We're The Ones Who Live | The Walking Dead (2)

Part 28 - Gonna Find Her

Daryl had one focus on his mind: finding his wife.

He tried to fight back the feeling of grief lingering in the back of his mind, as he refused to believe CJ was dead. If he stopped for even a second to think about where she could be or whether or not she was alive, he wouldn't be able to function. 

In the past, he had come close to losing her more than once. She got sick way back at the prison, and had he returned with the medicine she needed any later, she wouldn't have made it. He thought he'd lost her when the Governor returned and destroyed their home, only to find her again when she saved his and everyone else's lives at Terminus. He had gone through weeks of believing she had died in his arms back when Negan took them hostage at the start of the Savior war. 

But this wasn't like those other times. It felt different. More... final. 

He made his way around the entrance of the cave where they had all fallen down the previous morning, finding a couple of Whisperers waiting outside of it. He was ducked down in the muddy ditch nearby, getting ready to attack when Alpha stepped out of the cave with her skin mask covering her face. 

If Alpha and her people had been inside the cave the whole time, they probably knew where CJ and the others were. It might have been a long shot, but it was the only one he had. 

Growls of the dead echoed inside the cave as the Whisperers started to lead out the horde, and Daryl had no choice but to run before he was seen. He managed to hide in the shrubbery, watching and following as the horde was brought toward the river. 

When he had a clear shot, he raised his crossbow to shoot a Whisperer in the leg. The masked man cried out, causing the walkers at the front of the herd to gather around him and rip him apart. 

"Spies," he heard Alpha whisper. 

She pulled out her shotgun whilst the other man beside her started looking around to see where the attack came from. Ditching the crossbow, Daryl pulled out his knife and ran up behind the Whisperer, struggling with him for a moment before driving the blade through his temple.

He kicked the gun out of Alpha's hands and punched her in the face. Fury and rage boiled his blood as he fought the woman who may have just taken away the one woman he loved more than life. 

Alpha groaned and took a swing at him, which he was able to duck before kicking her in the stomach. She pulled out a knife and sliced across, cutting just above his eyebrow. Blood dripped into his eye, and if he wasn't seeing red before, he definitely was now.

Through his troubled vision, he was able to see and pick up a heavy stick, swinging around and whacking Alpha around the head. She cried out and collapsed to the ground, and he leaned over her, choking her with the branch.

"Where are they?!" he yelled in her face. 

He didn't get a response, and he swiftly pulled the branch back and stabbed it through her shoulder, and she whined and gasped beneath him.

"Tell me!" Daryl demanded.

The horde was starting to close in on him, and he was forced to pull the branch out of Alpha's shoulder to take out some of the walkers. 

When he tried to make another run at Alpha, she was able to sneak up behind him and stab her knife through his left thigh. He cried out in pain and shoved her away before clutching his leg.

Blood stained the materiel of his pants, and it was becoming harder to see what was happening around him. Bolts of pain were shooting from the wound, and his eyes stung as blood from the cut on his eyebrow continued to leak down his face and catch on his eyelashes.