Chapter 24
At first, she had screamed. She'd cried and begged. She'd fought against the people trying to hold her down, until she heard his voice chiming in her head. "I got her" that's what he said.
She remembered the things she had seen him do. How quickly he killed walkers. How fast he moved. How strategic and careful he was.
Thinking about all of those things stopped her from fighting against the hands that were holding her in place.
Before she had been dragged into the RV, she'd only had a few seconds to look around her. She had seen the walkers get Jaqui and she had seen what remained of Amy lying on the ground. It was enough to make her panic hit a point beyond her control.
What she hadn't seen was Daryl getting hold of Sophia and running away from the herds. But Rick had promised her, over and over again, that he had seen them. He told her he believed that both Daryl and Sophia had survived.
And he promised that he would find them.
The first time Rick had made this promise to her, she was sure he'd only made the promise because he wanted her to stop crying, he wanted her to calm down and stop demanding that they let her out of the RV, so that she could go after them herself.
But that had been days ago, and with each of those passing days, Rick had continued to promise her that it was not over . He was sure that Sophia and Daryl were alive and that it was only a matter of time before they found them.
Sophia glanced over her shoulder at him, meeting his gaze before she let her head fall forward again. He guessed that she did this at least sixty times a day. Maybe she thought he'd get killed and they wouldn't hear it happen. Maybe she wanted to make sure he didn't run off on her, she hadn't told him that she thought he would, but sometimes he got the feeling she was waiting on him to do just that. But he also figured that maybe she just wanted a break from looking at the back of Daphne's heels all day.
Days had passed and nothing had changed. They slept, walked and then started again the next day. He occasionally caught a rabbit or some squirrels to help ration out their supplies, but he hadn't left them to go on a proper hunt and he wondered if he could ever trust Daphne enough to leave her alone with the kid.
It wasn't that he didn't think Daphne was physically capable of protecting Sophia. He had seen Daphne in action, she was strong and fought well. But he didn't know if she was really able to protect anyone other then herself, because Daphne seemed to have trouble thinking about anyone else other then herself.
"Is that a house" she asked, stopping and pointing to a small cabin that was hidden away in the woods. The three of them rarely spoke, so when Sophia's voice hit his ears, he almost tripped over his own feet, just from the silence being broken.
The three of them all froze and instantly started looking around them for any sign of danger. But when they looked around they saw nothing but the same scenery that they had been surrounded by for days.
"We should check it out. There might be supplies" Daphne pointed out, eagerly taking a step forward to get a closer look.
He gnawed at his lower lip and looked down at Sophia who was attached to his side.
"Looks abandoned" Daphne guessed while heading in it's direction, only stopping when she realised they weren't following her.
She looked over at him and raised her brow, wanting him to tell her why he wasn't making a move.
He looked down at Sophia again and back to the cabin, still chewing his lower lip as he considered what he was about to do.
This was why he had wanted to stay away from the roads. It would be easier to stay close to the roads and look for car and it would be easy to go running into a cabin, but it didn't mean it was safe.
"Should have a plan. Stupid to just go running into a place when we don't know what's inside" he firmly whispered, sure that he felt Sophia nodding in agreement, as she moved even closer to his side.
Daphne looked down at the kid and back to him with a heavy sigh, before giving into some argument that she was having in her own head.
"Well? Make one then"
He pulled the kid with him towards the cabin but stayed hidden in the tree line. He could feel Sophia's fingers gripping a fistful of his shirt as they crept closer, letting him know that she was near and he didn't need to be concerned about her whereabouts right now. But it didn't stop him from stealing glances at her as they moved. He hated seeing how nervous she was, he hated knowing that those nerves were only going to get worse as this plan unfolded.
As they got closer he grew more relaxed about what they were doing. It was quiet and it looked like no one had been there in a long time. But he still wanted to be cautious.
His eyes scanned the dirt surrounding the cabin, but he couldn't make out what the tracks in the dirt were from, unsure if they were walkers or people. He guessed it was nothing but walkers, but he wanted to be certain before they went running in. He didn't want to drag Sophia into anything, unless he was sure she'd be ok. As sure as he could be anyway. Mostly, he didn't want anyone to ever accuse him of being reckless with Sophia, not like Mary had done and not like the voice in his head that continued to pester him.
So he would take his time and he would make sure that all of his decisions were well thought out.
