"Come on!" Daryl exclaimed.

I nodded and quickly got in, followed by Daryl and lastly my mum. Daryl made sure the door was locked once again before we continued inside the dark building. We had all our knives in our hands, walkers could be inside the building as well.

Daryl walked a bit ahead of us with a flashlight in his right hand and knife in his left. We kept walking further and so far we only found a dead walker on the ground. I kicked it to make sure it was really dead and then Daryl took the keys from him. He probably was a guard here.

We kept walking, everything was so quiet. It seemed like there really weren't any walkers here, that could be good but also bad, what if someone else had gotten rid of the walkers and they were inside now?

Anyway, we reached an office then. I bit my lip as I walked in. I could almost see myself sat on one of those chairs years ago. In my mind this room transformed into how it looked like when I first came here. Very illuminated, very organized. A middle aged man owned it back then. He was nice but he couldn't keep any of his promises.

"You used to work here or something?" I heard Daryl asking my mum, interrupting my thoughts. I turned to look at my mum as she glanced at me for a second.

"Something," she whispered.

This office had three doors, Daryl then pushed the desk in front of one of them, just in case. My mum took the keys from Daryl and opened the last door, while I just stood there with my arms crossed in front of me.

That door led to a very narrow hallway and the hallway to a small room and bathroom, something you don't often find behind an office.

"What's this place?" Daryl asked as he looked at me, he knew I knew what it was because of my reaction outside and he knew me to well to read me.

"It's temporary housing," my mother said before I could.

Daryl then lighted the desk, where some books were. The one on top was 'Treating Survivors of Childhood abuse.' He quickly turned to look at me then, not with pity, thank God, but he now knew what this place was and why I was acting so uncomfortable here.

It wasn't like Daryl didn't know, he actually met my father and saw how he was. It wasn't either that I didn't trust Daryl, I did. But now I was feeling exposed. This was a reality of my life. I couldn't just pretend here, everything in here brought memories of that part of my life.

"You came here?" Daryl asked.

"We didn't stay," mum said quickly.

"Of course we didn't," I commented.

My mum just looked away from me, while Daryl just stood there, staring at the books. Then he coughed and walked closer to the bed.
"I'll take the top bunk," mum informed us as she put her rifle on that bed. "You two should sleep. I'll take first watch.
"This is locked up pretty tight," Daryl said after he put his crossbow next to the bunker bed.
"I know."
"Then we're good, then."
"I'll keep first watch. I don't mind."

"Suit yourself," Daryl finally said, giving up. I was stubborn, he knew it was impossible to make me change my mind and he also knew my mum could be pretty much like me when she wanted.

I sat on the bed and rested my back against the wall, while I brought my knees close to my chest. Daryl sat on the edge of the bed, he glanced at my mum before turning his body to me and resting his right hand on my knee. I lifted my gaze and looked right into his eyes and smiled at him.

My mum quickly headed to the bathroom then, I took the chance to grab Daryl's hand and without warming pecked his lips, which really surprised him.

"Thought you were mad at me..." Daryl whispered. I shook my head. I patted the place next to me on the bed and Daryl quickly moved himself there. I snuggled up to him.

"I'm sorry. I'm mad but not at you...I just can't control myself when I'm this pissed."

"You know, this place means nothing now... only somewhere to stay the night, nothing else," Daryl whispered to me.

"We stayed in this same room," I whispered. "Sophia and I slept on the top one, she was probably two or three and she didn't understand what was going on. My mum said we were only going to stay for a couple of days and then go to stay with our grandparents or someone else but we went back to our house. Things got worse after that. We came another time but we just stayed a night... and as the last time, it only made everything worse."

"Why do you dislike this place so much?"

"Because everyone looks at you like if you are broken. They pity you but not enough to make an effort to really help you. People here saw the bruises on my sister and me and they knew my mum was going to take us back home and they did nothing... I really needed them but they failed me too."

