Fear the Dead, Fight the Living
"They seemed nice enough, but I was ready to go. We just got here, but, damn, it was time to go. When I told them about DC, a wink and a nod from the head asshole in charge, they pulled their guns and it was right back to our regularly scheduled shitstorm." Abraham says
"Before they put you in here, you didn't see Tyreese?" Sasha asked
"No." I told her
"Good."
"Black car with a white cross painted on it. I tried to follow it. I tried." Daryl says to Maggie about Beth
"But she's alive?"
"She's alive." He says
We all stood in the train car taking what we could and turning them into weapons, Daryl took off his belt and handed it to me, I nodded and used the train car floor to sharpen it
"All right, got four of them pricks coming our way." Daryl told us
"Y'all know what to do. Go for their eyes first. Then their throats." Rick says
"Put your backs to the walls on either side of the car now." Someone ordered then we hear foot steps on the roof as Daryl stood by me and it opens then we see a flash bang dropped in
"Move!" Abraham yelled and Daryl covered me as it goes off then the next thing I knew he was being pulled away from me
"No!" I yelled but someone held me back and I fought against them as the door shut and I went over to hit pounding on it and cried then Maggie came over and hugged me.
"What the hell is going on?" Abraham asked trying to look out the door after we hear an explosion
"Someone hit them. Maybe our people got free." Michonne mentioned
"Excuse me." Eugene says moving past Tara and Sasha
"What the hell are you doing?" Rosita asked him
"I might be able to use this shell to compromise the door. From the sound of things, there may not be anybody left to open it."
"Eugene, I'm sorry, but shut up." Tara tells him
"Hey. My dad's gonna be back." Carl reassured us, "They all are." He says looking at me
"They are. And we need to get ready to fight our way out with them when they do." Maggie adds putting her hand on my shoulder and I nodded then went back to work on sharpening the prongs of Daryl's belt
"What's the cure, Eugene?" Sasha asked him
"It's classified."
"We don't know what's gonna happen." Michonne mentioned
"You leave him be." Abraham told her
"We need to keep working." I said
"Yeah, but it's time to hear it. 'Cause we don't know what's coming next."
"What's next is we get out of this." Tara says
"Even if I told you all, even if I provided step-by-step instructions complete with illustrations and a well-composed FAQ and I went red-ring, the cure would still die with me."
"I'm not gonna let that happen." Abraham told him
"The best-case scenario, we step out into a hellstorm of bullets, fire, and walkers. I'm not fleet of foot. I sure as hell can't take a dead one down with sharp buttons and hella confidence."
"Yeah, but we can and we will." Michonne tells him
"You don't owe us anything. Not yet. But we just want to hear it." Sasha told him
"You don't have to." Rosita said and Eugene stood up
"I was part of a 10-person team at the Human Genome Project to weaponize diseases to fight weaponized diseases. Pathogenic microorganisms with pathogenic microorganisms. Fire with fire. Interdepartmental drinks were had, relationships made, information shared. I am keenly aware of all the details behind fail-safe delivery systems to kill every living person on this planet. I believe with a little tweaking on the terminals in DC, we can flip the script. Take out every last dead one of them. Fire with fire. All things being equal, it does sound pretty badass."
"So let's get back to work." Maggie tells us
We hear a banging on the door and got ready but it opened up and we saw Rick there with a gun, "Come on! Fight to the fence!" He says and I ran out up to Daryl who grabbed me then handed me a knife and we proceeded on killing walkers
"Do not leave his side!" Abraham ordered the others
"Up and over." Rosita tells us and we move to the fence, everybody went over and Daryl helped me over then I waited there for him and he grabbed my hand as we made our way back to the spot we hid the guns
"Right here." Daryl tells him and tossed the shovel to Rick who started digging and I hugged Daryl who kissed my head
"The hell are we still around here for?" Abraham asked Rick
"Guns, some supplies. Go along the fences. Use the rifles. Take out the rest of 'em.
"What?" Glenn asked him
"They don't get to live."
"Rick, we got out. It's over." I added
"It's not over till they're all dead."
"The hell it isn't. That place is on fire. Full of walkers." Rosita told him
"I'm not dicking around with this crap. We just made it out."
