Almost Broken: Carl Grimes fanfic

Chapter 11

~Rylies pov~

After telling daryl about how I felt, and him sitting there awkwardly trying to pretend like it WASNT awkward, he spoke up.

"Seems to me like ya really don' wanna leave?" He says, and leans against the cell door frame.

"I have to leave." I say and shake my head.

"I understand how you feel." He says and I look up at him confused and he chuckles once.

"Yeh, when they handcuffed my brother to a roof-"

"They what?!" I interrupt him and almost laugh but I know it's not funny.

"Yeah," he moves his hand to the back of his neck, showing he's uncomfortable.

"When that happened, I just wanted to be by myself y'know? Didn't want to care for anyone but myself, thought it'd be easier that way." He shook his head.

"What changed your mind?" I ask him.

"I realized that you cant be human if you're alone here.ya might as well be one a'the dead." He said simply.

Ouch.

That hurt.

I mean I know he didn't mean it that way and I'm sure he doesn't know that it affected me.

"Yeah.." I mumble.

"But if you're still leavin', don' let me stop ya. That's your choice, you have to do what you feel is right." He says and walk out of the cell, and into his.

I give an over-exaggerated sigh and fall back onto the bed, and lift my hands up to my eyes.

'Daryl turned out okay. And he is stronger than me so he can handle death better, I can't. I get irrational when someone dies, do things I wouldn't normally do... I'm not doing this for me, I'm doin it for them, for their safety.' I tell myself and get up.

I pick up my half full book bag, and sling it over my shoulders and head downstairs. I think to myself what all I still have left in here.

"3 granola bars.

2 water bottles.

Some tic tacs (like that'll do any good)

A small blanket.

A jacket.

Some socks

Underwear

...... Aaand that's about it.

I'm low on food so first thing I'm doing when I leave is look for food." I think to myself and go into the front room of the cell block.

Beth has Judith and is playing with her at one of the tables, Hershel is laughing with Rick, Maggie and Glenn are making googley eyes at eachother, Tyreese is... Reading, and Carl is no where to be seen. I look at the happy group in front if me and sigh knowing their happiness is going to come crashing down at any moment.

I purse my lips as Rick looks up at me, followed by Hershel. Rick stands up and walks towards me. I purse my lips again and look around.

"You heading out?" He asks me and I nod.

"Lemme have one last look at that hand here." Hershel motions for me to come sit next to him at the a table and I do.

"Does it burn? Or sting?" He asks as he lifts the bandage and I answer him when I wince in pain.

He chuckles and says, "I take that as a yes." He shakes his head and I chuckle this time.

After Hershel puts more creme on it, he wraps it in a cleaner bandage and smiles at me, the most heart warming smile.

"Thank you Hershel." I say and I hug him... I actually hugged him? It takes him by surprise but he laughs and hugs back.

I back up and look over to Rick who has a small bag and hands it to me.

"Here. There's some dry soup, peanuts, water, just some extra food. There's also some lint and matches in there for easy fire making. I know it's getting warmer but it's still cold at night so I figured-" he rambles on and I just chuckle.

"Thank you Rick. Thank you so much." I smile. I feel like I should hug him but I'm not exactly sure... He moves closer and I decide to just go for it. I wrap my arms around his upper waist and he wraps his around my back, my face against his mid-chest. I hug him tighter, and he does the same. This is the way my dad used to hug me, after the outbreak and before we got separated. My heart sinks at the thought and I sigh.

I still don't see Carl anywhere around and I'm upset about that.

I know he doesn't want me to leave, (well... maybe he does) but he atleast could've said goodbye to me instead of just storming off. I shake it off and head for the door. I look back at Glenn and Maggie who were smiling at me, and I smile back, which I guess is our goodbye.

I look over at Daryl and he gives me a slight smirk and nod. I return the gesture and open the door, Rick following me out.

We head through the first set of gates and into the field. We get down to the weird orange gate, Rick gives me a nod and he opens the gate. I run out, killing the two walkers against it with a combat knife Rick have me.

"Rylie." Rick whispers from the other side of the fence.

I look around checking for more walkers before walking up to it to hear what he has to say.

"Be careful, okay?" He says.

I grin at him and nod.

"You too." I say and walk away.

And once again, I'm alone.