"I never got this far..." Daryl commented. "I just kept myself out of the house as much as I could, just to evade him. At least she tried, Cecilia."

"It wasn't enough." I looked down at my hands, I heard Daryl starting to talk but I interrupted him quickly. "Could you sleep next to the wall?"

"Sure," he said nodding.

Daryl found out I was claustrophobic when we were at the CDC. We were underground and that made me have a couple of anxiety attacks. I would feel trapped if I was in between the wall and Daryl and he knew that, that's why usually slept next to the wall when we shared a bed back in the prison.

Daryl got under the sheets first, then I did, I unconsciously rested my head on his shoulder and put an arm around him. He smiled and kissed the top of my head.

Daryl's POV

Cecilia's breathing became steadier and deeper and I smiled, knowing she had fallen asleep. She had had a few very rough days and it was good she was finally resting.

Then I heard Carol walking back into the room, she had her sight fixed on the small gun she had in her hand. She didn't look at me or Cecilia. Then she walked to the window, turned so now her back was facing us.

Even though I hadn't showed it, I was a bit angry at Carol. I just couldn't understand it. I know for a fact she cared about Cecilia and that's what hurt her the most when Rick sent her away and now that they were reunited she was trying to leave us all behind, including her daughter, which didn't make sense.

Cecilia doesn't like admitting it but even after everything, she has a big heart and cares about her mother, more than she'll ever like. She was destroyed when Rick told her about Carol killing Karen and David and she was losing it when she thought Garret had taken her mother.

"You said we get to start over," Carol suddenly said, making me look at her.

Carefully, I moved Cecilia a bit. Her head was on my shoulder and she had an arm around my chest. I didn't want to disturb her since she hadn't slept well and enough lately and she desperately needed it. Cecilia took a deep breath, making me think I had woken her up. She moved to her other side, holding on to the pillow and continued to sleep. I sat up then, knowing she wasn't awake.

"Yeah," I said to Carol, who kept looking out the window.
"Did you?" she asked me finally looking at me, and I took a deep breath then, not answering her right away.

"I'm tryin'," I admitted, Carol nodded and she turned to look out the window again.

Since Cecilia was kidnapped by that little piece of shit, things hadn't been easy. Sometimes I don't even have time to recover from something when I get another blow. Not long after that, we lost the prison and many people, then the baby thing and so much more has happened in such a short time.
"Why don't you say what's really on your mind?

"I don't think we get to save people anymore."
"Then why are you here?"

"I'm tryin'," she whispered.

I took another deep breath and rubbed my eyes, I knew Cecilia would jump at that answer and I was just glad she wasn't awake to hear that now.

"Are you really?" I found myself asking, this time not looking at her but at Cecilia. She had gone through so much and now Carol was making it all worse. It kind of reminded me when Cecilia got lost in the woods with Sophia and Carol didn't look for them and once we all found Sophia, instead of reaching out to Cecilia she pushed her away and even blamed her for Sophia's death.

I knew she was Cecilia's mother and I had to respect her only for that reason but I was upset at her and what she was trying to do. Earlier, I was trying to get Cecilia to keep her mouth shut, not because I was defending Carol but because I didn't think it was the right place or time, or even the right way. Cecilia was too upset and she needed to calm down a bit before trying to speak with Carol, she would only get more upset at Carol if she kept trying to get the truth out of her.

It was like Carol had been given chance after chance and instead of making things right, she followed this destructive and selfish pattern when things could be good for them at last, but instead making them even worse.

"When we were out by the car... what if I hadn't showed up?"

"I still don't know," Carol said with a slight shrug, refusing to look at Cecilia.

Silence filled the room, I wanted to tell her how much she was hurting Cecilia even when she probably already knew it. I was trying to think of what to say when we heard moaning and a loud bang. Quickly, I grabbed my crossbow and Carol got her gun, Cecilia didn't wake up.

