Mara lowered herself into the car.
"I don't understand why you have to drive?"
"'Cos you drive on the wrong side of the road!" Daryl started the engine.
"It's the night of living dead. No one else is driving."
"Whatever."
Mara leant back in the seat and crossed her arms. "Whatever my ass."
Daryl looked at her out of the corner of his eyes.
"How long is this going to take?" Mara grumbled.
"Rick wants us to go a few towns over and in the opposite direction of Woodbury."
"Makes sense. Less chance it's been picked clean by scavengers," Mara said.
"So let's have a little quiet time now."
Mara rolled her eyes. Daryl wasn't actively avoiding her or giving off that wounded vibe but he certainly wasn't being any nicer to her. She couldn't help thinking what a jerk he was, even if he did have nice arms. Anyone could have nice arms if they spent years playing with crossbows and hunting squirrels. Hell, she had nice arms.
They settled in to silence and the sun was beating down on Mara through the open window. No wasting petrol on air conditioning in this world. Mara had to admit she was enjoying the peace and quiet after the company heavy life at the prison. It was rare to find yourself with just one other person. Daryl even smelt ok after the shower and his hair was apparently a light brown and not black after washing.
They went through two small towns before stopping at the third. Daryl examined the area as best he could and parked the car in a small side street. "Don't want it t'get stolen," he said by way of explanation.
"Who is stealing cars in the apocalypse?"
Daryl shrugged. "Happens." He got out of the car and pulled the weapons from the trunk of the car. For the first time he had his back to Mara.
Mara sucked in her breath. "That is the ugliest shirt I've ever seen," she said without thinking. Mara hoped he hadn't heard.
Daryl appeared from the depths of the car. "Yer picking on my shirt now?"
Mara had a look of wonder on her face. Wings? Seriously? There were just so many white trash clichés that Daryl could rock.
"I'm sorry. I know I rag on you a lot about being a red neck but sometimes you make it really easy."
Daryl leant back on the car and eyed her squarely. "Are you trying to get me outta my shirt?"
"You wish!" Mara scoffed and pushed past him to get the weapons. It was also to hide the blush. She was wondering if the nice muscles in his arms extended into his torso and abs. And sure, maybe she'd like to see some of that if it belonged to anyone but Daryl.
Mara scanned the main street. No spooks that she could see yet.
"Street's clear of walkers, let's move."
"Hardware store first?" Mara suggested. Now they were out in the open her mind had turned to business.
Daryl nodded and raised his crossbow. The hardware store front windows were intact and a quick glance inside didn't reveal any spooks. Mara opened the door slowly so that Daryl could take point with his crossbow. At the last second Mara saw the bell attached to the door and stopped pulling.
"Fuck," she breathed.
"Like ringing a dinner bell," Daryl added softly. He slipped in the half open door first. Mara followed and carefully pulled the door shut.
Daryl put his finger to his lips and pointed further into the store. They could hear scratching deeper in. They split up down different aisles. Mara felt better with her fatigues zipped tight but the close call the other day had instilled a wariness in her. The spook was at the far wall lazily hitting at bolts on the shelf. Daryl whistled to get its attention and when it rambled off after the first meal it had seen in months, Mara cut off the top of its head cleanly. Like something in a horror film, the body slumped one way and the top of the skull fell in the other direction.
"I had it," Daryl grumbled.
Mara ignored him. She started searching for cement bags and any tools that would help reinforce the prison. They made discrete runs to load up the car.
"Supermarket and pharmacy next." Daryl checked them off on his fingers.
In the supermarket they took all the baby formula and tinned food they could find. In the pharmacy it was more obvious that it had been looted but thankfully not picked clean.
"Let's get this done," Daryl urged, obviously thinking Mara was taking too long.
"Relax, we've seen one spook."
"Yeah that's what bothers me."
Mara reached down and snatched a box of condoms from a shelf.
Daryl raised an eyebrow. "Planning a big night for yourself?"
"They're not for me. They're for the group."
"I don't think the group needs... those."
This time it was Mara's turn to arch an eyebrow. "Your group has a newborn baby, don't even try that." Mara noticed his hesitation to say the word condoms but decided not to waste time teasing.
"Go on, throw 'em in." Daryl held the bag open and away from him as if she was tossing a rattlesnake at him.
"We should go by the suburbs quickly and see if we can siphon some petrol," Mara suggested.
"Car'll barely go as it is, you've packed it so full," Daryl said but he turned the car out of the main street. They found a quiet little street and parked the car in a garage to hide it from prying eyes. Mara hadn't expected to count other humans in the list of threats when they had first come. The Governor had made her reconsider.
They found a car just abandoned and the door was half open. Daryl crouched low to the ground to see if anything was hiding underneath. He signalled the all clear by gesturing at Mara to follow him. She came up alongside the car and saw there was a dead body in the front seat. Not a spook, just a regular dead body.
Except it was a child. The little boy smelt awful and something had taken a bite out of his face. The body was well into the stages of decay. There were flies all around feasting on his flesh.
