on the other hand, have never heard the story of the CDC, I knew what it was, what they did there. I also know they obviously didn't find a cure, so I listen intently as Daryl continues,
"Well the stem is where the basic functions is, sight, sound, smells.." I'm utterly surprised, but I do my best to keep a casual expression as he goes on, "but I mean, I guess ya can't really know how they see, but they do somehow. Maybe if anyone can get it figured out, you can ask yerself." He finishes his explanation, looking at Carl's face twisting around the facts he's just been given and lets out a small grunt of a laugh.
We walk on in silence for a while more and we end up falling behind Daryl and Raven as we get to the fence. Not even a hundred yards pass before Raven stops, her head jerking up and Daryl looks like a statue staring at the woods. I grab the reins from Carl, stopping Chenoa a short distance from the pair ahead of us, and now we're all watching the woods, listening to every little sound the forest makes.
Everything goes silent for a fraction of a second, and then like the calm before the storm, all hell breaks loose. I count six walkers at first, but I see more coming from within the woods,
"Shit." I say under my breath, still trying to get my brain to kick into gear.
I take my bow, fix an arrow on the string and take down one, then another. Daryl is shooting and reloading as fast as he can but there's too many. I jump from Chenoa's back, shoving the reins to Carl,
-Get him out of here. Now. Make him go. My mind is screaming at me, instinct taking over.
"Carl, you go back now!" I yell, stringing up another arrow and putting one more walker down. "Run, as fast as she'll go, Carl. Send help, but you stay at the house!" I look up to him now, taking his hand, "Go!"
With that, I step back, giving Chenoa a hard slap n the rear to get her going.
-Lord, please keep him safe. I say it over and over before I look over to see Daryl coming towards me now.
"Daryl, we have to get to the other side." I say, realizing I only have two arrows left and he has none and if they took down our fence there's nothing to stop them from reaching the house.
He nods in agreement, looking into my eyes a long moment before stepping over to the fence, cutting a hole in it we could fit through. I hold it open and he goes through first, hitting the walkers one by one, not even watching them fall before moving on to the next.
I stand back, using up my last arrows to cover him before going in myself. My machete finds its first target right through the eye socket of one growling man, and I slowly start making my way to Daryl.
My mind goes completely quiet, no thoughts, only tunnel vision, only the drive to kill these things. I feel my back against Daryl's now, and it gives me all the more strength to fight on.
-Where are they? Carl should've told them by now. What if there are other walkers on the land?
Now my thoughts return with all the ferocity of the monsters I'm fighting. I get sloppy, as the images of Carl, Judith, Maggie, and the others being slaughtered slam into me like a brick wall and I stumble, feeling myself falling, I brace for impact but all I feel are strong hands around me, righting me once more.
"You good lil' girl?" Daryl says through panting breaths and jabs of his razor-sharp hunting knife.
"We need help. There's too many. Too many." I say, my breathing becomes more and more labored.
I feel the panic growing in my chest, tightening my airways, and feel a piercing pain tear through my side.
"D-Daryl.." I try to say, but all that comes out is a mumble, a whisper under all the noise coming from the hell-like, mindless creatures trying to devour us.
I call out once more, and now I really am falling, watching a walker stumbling towards me as everything closes in. Finally I feel the hard impact of the ground and a bright light takes over, turning to gray, and then everything is dark.
Thank you all so much for the reviews on the last chapter! It means the whole world to me that I still have a few faithful followers left, I just hope to gain a lot more(: Tell me what you think!