From Now On (Daryl Dixon Love Story)

Lone Wolf

The name is Lauryn Walsh. Marine Corps veteran and former ER nurse at Harrison Memorial Hospital. Shane Walsh is my brother, well not really but we share the same last name. My parents died in a car crash when I was 16 years old. I had no other family so my mom's best friend Diana Walsh, Shane's mom, adopted me. Shane and I grew up together and he was always like an older brother to me, so when Diana adopted me it was easy living with Shane. Rick Grimes was also a close friend of mine since him and Shane were best friends. Even though I grew up with no siblings, it was nice having two older brothers watching over me. Shane and I would always go over to the Grimes house for dinner every last Friday of the month. That tradition stayed true even when Rick married Lori.  All three of us were very competitive growing up, so naturally, when Shane and Rick went into the police academy I had to one-up them and go into the Navy. I studied nursing while I was in the Navy and became a medical officer. During my time as a medic, I saved a lot of people, I couldn't help but think that I could be more useful on the ground fighting alongside everyone else. So when my four years were up, I enlisted in the Marine Corps. I rose to the rank of Captain and had my own team. We were a lethal group and were sent on the most dangerous missions. I loved every minute of it. That was until one December night. My team was over in Syria hunting down a terrorist group. We were fed bad intel and the mission went south. I lost all of my men and the terrorists had captured me. They held me in a compound for three months trying to get information out of me. It was gruesome and the details of that story are for another time. Those three months are the worst memories of my life, even still to today nothing can compare to those monsters. Not even the walkers. When the Navy SEALS found me and brought me back home, I started to work at Harrison Memorial Hospital as an ER nurse. It was something I was familiar with, helping people and an adrenaline rush. Working in the ER is not for the weak. Working in the ER and fighting off biting, zombified coworkers is really not for the weak. It has been four years since I was brought back home and I was starting to get used to civilian life, but life couldn't stay that simple. The world turned upside down from some virus and I tried to save as many people as I could from the reanimated.

Rick ended up in a coma so I raced to his room, but Shane met me halfway with tears running down his face. He was yelling for me to run as I saw a group of walkers behind him. He grabs my arm and we run out of the building. I spot my Toyota 4runner still untouched in the parking lot. I toss Shane the keys as he jumps in the driver's seat starting the truck while I hop in beside him. He throws the truck into reverse and takes off dodging walkers and other cars. The world was in chaos. I asked him about Rick and where the hell he was taking us. He said he went to get Rick out of the hospital, but Rick was dead when he got to his room. He barricaded the doors of Rick's ICU room because even though Rick was dead Shane couldn't let anything happen to his best friend. He was driving to the Grime's house to grab Lori and Carl. After that, the plan was to get out of the city.

After a few weeks of moving campsites and finding other survivors, we finally found a spot along the mountains that was quiet. One of the survivors became one of my best friends. His name was Daryl and for most of the group he was hard to love, but for me, he was the only one I felt comfortable with. Sure Shane and Rick were like brothers, but they never really truly understood me. Not like Daryl and I. We understood each other. We both seemed cold and tough on the outside but were big softies on the inside. We both had twisted humor. We both liked to be alone, but we always wanted to be around each other. We both had past traumas that neither of us wanted to talk about. I couldn't help, but fall for the lone wolf with beautiful blue eyes.