"The fences are down. They'll run or die." Maggie said and I glanced over Daryl's shoulder and saw someone walk towards us
"Mom!" I yelled and ran over to her, we hugged each other and I cried then Daryl came over and hugged her as well. She put her hands on my face and kissed my hand then I hugged her again as Rick walked over
"Did you do that?" He asked her and she gave a small nod then hugged him, "You have to come with me." She told him and we walked with her, I hand my arm through hers as we got to a cabin and I saw Tyreese walk out the door holding Judith, Rick dropped his stuff and ran over with Carl and Sasha ran over as well. Rick grabbed Judith and hugged her while crying then Sasha hugged Tyreese, I looked at my mom and smiled at her which she returned and I laid my head on her shoulder then Daryl grabbed my hand. We found our family and I'll be damned if I let them go again. My mom nudged me and I looked at her then she handed me my gun and I smiled
I walked over to Rick and smiled at Judith, he looked at me and silently asked if I wanted to hold her, I nodded and he put her in my arms, "Hey you. How are you doing little ass kicker?" I asked her and smiled at Daryl then kissed her head and handed her back to Rick and moved over to Daryl, he pulled me into a hug and I nuzzled my face into his chest.
"I don't know if the fire is still burning." Rick pointed out looking at the smoke from Terminus
"It is." Carol answered
"Yeah. We need to go."
"Yeah, but where?" Daryl asked him
"Somewhere far away from there."
We started walking on the tracks, Daryl was holding my hand then lifted it up and kissed it, I smiled at him and we made our way into the woods.
When we stopped to rest I was sitting next to Daryl leaning my head on his shoulder then I feel him shift and I looked at him as he reached into his pocket, "I almost forgot about this," He says and faced me, "Found it when I was at a dumb golf resort with Beth, figured you could and it to the other one." He says and showed me a wedding band, I smiled at him as he put it on then kissed it
"I love you"
"I love you too" He told me and I looked at my mom
"I'll be right back," I said and stood up walking over to her, "Hey" she turned and faced me and I hugged her again, "I was so scared that I lost you...again" I tell her and she looked at me, "Rick told me what happened at the prison." I say to her and she looked down, "Why mom?"
"I couldn't risk anyone else getting sick, but it didn't work" She told me and I grabbed her hand
"I want you to know that I'm not mad, but please don't hide anything from me, I feel like your slipping and I want to be there to catch you" I tell her and she pulled me into a hug
"I thought I was suppose to be the parent" She says and I chuckled
"Quick acting like a child then" I said with a smirk and she scoffed
"Whatever" She tells me and I laugh
Daryl POV..
Me and Carol sat by a tree that night keeping watch and I looked over at her, I don't want to talk about it. I can't. I just need to forget it." She tells me
"All right." I looked over at Phoebe who was laying on the ground asleep and I smiled
"Where did you find her?" Carol asked me
"After I lost Beth I ended up with some guys, bad guys, I didn't know they were until one night when I hung back from them cause I was gonna slip away, but I saw Rick, Michonne and Phoebe sitting in the road when the leader pointed a gun at Rick, I tried to talk him into letting them go but he refused and two men started to beat me up and another grabbed..." I paused and looked over at Phoebe again, "I had dropped my knife by her without them knowing, she killed the guy that grabbed her then the two that were attacking me" I told her and she put her head down, "I didn't want her to have to do that but I also couldn't sit there and watch what was gonna happen to her." I said and she was gonna say something but we hear a twig snap and we both stood up, I moved forward keeping my hand up telling her to stay back and looked into the darkness but didn't see anything, "It's nothing."
Phoebe POV...
