The snow started falling two weeks later. As soon as they saw the first white flecks falling out from the sky, Daryl loaded his bike into the back of the pickup truck before they were on the road again. He didn't want to drive the pickup, but he didn't have much of a choice anymore. It was too cold now.
After a few days every surface was blanketed with inches of snow, making travel difficult for the group. They needed tyre chains, but they hadn't been able to find any in the houses they searched.
"At least we don't have to sleep in the cars tonight," T-Dog exclaimed, carrying his bag into the house. When he dumped it down on the ground, he turned to walk back outside.
"Hey!" Ace called, stopping him. "If you're going back out, can you lift the windscreen wipers?"
"We don't need to do that!" He waved her off.
"We do," Ace argued, "they'll freeze over."
T-Dog shook his head, "I'm sure it'll be okay."
"Please," Ace begged. "You're going back out anyway."
"Okay, okay. I'll do it," he huffed, following the calls of Rick outside.
Ace rolled her eyes, turning back into the house to set up her things. She would have done it herself, but it was freezing outside and the ground was covering the ground. Her shoes would get even more wet, and then she would have to take them off. It was easier just to get someone else to do it.
All she really had to do to set up her things was dump her bag in the corner of the room where she would be staying. They never unpacked anything anymore in case they needed to make a quick escape, so Ace just put her bag down in the corner of the room where she saw that Daryl's things already were.
Since the garage, her nightmare, she stayed close to him. She hadn't had one since, but it was nice for her to be so close to him. Daryl didn't really care, in fact, he expected her to be sleeping next to him now, when she wasn't sharing a room with Beth.
She waited and wandered around the house for a while, walking around the cabin and checking every cupboard and drawer for a board game or something. Something to read or do, but there was nothing.
Instead she found herself sitting in a chair at the window, watching the snowflakes start to pile up and cover the surfaces around, the windowsill, the ground, and the porch.
A hand on her shoulder distracted Ace from the snowflake race she had been conducting in her head. Daryl was standing in front of her, a pair of shoes in his hands. "Ya get ya stuff set up?"
Ace nodded.
"Okay," he said. Daryl glanced down at the shoes in his hand, reminding himself of the main reason he'd come over. "Here, found ya some boots," Daryl said, dropping a pair of brown leather boots on the ground in front of her. "Can't keep goin' 'round wearing that shit."
Ace decided not to argue with him. As much as she liked her red Converses, she knew that they were the furthest thing from waterproof. It wasn't good or healthy to always have wet socks and shoes, so it was good that he actually found her boots that would keep her warm and dry.
When Ace grabbed the pair she saw that they were a size above hers, but the laces could be pulled tight enough that they would stay on. She wasn't too picky anymore, they really couldn't be.
After taking off her red shoes and dumping them on the ground, she put the boots on.
"They fit okay?"
"Yeah," Ace's voice came too quiet. She cleared her throat and tried again, "Yes. Thank you."
Ace grabbed her bag on the ground next to the chair and unzipped it at her side, then leaned forward to grab her red shoes before stuffing them in.
"Leave 'em. Best to carry light," Daryl urged.
Ace shrugged, zipping it closed, "If I need the room I'll drop them. If I don't have to, I want to keep them. I don't want to have to look for more shoes when the snow stops."
Daryl hummed in response, turning away to look around as he always did. His eyes peered out of the window, scanning the area.
Daryl was always on alert, ready and waiting. Whether it was for people, walkers, or an animal for their next meal, Ace wasn't sure. But she was relieved for it all the same. Ace wanted to be like him in that respect, she tried, but couldn't be nearly as thorough as him. She followed his eyes out past the treeline, but didn't see anything.
"C'mon," he nodded his head to the side. "Let's go huntin'. See if we can find anything'. Don' wanna waste the cans if we don't have to."
"I'm cold."
Daryl had to stop his eyes from rolling before it started, knowing that this was the beginning of the end. The end of silence. Whenever he took Ace out on a hunt, she could be quiet for the first twenty minutes or so, but after that she got bored and needed to do something. Maybe if she knew how to track it'd keep her quieter for longer, but he never really had the chance to teach her that much whenever they went out. Knowing her, she would just talk while she did it.
"You an' me both," he told her quickly, hoping his answer would be enough to stop the talking before it began. He knew his efforts would be futile, because Ace talked no matter what happened.
Ace crossed her arms and tried to follow him at his side, hoping that the faster pace would warm her up a little. Daryl just ignored her, holding his bow ready to aim in case he saw anything to take down.
Ace frowned at him slightly, realising that whenever she joined him on hunts, she never really did anything, and if he didn't need her there then she could have stayed back in the warm cabin with the others. As bored as she was there, she didn't know if it was worth how cold the hunt made her.
