Staying Alive//TWDFanFic

Thirty Four

In the morning, he had breakfast with me and hung out for a while before going back to talk to Lydia. He came back after an hour or so and told me that Lydia's mom killed her father and they have a camp by the guard tower. "We have to go tell Tara about it." I nod as he grabs my hand and leads me outside. I heard Tara yell for Daryl as we stepped outside, he didn't let go of my hand so I had no other choice but to follow him. He motioned for me to climb up the ladder first so I did, once I stepped beside Tara, she moved my face to look out over the gate and I saw Lydia's group standing behind the fence out in front of the farming area. As soon as I made eye contact with the creepy bald one, she announced, "I am Alpha and we only want one thing from you, my daughter." Daryl and I glance at one another before he looks back at her, "You should turn around, leave now, so no one gets hurt." Alpha shook her head slightly, "Wrong answer." She then lifts her hand up as a bunch more of walker people approach from behind her. Daryl whispers to Tara, "That girl told me what her Mom does to her, I'm not sending her back there." Magna sighs, "Yeah, but they could have Luke and Alden." Alpha shouts as we all look back toward her, "Give me my daughter or they'll be conflict, I'm done talking." Daryl scoffs before climbing down the ladder, I just watch as he makes his way to the fence across from this Alpha woman.

They stand face to face with only the fence between them, I can't hear what they're saying but they bring Luke and Alden out and she speaks to Daryl some more. Her demeanor was reading as hostile which was making me nervous, I went to grab the rifle sitting out of view from the outsider but Tara puts her hand on top of mine before I'm able to lift and shook her head slowly, "No." She whispers.

Daryl walks back in the gate after Tara already decided to give Lydia back. I stayed up in the guard area above the gate and stared Alpha down as they searched for Lydia within Hilltop. She smirked at me after a while and I just gave it right back to her, her face dropped when I did but I just kept smirking as her demeanor changed from hostile to nervous as she looked back at one of her people that had a baby, it started to cry and she couldn't console it so Alpha eyed her before she set the baby on the ground and walked away. Once the walkers got closer, I saw Connie rush out from the cornfield and grab the baby before running back into it. I saw Daryl rush into the cornfield from the opposite direction and went back to staring Alpha down. I could tell I was making her uneasy as she kept breaking the eye contact to look at the ground, I just smirked each time she looked back at me.

They were finally able to find Lydia and I watched closely as Daryl took her out to Alpha and exchanged her for Luke and Alden. Alpha looked pissed off at Lydia, she slapped her as hard as she could before hugging her. Daryl watched as they all left, I made my way down the ladder and waited for Daryl by the gate.

A few hours went by and it was lunch time, I was waiting for Daryl at our picnic table. I saw he was finally on his way over before Henry stopped him halfway, I watched as they spoke before he approached me, grabbed his bowl and walked off. I made eye contact with Henry before he shook his head and walked away. I was a bit bummed out because I was looking forward to talking to Daryl but I just shook it off and sat beside Alden and Enid.

Later that night, Daryl and I finally got some time to talk while we were laying in bed. It was a nice 10 minutes before Addy knocked on the door, "Daryl? I found this in Henry's room." Daryl nods before taking the folded up piece of paper from her, she heads out closing the door behind her and Daryl reads over the paper before looking back at me, "Get your gear, we gotta go."

We're walking through the woods when I saw a large area where the leaves were moved around like something happened, I bent down to look at it more closely, "He caught up to them." I said. "Yeah, there was a struggle." Daryl responded, Dog was sniffing around when a few walkers came up, I pull my bow from my back and take them both out quickly. "Nice." Daryl said as he kept walking after Dog. We made our way behind a large bush and watched as the walker people fed the actual walkers two dead people. Daryl looked at me with a horrified look on his face before grabbing my hand and leading me away. He managed to find a route into the camp undetected before grabbing a couple of the walker skin masks hanging from a tree, he rushed us into a good hiding spot before handing me one of them, "Put it on." I groan quietly, "Ew." He grabs it from my hands and pushes it on me, I've never been more disgusted in my life, you don't even want to know what it smelled like. We rushed back over to the walkers they were feeding earlier and managed to lead them into their camp.

