Hello again my Walker lovers.. Okay that just sounds a bit disgusting.. How are you? Last chapter was pretty long huh? Sorry about that, I'm also sorry to tell you that this one's even longer! So have fun with that! I do not own the Walking Dead or any character's involved in the franchise, breaking into their offices at night really didn't win me any brownie points with Robert Kirkman... Oops.
Chapter Two: Givin' Up On You.
Daryl woke up the next day with his head still throbbing and found Shane was stood in his room looking out the window. Daryl sneered slightly, he had no problem with Shane he just didn't like people being around him when he's sleeping. He sat up slightly pulling at his sheets so they covered his chest.
"Summin' I can do for ya?" Daryl grumbled out to the Deputy as he turned to look at him after he spoke. Shane obviously hadn't realised Daryl had woken up as he looked slightly jolted.
"Er, yeah just bringin' you your clothes in case you feel up to gettin' dressed..." Shane explained eyeing the wounded man as he pointed to his folded up and washed clothes on a chair.
"You kiddin'? I'm dyin' t' get outta this place, I ain't enjoyin' bein' waited on." Daryl said eagerly eyeing his clothes Shane laughed at his words.
"Probably the first man in history to say that.." The freshly shaved man said with a smirk Daryl just nodded before his face pulled into a confused frown.
"There sommin' else? Or you jus' gonna stand there while I dress?" Daryl said with slightly more aggressiveness then he meant to.
"Yeah, er..." Shane moved when he spoke coming to sit on the end of the bed gaining him another confused frown from Daryl as the bandaged man moved over slightly.
"This might sound a little weird, but you didn't see anyone else when you were out there in those woods did ya?" Daryl's eyes moved up to Shane's now, did he mean Merle? Did he know about Daryl's delirious visions? Daryl frowned looking away as he pushed those thoughts out of his mind there was no way Shane could know anything about that.
"Nah, I didn't. Why?" Daryl asked his eyes pulled into a curious squint as he looked back at Shane who ran his hand across his newly shaved head.
"I just... I could'a sworn I saw a woman come outta them woods when you went down, brunette I think..." Shane explained with a laugh shaking his head but Daryl did no such thing as he thought back to the moment he fell off the horse just before everything went to shit. He remembered now, he was sure he saw someone, a brunette he recognised he squinted as he looked back at Shane who shook his head.
"But hey, clearly this world is just playin' tricks on me, after all there ain't no-one who could sneak up on Daryl Dixon unnoticed huh?" Shane said with a laugh standing up he said his goodbyes and left the room quickly after but Daryl barely heard him through his own distracting thoughts. It couldn't have been her, he's miles away from where she is there's no way... Daryl couldn't stop thinking about that moment he fell off the horse then he realised something. His eyes looked over to his pile of clothes, on the same chair that his clothes were on was his crossbow, slung over the back of it which could only mean... He sat up, with a bit of a struggle, and looked through his clothes and sure enough under his shirt and on top of his pants sat two knifes, his and a smaller one with a colourful fabric tied to the end of it. Daryl picked up the little knife holding it in his hand as he examined it, it was smaller than an average hunting knife but bigger than a pen knife or kitchen knife he'd not seen a knife like it before... Or had he? Daryl opened his palm up and his eyes landed on the fabric, why did he feel like he recognised this so badly? He stopped looking at the knife and looked to the door that Shane had just left out of, he thought back to his words 'there ain't no-one who could sneak up on Daryl Dixon unnoticed huh?'
"There's one person..." He spoke to himself as his eyes moved back to the knife in his hand.
Nancy woke up the next morning to find that Matt had managed to sneak into their truck last night sleep and sneak back out again all without waking her. She put it down to the fact that she was so overwhelmed after all that happened yesterday. She sighed as she pulled herself out of bed a dull pain throbbed through her side and arms she looked down to find two blue bruises on either arm she growled but didn't bother checking her stomach or face before she rooted around the bag of clothes that she'd managed to take before leaving home. She found the only long sleeved shirt she'd brought with her a plain white t-shirt that had now got the stains of blood and dirt splattered all over it. She hissed as she painfully pulled it over her body then slipped into a filthy pair of denim jeans making sure not to wear anything Matt would be happy with. Just as she was pulling her hair into a messy high pony she heard one of the doors in the front of the cab open and then close, within seconds Matt was stood in the box with her. She stayed silent for a moment staring at a spot on the floor as she continued to play with her hair just to look busy slowly she allowed her eyes to move up to his own.
"Nay..." He smiled calling her his pet name for her, she said nothing just stood off of her bed, struggling to hide the pain it caused, and moved over to the shutter. Matt walked up behind her placing his hand on her shoulder to stop her from opening it just yet.
