And it begins. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter Sixty

Daryl was instantly awake when he heard the soft tap at the door. He eased away from Carol, slipped his shirt on quickly and grabbed his boots and crossbow on his way out the door. T-dog was waiting for him in the hallway, knowing the light tap would wake him up he hadn't lingered by the door.

"You get any sleep, Dixon?" He asked as Daryl slipped his boots on.

Daryl stood up from tying his boots and frowned as he started buttoning up his shirt. T-dog nodded towards his chest. He glanced down. There were red marks from his chest all the way down, disappearing into the waistband of his jeans. He hurried up with the buttons.

T-dog shook his head. "It's always them real quiet ones that turn out to be the hellcats."

Daryl just grunted and took off towards the door. They were sticking to the plan, relieving Glen and Rick. He cursed under his breath as they stepped out onto the porch. It didn't look at though the rain had let up at all.

"Hope you can swim better'n you can ride a damn horse. Looks like we're gonna be doin' the fuckin' backstroke all the way out to the barn." He almost had to shout to be heard over the pounding rain.

"I don't like this, man. We wont be able to see or hear a damn thing." T-dog said nervously.

Daryl nodded. He felt the same way. This was making him uneasy and all he wanted to do was head back into the house and keep an eye on Carol and Sophia from inside. Out here it was going to be hard.

They both sprinted through the deluge. They both looked like drowned rats as they climbed the ladder to the loft. Rick and Glen both looked up when they saw them coming. They looked bored out of there minds and Daryl had to admit to himself that he was glad he was paired with T. Other than Rick, he was the one that Daryl got along with the most. It was funny how much things had changed.

"You sure this is worth our time?" T-dog asked. "Seems like we would be better off keeping watch from the porch."

"It's not as bad as it seems. From up here you can get a pretty good look out towards the woods where Randal and his pals came out. I figure if any of them show up they'll be comin' from the same direction." Rick said as he motioned towards the trees.

Rick and Glen stood up, both of them stretching as though they hadn't moved since first taking watch. Rick shoved his rifle into Daryl's hands and slapped him on the back on his way past. Daryl couldn't help but notice how tired he looked and wondered how much burden the man was carrying with him. Lori, Shane, Randal, Morgan. The list went on and on. He was trying to shoulder a lot and it was wearing him pretty thin from the looks of him. None of them had seen much of Lori since she found out Shane was dead.

They both sat down and made themselves as comfortable as possible while still retaining a decent view of the landscape around them. Rick had been right. They would be able to make out anyone or anything coming from the woods. As long as he was also right about them coming from that direction. Daryl kept his eyes sharp and strained through the rain as T-dog launched into some story about some girl he had dated all throughout high school. It made for good background noise and somehow helped keep him alert.

~H~

Carol looked towards the closed barn doors, squinting against the sun. She thought that maybe Daryl was in there somewhere but for some reason she didn't want to go any closer. She would just stand here and wait for him.

She felt a cold hand clamp down on her upper arm and she spun around, gasping. She knew the feel of that hand all too well so she wasn't as surprised as she might have been when she was staring up into the face of her dead husband. But he looked very much alive. Movement behind him caused her to look around him and Shane was approaching them, a cold look on his face.

Ed gave her arm a rough shake. "What'd I tell ya bitch?" he hissed. "I always told ya that you couldn't get away from me. Didn't I tell ya that? No matter how far you go or who you find to protect ya, I'll always make my way back."

She jerked her arm out of his grip and glared at him. She was safe. Soon Daryl would come out of the barn and this time he would kill Ed for sure. As she backed up she saw the front of Ed's dirty white shirt grow dark with blood. When her eyes crept back up to his face he wasn't Ed anymore but the snarling Walker that they had found where Ed had been wrapped up to be buried.

Shane finally made it to them and she couldn't help but feel relief at the sight of him. He wouldn't let Ed hurt her. He had been her friend. But he was still looking at her with that cold cold stare and then to her astonishment he threw a friendly arm over Ed's shoulder.

"You don't listen very well Carol. I told you. Nothing good would come out of you letting that girl spend any time with them Dixon's." He smirked and then motioned to something behind her.

She spun around to see what he was looking at, knowing she should never turn her back on them but not being able to help herself. The barn doors were swinging open and she had to stifle a scream as Sophia stumbled out. Or something that resembled Sophia. Her daughter whipped her head around and snarled at her. She stumbled back until she hit something solid. Arms came around her then but she wasn't afraid of them. She knew who was there, Daryl, but this time his presence did nothing to make her feel safe. Sophia was still walking towards her, eyes unseeing.

Merle emerged from the barn then, rifle in his hand as Carl and Duane followed. All three were armed and wearing grim faces. She watched as Merle nodded to the boys and they opened fire on her little girl.

Carol couldn't watch. She spun around in Daryl's arms and tried to hide her face but he dropped his arms from around her, opened his mouth and small stream of blood dribbled out before he crumpled to the ground at her feet. Shane and Ed were gone. Replaced by Lori who had an arm wrapped around her midsection that was grotesque looking in its size. Lori pointed behind Carols head so she turned around again to face the barn. Merle and both boys were lying dead on the ground much like Daryl was.