Mara felt all the blood rush to her head and she spun away onto the suburban lawn. She fell to her knees and vomited. There was something more awful about this one child in this car than all the stumbling dead spooks she had seen, even if they looked more gruesome.
Mara tried to stop retching but she couldn't. She felt weak and guilty of all the noise she was making. Then there was a hand on her lower back steadying her.
Mara sat back on her heels and looked at Daryl who was kneeling next to her. He looked uncomfortable and handed her a water bottle before wordlessly moving back to the car. Mara rinsed out her mouth to get rid of the acidic after taste.
She waited for Daryl to tease her but it never came. He bent to his task and Mara went back to scanning the street. Mara tensed when she heard an engine and walked closer to Daryl. A truck spun round the corner fast. Mara ducked down beside Daryl, clamping a hand on his shoulder to keep him down too.
Mara slowly ducked her head around the corner to watch the situation unfold. Four men got out of the truck and they were armed. They were armed well judging by how loud and confident they were acting.
"Go through the houses and see if you can find anything useful," one of them was saying.
"And kill anyone you find."
Mara's stomach dropped at that last bit.
"Guess they ain't friendly," Daryl said wryly. Mara looked around for an exit. They were too exposed here but any route of escape would put them straight in the line of fire. Daryl fumbled with the fuel can, pulling the hose out of the tank and screwing on the cap. The fuel was not negotiable, they couldn't leave it behind.
Mara could hear footsteps approaching; they would be near the car any minute now. Daryl dropped to his stomach and wriggled under the car. Mara shoved the fuel can under to him and then rolled under next to him.
Lying side by side, Mara held her breath. Daryl didn't sound like he was breathing either. Mara could see feet now and tried to curl in on herself so they wouldn't see her. She crossed her fingers and hoped they didn't check under the car for spooks like Daryl had done.
Thankfully they walked by but Mara didn't exhale. Daryl was tense next to her and she could feel his hand sliding down between their bodies to reach for his knife.
There were shots and shouts. Mara thought she couldn't be more on edge but the sound of dragging feet and groans was unmistakable. Daryl's body was blocking her view of the other side of the street. Mara could hear car doors slam and her imagination was conjuring wild images.
Daryl abruptly started shoving her out from under the car.
"We have to go!" He sounded frantic. Whatever was coming was worse than the men. Mara was out from under the car and on her feet as quickly as possible. She used one hand to help pull Daryl out.
Looking through the car windows Mara saw what Daryl saw. A massive group of spooks ambling out of houses and up the street, appearing from nowhere like some hideous magic trick. One of the men was surrounded, his shrieks as he was dragged down and killed were ear piercing.
"No time for gawkin'," Daryl snapped and pushed her on.
The spooks were distracted by the fresh bloody meat on the ground but there were too many to occupy and the movement up the street caught their eye.
It never ceased to amaze Mara how fast they could move when they were riled up. Daryl pointed to a gate that led into the backyard. "There!"
They barrelled through the gate and threw is shut behind them knowing it would only hold the spooks off for a minute.
The backyard ended in a tall fence and right behind that was the forest. "We can lose them in there."
"What about the supplies?" Mara asked, breathless.
"We can go back for them later." Daryl didn't wait for further discussion. He put two hands on the top of the fence and hoisted himself up just as the gate flung open.
Needing no more encouragement than a rampage of the walking dead, Mara followed his lead. Her boots scratched uselessly against the wood as she tried to find a toe hold. She had to rely on the strength of her arms to pull herself up.
Daryl reached down a rough hand and yanked her up by the collar of her jacket. They tumbled over. Daryl landed on his feet but Mara stumbled a little.
"Move," Daryl snapped. Mara heard the impact of the group colliding with the fence and saw it shudder. It wouldn't hold for much longer. Daryl was looking around frantically. Daryl suddenly stopped dead and stared up.
"What are you doing?" Mara demanded frantically.
Daryl put the fuel can down at the base of a tree. "We're climbing."
Mara looked behind them and watched the fence slam forward. They only had a few seconds. Mara grabbed the lowest branch. Daryl interlocked his fingers and, shoving them under her boot, gave Mara a boost. Mara reached a hand down to Daryl but he ignored it and pulled himself up into the branches with the same ease he scaled the fence.
Mara pulled herself higher into the tree. The higher she got the denser the leaves and branches were as the trees started to overlap. She stopped when she was confident that they were mostly concealed by leaves. They heard the fence give way. Daryl paused on a branch near her.
The spooks rushed by below them. Their noses were in the air sniffing their prey out. They could still smell Mara and Daryl but their rotting brains didn't think to look up into the canopy.
They were safe for now.
...
Daryl was stiff and tired by the time the last walker had passed by the base of the tree. He still didn't move just in case one snapping twig brought them all rushing back. Mara was resting her check against the bark and had a far off look.
Most of the day was gone and dusk was setting in.
"I think they've gone," Daryl whispered.
The glazed look in Mara's eyes retreated. "What do you want to do?"
