When Hunters Become the Hunted
Chapter 8
A New Dawn
That night, Celeste and Kenzie had stayed with Daryl in his truck, not having enough room to take up occupancy within the RV. It was uncomfortable, but at least they knew that they'd be safe for the rest of the night. Celeste in particular had the side of her head pressed against the cool glass of the passenger side window, Kenzie laying curled up in her arms with her blanket that they'd managed to salvage.
The tiny blond slept soundlessly in Celeste's arms while the young woman lay awake. Unfortunately, she knew that there would be no sleep for her, no matter how sore and tired she was. Her mind was just too wired to sleep, the shock from earlier not having worn away quite yet. She'd been so sure, so afraid of losing Kenzie that she'd nearly pulled her hair out.
At the same time, Daryl continued to lay awake in his own seat, hands behind his head as he stared out the windshield. His eyes were forever watchful as they sat there in the quiet, unsure of what to do or say. In all reality, he'd never been much of a talker when it came to other people. Then again, he wasn't used to what happened that night either, leaving everyone on edge. As he glanced to the side though, he found his mind wandering toward the brunette in the passenger seat of his beat up pickup truck.
Normally, Celeste would have a partial smile on her face or something like that, but at the moment it was almost blank. Her eyes seemed to stare out into nothing as though in a daze. It wasn't until then that he took notice of the fact that her face looked swollen, the skin darker than it normally was. His brows furrowed at this, fighting the urge to reach forward and touch the side of her face to take a further look. He stopped himself though, not wanting to get smacked by intruding on her personal space. Besides, it wasn't really his place to do so. After all, they didn't even know each other that well.
Despite everything else though, he found himself too curious, turning his eyes to glance at her dazed ones. The grayish hue drew him in as the moon light reflected in her eyes like silver.
"Ya doin' alright?" he asked quietly, not wanting to wake the little blond from her sleep.
When Celeste didn't reply, he repeated himself again, this time a little louder. He managed to catch her attention, drawing her eyes toward his own blue orbs.
"Hm?" she questioned, wiggling her nose from an itch, only to wince in response.
"I asked if ya was alright," he said, sitting up a bit.
He turned toward her slightly, watching as she chewed on her bottom lip turning the skin red.
"I…" she started, pausing for a moment, before swallowing the slight lump in her throat. "Yeah," she whispered, looking elsewhere.
"Ya don't seem alright," he pointed out, catching her in the lie.
"Daryl," she warned half heartedly, before glancing down at the child in her arms.
Kenzie was still asleep, her thumb in her mouth as she lay curled against Celeste's chest. Her other hand was wrapped around the fabric of Celeste's shirt, her blanket tucked around her in order to keep her from the chill of the evening air. To anyone else, she would seem fine. Although, due to the previous events of the night, even that statement was questionable.
Gently, Celeste pulled her hand up, caressing the little one's cheek with the side of her fingers. She then drew them through her blond locks, watching as they fell freely from her hand. The child was all that she had.
"She'll be fine," Daryl told her, causing her to look up at him again. "She's strong."
With a faint nod of her head, Celeste swept her tongue over her lips, wetting them slightly.
"What's gonna happen?" Celeste suddenly asked.
Daryl stared at her for a moment, thinking on what to say. They'd been attacked and the camp was in ruins. It wasn't safe in the quarry anymore.
"Don' know," he shrugged. "Suppose we'll pack up an' head out else where I guess," he replied, folding his hands back behind his head once more.
It was all that he could think to say. After all, it was a rather logical thing. When things went south like that, you had to go somewhere else. The problem with that would be finding a place that was truly safe. There would only be so far they could go before they ran out of gas, so he knew that they had to come up with a reasonable plan.
"Will there ever really be anywhere truly safe?" Celeste asked quietly, her gaze going cloudy for a moment in thought.
"There's gotta be," Daryl breathed, if only to ease her spirits for the night.
