A Simple Coincidence // Daryl Dixon

19 | Look At Her

Running straight towards his truck, Daryl's main priority was getting as far away from the building as possible.

On his way, he and the others had to face some walkers, he tried his best to dodge them and run around them since his arms were occupied. One of the walkers tried to reach for Elleanore and got extremely close to scratching her. Daryl's heart was beating faster than ever, as sweat was coting his dirty skin. His arms were getting tired, and his legs were already sore. He was breathing heavy and panting loud as he backed away from the walker and ran around it.

That was too damn close, he thought to himself as he reached his truck. Quickly laying Elleanore in the passanger seat, he ran around and got into the vehicle himself. The moment he closed the door, the building exploded. On instinct, he jumped onto Elleanore shielding her body with his own once again. He covered her head with his arms as his entire body covered hers, his head in the crook of her neck.

Any other time he would've felt extremely awkward and uncomfortable, and he most definitely would not have done any of the acts that included physical contact. But with her unconscious, he was more comfortable with openly protecting her. In that moment, although he shouldn't have, he took a second to look at her. Her peaceful face, with cuts and scars displayed, the dark circles under her eyes, her slightly rosy cheeks, her full lips. She was beautiful, even during the apocalypse she was still beautiful.

The sudden feel of something pulling his shirt snapped him out of his gaze, her deep brown eyes met his blue ones, but only for a split second before she squinted her eyes shut. A groan left her lips before she went into unconsciousness once again.

***

The group drove forward, getting further and further away from the CDC, with no specific destination. they were losing hope.

After about an hour of driving, with Shane in the lead, they had to stop to come up with a plan. Daryl glances at the girl lying unconscious beside him, only to realize that her skin that was usually a light tanned shade had become a pale white with sweat covering most of her face and neck. Once the cars stopped, he leaned forward to shake Elleanore awake, to notice that her body was heating up. He furrowed his eyebrows, confused as to why she was so sick all of the sudden. But then he remembered, the walker that had gotten close to scratching her.

Did he get her? He asked himself, afraid to check her for any scratch wounds. He rolled her sleeves up, checking her arms and wrists for anything that could indicate she had gotten scratched, but he found nothing, he checked her shoulders and legs, he even checked her back and neck. He found nothing.

What the hell is wrong with her then?

He quickly hopped out of his truck to meet up with the rest of the group that were already discussing plans.

"Dale! You gotta come look at Elleanore, somethings wrong" he announced before heading straight back to his truck, assuming that Dale would follow.

The rest of the group shared a confused glance among each other, but they all followed Dale.

Daryl opened Elleanores door and got out of the way so that dale could take a look at her. Once Dale got there and saw the girl, his breath hitched in his throat, they had seen the same thing with many others who were infected before, the palness, the sweat, the fever. They all indicated that she was infected.

Dale looked down shaking his head before looking at Daryl.

"Does she have a bite wound, any scratches? She looks infected." He asked.

Daryl shook his head, looking between Rick and Dale, "Nah man, I checked. No bites no scratches."

Shane placed a hand on his forehead, furrowing his eyebrows, his eyes were strained on the sickened girl who was laying completely unaware of her surroundings. "Then what's wrong with her?" he asked Dale, everyone assumed that Dale would be the one to have an answer to questions as such, considering he was the oldest with the most experience. When he got no answer, he glaced at Lori before facing Daryl once again he knew he had to protect her and Carl at all costs, and if this girl was sick, he couldn't risk anything getting to them, especially with the information he received from Dr. Davidson at the CDC. "She's sick. She could be infected, and you just didn't find a wound. We gotta keep an eye on her. Her symptoms are the same ones for the infected, you know the protocol. if she doesn't get better-"

"No, we can't just leave her. She helped us even before she knew us. The least we could do is give her a chance." Rick glared at Shane, angry at him for even suggesting it. He couldn't leave her because he knew what it was like to be left behind. Shane had done the same thing to him, and although Rick never showed any anger towards Shane for it, it still hurt him to know that his best friend had given up on him so easily.

While Shane and Rick started arguing, Glenn and Daryl were staring at the sickened girl. Glenn was scared of what might happen to her, he was afraid that he might lose his newfound friend. He was the youngest of the adults, it was nice to finally have someone around his age who could finally understand him. Everyone around him was always so serious.

As for Daryl, he was fighting a battle with his inner self. One part of him was worried about the girl, another part of him was mad at himself for caring; even if it was a very slim sense of concern, he felt weak for it.

***

The group had collected some supplies from around the area that they had stopped at. There were some stores that had somewhat usable things; they were still in the city, meaning that most of the things were either very badly damaged, or still well intact.

Night came faster than they realized, with everyone situated in their cars, they set a schedule to always have at least two people on watch. Elleanore's condition hadn't gotten any better, maybe even worse. They had moved her into the RV for comfort. She was on the bed at the back; Shane had insisted on always having someone by her side in case she turned. He even tied her hands to the headboard of the bed when he was watching over her.

When Shane left the RV, Daryl was next to keep watch. As soon as he went into the back, he saw the restrains. Anger rose in him, she ain't a damn animal to be tied up like this, he thought before frantically leaving the RV to find Shane.

"Hey! You asshole!" he called out for Shane who hadn't gotten that far from the RV. Daryl's face was red, fuming in anger as he got in Shane's face, "What the hell is wrong with ya, tyin' her up like a damn dog!"

"She's a threat to all of us. Look at her. We can't have a loose cannon. We're already in the middle of nowhere for Gods' sake." He glared at rick for the last part of his sentence, although he didn't say it out loud, Shane blamed Rick for the situation they were in at the time. "Let's face it, man. She's either dying or gonna die" Shane spoke once again looking back to Daryl.

Before Daryl could launch at Shane, Glenn and T-dog held him back. He scoffed and got back into the RV.

***

When Daryl got back, he untied Elleanore's ties, not without noticing the red marks that had formed around her wrists due to the ties being so tight. He gently laid her hands on either side of her and took a seat in the nearby chair.

After about two hours, Daryl heard a soft whimper. His head snapped in the direction of the sleeping girl, to see her face scrunched in a painful expression.

"How are ya feelin'"

"Ouch" was the only thing that she said, which gained a small chuckle from the redneck.

She didn't say anything else, she looked like she was in a lot of pain. Her soft whimper turned into a louder whimper that caused Daryl to furrow his eyebrows and get closer to the girl to observe what was happening. He saw the sweat sliding down her skin, which had healed from all and any scars that she had on her face, leaving small white lines where the scars once were.

He looked down at her pale form and was utterly shocked to see dark black veins covering her neck and most of her arm, where the usual blue-like veins are supposed to be.

how the hell did they heal so fast?

She let out a loud scream, stringing up from the bed into a sitting position, her eyes were bloodshot, and her breathing was rapid. All of it lasted less than a minute, she collapsed right back down on the bed. Completely limp. Her veins were back to normal, she wasn't breathing.

Wait- she's not breathing! 

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