For once Daryl wasn't sure. He didn't know how far that group of walkers had gotten. Once they'd lost their trail they had slowed right back down to their shuffling pace. Daryl didn't know if they'd gone five meters or five miles. He couldn't get a clear look at the ground from up here.
He was also worried about those men. Were they part of a larger group? Were they using the town as a base? They had been lucky to escape detection. They probably would have killed Daryl, maybe they would have kept Mara. He remembered the story Randal had told him in the shed and shuddered. Probably in that situation Daryl would be the lucky one.
He would have made a run for the car but he didn't want to risk Mara's life. He hated being responsible for another person. A year ago he wouldn't have even considered waiting around just for Mara's sake, hell for anyone's sake.
"I'm not sure," he confessed. "Parta me wants to try for the car but I don't like doing it in the dark."
"You want to stay in the tree all night?" Mara looked exhausted. He actually felt a little sorry for her.
"I wanna survive the night."
"Why don't we use the hammock?" Mara said.
"Hammock?"
"Yeah in my backpack. We have hammocks. We can tie it up high so no spooks can get to us and I doubt people will be looking in the trees at night."
Daryl opened his mouth to tell her how stupid the idea was but he reconsidered. This might not be a bad idea. Obviously sleep wouldn't be recommended because any tossing and turning could pitch them out but they'd be able to lie down and rest. Better than clinging to a tree all night in the cold.
Daryl grunted his acceptance of the suggestion. Mara leaned back against a branch and fumbled in her bag for the hammock. Luckily she didn't seem overly concerned with heights and Daryl had spent time up trees since he was a small child. He manoeuvred his way through the branches and tied one side of the hammock up and Mara did the same on the other side.
He watched her out of the corner of his eye to make sure she didn't tie a weak girly knot or a fancy Australian knot he hadn't heard of. Mara tied the same know he had and he suspected he wasn't the only one keeping an eye on their partner. Maybe she suspected he was gonna snap and do some woman beating.
That series of dark thoughts put him in a foul mood. It was dark, he was stuck away from people that he needed to protect and to make matters worse, he was stuck in a tree.
Daryl climbed into the hammock with ease and Mara wriggled her way in with a lot less grace. They were side by side, shoulder to shoulder. Daryl realised he should have stipulated they lay head to toe. Would have served her right to spend a night with his smelly shoe in her face seeing as how she treated him like he was something that she had found on the bottom of hers.
The slope of the hammock meant they kept rolling towards each other. Daryl turned on his side, facing away from her. He didn't want to have to avoid eye contact with Mara the whole night.
Daryl tried to relax. It was a decent night after all. He couldn't see the stars from where he lay but it wasn't too cold and there was no wind. The thought that no walkers could reach him up here was a comforting one too and Daryl could feel his breath evening out. He was slipping into the almost meditative state he experienced when he was tracking or hunting.
An hour had passed and he might have thought Mara was asleep she was so still and quiet. He could tell that she wasn't though, he could still sense her body tense like a wire next to his.
"Daryl?" a voice said softly.
Daryl resisted the urge to bark at her to shut up but he didn't want the bother of even that small a conversation. He kept his eyes closed and ignored her.
There was a tentative touch on his elbow. Daryl kept pretending to be asleep. He would have enjoyed accusing her of trying to touch him funny in his sleep but he doubted Rick would have appreciated him exacerbating the animosity.
There was a little sigh and Daryl thought she was going to settle down and sleep maybe but she kept talking.
"I am really sorry you know," Mara said in a voice so soft that if the night hadn't been perfectly tranquil he wouldn't have heard it. Her tone was so quiet Daryl was certain she believed he was asleep.
"I've heard what you did for Sophia."
Daryl had to fight not to react to that. He could never hear that little girls name without thinking of how he had failed and reliving the soul crushing moment when she had come hobbling out of the barn.
"I heard how much that hurt you. I misjudged you and I feel awful because apparently you're a hero." Her words were whispered, barely more than breath on the back of his neck but he felt each one like a needle under his skin.
To hear a stranger confirm that his group, his family, needed and valued him. Maybe even loved him a little. It was a warmth in his belly that he couldn't describe.
Sure Mara had only been so open because she believed he was dead to the world but it was clear to Daryl that what she had said weighed on her conscience more heavily than she had let on.
That unguarded moment had done more to make him forgive her than all the apologies in the world. He still thought she was a snobby pain-in-the-ass but it was possible she wasn't the cruel bitch he had her pegged for.
AN: So I wrote this chapter with the bell scene before I saw last week's episode with Michonne and Carl. I was all like 'Ah ha! Totally gonna survive the zombie apocalypse.' So I'm hoping you're all craving a little Walking Dead action because tonight's the big night in the USA (new episode airing etc). This fic is getting a decent amount of people following it and it would be great if you all took 30 seconds to review (it's that quick and easy) because reviews feel like love. I know my story's engaging when it gets an average of ten reviews per chapter, so let's make that happen people.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter – it was awesome to get your thoughts and praise show up in my inbox.
Enjoy the episode everybody – Also I have to wait twenty four hours until it shows up in Australia so no spoilers in reviews if you please.
MD666