So she asked, "Why do you bring me hunting when I don't even have a weapon to hunt with?"
"Ya gotcha gun?" He glanced at her side, seeing that she did, in fact, have the weapon at her side.
"It's too loud," she complained. "And you're the one that says I shouldn't put a bullet in our food."
Daryl rolled his eyes, "Just quiet down," he said. "Yer yammerin' is makin' me forget just why I brought you out here in the first place."
"That's what I'm saying."
They walked around for a while, with Daryl taking down an unfortunate rabbit that wandered its way into their path. He said something about them not being that lucky for everything they would hunt that day, but Ace didn't really hear what he said as she watched him grab the rabbit from the ground, and pull the arrow from the body.
Daryl kept an eye out for more tracks as they walked further on, and he was right about their luck running short, because they were unable to find much else for the next hour or so. Ace lost track of time.
She felt numb walking around in the snow, and was just glad that she was hunting with Daryl, because only he would know how to get them back at this point. She hugged each hand under the other arm, trying to warm them up, but even the gloves couldn't keep the cold out forever.
Ace jumped when she felt something wrap around her leg, and when she looked down it only frightened her more. There was a hand sticking out of the snow, holding onto her jeans. Then the head came out, and the teeth snapped at her ankle.
"Fuck!"
Ace yelped as she fell over, pushing herself along the ground in the snow, grasping at her chest over where her heart was. The walker's grasp loosened on her trousers, but the arms still reached out for her.
"Easy," Daryl grabbed her arm, pulling her to her feet. "I's frozen. Yer okay."
Ace looked at the walker on the ground, and realised that it could barely move. It's body was stuck on the ground, like the ice was holding it down, and the only thing it could move were its arms. It's teeth were snapping so slowly that even if it had grabbed her leg, it never would have gotten the chance to bite her before Daryl could kill it.
"Oh," She shook her head, staring down at it for a second, realising that Daryl was right, and for the most part, it was frozen. She felt stupid for getting so scared over something that could barely move, and her cheeks turned head, partly from the embarrassment and partly from the cold. "I'm sorry."
"Don' be," was all he said in return. "Fear can keep ya alive."
What he said reminded her of Shane, how acting on adrenaline could be a distraction and get people killed. It made her feel a little blank as she thought back on it, her mind switching between the two pieces of advice to determine which was right. When the walker grabbed her, she was full of adrenaline, and she got away from the bite. So that was a plus.
Right?
Maybe if she had been more focused, like Shane was telling her, then she would have been able to stay calm and just kill the walker. Maybe. In her mind, everything Shane told her that day had to be trained into someone. She couldn't just ignore her base reactions because she hadn't tried to get rid of them. She didn't want to get rid of them.
Shane was cold and hard; he didn't care about what anyone else thought and worked on what he thought was right. There was no discussion, and there was no help. Ace didn't want to be like that, so she hadn't tried.
Daryl pulled out his knife, kneeling down next to the body that tried with all its might to reach up and grab him. He plunged the knife into its brain, and Ace didn't miss how the ice made it more difficult to take down the creature.
Daryl stood up and looked around before saying, "It can also scare away all the food."
Ace's eyes fell to the ground. "Sorry."
Despite Ace's panic when the walker grabbed her, Daryl still managed to kill three more rabbits before deciding that they had probably taken what they could get from their part of the woods as they walked around for an hour and half without finding anything. Daryl decided they should probably just get back to the cabin to warm up.
"Gotta get out of 'em clothes when we get back," Daryl told her. "Get into somethin' dry. Don' need ya catching hypothermia or some shit."
Ace nodded, "Yeah, okay."
The cabin came into view, with the cars parked around the side, but Ace frowned when she saw them. She walked ahead of Daryl, and looked at them for a second, before letting out a very loud, audible and frustrated sigh.
"Shit," She muttered. "I asked him to lift these."
She tugged at the wipers, but as she expected, they were stuck down. Ace sighed and turned to Daryl, who just shrugged in return, and she followed him inside the house.
She crossed her arms when she saw T-Dog inside, sat on the ground as he spoke with the rest of the group. Ace walked over to him and nudged him in the side with her boot, knowing that it would at least leave a wet mark on his coat.
"Hey!" He looked up at her, but she only stared down at him.
"You didn't lift the windscreen wipers like I asked, did you?" Ace questioned, her arms still crossed.
T-Dog pursed his lips and grinned, "How did you know?"
"Seeing as they're all frozen to the windscreens, I thought it was a lucky guess."
Carl laughed quietly from the other side of the room. Ace noticed that he was sitting on the ground next to Beth, who also had a smile on her face at Ace's reaction. Ace just sighed, shaking her head and leaning against the wall.
