"The bravest thing I ever did was continuing my life when I wanted to die."
- Juliette Lewis
I wasn't sure how long Andrea and I had run but it wasn't night anymore. Andrea and I managed to get to the woods untouched and luckily for us it was daytime now, so we could see where we were running to instead of blindly walk in the dark.
We ran and ran, walkers kept following us, others came the way we were going to or from the sides and we had to evade those or kill them but we mostly just ran.
Andrea was carrying the bag full with guns, rifles and ammunition, she even handed me an extra gun because I was close to run out of ammunition.
After Rick drove away and left us, I shakily brought the gun to my head, I was kneeling on the floor, tears rolling down my face, I was ready to pull the trigger but Andrea stopped me. She hit my arm away, making me drop the gun on the floor and she told me that I couldn't leave her alone, that we should at least try to escape and that if we were cornered then I could to it, that if I wanted she would kill me herself.
So here I was, running for my life. We got to a quite calm part of the woods where we could take a small break, catch our breath and reload our guns and grabbing some more ammunition and putting it in our pockets in case we needed it after.
Some walkers came closer to us then, Andrea shot them quickly, then she got the bag again and we started to run again. They were approaching us from every corner, they kept coming and no matter how many we killed there were always more after us.
"I can't run anymore," I muttered, stopping in my tracks, taking really big breaths.
"Cici, you can! Come on!" she exclaimed, grabbing my hand and pulling me along.
It is amazing how the adrenaline makes you keep going, no matter how exhausted you are, how fatigued your muscles are. The adrenaline plus the will to live makes you do things that in other circumstances seem impossible to do. For example, now. We had been running for almost the whole night and part of the day and we were still going.
My whole body was drenched in sweat, my hair was wet, even when the temperature was low. My clothes were starting to get wet as well making them slightly weight more and seem colder as time passed.
My body was in so much pain, every muscle in my body was aching, and I'd gotten side stitches. My will was getting smaller and smaller and every step I took seemed to drain all my energy. If we didn't stop this soon, my body and mind were just going to give up.
About an hour later we found another good place to rest for at least some seconds. We had left behind every walker that was following us. I collapsed to the floor and leant my back against a tree, I was taking really deep breaths as I pressed my side to relieve the pain I had under my ribs. Andrea panted and leaned against another tree, her face was very red from all the time we had been running and I assumed mine was like that.
"I think it's past mid-day," she told me, looking up at the sky. "Look at the sun."
"We couldn't have run for twelve hours or more, Andrea," I told her. "It can't be that long."
"It has to be."
"Doesn't these woods have an end?" I asked desperately. "If we have run for more than half a day, don't you think we should be close to the highway or just somewhere out of the woods?"
"I hope we are, Cici, I do," she said. "We won't be able to keep up if we don't get out of here soon."
"What if we are getting farther away?"
"I'm almost sure we aren't."
Then we saw three walkers coming our way. I tried to stand up but I couldn't, I had no strength left in my arms and legs, they just shook under my weight and refused to work.
"Come on!" Andrea begged. "Come on!"
"I can't!" I desperately exclaimed.
Andrea turned to shoot the three walkers quickly and then turned to me, grabbing my hands and with a lot of effort, getting me up to my feet.
"Think about Teresa and Oliver and Sean," she said, looking right into my eyes. "Carl, your mother, Daryl, Beth, all of them, just think about them all to find strength."
I thought about Carl first as I ran after Andrea. We had been very close since the start, he was as old as Sophia and I felt like he was my little brother.
When my family got stuck in traffic as we were going to the refugee centre, we met Carl, Lori and Shane. Their car was right behind ours, while Oliver's was in front of my mother's. Sophia invited Carl to play checkers to pass time, and he kept talking not only to Sophia but to me as well.
I used to take care of him a lot in our camp, I had to keep an eye on Sophia so why not on him as well? I got very fond of him quickly and after Sophia died and once I got better, mentally, I got really protective of him. I felt like I needed to protect him, I failed Sophia once and it costed her, her life, I couldn't fail him too.
As we ran I tried to remember every single moment we spent together, bad or good. My last ones were from last night and I could only hope he was okay.
