ELEANOR . NEGAN

108.

The rundown town was the typical apocalyptic shit hole. Greening moss was growing on the plain brick with specks of debris on the roads and pavements. The window were all smashed (whether that was from bad weather or walkers) and some of the buildings were chipping away slowly.

Yet, there was one building covered by the road and another broken brick shop. It was covered in leaves and plants but it had thick pillars to use as easy hiding spots which Daryl and Eleanor quickly took advantage of.

When the coast was clear, Elle crumbled down the ground with her head resting against said pillar. Daryl carefully stared at her while watching the woman peel back the tank top she has wrapped around her wrist. There was a jagged cut that was deeper towards the palm and the nick towards her wrist wasn't spurting out blood anymore.

"Do you have any scran?"

Daryl furrowed his brows, "What?"

"Food. Do you have any food?" Eleanor hissed as she ripped the fabric of her bloodied tank top to get strips of fabric. "Between the choking and the slicing, Leah's fucked me right up."

Daryl just carelessly threw a protein bar he had stuffed in his trousers pockets right in her lap. She didn't smile, or hooray in happiness, she just took the bar between her teeth and ripped it open.

It probably wasn't healthy but it was what she had to do. The protein bar was between her teeth while she pulled the fabric tight around her wrist. If this bleeds now, she was utterly fucked.

"So," Elle started with a muffle from the oats filling her mouth. "What have I missed?"

"Are ya makin' convo?" He scoffed. "Rest."

"Rest isn't happening for me, Daryl." She winced when she leaned back on her palm, completely forgetting about the true severity of her wounds. "What. Have. I. Missed?"

"Annoyin' pain in my ass." He huffed, 'cause that's all he does. "Maya is fine, Jude is too, everyone is fine—"

"More."

Daryl rolled his eyes and carefully settled his AR beside his leg. "She's doing portraits now... getting commissions from the Commonwealth which is alri'."

"Yeah, until they figure out the Commonwealth is just tyrannical pieces of shit." Elle cleared her throat. "Sorry."

"Yur fine." He cleared up. It wasn't like she was wrong. "She got a diary called Genevieve... fuckin' weirdo."

Eleanor smiled softly, or weakly maybe. "Glad she hasn't changed."

Daryl scoffed but shuffled to sit beside her, shoulders touching and backs against harsh concrete pillars. It was silent but many words needed to be said... or wanted to.

"What happened?" He asked.

Eleanor kept her eyes stuck to the mossy wall in front of her and deflated a bit. What happened? "Where do you want me to start?"

"When ya left."

She made this noise of partial annoyance and partial bliss that it was hard to pinpoint how she felt. Especially from a man who barely understood human emotion. "It was... I was fine." That might've been an exaggerate but she felt as good as she felt in a long time. "I... I don't even know how to explain it — I just, I felt okay."