Daring Dixon (A Daryl Dixon fanfiction)

Chapter 12

"Rosaline," said an anxious, nervous voice. I could feel someone shaking my leg. I sat up groggily. When Carol saw me sit up, be stood, throwing everything we had into a pile on his bed.

"What are you doing?" I grumbled.

"You need to get up. This place is gonna blow in half an hour. We gotta get out of here now," Carol said with urgency. She started stuffing everything in my bag.

"Let me go back to sleep," I said, not believing what she was saying.

"Rosaline, did you hear me?" Carol demanded. I was taken aback by the intensity in her voice. "If we don't make it out of here by the time this place runs out of fuel, we will all die. The building is going to explode," she said, her voice softer.

I got out of bed, still not really sure of what he was saying. I pulled on my shoes and grabbed my pack. She led me down the hallway, almost running.

We met the others in the entrance way that we came in. The grates were still down, however, and Rick and Daryl both tried to break the glass, but it was no use. I felt a stare from across the room. I turned and flinched when I saw Shane staring across the room. The recent afternoon events rushed back to me and I suddenly became angry.

"Look, I don't know what the hell is going on here, but I'm tired of this bullshit and would like to go back to bed," I snapped sullenly.

Rick turned to me, shock and worry written across my face. "Do you not understand what will happen if we don't get out of here?" Rick asked softly.

"The building is supposed to blow, right? So then where is Jacqui, Dale, and Andrea?" I demanded. The faces of everyone in the group fell. I immediately knew this was no joke. "They are staying behind so they're killed in the blast," I said, it dawning on me the magnitude of what was going on finally hitting me.

There was a moment of silence as we all tried to think of what to do. Finally, Carol stepped forward, rummaging in her purse. "I don't think a nail file is gonna do it, Carol," Shane said sarcastically. I rolled my eyes, throwing a glare in Shane's direction. When Carol pulled out a grenade, I couldn't help but smile triumphantly.

"C'mon!" someone yelled, and we all hunkered down in the stairwell as Rick pulled the pin and took cover. We heard the explosion and felt the heat, and then heard the tinkle as glass hit the ground. We ran out of the broken window, trying to get to our cars as soon as possible. I looked back towards the CDC. Dale and Andrea were running towards us.

"Rick," I said, pulling on his sleeves and pointing towards them running towards us. He looked at his watch.

"To the back now!" he shouted, shepherding us to the back of the RV.

A bright light illuminated the entire RV. Then came the heat. We weren't close enough to explode ourselves, but the heat from the explosion was so great that we were sweating in mere seconds. The sonic boom that followed shook the ground like an earthquake. When the major effects of the explosion faded, we peaked our eyes over the window. The CDC was a burning heap of rubble.

We watched as Andrea and Dale stood up from behind the sandbags they had dived behind when they couldn't make it to the cars before the explosion. They looked fine, maybe a little scratched, but nothing major. They got into the RV looking shaken.

We exited the RV and walked over to the rest of the group. "We need to find somewhere to spend the night. Somewhere where we can syphon some fuel. We need some desperately," Rick said.

"We ought to go to Fort Benning. If the CDC was still running, what's to say Fort Benning isn't?" Shane asked.

"I think that'd be our best shot. We can't go back to Atlanta. It's too dangerous. Alright, lets go. We'll try to find a place to syphon gas, but if we need to, we can use what little we have left in our gas cans," Rick said. We all nodded and went back to our cars. I eyed Daryl and his truck, then turned to Dale.

"You mind if I hitch a ride?"  I asked.

"Not at all," Dale agreed.

We took off. Rick pulled out first in Carol's Cherokee, and us in the RV followed. Daryl pulled up behind all of us, and Shane and his Jeep ahead of him but behind us. We drove down the road a ways. I noticed that Dale kept throwing glances my way.

"What?" I asked impatiently after what felt like the millionth time catching him.

"What's going on between you and Daryl?" Dale asked cautiously.

"I honestly have no idea. One minute he is kissing me and the next-" I stopped, realizing who I was talking to. "Sorry. You didn't need to know that."

"It's perfectly fine," Dale said. "So are you two...?" he asked softly.

"Hell if I know. I can't really pinpoint what we are doing," I replied.

"What do you want to be doing?" Dale asked wisely.

"I- I don't know, Dale. Before all hell broke loose I was hoping to get married, and now I don't even want a relationship for fear of watching it be eaten before my eyes," I admitted.

"So... You are scared of what is going to happen between the two of you , and you don't want to get too close so that if one of you gets hurt, you won't be too emotionally scarred?" Dale asked, trying to clear things up.

"Yes... No... Yes... Look, I just don't want things to end badly, that's all. I don't think I could stand looking at him everyday and trying to pretend something didn't happen. Because what happened, happened. And it really happened," I said. Dale raised his eyebrows, questioning, but he didn't ask anything.

"Why don't you get some sleep?" Dale asked. I nodded.

"I'll try my hardest," I assured.

I went back to the spare bed in the back. I layed down, but I figured I wouldn't get any sleep.

I drifted in and out, not really realizing what was going on or where I was. I finally came to when the RV pulled to a stop. I made my way to the front of the RV. Shane and Andrea were sitting at the table, cleaning and disassembling their guns. I walked past Shane, never looking back, but I could feel his eyes on me the entire time.

I exited the van and found that Dale and Glenn were at the front of the van. It was the radiator hose, again. I sighed. Today wasn't starting out too great.