Healing Broken Wings [Daryl Dixon] The Walking Dead

Seven| Abandon Ship

🌱Kristina🌱

I stare at Jenner in horror as he has just locked our only way out of here. Now the children are scared. Sophia and Carl run to their moms. The alarm is blaring and I'm crouched on the floor in fear. "30 minutes to decontamination," Vi says, and everyone freaks.

"He locked us in!" Glenn says in fear. Daryl makes a run at Jenner. "You son of a bitch!"

"Shane!" Rick says in warning, motioning to Daryl. "You locked us in here!" Daryl grabs at Jenner but Shane and Rick hold him back. Daryl's pissed and they should be careful. When he's pissed off, everyone else be damned. "Just stop! Okay," Shane says, looking at Daryl.

Daryl makes threatening gestures with the whiskey bottle. "Open that door, right now!" Rick orders and Jenner shakes his head. "There's no point everything topside is sealed shut you'll never get out. The emergency exit is sealed off."

"Well open them!" Dale yells and Jenner shakes his head. "That's not something I control. The computers do. I told you once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that. It's better this way."

"What is? What happens in 28 minutes?" Jenner types something on the computer. "What happens in 28 minutes!" Rick screams. "Come on!" Daryl calls and I close my eyes tightly, trying to tune everything out.

I come back with a start when I hear the words, H.I.T.s. "Vi, define."

"H.I.T.s-high-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives consist of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen at between 5,000 degrees and 6,000 degrees and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structures is desired."

"Lights the air on fire. No pain." Carol and Sophia begin crying as Carol holds her. Suddenly Daryl throws the liquor bottle at the door, it shatters and I jump, despite everything my tears slip out. This is the first time I've cried since I lost my family, I've always forced them back. "Open the damn door!"

Daryl screams and a sob escapes me. Shane grabs an ax and T-Dog tosses one to Daryl, he catches it and glances at me. He seems to freeze before attacking the door with the ax. I listen to the conversation warring around me. "Can't make a dent," Shane says swinging his ax one last time.

"Those doors are meant to withstand a rocket launcher."

"Well, your head ain't!" Daryl screams swinging his ax, he's terrifying me right now. I've seen him kill before but only horrible people. Jenner doesn't seem that horrible. He's just trying to spare us from a terrible gruesome death.

Dale, Rick, and Shane all hold Daryl back. "Whoa! Whoa!"

"Daryl! Daryl!" T-Dog takes the ax away from Daryl, who glares at him. "Just back up! Back up!" Rick pushes Daryl back causing him to huff in anger. "There is no hope. There never was."

"There's always hope. Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here but somebody somewhere—"

"What part of "Everything is gone" do you not understand?"

"Listen to your friend. She gets it. This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event." Carol and Sophia continue crying. "This isn't right. You can't just keep us here," Carol says, voice breaking as she holds Sophia.

"One tiny moment-a millisecond. No pain."

"My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this." Shane comes back with his shotgun and he cocks and points it towards Jenner. "Shane no!" Rick goes to intercept him only to be pushed away. Rick tries to talk him out of it and I see Shane getting angrier by the second.

Eventually, Shane yells before aiming at a computer monitor and starts firing, yelling all the time. I scream in fear as glass rains down on me. Daryl grabs the back of Shane's collar and jerks him backward. "You fucking moron, you could have hit, Kris!" Daryl screams at him, coming to my side and crouching down.

I sob, shaking my head, hiding my face in my knees, having pulled them to my chest. Daryl pulls me against him and I don't fight it, even though I want nothing more than to push him away, especially with him giving me the cold shoulder all morning, but I just don't have the will. Rick takes the shotgun from Shane.

Daryl stands up, grabbing the ax and going back to the door. I hear him grunt as he swings the ax. Jenner explains how Test Subject 19 was his wife. "Your wife didn't have a choice. You do. That's--that's all we want--a choice, a chance."

"Let us keep trying as long as we can," Lori says and Jenner stands up. "I told you topside's locked down. I can't open those." Jenner walks back to the security pad and unlocks the door Daryl has been beating on. I hear beeping and the door opens, causing
Daryl to yell, "Come on!"

Everyone rushes for the door, except me, Jacqui, and Andrea. "Let's go!" Glenn yells.

"Come on! Come on!" Daryl yells urging everyone on. I don't move to stand up from my spot on the floor, crying into my knees. "Hey! We've got four minutes left, let's go!" Glenn screams and T-Dog starts to lead Jacqui out.

"No, I'm not going!"

"That's insane!"

"No, it's not. I'm not going to end up like Jim and Amy." Everyone stops when they hear T-Dog yelling at Jacqui. She says this last to all of them. Jacqui pushes T-Dog away.

"Dog, come on, man. Come on! Let's go! Let's go!" Shane takes T-Dog by the arm and leads him up the ramp. Dale gestures for Jacqui to come, too, but she shakes her head, folds her arms tightly against her, and turns her back. She doesn't give Dale an opening to persuade her. He looks over to Jenner and sees Andrea's there.

Daryl sees me, still on the floor, and runs over to me. "Kris, come on." He grabs my arm but I don't stand up. "Kris! I'm not letting you stay here!"

"I'm scared! And what's the point? If we even make it out of here and survive, everything's just going to go back to the way it was? Are we gonna go back to the way we were?" He stares at me his eyes grew sad. "Kristina, please, I can't lose you."

I want to say, you already have but I keep my mouth shut. Daryl cups my face and makes me look at him. "Kristina, please!" He begs me and tears fall from my eyes before I nod. He immediately jerks me to my feet and pulls me towards the door.

As we get topside something explodes. I cry out in pain as something cuts my shoulder burning me. Daryl's eyes widen and he pulls me closer, ripping a strip of his shirt off and binding my shoulder, I don't look, not wanting to know how it looks.

We rush out into the open, I stick close to Daryl as walkers come in close. Shane shoots some walkers and Daryl takes one's head off with his ax. Rick, takes out the R.V. keys and jumps in, starting the car. "Wait! Wait! Here they come," Lori calls, pointing, I look and see Andrea and Dale running towards us.

"Dale! Andrea! Get down!" Lori screams. "Everyone get down!" Rick orders and Daryl pulls me down in the seats of his truck, covering me protectively. A huge fireball builds up inside the CDC building until it fills the entire place. The heat blasts out the windows, setting fire to everything around it, exploding tanks, cars, trucks, everything it touches. The explosion expands until the roof disintegrates and the building implodes on itself.

I don't want to sit up but I force myself to. Dale and Andrea had taken shelter behind a wall made out of sandbags. They peer up, looking at the devastation. Daryl exhales and looks around, everyone is shocked at the destruction that just ensued.

Dale pulls Andrea to her feet and they make their way to the R.V. Glenn opens the door and urges them inside. Our five cars turn around and drive back up the road we'd come down on. The burning of the CDC sends a column of black smoke high up into the Atlanta sky.

I stay silent, staring off into the woods. Whether I do it or am pulled apart by walkers I'll die and I sure as hell don't want the latter. Even getting raped didn't make me want to give up but everything Jenner said had truth ringing behind it. Is surviving for a few days worth it, just to be eaten alive by rotting corpses? I shake my head, rubbing my forehead.

Daryl spotting my movement, glances in my direction. But he leaves me be for now. I curl up on the seat, resting my head against the cool window.