"Nay, please talk to me." He said as his other hand slipped on to her waist and with that he pulled her into his body. "You know I didn't mean it last night, it was just well, you know how mad it gets me when you make me worry 'bout you." Nancy rolled her eyes as his lips found the back of her neck. "Maybe if you stopped running off all the time I wouldn't worry so much..." He said as he kissed her neck gently. "You know the amount of times you leave me it almost makes me feel like you don't even want to be here, with me." Nancy still didn't speak and her lack of words to his last ones made him stop kissing her. There was a moment of silence as though he was waiting for her to correct her mistake before he viciously span her around to look at him.
"You do want to be here don't you, Nancy?!" He growled at her, she moved her eyes to look directly at his as she nodded.
"Y-yah, o'course." She whispered, he smirked to her response before pushing her up against the shutter of the van.
"Good." He said with a smile and moved his lips to hers kissing her, she didn't kiss back but didn't stop him either. "You know we haven't fooled around in a while, since before any of this rotter shit even... What you reckon?" He said with a smirk, Nancy suppressed a shudder at the thought before searching the cab for any excuse to leave her eyes landed on her belt.
"Er, actually sweetie, after I fucked up so bad yesterday I was thinkin'a goin' an' doin' some more huntin'... Ya know get some real grub for our group." She said smiling as she slipped out of his grasp and moved over to her belt pulling it around herself.
"Ha, I think me an' Bill have the huntin' covered for today, why don't you go 'n' help the other women wit' the laundry?" Matt said Nancy glared at the wall in front of her, she had her back to Matt and wanted to make sure he didn't see her anger. She knew this was punishment for breaking curfew last night and for rejecting him now, she just took a deep breath and nodded.
"Sure al'ight." She said collecting together some of their dirty clothes and leaving out the front of the truck. As she stepped into the sun the light blinded her slightly, she held up her arm to block the sun as she looked over to the others. Bill stood from the log he was sat on as Nancy left the truck.
"Mornin' Nancy." He grumbled to her, he was Matt's best friend from their childhood, he'd not seen Matt in over ten years before a few weeks ago when Nancy and Matt pulled up into their old neighbourhood and found Bill and his wife Jill bunkered down in Bill's parents old house. Matt and Bill rekindled their old friendship pretty quickly, probably because Bill was as much of an asshole as Matt, Nancy was sure he beat Jill too but Bill never let Jill speak so she didn't know for sure.
"Mornin'." Nancy responded walking past him as he took himself and his shotgun into the truck. Her eyes fell on to the camp now, Frank was still sat on the log that he was on the night before he was cleaning weapons. He and his wife Abbey were a bit older than the other two couples, only by about ten years but that meant Bill and Matt often let Frank get away with not hunting, it was probably for the best, from what Abbey told Nancy he has a heart problem.
"Mornin' Frank!" Nancy called over to him he looked up from the pistol he was working on and smiled at her. Nancy knew that nobody was going to mention the large busted cheek she had because it had become a regular occurrence, besides nobody here had the nerve to stand up to Matt about it.
"Mornin' Nancy, I got some clean knifes for ya over here if ya wan' 'em?" He asked Nancy smiled at him walking over.
"Actually I'll take one of 'em, I lost one to a rotter last nigh'." Nancy explained picking up one of the shining knifes by the string hung off the end of it and placing it in her 'go-to' spot.
"Yeah Matt mentioned this morn', lucky ya such a tough lil' biscuit, not many people can survive confrontin' six rotters." He explained Nancy just smiled at his words giving him a brief nod she refrained from mentioning that she wasn't alone in the fight. She left the camp and walked South for a while before she came across the stream that they used for water. She could already see Abbey's blonde hair knelt beside it.
"Mornin' Abbey." Nancy said once she got close enough.
"Nancy!" Her blonde friend said happily once her eyes met the brunettes only for her smile to drop one she saw Nancy's face, she eyed the large bruise for a moment before looking sadly back into Nancy's eyes. She didn't say anything though, she knew better than that with Matt's prying ears still nearby, her sorrowful looks were enough for Nancy to understand how she felt and give the blonde a slow nod in appreciation for her worry.
"I-I'm glad you're here... I gotta say I feel a hell of a lot safer with you around." She spoke now dismissing the sad looks for a slightly forced smile. Abbey wasn't from the South, she had a very clear accent, nothing like Nancy's Southern drawl. Nancy laughed to her friends words shaking her head as she placed hers and Matt's clothes down and knelt beside Abbey.
"Matt tell everyone about those rotters yesterday?" She said with a laugh, Abbey nodded.
"Well it is pretty impressive, though I think I might only feel safer 'cause of you and that pretty belt you got." Abbey said with a wink Nancy laughed at her again nodding just as Jill came walking back from the road side. The three couples had set up their camp beside the road so that they could hear any cars coming by, so far they hadn't seen a single one, so for the moment they used the hot Atlanta tarmac as somewhere to dry out their clothes.
"Mornin' Jill." Nancy said to the closing in petite woman, she got only a nod in response before Jill moved to the other side of the stream and started cleaning her clothes further down from Abbey and Nancy. Nancy watched her in shock before looking back over to Abbey with wide eyes Abbey just shook her head with a disapproving look on her face, Nancy sniffed her arm pit.