I have to do everything around here, she thought.
"I think I saw some cardboard boxes in the basement," Hershel announced, straightening up. "We'll put them over the windscreen to stop it from freezing."
"That would take too long to pack away if we had to leave quickly," Ace shook her head. "Besides, it doesn't negate the fact that they're frozen right now. What if we needed to get on the move? It would be too dangerous to drive while it's snowing and the windscreen wipers are frozen down."
Lori placed a hand on her shoulder as she entered the room, "It won't happen again, hun."
"Is there vodka here?" Ace questioned out of nowhere, making some of the adults a little concerned that she was asking for an alcoholic drink. She did have another reason, but she realised that it would probably have been easier if she just went and looked around herself.
Rick frowned, "Vodka?"
Ace rolled her eyes.
"I'm not sure now is the time to start drinking," Glenn joked.
"As much as I would love to prove you wrong and that all times are a time to start drinking—"
"—I second that," Daryl interrupted her.
"Me too," T-Dog grinned.
Ace rolled her eyes again, "Using vodka on the windscreen will melt the ice because vodka doesn't freeze. Well, it does, but Georgia has never really been cold enough to freeze vodka."
Maggie stood up, "I'll take a look."
Ace gave a nod and waited.
Maggie came back into the room behind her, holding a clear glass bottle with a red screw lid, "Here, Ace. I found some."
She took the bottle from her, "Thanks," she said quietly, before turning to the rest of the group. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to stand in the snow, freeze my ass off and attempt to unfreeze the windscreen wipers."
"I'll keep watch," Daryl said. "But I don' know how many walkers are up and wandering 'round. Found one frozen today, was a lot slower than usual."
"Cool," Carl exclaimed, his eyes wide.
Ace grimaced at the memory, "Yeah, cool . . ."
"There's some good news," Rick nodded.
"Can you turn on the heaters? It'll melt the ice faster that way."
Daryl opened the door and turned on the heater, making sure the blow was aimed at the windows. Ace tried to get the lid off the bottle with her gloves on, but made little progress, soon facing the fact that she would have to take her gloves off and brave the cold.
She put the glove in her pocket and twisted the lid off the bottle.
"Ya sure this'll work?"
Ace nodded, "Like I said, it could freeze at minus 27 degrees. I doubt it's minus 27, so the vodka should melt the ice. The only thing that should be frozen after this is me when I get hypothermia."
Daryl scoffed, but leaned back against the porch railing and peered around to look out for walkers. His gaze switched between keeping watch and looking at Ace while she poured some of the vodka onto the windscreen wipers.
He made a pfft sound, lowering his crossbow at the lack of walkers, "Tha's a waste of good liquor."
"Well, if someone had listened to me, then someone else could be enjoying a nice buzz right now, instead of the windshield."
"Fucking T," Daryl muttered.
"Tell me about it."
When Ace had coated the entire thing with the clear liquid, she used her gloved hand to try and push away the ice around the windscreen wipers, pushing them back and forth to try and get them moving again.
"I should have made T do this," she grumbled after some resistance from the wipers.
"He woulda broke 'em," Daryl said.
"I suppose."
Ace worked at the windscreen wipers on the Hyundai for a little while, before finally getting them lifted away from the frozen glass, but it didn't end there. She and Daryl had to stand outside until she had unstuck the wipers on the other two cars, which took just as long as it did for the first. This time she made sure they had been lifted, to ensure they weren't frozen when they left.
It had gotten darker by the time she had actually finished, and her ungloved hand had turned a light shade of pinky-purple. She pulled her glove from her pocket, finally enjoying the bitter warmth the glove provided.
"I'm done," she said.
"Fucking finally," Daryl straightened up.
Ace frowned at him, "You could have helped."
"Ya did such a good job on yer own," he teased.
She rolled her eyes, "Whatever," she said, deepening her voice and copying Daryl's accent to the best of her abilities.
She had to run up the porch steps to get away from a swat to the arm, and quickly entered the cabin. The wind slammed the door closed behind them, announcing their presence to the rest of the room. Everyone looked over at them, but no one really said anything.
"I's done," Daryl said.
"That's good," Carol smiled.
Ace's eyes moved to T-Dog, who was standing at a table, attempting to prepare the rabbits that he had seen Daryl do many times over. It was no masterpiece, but at least they had something other than soup or beans to eat that night.
Ace took a step forward, "You know, next time I ask you to do something, you should probably do it," she said. "Frozen windscreen wipers can snap off, but you're lucky I was around to fix that."
"Next time I'm only doing what you say to get you off my back."
Ace smiled, "Thatta boy."
