Healing Broken Wings [Daryl Dixon] The Walking Dead

Sixty Seven| No Choice

🕉️Kara🕉️

I race through the woods, feeling my lungs burning as I force my legs to keep moving. Suddenly, Henry trips and crashes to the ground. We move towards him as he pushes himself up. Connie crouches down next to him, placing her hand on his back. "You alright?" Dad asks.

"This isn't the way back to Hilltop." Yeah, thanks to you I can't go home. We broke the deal Mom made with them. All that heat would fall on Hilltop, on my home. "Kris made a deal with those assholes. We broke it. We ain't going back to Hilltop."

"He's right. There's too many of them," Jake speaks up, looking down at the ground as he catches his breath. "Alpha would destroy Hilltop to get me back now," Lydia adds and Dad stands up, glaring down at her. "And why didn't you tell us there was that many of them?"

"Same reason Kara didn't want to tell me exactly how many communities you're in contact with. Lack of trust," Jake defends Lydia who returns my father's glare. "Yeah, what did you expect? You kept me locked in a cage. I wasn't gonna betray my own people!"

"Well, maybe you should go back to 'em." Jake sighs and runs his hand through his short blonde hair. "Henry didn't know what he was getting his ass into, but you sure as hell did."

"I thought I could go back." Her breathing quickens and Jake places his hand over hers, which is resting on her leg. "I can't."

"Well you ain't coming with us."

"Hey. Hey, we could run. Me and them. You guys go back, and… and we keep running. They can't blame Hilltop if we just disappear." Jake shakes his head and Lydia looks like she agrees with her companion. "Henry, we can't."

"Let me fix this," Henry pleads as he looks up at my father. "Nah. There's no way in hell I'm letting you run away with this one," he points at Lydia. "Yeah, cause you're a real prize yourself," Jake jibes and Dad takes a threatening step towards him. "Dad, don't. And you," I point to the blonde before continuing, "don't antagonize him. This is not the time to be fighting amongst ourselves."

"She's right." Connie stands up and makes a gesture that doesn't even need a translation. We need to go. "Yeah. Come on," Dad taps Lydia's shoulder and rushes ahead. We get up and follow him. "It's this way," he says pointing to the right while Connie gestures us to go the other way.

"Yeah, this way." She turns and goes left with Henry and Lydia following. Jake moves after them and I follow. Might as well. Can't split up now. Dog comes racing to my side. "No. No. Dog!" If you can't beat 'em. Eventually, my dad catches up to us.

We walk through the night with Dad and Connie at the front, her leading the way. I look around at all the abandoned cars. I'm exhausted. I rub at my eyes to try and get rid of the heaviness. She points up at the building we're approaching.

She then points to each of us and gestures to the building. "Take the high ground? Yeah." She signs and I nod. "Chokepoint," I explain and he nods. "Good idea. Come on." We follow them. "I don't understand," Henry says and I shake my head.

Hasn't he been paying attention. He spent a whole day in their camp, should've picked up a few things. "They use walkers to protect themselves, right? So we go up someplace walkers can't go. We separate the living from the dead. They travel in a herd, but there's only like five or six of them in the middle, right?"

He turns to look over at Lydia and Jake. "Yeah, but if we go up there, we're trapped," she says as we stop moving, turning to look at her. "And Alpha's not gonna send an army cause she doesn't have to," Jake interjects and the teenage girl nods. "She'll send Beta."

"I'm sick of running. This Beta… he their best?" Lydia nods. "Good. We'll kill him first."

"Dad," I say motioning to Jake who shakes his head. "I'm fine. My dad's an asshole. I'm okay with it if he dies."