"I smell or summin'?" She asked Abbey let out a snort of a laugh.
"Well actually a little yeah..." She laughed out, Nancy pretended to look shocked nudging her friend with her elbow. "But I don't think that's got anything to do with why she won't speak to us." Abbey said as both women stopped laughing and looked over to the sad looking woman.
After an hour or so of cleaning Nancy was already bored it turned out her and Matt hadn't had much to clean after all and after offering to help Abbey twenty times and getting a 'No I'm fine' in response every time she'd resigned herself to throwing one of her knifes into a nearby tree over and over again. That was until Matt and Bill came down to the stream then she grabbed one of Abbey's tops and started scrubbing, Abbey threw her a look but quickly understood.
"Just came over to say goodbye..." Matt said as they approached Nancy looked up and smiled at him pretending like she hadn't noticed him.
"Oh, okay, goodbye." She said before moving back to Abbey's top. Jill moved now from her spot down stream she ran over to Bill with her pile of clean clothes.
"I've finished now." She said in barely a whisper.
"Alrigh' go hang up the clothes, then arrange our supplies, I 'xpect a list o' what we got when I get back.." Bill growled orders out to her and Jill just nodded before leaning in to kiss him, on seeing this Matt walked over to Nancy and knelt down behind her leaning so that his head was by her ear.
"No kiss goodbye for your fiancée Nay?" He hissed into her ear, Nancy took a quick side glance at Abbey who continued her washing.
"O'course." She smiled moving her head round and giving him a swift kiss on the cheek before going back to washing Matt didn't want that though. He moved his hand up so it was holding her around the chin and forced her face to look at his then forced his lips on to her own kissing her passionately.
'Damn you Jill!' Is all Nancy could think as her husband-to-be forced a kiss out of her, he pulled away after with a slimy grin on his face.
"That's better." He hissed to her before viciously throwing her face away from his and walking away with Bill. Leaving Nancy embarrassed in front of Abbey, she glanced to her blonde friend.
"I'm sorry Abbey..." She whispered handing back her top.
"No, no it's okay, I'm sorry... Here, help me with these." She said passing half her pile to Nancy who smiled to her.
"Thank you..." She whispered.
It wasn't long before the two women managed to finish up their cleaning together and soon enough Abbey was talking about heading back to camp. As Nancy stood up and looked into the woods though all she could think about, all she wanted to do, was run off, go to Daryl's camp and see if he was okay. She glanced at her good friend Abbey, in the few weeks they'd known each other Nancy had truly come to trust Abbey which is why it was her and only her she could ask.
"Abbey... Will ya do me a favour?" Nancy asked Abbey frowned at her.
"Sure, what is it?" She asked.
"Would you... lie for me?" She asked Abbey glared at her before glancing into the woods where Nancy was looking.
"Oh no, I'm not going to lie to Matt for you while you run off to do some hunting!" She hissed shaking her head.
"No! Not huntin', I jus' I got summin' I gotta do, an' I promise I'll be back 'fore Matt is! Jus' lie if he mentions it later, I don' want'im worryin' is all." Nancy explained Abbey squinted at her for a few moments.
"What if you don't come back?" She asked Nancy looked to the floor for a moment then back up at her.
"Jus' tell 'im ya didn't see me leave, I was jus' gone." She said, Abbey sighed but nodded.
"Fine! But if he finds out I'm going to pretend like I got no idea about it." She growled unhappy about having to lie.
"Good! Yes, thank you! Thank you so much Abbey!" And with that Nancy went running off, she quickly snuck into camp and grabbed a pair of binoculars out of the truck then ran back off into the woods.
It didn't take Nancy long to find Daryl's camp once more, this time she tried to find some woods that were a bit closer to it and after walking almost the entire circle around the area she found a spot that was so close to one of the tents she was sure if anyone was in there they'd be able to hear her footsteps. She watched the group moving around living their lives but she didn't see Daryl she figured the one thing she'd hoped hadn't happened had, that he was in the house resting or the barn. As she continued to watch the group she noticed the blonde woman from before walking towards her and the tent that was close to her Nancy ducked behind the tree she had climbed into to scout from holding her breath. She peeked back around after a few seconds to see that the blonde had gone into the tent, she thought nothing of it raising her binoculars back to her face that was until she thought she heard a familiar voice come out of that tent. Nancy's eyes shot down to the tent as she strained her ears to try and hear what was being said she couldn't catch it but she could see through the netting on the side of the tent. She could only see the bottom half of his body but she was sure it was him, she eyed up a good spot on the tree beside her and, after standing and balancing herself on the branch she was already on, she made a leap for it her hand gripped hold and with that she pulled herself up. Only then she had her sore biceps leant against the hard tree, after much swearing she managed to pull herself up and on to the branch just as she managed to get settled she looked back over to see the blonde leaving the tent. Nancy got herself comfortable as she sat and watched Daryl for a few hours before reluctantly heading back to her own camp without Matt knowing a thing about it.
