Breathe Princess (Daryl Dixon Love Story)

Chapter Seven

Once morning had arrived, people were putting the bodies of the walkers into a pile to be burnt whilst the people that were on the campsite with us were being put to one side to be buried.

Daryl had set me down to one side and I was just sitting there, on the ground, in a daze. Last night kept replaying over and over in my head. The walker landing on top of me, the cold look in it's eyes as it snapped at me, trying to get to me.

I could still hear the snapping of its jaws in my head, the way it's teeth hit together, the snarling it was making as it tried furiously to reach some part of my flesh.

I shook my head and kept on wringing my hands, trying to pull the memory away from me.

"Not them," Glenn's voice was loud, causing me to finally look away from the dead space where I was staring. Morales was trying to put one of the bodies (I couldn't see who) into the pile of the walkers. "Our people get buried, the others burn."

Glenn looked tired, not that I blamed him. No one got any sleep that night, especially after the walkers, we were all on high alert, well most were. 

I had noticed that Daryl had made sure that even though he was helping, he stayed so he could keep a closer eye on me. I didn't blame him, last night, he'd saved my life and I had pretty much kept a death grip on him until he had put me down, telling me that he was going to help although keep a close eye on me.

I was a mess and I knew I needed to sort myself out for the sake of the others, but just the fear that went through me last night kept coming back and I had to keep reminding myself to breathe.

Andrea hadn't moved from Amy's body, threatening to shoot anyone who went near them, including Rick.

Everyone was aware that sooner or later, Amy was going to turn. She'd been bitten pretty badly last night, that memory was still at the forefront of my mind as well; everything was.

"That dead girl's a ticking time bomb." I looked up at Daryl from where I was sat away from the group who were having a small discussion.

Daryl looked harshly over towards Amy was lying and I frowned. Last night, Daryl was so kind to me, making sure that I was alright and now he just wanted to take Andrea away from her grieving?

"And what would you suggest?" Rick stepped forwards, he and Daryl clearly not seeing eye to eye.

"Take the shot, clean in the brain from here. Hell, I could hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance." I stood from the spot I was sitting, dusted myself off and walking towards them.

"You need to be quiet Daryl." I'd crossed my arms over my chest and looked up at him, my voice keeping low, both because I didn't want Andrea to hear us and because I was a little intimidated because of the group all staring at me.

"We gotta do somethin'" He shot back, his eyes a little harsher than they had been before.

"Brother's right." Merle stepped forwards, throwing in his two cents.

"I don't think I asked you." I shot back, widening my eyes a little at my own confidence before shrinking back into my self, moving slightly more towards Rick so I could cower away.

"Annora's right," Lori stepped in, taking the heat off of me. "For god sakes just let her be." Daryl scoffed and walked off. I didn't know whether or not I should have followed him so I just left him be, watching as Merle walked after his brother and I slowly moved away from Rick.

I didn't know why I snapped at Merle, after all, he was the one who had carried me from the city, but maybe it was just the way he and his brother seemed to not care about Andrea's feelings. She may have not been very nice to me but she as still a human being.

"A Walker bit Jim!" Jacqui's voice pulled me out of my little trance and everyone made their way over, standing in front of Jim and Jacqui.
Daryl ran a head of me, almost pushing me behind him as we saw Jim standing by the graves.

"Show it to us." Daryl demanded, picking up a pick axe from the ground and slung it over his shoulder.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Jim protested as he picked up the shovel to use as a weapon.

"Jim, we only want to see, we won't hurt you, I can promise you." I held my hands up to him, Daryl taking a step slightly sideways like he thought Jim was capable of hurting me.

I was scared, hell you could see my hands shaking, but who was he going to be more likely to listen to? The angry man with an axe or the scared, timid girl with nerves of a piece of string.

T-Dogg didn't give anyone much time to react as he ran up behind him, taking hold of Jim's arms as he dropped the shovel, Daryl running over and lifting Jim's shirt and I sucked in a breath at the very visible bit mark on Jim's abdomen, blood trickling from the teeth marks.

Tears pricked at my eyes and I blinked them back. We'd lost too many people, we couldn't lose Jim too.


Rick had moved Jim over to the RV, sitting with Jacqui who was talking to him quietly. Andrea was still leaning over Amy, no one being allowed near the two of them. I was drifting again, only coming back to it once Daryl stormed past pick axe raised and realised what he was about to do. For a moment, I froze, this kind of thing wasn't something I was used to, even now that we were living in a world where it was kill or be killed. I made a snap, brave decision, the voice in my head coming back and telling me to do something, so I did; pushing past Daryl and standing in front of Jim.

Rick pointed his gun out in front of him, pointing it at Daryl's head.
"Put it down," Rick ordered, my eyes still not moving from Daryl who was now having a glaring contest with me. "We don't kill the living."

"That's funny coming from a man who just put a gun to my head." Daryl turned his attention away but I didn't move. I wasn't going to risk Jim getting hurt because Daryl was being irrational.

Shane ordered Daryl to put it down and he did, slamming it into the ground and storming off towards the edge of the forest.

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding in and looked around the campsite, Merle was sat on the edge, not making any kind of move to show that he was going to help out in any way and I sighed; taking a step forwards but stopping again. Should I have gone after him? Probably. Did I? No. I knew he needed to have a breather and I didn't want to get caught in the middle of it.

Rick walked towards Andrea and Amy again whilst I stood back, walking over to Jim and sitting on the opposite side of him.

"You're going to be okay." I smiled, looking up at him.

"How'd you know?" He chuckled, trying to make it look like he wasn't already being affected.

"Because I just do." I reached up to my necklace again to fiddle but stopped mid way, dropping my hand back down. I needed to stop playing with it, sooner or later it was going to get broken and I'd much rather it was later.

A gun shot rang out through the camp, everyone shooting their heads towards Andrea who was now leaning over her sister with a gun by her side.

She'd just shot her sister and I couldn't imagine what it was that she was currently feeling but I knew it couldn't be easy.

Right now, I wasn't worried about how Andrea was feeling, I was worried about Jim. About how I was going to make good on what I said about him being okay, plus I was worried about where it was we were going to next because one thing was for sure; we couldn't stay here.