The next person I thought about was my mother. We were very close during my childhood, our relationship started to drift apart when I was around fourteen, when I saw how weak she was and that she wouldn't even try to keep me safe. She would cry as my father hit me repeatedly but never tried to stop him, a part of me blamed her for what was happening to me. I believed she was as guilty as my father for not even trying to help me and I started to hold grunges against her.
The last weeks had been rough on us, especially after what happened to Sophia, we hadn't talk since then but we were starting to work out the problems, just last morning she asked me how I slept, it may seemed insignificant but after not talking in so long and being avoided by her, those few words were a lot of process.
I wished I could get out of here alive to tell her that I love her and that I always have loved her, no matter what. After all, she was the only family I've got left and I needed to fight for her.
No one's POV
It was a very tough and long night, people barely got out alive. Rick couldn't believe how lucky they were that most of them were alright and that somehow they had found each other. It was such an emotional moment when everyone found the rest and they hugged each other.
"Where's the rest of us?" Daryl asked, noticing a few were missing.
"We're the only ones who made it so far," Rick told him.
"Shane?" Lori asked and Rick only sadly shook his head.
"Patricia?" Hershel asked.
"They got her, too. Took her right in front of me," Beth muttered, at the verge of tears. "I was holding onto her, daddy." Beth buried her head in her father's chest but then looked up fast. "What about Jimmy? Did you see him?"
"He was in the RV," Rick told her. "It got overrun."
"And Andrea?" Glenn asked.
"She saved me," Carol said. "Then I lost her."
"We saw her go down," T-Dog added. "At the same time as Cecilia."
At that Teresa broke down and hugged Oliver tightly. She didn't just lose her best friend but they weren't in the best of terms when it happened, she felt guilty. She wished she could go back in time and make things right, same as Oliver.
They just couldn't deal with her when she got very depressed. They didn't know how to help her, how to make it alright, so they just unconsciously pushed her away and kept their distance until they had pushed her way too far that they didn't know how to get close to her again.
"You definitely saw them?" Carol asked, being extremely calmed even when she was talking about her older daughter's possible death.
"I'm gonna go back," Daryl exclaimed, he was already walking to his motorcycle.
"No," Rick told him.
"We can't just leave her, them."
"We don't even know if they are there," Lori said.
"They aren't there. They aren't." His voice showed how sure he was of that. "They are somewhere else or they are dead."
"But dad we can't leave Cici!" Carl cried, tears were already falling down his pale freckled cheeks.
"If she's alive, there's no way to find her."
"So we're not even gonna look for them?" Daryl asked him in shock, trying so hard to not shout at Rick.
"We got to keep moving," Rick said. "There have been walkers crawling all over here."
"I say head east," T-Dog exclaimed.
"Stay off the main roads. The bigger the road, the more walkers, more assholes like this one," Daryl said as a walker was going towards them. Daryl got his crossbow and pointed at it, a gun would make a lot of noise and attract more. "I got him."
They all got in the vehicles after that. Rick, Lori, Carl and Carol got into the red USV, Glenn, Hershel, Maggie and Beth got into the lime green car, T-Dog, Sean, Oliver and Teresa got into Oliver's red BMW, while Daryl got on his motorcycle again. Carol was going with him again when he stopped her, he just wanted some time alone.
The only two people he had truly cared about were gone. First Merle, that was a very hard blow but he got over it, he understood but now Cecilia was gone as well.
He didn't even know how, why or when he started to get fond of her. When he saw her that night lying on the ground he offered her to stay in his tent because he understood what she was going through. He knew about her father and he knew what that was like. He saw some bruises on her skin and Merle had told him how Ed hit Cecilia by the lake some days before that. Daryl was just being a bit compassionate, it didn't mean anything else than that.
And then at the CDC he just wanted to be alone because of Merle but Cecilia beat him to it. It was either share with her, Andrea or Dale, the other rooms had more than a person in them. And of course that he chose to share the room with Cecilia, she was less annoying than Dale and it would be too awkward if he shared it with Andrea.
Then that night he saw her kissing that Sean kid and he felt such rage that it scared him. He was so mad at her and a part of him convinced himself that it was because she took the room from him, because she couldn't leave him alone but it was not until now that he thought of the possibility that it could have been jealousy.