A week passed by and Matt was itching to move on though Nancy wasn't so eager, she'd managed to talk him down from leaving at least three times the last time was last night, it got pretty heated and he'd given her some fresh bruises over the newly healed ones on her arms, luckily he hadn't done any damage to anywhere else on her body. The only thing that had managed to keep her going through the arguments was the same thing that was causing them, the reason she was so head-strong about staying; Daryl. She'd started making a habit of disappearing whenever Matt went out hunting, sometimes asking Abbey to lie for her sometimes just not even telling her, and just watching Daryl's camp, she'd not managed to get there everyday but it was damn close to that. She saw his group go through a lot of tough stuff, the old man she'd seen before even disappeared over night, she assumed he'd been killed 'cause they had a funeral one morning. After that it got a bit harder to watch them though, they all moved into the farm house and they all seemed to be on much higher alert making it difficult for Nancy. She was pretty sure that the guy she'd seen before, in the Police cap, had seen, and followed, her for a straight mile one day. Though that wasn't the hardest part for Nancy, the hardest part was constantly seeing Daryl with a woman, not the blonde one now but a short haired older looking woman. Nancy had seen the pair together on so many occasions now that just the sight of them next to each other drove her insane, which was the reason she was scowling into her binoculars this morning she could see the pair of them talking outside the farm house. The woman was smiling at Daryl and just as Nancy thought she was at breaking point she leant in to him Nancy threw her binoculars to the floor growling as she did so, she tore one of her knifes out of her belt and stabbed it into the tree she was on just to get some anger out. After a few moments of glaring at her own knife her eyes fell to the very far away floor that she'd dropped, and probably broken, the binoculars on to. She growled again as she pulled out her knife and started climbing down the tree she got to the bottom with ease and picked up the binoculars.
'He's happy, in love, so am I right? So there shouldn't be anything to be upset over!'
'Urgh, what if he is in love, he's in love with someone and it isn't me why does that annoy me so much!?'
'Because you are insane.' Nancy sighed at her unhelpful thoughts as she moved away from the tree she was on taking a quick peek through the binoculars to make sure there weren't broken, they were. She sighed again running her hand through her curly locks.
'Maybe it's time to give up, look at him...' She thought as she looked through the broken binoculars over to Daryl who was now sat alone. 'He still has my knife clearly without realising it's mine, he's happy, happy with someone else, but still he's happy and alive that should make me happy right?'
'Ugh, fine, we'll leave with Matt. No point in staying if he's happy with someone else...' Nancy growled in her head keeping her eyes on Daryl as he sharpened a stick with a knife.
"Goodbye Ears..." She whispered smirking at the reference to their childhood before slinging the binoculars around her neck and walking back to her camp. She arrived to find a pacing and angry looking Abbey at the entrance to the camp.
"Where have you been!?" She hissed at Nancy as soon as she walked up to her.
"Jus' checkin' out the perimeter... Thought I 'eard a rotter.." Nancy explained with a wink before walking into the camp the truck's shutter was closed so she climbed in through the door and into the cab only to find Abbey was still following her.
"Don't give me that bull Nancy, you need to stop going out there for whatever it is that you're doing!" She hissed at her Nancy sighed nodding her head.
"Ya, I know-"
"But do you know Nancy!? Do you realise what Matt would do to the lot of us if you didn't come back one day? He'd kill us! Not only are you putting yourself in unneeded danger but you're putting all of us in it too!" Abbey cut Nancy off with her words Nancy just smiled at her and nodded.
"I agree wit' ya Abbey... Which is why I'm gonna tell Matt tonigh' that we need t' move on go else where." Nancy couldn't help but laugh at Abbey's speechlessness. "Is that alrigh' with Mother Abbey?" She joked Abbey just glared at her.
"Yes... I just- I thought I'd have a lot more of a fight on my hands from you that's all." She explained Nancy nodded.
"Ya, well my reason for waitin', ain't waitin' for me." Nancy whispered Abbey didn't ask though and Nancy was thankful for that. "Well, shall we get ta cookin' dinner then?" Nancy smiled as she pulled open the shutter
A few hours later, just before it started to turn dark Matt and Bill came back home from hunting with a dozen squirrel's and even a rabbit. Nancy smiled when she saw them coming in and before long the six of them were all sat around the camp fire after finishing dinner chatting away to each other about the things they missed most from normal life.
"A damn washing machine would be nice..." Abbey joked she was always stuck with laundry duty, Nancy laughed at her friend.
"I miss the t.v. Used to be able to get away without listenin' to her whinin' then.." Frank said as he picked his teeth and pointedly glanced at Abbey who just laughed giving him a light elbow to the ribs.
"I miss smokes, ain't found a shop tha' had any in 'em in days!" Bill spoke now Frank nodded in agreement to his words.
"I don't miss anythin', 'cause I got all I need... Righ' here..." Matt spoke now slipping his arm round Nancy as he spoke she smiled at him while everyone else booed.
