No Way Out *Negan/Daryl/Joelle

Memories

Jo spent what felt like hours, banging and slamming herself into the door. When the last of her energy escaped her body, she leaned against the it and slid to the floor. Jo felt the world spin and couldn't catch her breath. The damn mask was suffocating her! She focused on slowing her breath, through her nose. She calmed down and became exhausted, instantly. Bringing her knees up to her chest, she wrapped her arms around her legs. Jo leaned to the side and let gravity take her body to the floor. The cold cement sent a wave of relief through her body. When a headache erupted through her head, due to the lack of air, she welcomed the cold stone that pressed against her left temple. 

Jo let her eye lids droop and her mind wander. She hated when her mind went to her family without her permission. But she didn't really have any distractions at the moment, aside from the focus she kept on keeping her breath even. 

It saddened her to think she would never see them again. Daryl's face suddenly appeared, as many memories flew through her thoughts. She closed her eyes and let them take her over. 

***

The air was hot and dry on Jo's skin. She had been walking for miles and could feel sweat dripping off of her. Jo had been alone since the start of the walking dead shit, which had been around 3 months now. She kept to the shadows and stayed out of the way. She feared the dead and the living. Not that much time had passed since the turn, but people's true selves revealed themselves quickly. They were just as bad as the dead, if not worse. 

After spending sometime on the out skirts of Atlanta, she decided to make her way further out and into the forests. She was lucky and found a tent and sleeping bag, that was thankfully left behind in a sports store. There was plenty of water and food for herself to stay alive for awhile. Once she had thought she put plenty of distant between herself and the city, she set up camp. She made a small fire with her flint and steel kit, cooked some beans in a can, and set up her zombie alarm made out of cans and various metal items, she tied to strings.  

A little after dark, she was happy with her set up and decided to bring out her notepad and draw. She liked to pass the time with drawing interesting things she saw throughout her day. Today it was a tank, surrounded by walkers. She didn't know what was so special about it to them, but it was intriguing to her. After an hour or so, she had finished the tank and moved onto the walkers. 

Jo then looked up from her notepad after realizing she heard a twig snap. It seemed too close to her considering she didn't hear her warning cans go off. "Hmm, must be a rabbit", she whispered to herself. She went back to her drawin. As another couple minutes went by, the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Before she could turn to look around, she felt the cold of metal of a knife on the back of her neck. "Fuck! Thats no damn rabbit," she exclaimed. "Damn righ' I'm na' ",  she heard a man say, with a thick southern accent. She went to turn her head slowly, but apparently it wasn't slowly enough and the man withdrew the knife from the back of her neck and brought the butt end to her temple in a swift motion, knocking her out. 

***

"So, what was the reason for knocking me out the other night?", Jo asked the redneck, who walked next to her. They were tracking through the forest to retrieve her things that were left behind. 

He didn't reply to her, just kept his eyes to the ground. Jo looked over at him, thinking maybe he didn't hear her. He felt her eyes on him and looked up at her with his blue ones. He hated feeling like he did something wrong by knocking her out and taking her back to his camp with him. But when he stumbled upon her, he thought it might be better for a younger girl like her to be in a group nowadays. You could never be too careful, especially being a young girl. 

"I dunno... Though' you migh' be needin' a group for protection round here, with all these walkers around, ya no'?", he mumbled. Anger instantly coursed through Jo's body. He didn't think she could take care of herself?... Who the hell did think he was?! But instead of saying something back that would hurt his feelings, she took a second to think. This has saved her quite a few times. Never act without thinking, you never know what will happen. 

"You know? That was actually very kind of you. I've been doing decent out here on my own, but maybe it is time for me to join a group. Those people seem nice and I am a bit lonely, honestly. Thanks Daryl", Jo said sincerely. 

Daryl was surprised by her words considering he felt the wave of anger come off her skin when he said what he said, and regretted it instantly. He looked up from the ground and made eye contact with Jo again. A small genuine smile spread on his lips. She smiled in return. 

***

Jo awoke to scuffling, loud bangs and grunts outside her cell door. She must have fallen asleep while remembering how she met Rick's group. Jo tried to smile to herself, but remembered the mask on her face when she could not. A flash of anger went through her body again, but she got distracted when she heard the cell door next to her open. Someone was thrown in and let out a deep grunt. 

"Don't worry, lil shit. You will learn how to act in my presence. If not, my baby Lucille here will beat the piss right outta ya!", she heard Negan say loudly, before the cell door slammed shut. She heard banging on the door, just as she had done earlier. After they had given up she heard a muffled sentence come from the person in the other cell but could not make out what they said.

Even though Jo didn't know the person on the other side of the cell wall. She still felt a little better knowing there was someone else near in the same predicament as her. She wished she could talk to the person and find out more about them and where they came from, but she obviously couldn't. 

After pondering on the new prisoner, she heard a new sound. It was a rattling, metal sound and it was coming from the back of her cell. She looked around and caught a glimpse of something shiny, reflecting the small amount of light coming in from underneath the door. She stood up and took the few small steps it took to get over to it. She knelt down and reached out to touch the reflecting object. She realized it was a vent that went into the other person's cell. That was what they were messing with. They must think they can escape through it, ha, that wasn't going to happen. There was no escape. 

She then saw a small flash of movement on the other side. Hope of human contact that was not evil crept into her heart. Without thinking she tried to yell, but it was muffled by the mask. She yelled louder to get there attention. The movement stopped on the other side and she could hear breathing. 

"Someone ther'?" a guy with a southern drawl asked. Yes, she screamed. She made the word almost recognizable for the man.  "You alrigh'? I can barely hear ya?" Jo knew there was no way to communicate with that damn mask on her face. So she did the only other thing she had left. She started knocking gently on the vent. "Well at leas' we ain' alone, huh", he said in his thick southern accent, understanding the person on the other side was there. 

Jo really listened to him and something sounded so familiar to her about his voice. She couldn't place a finger on it, but something about that voice sounded like home to her. She turned around and rested her back on the vent, brought her knees back up to her chest, and rested her head in the corner of the walls. She closed her eyes in comfort, knowing she wasn't alone.