RIDE OR DIE | DARYL DIXON

where's your god now?

PARENTS SHOULD NEVER outlive their children. It was the most basic law of nature.

But those laws don't seem to apply to anything anymore.

Willow's hands were nothing but static. She hadn't realized she was losing feeling in them. Every shred of her attention was on Sienna and Sibby in the pit, huddled together with roots and bones in their shaking hands.

No one has said a word after the door shut and they were left tied to the chairs, forced to watch their kids face death head on. No one blinked, no one moved a muscle. The air was just as still as they were. No one dared to so much as breathe.

Silent tears slid down Bonnie's freckled cheeks, and Willow's jaw ached with how hard her teeth were clenched together. Every aspect of Daryl was practically unreadable, but his eyes reflected something dark and chilling. He didn't have to do or say anything to let them know about the things he was thinking- the plans he had for everyone when it was over. And they didn't have to do or say anything to agree with him.

This building will be nothing but dust, and everyone inside will go down with it.

Willow blinked for the first time in minutes when she spotted the smallest movement at the mouth of the tunnel. A lonesome walker emerged from the darkness with the slightest limp.

The three of them released a breath- relief that it was nothing but a regular walker that was picked up off the streets. In comparison to the shit show they had to put up with, this was heavenly.

The girls worked in tandem, shoving aside their fear, something that their parents drilled into their brains.

'Fear will get you killed.'

With a single kick to the stomach by Sienna and Sibby kicking out its legs, the walker slammed into the ground. Flat on its back, it still clawed at the girls, desperate to pull them in. Sienna kept her foot on its chest, giving Sibby the perfect opportunity to finish it.

Sibby snapped a bone over her knee, just like Bonnie, and without any hesitation, she drove both halves of it through the walker's eyes. The walker's arms immediately fell to its sides, and it stopped moving.

Sienna grabbed Sibby's hand and they stepped back from the walker, recuperating back at the center of the pit. They spoke to each other, though Willow, Bonnie, and Daryl couldn't read their lips from afar.

Whatever Sienna had suggested had them both crouching down and quickly unlacing their shoes, wrapping the laces around their hands and pulling it taut in the middle.

As they stood back up, the next two walkers were already trudging into the pit. Just like the other three trials, the walkers were chained at the waist. One of them was a taller male figure with just half a face, and the other was a shorter female with stringy blonde hair, both skinny and frail.

Sienna was already halfway to them, but Sibby hadn't moved an inch. Her shoe lace was no longer taut around her hands. It dangled by a single finger.

Sienna yelled something at her over her shoulder, but Sibby still couldn't bring herself to move forward. Instead, she stumbled back, completely dropping the shoe lace.

Willow, Daryl, and Bonnie each sat up in their seats with wide eyes, watching Sibby retreat as the walkers were gaining on Sienna.

Sienna was still shouting something at Sibby as she tried to push the walkers away from her, but they kept coming at her and they didn't falter. She attempted to wrap her shoe lace around the female walker's neck and pull, but the other closed in on her.

"What the hell is she doin'?!" Daryl bellowed in Bonnie's direction.

Willow jumped at his sudden outburst, and jumped again when Sienna fell to the ground. "Oh my god-"