"Oh screw that, now ya made tha' rest'a us look bad!" Bill complained Matt and Nancy just laughed at him and the others she looked back across to Matt as everyone else started their own conversation. Her eyes watched his face as he looked at the rest of the group laughing at their jokes with his broken tooth smile, his stubbled face was strong with a few two many scars and a busted up nose from all the times he'd broken it. He wasn't exactly winning any beauty contests but sometimes he could be really sweet to her.
"I think we should go." She said with a nod as though making the decision there and then.
"Hm? Go where? Bed?" Matt questioned Nancy just let out a little laugh and shook her head.
"No, leave, all o'us we should move on, there ain't nothin' for us here..." She looked away as she spoke now her eyes falling to her knees as they hung over the back of the truck.
"Aw baby, you just made my night!" Matt said happily kissing the side of Nancy's head she just smiled up at him before he pushed himself off the back of the truck.
"Y'all, pack up your shit tonight, we're leavin' as soon as we wake up in the morn'." He spoke to the group before climbing back into the truck.
Nancy tied her hair into pigtails like she did every night it helped her sleep when her hair wasn't in her way she climbed into her little fold out bed as Matt did the last bits of the night. She was still wearing her denim cut off daisy dukes and a black wife beater shirt that was much too big for her because, although she'd never revealed this to Matt, it was once Daryl Dixon's. She knew she should have thrown it out but it was one of the best things she had to sleep in and now it was the only thing she had. Besides wearing denim in bed was uncomfortable enough the only reason they did it is because early on in their travels they found out the danger of having to dress when attacked by rotters at night when Matt was nearly bit. It was only because Nancy threw a knife at the bastard when she was in nothing but her underwear that saved him. Although wearing Daryl's shirt every night didn't help her in her plea to stop thinking about him and she fell asleep, once again, with nothing but him on her mind. Barely a couple of hours passed before Nancy and the rest of the camp were woken up by a horrific scream Nancy jumped straight out of bed grabbing her knives and clipping them around herself as Matt tore open the shutter only to find a rotter inches from the back of the truck before he could react Nancy had thrown a knife into his skull. Matt jumped straight out of the back of the truck and over to Bill and Jill's car where the majority of the rotter's were.
"Stay in the truck!" He yelled back to Nancy as he took down a rotter with a knife to it's head, Nancy just glared at him in response as she started hearing gun shots, Bill she expected.
"Abbey!?" Nancy called reminding herself that it was a woman's scream she'd heard.
"Nancy! What's happening?!" Abbey and Frank had appeared from their own car Abbey was holding a pistol in her hands and Frank had a bat. Just as Nancy turned to explain she saw a rotter just feet from her and Frank.
"Abbey! Watch out!" Nancy screamed throwing a knife into the rotter's head as she jumped off the truck and over to Abbey grabbing both the knives she'd thrown as she did.
"Jesus..." Nancy whispered as she now got a sense of what was happening there were rotters everywhere and more were coming now that there had been, and still were, gun shots. Finally Matt and Bill cleared the rotters from Bill's car and everyone finally saw who had screamed, Jill lay across the passenger seat torn to bits Bill screamed out tears falling down his face while Matt just lifted his pistol and shot her in the head before taking out some more approaching rotters.
"Shit..." Nancy whispered as she took down another two rotters. "Quick Abbey, Frank get t' the truck! We'll sort- SHIT FRANK WATCH OUT!" But it was too late by the time Nancy finished warning him the rotter had already bitten into his arm.
"FRANK! NO!" Abbey screamed shooting the rotter in the head but Frank's arm was bleeding out all over the car. Frank's eyes shot up to look at Matt who, as soon as he looked over, lifted his gun towards Frank.
"I'm sorry, friend." He spoke as he walked toward the three of them.
"What?! NO!" Abbey said throwing herself between Frank and Matt.
"He's already dead Abbey..." Matt growled after hearing his words however Frank set off running.
"No. He's. Not!" She hissed back at him moving so that she was still blocking Frank as he moved Nancy took out a couple of rotters who were nearing on the still grieving Bill just as Matt growled in frustration at Abbey.
"MOVE! HE'S GETTING AWAY!" Matt yelled as he shoved Abbey off to the side she fell her side landed on some glass from a window that Bill had shot out in a vain attempt to save Jill and before Nancy knew it Abbey was bleeding too.
"Matt!" Nancy scorned as she moved to Abbey's side.
"God dammit I can't see him now!" He growled before shooting a rotter down then turning on the two women.
"No! Did he get him? Did he get Frank?" Abbey whispered wincing as she held her side.
"No, he didn' get Frank Abbey, jus' stay still." Nancy whispered back leant over her.
"Move aside Nancy..." She heard the cold voice of Matt speak, she looked up at him to find his gun pointed at her and Abbey.
"Matt! NO!" She yelled standing between him and Abbey now. "She's fine Matt, she was cut not bit!" Nancy growled at him.
"She might bleed out, she'll only slow us down wit' a wound like tha'."