T
The early morning light had rolled through all too soon for those in the camp. Those that had gotten the courage to venture out found themselves staring aimlessly. Bodies littered the ground with twice dead walkers and those fallen from the previous night. Tears had been run dry for some individuals as things finally set in, merely leaving them to pick up the pieces. At the same time, the children had been taken into the RV and kept busy, pulling them as far away as possible from the gruesome images outside.
It was close to noon as the bodies continued to be drug into piles, the recently deceased receiving one final blow to the head, insuring that they'd never rise again as one of the undead. It had been decided that the campers that had been lost to them the previous night be buried, while the now dead parasites burn in the pits of a fire, cleansing the area of any infectious debris.
"Should one of us go wake Celeste up?" Carol asked quietly, her rage already having been taken out on her recently departed husband.
"As much as I'd like to leave her sleep, we probably should," Shane relayed, wiping his brow with the back of his hand.
For a moment, Carol looked toward Daryl, waiting for a reaction. When she found none, she decided to pipe back up.
"I'll do it," she said, volunteering herself as she placed down the pick axe in her hands.
She still felt bad about what her husband had done to the poor girl, feeling that it was her job to check up on her. She could only imagine how bad her face was going to look when Carol woke her up, images of the nasty bruises that would no doubt cover the girl's face popping into her mind. She wasn't used to people standing up for her, protecting her from her husband. As a result though, Celeste had gotten hurt. Carol felt as though she was at fault for the incident.
Shaking her head, Carol walked up along side of Daryl's old truck, trailing her hand along the side of it. Through the passenger side window, Carol could see Celeste's limp form, the girl's head pressing against the window as she slept. The poor thing had no doubt stayed up all night thinking without any sleep. In fact, she seemed to be snoring ever so slightly, her nose sitting slightly crooked. In the light, Carol could make out the blue bruising along the cartilage and rim of her eye. Ed had truly done a number on her.
"Celeste," Carol called out, tapping lightly against the glass.
She waited for a moment, repeating herself after she received nothing in return.
"Celeste, hun, it's time to wake up," she called, knocking a bit harder.
This time, Carol watched as the girl shifted, groaning at the stiffness no doubt running through her body.
T
Darkness. She was being pulled from the glooming plague. As Celeste came to, she felt her body stiffen, recognition hitting her as she heard the sound of Carol's voice. The woman in question stood just outside the truck, staring back at her tired form. Celeste hadn't the slightest clue as to when she'd finally fallen asleep, but she knew that it had to at least be around three or four in the morning when it had happened. Sometime after that, Kenzie had left her, same with Daryl. She figured that he'd likely taken her into the RV at some point during the morning after she had woken up, hopefully shielding her from the disarray that was the outside world of the camp.
Pushing herself up, Celeste winced. Her body was sore and there was a kink in her neck from using the car door as a pillow. As she came to the rest of the way, she could feel the throbbing in her face. Her cheek and jawbone felt swollen, her vision slightly blurred on one side no doubt due to the swelling. She was trying to remember the last time that her face felt so sore, thinking back to when she'd had her wisdom teeth pulled. The poor girl had suffered through about two weeks of pain, having had all four teeth pulled at once in an attempt at avoiding further impaction. She wasn't sure which had been worse, the actual extraction of something equally the size of a molar or the dry sockets that came after. Then again, at the time, she'd been drugged up and driven home by a friend. She didn't remember the first few hours after that.
"Are you alright hun?" Carol asked, carefully opening the passenger door and looking in.
Slowly, Celeste nodded her head, reaching a hand up to touch her face. Again, she winced, flinching slightly at her own touch. It was then that she noticed the frown on Carol's face, easily putting two and two together in her head.
"It's not your fault," Celeste sighed, reaching down under the dash board and pulling on her shoes.
It was too early for talk. Actually, too painful is more like it. Shaking her head, she shook it off though, carefully stepping out of the vehicle. Once outside, she closed the door, gently rubbing at the back of her neck. She almost wondered if it would have been better sleeping in the bed of the truck.
"The children are in the RV," Carol told her, looking down at her feet.
