Chances
Daryl Dixon did his best to ignore the nice, soft cushion he felt leaning along his spine and focus on the sumptuous curves of the road. "Jesus you're a pervert!" He scolded himself mentally, a wry smile coming across his face when he realized he was still in touch with his inner manhood. "Don't get too comfortable, Little girl, we're almost there." He informed, keeping his dignity in and out of his pants, not that it wasn't a welcomed surprise... There was a gas station a few miles south of the prison that he'd been meaning to check out and since Glenn was on watch in case Hershel turned Walker on them, he'd do the right thing on his behalf. So he ended up having to go on the run, but luckily he had a capable, more importantly, expendable resource on hand: The New Girl.
Once they pulled up a few yards shy of a service pump Daryl turned his key, shoved it in his pocket and pegged his bike with his boot. "Don't just sit there, get movin'!" He barked, yielding his crossbow and carefully advancing into the parking lot. He could hear Little girl complaining and pouting behind him but he knew she'd wise up and listen once she found out exactly what he was capable of. "Jesus…" He thought, pushing his lustful desires out of the way as he looked inside the foggy glass from the metal doors. It was too dark to know for sure from inside, but he could guess there'd be a few surprises lurking behind Aisle 1 and 2 from experience; especially the register, Jesus if he had a dime for every time a Walker popped up and bounced on him like a bat outta Hell from behind the register he'd have a whole dollar to pocket. Sadly, money didn't matter much anymore but it was still a nice point of reference.
"Keep your head out your ass and cover me, I'm not in too good a mood to be French-kissing with these freaks." He growled, waving a hand for Little girl to crouch down and follow close behind him. So far so good, there wasn't a person in sight, (dead or otherwise). The road was completely empty and the surrounding forest was silent in the blinding light of day; so far so good…. Daryl opened the door with a loud creak, the hinges of this particular door rustier than a penny in a junkyard. He cursed his luck under his breath but motioned for Little girl to go on through under his arm while the door was open. She hustled through, still crouched, unintentionally giving Daryl a favorable look at the bounce of her backside. Daryl caught the thought and almost threw the door off the damned hinges in agitation. He really needed to go out more if a little teenage tail gave him hard-ons faster than a football player with his first Playgirl. He disgusted even himself sometimes.
Little girl was standing now, using the back of her shirt to cover the midriff that exposed her tight, soft skin… "Stay focused, now will ya?" He complained out loud, wringing his fists in frustration but refocusing once he saw a Walker shambling over from down the snack food aisle. He lifted his crossbow to his eyes and expertly shot the Walker in the center of its forehead. While he rushed to retrieve the arrow, Little girl was slicing and dicing her way through two Walkers, waving her tomahawks around like they were silver batons and decapitating the zombies fast enough for her to catch him ogling and give him a sporting wink. With an impassionate whoop he was ready to up-the-anty when he found, low and behold, an extra rotten Walker slouched over on the cash register to his far right. He caught the bloated sucker in his sights when he heard Little girl yell something from across the aisle. He was able to waste the sorry son-of-a-bitch but when he turned to shout at her, dried blood spattered all over his face, temporarily blinding him. He dropped his crossbow, using his shirt to wipe off the sticky slime oozing on his skin. He could hear Little girl shouting for him over the snarl of Walkers but they were moving to her, he hoped. When he could finally see Daryl yelled for the Walkers, "Come and get me!" drawing their attention away to give her some space.
One shuffled giddily over to him, extending its decaying arms that were spotted blue-green with liver spots and stiff with rigor mortis. Her upper torso was completely eaten away and Daryl was given full view of her digestive track as it pumped and spilled yellow pus from her large intestine. Almost throwing up on sight Daryl launched his hunting knife clean into her sunken eye socket and she went tumbling down like a stack of bricks. He dived down and shot back up to shoot with his crossbow but Little girl was moving too much. "Get out of the way, Little girl!" He thundered, trying his best to aim accurately at the scuffling mass of Walkers that were closing in on her.