"Look around Matt! We're surrounded by rotters an' we're down two people, you really wanna throw away help like tha'?" Nancy hissed but he still didn't lower his gun she glared at him. "Fine, if ya wanna shoot Abbey ya gonna have to shoot me too..." She said to him and the fact that he took a few seconds to think scared the crap out of her.
"Fine!" He growled dropping his arm. "But she's on you, she drags us down you're dealin' wit' it!" He hissed at Nancy before shooting two more rotters near Bill. "Now do what I say an' get in the truck!" He growled taking out a few rotters between them and the truck as Nancy lifted Abbey's weight on to her shoulder and dragged her over to the truck dropping her in and pushing her back into it before running around and grabbing the knives she'd used taking down a couple more rotters as she did. Matt ran to Bill and, with much arguing, managed to get him into the truck too. Both Matt and Nancy took down a few more rotters before jumping into the back of the truck themselves slamming the shutter closed just as four rotters crossed the camp towards them. Without a word Matt ran to the drivers seat jumping into it and starting the engine, he took off managing to take out a few more rotters as he got on to the road.
"Oh.. Frank..." Abbey whispered tears fell down her face, Nancy fell to her side grabbing some bandages from the shelf and wrapping them around her.
"I know Abbey I know..." Nancy said stroking her hair with her bloody hands leaving trails of blood on her blonde strands.
"We gotta go back for him..." Abbey whispered to Nancy, Nancy just sadly shook her head.
"Abbey... Abbey listen t' me.. Frank got bit, the camp's overrun, we can't go back, I'm sorry sweetie, Frank's gone..." She said staring into Abbey large sad green eyes.
"Noo..." She whispered before falling into Nancy's chest and crying more. Nancy's eyes moved up to look at Matt, he glanced back at her shook his head and turned back around. Nancy just glared at him, he was ruthless out there, shooting Jill before she was even cold, nearly killing Frank before he even had the chance to work out what had happened and then going for Abbey, who was this man?
After only ten or so miles the truck came to a shuddering halt, it was this noise that woke Nancy up, she looked down to find Abbey still asleep on her chest. She moved the sleeping blonde so that she was resting on a make shift pillow, made out of one of Nancy's jumpers, then she moved into the front of the truck.
"We're out?" She whispered to Matt, Bill was also asleep in the back and she didn't want to wake either of them.
"The light was on before we made camp up there, our plan there was t' find fuel remember?" Matt growled back to her Nancy sighed.
"Damn..." She whispered. "Well we'll stay here for the night, rest in the truck 'til morn'n, ya need sleep." She said looking at Matt's tired face. "Then in the morn'n one o'us'll go find some gas al'ight?" Matt nodded as she spoke before the pair of them climbed into the back of the truck and into their separate fold out beds. As Nancy glanced down to her baggy wife beater shirt her mind went to Daryl and she hoped that the rotter's that had hit their camp hadn't hit his too.
The next day seemed to fly past, both Nancy and Matt went out on separate scouts for cars and couldn't find a single one, no fuel anywhere. Before she knew it the four of them were all sat round eating cold beans straight out of the can, they didn't want to run the risk of starting a fire the rotters seemed to be out in full force today. Matt figured they'd finally left the city and that there was only going to be more of them.
"So what should we do?" Nancy asked the thing she knew everyone was thinking.
"Look for more fuel t'morrow?" Bill asked Nancy shook her head.
"We can't stay here, we'll be overrun by morn'n... Matt?!" She questioned her fiancée in hopes he'd agree with her he just glanced at her.
"What else can we do Nancy?" He asked she shook her head.
"Walk! Get as many miles between here an' us as possible!" Matt just laughed at her words shaking his head.
"What and leave all our supplies? We'd die'a starvation 'fore we got even twenty miles from here!" He growled back to her.
"We take what we can carry an' hope for some place to loot or people we can trade off'a." Nancy exclaimed back to him.
"That's a damn slim chance!" Matt retorted, Nancy sneered at him, starting to think he was only arguing with her now because he was mad at her.
"It's a damn better chance than just hopin' the rotters'll just pass us by if we stay here!" She growled back Matt glared at her for a moment.
"I think I'm startin' t' agree wit' Nancy now bro, there is a whole lotta rotters 'round here..." Bill took Nancy's side, not something she was able to brag about that often. Matt's glare turned on to Bill now but as he looked that way his eyes landed on the sleeping Abbey who's bloody bandage needed changing.
"What 'bout Abbey? She can barely walk twenty feet let alone twenty miles! You suggestin' we leave 'er?" Matt sneered Nancy glared at him.
'Oh you'd love that wouldn't you, to have been right about not bringing her!' Was what Nancy wanted to say but she held her tongue.
"I'll carry her if I have to." Her words came out vicious and bitter and Matt sensed that but after the defeat of having Bill agree with Nancy there wasn't much else he could do.
"Fine! We'll go in the morn'n!" He spat out before climbing into the back of the truck, after a small smile of victory Nancy did the same.
