Daryl Dixon: A Beautiful Disaster (SEQUEL)

Chapter 26: Reluctant Help

"Let's go!" The hatch opens and Daryl's familiar low voice echoes loudly in the space.

I lift myself up and out of the hole, looking for his help. I don't see him so I work myself out and stand on the tank. I see him by the passenger side door and shout "what are you doing?"

"start that truck! Keys inside!" He hollers, working on pulling something or someone out of the truck.

I move quickly off the top of the tank to the truck, starting it so we could leave. After its engine is going, I get out to help Daryl drag whosever body he just got out of the truck. When I get closer, I notice Spencer, blood covering his left side and his face squished in pain "Spencer?"

My voice hiccups, but grabs a hold of his side to help Daryl. Daryl ignores my inquisition and demands "we have to load him up and get home quick!"

"What happened?" I ask, hoping he could answer for me.

But he stays silent, eyes behind him to help guide him to the back of the truck. Daryl and I manage to lift him into the back. Daryl then demands "do what you can do stop the bleeding!"

He moves to get into the drivers side and I understand what he wants. I hop into the back, close the bed and get behind Spencer. I place his head into my lap, the blood still seeping out of him. I look at his shirt, trying to find the wound. When I realize it's coming from his upper body, I work at ripping his shirt off. I see the bullet wound by his shoulder, the blood still trying to squirt it's way out, even though the blood that's been spilling out over the last 5 minutes is starting to dry. I use my hand to cover the wound and push down hard. Whatever unconsciousness he was in he screams himself out of it from the pain "AHHHHH!"

"I'm sorry!" I instinctively yell back. "I have to do this."

He pants back "D-D-Daryl?"

"He's driving. What the fuck are you doing here"? I ask him,  not sure how I'm feeling about it.

He manages to sputter back "I'm sorry!"

As he spits the word sorry, blood starts to pour from his mouth. I ignore the splatter and quickly adjust myself, trying to keep the pressure on with one hand and get his shirt off with the other. After a few minutes, I was able to tie a sort of bandage sling over his wound and continue to push down with both hands, "Spencer, what were you thinking coming here?"

He tries but manages to spit out "I— I'm sorry. I-I'm sorry."

"I think you just saved our asses, I can't be mad at you anymore." I tell him, no clue if he's going to make it back to Alexandria alive or not, knowing any anger I had was gone when I saw Daryl dragging his body to the back of the truck.

He slightly shakes his head, and I almost miss it with the bouncing of the truck over all the dirt and branches "I wa-was an ass."

"Stop talking. I forgive you." I tell him, truly meaning it. I can see a small sigh of relief escape from his mouth. I do what I can to wipe the blood from his face and make him as comfortable as possible in this most uncomfortable situation.

When we pull in, a group of people hover around the truck, not sure what's going on. I hear Daryl yell out "get Denise!!" A few people spread from the group and he parks the truck, and I start to stand knowing we are going to move Spencer now. As Daryl comes around to us, he hollers "we need more hands!"

Carl is first to step up to help us as we get Spencer off the truck, him grumbling in pain from the moving. We start to shuffle our way to our makeshift hospital house. We get a few steps forward when Denise comes running over with three others carrying a stretcher. As we start to put him down on the bed, I see more people come out to the streets to see what's going on. Daryl explains what he can to Denise as they all start moving. Although everything in me is telling me to stay quiet, I quickly push those feelings down and shout out "we need to prepare for a fight!"

"A fight? With who?" Someone calls out.

I try to explain "a group who are after me. I'm sorry I'm putting you in this position." The muttering quickly starts and everyone whispers and bickers to one another. "They are down numbers but are still strong. We need everyone who can shoot at the wall!"

I try and sound confident but hear myself crack at the end, knowing most of these people have never had to do this sort of thing before. The whispers start to turn into shouts and people are yelling at me to give myself up. "She should just go!" I hear one man yell.

Another women screams "we're suppose to sacrifice ourselves for you?"

More and more people call out in disdain about me and I feel myself wither inside. They are right, I shouldn't be— but before I could continue the thought, Maggie shouts "ENOUGH!" Everyone goes silent at her voice, her power since Deann's passing showing now more then ever. All eyes are on her as she walks towards the middle of the street where everyone was congregating. "If any one of you were threatened, we'd take care of you. That's what a home does."

Before she could go on in her speech, someone argued "we never had problems like this till you guys showed up!"

Maggie's quickly retorts, looking the direction of the voice "you all would be a puppy with their tail between their legs at the first sign of trouble. A minor heard would have taken you all out if we didn't show up when we did. The wolves? Would've taken every single one of you out without one of us starting the fight back. We don't back down when one of us in danger, because that means we are all in danger. We give them one, they take us all." She lets that sink in, waiting for someone to respond and challenge her. I look around and everyone's eyes are averted from mine or her. I'm not sure if it's in disagreement or not, but I'm relieved she has the wisdom of words I don't. She finally asks "anyone disagree with my choice to defend Shannon and Daryl against Leroy and his men should speak up now!" The streets stay quiet and and finally adds on "let's get ready for war!"