She was dreaming. She knew that it had to be a dream.

"Wake up." Someone said from behind her and she turned her head. Jim was walking towards her. "Wake up, Carol." He said again right before he vanished. Carol backed up a few feet. She should have woken up by now. Had she died and gone to Hell? Surely not. She took a deep breath and let out the loudest scream she could muster so she could wake herself up and escape this hell.

She sat straight up in bed, the scream that had seemed loud in the nightmare was stuck in her throat, choking her. She was covered in sweat and the sheet was tangled around her. Why hadn't Daryl woken her up? She had obviously been moving around a lot so he would have had to have known she was having a nightmare.

She reached for him in the dark room but his side of the bed was cold. Panic seized her as she remembered, quite vividly, his body crumple to the ground. She fought her way out of the tangle of sheets and stood up. Suddenly, with a loud exhale, she remembered that he was on watch. He was fine. He was out there in the barn.

She needed him here. Her heart was still hammering in her chest and her whole body trembled with the horror of the dream. All she could think about was how much better she would feel if his arms were around her at the moment. Feeling his breath on her neck and knowing he was there and he was alive. She had a dreadful feeling in the pit of her stomach and she tried telling herself that it was just remnants of the nightmare still clinging to her but she wasn't so sure that was true.

She knew how furious he would be at her but she didn't care. She turned on the bedside lamp and was about to strip out of his T-shirt, which was what she happened to grab and slip on right before she went to sleep, but then stopped. It still smelled like him. She grabbed her jeans off the floor and pulled them on quickly, yanked on her boots and then tucked her gun into the waistband of her jeans. Without even turning off the light she slipped out of the room, out the front door and into the rain. She had to get to Daryl.

~H~

Sophia kept glancing towards the bedroom door nervously. She had seen Merle get up and checked the windows to make sure they were locked. She was afraid he would be able to tell that she wasn't asleep, especially when he took an extra blanket off the foot of his bed and threw it over her. He had stood over her for a second, sighed loudly, and then brushed some of her hair back off of her forehead. Then he had quietly left the room, carrying his heavy boots out with him.

She had sat up, staring towards the door but he had never came back. Now she wasn't so sure that Duane's plan would work very well. Not with a two Dixon's on watch.

Duane was desperate to get his dad back and even though Carl and Sophia were pretty certain the man was dead, neither one of them would tell their friend that. So he had decided that he was going to go talk to Randal himself. Sophia tried to talk him out of it but the boy was stubborn. So she did the only thing that she could think of to help. She decided to go with him. Carl was livid, throwing himself a Dixon worthy tantrum but when she refused to let Duane go out there alone he finally just decided to go with them. All day long their had been eyes on the shed where Randal was being held so they came up with a plan to go to the guy at night. And if everything went accordingly then no one would be the wiser. She hoped.

Rick hadn't been able to get much out of the guy. He just kept saying that he must not have been with them when they came upon Morgan and Duane in the woods. Duane couldn't remember seeing Randal there but as soon as things turned ugly Morgan had told him to run and so he ran. Randal could have been there and Duane had just not noticed him in all of the chaos.

But with Merle creeping around it was going to be really hard to get out there. But she had to try so she got up from the couch and crept to the door. She put her ear to it but heard nothing on the side. She slipped out and went to the kitchen where the boys were suppose to meet her. They were there. Carl looked nervous and Duane looked determined and then they both looked relieved she showed up.

"Did you guys see Merle?" She whispered.

They both shook their heads and frowned. Carl was the one that spoke up. "If he finds us he'll kill me."

Sophia just shook her head. "Better Merle than Daryl. If Merle finds us we have a chance. I can probably sweet talk him. But if it's Daryl we're all dead meat."

"Great. That makes me feel a lot better about doing this." Carl mumbled under his breath.

Sophia glared at him. "Then stay here." She hissed.

"I ain't letting you go out there to talk to that psycho alone." He crossed his arms in front of him and stared her down.

She didn't argue with him. He was probably just trying to start a fight so they could stall, which would end up getting them all three busted. Instead she pushed past him, eased the door open as quietly as she could and slipped out. They followed her and then they all paused.

"Did you get the key?" Sophia asked a still petulant Carl.

He nodded and then pulled the key to the padlock out of his pocket, pressing it into her palm.

She took a deep breath. "You both armed?"

The boys nodded and, although this whole thing was Duane's idea she was the one that led them into the rain towards Randal's makeshift jail. They ran towards the shed, hurrying around the side where the door was.

Sophia stopped so fast that Carl slammed into her, still running, and had to catch her around the waist before she went sprawling into the mud.

"What are you doing?" He said as he dropped his hands and then she looked back at him with wide eyes and pointed. Even through the darkness and the rain she saw his face face grow even more pale.

The shed door was hanging open, looking like an angry gaping mouth, mocking them.

"What do we do?" Carl asked in a voice filled with fear.

Sophia didn't have to think too hard about it. "We go get Daryl." She said over her shoulder, they were already running towards the barn.