Daryl scoffed at the thought of jealousy. Daryl had never been with someone, he just wasn't that kind of guy, and he was for sure not a jealous man, especially because he didn't care about anyone.
Then his thoughts focused on the time when she was lost. He wanted nothing else than to find those girls, he couldn't explain what got into him, he just wanted to find them and when he finally found Cecilia, what he felt was something that he couldn't put into words. He had never felt so relieved and so happy and so grateful even when he had an arrow on his side and he was later almost shot but all that was worth it because he did find her.
And somehow that created a bond between him and that girl and day by day that bond just got stronger and stronger. It happened so quickly that he couldn't stop it or even control it. When he finally noticed, it was already too late, he already cared too much for Cecilia.
For most of his life, Daryl was alone. He never had a person to hug him, to spend a nice time with him, or just have someone there for him, even just to make him company, to make him laugh and to spend a night watching the moon and the stars. It was so far from Daryl's reality and it was so strange for him that even when he had a minimal chance to have that he would just push it away.
But then Cecilia came along and before he knew it they had gotten so close they were doing things he never thought he would do with someone. Like those times they would hug, or when he comforted her after her sister died or when she wanted to kill herself or even when she comforted him. Losing Sophia had such a big effect on him that he wasn't sure he would have gotten over it without Cecilia.
And now she was gone as well. He couldn't imagine how he was going to move on from this. The only person that he cared about and also cared about him was gone, just gone. She wouldn't be there to say something silly, making him laugh, or she wouldn't be there to help him when he got injured and who would be there to watch the night sky with him? And she wouldn't be there to unexpectedly wrap her arms around him, make his breath get caught in his throat and making his heart start beating like crazy, all that was over and he now could only wish he would have cherished those moments instead of pretending he didn't enjoy them.
Daryl hadn't cried since Merle got cuffed to that roof and he lost him, not a single tear had rolled down his face since then. He was more upset than sad about Sophia and he didn't cry about her even when her death hurt him deeply but now he was a mess. As he led the way he couldn't stop the tears from rolling down his cheeks.
He didn't even know how much Cecilia meant to him until he lost her.
He was so lost in the memories and the thoughts that he was startled when he heard a honk. He noticed the three other cars had slowed down until they all stopped moving. He stopped Merle's, well now his motorcycle and quickly wiped his tears.
"You out?" Daryl asked Rick once he saw him running in his direction, not daring to look up for a long time. His voice was hoarse and a bit husky but he was sure no one really noticed.
"Running on fumes," Rick informed them.
"We can't stay here," Maggie said.
"We can't all fit in two cars," Glenn said.
"We'll have to make a run for some gas in the morning," Rick told them.
"Spend the night here?" Carol asked a bit surprised.
"I'm freezing!" Carl exclaimed.
"We'll build a fire, yeah?" Lori said, wrapping an arm around Carl.
"You go out looking for firewood, stay close," Daryl said. "Only got so many arrows. How are you doing on ammo?"
"Not enough," Rick said. The bag and the ammunition had been left behind.
"We can't just sit here with our asses hanging out!" Maggie exclaimed.
"Watch your mouth," Hershel scolded her. "Everyone stop panicking and listen to Rick."
"All right, we'll set up a perimeter. In the morning, we'll find gas and some supplies. We'll keep pushing on."
"Glenn and I can go make a run now, try and scrounge up some gas," Maggie suggested.
"No, we stay together," Rick told her. God forbid something happens and people get stranded without a car."
"Rick, we're stranded now," Glenn pointed out.
"I know it looks bad, we've all been through hell and worse, but at least we found each other. I wasn't sure I really wasn't but we did. We're together. We keep it that way. We'll find shelter somewhere. There's gotta be a place."
"Rick, look around, okay? There's walkers everywhere. They're migrating or something," Glenn said, trying to get some sense into Rick.
"There's gotta be a place not just where we hole up, but that we fortify, hunker down, pull ourselves together, build a life for each other. I know it's out there. We just have to find it."
"Even if we do find a place and we think it's safe, we can never be sure," Maggie told him. "For how long? Look what happened with the farm. We fooled ourselves into thinking that that was safe."
