RIDE OR DIE | DARYL DIXON

reminded me of you

CAROL AND WILLOW felt a light tap on their shoulders.

To their surprise, Axel was still hanging around outside with them.

"Stress getting to your man Rick?" He asked politely between the two of them.

"Can you blame him?" Carol responded, watching Rick from a distance.

"No. Not at all." Axel said with the shake of his head. "In here I've seen plenty of dudes crack. But not me. I got on better on the inside. Things made more sense, ya know? There were rules. Life was more... simple."

"Didn't you miss your brother?" Willow asked the man, studying the pair of dice inked on the side of his neck.

Axel laughed. "My brother? Hell no. He had a real money problem."

Carol was amused. "What kind of problem?"

"He didn't lend me any."

The three of them chuckled lightly at his bad joke.

He continued telling his story. "One time that son of a bitch-"

Carol and Willow jumped at a wizzing sound next to their heads, blood painting their faces and Axel's body dropping to the ground.

Willow looked around frantically for the source, just barely seeing a pickup truck hidden out in the woods, the low hanging tree branches making it nearly invisible.

"Shit." She muttered to her self in a shaky voice. Without thinking, her feet carried faster than ever before behind cover with Carl and Beth. They ducked behind metal bleachers, but they would have to move to better cover as soon as they could. Willow's thoughts ran wild thinking about Rick being beyond the fence and Hershel still being in the prison yard. She peeked her head over the bleachers, trying to catch a glimpse of Rick and Hershel, but immediately ducked again when bullets flew in her direction, just missing her by a second.

"We've gotta move to better cover." She turned to Carl and Beth, signaling to one of the walls of the prison. They nodded, waiting for the green light. The second firing stopped, she grabbed their wrists and began running to the corner of the wall. Gun fire erupted again, bullet holes piercing the ground around their feet. She let out an ear bleeding cry when a bullet went clean through her calf that sent her tumbling to the ground. She could feel the warm red liquid soaking her jeans as she tried to drag herself to the wall. Carl and Beth made it, but they looked at her in sheer horror. She was just a few feet away from the wall, just close enough to be out of range of the assailants. 

Carl squatted down and held out his hand to her, firmly taking it and dragging her the rest of the way into the wall, her eyes clenched shut at the fierce pain in her leg. She sat heavily with her back against the wall, her hands trembling around the wound, blood already staining them completely. She observed the bullet hole in her flesh through teary eyes, noticing a clean entry and exit wound, though she felt like that was worse than if it had only struck her on one side. The muscles in her calf felt as if they had been torn to pieces, sending a brutally sharp pain up her entire leg.

Beth's eyes were wide with terror. "Willow are-"

"I'm fine." She said through gritted teeth, holding both sides of her leg tightly. "It'll be fine."

She moved her hand again, pulling her leg in and taking a closer look. The wound wasn't as large as she expected it to be. If it had come from a larger gun, it would've definitely been worse. 

"Beth!" Maggie screamed for her sister, running out of the cell block and tossing her a rifle.

The second Maggie came into sight, the firing started again for a minute before stopping again, this time a loud roaring engine filled their ears followed by loud booms of metal collapsing and colliding with each other.