Lost then found • Daryl Dixon

Chapter Eighteen

We were all gathered in the common room looking over the weapons and other things we had found.

"Not bad," Daryl said, checking the flashlights had working batteries. "Flashbangs, CS Triple-Chasers," Dad said, looking over it.

"Not sure how they'd work on walkers, but we'll take them," he said.  Daryl picked up a riot helmet, holding it upside down as some sort of liquid dripped out of it."That's disgusting," I grimaced.

"I ain't wearing this shit," he said. "We can boil them," T-Dog suggested.

"There ain't enough firewood in the whole forest, no," Daryl told him with a slight laugh.

"Besides we've gotten this far without them, right?" he asked us all, swinging one of the batons.  I nodded, agreeing with him. We've come this far.

"Hershel," Carol called him, we all turned to face her. "Everything alright?" Dad asked her, the clear worry on his face.

"Nothing to worry about," she told him trying to force out a smile, I turned to dad, he was cleary worried about Lori and the baby.

He shook himself off, as we carried on getting ready to go further into the prison. Daryl handed me a bullet proof vest, and I looked at him, confused.

He kept his eyes on me until I took it off him, I sighed as I pulled it on and he helped secure it around me. My heart racing from his body being so close, his scent, and the warmth coming from his body making me relax before he quickly pulled away.

I pulled out my handgun, refilling the empty clip before putting it back in the holder. Maggie helped Hershel put his vest on, as Carl put one of the clean helmets on. I picked my own baton to use.

Dad looked to me before going over to him. "You wont need that," he tells him before taking the helmet off him. Carl looks up at him, confused.

"I need you to stay put," he tells him. "You're kidding," Carl scoffs, clearly not happy he's not coming with us, but I agree with dad, we don't need him coming with us too.

"We don't know what's in there," he said,  pointing past the gate. "If something goes wrong, you could be the last man standing, I need you to handle things here," he tells him.  

"Sure," Carl agrees, I let out a sigh of relief. He would be here and safe. Dad hands over the keys to him. "Great, lets go," he tells us all.

We all start walking out but I'm stopped by Carl when he wraps his arms around me, I hug him back before pulling away and following behind Maggie. We hear the gate being closed and locked behind us.

•••

We've been walking around the dark tunnels for about half an hour before coming to another locked gate, Daryl takes his set of keys out unlocking it as quietly as he can.

We keep our flashlights high so we can see where the hell we're going, before turning another corner. Its like a maze down here, Glenn was using spray paint that he had found out on a run to mark the walls with arrows so we didn't get lost.

We all came to a stop, checking the half eaten bodies on the floor outside the cells, the smell was horrendous, I couldn't wait to get out of here. I turned quickly when I heard Maggie scream but sighed in relief seeing she had just walked into Glenn. We had to be careful down here, unless we wanted to accidentally put a knife in one of our own heads.

Daryl and dad checked the cells on each side before we carried on down the hall, we turned another corner before coming face to face with a dozen or so walkers.

"Go back!" Dad shouted, "Go back!"

"Go back," Daryl said before pushing me backwards, they were coming from every direction as we all ran back the way we came.