(A/N: This chapter is horribly done.)
Chapter 42: February
"Oh please don't, mister! Don't take my stuff!"
Daryl choked back on the bottle of water he had been drinking from, as Sophia's voice raised in a high pitched and dramatic squeal that he hadn't heard her use ever before.
His eyes darted in the direction of the living room, because that was where she was supposed to be.
But as his eyes scanned through the empty room he quickly realized that the sound of her voice was coming from outside.
"I need it to survive. Please mister!" Sophia dramatically cried out.
The sound of her voice had him fighting the urge to grind his teeth.
He quietly walked out into the yard to find a tall, thin, lanky man standing in front of her.
Sophia's eyes quickly flicked to his before landing back on the stranger. The man didn't notice her fingers twirling at her side, ready to grab her knife in a instant if needed. And the thief didn't notice the slight curve on her mouth as he crept his way up behind him, with his crossbow raised.
He realized his growing frustration with Sophia, wasn't because he feared for her safety, it was because he was annoyed with her. The instructions he had given her were simple and she still managed to ignore them completely.
It was just one guy. One man who looked as though a harsh wind would blow him over.
And though Sophia was playing the part of a scared little girl, there wasn't a shred of fear in the kid.
But it didn't stop him from releasing the bolt into the man's chest.
Sophia watched the man drop down to the ground at her feet, giving him a nudge with her foot, curiously checking for signs of life, before looking up to meet his eyes.
"What kind of person tries to rob a kid?" she asked, shaking her head.
"An asshole" he responded, taking a quick look around.
Sophia shook her head at him, smiling widely. "Language Daryl!"
"Get inside smart ass." He mumbled as he made his way over to her, stopping only to retrieve the bag from the body that was already starting to twitch.
Sophia eyed the corpse as he returned her stolen belongings to her.
"What about that? He's gonna-"
"You wanna take the time to bury him?" he asked, raising his brow as he spoke. As he looked down at the body, he noticed the familiar crease in the shirt pocket and quickly reached down to retrieve the crumpled pack of cigarettes from the man's pocket.
"Well…no" Sophia answered, shaking her head.
He shrugged and nudged her shoulder as he passed her, encouraging her to follow him back inside.
"Let the prick turn, ain't our problem. Streams pretty damn loud. He should just head down to the water like the rest of em have been. Unless your yappin' distracts him"
As he walked in he felt the rough push to his side that she gave him as she caught up to him.
"You're the one who nags me to death." She laughed as she went ahead of him.
He rolled his eyes and pulled the door closed behind them.
He followed her into the kitchen and watched her for a moment as she shuffled around.
"What I tell you about wandering off by yourself? What if that asshole got the jump on you?"
"You're really gonna start nagging me again?" she said with a smile trying to lighten the mood.
"He could have hurt you" he said bluntly, locking his hard eyes on hers.
Sophia let out a sigh and shook her head, knowing he wasn't interested in her jokes right now.
"If I hadn't been out there, he would have got the jump on us…and we wouldn't have dinner" She said, slamming the rabbit down onto the table.
He shook his head and lit a cigarette, barely taking a drag of it in before his lungs started protesting against the invasion of the smoke.
"Ya said you were gonna be down here, readin or some shit." He choked out.
"Daryl. Can you just calm down? I didn't go far. We needed dinner..and you...You need to rest"
"I'm just fine. I don't need you takin' care of me." He added quickly, ignoring her concerned looks.
She stopped what she was doing and stared at him for a long moment. Her eyes ran over him as though she was reading something on his face. For a brief moment, she looked like Carol and he found it near impossible to stay mad at her.
"I just wanna help. Ok?" she explained, looking at the rabbit.
He nodded and chewed his lower lip before taking another long drag of his smoke.
"I don't want nothin' happenin' to ya…anything could-"
She quickly shook her head, flashing her wide and apologetic eyes.