"Can you just shut up and shoot?!" She yelped, dashing down an aisle to get him a better shot. The four walkers turned around as they skittered towards her, mouths cracking in and out of the joints in rabid hunger. Daryl shot two with arrows and they knocked over, but he was going to need those arrows if Little girl was out of her own weapons. She came around the aisle, one tomahawk raised before she rammed into a Walker from the side and uppercut its jaw clean off. Grabbing the side of its head she threw the corpse to the floor and curb stomped on its skull until her boot nearly got stuck. Daryl pulled out the arrow he lost in the fat Walker and aimed it at the last Walker… She was only a kid. Memories of Sophia came rushing back to him but it looked like little girl was just gonna let her eat her if he didn't do something.
"I'm sorry." He whispered gently, as if it were a message to the young girl he had failed to save over nine months ago. He aimed his arrow true and in moments it was done. The redheaded girl in the torn sundress was finally set free and she collapsed onto the side of a broken freezer, bound to this earth no more. She was dead, finally dead. Little girl had pinned herself against the wall, sinking to her knees and pushing her harder and harder against the floor as she looked at Daryl with a mix of horror and anguish. He slowly made his way over to her, pity shining in his blue eyes as he offered her a hand to stand back up. She took it, rising to her feet and letting a small sob come out, just one, so she could let it go and be free of that humanism that tortured her every day she lived in this world.
"Thanks," She said mutely, daring a shy glance back at the redneck that saved her life. She went over to the snack food aisle and with a sickening splat pulled her other tomahawk out of the Walker the uncanny redneck had failed to notice coming behind him earlier. "And you're welcome." She added, finding a plastic bag so they could put what food and supplies they could salvage from the ruined gas station.
"Daryl, can you hear me? What's your status?" channeled a fuzzy but familiar voice.
Daryl pulled the old walkie-talkie out of his other pocket and pushed the receiver button, answering "I'm fine, we had to bust a few heads but we got it under control. We're getting the supplies now, so we should be back soon."
After a few moments of static Rick finally replied, "What about the girl?"
Daryl covered the mouth piece with his hand and looked over to Little girl, who was filling a plastic bag with travel-sized toiletries and melted Kit-Kat bars. A warm smirk made its ghostly appearance in the corner of his lips when he reported, "She's with us, Rick. I can trust her."
Having retrieved four bags, mix and matched with pain killers, canned food, deodorant, bars of soap and melted candies, Daryl was ready to pull out of the run-down gas station when he noticed Little girl slip something in her pocket.
"Whatcha doin' over there, Little girl?" He asked casually as he sifted through some cartons of cigarettes from behind the cash register. He could hear her grumble something under her breath before he asked again, "what are you doing?" this time with a hint of acid in his voice.
She shook her head and her eyebrows furrowed a little; he watched her pull a small pill bottle of prenatal vitamins out and she tossed it over to him, looking very displeased at his mistrust.
"The woman that's pregnant might need those," She noted, giving him the cold shoulder as she was tying the bags in knots for the ride back. "We've got what we could for now; these supplies should last for a couple of days." Little girl looked at Daryl for a second but let herself out to sit on the bike and wait for him to be done with whatever it was he was doing. Daryl gave her a scoff as she went out and followed her strut down to the edge of the bike from the window in the door. Feeling a bit like an ass, he grabbed what he was looking for before he would let himself think twice about it and jogged back outside so they could get the hell out of there.
Daryl snorted something vile tickling his throat and used that as a distraction so he wouldn't have to watch Little girl staring at him as he made his way to his bike. Although he did find it funny when he saw her face contorting in disgust once he could spit the gooey phlegm out of his mouth almost a yard away.
"Women," He chuckled to himself, throwing a leg over the seat and smoothly putting the key into the slot. The engine roared to life and that tingling purr settled pleasing rumbles in the pit of his belly, if anything made him feel like a man, it was his (well actually Merle's) bike. He felt Little girl's arms wrap around his waist and as her touch sent scorching flames in the fire pit of his gut, he reeved the engine and the two peeled out of the gas station without a look behind them.