Daryl glanced at the empty vodka bottle that Ace put down on the table, before turning to T-Dog, "Ya had one job, man."
Ace waited around for the meat to cook, and while eating she noticed that Lori was still dipping in and out of the room, the smell of the food making her ill. Carol was helping her, so there was nothing much she could do to help the issue, so she just watched on in pity.
When she was finished, she stood up and announced, "Now that I have saved the day, I am going to bed."
They were on the move after a few days, unable to stay in one place for too long. Even if Daryl and Ace had found that frozen walker, there was still another group approaching them that were fully up and walking. Even if the snow had slowed them down, they were still coming, and it was too much for the group to take.
Ace woke up as the car slowed, rubbing her eyes. As she came round from her dazed state minutes later, the pounding in her head only grew worse, until she had to stop herself from crying out in pain.
She told herself it was only from waking up and sleeping in a bad position, but with the pain came some nausea that turned her stomach. She knew she wasn't going to be sick, but the feeling was there nonetheless.
"Where are we?" She grumbled.
"Williamson, I think," Hershel answered. "Outside of Griffin."
She didn't know why she asked, quickly remembering that she had no idea where they were ever. At this point it just felt like she was being strung along, probably across Georgia, but she would never know that. Part of her wished that she could read a map, like understanding where she was would help in any way.
"Oh," she answered, like everything was suddenly cleared up.
Ace followed the others as they climbed out from the car, pulling her coat closer to her body as the cold air hit her. It was a nice moment where the snow had stopped, but that didn't mean that the air wasn't just as bitter as before.
As she leaned against the bonnet of the Hyundai and waited for Rick to tell them what to do, she was pelted in the side with a snowball that hit her with a thud. Her head snapped down to the white mark on her coat, before up to Carl, who was grinning at her.
"Gotcha!" Carl laughed.
"Quit it," Ace waved him away, wiping the snow off her coat with her sleeve.
Carl only laughed more, standing at her side while he waited for some kind of instructions about clearing out the street. Ace still felt ill, so just waited around for the day to end, but that would be much longer than she wanted.
"There's so many houses here," T-Dog said. "There's gotta be something."
Rick nodded, "Hopefully."
"What are we looking for, anyways?"
"More food, we're okay for now, but we haven't found any in a while," Rick said, showing no one of worry on his face. Ace had been concerned about their food supplies, but she never really saw it. They kept the food in the back of one of the cars. "But other than that, anything really."
Ace tried to listen to what they were saying, to no avail. Her head was still slamming against her skull, so instead she asked, "Can I stay here?"
Rick tilted his head to the side, "Here? Why?"
"My head really hurts, I don't really feel well. I just don't think I can be any help."
Rick traded a gaze with Daryl, probably wondering whether it was safe to just leave her in the car. It seemed fairly barren, they didn't see many walkers driving into town, and she would have the safety of the car if any dead passed her way.
Daryl shrugged in return, "Just keep an eye out for walkers. If you see anything, honk."
Ace just nodded in return.
"Okay," Rick nodded, before turning back to the others, "the rest of us will start with these houses and work our way up the street. If the houses are secure enough, we'll pick one and stay here for the night."
"Ace, here," Glenn reached in his pocket and pulled out the keys, before throwing them at her to catch. "If you get too cold, you can turn on the heaters."
Everyone grabbed their weapons and bags, as they followed Rick to the first house. Ace sat down in the front seat of the car, watching them all as they walked away. She placed her knife and gun on the seat next to her, ready in case anything happened.
She looked around for walkers just as Daryl told her to do, but she didn't see anything. Part of her wished Daryl was here, because if there were any walkers that she missed, he would have seen. It made her slightly paranoid, knowing that there was a good chance she could be missing any potential threats.
When she was sure there were no threats, she laid back against the headrest and pressed her fingertips into her eyelids, trying to relieve whatever pressure was building up in my head.
It was nice for her to be alone for once; she never got any privacy anymore. Half the day she spent locked in a car with everyone, the other half was in a random house or camped on the side of the road. If she was lucky enough to get a bedroom for the night, she would have to share a bed with Beth, not that she minded, but it meant that she could never get any time to herself.
There was some muffled talking from outside, and she lowered her hands to see that the group had finished on the first two houses and were now moving into the next two. They had split off into groups, with the Glenn and the Greene family taking one house and the rest taking the other.
She closed her eyes, leaning her head back again. She had no idea how long she had been laying there, and there was a good chance she had even fallen asleep. It did ease the pressure in her head for a little while, giving her moments of peace.
When her eyes opened next, only for a moment, she could see the others moving further up the street to the next set of houses. They were much further away than when she had previously seen her. They would be done with the street soon, and come back. Whether they would stay or leave was beyond her.
