The Exit • TWD. [✓]

𝟎𝟗𝟓, henry's stupid ways!

CHAPTER NINETY FIVE !

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After burying jesus and having an extremely emotional funeral for him, estella and daryl went back down into the cells. she had been following daryl basically everywhere. after what she'd told him, he wouldn't let her out of his sight. he didn't want to leave her to be on her own, now knowing how scared she got when there was nobody around her. he stayed by her side the entire day.

they walked down the steps and to the cells. henry immediately stood up and walked to the bars. it was weird seeing him as a prisoner. daryl had told estella that he went out and got drunk, so earl put him in the cell for two days as a punishment, and to wait for the alcohol to be completely soaked up in his system.

when he heard about what happened to estella, when he wasn't there to help her, he needed something to take his anger out on. unfortunately for the girl in the cell, she was the perfect thing. he could use his anger to get answers out of her. when he was angry, he was scary. everybody knew that.

"who are you?" daryl asked the girl again, looking at her. she didn't answer. she jumped straight off the bed and scurried into the corner like a zoo animal. daryl unlocked the cell, stepping in. estella went in behind him. "answer the question."

"you wanna die, is that it?" he asked her.

"daryl, what's your problem?!" henry yelled from his cell.

"quiet!" daryl demanded, before looking back at the girl. "do you? people up there just buried a good man, and they are ready to string you up right now. all i gotta do is drag your ass up them steps. how many in your group?"

"i already told you—"

to estella's surprise, daryl grabbed the girl and slammed her up against the wall with her throat. "get up! how many?!"

"ten! ten! there were ten of us! i think. we wore skins to blend in. we didn't have names. i mean— i mean we did, but we didn't use them." she cried.

"how long you been out around here?" daryl asked her.

"i don't know. we move around with the— with the dead. i mean, the skins made them leave us alone. they protected us, so we protected them." she spoke.

"you got a camp? walls?" estella asked, from the side of daryl, her voice more quiet and fed up than her dads. the girl looked at her.

"walls? walls don't keep you safe. places like this don't make it. they never make it, that's how it is. my mom and me, we saw it happen over and over. i—i barely remmeber the world before all this. but my mom, she told me how it was changing. how we had to change with it, how we needed the dead to keep each other safe. we're never alone." she answered.

"then why did your people kill our people?" estella asked, daryl still holding the girl by her neck to the wall.

the girl didn't answer.

daryl grabbed his knife out of his pocket, holding it to her face. "tell us!"

"we were always gonna kill you, okay?!" the girl cried in fear. "it's just what people do now. everybody still alive is a threat. it's us or them."