broken claims

Part 18

"C'mon, Leigh," Daryl muttered through clenched teeth. The aisles seemed to spin around him. He could smell the sharp tang of oil as he stormed down one length of shelves, desperate to catch a glimpse of his daughter. "Where the goddamned hell are you?"

But turning the corner showed no flash of blonde hair or pink shoes. He tried the next row of shelving and looked by the fishing lures, bright little hooks hanging on display, colourful enough to catch a little girl's attention. But nothing. She wasn't circling the automotive supply area or lost amongst hunting gear.

His heart hammered in his chest. Someone took his daughter. Leigh was missing and it would be her face on one of the milk cartons, image plastered up from her last school photo.

Daryl had been checking spools of wire for what he needed and was foolish enough not to hold her hand to keep her from wandering off or someone from snatching her. He should've fixed her hand in his and held tight. He should've been watching.

"—Aryl Dixon, Daryl Dixon to customer service, please. Daryl Dixon to customer service."

He abandoned the basket on the floor and ran the length of the store to find Leigh barely visible behind the counter. The woman shot him a bemused smile at his face. "Someone was circling around a little lost. Figured you might want her back."

Leigh silently ran to him and wrapped her arms around his legs. He bent down and plucked her up easily, half crushing her. "Jesus. Do you know how worried I was?"

"We do plenty of returns but the company frowns when we stock up on lost kids."

"I lost you," Leigh mumbled into his shoulder. "I couldn't find you anywhere!"

"You've got me, sweetheart. You don't gotta go looking anymore."

.

They were silent like wraiths as they cut through the wilderness. The landscape sloped into woods around where the train tracks intersected and occasionally he caught flashes of a fence through the trees as they migrated a fair pace through. Michonne tagged at the end of their formation on guard with her sword and Rick took the head of it.

It was peculiar being with people again. Fate kept stringing him along, giving him back more pieces of things that he lost. In an alternative world Beth might have vanished without a trace and he never would have seen her again. Every time he looked around he saw family again and he hurt at the idea of losing them a second time.

The trees eventually thinned out to a sparse coverage and Rick pulled them back slightly, squinting at the shape of buildings. "We're going to spread out," he commanded in a soft tone. "Watch for a while, see what we can see, and get ready. Nobody goes far."

They couldn't trust anyone. Daryl's memory of the hospital was corrupted with rage. He could recall vague flashes as he stalked the halls; coming in on one man from behind before cutting his throat and moving onto the next target, skulking through rooms, fixated on clearing the floor so nothing got past his guard back to the one hospital room. Their luck couldn't keep going. Eventually something would collapse and they would feel that agony for real without a second chance for a do over.

"You don't leave my sight," Daryl told Leigh quietly before she could shift away from their small group. "Stay with someone."

She wasn't as inclined to run off but he didn't want to take chances. Better pair her with someone to keep her from getting antsy alone. "Sure. Can I have one of the guns?"

Rick had a tiny haul of weaponry on him. Daryl handed one over with a decent scope. "You even know how to use that?"

"Yeah. My mom's boyfriend showed me."