The door swung open next to her, making Ace jump out of her skin. A man was standing in the doorway, his eyes wide as he took a step back. He looked around, before his gaze snapped back to her.
Ace was frozen to the spot, just staring back at him, unable to do anything. Her head was buzzing, but she now felt suddenly alert. They both waited there in an uncomfortable stalemate, one that Ace knew would not end well for her.
And she was right.
The man moved first, grabbing Ace by the shoulder and the front of the coat, before jerking his arms back to pull her out of the car. She had to wedge her foot under the pedals so she didn't fall, using her other foot to try and kick him away.
"Let go of me!" She began to panic. "Let me go!"
Ace tried screaming, but not even yelling out at the top of her lungs would alert the others. Instead, still struggling, she slammed her hand down into the steering wheel in three sharp bursts, hoping that the group would hear the horn and come to her rescue.
Leaning backwards, Ace tried reaching up to the dashboard to grab her knife or gun, whatever her hand came into contact with first, but the man leaned across and gripped her wrist, dragging her away from the weapons. When he tried to yank her from the car again, she gripped the handbrake tightly with her other hand.
The hand on her shoulder moved, gripping the hair at the back of her head, slamming her face against the top of the steering wheel before she could react. Pain throbbed through her eyes and nose, making her lose her grip on the handbrake, and allowing herself to be dragged effortlessly from the car.
Her back hit the ground, making a crunch in the snow. Ace groaned as her hands came up to cover her face. It took a second to realise what happened, and only a moment later to remember that her gun was in the car. If she did nothing, he could have the opportunity to grab it and kill her.
Ace swung her foot up, kicking him in the joint between his leg and hip, which caught him off guard and made him keel over in pain. Those spare seconds gave Ace a chance to roll onto her stomach to crawl away, her fingers turning red as she tried to move through the snow.
The man followed after her and grabbed her ankles, pulling her back across the ground. He placed a hand on her hip and rolled her onto her back, before he kneeled over her, pinning her to the ground and locking her in place. Ace kicked up at him and pushed at his chest, but she couldn't get herself free, and after a moment of struggling, his fist connected with the side of her face, at her temple, and her head snapped to the side.
She couldn't feel anything after the blow. Ace squeezed her eyes closed, trying to get rid of the dazed feeling, and when she attempted to move, she couldn't even lift her head off the ground. She barely noticed when the man's hand tapped at her sides, before it slipped into her pocket, pulling out the keys for the car.
When she tried to stop him, grab the keys, anything, his hands then wrapped around her throat, squeezing hard to cut off her airways. The keys jingled next to her head when he dropped them in the snow, snapping her out of her dazed state.
Ace suddenly felt very aware, and her eyes snapped open. She pushed at his arms, and chest, but they would not move. Only when she viciously twisted her body from side to side did she squirm enough to get in the smallest breath before his hands tightened again.
Her gloved hands tapped at the side of her head for the keys, hoping that maybe she could use them as some kind of shiv. But with his arms in the way, she could not find them. She turned her head as far as it could go, but nothing.
The cold snow was now seeping through her jeans, leaving wet marks in her clothes as she tried to push and kick away. This time, no amount of moving or fighting would get him off her. Around her neck became wet with tears, from the fear and lack of oxygen, and she could feel her attempts getting weaker and weaker, able to see the lessening effect that her fighting had on the man.
What if you're attacked by a person? You just gonna stand there and let them kill you?
Ace didn't feel like she had much of a choice anymore.
Her vision blurred and just as she thought she was going to pass out, the man was yanked away. She tried to suck in a breath, but ended up coughing over and over again. Ace rolled onto her knees to clear her airways, and the same spluttering noises came out.
Out of the corner of her eye she could see Daryl kneeling over the man, repeatedly punching him in the face, before other figures ran over. An arm reached under her own and across her chest, pulling her up to her feet and away, now facing away from the man.
She could still hear them, the sound of Daryl's fist impacting him and the groans that followed.
"I got you, girl," T-Dog's voice distracted her for a moment, reminding her that she was still coughing and gasping and crying, barely able to get any sort of breath from the panic. He was patting and rubbing her back until the coughing stopped, but Ace was still crying, worse now, as she sobbed into his coat.
Ace only got worse when she heard a gunshot, which made her flinch violently, grabbing T-Dog's sleeve as she cried. She peeked over her shoulder and saw that both Daryl and Rick were holding their guns at the body, but she didn't know which of them had actually killed the man.
She wasn't sure she wanted to know.
When Ace had gotten herself to stop crying, T-Dog sat her down in the car so he could talk to the others. He joined Rick and Daryl, who moved the body around behind the cars so she didn't have to sit there and look at it.