Carol and I walked into the hallway, our flashlight on but apprently there was nothing here. Then when we go to the end of the hallway we could see three walkers banging on a see-through door.
"You don't have to," I said quickly when Carol attempted to open the door to kill them. She tried again but I stopped her again, stepping in front of her. "You don't."

Carol looked at me for a few seconds before she just stormed away and hurried back to the room, I took a deep breath as I watched her leave. I could tell there was a female walker in there. I could also see two small figures, it could only mean those were her children. By Carol's look, I could tell she got flashbacks of when she was here years ago with her two daughters, it was too personal to kill these walkers for her, that's why I didn't let her and I decided to do it myself.

When I opened the door, I saw a little girl first. She couldn't be more than nine when she died. I stabbed her in the forehead quickly and then moved on to the mother, who seemed to be way easier than the little girl.

Then I saw the third walker. It was a boy. He was wearing some dinosaur pyjamas and he was younger than the girl, he was probably four or five. It's always sad to see kids turned into walkers and having to kill them, but it's something you gotta do. They're not kids anymore, they're all walkers and they want to kill us.

When I was done, I cleaned my knife and hands, closed the door of that room and then walked back. Carol was lying on the top bunk now, she was lying on her back, she looked like she had fallen asleep.

I set my crossbow on the floor next to the bed, took off my shoes and got into bed. I snuggled closer to Cecilia and immediately fell asleep.

The next morning I woke up before Cecilia and Carol, I still had my arm around Cecilia's waist and my face was buried on her shoulder blade. I planted a kiss right there and then I got out of bed, luckily without waking her up.

I took a piss and then headed to the room from last night. I grabbed the blankets from the beds and wrapped the kids first and then the mother. I took the mother out first though.

I lighted a smoke and then I built a fire, when it was big and strong enough, I started to burn their bodies. I was carrying the last one, the little boy when Cecilia came out. I carefully put him on the fire and then stood next to her as we watched the fire.

"I'll put it out quickly, in case someone's close and sees the smoke," I said quickly.

"We got to leave soon," she whispered as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

Cecilia went back in while Carol came out, she stood next to me and stared at the fire, then she whispered a vague 'thank you', I nodded at her. Then she walked back in. I followed her not long after.

"That car was headed downtown," I commented as we were all getting ready to leave. "I say we get up in one of the tall ones, get ourselves a view, see what we see."
"We can stay close to the buildings and keep quiet, but sooner or later, we're gonna be drawing 'em," Carol said.

Cecilia didn't say anything, she only nodded at me. I bit my lip. I hated that I put her in this position. I wanted to rescue Beth because she was part of our group and she was Hershel's daughter, a man I highly respected but if I could I would do it alone or with anyone else rather than Cecilia. This was awkward and it was hard for her.

At some point Beth and Cecilia got to be very close, they're not that apart in age and I felt like Cecilia saw her as her little sister, since Sophia was gone and all and all that of course, made all of this worse for her, the betrayal was worse.

I wasn't meaning to even talk to Beth. I wanted to save her but that was it. I wouldn't do anything with her, not after what happened. I couldn't put myself in that situation again and it wouldn't be fair to Cecilia, she wouldn't feel okay with it and I don't blame her. I wouldn't feel okay either.

Even when I knew she didn't like him, I never liked when Cecilia was too close to Sean. I could see the way he looked at her, even from the very beginning. I don't like saying I felt jealousy but I was uneasy every time I saw them close, or talking or anything so I would understand how Cecilia would feel if she saw me close to Beth, even if we were just ignoring each other.

I pushed all those thoughts and feelings aside as we walked out of the building, I was heading the way. It had been a while since we were all in Atlanta but I still remembered a lot of places and where they were.

Suddenly, I felt Cecilia grabbing my right hand and as soon as she did that, I felt like she took a heavy weight from me. I only squeezed her hand but kept my attention ahead, there were walkers close to us and who knows where these people were, so I couldn't get distracted.

