Faded Scars (Daryl Dixon)

Chapter 46

My eyes flickered over the thick fog that surrounded us, walkers growling from within. "Stick together." I instructed as I readied my knife, preparing for a fight.

A shout echoed from Bob, followed by a gunshot that I whipped my head towards. The attacking walker fell to the ground just as another grabbed hold of Maggie. I turned towards an approaching walker as Sasha hurried to Maggie's side, shooting the walker pinning her down just as I sent my blade through a walker's skull. 

For now, we were in the clear and I joined the others as we stopped near Bob, Sasha falling to her knees as we saw him clutching his shoulder as if he were bit. "It's okay. He got me right on the bandage." I let out a breath of relief as Sasha chuckles hesitantly before embracing him, putting pressure on Bob's wound and causing him to wince.

We each took a moment to catch our breaths and reload, Sasha working on her gun while Maggie paced around before us. "You ready?" I can see how eager she is to leave and tilt my head towards Sasha, who seems frustrated with Maggie. "We should wait until the fog clears." She instructs and I turn to Maggie. "She's right. We can't see anything in front of us with this fog around." I pointed out as she continues to pace. "We've been waiting a while." She huffs as Bob walks over. "They're right. We've been doing good following the plan. No need to get sloppy now."

I watched as Maggie sighed, reluctantly agreeing, and moved away from us, pulling something from her pocket and groaning. "What is it?" Sasha asked standing up as Maggie tossed a fractured object towards her. "The compass. It's broken." Sasha pinches the bridge of her nose before dropping the broken compass to the ground. "Great." She mutters and turns to Bob, who just waves it off. "We don't need it. Sun comes up in the East, sets in the West. We'll keep an eye on it between. We'll be fine."

We waited until the fog clear before continuing on, slowing when Maggie spotted a map posted to a sign reading "Sanctuary for all, Community for all, Those who arrive survive" painted in bright red. Bob stepped forwards, narrowing his eyes at the map. "Terminus. When we were out on the run to the veterinary college, we heard a message about this on the radio." I looked towards him in shock. "They were broadcasting?" Bob nodded as Sasha stepped forwards, looking at Bob. "What did it say?" She asked curiously and we watched as he shrugged. "Couldn't make it out. I only know because I'm seeing it now. 'Those who arrive survive'." He pointed out. 

"We should go." I turned to Maggie, who had a wide grin on her face. "Wait, Maggie. We don't even know if this place is still safe." I argued, but knew it was pointless as she had already stopped listening. "I thought we were looking for Glenn." Sasha stated, trying to get Maggie to focus on the plan we already had. "If he saw one of these, he would go looking for me looking for him. Look at this map. All these tracks from different directions leading to the same place." Maggie argued and I turned my focus back to the posted map.

"It's far. And we don't know if there are other signs." Sasha argued back, frustrated that Maggie once again wanted to stray from her plan. "You don't think this is the only one." Maggie snapped back at Sasha, I turned to look at the two women before Bob spoke up. "This is the best lead we've had so far. It says sanctuary. That's just another reason to try. Others from the prison could be there. Tyreese."

Sasha gave Bob a pointed look for bringing up her brother and I sighed. "So what's the plan?" I asked the group, Bob continuing to look towards Sasha. "What do you want to do, Sasha? Keep making these circles from the bus? Or are you talking about us starting to do something else? We're not splitting up. That can't happen." She still didn't answer, but just looked around at each of us. "You want to take a vote or something?" Bob offered, but Sasha only crossed her arms over her chest. "We don't need a vote." She grumbled and watched as Bob and Maggie took over the lead.

When it started to get dark, I was finally able to get Maggie to stop and rest. As she headed off to fetch firewood, I took a seat on a nearby log and fixed my hair into a neat ponytail. "Still bleeding?" Sasha asked as she laid out a tarp, her eyes trained on Bob. "Barely. So tell me..." He started, only to receive a dangerous look from her. "Tell you what?" She questioned, glaring at his lopsided grin. "You think we should stop." Bob stated and she replied with a simple answer. "Tell me why." Bob pressed and Sasha sighed moving to sit beside him. "To not die. You, Maggie, Scarlett, me." She sent me a look and I smiled. "You do care." I said playfully causing her to roll her eyes.

"Yeah, that's not it." Sasha snapped her head back towards Bob as he disagreed with her answer. "I don't think you know why you want to stop." He stated and she shook her head. "Bob, what happened this morning, we get warnings." Bob just shrugged her off. "We did fine." She gave him another pointed look and I chuckled. "We get warnings. And the next time it's on us. Odds are Glenn is dead." She turned to me and sighed. "Odds are we will be, too. That's reality. We've got six bullets and you're still bleeding." She looked over at Bob's bandaged shoulder. "Those tracks, they run through towns. The first one we see, we find a building, some high ground to set up in. All of us. That's what we need to do. That's what were gonna do. If we can talk her into it. Just think about it." Sasha said looking between both of us before working back on her setup before it became to dark.

I could hear her boots carefully crunching through the leaves as she came forwards in the darkness and then stopped. "Leaving so soon." I said softly, trailing my eyes up to see Maggie's darkened frame. "I have to leave, Scarlett." I pulled away from the tree I was leaning against and stepped up before her. "If think you're going along, you're wrong." I stated and watched as her eyes flickered over my face. "You'll be safer here." She argued, but I chuckled lightly. "Maybe, but safe is boring." I smiled and she rolled her eyes before walking onwards while I turned, following after her. 

"Sasha is gonna be pissed." I chuckled and Maggie glanced over her shoulder at me with a nervous gaze. "Maybe." She said softly as we headed down the path towards Terminus.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you everyone for 11k reads!!

I'm glad all of you are enjoying this story and once again I apologize for my slow updating. You are amazing readers and I enjoy every one of your comments and votes.

Thank you so much for support and love for this book!

-L