"How is she?"
"Her head's bleeding pretty bad," T-Dog said, "might have a concussion."
"We'll have Hershel take a look when we get back," Rick nodded, glancing back at her. She was sitting in the door of her car, with her legs facing outside, occasionally wiping a stray tear that fell down her cheek and wincing as she did so. He could see the blood running from her temple, with another streak coming from her nose.
Ace already had a patch of red that travelled the entirety of her face, under her eyes, over her nose and across the top of her cheek. She would definitely end up with a black eye in the next few days. One side was worse than the other, but he almost felt how painful it was.
T-Dog's eyes wandered down to the man, laying dead on the ground, bruised and with a bullet in his head. Daryl's bloodied knuckles were enough to show just how much of a beating the man had.
"I wonder what he wanted," T-Dog said, finally.
"Don' matter what he wanted," Daryl snapped.
"I'm just saying, the keys were on the ground, maybe he just wanted to take the car."
Daryl had to stop himself from rolling his eyes, "Yeah, except he was willin' to kill a teenage girl over it. Pretty damn sick."
"I know it was wrong, but maybe if we gave him what he wanted, then we all could've walked away from this," T-Dog suggested.
"We don't know that he was willing to negotiate," Rick reminded him. "Not only that, but we can't risk losing a car, we'd be stranded."
"The bastard got what he deserved," Daryl added finally.
T-Dog looked grim, "I guess."
"We should get her back to the others," Rick said. "I told them to stay in the house they were searching before running down here."
"Are we staying?" T-Dog asked. "I mean, we can't. Right?"
Rick shook his head, "We don't have a choice, we have to leave. We don't know that he was alone."
Daryl peered around for a second, looking for any signs of another person, but he saw none. "If he had any buddies, they woulda helped 'im. It was only the kid, doubt they'd've seen it as much of a threat. Think we'll be fine for the night. 'Sides, it's getting dark. If we leave, we don' know that we won' run into more of 'em."
Rick went quiet for a moment, contemplative. As much as he wanted to just get out of there, he knew Daryl was right, and they could just as easily get stranded on the side of the road with more people on their tail. At least in the house they had cover, shelter.
"I'll think about it," Rick said. "Bring it up with the others."
"S'up to you," Daryl said, acknowledging his 'this-isn't-a-democracy-anymore' ruling.
Rick rested his hands on his belt, exhaling through his nose, "Let's drive the cars up to the others, get Hershel to take a look at Ace. We'll work something out from there."
Everyone was standing around in the main room of the house they parked in front of. When the door closed, they looked over with worried looks that only turned to pity when they saw her.
"Oh my God," Lori rushed across the room, placing her hands on either side of Ace's head and turning her face to inspect the injuries. "Are you okay, hun?"
"Stop," Ace pushed Lori's hand away, slipping past her and running away upstairs. Lori watched after her, mouth gaping.
"Ace!" Glenn walked to the stairs, calling after her, but he decided not to follow until he found out what happened to her.
Lori turned watching the men gather, mostly avoiding eye contact and acting antsy. "What's going on?" She asked hurriedly.
"What happened?" Maggie followed.
They all traded a look, before T-Dog cleared his throat, "There was this man," T-Dog's voice was low, gravelly. "He . . . she got attacked."
"Almost killed her," Daryl said, in a harsher tone, glancing at T-Dog.
"Oh my God," Lori's hands went to her mouth in shock. "Is she—?"
"—she's hurt," Rick cut her off, not looking her way but to Hershel. "Do you mind taking a look at her, checking for a concussion?"
"Was she hit with something?"
"She's bruised," Rick said vaguely, his head tilting to the side, seemingly unsure.
"Didn't see nothin' there, just his fists I think. He had her pinned, not sure how hard she hit the ground," Daryl said.
Hershel nodded and turned to T-Dog, "Can you get the first aid kit from the car?"
T-Dog headed for the door, mumbling, "Lift the damn wipers while I'm out there."
T-Dog returned shortly after with a green box in his hand, the one they had taken from the garage weeks before. He handed it to Hershel, who followed Ace's direction upstairs the moment he got the first aid kit.
He found Ace in one of the bedrooms. She was sitting on the bed, her eyes closed as she held the rag against her forehead. She turned her head when she heard the squeaking of the door.
"How are you feeling?"
"Bard," Hershel didn't get the word at first, the pronunciation a mix between the word bad and bard, without really pronouncing the 'r'. From context he realised that was slang from her own country, a way of saying that she was hurt or sick. All it did was remind him why she even stayed in the car in the first place.
