What's Next

Chapter Forty Two 🦋

Val's POV:

At this point I was exhausted. My legs were aching. I was carrying at least an extra 30 – 60 pounds on me and they were expecting me to walk the entire way. I was panting. Barely being able to keep a steady breath. "here drink the rest." I hear one of the women, tell the other, handing the bottle. "we should save it."

"we'll find some more. Drink. You're supposed to stay hydrated. It all works together." I stayed as close as I could to Daryl. Observing everyone's movements and what words left their lips. Keeping my struggles to myself though I knew Daryl noticed my change in pace. "hurry up." The man demanded.

"I'm pregnant asshole. I'm going as fast as I can while having two babies pressed up against my bladder." I scoffed. I heard the strangers gasp, while Daryl tried to stop himself from laughing.

"here have it." The woman said, handing the bottle to Daryl. He kept walking ignoring it. The man grabbed it from the woman, going to give to Daryl again. "we don't need you falling down. Drink." Daryl obliged, taking a swig out of the bottle. Coming over to me and pouring some water into my mouth. "They find us, maybe we give you to them, they let us call it even."

"you see, we're reasonable people. Everybody's got their code. You feel you gotta kneel, that's fair enough. We don't."

"I hate to break it to you. But we don't have a fucking clue what you're going on about. Who the fuck is they?" I snapped. I'm exhausted and quite frankly I've had enough. "Let's go." He demanded ignoring what I said, shoving me slightly and pushing Daryl along. Daryl just gave me a small look. A knowing one. Like he knew it was only a matter of time before I cracked. Before my dark side rose to the surface again. The side that did what was needed but was unexpected from a girl that looked like me. The side that shocked everyone, even someone like Daryl Dixon.

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we walked for a while longer. I had no idea on where we were going or where the hell these people were taking us. "I can't believe we're back." The woman with the short blonde hair commented. "It's not home anymore, but it's better than where we were." The other remarked. So we were going back to the place none of them actually wanted to be. That seemed to be the only thing I was sure of at this point. "This is a pit stop. We pick up Patty nothing more than that."

"How'd you do it?"

"You saw where we left the truck?"

"Mm-hmm." The short haired girl nodded.

"We opened the valve and drove all the way in from Farmview road. Ran from the tree line till we got to the pavement. Lit up a matchbook from the Sweetwater and dropped it in on the trail. Then we just ran for the car." The man began to explain.

"Got in and the dead ones were there. They were beating on the hood, and then... and then boom!"

"knocked them on their asses and I took an axe to each one."

"Then we just watched it go up. No more moans, no more of that wailing. It was just the fire, just burning them all away." The woman continued to say. So they were the caused for all of this. All the dead bodies. The charred trees. Ash all along the ground. We were walking through what was once a beautiful, green scenery but now was completely black and grey due to the burnt trees and the ashy forest floor. "Ye did all this?" Daryl questioned, as if he was reading what ran through my mind. "it was right at the start." She replied.

"Everything stopped... the TV, the radio. We were here. The forest was full of them. And the other ones in town, they were drawn to it. They just walked right into the flames."

"we got most of them. Thought we ended it for us, and she was in DC." The brown haired woman explained, pointing back to the short haired girl. For a while I always wondered how other came to have survived this place. Different parts must've been hit differently than back home. Oh how I missed home. Good old King County. The home I thought I would spend the rest of my life at, running my salon, making a living. Yet here I am. Fighting every day, just to be able to do it all over and over again. "We thought everyone was fighting them wherever they were."

"Yeah we thought that's what everyone was doing. Fighting it. That we'd all win together. We were stupid." The man added on.

"Y'all don't think yer' being stupid right now?" Daryl asked. He had a point. They didn't know us they just think they do, neither did they really know what they were doing. The man turned around pulling his gun and aiming it at Daryl once again. "Hey, hold on just a second!" I scolded, stepping towards him, only to be shoved to the ground. "Oww what the fuck!" I cried, wincing from the impact the came from hitting the ground as I tried to not land on my bump. Which was difficult considering, unlike Daryl my hands were tied behind my back.. Daryl instantly went to help me up even though the men cocked the gun as he did so. "Are you saying I should kill you both?" I knew Daryl was scared, he was worried too just like me, only he had a better way of hiding it. I did at one stage too, only I am in a more vulnerable state than what Daryl would ever be in.

"I mean it are you going to try and pull something on us?" The man questioned, I could hear the hesitance in his voice that he tried to disguise. "Are we just being thick here by not removing all doubt?" Daryl stayed quiet, refusing to answer. I guess it was his way of seeing if the man actually had the balls to do it. "Right now, by me not pulling this trigger, is that a mistake?"

"I'm serious. I really wanna know."

"You made a choice to kill for someone else, to have them own you for a roof over your head and three squares, so maybe I'm not considering all aspects here."

"you tell me, am I being stupid?"

"No." Daryl finally answered.

"Look, we got somewhere to be. We can make a deal. I can help ye out. But don't ever lay yer hands on her again." Daryl stated, holding me as close as he could, secretly worried that something would happen to me again. "You're one of them." The man remarked, not buying anything that Daryl had to say. Even though I knew Daryl was being completely serious. Nothing but the truth was coming out of his mouth only it was falling on deaf ears. "You're hurt and you're alone and you'd say anything."

"We should've never trusted you people to begin with."

"You don't even know us. We have no clue what the hell you are talking about. So just let us go." I stated, getting completely frustrated. My side was still stinging, my feet were aching, and currently I could feel this baby, or these babies do nothing but kick and move. I just wanted to lie down at this point. Again instead of answering me, he told us once again to get moving. I now walked just in front of Daryl as he held onto my wrist not wanting me to stray away from, encase the stranger decided to push me again. I couldn't understand what it was. Why me? Why was he only reacting to me the way he was. Yes Daryl currently had a gun pointed at his head, but what I couldn't understand was that this man was with two women, but he can't show a woman who is pregnant a bit of gratitude.

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