He turned to Daphne and focused on her eyes as he spoke, assuring himself that she was listening to him as he told her what he intended to do.
"You stay here, I'll have a look around. If I see someone I'll let ya know, then you run back where we came from and I'll catch up. Keep safe."
She sharply nodded, letting him know she was ready. He looked down and watched her tightening her grip in her knife, before he stepped forward. He was prepared to go, until he noticed that he could still feel Sophia hanging on to him.
"Wait with Daphne" he requested quietly, watching her head shake in response and her grip on him tighten.
"I'll go with you" she said in a determined tone that made him actually consider the idea, until he realised just how stupid that would be.
"I'll be right back" he promised, softening his voice, but she showed no intention of letting him go.
"I'm staying with you" she demanded again, pressing her whole body into his side as if she could glue herself to him by pure will.
He was ready to reply. He knew how to reason with Sophia. He knew that he just needed to explain himself and she would understand. But he didn't have a chance when Daphne reached out and grabbed a hold of Sophia's arm, pulling the kid back and forcing Sophia to release her hold on him.
Sophia instantly snatched her arm out of Daphne's grasp and stepped away from her, glaring at her.
He felt a cold rise of anger in his chest that he didn't expect. It hadn't been very rough and she hadn't hurt the kid, but still he didn't like it.
He looked down at Sophia as she turned her anger away from Daphne to focus it on him. He didn't care that her enraged expression was now locked on him, he himself was seconds away from telling Daphne to back the fuck off. If they hadn't been in the middle of executing a plan, he would have done just that.
"Two minutes" he assured her, watching her suck in a deep breath through her nose before crossing her arms and taking another step back.
He ran with his crossbow, sneaking over to the side of the cabin and moving himself below a window. When he looked in he saw two walkers in the small living room and nothing more. No one had been there in a long time and he was sure of it now. The tracks in the dirt were crisscrossing, showing that it was walkers that had been passing through. From what he could see, there was nothing for them to worry about.
He straightened up and looked over to them, giving them a nod and watching as they came out of the woods.
"Nothing?" Daphne questioned as she made her way over to him, still gripping her knife at her side.
"Two walkers. Far as I can tell, that's it."
She took in the information and quickly moved to the front of the house, out of their sight. He watched Daphne leave before he walked over to Sophia and inspected her arm, there was no marks or bruise left from Daphne, but he knew that didn't really matter.
"You alright?"
She shrugged in reply but he could see that it had put her on edge. Maybe another kid wouldn't have thought to much about the action, but she wasn't any other kid.
He knew without doubt that Sophia would have let go of him eventually, she just needed a bit of patients, but he wasn't sure that Daphne was capable of it.
They made their way up the steps onto the porch, listening as the walkers inside began moaning as they became aware of their presence.
He dropped his pack down and placed his hand lightly on the kids shoulder, moving her away from the door.
"Keep your back to the wall and call out to me if you see anything ok"
She agreed and instantly started looking around the cabin for any signs of danger.
It took only minutes to take down the walkers and clear the small cabin before he was calling the kid into the house.
She walked in with his bag, stepping around the walkers bodies carefully.
Over the past few days Sophia was getting more comfortable being close to the corpses. He had noticed, when they were back at the camp, that she seemed just as afraid of them when they were dead, as when they were alive. But slowly, she was accepting that once he killed them, they couldn't hurt her.
"It's late enough. We'll stay here the night" he said to Sophia, making her lip slightly curve and her whole form visibly relax.
He saw the surprise on Daphne's face from the corner of his eye.
"But we still got a few hours-"
"Were staying here" he barked, cutting Daphne off with a tone much harsher then he had intended. She rolled her eyes, but gave in and dropped her bag to the ground.
"Help me get them outside" he said hooking his hands under the arms of the bigger walker.
Daphne followed him and grabbed a hold of the smaller one, before they started dragging their bodies out the back door.
Once they had them on the dirt he wiped his hands on his pants and looked over to Daphne who was ready to head back inside.
He had been waiting for the anger in him to subside, but it hadn't. He was pissed and he knew the only way he was going to feel better about it, was to say something.
"We gotta talk" he said making her stop and turn to face him, whipping her black hair around in the process.
"You wanna stay here it's fine. Just thought we could cover some more ground before dark" she explained as she rested her hand on her hip.
"Ain't that." He said with a grunt while shaking his head at her. "You wanna question my choices, that's fine. I could give a shit. But you grab her like that again and your on ya own." he growled in a cold tone.