Hershel placed the first aid kit down on the bedside table, reaching behind him to drag the desk chair over to the side of the bed. Ace didn't look over, leaning back against the headboard on the bed, as she held the rag over the cut on the side of her head.
"I have to take a look at that cut," Hershel said, sitting in front of her.
Ace nodded, scooching herself to the edge of the bed. She lowered the rag from her forehead, glancing at the blood that had accumulated in the cloth. It was surprising to her, but Hershel didn't look worried, so she didn't say anything.
He leaned forward, placing his thumb under the gash. Ace felt a gentle tug at the cut, but nothing that caused any more pain than what she was already feeling. It just stung a little, and she felt the blood trickle down her temple.
"It's not that deep," Hershel said, reaching for the first aid kit and resting it on his leg. "The good news is that it won't leave a scar."
The box opened with a click, and Hershel grabbed a small white package. It tore apart like foil, and she watched as Hershel pulled out a wipe.
"I'll just try and clean this up, wipe away what I can, and then I'll use these butterfly stitches to close the cut," Hershel explained as he unfolded the alcohol wipe. She didn't understand why he was going over every step, maybe he thought it was comforting, but it wasn't. Not to Ace. She just wanted this to be over. "Try not to move too much; this might sting a little."
Ace just nodded, waiting for the pain. She had cut herself enough times in her dad's garage to know how bad alcohol wipes could hurt. It would only be painful at the beginning, but she normally got used to it after a few wipes.
Just as she had predicted, the gash felt like it was throbbing for a couple of seconds, making her squeeze her eyes closed when the wipe touched her skin. After a couple of seconds, finally got used to the sensation and was able to relax her face.
Hershel had to open another wipe to clean the blood coming out, and when he was done, he held it against her forehead for a moment while he reached inside the first aid kit for the stitches he was talking about.
Hershel made sure to wipe the dried blood from under her nose as well. If her nose was bleeding, it wasn't anymore, so he didn't have to make her sit forward to stop the blood from coming out.
"Okay, now that's done," he trailed off, putting the second wipe on the bedside table.
The stitches he was using were white strips, Ace noticed. He had to peel the back off them like plasters, and after wiping at the cut one more time, he leaned forward and used the butterfly stitches to close up the wound. He used two that had been torn down to size before finally straightening back up.
"It was very fortunate that we found this first aid kit," Hershel acknowledged, putting the box down on the table.
Ace had to bite her tongue to keep herself from saying anything. It was fortunate, but she felt like that was a dig at her getting hurt and wasting their supplies. She knew it wasn't, but that's how she took it. With the way she felt at the moment, anything was making her sad and angry.
Hershel was looking at her, but Ace just kept her eyes down, "Can you look ahead for a second?"
She did as she was told, moving her gaze to look Hershel in the eyes, unsure why he would want her to look up. He only needed to look at her for a few seconds, but afterwards, he seemed pleased with whatever he was looking for.
"Your pupils aren't dilated," Hershel said, "and they're both the same size, which is a good sign. It means it's unlikely that you have a concussion. You had a headache before the attack, so that isn't a very good method for diagnosis at the moment."
Attack.
The word hit Ace like a truck, more than she expected it to, making her sick to her stomach. She didn't understand why. It was over now; she didn't need to be scared anymore.
She continued to sit in silence, waiting for Hershel to continue his inspections, "Your nose doesn't look broken, but how did you get all this bruising?"
"Steering wheel."
Hershel nodded, "Does anything else hurt?"
It seemed like a stupid question to her. Everything else hurt.
Ace answered him anyway, telling him the one thing he hadn't checked yet, croaking out, "My neck hurts."
Hershel nodded.
He assumed from that, that she had been strangled or choked in some way, so he asked her to lift her head, and prodded at the area around her neck. There were red marks in her skin, just like the bruises forming on her face, but it didn't feel like anything had collapsed or been crushed in any way.
"There's no serious damage," he said. "Just some bruising, nothing to worry about. You just need to be taking pills now to ease some of the pain."
"You killed him?" Maggie asked. It wasn't an accusation or anything, she just was just trying to see what happened. She didn't know which of the men the question was directed at, either, because she didn't entirely know who had done the killing.
"We didn't have much of a choice," Rick said. "Ace was seconds from being choked out."
"Couldn' just cut him loose, neither," Daryl agreed.
"And he was alone?" Carol asked.
"He seemed to be," Rick nodded.
"What if he wasn't?" Lori pushed herself to her feet, walking over to Rick but standing a metre or so away from him. "More of them could come back."
"We're going to have a lookout working in shifts," Rick said, avoiding eye contact. "Keep an eye down the street for more of them and make sure that the cars are safe. If anything seems off, we'll leave. We're not taking any chances, but we can't get on the road just yet," he said. "It's getting dark, there's no guarantee we'll find another place to stay."