"Rick, we're on our way." Daryl radioed in; knowing if she answered old Officer Friendly probably wouldn't be too thrilled to hear it. He reached behind him and handed the walkie-talkie to Little girl, so he wouldn't have to worry about missing a call. "If the red light's blinking you need to hand it me!"
"Got it!" She shouted over the thunder of the engine, taking the walkie-talkie from out of his hand. Moving his it back to the handlebars he accidently brushed the back of his palm against the inside of her thigh, a light squeak rang out clear as day and a gentle buck rocked him in the hips. "Whoops…" He thought mischievously, smirking proudly to himself.
"Sorry…" He muttered sheepishly, tilting his head so he could check on the young woman behind him. When he turned to the road his skin was creasing on his forehead with all sorts of hindsight and devilish thoughts. Little girl didn't say a word for the rest of the trip, but when they were turning onto the dirt road leading to the prison he felt a finger persistently jabbing into his side.
"The light's blinking!" She announced, touching the receiver on his forearm so that he could see it. Daryl could see Rick running towards the gate to open it while he took the call.
"We're here!" He shouted into the receiver, seeing the ant-sized sheriff crawling over the yard in the distance. Daryl swerved around the Walkers, not really minding them as they grabbed and swung mindlessly at the air trying to catch them. Rick yanked open the wire fence and locked it with the steel chains as Walkers pounded and pulled wildly against it. The engine went silent as Daryl parked and pegged it with care, taking two of the plastic bags Little girl had and showing them to Rick. He nodded at Daryl, then moved his head to Little girl and did the same. She nodded back, getting off the motorcycle and presenting him with the supplies.
"Oh, and uh, she wanted to give these to Lori." Daryl said, handing Rick the vitamins so he could inspect the bottle. It was still sealed and there weren't any holes in it, so he said a silent thanks to Little girl and decided now would be the time to inform the group about her situation. She still wasn't talking, so as Rick went back to the compound, he pulled her aside so they could have a talk.
"You holdin' up alright?" He didn't mean to sound so concerned but it was only supposed to be a simple question on his behalf.
Her crystal blue eyes sparkled with unshed tears and she took the black bandana off of her forehead so she could wipe her face. A long chestnut curl came across her eyes and she bitterly brushed it behind her ear. "I'm fine." She huffed, scratching her nose with the side of her hand. Daryl smirked in disappointment but he wasn't gonna babysit her. If she wanted to talk he'd let her if not, he wouldn't keep asking.
"Let's get movin' then. Christ, I hope those kids of yours knew what they were getting into runnin' off like that." He commented, turning his back for her to follow him. Anger ignited and burned her mind; Daryl could hear her running towards him from behind and whipped around to grab her raised arm that held… A picture. Tears streaked down her cheeks and her eyes were rimmed with red as they fell to the cement. He felt her hand shaking and he lowered it, taking the picture and tenderly holding the old Polaroid that held a small group posing in front of a campsite.
There were three kids in the front making dorky faces, Little girl posing beside them with her tongue sticking out, throwing the Mark of the Beast with an open grin beside a tall kid with bright red hair. In the background he could see some adults, probably the parents, smiling and standing there, idly waiting for their picture to be taken. He flipped it to check the back for a caption and in spongy black ink it said
Surviving the Dawn, autumn of 2012
Front row: Gerard, Madeline, Rose, Oliver, Gwen
Back row: Eric, Sandy, Michael, Sarah, Zach, Joseph, Kendra
"They're only kids." She gasped, yanking the picture out of Daryl's hand and stomping off to enter the Prison. He hustled after her, knowing if she just barged in there alone, Rick would probably shoot her on sight. "Way to go, asshole." He thought sourly to himself, quick enough to catch the door as it swung open.