The Greatest Sacrifice - Daryl Dixon

Going Solo

The outpost held only ten people and when she had arrived the man guarding the door had knelt immediately, “Miss Allison, welcome to Outpost Gamma” he said still on his knees and Ally had to suppress a shudder when she had to ask him to stand. “I've a special message from My father and some questions I'm required to ask you all. Can I ask you to gather everyone in this outpost in the common room? I mean everyone” she said using her Negan voice that was expected of her, she was playing a role like an actress on stage and she was glad no-one from Alexandria had to see it. It took nearly half an hour for everyone to assemble and Ally felt her heart sink when she saw a young man who had once been her friend now kneeling so obediently, he had lost the spark of his life. “Is this everyone? No-one is out hunting or on a run?” she asked and there was a chorus of “Everyone is here”  from the kneeling group. “I'm sorry for this” she said quietly as she pulled out her big automatic gun and opened fire on them all as they screamed and cried for her to stop, some went for their weapons but she was faster and had more rounds to spare, even when they fell silent those cries echoed in her head. She told herself she just couldn't risk them escaping and running back to her father to tell him what she was doing and that what she had down was the right thing but she still felt the guilt weigh heavily on her chest like an elephant had stood there. She felt the tear sliding down her cheek as she passed the pile of the dead and headed for the supplies. As a small outpost there was only a truck full of things she could take that were useful and then she set it on fire just like the first outpost. As she drove away she caught her reflection in the mirror and didn't even recognise herself, with the blood spatters on her clothes and face, her bright eyes now bearing a crazed look and her hair wild she looked like her father and that thought scared the absolute Hell out of her. She drove the truck back to Alexandria not even paying attention to the road, it was like driving with her eyes shut and she didn't even know how she made it back in one piece in the state she was in. She beeped the horn once outside the gates and Eugene pulled the gates open to let her in, she parked the truck as Abraham and Sasha come over to see what she had brought this time but the sight of Ally smeared with blood and dead-eyed held them back, something had gone down while she had been away, that much was obvious. “What the hell happened to you?” Abraham asked as he tried to reach his hand out to Ally but she shook her head, she needed to be alone now so that she might begin to process what she had done. She walked in a daze back to the house thankful it was empty so that she wouldn't have to answer any questions, she wasn't even sure what she would say later on when someone asked as they were bound to do at one point or another. She stripped off her clothes and let them fall to the floor, the blood had gone right through the fabric to stain her skin telltale rusty red. She tore the brace from her body and threw it across the room where it bounced off the wall to land heavily on the carpet, she felt like a pipe ready to burst at any second so she flipped on the shower and stepped in. She closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to see the puddle of red that gathered on the floor of the shower as she washed herself clean, even her hair had dried blood in it and she began to frantically scrub at her hair and skin leaving it red and aching in her panic to remove every trace of her little excursion. She was sitting in the bottom of the shower when Daryl came in having heard she was back, he followed the trail of bloody clothes to the showed and knocked on the door. “Ally? Are you alright?” he asked with such concern in his voice she broke down, “No” she replied in a small voice and Daryl opened the door and found her where she sat on the cold floor still dripping wet from the shower. “What happened?” he asked as he pulled her off the floor and into his arms, “I killed them all, everyone in the outpost. I was so scared they would go and tell Negan that I just…..killed them.” she said as her voice cracked and broke now she had actually told someone. Daryl didn't say a word, he didn't know if what Ally did was right or wrong because he hadn't been there to see it for himself but Ally was distraught and that was something he could help with. He grabbed the towel and wrapped it around her shoulders and walked her to her bed where she slipped on her clean underwear and a long shirt. She sat there like she had frozen and when Daryl wrapped his arms around her she didn't even move, “Don't shut me out” he said as she looked up at him with eyes that seemed so dull after what she had seen. She climbed into his lap and rested her head against his neck, feeling his pulse jump against her cheek. “You should get some sleep while you can” Daryl said but Ally shook her head, the last thing she wanted to do was to close her eyes so she could have nightmares, no thanks. She knew exactly what to do.

She started slow by kissing him on his neck and jaw until he growled low and feral, her plan was working. Her hands wound in his hand and pulled gently and he finally got the message, she wanted him, right now.