The woman still didn't want to accept that Ed's assault on Celeste wasn't her fault.
Looking around, Celeste took in the sight before her. There were still a few bodies scattered around, but most of them had been taken care of. T-Dog was in the process of trying to clean things up, sweat coating his blackened brow. It was obvious that he'd been working for a while. In the distance, she could see Rick and Shane, the two cops talking about something between themselves away from the group.
"What do you think they're talkin' about up there?" Celeste asked lightly, turning her gaze away from the two men for a moment.
"I'm not sure," Carol replied quietly, wringing her hands for a moment as she looked around.
"Miss Emerson!"
Celeste looked over toward the two men, her brows furrowing in question. She watched as Rick gestured her forward, a look of apprehension on her face as she glanced at Carol. The older woman gave her an encouraging look, nudging her forward and up toward the hill.
Swallowing, Celeste drew in a breath, looking between the two men for a moment before speaking.
"Yes?" she questioned, her voice coming out like gravel, but she coughed in an attempt to clear it out.
"How are you doing?" Rick asked, placing a careful hand on the normally stoic woman's shoulder.
"Excuse me?"
Rick rolled his tongue around in his mouth for a moment, before deciding to reword his statement.
"How did you sleep last night?" he asked, trying again.
As a result, Celeste narrowed her eyes slightly, annoyed at being asked such a stupid and trivial question. Especially, since she was pretty sure that he already knew the obvious answer to that question.
"If you're going to ask me something Sheriff, I suggest you just ask it," she told him. "I'm not in the mood for beating around the bush at the moment."
Seeming to understand his mistake, Rick sighed, running a hand through his hair. He should have known what would happen when approaching her like that, but he was a little uncomfortable about asking.
"What exactly happened yesterday after we left?" he finally asked, glancing at Shane for a moment, having already heard his side of things.
Folding her arms over her chest, Celeste drew in a breath.
"You mean the part where I punched Ed, therefore receiving a broken nose or the part where you left us all here without anyone worth a grain of salt?" she asked, raising an eyebrow in question.
Standing there, Rick sighed, sensing the slight agitation in her voice as Celeste stood. It was obvious that she was stiff, just as her mood was obviously somewhat indifferent, detaching herself from the situation emotionally when she spoke of Ed. This confused him greatly as his eyes took in the build of her face.
The first thing that Rick noticed was the bruising beneath her left eye. The skin was still swollen, puffing up around the edges of her jaw bone, blue and green seeming to override her natural born color. It contrasted greatly with everything else, a bit of dried blood crusted near the tip of her nose. That was the second thing that he noticed. Taking a second look, he realized just how out of place the once straight structure was. It looked like it was broken in about three or four places. As a result, he wasn't sure how well she was actually able to breathe through it at the moment.
"The first part," he finally replied, deciding to momentarily ignore her secondary accusation.
"As I said, I punched him," Celeste stated flatly. "The bastard hit Carol, so I stepped forward and gave him a taste of his own medicine."
Rubbing the side of her face, Celeste swallowed, clearing her air canal.
"Apparently, he didn't like that very much and decided to hit back."
Rick remained quiet for a moment, taking her words in. He hadn't realized that Ed was the type to hit his own wife. Then again, Rick hadn't really been at the camp for very long to begin with.
"I don't like it when people decide to beat on those that are weaker than them," Celeste told him.
"I don't blame you," he replied. "Although, I'd like it if you'd let someone take a look at it," Rick said, gesturing toward the swollen cartilage.
"Yeah, well, if Shane touches it again, I'ma kick 'im in the balls," she said flatly, hearing said man scoff in response.
Celeste merely ignored it though, watching the frown on Rick's face before he nodded, turning toward Shane and saying something to him.
"At least get it looked at, alright?"
Nodding her head, the woman turned around, quietly making her way back toward camp.
Sorry about the long wait everyone. College has kept me rather busy, but I plan to make my way back into things. I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter. Please let me know what you think? I could really use the support to get back into the swing of things again. Also if you have any ideas, I'd be more than happy to hear them!