Breathe Princess (Daryl Dixon Love Story)

Chapter Eleven

Daryl had carried me back to his truck, placing me down beside him in the passenger seat, him running around and jumping into the drivers side, ducking me below him so he could cover me as the CDC blew itself up; Jacqui and Jenner inside.

"How's the leg?" Daryl asked, concerned, moving his eyes between the road and me as we drove with the others.

"Um," I looked down at my leg, it wasn't too bad, the initial pain was the most painful. "It's just superficial," I smiled a little at him, I liked that he cared. He didn't seem the caring type when it came to others. "I'll live." I shrugged and chuckled at the irony of the sentence. I'll live from the cut, I may not live through Zombies however. I winced a little as I poked at my leg, hoping Daryl didn't notice; he did.

"You sure you're alright, Dale's got some medical supplies in the RV." He looked cute when he was concerned. I shook my head, erasing the thoughts I was having about Daryl and cleared my throat.
"I'll be fine, let's just get to Fort Benning."

Daryl followed the rest of the cars, making small talk with me the whole way. I made an effort to talk to him, after all, he was taking time out of his busy silent brooding to talk to me. Although if I was being completely honest, it wasn't like I didn't enjoy his presence.

Merle was currently outside of the truck, following along on my side of the window, smiling (which as definitely a new thing for him). To be honest, I think Merle was just happy that Daryl was alright and although he hated to admit it, he had a little bit of a soft spot for me as well.

The conversation between Daryl and myself had died down as soon as the other cars pulled in somewhere I'd never seen before and decided to set up camp for the night.

"You okay to walk?" Daryl questioned, coming around the other side of the car as I hopped out.

"Yeah, see," I pointed down to the small cut on my leg, just above my knee cap. "I'll be fine." I smiled a little and made my way over to Rick and the others, hobbling pretty much the whole way.

"You alright there, Annora?" Rick asked, raising an eyebrow at my leg.
"I'm fine." I nodded, keeping close to Daryl and Merle when I walked, I didn't want to be caught alone around a walker, not to mention; I think I may have had a little soft spot for the Dixon brothers.


The next morning, we were up and moving pretty quickly, still dressed in the clothes from yesterday.

There was a problem with the RV however Dale had told us that there was a possibility that the RV wasn't going to be moving any time soon as there was a problem with the amount of fuel that was left in it.

"I don't know what to suggest." Dale shrugged as he came out from looking at the engine of the vehicle.

Everyone was stood around with their bags and things at their feet, looking deep in thought about what it was they could think of.

I bit my lip as I thought over what Jacob and I would do in this kind of situation, it wasn't going to be something that everyone liked, but it was an idea of how to keep moving. I rose my hand so that I wouldn't have to speak up straight away and Daryl looked down at me, the others all following his line of sight and I took that as a sign to talk.

"We could use the field from T-Dog's van, Shane's car and Daryl's truck? That way we would have enough fuel to get us to where we need to go?" I shrugged my shoulders and wrapped my arms around myself as my little 'comfort cage' as Jacob used to call it. Shane didn't like the sounds of my idea.

"And where are we going to put the stuff?"

"We could put it in the RV? You ride in the RV with T-Dog and then Daryl or Annora could sit on the back of the bike with Merle?" Glenn suggested, taking the heat off me for a bit. I mouthed a quick thankyou to him and he smiled in recognition at it.

"It's good." Rick nodded, handing Daryl and T-Dog the cannisters to go and collect the fuel and Shane gave me an odd look in the process.
"What made you think to do that?" Merle asked, walking closer to me and standing in front of me, causing me to look up at him. Jacob taught me. I thought, trying not to smile and cry at the same time at the thought of him.

"I know a few things about cars," That Jacob taught me "I just took an educated guess." I shrugged and smiled as Merle ruffled the top of my hair like a big brother would.

"Well little lady, nice guess." He walked quickly over to his bike and started making room for someone to sit on the back.

Daryl came back quickly the cannisters and handed them to Dale for him to start putting it into the RV.

"Nice suggestion." He smiled. It always bothered me how he never smiled that much but I liked that he did it around me.

"Thanks." I muttered and looked around at the group, biting at the skin on my thumb.

"I think you should ride with Merle, I'll go in the RV." He nodded down to me and I rose an eyebrow at him. "You'll be fine." He smiled again and walked off towards the RV, climbing inside and I turned on my heel, walking slowly over to the bike and climbed on the back, gripping onto the side of Merle's leather vest jacket and clamped a little harder as we took off.


Merle and I led the way down the highway, making sure we knew where we were going and that we could find a clear path through the cars that were littered across the road.

"Oh my God." I muttered, not having the confidence to let go of Merle, but the sight in front of me was heart wrenching. Cars were scattered everywhere, like they'd just been quickly abandoned and it bought tears to my eyes.

I grabbed hold of Merle a little tighter as we turned around and made it back through towards the RV.

"You see a way through?" Daryl called through the window. Merle nodded and turned back towards the cars, making his way slowly through so that the RV could catch up with him.

It was going relatively well until there was a bang from behind us and I turned quickly, Merle stopping the bike and we looked behind us, smoke coming out from the front of the RV.

"I said it didn't I?" Dale threw his arms up in the air as he and the others stepped out of the RV, Daryl coming over to stand directly next to me, so close I could feel the heat from him on my arm. "I said we wouldn't get very far with that radiator hose and we won't-" He stopped mid sentence as he realised we were surrounded by cars which probably had very good hoses.

Daryl was rummaging around in the back of one of the cars and said something, although I didn't quite hear what was said as it was muffled by his head placement.

"This is a graveyard." I muttered, ignoring some of the looks I was being given.

Rick gave Lori a look as she had agreed with me before he walked off, instructing other people to go and grab whatever supplies they could.

I made a b-line for a rather nice looking dark purple car that didn't seem to be in such a bad state but Daryl grabbed my arm, pulling me closer to him.

"Annora, don't go wonderin' off, stay close." I nodded at him and stayed near enough, going towards a silver Cleo that was two cars away from him, making sure he could still see me.
I didn't know where Merle had gone to but I was glad that Daryl was close. It was comforting.