midnight rain | daryl dixon

chapter 22: hounded.

A/N: this is super cute and includes a lot of cute Daryl and Ali stuff however, does include some triggering stuff at the end such as suicide and drug use so please be safe when reading 🫶🏻

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A few busy days passed. Everyone busy with their own tasks in clearing the prison and turning it into a permanent place for the group to live. Although everyone was exhausted, everyone worked equally hard because they all just wanted it to work so badly.

Hershel, Beth and Carl focused on the new baby, keeping her fed and changed. Maggie, Glenn and William focused on researching the best places to hit on their next run to find supplies for the group while Daryl, Axel, Oscar and Alison began to clear out some more space for everyone to live.

Initially, Daryl hated the idea of Alison getting anywhere near the walkers but he had to keep reminding himself that it wasn't his place to be too worried - she was a grown woman and she could make her own decisions. Besides, he wouldn't let anything happen to either.

Everybody sat eating breakfast, nibbling on their oatmeal that they had been eating for the last few days as one of the gates creaked open and Rick came through into the central area.

"Everybody okay?" the group leader, who had been absent since the baby was born and Lori passed, asked.

"Yeah we are" Maggie replied with a smile as Rick came in to join them.

"What about you?" Hershel asked Rick.

Everyone was concerned. Nobody had really seen him and he was covered in blood and sweat, clearly not doing so well after Lori's passing.

"I cleared out the boiler block" Rick responded, avoiding the question Hershel had asked.

"How many were there?" Daryl asked.

"I don't know. I dozen, two dozen. I have to get back, I just wanted to check on Carl" Rick replied, placing a hand on his son's shoulder.

"Rick, we can handle taking out the bodies. You don't have to" Glenn stated.

"No, I do." Rick said plainly "Everyone have a gun and a knife?"

"Yeah. We're running low on ammo though" Daryl informed him.

"Maggie and me were thinking of making a run this afternoon. Found a phone book with some places we can hit, look for bullets and formula" Glenn suggested.

"We cleared out the generator room. Axel's there trying to fix it.. In case of emergency." Daryl chimed in, trying to fill Rick in on what he had missed.

"We're gonna sweep the lower levels as well" Alison added.
"Good. Good" Rick stated with a nod, looking down at the floor before leaving again.

Everyone exchanged a quick glance before Hershel got up with the aid of his crutches, deciding to follow Rick to make sure he was alright.

Once Hershel left, everyone took that as a queue to leave and get started with their day. Maggie and Glenn prepared for the supply run they had proposed while Beth kept an eye on the baby and Ali, Daryl, Oscar and Carl headed to the lower levels to give it a sweep as they had told Rick.

Ali strapped her quiver to her back and placed her bow over her shoulder. They had already been down there the night before, so none of them expected there to be any walkers but they wanted to be safe.

"Check it out man, must have missed it last night" Oscar said to Daryl, noticing that there was a clanking behind one of the doors.

"It's probably jus' one or two of 'em. Don't look they got much fight. They ain't goin' nowhere. We'll take care of them on the way back" Daryl responded quickly  "Come on" he said to Carl, taking a few steps ahead of Ali and Oscar.