Daryl Dixon: A Beautiful Disaster (SEQUEL)

Chapter 19: Not Part of their Plan

"Will Rick and the others come looking for us?" Spencer asks as we walk through the darkness.

Daryl doesn't turn his head when he answers "if they do it won't be till mornin'"

I add on "with everything that happened he has to go back and get Alexandria ready in case they come to attack. We shouldn't bank on them coming."

"But they came back for Daryl when he first found you, didn't they? So they might come for us?" He asks again, clearly a bit nervous being this out in the open. He's been on a few runs, but he's never had to actually survive outside the walls.

"Guess we'll see" Daryl mutters.

We walk for hours into the night, the moon directly above us "can we rest for a bit?" Spencer asks out.

Daryl exhales but stops to look at me. I give him a shoulder shrug and he rolls his eyes "fine, two hours. Ima take a piss then you two can get some sleep." He snarls then moves.

Spencer takes a seat against a tree and I do the same on one across from him. He eventually asks "can I ask you something?"

"Sure" I return, running my fingers through my hair.

"Back there, he said you were branded. What did he mean?" Spencer asks.

I bite my lower lip, not really wanting to get into it with him or explain how things work there. Luckily, Daryl comes out from the woods and answers for me "it means those bastards are sadistic assholes who carved into her body to try and mark her."

"They carved into you?" Spencer asks, mouth hung open a bit.

I respond "inner thigh, Yea. It's not as bad as it sounds though." I try and defuse his pity on me.

Spencer says nothing in return so Daryl just lowly tells us "k, two hours then we move."

Spencer falls asleep within a few minutes and I try to let his breath calm my own. I can't sleep, too worried about getting back to Alexandria to even try. As minutes go by, I decide to thank Daryl for answering for about my scars "thanks for uhh, thanks for explaining that shit to Spencer for me."

He doesn't answer right away, and right when I decide to stop waiting for one, he says back "yea, I know yew don't like to talk about it."

I shrug, happy I can't fully see his face in the moonlight "I just don't want to be pittied."

"You should sleep" Daryl tells me.

I say back "so should you." He does a sort of snort of laughter, both of us already knowing the other wouldn't rest until we were back home.

"Iight, we gotta move" Daryl says into the silent night air.

I nod, standing and moving to wake Spencer. My eyes don't need to adjust to the dark since I didn't even try and get some rest. I lean over him and gently shake his shoulder "hey, we gotta move." I can feel him stir awake and his eyes open. There is a quick look of horror but it quickly disappears when he sees me and remembers where we are "ready?" I ask him.

He nods, and stands. He starts to wipe at his pants to get off any dirt and the three of us start walking again.

Daryl's P.O.V.

"We're probably about 4 hours away now" I tell em as the sun sits high in the sky. I know Shannon is fine but Spencer is weak and he's been complaining bout bein hungry and thirsty for what feels like forever now.

He mumbles "bout damn time, did we take a wrong turn or somethin?" He asks "feel like we should've gotten back like this morning."

I turn and go to snarl something but Shannon stops me, putting a hand to my chest. She turns her head and says to him "when we ran from them, we ran farther into the woods, farther south." Spencer doesn't look at her though as she talks, I can see him eyeing her hand that's resting on my chest.

She lowers her hand and his eyes then meet hers, I turn back around to start walking again. I can't hear what he mumbles back to her and I don't care, I'm just ready to get back to Alexandria and get ready to fight "Rick!" Michonne calls, moving from on top of the fence to come down and help open it for us.

When the gate opens, Rick and a few others are walking toward the three of us "glad you guys made it back" He throws a head nod towards me.

Maggie and Shannon hug and Spencer just stands still, I tell Rick "we have to strike before they do."

"I know." Rick assures back to me "but Clint said he was dealing with problem one before, I think whoever blew that wall down is that problem. Maybe they're hands are full at the moment, if so, we can use that to our advantage."

"And how we gon' figure that out?" I ask.

Shannon then walks over towards Rick and he looks at her with firm eyes and says "I told you not to do that, we're not letting you go with them. You could've been killed."

"We all could've been. You heard him, he was willing to fight. We weren't ready for that." she argues back. I wonder what he's talkin' about. Why he would say he told her not to do that.

I try and piece together what he means but he says "well, we're ready now. We're leaving tonight but you're staying here." Which pulled my attention away from my drifting thoughts.

"What?!" She basically screams out.

Rick holds his hands up and I squint and stare, waiting to hear what he has planned. He explains, looking at me "Joey told us that he thinks the other problem Leroy is having is with one of his outposts. There was talk of some people not wanting to be under him anymore, wanting to get away. He knows he was off visiting one of them when you guys first got there so he thinks it was that group that attacked their wall."

"You can't believe anything Joey says!" Shannon argues, her face red with anger hearing his name.

I defend that "we can't just take his word for it." She told me what he did, so of course I don't like him but I also ain't gon trust the kid who was taking orders from my father.

Rick shakes his head "it's all we got. Rosita thinks she can get us back there, so we're going to go and recruit them."

I murmur back "I'll take ya, I know where to go."

"No." Rick shoots me down instantly "I need you here."

"What?" I go to argue.

He quickly interrupts me before I could and explain "you and Shannon have to stay behind. They may know now that your his son, and they know who Shannon is. If they see you guys, they may double cross us and try to use you guys as leverage, a trade. No, you need to stay here."

"Naw man, I need to be out there, making sure he dies!" I growl, pissed as hell he wants to bench me on this.

Rick keeps a calm tone "Daryl, I need you to watch over Alexandria. If they come here before we get to them, I need you here to fight."

Instead of arguing further, which I know won't do shit, I just storm past him. I ignore the calls of whoever is trying to get me to turn around and go straight to the house.