Wanna come with me?" Daryl asked and I nodded my head
As we walked through the woods hunting for something to eat Daryl stopped me and I looked at him, he put his hand on my face and kissed me, I moaned into his mouth as it deepened while he backed me up against a tree. He set his crossbow down then gripped my thighs lifting me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist while he played with the bottom of my shirt, "I don't think this is the right time for this" I said to him but he kissed my neck and I bit my lip
"Can't help it. I want you" He says in my ear then proceeded to undo my pants and I did the same to him. After I pushed his down slightly he pushed into me and started to pick up the pace gripping my thighs as I gripped his shoulders
"Oh god" I moaned leaning my head back and he kissed it again then lightly bit it picking up the pace more, "Daryl!" I silently screamed
"Oh Phoebe" He grunted making noises like an animal in heat and it was hot as hell, "Are you ready?" He growled in my ear and I bit my lip as it sent tingles down my whole body, "Finish for me baby" He grunted and I let go digging my nails into his shoulder and he kissed me at the same time I moaned a little louder then I wanted to in his mouth. He pushed into me a few more times then finished as well, he laid his head on my collarbone while we tried to catch our breath
After we straightened ourselves up, got a few squirrels, we headed back to the others and we see them raise their guns at us so we raised our hands, "We surrender" Daryl told them and walked up to Rick as I walked over to my mom who looked at me with a smirk
"Shush"
I hear Rick whistle to all of us and I looked at him, "Keep close"
My mom walked ahead and I walked next to Rosita and Abraham, "We haven't really had time to get know each other with the whole running for our lives thing" I tell them and they smile
"Introductions do kind of get put on hold when it's life or death" Rosita says with a smile, "Phoebe right?"
"Mmhm Phoebe Dixon, that's my husband Daryl up there" I indicated to him
"Were you two married before or after all this?"
"After. We knew each other since the beginning, I was the only person he really even talked to." I told her
"And Carol is your mom?"
"Yep. I knew Rick before the beginning because we were in the same Sheriff's department so I kind of knew Carl since he was younger" I said
"So you, your mom, Rick, Carol, Glenn, Carl and Daryl are the only one's left from your first group?" She asked me
"Mmhmm"
"What happened to the others?" She asks
"Lots of things, to much to get into right now." I said and Daryl looked back at me, I smiled and he looked forward, "How did you two meet?"
"I was part of another group in Texas when we ran into Abraham and Eugene. Abraham was impressed with my survival skills" She says
"Among other things" He adds and she smacked his arm
"He told me what he was doing so I decided to join them."
"And what a journey it's been" He says and they smiled at each other
"What branch of the military were you in Abraham?" I asked him
"U.S Army ma'am"
"Cool, well thank you and thanks for helping Glenn" I told him and he nodded, just then we hear someone screaming
"Help! Anybody, help!"
"Dad come on," Carl told him and Rick looked at us, "Come on, come on" He persisted and we ran following the guys voice.
We came up on a man on top of a giant rock with a few walkers reaching for him, Carl shoots one while Rick, me and Michonne get the others. Just then I hear a walker come up next to me but Daryl shot it and I looked at him.
"We're clear. Keep watch." Rick tells us then looked at the guy, "Come on down." He said and the guy climbed down, "You okay?" Rick asked him and the man held up his finger then threw up, I turned and looked away, walker guts I can somewhat handle, people throwing up though, nope.
"Sorry. Yes. Thank you. I'm Gabriel."
"Do you have any weapons on you?" Rick asked him
"Do I look like I would have any weapons?"
"We don't give two short and curlies what it looks like." Abraham tells him
"I have no weapons of any kind. The word of God is the only protection I need."
"Oh geez" I groaned quietly and my mom nudged me, I looked at her then back at Gabriel
"Sure didn't look like it." Daryl pointed out
"I called for help. Help came. Do you have- have any food? Whatever I- I had left, it just hit the ground."
"We've got some pecans." Carl told him handing him some
"Thank you." He says and Judith coo'd, "That's a beautiful child." He tells us and I walked over to Tyreese taking her from him and backed up with her, she may not be mine but I'll protect her like she is, "Do you have a camp?" He asked
"No. Do you?" Rick asked him
"I have a church."
"Hold your hands above your head." Rick tells him and he does so, "How many walkers have you killed?" Rick asked patting him down
"Not any, actually."
"Turn around." Rick ordered and he does, "How many people have you killed?"
"None."
"Why?" Rick asked
"Because the Lord abhors violence."
"What have you done? We've all done something." Rick says
"I'm a sinner. I sin almost every day. But those sins, I confess them to God, not strangers."
"You said you had a church?" Michonne asked him
"Hey, earlier, were you watching us?" Rick asked him
"I keep to myself. Nowadays, people are just as dangerous as the dead, don't you think?"