"I sat in the yard and waited... that's all. I didn't go nowhere. Place is crawling with Rabbits. It was easy"
He let out a sigh and nodded, working to wipe the hard expression from his face.
"You hurt? He get his hands on ya?"
She didn't look hurt. Not in the slightest, but before he could relax, he needed to be sure.
"Not a finger" she answered, giving him a small smile, before pulling the knife from her belt, ready to start making dinner.
He sat down and finished his smoke, wondering if she ever thought, even for a second, that he shouldn't have killed that man. She didn't show even a tiny bit of remorse.
Her eyes darted to the window as they watched the reanimated corpse walk passed the house and down to the river, but they quickly drifted back down to her hands. She sliced through fur and snapped bones, just as she always did. As though nothing had happened.
He stared at her face, looking for something there, something that resembled that little girl who told him that 'killing people was wrong' but he couldn't see any sign of her.
He saw someone who was willing to do what she needed to, in order to survive. He saw a girl who fought all day long.
And he also saw a kid who still woke up screaming in the night, crying out his name, because she was sure those men were back and they were going to take her away again.
He knew if anyone could see her now, they would think that she was hard, angry, strong and rough. They wouldn't see what he did. She was heartbroken. And there was nothing he could do to make it better.
She had put the maps away.
She didn't ask where they were going to look next. Because they weren't looking for Carol anymore.
Her hopeful daydreams that had her believing everything would be OK, had vanished and she had given into the harshness of this world.
This was their life now and she had accepted it.
March
For almost a week, they had been sure that they were being followed. Both of them felt eyes on them, they felt as though they were being chased down.
Even though there were times that he was sure that his paranoia had gotten the best of him. He still couldn't shake the feeling that someone was after them.
He was so sure that there were people lingering nearby, that it had him picking her up in the middle of the night and taking her so deep into the woods that not even the dead could find them.
Once again, he'd stayed awake, even when he needed to sleep. He had kept going, he kept moving. Even though he was sure it was slowly killing him.
He'd woken her up with the sun and put her on her feet. She had wordlessly agreed to start walking. Travelling from spot to spot with no destination.
He followed her down the beaten road, dragging his feet. He'd spotted a small house up ahead and decided they would stop there, no matter how briefly. He would rest and they would wait for the harsh midday sun to die down.
"You hear that?"
Those three words from Sophia was all it took to have them running into the nearby house and preparing for whatever was about to come next.
He tried to hold his head high and keep his eyes wide. He didn't want the stranger to know just how damn weak he felt and how close to collapsing he was. He wanted to appear as though he still had a good bit of fight left in him, in case she was planning on trying something.
He gripped Sophia's hand tightly and she squeezed his back even harder, while her other hand held onto his arm.
She cowered beside him, peeking out around him, forcing her body to tremble at the sight of the strange woman.
She was good at this, at playing the scared little girl who was crumbling in the face of danger. Even though right now, he was sure she felt a lot more confident to handle the situation then he did. She just didn't look it.
"Well-…. what will happen if we do go with you?" he asked, watching the strange women's face, searching for any signs of deception.
"You'll come into the community. You'll meet with the leader." The women stopped then, furrowing her brow and shrugging slightly. "Well,… he's kind of the leader, but don't tell him I said so. He likes to pretend otherwise" The women paused for a moment as a smile swept across her face. And he wondered if it was all for show, as she continued on
."He likes to meet people when they come in, ask them a few questions."
"What kind of questions?"
"Three, mainly. From there, he'll just want to get a feel of you. There are some people who handle the day to day operations, they might want to meet you."
As if she sensed his discomfort, she shook her head slightly as she continued. "'It's just to make sure you aren't a danger to anyone. I'm sure you can appreciate that."
"I ain't leavin' the kid, not for a damn second. Can you appreciate that?" He growled at the woman, deciding to go on, without giving her a single chance to answer his question.