Then as we got more to the city centre, we saw more walkers. I stopped right at a corner, I could hear a lot of walkers nearby. I took a peak and indeed, there were at least forty walkers there but there was also something that could help us. I turned around to face Carol and Cecilia.

"All right, we can get up there," I told them. "There's a bridge."

I let go of Cecilia's hand and got my bag and set it on the ground. Then I grabbed some papers I had inside and the lighter I had in my pocket. I set the paper on fire and then threw it as far as I could. That soon got the attention of the walkers.

I took another peek and then nodded at them. This time I didn't grab Cecilia's hand, I had both my hands on my crossbow. The three of us walked as silently but quickly at the same, as we could. One walker was inside the parking lot of the building we were trying to get in. I quickly killed it with an arrow.

Cecilia ran before us, got the arrow back and Carol and I quickly followed her. She read the sign on the wall that said 'Skybridge' and she hurried to it. We just followed her. She stopped just in front of the door, waiting for us. She gave me back my arrow before turning her body again and turning the knob to open the door.

She did it slowly and then looked inside, there was nothing in here, so she lowered her gun. She didn't have her crossbow with her. We continued our way side by side, Carol was a couple of steps behind us.

When we got to the bridge we saw something quite odd. There were about ten to fourteen walkers inside sleeping bags. They were still alive, sort of. They were moving and snarling. Someone had actually bothered to put them inside the sleeping bags... why? No fucking clue.

Carol and I started to stab them in the head while Cecilia just watched, trying to figure out what was going one in here or why someone did this. There were also two tents and there was at least a walker inside each one of them.

"Some days, I don't know what the hell to think," I commented and Cecilia just looked at me, finally breaking from the trance she apparently was in.

"What if someone didn't put them inside the bags? What if they just died? Or someone killed them while they were sleeping?" I heard Cecilia asking.

"We will never know," I told her.

We didn't bother with the walkers inside the tents, we just walked past them, trying to be as far as possible, out of their reach. This time Carol was in the front and I made Cecilia walk in front of me, she still was trying to figure out what happened here.

When we got to the other side we found out the doors were chained but you could still open one slightly. Carol took off her backpack, got down on her knees, pushed her things first and then crawled in between the doors. Cecilia did the same, she had no trouble since her shoulders were narrow and overall she was quite thin. Carol was too, but her shoulders and body in general were broader.

Then it was my turn, I handed Cecilia my crossbow and then my bag. I sucked in my stomach as I squeezed myself in between the doors.

"Good thing we skipped breakfast," I said, attempting a joke and I was glad when I actually saw a smile on Cecilia's lips.

I made it through but barely, then Cecilia handed me back my things. I thanked her quickly and then continued. We found the stairs and then hurried up. Our pace got slower and slower though.

Then I saw Cecilia actually stopping and bending down as she took deep breaths. We were all out of breaths but I didn't think Cecilia would be the first to stop, she used to exercise back at the prison.

"I just got dizzy," she said.

Then I remembered Carl mentioned Cecilia hadn't been completely okay lately. He mentioned she almost passed out a couple of times and she asked for breaks often.

"I'm okay," she said as she looked straight at me. "Just needed a second. Let's go."

We went up the stairs at a more reasonable pace, Cecilia on the lead and this time none of us asked for a break. But when we got to an enough high floor, Cecilia bent down again with her eyes closed. She was weak and I didn't like that. She needed to eat something. She even skipped a meal back at the church because she was sleeping.

We were on the seventeenth floor and here, there were only offices. I doubt I could find something for Cecilia, even some crackers would be good for her.

Once Cecilia assured me she was okay, I went on and opened one of the doors to reveal a very nice and fancy office. Carol walked straight to the window. Cecilia and I followed her.

From up here, we could see the chaos that the world had become. Before, we could see cars stuck in traffic, honking like crazy. People walking on the streets, too busy trying to get to work or a meeting or anything... and that was our chaos back then. Now, we couldn't hear anything, not a honk, not a phone ringing. The walkers down there were too far to being heard. But we saw the marks on the buildings, the aftermath of the bombing at the start of all of this. It was actually quite sad to see this.