"We won't make that mistake again," Hershel exclaimed as he hold a rifle quite tightly.
Everyone was pretty shaken up and none of them felt okay with the idea of not going looking for supplies now and staying the night there, not when there were hundreds of walkers only miles away.
"What if walkers come through, or another group like Randall's?" Teresa asked.
"You know I found Randall, right?" Daryl asked Rick. "He had turned, but he wasn't bit."
"How's that possible?" Beth asked.
"Rick, what the hell happened?" Lori asked.
"Shane killed Randall. Just like he always wanted to," Daryl told them.
"And then the herd got him?" Lori asked.
"We're all infected," Rick said suddenly.
"What?" Daryl asked after a long silence followed Rick's statement.
"At the CDC, Jenner told me. Whatever it is, we all carry it."
"And you never said anything?" Carol exclaimed.
"Would it have made a difference?"
"You knew this whole time?" Glenn asked indignantly.
"How could I have known for sure? You saw how crazy that ma..."
"That is not your call, okay? When I found out about the walkers in the barn, I told, for the good of everyone."
"Well, I thought it best that people didn't know."
Rick decided to make camp right in front of where they were. There were some walls in there, it could help stop the wind, making them feel not so cold.
Rick had walked away from them after he told them they were all infected, of course they didn't take it well. He would have taken it worse when he was told if he wasn't about to die.
Soon, the sun went down, leaving them in darkness but luckily the moon was full again, so that helped a lot.
Most members of the group, especially Carol didn't feel safe around Rick anymore, not after he kept something like that from them.
Hershel and his girls didn't mind, they trusted him. Sean didn't even care about that, he finally got time to assimilate his uncle and last family member was dead, that was the only thing that was on his mind at the moment. He got in a corner away from everybody and cried.
Lori knew what happened and she was very shocked but deep inside of her she knew Rick did what he had to do about Shane but that didn't make her any less angrier about Rick not telling them they were all infected.
Daryl was upset and shocked as well but he trusted Rick and that really wasn't his priority at the moment. When the night fell, after he got some wood for the fire, his mind went back to Cecilia. He missed her so much already, he knew that if she was here, she would be so close to him, rubbing her arms to make herself warm. And because they hadn't show any affection towards the other in public he wasn't sure if she would have wrapped her arms around him but if she did he wouldn't have a choice but to hug her back, and that would have felt nice and they would keep each other warm.
As Daryl thought about what Cecilia would be doing right now if she was there, they heard a branch snapping close to them. Everyone got alarmed, Maggie wanted to keep moving but Rick didn't want anyone to get lost.
"No one is going anywhere!" he exclaimed.
"Do something!" Carol demanded.
"I am doing something! I'm keeping this group together, alive," Rick turned to look at Carol and shouted, losing his patience. "I've been doing that all along, no matter what. I didn't ask for this. I killed my best friend for you people, for Christ's sake!"
After that a very long and awkward silenced followed, except for a few gasps. Sean stared at Rick in disbelief and more tears rolled down his green eyes.
"You killed my uncle?" he asked in a small broken voice.
"You saw what he was like, how he pushed me, how he compromised us, how he threatened us. He staged the whole Randall thing, led me out to put a bullet in my back! He gave me no choice. He was my friend, but he came after me. My hands are clean," he exclaimed to everyone but mostly at Sean, lowering his voice a bit. Carl started to cry. "Maybe you people are better off without me, go ahead! I say there's a place for us, but maybe maybe it's just another pipe dream, maybe just maybe I'm fooling myself again. Why don't you – why don't you go and find out yourself? Send me a postcard. Go on, there's the door. You can do better? Let's see how far you get." No one moved. "No takers? Fine. But get one thing straight, if you're staying this isn't a democracy anymore."
Nobody said anything else for the rest of the night. An awkward silence fell upon them and kept like that for hours. The Greene family stayed together in one corner close to the fire, T-Dog stood a bit far from the rest, watching all around in case of any danger, Oliver was on the other side doing the same, mostly to keep his mind occupy. Lori and Carl had already fell asleep, Carl was in his mother's arms only a few feet away from Glenn, who was fidgeting in his place, unable to fall asleep.