"No, people are worse." Daryl says
"Well, I wasn't watching you. I haven't been beyond the stream near my church more than a few times since it all started. That was the furthest I've gone before today. Or maybe I'm lying. Maybe I'm lying about everything and there's no church ahead at all. Maybe I'm leading you into a trap so I can steal all your squirrels." He joked but we all looked at him unamused, "Members of my flock had often told me that my sense of humor leaves much to be desired."
"Yeah, it does." Daryl says and we arrive at the church, Gabriel headed up the steps and was about to unlock the door when Rick stopped him
"Hold up. Can we take a look around first? We just want to hold on to our squirrels." He says and I had Judith to Carl then grab my gun aiming it as Rick opened the door. We walked in and looked around. Michonne, my mom and Glenn walked into another room and I stood there looking at a painting lost in my thoughts when I turned around and bumped into someone causing me to jump, I look and see Daryl standing there with a smirk on his face and I smacked his chest then we headed back outside with the others
"I spent months here without stepping out the front door. If you found someone inside, well, it would have been surprising." Gabriel told us
"Thanks for this." Carl says to him
"We found a short bus out back. It don't run, but I bet we could fix that in less than a day or two. Father here says he doesn't want it. Looks like we found ourselves some transport. You understand what's at stake here, right?" Abraham asked Rick
"Yes, I do."
"Now that we can take a breath-" Michonne says
"We take a breath, we slow down, shit inevitably goes down." Abraham cut her off
"We need supplies no matter what we do next." Michonne tells him
"That's right. Water, food, ammunition." Rick adds and headed inside
"Short bus ain't going nowhere. Bring you back some baked beans." Daryl tells him and we followed Rick
"How'd you survive here for so long? Where did your supplies come from?" Rick asked Gabriel
"Luck. Our annual canned food drive. Things fell apart right after we finished it. It was just me."
"Come here, Judith." I said taking her from Rick and walked away
"The food lasted a long time. And then I started scavenging. I've cleaned out every place nearby. Except for one." Gabriel says
"What kept you from it?" Rick asked him
"It's overrun."
"How many?" Rick asked
"A dozen or so. Maybe more."
"We can handle a dozen." Rick told him
"Bob and I will go with you. Tyreese should stay here, help keep Judith safe." Sasha says to Rick
"That'll be okay?" He asked Tyreese
"Sure. You ever need me to watch her, need anything for her, I'm right here."
"I'm grateful for it. And everything else." Rick tells him
"I'll draw you a map." Gabriel says
"You don't need to. You're coming with us."
"I'm not gonna be of any help. You saw me. I'm no good around those things." Gabriel defended
"You're coming with us."
"Hey, I get it. You don't want to talk about it." Daryl says to my mom as we walk back from the stream getting water
"You okay?" I asked her
"Gotta be."
"We get to start over. All of us with each other. You saved us all by yourself." He tells her
"We got lucky. We all should be dead." She says and we see a car up ahead, "I'll check it." She says walking ahead of us and Daryl looked at me
"Are you ok?" He asked
"I'm just worried about her, she just doesn't seem like herself anymore"
"Hey, it'll be ok, we'll help her as much as we can" He says and we walk up to the car, "Hey. We ain't dead. And whatever happened, happened. Let's start over." He tells her
"I want to."
"Well, you can." I said
"We should leave this here for backup in case things go south at the church." She pointed out to us closing the trunk and bent to grab her jugs of water
"Want me to carry one of those?" Daryl asked her lifting his arm up but dropped the one he was holding, me and her tried to hold back a smile
"No." She tells him and he bent over picking it up as she walked away and I chuckled
"Keep laughing and I'll pour this on you" He told me and I smiled
"Yeah but then you would have to help me out of my wet close" I said with a wink and started to walk away
He caught up to me and bent to my ear, "I wouldn't mind that"
I looked at him and smirked, "Down boy" I tell him and we walked back to the church
We all gathered around in the church talking and laughing while we ate, I was sitting next to Daryl who took a piece of food off my plate, I looked at him with a glare and he kissed my temple then I took a piece off his plate and ate it with a smirk
"I'd like to propose a toast." Abraham says and we all stop talking and look at him, "I look around this room... and I see survivors. Each and every one of you has earned that title. To the survivors." He raised his glass
"Survivors!" Everyone cheered and I looked at my mom
"Is that all you want to be? Wake up in the morning, fight the undead pricks, forage for food, go to sleep at night with two eyes open, rinse and repeat? 'Cause you can do that. I mean, you got the strength. You got the skill. Thing is, for you people, for what you can do, that's just surrender. Now, we get Eugene to Washington and he will make the dead die and the living will have this world again. And that is not a bad takeaway for a little road trip." He adds and Daryl grabbed my hand giving it a squeeze, "Eugene, what's in DC?" He asked him
"Infrastructure constructed to withstand pandemics even of this fubar magnitude. That means food, fuel, refuge. Restart."
