Can We Learn To Love Again? (TWD, Daryl Dixon)

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

It'd been a month since this whole thing  started. It'd been a month since I saw my brother shoot both my parents in the head. It'd been a month since I got attacked by a walker for first time. We thought we were safe here. We thought of his clearing as a home. But that was before we experienced our first horde. We were sitting down by the fire enjoying some venison I cooked up the day before, that's when we heard them. The moans, groans, snarling, hissing of walkers, more than a dozen of them. 

"What the hell is that..." I whispered.

"A horde."

"When the hell is a horde"

"Large group of Walkers."

We saw them approach the clearing, and they saw us, but there was no way we could fight all of them. Must of been close to two dozen. I grabbed Embry's arm and ran for the closest tree, tripping and letting my bow fling from my hands. Shit. He lifted me up and urged me to keep going. Then started shooting down walkers one by one.

"Em, c'mon they're getting closer!" I yelled frantically

 He pushed me towards the tree and kept on shooting.

"Go Calliana! Now!" 

"No! I'm not leaving you down here! Let's go!

He ignored me, and walkers kept closing in. Damnit. I ran for the tree and started scaling it, perching myself on the sturdiest branch I could find. Without my bow I was no help to him, and he had to fend them off himself. Out of the corner of my eye I could see my bow, lying at the base of a tree, not even 20 feet away. I could make it there and back up here, no problem. Silently climbing down, I ran for it, snatching the bow up quick before walkers saw me. They might not have noticed, but my brother sure did. 

"Calliana, what the hell! Get back in the damn tree!" he turned to yell at me and everything went in slow motion. A walker came up right behind him, grabbing a hold of his arms, and taking a big chunk out of his shoulder. His painful screams echoed off the trees surrounding us. More and more walkers surrounded him trying to get their fill of flesh. I stood wide eyed for only a second before pulling back an arrow and shooting the closest walker to him in the head. Arrow after arrow, I hit every one right in between the eyes. Once all of my arrows were gone only one walker remained, feeding hungrily on my brother as his screams filled my ears. I pulled my hunting knife from it's sheath and ran straight for it, stabbing it in the skull so many times it'd become mangled to the point where the features on it's face could no longer be recognized.

"It's dead Calliana, you got it." My brother choked out

My expression softened and tears filled my eyes.

"Got me good didn't they" He smiled

I smiled at him, even in the last moments of his life he can make jokes. But he was right they did get him good. His neck was ripped open, the flesh on his arms shredded to pieces, his stomach had a hole as big as my fist in it. He was barely holding on. Tears fell from my eyes and I choked back a sob. Laying his head in my lap, I silently stroked his hair.

"I love you Cal, no matter what. I-I know we've had our fights and our differences, but I want you to know, I only did it for you, to make sure you were ok, to make sure you were safe, to make sure you were happy"  He fought to say

He was right, we had our fights, even  before this mess, before the world went to shit. And I knew he was doing it because he was my big brother and he wanted to protect me. But this wasn't going to make me happy, it was ripping my heart out.

 I nodded "I love you too. Please don't leave me" I whispered

"I'm sorry, Calliana. I'm sorry you had to see this.  I'm sorry you have to do this" He replied, struggling to lift an arrow up, attempting to hand it to me.

"No. No, I won't do it!"

"I want you to do it, I need you to do it. I don't want to hurt you." He whispered. 

All I could see in his green eyes was desperation. And I knew I shouldn't let him suffer like this, but I needed every last second with him. He was all I had left in this world and he was slowly slipping from my grasp. 

"I know you can do it. You can survive this world on you'r own, I know you can. You're one of the strongest girls I know'' he struggled "Don't let my death phase you. Keep going, keep surviving. You do it for me, for mom, for dad." After his last word, his eyes went into a blank stare, loosing any  emotion they once held.

"No, No, NO!" I sobbed. "Stay with me Em, please!" I pleaded. "Please"  I sat there, with his head clutched to my chest, crying hysterically for who knows how long. His words  ringing in my head. I'm sorry you have to do this. I need you to  do it. I looked down to see him still clutching the arrow in his hand.

"No." I whispered I couldn't shoot my big brother, my protector, my own flesh and blood. I looked down at myself to see I was covered in his blood. I started hyperventilating and ran straight to the pond. I scrubbed my skin raw. I wasn't sure if it was stained or because I was rubbing so hard to get it off. I got out and dressed quickly, then collapsed to the ground and pulled my knees to my chest. I stared into the distance for who knows how long, before I started hearing the noises again. Walker. I turned to see my brother no longer in the spot I left him, but up and walking towards me. Snarling, growling, hissing, hungry. I whimpered and pulled my knees tighter.

"No, no, no" I cried. But  he kept  coming, his now cloudy eyes were blank and emotionless. No part of my brother remained inside of that shell of a body. I guess I knew that, but a large part of me didn't want to believe it. He stumbled closer and closer, knowing I couldn't sit here and let him chew the flesh  from my bones i backed away. He was closer than arms length to me, so I put my hands against his chest and pushed him with all the strength I could muster. Must've pushed hm back a dozen times before I noticed him still gripping that arrow in his hand. I pushed him one last time before snatching  the arrow and loading my bow, this was it. It  was now or never. Life or death. Living or the Living Dead. I pulled back the string, and let the arrow fly. He went limp and dropped to the ground. I'd lost my brother once again. And I was all alone. I looked around, taking in everything that happened, I slumped to the ground and just stared. Stared at the trees, stared at the walkers laying dead, stared at my brother. Nothing I could do, or say to myself after this would never make this okay. I'd be blaming myself for the rest of my horrible existence on this piece of shit we call earth. 

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Meh. I'm not particularly proud of this chapter, I feel like I didn't close it up nicely enough. I'm kinda sad that I killed Embry D: I wanted to develop his character more, and their brother sister relationship. I think I kinda made him seem like an asshole :P There's room for me to still fix that though. ;) I have things plaaaaaaned :D. When I was editing this I was like D: And it was kinda emotional xD Anyways, picture on the side is Embry. **UPDATE: I changed Embry, I used Daniel Sharman for him. He's Isaac from Teen Wolf & OMAGAWD I can't even, i love him, I love his character. My ovaries hurt. K i'm gonna stop now. But really, I love him. kbai** I also liked that he looked a bit older than the girl I chose for Calliana, since he is the big brother. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed. Please tell me what you thought!

P.S. Sorry if there's any mistakes! I had a hell of a lot of editing to do on this chapter because I  have one of those soft rubbery keyboards that don't always pick up what you type :\