A Broken World

Thirty-Nine

Yn

Everyone was gone. I saw the tail lights of Daryl's bike after I had rounded the house and ran for the dirt road. I saw him pull up to someone, letting them get on before speeding off. His tail lights were the last thing I saw. Walkers closed in around me, forcing me to fight my way out and continue running. By the time I got fair enough away from the farmammo, leavingf ammo, leaving me with just my knife.

My legs and lungs were burning with how long I've been running. I only stopped when I felt it was safe enough. I leaned my hands on my knees as I bent over sucking in as much as I could. My heart was beating so fast that it was hard to breathe. I wanted to collapse onto the ground. I wanted to lay here and not move, let my body relax. But I couldn't do that. I couldn't stop. I need to get further away. So that's exactly what I did; I straightened myself up, sucked in a deep breath, and continued running. It was hard to pick my pace back up. My legs hurt, and we're growing weak. And just as they were about to give out from under me, I heard that familiar rumble of an engine.

A single light lit the area around me, causing me to bring my hand up to shield my eyes. The rumbling grew louder, and the movement of the headlight came to a stop. I squinted my eyes and  held my hand up to try and block the brightness of the light until a figure stepped in front of it and blocked the light out. I hadn't realized that I had collapsed onto the ground until rough hands were wrapping around my arm to pull me up. “Come on, sunshine, ya gotta get up. Can't stay here!”

My legs were weak and shaky, and if it wasn't for the support of Daryl, I wouldn't have gotten back up at all. He led me to his bike, helping me get on behind him. Daryl pulled my arms around his waist, kicked the kickstand up, and turned the bike around. My hold on my tightened when he sped up. I could feel him stiffen under me a little when I laid my head on his back, but he slowly eased up. The warmth that came from Daryl, combined with the vibrations of the bike, started to lull me to sleep. I closed my eyes, tightened my grip on Daryl, and let my body relax.

I didn't open my eyes again until the bike stopped. I slowly pulled away from Daryl, dropping my arms from around his waist, and looked around. We were parked on the side of the road miles away from the farm. Daryl carefully got off the bike and looked down at me. “Ya alright?” He asked in a gruff voice. “My stomach hurts,” I whispered. I threw my leg over the side of the bike and stood up. I pulled my bag off my back and set it on the ground beside Daryl's bike. “For fuck sake, woman!”

I looked up at Daryl with a confused expression. “What? What could you possibly be pissed at me for now?” He took a step towards me, hand reached out  and grabbed the hem of my shirt,lifting it up. “Yer fucking bleeding.” I looked down to see the wound from the gunshot I had gotten a few days prior was in fact bleeding. “Well, Daryl, it's a little hard to prevent when you're running for your fucking life!” I reached down and picked my bag up, unzipped it, and pulled out the first aid kit I had inside.

I set my bag back down and walked over to one of the cars to set the first aid kit on the hood of the car. “Let me take a look at that.” I looked up to see Hershel standing on the other side of the car. “Thank you.” He walked closer and I pulled my shirt up to expose the wound. “Looks like a couple stitches got pulled out. Nothing too serious,” he said, opening the first aid kit. He pulled out the hand sanitizer to wash his hands before pulling gauze and antibacterial cream out for the wound. “This should be good for now. The wound looks like it's healing nicely.”

After Hershel patched me up everyone stood in a circle. “Where's Andrea?” I asked, looking around. Carol put her head down, “She went down after helping me,” she said. I  nodded in understanding. “What about Shane?” I looked over at Rick, who had a hardened expression, and he shook his head. Lori was giving him a look of…maybe disgust? So there was a lot more to the story. “We found Randall,” I said, making Rick look at me. “He was a walker. But the weird thing is, he wasn't bitten. His neck was broken.”

“How is that possible? He had to have had a bit of stretch somewhere l, right?” Carol asked, looking a little scared. Everyone started to talk at once until Rick talked over them. “We're all infected!” That made everyone shut up and cast their gazes at him. What?” I asked. He took a deep breath and let out a sigh. With his hands on his hips he looked at the group and said, “At the CDC, after Jenner unlocked the door, he pulled me in and told me…he told me that we're all infected. It doesn't matter how we die; you don't need to be bitten. We all come back no matter what we die from.”

I stepped back when everyone started talking at once, angry at Rick for keeping something so big from them. Was I mad that he kept that from us? Yeah, sure I was. But at the same time I understood why he didn't. There was so much going on already. We barely got out of the CDC before it blew up. We got stuck on the highway and Sophia went missing. If he would have told everyone what Jenner told him it would have just caused more of a panic.

That night we found the remains of an old stone building that had long been gone. It was starting to get cold at night with fall slowly turning into winter. A small fire was built, small enough not to draw attention but big enough to give off enough heat to keep us somewhat warm. Everyone was still pissed off at Rick for keeping his little secret. They were giving him looks. Even his own wife was doubting him. I had my suspicions that something happened between Rick and Shane. Shane didn't just get bit and Rick had to shoot him. No, something more happened.

“We're not safe with him…Keeping something like that from us. Why do you need him? He's just gonna pull you down,” Carol said to Daryl. I looked over and raised an eyebrow. “No. Rick's done all right by me,” he told her. “You're his henchman and I'm a burden.” I rolled my eyes and scoffed. “What? You can not be serious right now. You think Shane would be a better choice?” I asked her. She cast her gaze down and didn't answer me. “If that's what you think then you better stop. Shane wouldn't have saved any of us. He would have gotten Lori and Carl and that's it. He would have left the rest of us to die.”

People started to freak out over a small noise that came from the darkness that surrounded us. They wanted to leave. They didn't want to be out here. But they didn't realize that we don't have that luxury. “We need to move, now,” Someone said. “No one is going anywhere,” Rick said. “Do something,” Lori told him.

“I am doing something! I'm keeping this group together, alive. I've been doing that all along, no matter what. I didn't ask for this. I killed my best friend for you people, for Christ's sake!” Rick said in an outburst. “You saw what he was like, how he pushed me, how he compromised us, how he threatened us. He staged the whole Randall thing, led me out to put a bullet in my back. He gave me no choice. He was my friend, but he came after me. My hands are clean. Maybe you people are better off without me. Go ahead.” Everyone looked at him without saying a word so he continued.

“I say there's a place for us, but maybe... maybe it's just another pipe dream. Maybe... maybe I'm fooling myself again. Why don't you... Why don't you go and find out yourself? Send me a postcard. Go on, there's the door. You can do better? Let's see how far you get.” Again just silence as everyone looked at him. “No takers? Fine. But get one thing straight... you're staying. This isn't a democracy anymore.”