"How did we get here?" Carol whispered.

"We just did," I said.

We were all used to this new reality, we have lived it for at least two years maybe two years and a half. It didn't face us anymore. But seeing things from a different angle is always hard and can be quite shocking at first.

"I'll just take a moment," Cecilia said as she headed to the office in front, that one had a huge leather couch and she wanted to lie down for a bit.

"The reason I said we get to start over is because we gotta," I muttered to Carol, she didn't look up at me. She just fidgeted uncomfortably next to me. "Can't give up."

"Yeah."

Then I pressed my head against the window, trying to see something somewhere. This side of the building faced what used to be the downtown of Atlanta, and we got a nice view.

"You see something?" Carol asked me.

"I don't know. Hand me that rifle."

Carol gave me the rifle and I used it as binoculars, I looked all around and then I stopped on this bridge. There was something odd. A SUV was on it. The white vehicle had a white cross painted on the two windows on the back.
"Right there," I told Carol, pointing at it and handing her the rifle."It's been there a while. Definitely one of 'em," Carol muttered when she spotted it.
"It's definitely some kind of lead," I muttered.
"We should fill up."
"All right."

There was not much to get so I let Carol refill our bottles of water and look around for something useful, while I went to the other office. Cecilia was lying down on the black leather couch, she was on her side.

I frowned at her. She normally wasn't the type to go sleeping when she was on runs, even when she hadn't rested in over a day. She looked pale and her eyes were sunken, she seemed like she had run about one hundred miles without a break.

I sat down next to her, she moved a bit but didn't wake up. I placed my hand on her shoulder and caressed her. She opened her eyes slightly and smiled a bit at me, making her dimple appear. I smiled back at her but I was worried about her.

"Do you want to stay here?" I asked, knowing she would be fine.

"What?" she asked and sat up at once. "I'm fine, I just needed a short break. I'm alright."

"Are you?"

"Yes," she exclaimed. "Don't worry about me."

I planted a kiss on her forehead and then stood up. I did worry about her, I couldn't help it. She wasn't like this and I could see the exhaustion in her face, in her eyes. I was feeling even more guilty for bringing Cecilia along, she needed to rest, not doing this.

I helped Cecilia up and then the three of us went down the seventeen or twenty floors. Cecilia was quiet in the back while Carol and I talked about the plan, which wasn't that good, all we had was that vehicle we saw.

Carol threw her rifle and stuff and then went through the doors that were chained but had a little gap in between, and then Cecilia did. I was throwing her my crossbow and backpack when Carol's voice stopped me.

"Daryl, don't!"

Then I heard the rifle.

"Get up," a guy shouted. "Hands up! Lay down your crossbow."

I sighed, went through the doors, got to my feet quickly and glared at the young man. Carol was already up and Cecilia was slowly getting up.

"You got some sack on you," I muttered, trying to make a distraction so I didn't have to hand him my weapon.

"Look, nobody has to get hurt!" he exclaimed quickly, pointing the rifle from Carol to me. "I just need weapons, that's it... so, please, lay down your crossbow."

I stared at the dark-skinned guy and sighed again. I gently put the crossbow in front of Cecilia, who eyed the weapon, probably thinking of grabbing it. The guy was pointing at her now so she didn't even attempt to grab it.

"Back up!" The three of us took a couple of steps back, Carol and Cecilia had her hands up and I didn't. "Sorry about this." The guy glanced at the tent next to him as the walkers inside kept snarling. "You look tough. You'll be all right."

The guy then took out his knife and ripped the tent, it wasn't until then that Cecilia did look really pissed. The guy then pointed the rifle at us again, took some steps backwards and then ripped the second tent. Fucking asshole.

I took my own knife out and rushed to the first walker and stabbed it in the head quickly, Cecilia killed the second and I killed the third. Carol had gotten her gun out and was pointing at the guy. I quickly made her lower her arm and she missed the shot. She glared at me just before she ran after the guy.

