Bleeding Love | Daryl Dixon

Chapter Twenty.

It felt like we were driving for days, when in reality it was like three hours. We finally decided to head to Fort Benning like we should have from the beginning. I was still furious about the CDC. We lost Jackie, she decided to stay with Jenner and the both of them blew up with the building. Andrea almost did the same since losing Amy, and would have if Dale hadn't dragged her ass out of there. And if we never went to the CDC I would still be ok with Daryl. I never would have gotten drunk and thrown myself at him, and I would be sitting between the two Dixon's cracking jokes instead of listening to whatever crap Shane was listening to on the CD player. 

"Shit" I heard Shane curse and slammed his hand on the steering wheel. "What's wrong?" I asked. Shane shook his head and told me he was out of gas. He honked and the rest of the caravan stopped, Rick jumping out of Carol's car to see what was wrong. 

"Driving on fumes man" Shane said leaping out of the Jeep. I sighed and grabbed my bags realizing that more than likely we would be leaving the Jeep behind. Only a few minutes later and Rick confirmed that. Apparently Daryl was out of gas as well and they were pulling down Merle's bike for him to drive. Merle was hopping onto the back of his bike while Daryl and I stood awkwardly off to the side. 

"Vannah I-"

"Don't" I cut him off and walked over to Carol's car and climbed into the back with her and the kids. I saw Daryl shake his head and wander into the RV. Sophia was more than excited to have me riding with her, and about five minutes into the trip she fell asleep in my lap.

"She has sure taking a liking to you" Carol said softly as she ran her hand over Sophia's sleeping face. I heard Lori scoff in the front seat and I wasn't exactly happy about riding with the wicked witch of the apocalypse but so be it. I smiled at Carol and started to braid Sophia's hair. 

"She reminds me of myself at her age" I said frowning remembering how shitty my life was at this age. "I'm sorry" Was all Carol said. 

"Don't be, I got stronger because of it. Sophia will too, but she needs to learn to protect herself" I told her. Carol looked down at her sleeping daughter sadly before nodding her head and agreeing with me. "Would you mind?" She asked me with pleading eyes. I knew Carol had no idea how to use a gun, knife or anything else right now but I would be happy to teach her daughter. 

"I'll teach you both" I told Carol, and she squeezed my hand in appreciation. "Can you teach me too?" Carl asked from my right. I smiled over at the exuberant twelve year old and opened my mouth to respond, but Lori cut me off.

"No." She growled from the front seat. I rolled my eyes and scoffed. "Please mom! I Don't want to end up like Amy, or Jim or Jackie!" Carl explained to his mother. 

"You have plenty of people to keep you safe" Lori said not taking her eyes off the road ahead. Rick who was driving glanced to his wife for a moment before looking back at the road. 

"We wont always be there you know, this world isn't like it was before. Carl and Sophia both need to know how to protect themselves" I said shaking my head at this woman's ignorance. "Carl and Sophia are both twelve, that's far too young to be wielding weapons!" Lori said finally turning around in her seat to glare at me. All I could do was laugh and raise an eyebrow.

"You are one stupid bitch, you know that?" I said wanting nothing more than to reach out and slap her across the face. Lori's eyes went wide before looking to Rick for help. "Can you believe her?" She shrieked at her husband. Rick shook his head at me in the rear view mirror before turning to his wife. 

"Savannah's right honey, They really should know how to protect themselves from walkers" Rick said softly trying not to anger Lori anymore. I swear Lori looked like she was about to cry but ignored all of us and turned to look out the window. Before too long we came across a large traffic snarl on the highway that was preventing us from passing. Merle found us a way through on his bike, but there were still a couple dozen more cars in the way, plus the RV broke down again.

I was more than happy to leap out of the car to the rest of the group, and found myself standing next to Andrea who was leaning against the RV. "I swear I'm going to kill her" I whispered nodding my head to Andrea. She looked at who I was nodding to before smirking slightly at me and shaking her head. Dale needed another radiator hose and we needed more supplies so we all took to scavenging what we could in the surrounding vehicles.

I opened the trunk of a black SUV and crawled inside to see what I could find. I found a few bottles of water that I tossed into a bag, along with a few shirts that looked like they would fit one of the guys. "Savannah" I heard my name being called, and turned to see Daryl leaning against the back of the car. 

"What Daryl?" I asked with a sigh as I turned around to continue looking through bags in the trunk. "Are you ever going to fucking talk to me?" Daryl all but yelled at me. I found myself seeing red as I pulled myself out of the truck and shoved Daryl into the side of a car that was next to it.

"What the fuck is there to talk about Daryl? I told you I loved you and you threw me onto the ground like garbage. You made yourself very clear!" I exclaimed before grabbing my bow that I dropped next to the RV. I glared at Daryl before heading to another car, but Daryl had other ideas and pulled me back towards him.

"You were fucking drunk Savannah!" 

"Doesn't make it any less true Daryl! I have loved you since I was eighteen years old, gosh are you that stupid to not see that?" I said feeling myself growing more emotional talking about this with him. He knows the truth, everything is on him now. Daryl's eyes softened and he reached out to touch my cheek. "Vannah" He said so quietly I barely heard him. He opened his mouth to speak again, but out of the blue Merle popped up and pulled us down onto the concrete. 

"What the fuck man?" Daryl asked angrily at his brother who interrupted us. "There's a fucking herd the size of Texas coming man, get under a damn car" Merle said impatiently before rolling under the black car I was just looking through. My eyes widened and I rolled under the closest car, Daryl however decided to be a dumb ass and run back towards the rest of the group. 

Merle kept glancing at me from the truck in front of me, Carol and Lori were not to far away i saw under Carol's car, but soon the shuffling of dead feet was all I could see. The smell was terrible and I covered my mouth and nose to keep from smelling it any farther. Thankfully I got to take a shower at the CDC before dinner so i didn't smell as bad as the walkers. It grew quiet some time later and it sounded like all the walkers had finally past. 

I sighed and grabbed my bow that I dragged under the car with me before sliding out from under the car. Everyone else seemed to have been still under cars, but I shrugged not seeing any walkers around me. I slid my quiver back onto my back and was going to help Merle out from under the car and go look for Daryl, when a loud scream sounded through the air. Sophia.

I saw her running not to far away into the woods, and I didn't hesitate to run after her. "I got her!" I yelled at Rick who was running up on my right. He ignored me though and kept running along side me to find Sophia. I could hear Merle and Daryl shouting my name the second my ass was hidden in the trees, but the only thing I could think about was finding Sophia.