Tragic Coincidence | Daryl Dixon

Chapter Twenty-Eight

I watched in sick satisfaction as my knife crushed through the walkers skull, and it fell onto the ground. I smirked and then moved on to the next walker that was banging on the fence. I quickly killed the next one, along with the other five that were on the fence and stepped back to wipe my forehead with a rag that was hooked to my belt. I wiped the blood and sweat with one swipe and leaned against the opposite fence that led to the prison field. The past two days I have been doing nothing but killing walkers, sometimes I would wander out into the woods in hopes of finding a couple of them to kill.....or even happen to find Daryl.

Three days had gone by since the group came back without him, and I was feeling like a part of me was missing. Apparently Daryl's older brother Merle had helped them escape a town called Woodbury, and blood is thicker than water, so of course Daryl left with him. At first i was angry, angry at the fact that he had no idea if I was going to live or not and he took off with not so much of a goodbye. But now all I wanted was to feel the warmth that always radiated off of his sweaty body. I never thought I would get close to anyone like this, to where I actually physically ached when they were no longer around, but Daryl did that for me.

I heard someone calling my name and turned around to see Hershel had hobbled down on crutches, and was standing behind me at the fence. I gave him a small smile and turned to face him, wiping my knife on my jeans and then sliding it onto my hip. "We miss you up at the prison you know" He said gently leaning a hand against the fence to steady himself. I nodded before turning around to face the wood line. "Beth thinks of you like another sister, and I, another daughter" He said softly, I could feel his gentle fingertips grazing my shoulder. 

"I know you miss him, but you have the rest of us you know?" He added. I turned around to face him and gave him a genuine smile before grabbing his hand through the fences. "I know" I whispered and squeezed his hand the best I could. I looked down for a second and stared down at my dirty bloodied black boots when the first gunshot rang out. Hershel and I both ducked but neither of us had any idea where the shots were coming from. Hershel started crawling through the tall grass to safety and I pulled out my pistol and started shooting shots out into the wood line.

Bullets were hitting the ground at my feet and I ran as fast as I could down the pathway, but I was running out of room. I leaned against the guard tower as shots continuously fired from the prison out into the woods. Looking carefully I could see a truck parked in the trees, with three men shooting rifles back at the prison, shooting at my home. I growled and ducked close to the ground before running through the opening we created in the fence. It didn't seem like they had seen me yet, so I ran and hid down by the bridge across the water. "Shit" I whispered when I noticed a large truck push it's way through to the prison.

All shooting stopped, as if everyone was just watching what would happen with this truck. My heart was racing worrying about everyone back at the prison, and Hershel who was in the line of fire in the grass. I peeked up and could see him lift his head every so often letting me know he was stil alive. But my relief was cut short when I saw what was in the back of the van. Walkers.

About two dozen walkers stumbled out of the back of the truck, and my heart stopped seeing how close they were getting to Hershel. The driver of the truck then jumped back in the drivers seat and drove off away from the prison. I never had the displeasure of meeting any of these people who came from Woodburry but from what I could see, they didn't appear to even be close to human. They seemed to be more monstrous than the walkers who wandered around looking for food. And from what Michonne and  Maggie told me, The governor was the worst of them all. 

All shooting stopped when the truck drove away, but the silver truck Glenn drove pulled into the field to help Hershel. I saw Michonne and Glenn help him into the backseat before taking out a few walkers and driving back up to the prison. I was glad they were all ok, but looking around I wasn't so sure for myself. All of that gunfire had wound up the walkers, and dozens of them were surrounding me. I groaned before shooting six of them, and cursed when my gun ran out of ammo. I stuck it quickly in the holster at my side and yanked out the hatchet I strapped to the opposite leg. 

I hacked through as many walkers as I could, blood splattering all over my body and face. I felt pain in my side and was certain my stitches had ripped open as they weren't completely healed yet. I grunted in pain before taking down two more walkers who wandered up on my right. I was trying to make my way back to the fence to get inside and away from them all, but three of them soon had me pinned against the fence. One walker was snapping its jaw inches from my face, and I yelled trying my hardest to get him off of me, but it was hard seeing as the other two piled on right behind him.

I was giving up quickly realizing I didn't have the strength nor energy to get him off of me. But just when my arms were about to give out, just when I was about to become walker chow two of the walkers were ripped off of me, and an arrow was shot through the third, the arrow only millimeters from my face. I was shaking as I watched the walker fall to the ground, and i couldn't help but sink down against the fence and fall into the dirt. I tried my hardest to steady my shaking fingers, slow my speeding heart but nothing was working.

And just when I thought I would have a panic attack from fear of death, the person I longed to see was standing right in front of me. Daryl stood there only feet away, wearing a dirty cut off shirt and wielding a crossbow in his hands. He was looking at me with widened eyes, his mouth slightly parted. Standing beside him was an older man with dirty blonde hair and the same matching blue eyes. He was missing a hand and instead wore some sort metal device where his hand should be. My eyes went back to Daryl to see he had dropped his crossbow on the ground and was walking towards me. 

I tried my hardest to stand up, but my shaking body wasn't helping me any. But I didn't need to, When Daryl reached me he had wrapped his arms around my tiny body and picked me up with ease. He set me down gently on my feet before taking my face in his hands, looking at me as if making sure I was alive. I couldn't help but let the tears fall as I looked at him, his gorgeous dirty face was looking at me as if I was the only woman in the world, that face I had missed so much. My lip trembled when Daryl gently rubbed his thumb across my cheek while his other hand made its way down to my waist. 

He wiped away my tears before kissing away the new ones that were forming. "I missed you" I finally managed to speak, still slightly shocked he had just saved my life and was standing in front of me. Daryl wrapped an arm around my neck and pulled me into him, my arms going around his waist and holding him tightly. I felt his face buried in the crook of my neck, as his breath would tickle my skin when he breathed. "I'll never leave you again" he whispered in my ear, his lips grazing my neck. I shivered at his husky voice, and held onto him tighter. 

I know that we were never guaranteed tomorrow, that we never could know when our last moments would be, not in this world. It was in this moment that I needed to let Daryl know how I felt, before we ended up apart and might not get the chance. I opened my mouth ready to let the words come out, but the words that came out did not belong to me. They were the words I had been longing to say, but the voice was not my own. "I love you" Daryl spoke softly, as if only for my ears. I barely heard him, but my eyes went wide when i realized that i did. I felt my eyes watering again realizing Daryl had felt the same way as I.

"You do?" I asked quietly. Daryl looked from out matching eyes down to my chapped pink lips. He nodded slowly before reaching down and capturing my lips with his in a slow kiss. I melted into him, and only wrapped my arms around his neck and held his face to mine. I moaned slightly into the kiss and only deepened in by opening my mouth to him. The kiss was slow, passionate and full of love, the kind of kiss that made me weak at the knees. This tender kiss that I had been longing for since I woke up, only ignited my love for this man even farther.

When we pulled apart I rested my forehead against his, our breathing both heavy and labored. "I love you too" I said with a smile and reached up and pushed some of his long brown locks out of his face. Daryl smiled slightly before looking away surprising me and pushing me behind him, shoving his knife through a walkers skull. Leave it to the apocalypse and the undead to ruin a perfectly good moment like this, but things were different, I was different. I was in love with a man I never thought I would, A man that could die at any moment.....and i wouldn't have it any other way.