"However this plays out, however long it takes for the reset button to kick in, you can be safe there. Safer than you've been since this whole thing started. Come with us. Save the world for that little one. Save it for yourselves. Save it for the people out there... who don't got nothing left to do except survive." Abraham says and Judith coo'd
"What was that?" Rick asked her, "I think she knows what I'm about to say. She's in. If she's in, I'm in. We're in." Rick says and everyone clapped. I looked at my mom again and saw her walk out of the church, I nudged Daryl and we followed her.
We see her kill a walker then look at us, "What are you doing?" I asked her
"I don't know."
"You're just gonna leave? After I just found you?" I asked her and she looked at me about to say something then we hear a car approach, we ducked behind the one we found then Daryl ran out to the road and ran back taking the stock of his crossbow and smashed the tail lights
"Whoa, whoa! What are you doing? What are you doing?" My mom asked him
"They got Beth. Come on. Come on, get in." He tells us and we get in then he drives following the car.
"So it was just you and Beth after?" My mom asked Daryl from the drivers seat
"Yeah."
"You save her?" I asked him
"She's tough. She saved herself. We were out there for a while. We got cornered, she got out in front of me and...I don't know, she was gone. I came out and a car's pulling out with a white cross on the window."
"Just like that one?" She asked
"Yep. Rick's gonna wonder where we went. Tank's runnin' low."
"We can end this quick. Just run him off the road." My mom says and I looked at her
"Nah, we're good for a bit."
"If they're holding her somewhere, we can get it out of the driver." She pointed out
"Yeah, but if he don't talk, we're back to square one. Right now we got the advantage. We'll see who they are. If they're a group, see what they can do. And then we'll do what we gotta do to get her back."
"They're heading north, I-85." I tell him from the middle of the back seat
We stopped a ways back from there we were and watched, "What the hell's he waiting for?" Daryl asked then someone gets of the passenger side, "There's two of 'em."
"Is that a cop?" I asked seeing the person in a uniform
"They might've seen us." My mom says and suddenly a walker hits her window and we jumped
"Jesus" I whispered trying to calm my heart, I look out the front and see the people heading back and one stopped then looked in our direction, then he gets in and they drove off. Daryl went to start the car but it just sputters
"Aw, shit! Tank's tapped. They'd have taken the bypass and they didn't. They must be holed up in the city somewhere." He says and we hear walkers moaning from up ahead
"We gotta move, find someplace to hole up till sunlight." I point out
"I know a place just a couple of blocks from here. We can make it." She says rolling down her window and stabbed the walker
"Two more." My mom says as Daryl worked on opening the door
"I almost got it." He says and my mom moved away then he gets it opened
"Come on." I tell her and we head inside, then once we got in I looked around, I recognized the place instantly
"You used to work here or something?" He asked her
"Something."
Daryl looked at me and must have noticed the look on my face, "What's this place?" He asked
"It's temporary housing." I answered looking at my mom
"You came here?" He asked my mom as we enter a room with a bunk bed
"We didn't stay." She says and I looked down, "I'll take the top bunk. I think that one's more your style." She tells us, "No fooling around." She said and I gave a small smile, "You should sleep. I'll take first watch."
"This is locked up pretty tight." Daryl told her
"I know."
"Then we're good, then." He says and I sat down on the bottom bed
"I'll keep first watch. I don't mind."
"Suit yourself." He told her and sat next to me then laid down pulling me with him
"You said we get to start over." My mom says
"Yeah."
"Did you?" She asked him
"I'm tryin'." He answered and looked at me, I smiled at him, "Why don't you say what's really on your mind?" He asked her
"I don't think we get to save people anymore."