The morning came by without any more incidents and Nancy managed to sleep pretty easily, she blamed that on all the walking and fighting she'd done the day before. She woke up to find Matt and Bill already up and packing things away she was quick to get up and do the same and within the hour the four of them were on the road. Nancy walked with her arm linked into Abbey's just in case she needed the support and Matt and Bill walked behind them with one of them always walking backwards. If a rotter approached from the front it'd be pretty easy to see early on what with the roads being so long and empty, the men's main concern were the sides and back which is why they agreed to always stay at least ten feet behind the women.
"Nancy...?" Abbey whispered to the brunette woman beside her.
"Ya?" Nancy replied keeping her eyes on the road.
"Thank you, I didn't get a chance to say it without him around but... You stood up to him to save me, I know that must have been hard for you, and for a minute I thought he was gonna shoot you too..." She took a breath and Nancy looked happily over to her. "But I'm glad he didn't... Thank you for saving my life." Nancy smiled at her friends words.
"No need for thanks Abs, it's jus' what friends do righ'?" Nancy smiled Abbey laughed.
"Well I'm not sure how many friends would have their friends fiancées pointing a gun at them... But sure, that's what friends do." Nancy smiled sadly at Abbey's response.
"I'm sorry Abbey, 'bout everything, 'bout him 'bout Frank..." Nancy's voice caught. "Jus', everything..." She whispered.
"Nancy, you have nothing... Not. ... To be sorry for, you are one of the best women I've ever met and you deserve a lot better than him. And Frank... Well that's not your fault at all, he has always been a bit deaf... Always was, I mean..." Her voice lowered to barely a whisper Nancy looked to her blonde friend with sympathy moving her arm so it was around her shoulder, instead of crooked into her arm, she gave the woman the best one armed hug she could muster.
The foursome continued up the long hot roads for about five miles before Abbey almost collapsed, determined not to prove a gun-wielding Matt right Nancy quickly threw Abbey's arm over her shoulders and took the majority of the blonde's weight so she could still walk. Nancy remained like this for a long while before she started realising how parched she was her tongue was sticking to the roof of her mouth it was so dry. She thought it through and worked out that she hadn't had a drink since leaving the truck she pulled her backpack round so it was in front of her and started rifling through it one handed, her other hand pre-occupied by keeping Abbey stable. She couldn't find any water in her pack though.
"Dammit." She cursed when she realised she hadn't packed any, her breathing had picked up a bit now as she started to feel a little woozy. She reluctantly turned to look at Matt and Bill.
"Hey Matt!" She called over he looked to her.
"What?" He growled clearly still pissed at her she sighed knowing it'd be an argument to get the water out of him now, he'll complain about her not packing any herself, but just as she went to ask for it they heard a strange noise off in the distance.
"Sh!" Bill hissed out as the three of them strained their ears to the sound.
"What is that?" Matt whispered. "Is it a 'copter?!" He asked excitedly looking into the air, Bill joined him both their eyes searching the skies for anything that resembled a helicopter. The sound got closer as they searched the skies. Nancy looked back down the long road ahead of them only to set eyes on what the noise was.
"Matt!" Nancy hissed to him Matt waved a hand at her in a dismissive way.
"Hang on a sec, Nancy it's gettin' closer!" He replied she just rolled her eyes at him.
"Matt, look!"She growled at him and finally his eyes moved to her set in a glare, that was until he saw what she was pointing to and smacked Bill.
"Eyes down bro, we got company!" Matt said raising his hunting rifle to the approaching motorcycle and two maybe three cars Nancy glared at him.
"Matt! Why the guns!?" She hissed at him.
"What if they're hostile?!" He retorted.
"What if they're not?! We might be able to get some supplies off'a 'em, maybe even catch a ride! You wanna risk losing that offer by shoving a gun in their face?!" She growled.
"You wanna risk getting killed for that offer?!" He sneered back she just glared at him but then she realised that the noise had stopped and her eyes moved back to the approaching vehicles to find that they had stopped and now it was people approaching.
After Hershel's farm had got hit bad by walkers the group had lost far too many, Shane, Andrea, two of Hershel's kids not to mention Dale not long before, the few that did survive had just spent the night cold and sleeping in a shady little hideout in the woods after one of the cars ran out of gas. Luckily they'd managed to scavenge some more and were now heading across the nearby towns looting whatever they could until they found a good place to hold up for a while. Daryl was used to living on barely anything though and didn't really understand why Rick was so hell bent on having somewhere to stay for any long period of time, it just begged for more attacks. He could understand for when the baby was coming but they could use one of these abandoned old houses they're looting for that, hell there wasn't much Daryl did understand about Rick. His thoughts about the group came to a quick halt however when he saw three figures walking along the road ahead of them, least he thought it was three. He assumed they were three walkers but the third figure looked strange, like a real big blur, maybe it was just a fat walker. It wasn't until he got closer that he realised there were four, one person was practically carrying the other one he frowned at this, maybe they weren't walkers after all. Daryl positioned himself to one side of the road and fell back so that he was window level with Rick's car.
