Breathe Princess (Daryl Dixon Love Story)

Chapter Five

I wasn't out long. I knew that much. I was in the back of a moving truck when I came to. People were currently sitting all around me and Rick was up front, driving. When I finally managed to clear my head, I started to sit up, people's attention now on me.

"Glad to see you're awake." Jacqui was the one who was sitting nearest me, helping me to sit up.

"Annora, How you feeling?" Rick managed to turn his head a little before placing his eyes back on the road in front of us. I rubbed the back of my head a little and leant back, my hand trailing down to play with my necklace again.

"I've been worse, trust me." I lightly smiled and turned my attention to the cold flooring of the van in which I was previously led out on.

Not a lot was said for a few moments until there was a loud sounding of a car alarm and a red sports car zoomed past, Glenn was screaming and cheering from the window causing me to laugh at him.

"At least someone's having a good day." Morales smiled, everyone smiling except for Merle who currently had a face like a smacked ass. I knew this probably wasn't going to be the end of his little sulking session, but then again, nothing was ever going to be that simple.

"Where are we heading?" I asked, shuffling forwards down the truck and leaning against the seats up front.

"Somewhere higher up in the hills. We use it as a vantage point; plus the walkers never come that far up the mountain so it's safe." Morales replied.

Safe. I liked that word. Just the idea of having somewhere that was open, filled with people and safe. I didn't think I would ever be able to call somewhere safe again.

We could still hear the sound of the alarm echoing through the hills, up across a dirt path where the sight of the red car disappeared behind some trees.

The van that Rick was driving finally pulled up behind some vehicles and everyone climbed out, saying a hello to their families and gripping them tight.

"You okay?" Rick asked, clearly noticing my off-in-a-dream face.

"Safe. It's a word you don't hear too often anymore." I shrugged and turned to Morales as both myself and 'helicopter boy' (as Morales named him) were called from the van. Rick went first. I calmed myself a little before making my way to the back of the van, climbing out and dusting off the back of my shorts, walking calmly around the side of the van; seeing Rick almost of the verge of tears as a young boy ran towards him, calling 'dad'. I couldn't help but smile.

Everyone knew Rick was looking for his family, now he'd found them.
"So you're Annora?" An older man walked up to me, a funny looking hat on his head and he was wearing a Hawaiian shirt.

"uh-huh." I couldn't really bring myself to make actual sentences at these people. So I nodded and gripped harder onto the straps of my back pack which thankfully I still had with me.

"Well I'm Dale. Glad to have you here." He smiled and held out his hand to me.

He seemed like the nicest of the group, he had a friendly looking smile and something about him just reminded me of someone's grandfather or dad. Maybe it was just the shirt.

The day had dragged on and to be honest, I wasn't highly aware of where I was going to be sleeping; but I hadn't bought that up in conversation with anyone yet. Right now, we were all sat around a small burning fire. Carol, a woman who had wanted to wash people's clothes was sat with her husband and daughter behind where Rick was sat and Merle? Well Merle had probably sulked off towards his tent to ignore the rest of the world despite the fact that I'd let him off the roof and I hadn't really gotten so much as a thank you.

I currently was sat between Glenn and Amy (Andrea's sister). Now, Andrea and I may not have gotten along but Amy seemed like an alright kind of person. She was nice enough to me after everyone had gotten done with their original 'Hello's' and 'thank go you're alive' speeches.
Everyone was focused on Rick, talking to him about what happened when he woke up from the hospital. I was playing with a small amount of bread roll that I had been given.

"What about you Annora?" Amy was the one who turned to me, everyone looking towards me with questioning eyes.

"What?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. My voice was probably an octave too high and was incredibly quiet but they managed to hear me.
"Do you have a story about how you ended up here?" She asked as everyone looked at me.

"Not really. Just wandering the streets until I found Rick." I shrugged and went back to looking at the piece of bread that was so interesting.

"Everyone has a story." Dale smiled, wanting to push me into telling them. Should I tell them? I thought, looking around the group trying to avoid their eyes. No. Best not. I thought again before clearing my throat.

"Like I said, wandering the streets can only get you so far. Rick and Glenn got me out. That's all there is to it." I shrugged again and thankfully they left it. I don't know why they didn't push me, but I was glad they didn't.

It was a long night, but thankfully, people had gotten tired pretty quickly and eventually ended up heading towards their tents; Shane, one of the deputies from Rick's sheriffs station, was on top of Dale's RV keeping watch.

After we had arrived back that day, Rick and Shane had helped me set up a tent near to everyone elses. It was small and you couldn't really fit more than one person in there at any one time, but I was small and that didn't matter to me. It was just somewhere to sleep that didn't involve staying awake half the night worrying about walkers.

I stood up and stretched, walking towards the small blue tent and walking inside, pulling off my boots and bandana, letting my hair down and climbing into the small sleeping bag that someone had set up for me. I laid down on the slightly soft material and stared up at the roof of the tent.

I'm safe tonight. That's enough for now.