Rivers & Roads || The Walking Dead Fanfiction

26. Long Overdue.

Chapter 26
3,477 Words
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"Thought you were supposed to be at the Kingdom?" Maggie shouts to the man with a chuckle as she walks over to greet him. She pulls him into a quick hug.

"Yeah, well, figured you guys are gonna need me here." He says when they pull apart. My feet finally start to work again as the shock wares off, and I make my way over, peaking around Maggie and catching his eye.

"You got away." Daryl says as I step around Maggie. I nod and a wide smile goes over my face.

"I got away, left the night after you did." I say with a grin, and I see Daryl giving me that small sort of half smile he does. "When you were at the Sanctuary...I-I'm sorry I didn't help you, I couldn't. Not with Negan around. But I wanted to, even had a whole plan with Mason to bust you out with us." I explain before chuckling. "Sorta beat me to it there though, Dixon." I smile and Daryl softly nods.

"I get it." His gruff voice says. "I saw what he does to traitors, you were there." Daryl says, and memories of watching Negan torture and iron people at the Sanctuary. I look away and frown.

"You don't know the half of what I've seen him do." I look back up at Daryl. "There's a lot of reasons I had to get away, but a big one is because I wanted to come here, I want to help take Negan down." I explain.

It feels like there's an awkward air between Daryl and I, like I have some explaining to do. I don't know if he knows about Negan and I, but Daryl's smart. I can tell he knows there's more to the story of my time at the Sanctuary than I've let on.

I don't think I'm going to tell him, should I? It's not like we were really together or anything, and I thought he was gone forever. But then why do I still feel so guilty when I look at him?

There's so much I want to tell him, but we're standing in the middle of the Hilltop, and I'd rather go somewhere more private. I look down at the crossbow hanging in Daryl's hands.

"Up for a hunt?" I ask him. "For old times sake." I say with a smile.

I was able to get a bow from the blacksmith here yesterday, since we don't have nearly enough ammo or weapons to arm everyone. When I was young, my mother wouldn't let my father teach me how to shoot with any guns, so he taught me how to aim with a bow. It's been a long time, but I've been practicing with it during training, and I'm getting better.

I bring the bow with me when Daryl and I head out for our hunt, long overdue. I have to admit, the first 10 minutes of our walk out into the woods are filled with nothing more than awkward silence.

"So what happened to you?" Daryl's gruff voice breaks the silence as we walk through the woods. "After the prison." He finishes and I let out a sigh.

"I got away with Michonne, the had to leave her behind too. After that, I just kept running, kept being overrun, I couldn't stop moving. Figured by then that I'd never see any of you again, even if you were still alive. So I decided to make my way up north, got overrun outside of D.C. and Negan saved me." I let out a long sigh as we continue to walk, not really paying much attention to the woods anymore.

"I hurt my foot bad, decided to stay there till I was better and then keep moving. Only, that didn't happen. I ended up making friends there, get close with...people." I shake my head. "I don't think I wanted to see what that place really is, what we were really doing. But then...the lineup happened.." My voice trails off as I finish explaining how I came to be here. I can see Daryl nod out of the corner of my eye and I look over at him.

"Jen," He says as he stops walking, I turn to him. "I..I'm glad you're here." Daryl says quietly, and a small smile plays on my lips.

"I'm glad you're here too, Daryl." I say with a grin.