A/N: Sorry for the long wait. I had trouble pulling this chapter together on top of writer's block and life happening. My motivation tanked for awhile but it's back now. I wanted to get this out as soon as I could so forgive the mistakes. I didn't put the time into editing like I usually do.

Thank you for the follows and the favorites and for continuing to read.

Disclaimer: I don't own The Walking Dead.

Chapter Fourteen

Daryl revved his motorcycle. He couldn't feel the cold air beating against his face. All he could feel was a weight settling down inside of him, getting heavier the further they drove away from the farm.

He fought the urge to turn around and abandon the group that had abandoned his sister, but he had left her behind too. His chest tightened at the thought of it. Daryl swallowed, a lump in his throat, and licked his chapped lips. He tasted salt.

She didn't deserve this. Marianne should be buried with a bullet through the brain, not to be one of them. Rotting and mindless.

He didn't want to be the last Dixon standing.

"She's gone Daryl. Her and Jimmy. We saw it. She's gone."

"You don't know what you saw. She ain't dead. I'm goin' back."

He hadn't prepared himself for this. Daryl thought losing Merle was bad but that was a walk in the woods compared to losing Marianne and now there was nobody left. He was alone.

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like? She'll come here. She'll find us. Need to leave a trail, is all."

No one stopped him from leaving her a message but Daryl saw the looks that passed between what was left of them. He could care less but, as the miles flew by, the little hope he had clung onto died. She was gone. He would never see her again.

The Day Before

The sun had barely risen when Marianne walked along the outer fence of the farm. She couldn't shake the image of Randall kneeling in the barn, whimpering and pleading for his life while Rick pointed his gun at the boy's head. He had been so close to death and their problem was almost over but the image finally disappeared as a small group of walkers came into sight, some of them eating one of Hershel's cattle. She was far enough away that they didn't see her.

She spotted a break in the fence and she knew it would happen sooner or later. They needed a bigger fence but that would take weeks, probably months to build.

Marianne ran back to the house and was out of breath when she entered it and found Hershel, also an early riser, eating breakfast.

"Walkers broke through the fence. East side of the property."

Hershel immediately put down his spoon and stood up. "We need to wake the others."

Dale and Carol were already up and they helped rouse the rest of the group.

"We knew this might happen," Rick said. "Shane, Daryl, Marianne, T-Dog. Drive out there and take care of it."

"We need to check the rest of the fences," Marianne said. "I can't do it by myself anymore. Takes too long."

"We'll do that too. And no one goes wandering off on their own," Rick announced. "Try to stay within sight of the camp and house. We don't know how many got in."

They piled into the truck and Marianne told them where to go. By the time they killed the walkers and returned Hershel had decided to let them all move into the house.

"Gonna be tight, sixteen people in one house," Rick said.

"Don't worry about that," Hershel said. "With the swamp hardening, the creek drying up."

"With fifty head of cattle on the property, we might as well be ringin' a damn dinner bell," Maggie said.

"She's right," Hershel agreed. "We should've moved you in a while ago."

Rick began handing out instructions and assigning people tasks. When he didn't give Marianne anything specific to do she walked off with Beth and Maggie, carrying a few things to the house.

She imagined they looked like worker ants, swarming the vehicles and carrying stuff into the house to unpack. The amount of belongings the group had accumulated seemed so much bigger now that they had to take most of it into the house and the Grimes' especially seemed to have a lot. Marianne had two bags and Daryl had even less. It only took her one trip to bring all of their stuff in.

Randall escaped and attacked Shane. That's what the man told them, stumbling out of the woods with his bloody face and missing gun. Marianne stared at him with narrowed eyes. Something didn't feel right. Like his bullshit story about Otis. This felt the same but this time she wouldn't dismiss it.

Rick sprung into action. "Hershel, T-Dog, Dale. Get everybody back in the house. Glenn, Daryl. Come with us."

"Just let him go. That was the plan wasn't it, to just let him go?" Carol asked.

"The plan was to cut him loose far away from here, not on our front step with a gun," Rick said.

"Don't go out there. Y'all know what can happen." The men didn't pay Carol any heed.

Marianne was still mad at Rick but she walked up to him and told him anyways. "Be careful." He had a confused look in his eyes again, one she has seen before, like she was a puzzle he couldn't figure out. Good luck with that, she thought. She couldn't even figure herself out most of the time.

He walked away, his attention back on his mission, but he looked over his shoulder at Marianne. She kept her face blank, unreadable. It was a face that could drive a cop crazy during an interrogation. She was good at that.