I followed her closely and Cecilia was behind us, we ran to the other side of this sort of hall only to find out the asshole had locked the door. I kicked the door and struggled for a bit until finally I was able to bring the door down. The guy was long gone now though.

"Three bullets!" Carol exclaimed behind me as we kept on walking. "We're in the middle of a city.

He was stealing our weapons. Did you think I was gonna kill him?"

"Uh, yeah," Cecilia said before I could.

"I was aiming for his leg!" Carol exclaimed. "Could that have killed him? Maybe. I don't know. But he was stealing our weapons."

"He's just a damn kid," I said.

"Without weapons we could die."

"We'll find more weapons," I said simply.

"I don't want to die. I don't want you or Cecilia to die," Carol exclaimed as I tried to open another door to leave this damn building. "I don't want anybody at the church to die, but I can't stand around and watch it happen either." I kept ignoring her, Cecilia kept ignoring her but Carol went on. "I can't. That's why I left. I just had to be somewhere else."

"Well, you ain't somewhere else!" I finally exclaimed, angry. She made me explode. "You're right here...Tryin'."

I glanced at Cecilia and she looked uncomfortable and sad and angry. Cecilia hadn't brought up the topic and instead had been ignoring Carol. I didn't blame her. I knew she couldn't deal with her mother right now, she rather just ignore the problem for now.

"I don't know if I believe in God anymore or heaven, but if I'm going to hell, I'm making damn sure I'm holding it off as long as I can."

"You'll go to hell," Cecilia whispered as I finally got the door to open.

Carol went for my bag, which I had left on the floor next to me and as she did some stuff fell from inside. I had taken the book I had seen where we had spent the night called 'Treating Survivors of Childhood Abuse'. Carol looked at it with wide eyes. She didn't know anything about my past.

"I grabbed it," Cecilia said quickly, as she picked up the book and my bag and the other two or three things that had fallen.

She glanced at her mother and then walked out the door, going down the stairs. I followed her quickly. Carol, who still seemed a bit awkward at what had happened, stayed a little bit behind.

We finally got out of that building and walked into the now empty streets. I took the bag from Cecilia and we continued to back right next to each other, while Carol was about ten steps behind us.

"You didn't have to do that," I said to her. She turned to look at me.

"I felt like I had to," she told me. "It's not like she doesn't know of my own abuse... she doesn't have to know about yours if you don't want to."

"I think she's smart enough to know you lied back there."

"No. she doesn't know me that well," Cecilia said with a shrug and then bit her lip and looked down. "She doesn't know me at all... and isn't interested in knowing."

"Cecil..."

"Come on, we need to hurry."

HELLO GUYS!

YES I'M BACK!

Half of this chapter was already written, I just finished it. I feel inspired and after reading the whole story in 3 days I feel ready to continue it.

If there are mistakes or inconsistencies from now on (like, if I had said it she had a bruise on her face and then I say it was on her arm or anything like that) I'm sorry... I've forgotten a lot of stuff and that's why I did read it all again.

I think it's just right to update right when there's a new episode of TWD. It's on, on Monday for me. It will start a bit so hopefully I can get back into my routine and post once a week.

By the way, I got a little bit sad because I just finished a Harry Potter fic (started it to like warm up my writing skills) and then I read this and OMG! I'm not saying this story is good or anything but I used so many more words and the details are so much more on here and more varied and I feel sad knowing I was writing well and then I lost it. I'm starting to hate my other story now... It's actually rubbish compared to this!

Anyway, if you want, if you are interested I can briefly explain why it took me this long to update again... I honestly can't believe it has been sooooo long! I'm so ashamed. But I'm back now.

I haven't checked for mistakes! I will after the episode is over! Again I remind you I accept critics, thoughts, advice! And hope you are all okay!
Dying to hear from the people that still read this! And to you... thanks for waiting for me this long!