Rick stayed a little bit away from the group but still close in case of anything, so many things were going through his head that he couldn't even sit down and rest for a bit. Carol sat against a tree with her knees bent and her head buried in them, Teresa dared to sit next to her, Carol didn't push her away but didn't welcome her either, honestly, she wanted to be alone, all her family was dead, her husband and two daughters, they were... gone, just gone.
Daryl had sat away from everyone else but still in the camp site and close to the fire because the night was cold, with a sigh Daryl lied down on his side and as he did he felt something was pinching the upper part of his thigh. He sat up again and searched inside his pocket, when he looked down at what he was now holding he felt like an arrow had gone through him, there in his hand was the Eric Cartman earring he had forgotten to give back to Cecilia. He took a deep breath to relieve the lump he felt in his throat. He felt like throwing the piece of cheap jewellery and scream as loud as he could out of pure rage but he didn't dare to, no, he was going to hold on to that and keep it forever. So, he put it back in his pocket and made sure he wasn't going to lose it.
Sean was too confused, his uncle's best friend killed him and he felt like he needed to do something, at least a good punch, but he saw himself how his uncle changed after he found out Rick hadn't died. He went crazy and a part of Sean wanted to believe Rick, he wanted to believe he did it on self-defence, because if it wasn't, Sean didn't even know what he was capable of.
Cecilia's POV
"Come on!" Andrea exclaimed, she was a couple of steps ahead of me.
It had been hours since she told me to start thinking about the people I cared to give me strength to keep on. I had thought about pretty much everyone and I admit that had helped me to give me the strength I needed and to distract me from thinking about my aching muscles or the exhaustion or the thirst but I wasn't sure how much longer I was going to keep going.
We hadn't seen more than two walkers in about an hour, which was pretty good. That gave us the opportunity to slow down and walk instead of jog or run.
"So." Andrea panted. "What's going on with you and Daryl?"
"Nothing," I said, in between deep breaths.
"Look, we have been running for about twenty hours in a row," Andrea said. "I need some kind of story to distract myself, so tell me."
"I don't know what you mean."
To be honest I didn't think talking was a good idea, every word we said required a big effort from us. Sometimes we would stop mid-sentence to catch our breath, sometimes we had to catch our breath more than once as we talked, that's how tired we were.
"People have noticed how close the two of you have gotten. You shared the room with him at the CDC, you have shared his tent since we were in that mountain, and we just noticed the two of you spent a whole of time together."
"We are just friends, I guess," I shrugged even when she couldn't see me because she was in front of me and wasn't looking at me. "He saved me, I owe him my life."
"But there's more to that, isn't it?"
"I don't think so."
"Last night, when Daryl and Glenn got to the house and he realized you weren't there, he just lost it, you know?" Andrea told me, taking a small glance at me. "He ran all over the house, yelling your name, he was going out to look for you when we saw the herd."
"What are you trying to say, Andrea?"
"I'm saying that not even your mother was so worried about you, not even she tried as hard to find you, not as Daryl."
"But we're talking about my mum here," I said with a sarcastic laugh. "We haven't talked in over a week and we weren't in good terms before that."
"But a mother is a mother, Cici." I sighed.
"Look, if you want me to tell you that Daryl and I are together, I'm sorry to disappoint you but we are not, that would be crazy but I admit that he's the one I care about the most," I told her, finally catching up with her and walking next to her. "It's like he's the only one that understands me, he's the only one that is there when I need it, you know?"
"Do you like him?"
"What? No, of course not!" I exclaimed, my blue eyes getting twice as big.
"Hmm," she said unconvinced. "But he likes you, you know?"
"Yeah, right, if he likes me then Oliver is in love with Hershel," I said sarcastically.
"Look, I've seen the way he treats you, the way he acts around you and the way he looks at you, it's obvious!" Andrea said, stopping to look me straight in my eyes. "And I think you like him too, I think the two of you like each other and everyone knows but you two!"
"That's crazy, Andrea!" I said, starting to walk again. "He would never like someone like me, never! He's a grown-up man, I don't know how old he is but he must be at least in his mid-thirties, if not forties, you know? And I'm nineteen, he probably thinks I'm an immature, crazy, bold, but needy girl, and besides, he doesn't look like the type that falls for someone."