"Then why are you here?" He asked her
"I'm tryin', Trying for you and Phoebe." She says
"When we were out by the car... what if we didn't show up?" I asked her
"I still don't know." She says and then we hear a distant banging. We get up and walk out to a set of doors seeing a walker bang on the glass, then another one appear, a child, I felt my heart twist with pain as I held back a few tears and my mom moved forward
"You don't have to. You don't." He said stopping her and she walked away, he looked at me and I shook my head following her, I will never be over the death of my sister and seeing children walkers, it made it hurt even more
"Mom," I said walking into the room, "Why here?"
She looked at me and sighed, "I guess I just needed a reminder that I'm still human" She tells me and I walk over to her pulling her into a hug
"You are, I won't let you lose yourself, not again" I said and she tightened the hug, "I love you mom"
"I love you too sweetie"
The next morning me and my mom woke up and saw smoke coming from the the roof, I noticed Daryl wasn't next to me so we got up and headed out of the room and saw a fire on the roof, we walked outside as he carried the body of the kid walker placing it in the fire.
"Thank you." My mom tells him and I grabbed his hand, he leaned over and kissed my head
"That car was headed downtown." Daryl says as we gather up our stuff, "I say we get up in one of the tall ones, get ourselves a view, see what we see."
"Stay close to the buildings and keep quiet, but sooner or later, we're gonna be drawing 'em." My mom added and we headed out
We stood behind a building hiding from the walkers that were on the street, "All right, we can get up there. There's a bridge." Daryl says taking his bag off setting it down and then reached inside pulling out a notepad then handed me his crossbow. He lit the notepad on fire and threw it into the street attracting the walkers, I handed him his crossbow then we moved making our way to the bridge. We see tents and sleeping bags in the hallway of it, "Some days, I don't know what the hell to think." He says and we walk through the walkers that were trapped in the tents and sleeping bags. I get to the door and there's a chain on it so we had to crawl through, my mom put her bag and gun through first then crawled through while Daryl held the door then he motioned for me to go, once I got up I pushed it open for him grabbing his crossbow for him, "Good thing we skipped breakfast." He says and I chuckled
"Tell that to my stomach" I said and he got up grabbing his crossbow then putting his hand on my arm and we walked to a set of doors, he opened them as me and my mom hung back then whistled at us and we walked into an office walking up to the window and looked out the window at the burned city below us
"How did we get here?" My mom asked and I wrapped my arm around her shoulder
"Mm-mm. We just did." Daryl told her
"You still haven't asked me what happened. After I met up with Tyreese, the girls."
"Yeah, I know what happened. They ain't here." He pointed out
"It was worse than that."
"The reason I said we get to start over...is because we gotta. The way it was..." Daryl started to say
"Yeah." My mom says and I see him look out the window
"You see something?" I asked him
"I don't know. Hand me that rifle." He says and my mom hands it to him and he handed me the crossbow, "Right there." He pointed and I looked through the scope then my mom did looking at what he saw
"It's been there a while. Definitely one of 'em." My mom pointed out
"It's definitely some kind of lead." Daryl added
"We should fill up." My mom says and grabbed a bottle out her bag then the one out of mine filling them up at the water cooler and I see Daryl look at the painting on the wall, I walked over and leaned my chin on his shoulder
"What?" I asked him
"I bet this cost some rich prick a lot of money. Looks like a dog sat in paint, wiped its ass all over the place." He gestured and I laughed nudging his shoulder with mine as my mom turned to look
"Really? I kinda like it." My mom tells him
"Stop."
