Once A Dixon, Always A Dixon (Daryl Dixon)

Back to Atlanta

Setting: Atlanta, Season Five

*Nico's POV*

I can't sleep. I just can't. I run out of the church and go to the car Daryl and I found earlier. 

Maybe I should run. I killed a little girl. I don't deserve any of this. I hot-wire the car. 

A walker snarls. It's just one walker, I dispose of it easily. 

Behind me, bushes shuffle. Daryl appears. 

"What are you doing?" he asks. 

"I don't know," I mutter. 

"Come one," he beckons. I advance towards him, but the sound of an approaching car stops me in my tracks. A black car with a white cross on the back zooms past us. 

Daryl's eyes widen. He smashes the back lights with his crossbow and motions for me to get in the car. Seeing as I have no choice, I do so.

"What the hell was that?" I ask. 

"They got Beth!" he explains. "Come on, let's go!" Daryl starts the ignition and we drive off.  

"So it was just you and Beth after?" I ask. 

"Yeah," Daryl says.

"You save her?"

"She's tough. She saved herself. We were out there for a while. We got cornered, she got out in front of me and... I don't know, she was gone," Daryl explains. "I came out and a car's pulling out with a white cross on the window."

"Just like that one?" I ask.

"Yep," Daryl confirms. "Rick's gonna wonder where we went. Tank's runnin' low."

"We can end this quick. Just run him off the road," I suggest. 

"Nah, we're good for a bit," he says. 

"If they're holding her somewhere, we can get it out of the driver," I say. 

"Yeah, but if he don't talk, we're back to square one," Daryl points out. "Right now, we got the advantage. We'll see who they are. If they're a group, we'll say what they can do. And then we'll do what we gotta do to get her back."

"They're heading north, I-85," I point out. 

This interstate is all too familiar. This is where it all began. 

Welcome to Atlanta, Georgia.

The city is scary enough during the day, but at night? It's enough to make a grown ass man shit his pants. 

The car ahead of us stops. Daryl pulls us over by a curb. 

"What the hell's he waitin' for?" Daryl questions. The taillights on the car turn off and someone steps out.

"There's two of 'em," I say. 

"Is that a cop?" Daryl asks. 

"They might've seen us," I say. A walker suddenly presses it's ugly face against my window. That's gonna attract some attention. 

The cop returns with two bikes and lays them on the sidewalk. He stares right at us.

He gets back in the car and him and his partner drive off again. Daryl tries to reignite the car, but no dice. 

"Aw, shit!" he exclaims. "Tank's tapped. They'd have taken the bypass and they didn't. They must be hold up in the city somewhere. We gotta move, find someplace to hole up until sunlight."

"I know a place just a couple blocks from here," I say. "We can make it." This was going to bring back a whole lot of unpleasant memories. 

---