"I think he has fallen for you, though."
"Even if that could be true, what does it matter now? Who knows if we will ever see them again," I said, trying to keep my voice down and to not cry. "Why are you so stubborn about this, anyway?"
"Because I know, I've seen the signs," she told me. "And it would be cute."
"Are you serious? Us, cute?"
"Yeah, I think..."
She stopped mid-sentence because we heard moaning coming from behind us. We both raised our guns and shot the four walkers that were coming after us.
"Come on!" Andrea said and once again we started to run.
Another very long time passed, in that time we stopped using our guns to save ammo and to keep other walkers from hearing us. We killed them with our knives instead. It was more difficult, risky and it took more of our energy but we both decided that was the best.
I couldn't believe the sun was almost gone and that we hadn't gotten out of the woods yet, not at the pace we were going. We ran for almost a whole day, we took some breaks of course but we mostly ran.
When it was almost completely dark some walkers were coming from every side, there were only about eight but we were exhausted. Andrea killed a couple with her knife before collapsing to the ground, I killed some more but I felt like the knife weighed a ton, I could barely lift it.
I heard Andrea struggling on the ground and that made me find some strength really deep inside of me, probably the last I had. I was going to kill the one that was on top of Andrea when I felt something tackling me to the ground, I was on my stomach and I was very vulnerable. I rolled over and tried to get the walker as far away from me, stopping him from getting his filthy teeth on me and at the same time I was frantically trying to spot my knife but I couldn't find it.
I was feeling how my arms started to get very heavy, even more than before and how I was losing energy, I couldn't keep fighting for long. I was about to give in when suddenly the walker stopped moving and I realized its head was cut off, blood fell on my clothes and my neck.
I looked up to see my saviour and saw the most bizarre scene in front of me.
There was a figure who was definitely human, they had a hood over their head, preventing us from seeing their face and they were holding some kind of sword. Besides them, there were two walkers, without their arms and their jaws and mouths, they were chained, the person was holding the other end of the chain, keeping them close to them.
A part of me was grateful this stranger saved my life but another part of me was shitting itself, wondering when this person was going to kill us.
Suddenly the stranger approached us slowly and knelt in front of us. They took off their hood, it was a woman with dark brown hair, brown eyes and dark skin.
"Are you two okay?" she asked us.
"Yeah," I muttered. "Thanks!"
"Did they bite or scratch you?
"No," Andrea and I assured her.
"Alright, we need to get going, these woods are infested with walkers. What are your names?"
"I'm Andrea and this is Cecilia"
"I'm Michonne," she said, then she took a bottle from her coat and gave it to me first. "Here."
I took the bottle from her and drank about one third of the water before handing it to Andrea, who drank almost the same quantity. I was so thirsty I wanted to drink the whole thing but Andrea needed it as much as me and it wasn't ours, it would be rude to drink it all.
"Thank you!"
"It's getting dark, we are close to getting out of here," she told us as she stood up and offered Andrea her hand. She pulled her up before doing the same to me.
We stayed behind the two chained walkers as we made our way through the forest, we didn't dare to ask why she had done such a thing to them and I wasn't sure if I wanted to know. She was weird and scary but for now she was our only hope and chance of getting out of these woods alive and that made me look past that and allow myself, well, actually order myself to trust her.
She saved us, she helped us, she gave us some water and she seemed like she knew what she was doing, we needed her to survive, we needed this Michonne girl to keep alive.
I love Michonne so much, she's my favourite female character and I'm glad she finally made her appearance. :D What do you guys think of her.
I'm trying to make a fanvideo of Daryl and Cecilia but I don't have inspiration or any good ideas :( It might take a while.
- Guys can you go check my Rick/Snow + Daryl video? It barely has 30 views and I want to get to 100, that's my newest video of Rick or Daryl with an OC. I also made a Daryl/Belle, Daryl/Emily and Daryl/Beth :P so if you guys can check them all, or at least just one, it would mean a lot.
Here's the link to my newest video: /watch?v=Mp7qu6mm_i4
And the link to my account: /channel/UCMhfYUcltjdXZyLwj9ic_pQ
or you can find me by my name ( iamthemasterpiece )
Thank you all and please comment :D