"I'm serious. You don't know me." She says
"Yep, you keep tellin' yourself that." He replied and they looked at me
"I'm with Daryl on this one" I said and she rolled her eyes smiling. Daryl kissed me quick and we headed back to the door, my mom went first again putting her rifle through then I followed seeing a kid holding her rifle up at her and I drew my gun as Daryl came through
"Daryl, Phoebe don't." She tells us
"Get up. Hands up, both of you." He says to me and Daryl, I continued pointing my gun at him, "Gun down," He say and I looked at my mom then put it down, "Lay down your crossbow." He says to Daryl
"You got some sack on you." Daryl tells him
"Look, nobody has to get hurt. I just need weapons, that's it. So, please, lay down your crossbow." He says and Daryl put it down, "Back up." He told us and we moved back grabbing my gun and Daryl's crossbow, "Sorry about this. You look tough. You'll be all right." He says grabbing his knife then cut one of the tents open running away, Daryl grabbed his knife and killed one walker that came out and I killed the other, I see my mom raise her gun and was about to shoot the kid but I moved her hands down, she looked at me and we followed him, we heard the door shut but as we got to it we couldn't open it so we looked for another exit
"Three bullets." My mom pointed out, "We're in the middle of a city. He was stealing our weapons. Did you think I was gonna kill him? I was aiming for his leg. Could that have killed him? Maybe, I don't know. But he was stealing our weapons."
"He's just a kid." I tell her while Daryl tired to open a door with his knife
"Without weapons we could die. Beth could die."
"We'll find more weapons." I said
"I don't want you to die." She tells me, "Or you," She says to Daryl, "I don't want Beth to die. I don't want anybody at the church to die, but I can't stand around and watch it happen either. I can't. That's why I left. I just had to be somewhere else."
"Well, you ain't somewhere else; you're right here. Tryin', for your daughter." He says to her and she looked at me
"Look, you're not who you were and neither am I or you for that matter Phoebe." I looked down as Dayl got the door open, it was true, I had changed, but I was trying to hold onto my old self as much as I could, "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." She says grabbing her bag and stuff fell out of it, I see a book and picked it up then looked at her as she grabbed it from me, I shook my head and followed Daryl through the door
"All right, let's get this done." Daryl says as we walked up to the van that was balancing on the bridge and he opened the doors carefully
"It's not stable. I'm lighter." I mentioned and he shook his head, "Daryl, we don't have time to argue" I tell him and I could see him mentally argue with himself then got in himself, I rolled my eyes at him then me and my mom see walkers coming our way so she gets in then I follow, she moved forward and I stayed in the back to at least try and keep it balanced as they looked around the front
"There's more coming. We're gonna have to fight through." my mom says
"Yeah, I see 'em." Daryl added then walked over flipping a gurney
"We have to go." My mom told him
"GMH, what's that? A hospital?" He asked and I recognized it
"Grady Memorial, I know where it is" I told him
"Grady, the white crosses- it might be where they're holing up."
We get out of the van and my mom shoots a walker then both me and Daryl stabbed two more
"Daryl!" I yelled as more came, to many for us to fight
"Go, go, go, go!" He tells us and helped me in after my mom then killed another one and got in as well closing the doors as the walkers banged on them
"Anything we can use?" My mom asked
"Nothin' but what we got." He says and slowly made his way up front then I followed and he pulled me into his seat and my mom got in the passenger one, "All right, buckle up." He told her and put the buckle over both of us, "You hold on." He says to me wrapping his arms around my body as the van started to shake, I grabbed my mom's hand as the van fell, I closed my eyes waiting for the impact while Daryl covered my head puling me to him then the next thing I knew we crashed into the ground. Daryl groaned as we lifted our heads up from the air bag and I looked over at my mom
"Mom?" I asked her
"I'm okay. We're okay." She answered then suddenly walkers started dropping down on us then we got out
Daryl pulled me to him looking me over, "I'm okay," He looked at my head and I flinched as he touched a sore spot, "Daryl," I said and he looked at me, "I'm okay" I told him and he kissed me then we walked over to my mom and I saw her holding her shoulder, "What is it?" I asked her
"Just my shoulder" She says and I lightly felt it
"It's not broken, but it's probably dislocated" I point out and Daryl supported her as we walked
"Here." Daryl handed her the canteen
"I'm fine."
"Prove it." He says and she took it, "How bad is it?" He asked me
"Like I said, most likely dislocated but I don't want to try and set it because I could make it worse
"I've had worse." She says and I carefully pulled her shirt aside seeing a huge bruise on her shoulder
"Damn, that was stupid." Daryl said
"We made good time down." I told him, "There's only three blocks between us and Grady."
"We need to find a place nearby, scope it out, see what we can see." Daryl pointed out
"You really think we're gonna find out what we need to know just by watching?" My mom asked him
"It's where we start. Come on."
