𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐄, daryl dixon

𝘹𝘹𝘹𝘪. 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘦

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
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IT WAS ALMOST like a dream come true when I saw those bolded white letters. No words can express how overjoyed I was to see the building surrounded by lengthy fences. After all this time we made it. This feeling was like seeing a real life unicorn, though it didn't seem real at first, now I had seen it with my own two eyes.

There was a temptation to just bolt up to the front gate, but that wasn't the plan. Rick was skeptical about this whole 'everyone who arrives survives' thing they had going. Just in case things went south we dug a hole and buried some of our weapons outside the fence. We weren't to make any sort of noise until Rick gave us the signal to move forwards.

Rick didn't hide the fact that he distrusted this place in the slightest. And I'd be the first to say it did seem a little too good to be true. "We go around back, and see what these guys are hiding," Rick ordered in a hushed tone. He had every right to be skeptical about this place, I felt it too. Something about this place didn't feel right. People nowadays weren't exactly friendly. For all, we know this could be some kind of trap to get our weapons and ammo.

We crept around back, making sure to stay out of sight in case they had lookouts stationed around the building. When we arrived around back it was just as he anticipated. There were two main back entires. One was farther down to the right and the other was right behind the fence. Divide and conquer was the most logical choice since all we were trying to do was gather information on this group.

Splitting up was the best option. Michonne stuck with Carl and Rick which left me with Daryl. This was a stealth mission, who knows what will happen if we get caught sneaking around this place? The door swung open and the three of them were inside. We stood outside the door for a minute, listening for any gunfire or signs of distress.

It was a relief when nothing happened. A sharp whistle rang in my ears causing my head to shoot up and turned to the location the sound had came from. Daryl motioned me along to follow his lead and I did so like an obedient mutt. We approached the door cautiously with our weapons drawn.

He glanced over at me to see if I was ready for this, I nodded my head and agreement. Daryl wasted no more precious time and lightly pushed the door in. We stormed the place like the FBI raided houses, our guns trigger happy as we scanned around the room. Luckily, no one was there. What the hell was this place?

I lowered my pistol slightly as I took a minute to examine this strange room. On one wall, the words 'never again, never trust, we first always' were written in big black letters. That wasn't even close to the strangest bit, the room was filled with candles. Every one of them had its flame that was dancing around elegantly. In the center of the room, the candles were placed in a small circle.

As I went towards the lights I stopped when I realized what was at my feet. It was a baby doll that lay on top of a name written in the same bolded white letters. The name was Sarah Addison Wilshire. This place sent a shiver crawling down my spine, more names were illustrated on the ground in a circle formation around the middle.

Candles, names, and random personal items. "We gotta get out of here, now, we find the others and we leave," I said frantically. He gave me this confused glance but I ignored it. We couldn't stay here. They were right this place was the farthest thing from safe. The "all that arrive survive" slogan was complete and total bullshit.

Before he could object to my order, I grabbed ahold of his hand and pulled him along. There was a door leading to the right, I figured that would lead us straight to the others. Oh, I could not have been more wrong. As soon as I pushed in the door the smell of raw uncooked meat filled my nose. A sudden blast of cold air hit me and I realized what I had just stepped into. This was a death trap.

A freezer filled with spines and rib cages. Sure they could have just been animal meat and everything would have been fine. But the familiarity of these limbs was off the charts. What other animal has hairless arms with five fingers on each hand? What other animal had a straight backbone used to stand on two legs?

I couldn't tell how long I had been standing there, shell shocked from the sight of the human remains strung up like trophies. Skin hooks pierce the back of their necks and exited out the front. The floor was encased in a sheet of crimson liquid as the sound of dripping filled my ears with the haunting sound that told me this person was fresh.

Sickness overtook me and felt my arm being yanked backward as the freezer door slammed shut. From being pulled out of the fringed ice box I was soon after pulled into something warm. His comforting arms wrapped around my body. My mind couldn't even register what was going on, it was stuck on the corpses in the ice box.

So much so that I didn't even take the time to acknowledge the water that was streaming down my face. I didn't even know what I was crying about. Something just snapped inside of me when I saw them lifelessly hanging there. This place was our last hope of security. A make-believe dream that we could have raised a child together was now shattered in front of me.