As the walkers started getting people, Daryl and I made our way to Henry and Lydia. I grabbed Lydia as he grabbed Henry, "We gotta go." We made our way away from everything and I threw the mask off before noticing Daryl and Lydia were arguing about whether or not to go to Hilltop. I cut them off, "We gotta go." Daryl nods, "She's right, it's this way." I shook my head, "No, honey, it's this way." He scoffs as Lydia and Henry start following me, Dog even tags along and I heard Daryl say in a loud whisper, "No, Dog! Damn it." He finally gave in and followed me.

We approached an abandoned town and Daryl suggested we get to higher ground. "It's not a good idea, we'll be trapped. Alpha won't send an army because she doesn't need one, she'll send Beta." Lydia says. "Is he their strongest?" Daryl asks, Lydia just nods as he continues, "Then we'll kill him first." We follow Daryl but I noticed Lydia had a look of fear so I put my hand on her shoulder and gave her a sympathetic expression, "You'll be alright." She nods as she walked alongside me. Daryl led us into an empty building, Lydia and Henry went downstairs to check everything out as Daryl and I went up to do the same.

I made my way to what looked like a supplies cache and grabbed a few water bottles as I looked around the large area. Daryl eventually made his way back to me, "The stairwell's already barricaded, but I guess you knew that." I handed him a water bottle before leading him to a map hung up on the wall. He starts planning out where to put holes in the barricades to let them in one by one. I nod, "Alright." I leaned against the wall beside him, "What do you think about Lydia coming back to Hilltop with us?" He exhales deeply with an irritated look across his face, "Our friends will die, Jo." I roll my eyes, "Yeah, well, we have friends, she doesn't." He doesn't say anything as I walk away in a huff.

He approaches me by the window after a few minutes, "You calm now?" I glance at him and before I'm able to answer we hear Lydia and Henry downstairs so we head down. We eavesdrop at the door for a few moments. "Why'd you really come for me?" Lydia asks. "Because I care about you." Henry says. Daryl opens the door slightly and I chuckle softly when I see that they're sharing a cute little kiss, Daryl clears his throat, "Hey! We're headed up to keep watch." They're both startled briefly before they both nod and follow us back upstairs.

They kept watch on the other balcony across the hall from us, we were quiet for a few minutes before Daryl stood beside me, "You believe that?" I laugh softly, "Oh, come on, it's cute. We fell in love during all this, let them have their moment." We spot a herd and Daryl shoots one of them, he notices that they're not all normal walkers so he makes us go back downstairs and barricade ourselves in a dark room. Henry and I started nailing up a few boards over the door as Daryl shines his light on Lydia, "Hey, you're with me." She rushes in between Henry and I, kissing him quickly before running off with Daryl. I glanced at Henry who had a stupid smile, "Don't go having any babies too soon, Carol might kill you." He scoffed, "Not even on the menu." I shook my head and continued nailing up the boards. We left one exit open and stayed by it as we waited.

After it got quiet, we saw two of them sneak into the room, Henry took down one before the other tried to attack him. I made my way behind it and took it out with an arrow. A few others start coming into the room, one of them tried to get me from behind but I was quicker, I put an arrow through their head before they were able to raise their hand. I heard Henry shout and start groaning, I looked at him quickly and saw they got his leg but Dog attacked them before they were able to hurt him any further. I took out the rest of them that were in the room with us before tending to Henry's leg. After I got him wrapped up, I heard what sounded like fighting from above us, "Are you guys alright staying here for a minute?" They both nodded, I rushed upstairs and saw Daryl grabbing his knives from the floor, he turned around and I could definitely tell he was the one up here fighting something, "Are you alright?" He nods quickly, "Yeah, where's Henry?"

I broke a few car windows with bricks to lure the walkers from the building, I see them start to leave the building before going back downstairs. I made my way to Daryl and Henry, "So, what are we doing?" I ask. "The plan is to go to Alexandria and get Henry stitched up then we'll leave." He answers. "But where?" Henry asks. Daryl shrugs, "I don't know, I heard there's a whole world out there. Come on." He wraps Henry's arm around his shoulders and helps him up.