"It's them." I said as I looked out the window of another office building we went into and Daryl walked over to me with a bag full of small bags of chips
"All right. Let's see what we see." He says handing me and my mom a bag and we opened them and started eating, "You said I ain't like how I was before?" Daryl asked her
"Yeah."
"How was I?" He asked
"It's like you were a kid. Now you're a man, a husband." She says and I smiled at Daryl
"What about you?" He asked her and she looked at me
"Me and Sophia stayed at that shelter for a day and a half before I went running back to Ed." She says and I walked away to the other window, "I went home, I got beat up, life went on, and I just kept praying for something to happen, Phoebe wasn't to happy about it."
"Because I drove you both there and told you to stay until I could get things set up and you left. He's lucky I wasn't home or I would have shot him" I said looking at her then out the window
"But I didn't do anything. Not a damn thing. Who I was with him... she got burned away. And I was happy about that. I mean, not happy, but... And at the prison I got to be who I always thought I should be, thought I should've been. And then she got burned away. Everything now just... consumes you." She says and I wiped a tear away, my mom is slowly losing herself and it broke my heart
"Well, hey... we ain't ashes." Daryl told her and we hear a door close in the distance and followed it. We came up on a walker with a bolt through it's neck
"Is that yours?" I asked him and he killed the walker then pulled it out
"Yeah."
We hear gunfire then moved down the halls seeing the kid that took our weapons trying to fight a walker he moves away from it and it went towards my mom but before she could grab her knife it fell on her and I quickly killed it then we helped her up
"I'm good. I'm good. You go." She says and Daryl took off while I helped her up and we followed
I see Daryl stand up as the shelf fell on the kid, "Plea- please. I had to protect myself."
"Why you followin' us?" Daryl asked him
"I-I didn't, I swear! I thought you followed me."
"Bullshit." I said as a walker pushed on the door trying to get through and I see Daryl pick up a carton of cigaretts grabbing a pack out
"Come on. Plea- please! Please, please."
"Nah, I already helped you once. It ain't happenin' again." He says liking a cigarette, it never really bothered me that he smoked, "Have fun with Hoss over there." He says and started to walk away
"Noah: No. No, no, no. No. No, no, no! Please! Please! Please! I'm sorry, please! Please! Please, please!"
"Daryl. Daryl. Stop." My mom told him
"You almost died 'cause of him!"
"But I didn't." She pointed out
"Nah, let him be." He says and walked away
"I'm sorry. Please, I'm sorry!"
"Daryl!" I called after him but he kept walking I looked at my mom as the walker came through the door and just as I was about to move to kill it a bolt hit it in the head and I turned to see Daryl standing there, my mom goes and pulled the walker off the shelf, Daryl lifted it up at the top and I helped the kid get out
"Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you."
"You okay?" I asked my mom
"I'm still here."
"I gotta go. I gotta go. They're gonna come. They probably heard the shot. If they find me..." The kid says walking away from the window
"Who?" I asked him
"Them, people at the hospital."
"Wait, wait, wait, just tell us- is there a blonde girl there? You see a blonde girl?" Daryl asked stopping him
"Beth?"
"You know her?" I asked him
"She helped me get out, but she's still there."
"They're coming." My mom said from the window
"We gotta go now. We gotta go. We gotta go." The kid said walking away and we followed him, "The building next door has a basement. It's clear. We'll be safe." He tells us but then fell down, "Ah! Ah!"
"Go, I got him." He says to my mom as me and him help the kid stand up, "Come on, get up. Get up." Daryl told him and we started walking again
As we get to the door I see my mom get hit by a car, "Mom!" I yelled but the kid pulled me and Daryl behind another pillar
"No, no, no! Wait, wait, wait!"
"Let go of me!" I tell him
"Wait! They can help her. They're the only ones who can. They have medicine, machines, a doctor. You go out there, you'll have to kill them, okay? And then she can't get their help. Is that what you want?" He asked and I looked at him then saw the two people put my mom on a gurney then brought her to the back of the vehicle, Daryl held my arm and I looked at him, "We can get her back. We can get Beth back."
"What's it gonna take?" I asked him
"A lot. They got guns, people."
I looked at Daryl again and he nodded, "So do we."