"I didn't hurt her" she reasoned, obviously annoyed that he was irritated over something that was quite obviously insignificant to her.
"Ain't the point." he growled, shaking his head as he spoke.
"Then what is" she asked crossing her arms and straightening her posture.
"Point is, she ain't your concern and your gonna keep ya hands off her."
She rolled her eyes as if she thought he was overacting, but it only further cemented the fact that she didn't have a damn clue what she was dealing with.
"Daryl she needs to toughen up. You had a job to do and she was-"
"Stop" he snapped cutting her, his jaw tightening and the crease in his brow deepening. "You don't know her- and like I said, she ain't your concern. You leave her be."
He turned to walk back into the house, his steps faltering when he saw Sophia standing in the doorway with flushed cheeks and downcast eyes. He sighed heavily as he watched her turn and hurry back inside. Giving him a pretty good idea of how long she had been standing there.
They sat around the living room eating in silence. Daphne had tried to make conversation with Sophia twice but never got response. It left the silence between them feeling thick and uncomfortable, but he had no intention of trying to fix it just so Daphne felt comfortable.
He had kept a close eye on the kid all evening, wondering what was going through her head. He knew she had heard Daphne say that she needed to toughen up. He knew that's what had caused the bleak and distant look to appear in her eyes, one that he didn't know how to erase. But he knew he was going to have to try.
Daphne always took the first shift and he always watched her get ready. He couldn't help himself. The women fixed her hair and put make up on. She dressed like she was getting ready to go out to a trashy dive bar, hoping to get laid.
He couldn't for the life of him figure out why the hell she bothered.
There was no denying she was attractive, he had thought it when he first laid eyes on her, but that initial assessment was demolished in hours.
He knew Merle would have fallen head over heels in love with this girl, she was the strong, beautiful, cold-hearted bitch he'd been looking for.
But It had taken Daryl all of one day to see her as nothing more then someone to keep watch. She just wasn't his type of person. She was far to self involved, hard and unrelenting. He knew that ultimately she would leave them to die if she had to. She just wanted to get back to her group and in the end he couldn't blame her, because he knew if it came down to it he would do the same thing.
When she left to go outside and take watch he looked over at Sophia who had settled
herself onto the small couch. He made his way over and sat on the ground in front it and
leaned his back against it. There was a bedroom and an armchair by the window, but he
knew he wouldn't be able to get to sleep if he knew he wasn't close enough to
grab her and run if he had to.
She still looked upset and distant but her eyes slightly softened when he turned to look at her.
"You don't listen to her, you hear me. What she said out there was bullshit" he murmured getting himself comfortable.
She didn't answer but he didn't expect her to. There was still concern etched in her features, but he knew that he probably couldn't do much about that. All he could do was tell her that he didn't agree with what Daphne had to say and that it didn't matter what some bitch they barely knew thought anyway.
"She don't know shit about us. She's just here so I can get some sleep and that's it" he added leaning his head back and closing his eyes. Hoping she was taking in what he had told her.
The next morning when he headed back inside from watch he found Sophia asleep in the armchair by the window. He let out a groan, wondering how long she had sat up watching him circle the house on patrol, hoping she had at least gotten some rest.
He walked over to Daphne and spat her name out harshly as usual, waking her up instantly. He was pretty sure, that somewhere in Daphne's head, she was always waiting to move.
He grabbed a hold of his jacket before kneeling down next to the arm chair.
"Time to get up kid" he told her giving her the usual light rub on her arm that he did every morning. It was never easy getting her up. He actually hated doing it because she always looked so peaceful when she was asleep and he didn't like being the one to disturb that.
He felt like he was stealing something from her. But today when she forced her eyes open he saw how red and tired they still were, showing him that she hadn't gotten nearly enough sleep for the journey.
He nodded to himself and held the jacket out for her. She slid her arms in and turned to face him so he could adjust the sleeves.
When he was satisfies she looked warm enough, he grabbed his pack that was near empty chair and put it on her back, though the kid was so dazed that she barely noticed.
After slinging his crossbow over his shoulder he reached down and picked her up and he was sure she had fallen asleep again before her head even hit his shoulder.
He adjusted her in his arms and looked over at Daphne who was waiting by the front door for them.
He could almost hear what she was thinking, causing him to shake his head firmly at her as he passed by her.
"Not a goddamn word"