Forsythia - Daryl Dixon (BOOK TWO)

Chapter Two

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Natalia's limp body was carried inside the house and placed on a bed. Her leather jacket was taken off and her cutlass was removed from her grip— throughout feeling weak, it was the only thing that Natalia managed to hold onto.

"Bag-pack." Natalia barely managed to say— when she opened her eyes, the room would spin so she shut her eyes and focused on her breathing when she was conscious.

"It's me, Carol— can you hear me?" Carol said as she lifted her shirt only to find a bullet hole in her side. Carol furrowed her eyes in worry. A part of the older woman felt sorry for Natalia, she had spent her last days almost dying in the isolation ward from a flu, right after, the Governor displaced them and through that process, Natalia was severely injured and had to go through it without proper help.

Tyreese had grabbed the first aid kit from Natalia's bag-pack and Carol assessed the wound, and began to stitch her wound right after.

"Is she gonna be okay?" Tyreese held Natalia's hand when she jolted from the pain.

"The bullet was taken out but it didn't stop bleeding. It will stop once I close it."

"M-Merle..." Natalia was barely audible and neither of them could understand if she was letting them know if he hurt her or helped her.

Natalia was in and out of consciousness after that and she stopped feeling Carol stitching her wound shut, she only flinched when Tyreese poured some alcohol on the wound.

The only time when she was awake was when Tyreese carried her inside the bathroom and placed her inside the bathtub. Carol had stripped her off of her dirty clothes and tossed it aside once Tyreese left to give Natalia privacy.

Carol scrubbed the dirt and blood off of her gently, the water immediately turned brown. Natalia bleakly stared at the ceiling and it scared Carol how dark her eyes were when blood was being washed away from her face; she furrowed her brows once the dirt was cleared off of her body. Natalia's face was scratched up and her body was littered with purple and black bruises.

"It's good to see you, again." Natalia said very weakly as her eyes slowly traveled to Carol.

Carol smiled through her teary eyes. "Honey— it's good to see you."

Once Carol thoroughly cleaned a weak Natalia, she pulled her out of the tub and Natalia wrapped her wet arms around Carol's shoulder as she didn't have much strength to stand up on her own. Carol wrapped the towel around Natalia's fragile body and helped her to the room to change her into clean clothes.

"How'd you find me?" Natalia asked as Carol brushed her long wet hair— she felt a bump at the side of her head and only guessed she must've hit it.

"We almost didn't." Carol said in truth. "You looked like you just crawled out of hell. I couldn't recognize you."

Tyreese knocked the room door and when Natalia whipped her head, she saw little Judith in his arms. Letting out a pained cry, Natalia difficultly got up and made her way to Judith.

"Judy." Natalia cried as she picked up her baby, through her tears she smiled at Judith, kissing the baby girl's cheeks several times.

"I thought those bad men took you." Natalia said to Judith as she kissed the top of her head— Tyreese and Carol looked at each other and frowned at the mention of the bad men. "I'm never, ever, leaving you alone again. I promise."

"I was passing with Johnny and the girls and I heard a baby crying from one of the houses." Tyreese said softly. "We got inside the house and I found her inside a cupboard with a huge X on it."

Natalia's hand wrapped behind Tyreese's neck and as Tyreese dipped his head low, Natalia placed a kiss on his cheek. "Thank you, Ty. She wouldn't be alive if you didn't find her."

"After Tyreese told me how he found Judith, I knew either you or Rick were close by. I even thought that it could be Carl on his own out there with Judith." Carol added. "So we searched and searched...we later found you by the train tracks— you were lucky we found you just in time."

"Just in time for what?" Judith's hand was wrapped around her aunt's finger as she spoke.

"There were hungry dogs that found you." Tyreese added. Natalia felt that she was losing her balance again— she handed Judith to Tyreese and the man helped her sit back down on the bed.

Natalia snickered, "Did you see Johnny squeal at the sight of dogs? Y'know he's scared of them."

"Johnny wasn't there at that time." Natalia furrowed her brows in confusion

"What? I thought Johnny was with you?" Natalia asked right after.

Tyreese shook his head before he continued the story. "Before we bumped into Carol, Johnny was just...gone."

"What do you mean?"

"The girls said they saw a car pick him up— before I could catch up to them, it was gone."

"A car?" Natalia scrunched her nose.

"Yeah." Tyreese nodded.

"Did you see any...weird people out there dressed in black? Animal masks on?"

"No, we didn't." Tyreese shook his head.

"Are those the bad people that hurt you and Judith?" Carol asked.

Natalia shook her head— In that moment, Natalia believed that she was seeing things and the dark characters didn't exist.

"Nah. When the whole prison went down, I was with Merle. He took care of me and Judith. We were together for a couple of days before this group of pieces of shit separated us. Merle said that they'd never show mercy to me and Judith if they saw us, so he hid Judith in the cupboard and asked me to run if they did see us. I didn't listen. One of the men saw Merle and they beat him...so I interfered and got us separated. After that...I lost Merle, I couldn't find him or Judith. I think without Merle...I would've been dead."

"What about Axel? Was he with you guys?" Carol asked— During their time in the prison, Axel and Carol formed a relationship. For the first time, Carol started to feel safe in another man's hold.

"I'm sorry, Carol." Natalia said softly as she shook her head. "He didn't make it out of the prison."

Carol bit her lip and tears welled up in her eyes— Tyreese sat beside Carol on the edge of the bed and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

"So many didn't make it." Natalia said in a whisper as Hershel's face popped in her mind.