"What is it?" Rick yelled out to him over their still moving vehicles.
"They ain't walkers that's for sure..." Daryl called back Rick looked sceptical.
"How can you be sure?" He asked Daryl pointed to the two on the left.
"How often you see walkers holdin' each other up like that?" Daryl explained Lori smiled from Rick's side.
"I said the same thing!" She called over to Daryl who just smirked.
"Alright, we'll pull over here, walk up to them, but bring your crossbow, incase they're armed." Rick said Daryl nodded pulling back up in front of him and shutting off his engine. As the others pulled over and got out their cars Daryl got off his bike as Rick quickly explained what was going on and then asked T-Dog and Glenn as long as himself and Daryl to go over while everyone else stayed behind. The three other men started walking over Daryl went to join them but as he lifted his crossbow he realised the strap had got caught on his bike.
Nancy watched as three men approached them her eyes then moved over to Matt with a glare.
"Matt! Put the gun down! There ain't no way y'all are gonna be able to kill all'o them and I ain't gonna help ya!" Nancy hissed, Bill, realising his odds of survival against the other three men were slim, lowered his pistol Matt growled but reluctantly did the same. Nancy nodded and made sure she, and by default Abbey who she was pretty sure had passed out now, approached the three men first. The man in the middle pulled out his pistol and raised it to Nancy and Abbey, Nancy sighed at his action knowing what Matt's reaction would be.
"Is she bit?!" The man with the pistol growled to Nancy when he was a few meters away.
"You wanna get that gun outta my girls face?!" Matt appeared by Abbey's side now lifting his rifle to point at the man in the middle only to have the two other men raise their weapons on him.
"I said is she bit?!" The man growled again and Nancy got this strange sensation that she recognised him but she quickly dismissed the thought to respond to him.
"Matt! Put the gun down!" Nancy growled over to him but he ignored her. "No, she ain't bit, it's jus' a cut..." The three men didn't seem to believe her so Nancy moved so that she was holding Abbey in a way that she could reach her wound, the movement only made the man in the middle raise his gun a little more Nancy stopped what she was doing instantly.
"I was jus' gonna show y'all the cut..." She mumbled then the group fell into silence as everyone waited for something to happen. Nancy stared at the man with the pistol for a moment unable to shake the feeling that she recognised him then she started to realise where from, after all it hadn't been that long since she'd last seen him. Her eyes grew wide as another pair of footsteps came running over to join the three of them.
"Hell's goin' on here Rick?" And there with his cross bow pointed at her head stood Daryl Dixon. Her heart felt like it dropped into her stomach and suddenly Daryl dropped his crossbow she assumed that he was looking at her, realising who she was but she didn't know for sure she'd been too terrified to take her eyes off Rick and look at the anger in Daryl's eyes.
"Daryl Dixon?!" A new sensation hit her stomach at Matt's vicious words; worry.
"Matt..." Nancy whispered glaring over to him but she could see that look on his face that he always had at the thought of Daryl, hatred.
"Daryl you know these people?" The asian kid spoke now Nancy brought her eyes up to look at Daryl's and it was almost as painful as she thought it would be only there wasn't anger behind his eyes but sadness, and really that was worse.
"Nancy..." He whispered as he moved to step towards her but Matt was quick to react, jumping between Nancy and all four of the men with his gun trained on Daryl, only to have all four of their weapons pointed back at him.
"Matt! Put the gun down! It's Daryl! We know him!" Nancy growled at him.
"That's exactly why I ain't puttin' this gun down..." He hissed back to her the other men looked between Daryl and Matt.
"Daryl, what's goin' on here?" The middle man asked.
"Oh this asshole ain't nothin' I wouldn't happily deal with, Rick!" Daryl growled back.
"Matt, please.." Nancy huffed licking her lips that were so dry they felt cracked under her tongue.
"Matt? Listen to your girlfriend... Put the gun down, if you know Daryl we got no quarrel with you." The middle man said.
"Oh yes we do! I can't believe you're still with this asshole Nancy!" Daryl growled over the top of Rick's words.
"Matt... Stop..." Nancy huffed doubling over to rest her hands on her knees still with Abbey's limp body hung over her.
"Er, guys, I think there's something wrong with her..." The asian kid spoke again.
"She wasn't bit was she?!" The middle guy again, even though Nancy wasn't looking she could tell Matt wasn't paying attention.
"What's wrong with her, Pecker?!" Daryl spoke now using Matt's last name Nancy heard movement too.
"Don't! Don't go near her!" Matt's voice, Daryl had obviously stepped towards her.
"Matt! Stop it!" Nancy tried to yell with what little energy she had left but it came out like more of a hushed shout.
"We don't need you or anythin' you- ..." Matt stopped himself mid-sentence. "Nancy why the fuck has this piece o'shit got one'a your knives!?" He hissed Nancy's stomach fell once more her head went dizzy she couldn't stand any more she had to rest.
"What.. No... It's..-" She tried explain but she couldn't finish her words before she collapsed to the floor, Abbey along with her.