Rick gave out final instructions before stalking off into the woods after Randall with Shane, Daryl and Glenn. "Get everybody back in the house. Lock all the doors and stay put."

The rest of the group rushed into the house. Marianne was the last one in and paused to look at where the men had entered the woods. All was still. She closed the door, locked it, and turned her attention to the agitated people inside. Carol looked worried sick and Lori was trying her best to calm her down but Marianne could tell her patience was being stretched. Lori kept looking out the window, clearly having something or someone else on her mind. Whether it was Rick, Shane, or both, Marianne couldn't tell.

The first floor was still a mess with everyone's belongings unorganized. Marianne didn't unpack her stuff and only bothered to put it in a corner of Maggie's room. The other woman had offered earlier but Marianne could tell she wasn't Maggie's first choice for a roommate. She brought her cot with her, not sure if Maggie had intended to share her bed too.

When she went back downstairs it looked like people were calming down a little and finding small tasks to do. Patricia, Beth, and Carol were in the kitchen fixing dinner. T-Dog and Jimmy were making circuits of the house, looking out of different windows to get a complete view of the surrounding area. Hershel was stocking the basement with food and water like he had mentioned earlier in the day that he would and Dale was helping. Carl disappeared upstairs with Shane's binoculars and Lori didn't seem to notice. Maggie was pulling out extra blankets and pillows, piling them on the dining room table.

Marianne paced and occasionally looked out a window. She tugged on the hem of her jacket. Being trapped inside made her antsy. She checked to make sure her Ruger was fully loaded and tucked it in the back of her pants. It was getting dark and not caring that she wasn't helping anyone out, she went back upstairs into Maggie's room to get a better vantage point before the sun completely set.

There was a moment, when she had her back to the window, that she thought she heard a gunshot. She quickly turned around but knew she wouldn't get any answers. About a minute passed and she heard it again. She bounded downstairs and surreptitiously pulled T-Dog and Dale aside. Hershel wasn't in sight and she didn't want to search for him.

"I heard two gunshots."

"When?" Dale asked, his brow furrowed.

"Right before I came down."

"We should tell the others," T-Dog said.

"No. They'll panic. We don't need people leavin' the house. Tell Hershel and that's it. All we can do is sit and wait, even though I hate it," Marianne said.

Sitting around and waiting was exactly what the group was doing when Daryl and Glenn finally walked in.

Daryl glanced around the room. "Rick and Shane ain't back?"

"No," Lori answered.

"We heard a shot," Daryl said.

"I heard two. It don't feel right," Marianne said.

"Maybe they found Randall," Lori suggested.

"We found him," Daryl said.

"Is he back in the shed?" Maggie asked.

"He's a walker," Daryl said.

"Did you find the walker that bit him?" Hershel asked.

"No, the weird thing is he wasn't bit." Glenn answered solemnly.

"His neck was broke," added Daryl. "The thing is, Shane and Randall's tracks were right on top of each other. And Shane ain't no tracker, so he didn't come up behind him. They were together."

The first thing that came to Marianne's mind was the Shane had taken Randall into the woods and killed him. But why? She glanced out the window. Rick. He was alone with Rick.

"Would you please get back out there, find Rick and Shane and find out what on earth is going on?" Lori pleaded Daryl.

"You got it."

Marianne followed Daryl outside with every intention to go with him. No matter how capable she knew he was, she didn't want him out there alone with Shane wandering around.

Andrea and Glenn walked onto the porch behind them and all four of them stood in shock. Past the barn the biggest herd of walkers they'd ever seen was making its way towards the house. Marianne scanned the field trying to estimate how many they were. She didn't like the number.

The rest of the group joined them on the porch and Hershel quickly told Patricia to turn the lights off.

"Maybe they're just passing like the herd on the highway. Should we just go inside?" Glenn asked, looking to Daryl and Marianne, desperate for someone to tell him the situation wasn't as bleak as it seemed.

"Unless there's a tunnel downstairs I don't know about," Daryl said.

"They'll rip through the house when they find out we're in there," Marianne added.

Lori rushed towards them. "Carl's gone. He was upstairs. I can't find him. He's supposed to be upstairs. I'm not leaving without my boy."

"We're not," Carol said sounding just as distressed as Lori. "We're gonna look again. We're gonna find him." The two women went into the house at the same time that Maggie came out with the bag of guns which she opened and began passing them out.

Daryl and Marianne watched the group preparing to fight. "I've got the number, it's no use," Daryl said.

"You can go if you want," Hershel told him.

"You gonna take 'em all on?" Daryl asked.

"We have guns. We have cars," Hershel said. Marianne thought he was crazy but the whole world was insane so she guessed he fit right in.