"I'll take the first watch," T-Dog announced.
Rick nodded, "I'll relieve you in a couple hours."
The stairs squeaked, alerting the room to Hershel who was coming down. He was holding the first aid kit in his hand, placing it down on the sofa as he entered the room.
"How is she?" Maggie asked quickly.
"She's okay," Hershel said. "No signs of a concussion, at least. And there's no serious damage done to her throat."
"Does she need anything?" Glenn asked.
"Pain killers, for now," Hershel said. "That's all we can really give her."
"Let's get some food cooking, you can take up some painkillers with the food," Rick said, nodding at Glenn.
Glenn stood up and turned to leave the room, "I'm going to get her bag from the car, it has her water bottle. She'll need it for the pills."
The door slammed closed behind him.
"Ace can have the room tonight," Beth announced. "I'll sleep down here. She probably just wants to be alone."
"There's a third room with two beds," Carol said. "You and your dad can take that one. I'll take the sofa down here."
Ace didn't react as the door opened, only glancing out the corner of her eye to see who had come in. It was getting darker, but it was still light enough to see Glenn was standing there with a bowl in one hand, and a box in the other. Under his arm she recognised her water bottle, and what she thought to be some more clothes.
"Hungry?" Glenn questioned. "I brought you some food, and pills. Hershel said you needed them."
Glenn immediately understood why. The red marks he had once seen when they came back to the house now had a purple tinge, and the skin over the top of her nose was starting to swell, the marks extending over each eye.
Ace didn't say anything in return, so he put the bowl, pills and water bottle down on the bedside table. He then showed her the spare clothes from her bag, before putting them down on the desk, "I got some more clothes, too. They said the one's you have on might be wet from the snow."
He stood there awkwardly, watching as she sat up, and first went to grab the tablets and bottle. The packet rustled as she popped out two pills, before she dumped the box back on the side table. When she finished, she put the bottle back down, muttering a quiet thank you to Glenn.
He nodded, "You should try and eat something. I'll come back later to get your bowl, okay?"
Ace nodded, but didn't move until he left the room, closing the door behind him. When he was gone, she stood up, grabbed the bowl from the bedside table and walked over to the desk, pushing the spare clothes to the side.
She took a little while to eat what she had, every swallow felt like there was something stopping her from eating, from drinking. Every mouthful hurt. The painkillers hadn't yet kicked in to stop the ache that settled in her throat.
When she finished eating, she grabbed the spare clothes and changed what she was wearing. The joggers and shirt Glenn brought would be more comfortable to sleep in than jeans anyway, which made her realise that Maggie had probably picked them out. Another sign that Maggie had done this was that spare underwear was discreetly tucked into the folded shirt.
She folded her wet clothes in the way her spare ones had been given to her and dumped them down in the corner, and grabbed her coat, pulling it back over her shoulders. The coat had dried a little, but the room was too cold to continue without it, at least after laying in the snow. She knew it would be best to sleep in something that would keep her warm.
Ace finally turned to the bed, laying down under the blanket and turning to face the wall. Glenn said nothing about them leaving, so she assumed it was safe to try and get some sleep.
As she laid there she realised that it even hurt to lay on her side, because her face touched the pillow, and she felt her bruises throb at the contact. Right now it didn't matter to her, and she would deal with the pain if it meant laying comfortably against the wall.
Minutes later, she heard the door open behind her and looked over her shoulder to see Glenn, just like he said. "You finished?" He didn't need an answer because saw the bowl on the desk. "I'll just take this away."
He turned away, back to the door to leave the room.
"Glenn?" Ace's voice came out croaky, but Glenn heard her and stopped.
"Yeah?"
She hesitated for a second, the fear of sounding completely pathetic taking route in her stomach, but she didn't want to be there alone. She wanted to be alone, but Glenn was an exception.
"Can you stay here?"
Glenn nodded, "Yeah, okay. Just let me take this down, and I'll be right back."
He left the room, closing the door behind him, and walking downstairs. She could hear the thudding of him walking down, and moments later, back up the stairs, and to outside the door. He closed it behind him again, and came back into the room.
"Scooch up," he said, before perching himself on the edge of the bed, leaning back against the headboard, and kicking his feet up. She heard the faintest of sighs leave his mouth, but decided not to bring it up.
Ace laid herself back down on the pillow, only this time, with her head resting on Glenn.
Here it is, been a lot bust with Uni and have exams coming up in three weeks so it could be a month or two before the next chapter comes out. You all have been very patient anyway.
Hope you enjoyed, and let me know what you thought :)