Daryl Dixon: A Beautiful Disaster (SEQUEL)

Chapter 25: Confronted

"I wasn't expecting company! Isn't this a joyous occasion." Leroy yells out, his voice carrying with the wind and dust. "Aw, have ya'll kissed and made up?" He starts to walk closer, not caring what or who he stomps on, "doesn't matter to me, she still gon' be mine darry boy."

"I'm not going to let that happen!" Daryl yells loudly to him, stepping in front of me as if to protect me.

His father cackles at us, pulling his gun out to aim towards us. Daryl instinctively reaches for his bow and aims down at him. My breath gets stuck in my stomach, hating that it has come down to him killing his own father. Leroy stops moving, and asks out "so, we gonna stand here all day or we gon shoot for her."

"I don't want to kill you, but I will if you force me to." Daryl informs him, but his hand and body is steady as he aims.

Leroy answers "if you can see anything at all, I'm not even aiming at yew boy. I got a good line a sight for my girl Shay right now." I can tell both Daryl and I are confused, unsure why he'd be aiming at me. "If I can't have her, why would you think you could?"

Daryl keeps his stance firm, his shoulders back and ready to shoot "Dad, come on. Lower the gun." It surprises me when a second after those words leave his mouth, he lowers his bow.

Leroy doesn't budge though, and utters back "see, you're soft. Merle neva woulda backed down."

Daryl rolls his eyes but takes one step closer and returns "Merle's dead and I ain't. Wanna know the reason he died?" He asks, and I wonder if he's expecting an answer or not. He doesn't let him think to respond when he answer his own questions "Merle didn't know when to back down, that's why he's dead."

Leroy laughs, as if he doesn't believe him "Merle was a real man, he died with pride."

Daryl informs him "he died alone, because he didn't want no one's help."

I stand there with hope. Hoping anything Daryl said would somehow change Leroy's mind about taking me, killing me. The hope is quickly diminished though when the gun now shifts in his hands and points to Daryl, "I can just kill you and take her."

Daryl snorts "go a head, but don't you think it's awfully ironic?" He asks out.

Leroy yells back "what?"

Daryl answers "yew know Merle and I left to get away from your abusive shit. But even in this broken fucked up world, you're still hurting your own fuckin flesh."

"Flesh ain't shit, you can see that all around." He looks to the left and right, sure as hell referring to the people he burned who will shortly come back to life in the worst way possible.

"So, that's it? You're a shit dad in the real world as well as this one?" Daryl asks, clearly shooting for a Hail Mary.

I can see his stand change slowly. He turns his body more to the side, ready to jump out of the way. So I start to move myself the same, knowing I would never get away from Leroy if Daryl was shot dead. I'd simply fall to the ground and wilt. Leroy's voice rises with the ash and dust and says "guess so. See you s-" But a giant tank rumbles the ground and grabs Leroy's attention.

"Shannon! Go!" Daryl screams, turning to help me turn and run.

I start to move my feet, heading in the direction of the tank. It's the same one from Alexandria, someone from home using it to help us escape.

The bullets start flying and I do my best to keep my eyes or my side to make sure Daryl's alright but also keep my feet moving, knowing we need the protection. Leroy might've lit his camp to the ground but that doesn't mean he killed everyone. He's got some kind of support with him, he would be stupid not to. I hear Daryl yell "come on! Keep up" I push through whatever I'm feeling and use my adrenaline to force my speed to pick up. The two of us reach the tank and he gets up first. I can't tell from the awkward stance of my standing on the back latter but I picture Daryl laying low working on opening the hatch for us to get in. Shortly after I hear him grumble over the bullets "get in!"

I quickly scamper up the ladder and drop inside. Daryl's feet come down right after mine and he closes the hatch. Only a few more seconds go by before we feel the tank start to turn around to get out of there. I can feel my breathe slowly come back to me when everything stops. The moving of the tank and the bullets being shot. I breathe out shortly "Daryl?"

He is already moving, "I'm on it" Before I could even answer he's out of the safe space of the tank and working on seeing what happened. It takes only a few seconds that felt like an eternity before the tank starts to move again and the bullets start. My breathe is stuck in my throat the entire time we drive, unsure of where we are going or what happened to Daryl.