"Kill as many as we can. And we'll use the cars to lead the rest off the farm," Andrea said. For Marianne, this was the second best plan. The first was to pack up and leave before they were killed.

"Are you serious?" Daryl and Marianne asked at the same time.

"This is my farm. I'll die here," Hershel said.

"All right. It's as good a night as any," Daryl said as he hopped over the porch railing with his crossbow in hand. Marianne groaned inside and followed him. She knew she was going to regret this.

They split up in the vehicles. Andrea and T-Dog took the blue truck. Dale, predictably, disappeared inside the RV. Glenn and Maggie stayed together while Marianne ended up in Maggie's car with Jimmy driving since she was a better shot. They all briefly followed Daryl away from the house and then took off in different directions.

"The barn's on fire," Jimmy said.

"I can see."

"You think it was Rick and Shane?"

"Probably." Marianne rolled down the window. "Drive steady. We don't wanna waste bullets."

Gunshots rang through the air and walkers began dropping. Marianne didn't have any time to focus on anything other than making head shots. Despite Jimmy's efforts the car would jerk every now and then. Marianne cursed when she missed a walker for the second time.

"Drive a little slower Jimmy."

The car slowed down but stayed fast enough to evade the walkers near them. Marianne decided to sit on the edge of the rolled down window and hung outside. Her shooting was steadier with her arms resting on the top of the car.

Her gun clicked. She was out of bullets and dug into a pocket for more ammo. Her balance was precarious and she swayed back and forth. All of sudden there was a great jolt and Marianne fell out of the car. The wind was knocked out of her when she landed on her back but at least she hadn't dropped her newly reloaded gun.

She looked over at the car and saw Jimmy hit the brakes when he must have realized she was gone. Marianne staggered to her feet, shooting a few walkers as she sprinted back to the car. She opened the door and dived in.

"Go, go, go!"

Jimmy took off again with some difficulty. There were walkers on the hood that blocked most of the view out of the windshield and he couldn't shake them off. He swerved to the right trying to get the walkers to slide off and then made a sharp left to avoid the fence. There were more thumps as he ran into a group of walkers neither of them had seen. The car stopped and Jimmy hit the gas pedal but they weren't going anywhere.

They were pinned against the fence on one side and Marianne couldn't open her door wide enough to slip out. She glanced at Jimmy. He was pale but his jaw was clenched. She could make out determination under the fear on his face.

"Jimmy, we can't stay in here. We're goin' to make a run for it before they pile up too bad," Marianne said as she climbed into the backseat and sat behind him, her hand tensed on the door handle.

The banging grew louder. More walkers were pressing against the windows and she wondered if they could even get the doors open before dead hands grabbed them and teeth tore into their flesh.

She surveyed the area as best as she could. Marianne didn't see any of the other cars, except for the RV which was now on fire and she briefly wondered if Dale had made it out. She spotted a path clear enough to make it to the house without being swarmed. Help wasn't coming. It was now or never. "We're gonna head to the house. If things go bad don't be a dumbass. And don't waste your time killin' if you don't have to. Got it?"

"Got it."

"Good." She took a deep breath. "Ready? On three." Jimmy nodded and took hold of the door handle with his left hand. "One." She unlocked her door. "Two." Jimmy adjusted his grip on his shotgun. "Three."

They had to put their full weight into it as they pushed the walkers away with the doors but this only gave them seconds to move before more stumbled towards them. Both of them were soon firing bullets into heads and the bodies piled up. Maybe making a run for it had been a mistake. Jimmy was having a better time of it than she was. Less walkers had set their sights on him than her.

One of them, a man who had somehow managed to keep a John Deere cap on his head, tripped over the bodies and fell to its knees but quickly began crawling towards her, reaching for her legs. Before she could do anything it grabbed onto her and pulled. Marianne lost her footing and fell to the ground. Her back banged against the base of the car. She grimaced.

Just as she shot the walker in the head another one, an old woman with straggly grey hair, began to fall. Marianne instinctively shielded herself with her right arm and the walker's head landed in her lap with the rest of its body pinning her legs down. Before she could reposition her right arm to aim her gun at its head, the walker grabbed it.

The old woman bit down.

A/N: So there it is. I can't promise you when the next one will come out. I have a rough outline of what's going to happen for the next few chapters and a few paragraphs written here and there.

Also, I really hope some of you review. Four reviews for thirteen chapters is a little sad, especially considering for most chapters I've been getting over 100 visitors the day they come out. I definitely won't be holding chapters hostage for reviews. It'd just be nice to get some more feedback.