Survive - Daryl Dixon - Follow The Plot Fanfic

Fifteen

Walking along the road with Glenn as Daryl has gone out to look for water, I notice as Carl sees something in the middle of the road ahead and goes over. It turns out to be a large bundle of water bottles with a note attached that says 'From a friend' picking up the note, reading it and handing it to Rick, who reads it and hands it to me.

"I would not trust that... unless we can find something delicate around here and see if it hurts it?" 

"You were a woman of nature back in your pre-apocalypse life, right?" Michonne points out.

"I'm gonna take that as a compliment?" I half joke.

 "How do we tell if its poisoned?" she continues.

"Uhm... Well, the only way you can tell a hundred percent is to drink it... Uh- hold on, let me properly look..."

I go over to the bottles and pick one up, inspecting the caps of each and every one. Each and every one of them has been opened before. Opening one of the bottles, I smell the contents and tip a tiny amount directly onto a plant growing out of the concrete.

"It smells fine but I still wouldn't trust it as far as I could spit." 

"Robyn, how do you know so much about poisons?" Carl asks, almost sounding a little concerned.

Just as he says that I hear Daryl emerge from the woods, handing him the note.

"You checked the seals?"

"All cracked."

"Smell and grass check?" 

"Clear smell and it didn't damage the grass. But I still don't trust them, every single one is cracked. Without getting it tested there's no way to know for sure."

As Daryl and I talk between ourselves, about the tests we could do, desperate for water I see Abraham aggressively slap a bottle out of Eugene's hand.

Just as he does that there's a loud clap of thunder that makes me jump, Daryl notices and rubs my back a little. Looking up to the sky I feel a few cool drops on my face and I open my eyes to see it starting to rain.

Pure bliss spreads through out the group as everyone tips their head back to feel it on their face and open their mouths to get some water, some lay on the floor and others quickly uncap any bottles or containers they have to catch the rain in. But Daryl and I just smile at each other and I hug around his waist gently, laying my face on his chest as he wraps his arms around me, resting his cheek on my head, such a tender and loving moment.

As the rain gets heavier and the thunder gets louder and louder everyone quickly realises this is turning into a storm. Judith starts to cry, and Daryl must feel me grip tighter onto him because he turns to Rick.

"There's a barn!"

Once we get to the barn and its been cleared, some hunker down, some start taking off items of rain soaked clothes. I sit in the middle of the concrete floor and start pulling together some twigs and leaves that're on the floor, a minute or so later Daryl comes over with more sticks and wood and we make a small fire. Glenn, Rick, Carol, Michonne, Daryl and I all gather around the fire with Daryl sat against a wooden post and me sat between his legs, my side resting against his chest as I cuddle into him. 

"So, who feels awake enough to take watch tonight? Bags not." I say as I raise my hand a little, making Glenn smile a little.

After a little conversation, Rick decides telling us a story would help us feel more at ease.

" When I was a kid, I asked my grandpa once if he ever killed any Germans in the war. He wouldn't answer. He said that was grown-up stuff. So I asked if the Germans ever tried to kill him. But he got real quiet. He said he was dead the minute he stepped into enemy territory. Every day, he woke up and told himself 'Rest in Peace, now get up and go to war.' And then, after a few years of pretending he was dead, he made it out alive. And that's the trick of it I think... we do what we need to do, and then we get to live. But no matter what we find in DC, I know we'll be okay. Because this is how we survive. We tell ourselves that we... are The Walking Dead."

Something about that last statement must have struck a nerve with Daryl, I felt him tense up beneath me, shaking his head a little. "We ain't them."

He gets up and looks at me before looking at Rick. "We ain't them." he repeats before, picking up his crossbow and walking off into the barn.

Once he's gone, I look around to see everyone looking at me, after a second of simply looking back at them, it hits me. 

"Oh, right. I should probably- yep. Still getting used to this whole marriage thing." 

"You'll get used to it." Glenn smiles as I get up and walk after Daryl.

I follow to find him pacing in front of a set of doors to the outside, fastened only with a thin chain. The doors aggressively swinging back and forth with the wind.

"Hey... Daryl. You wanna talk about what happened back there?"

"Nah." I get in reply.

"That's okay, you don't have to, just know that I'm here if you need me. Do you- need space? or would you rather I stay?"

"Stay."

I nod softly and sit next to where he's placed his crossbow, I pick it up and aiming it at a wooden post.

"You wanna learn?" He asks, still restless.

"I would love to! But I don't know if I'll be very good. I never was good with bows." I put it down and smile up at him.

"Ah, I'll teach ya. It ain't that hard." He mumbles as he goes over to the aggressive swinging doors, holds them so they don't move and peers out of them, obviously he's taken on watch for the night.

I smile as I watch him, I'm so lucky. But after a second I notice his body language shift and he grunts softly before slamming the doors closed and pressing his body weight against it. I immediately run over and put mine against it too. Just as I do an almost overpowering force comes into contact with the other side of the door. Shit, it must be a herd.

One by one, every one of the group notice our struggles and rush over, shoving their body weight against the herd of walkers banging on the doors. Some start to cry, others groaning and grunting as our feet slide across the muddy floor. I look around to see every member of our group either pushing the door themselves or pushing others in a desperate attempt to stay alive.

I look at Daryl, teary eyed as I press my back against the door. The sounds of fear and desperation hang in the air, mixed with the effort sounds, lightning and the growling of walkers, and I'm the background of all of this I hear Gabriel praying as he pushes against the doors. All of the sounds quickly get overwhelming as I'm already exhausted and from the day weak as it is.

Sometime during the night, after the herd had cleared off, I wake up next to Daryl and look up at him, noticing he's awake and talking to Maggie, who's sat next to him.

"He was tough." He states.

"He was." Maggie smiles and agrees while looking at Sasha. They must be talking about Tyreese.

"And so was she. She didn't know it, but she was." Daryl mumbles, his voice soft but certain.

He's finally talking about her. I pretend to be asleep as I hear him hand something to her and tell her there was grit in the gearbox, she thanked him and walked off to Sasha.

I look at him to see him taking off his jacket and lay it next to my own. As he lays down on it, looking up at the ceiling with a hand behind his head I shuffle over to him and rest my head on his chest draping one arm across his tummy, I feel him bring the arm that was behind his head to my shoulder and pull me closer. 

I gently whisper to him, my voice soft and gentle. Knowing i'm the only person who treats him gently, since he's going through struggles he's keeping to himself. "It's okay. You did a good job protecting us all... You can sleep now tough guy. We're safe."

I feel his body slightly relax as I talk to him. My big tough guy. Such a teddy bear.