"I'll talk to him, but I'm takin' her everywhere I go and if anyone tries to stop me-"
"No one will try to take your daughter away from you. I can promise you that. This place is safe, probably as safe as you can get these days. No one is going to try to hurt you… or her. I give you my word"
"You understand if ya 'word' don't mean a hell of'a lot to me" he growled.
"I do understand that. Believe me, I know this must be hard to accept. But we really do just want to help you both. You shouldn't be out here - She shouldn't be out here"
"Me and her have done just fuckin fine out here. We don't need shit fr-" As his voice began to raise and his panic began to show, Sophia stepped out from behind him and placed herself between them . "Can we have a second"
The woman eyed Sophia for a brief moment before nodding and leaving the cabin.
Sophia watched the woman leave and stood staring at the door for a long moment before turning back to him .
"We have to go with them" she said, not trying to hide the exhaustion from her voice.
"We don't gotta do nothin." He said firmly shaking his head.
"Daryl-..You look like shit. You need to sleep. We both do." It was then that she lowered her voice. So low that even he was straining to hear her. "Were low on ammo, we have half a bottle of water between us. And honestly, I don't think your going to make it much further if we don't take a break. A real break."
She needed to stop. He didn't care about himself. He would run himself into the ground if that's what he had to do, but if she needed to stop?...
"We don't know what were walking into" he pointed out.
"Have we ever?" Sophia asked quietly, looking up at him.
He dropped to his knees in front of her then leveling his eyes with hers, before he continued.
"You don't leave my side, you hear me? If they try to separate us, you start shootin', then when you run outta bullets you start taken em' out with the machete, don't let no one get their hands on ya. You hear me. You fucking move outta there quick and then you-"
"I understand. I know what to do." She assured him with a quiet whisper, nodding her head as she spoke.
He gripped her hand tightly as they got out of the car, looking around them frantically for some sign of danger. It didn't matter that he could hear children laughing and see people going about their business , living their lives as though the whole world didn't end. But even with the sight of his peaceful surroundings, he still found himself waiting for something to happen. Something that would lead to fighting their way out. Something that would once again make him realize that he had put her in danger. That he had failed her again.
"You'll like it here. You'll see" Michonne said, clearly trying to put them at ease.
"We ain't planning on stayin' long" he muttered as he continued his scanning of the area, pulling Sophia even further into his side as he slowly followed behind the women who he now knew was called Michonne.
"This might be a prison, but I promise you, you're not prisoners. If you've got the urge to leave? no one will stop you"
"There he is now. Come on" Michonne said gaining a bit more speed as she bound forward.
He looked ahead of her, wanting to get a look at the man in charge, before he decided how much further he wanted to drag Sophia into the fenced yard.
He wondered if he could take down the two people in the watch tower from where he was. He knew without any doubt Sophia could help him take down the people surrounding them, she wouldn't even need to pull her gun before she took down at least three with her machete.
He wondered how important this Michonne was to these people. He wondered if they would hold their fire if he were to hold a knife to her throat. He could use the woman to get him and Sophia out. With that thought he quickened his pace to catch up to her.
Before he could continue on, creating the plan in his head, the man Michonne was heading towards, stopped in his tracks, just as Daryl did.
Rick froze, staring at them, as if he and Sophia had risen from the dead. He would have stood there staring a the man all day, if he hadn't heard the quite whisper beside him.
"Mm-..Mom?" she said in a hushed breath, loosening her grip on his hand.
His mind couldn't comprehend the word coming from her mouth and a part of him was to scared to follow her eye line, to see where they had landed.
When she pulled on his hand, he instinctively tried to hang onto her.
Until she screamed the word out so loud that he couldn't pretend he hadn't heard it.
"MOM!"
She pulled her hand from his and took off running into the field, forcing his eyes up to see her.
Finally.
It was Carol.
A/N: I still have more chapters to add, I'm hoping there are still a few interested readers around to see this fic come to an end.