The Dead and The Gone (TWD Daryl/Rick Love Triangle)

Thank God For Sprained Ankles

'Waking up is probably the worst part of my day. Because for one, tiny moment, I believe I'm safe. I believe that everything is okay, but then I remember where I am, and I know it's not.'

Two hundred and twenty four days since the world went to shit.

The young female that appeared to be in her late 20's arose from her makeshift bed alarmed. The crunching of leaves could be heard. Her hands immediately felt for her knife and gun. She stood up and looked around the area, hoping it was just a walker. These days, you'd rather walk into something dead than something alive.

Another crunch of leaves and she pulled out her gun. Her senses were tingling, waiting for something, rather someone, to jump at her. A deep moan sounded and a walker came through the trees into the clearing. A sigh of relief escaped her as she stabbed it in the head with her knife.

She usually ended up knifing the fuckers. The woman only used her gun when it was absolutely necessary, not wanting to attract other walkers of course.

She grabbed her flask and took a sip of water, gargled, then spit to remove the nasty morning taste. It's not like in this world she'd have the luxury of brushing her teeth. With a stretch, she collected her belongings and continued on.

You can only stay in one place for so long before something goes wrong.

The petite, yet strong woman checked her traps to find a squirrel, her favorite. With a smile, she stuffed it in her bag and popped a few blueberries in her mouth.

Since she was in a good mood, the woman began to sing softly to herself.

"The teacup spills itself

In fear of being spilt,

You smile through the pain

To hide away the guilt,

But in the end it's lost

You couldn't win the game

The wall that you have built

Can not keep out the pain"

And she kept on singing, to keep her sanity.

"Shit," she murmured as she realized that she had stumbled upon a rather large group of walkers.

She attempted to slowly back away, but it was too late.

Two walkers began coming towards her, and with that, three more followed. She began stabbing and shooting, quickly growing tired. One of them jumped on her back, she quickly turned, but her foot got caught on a tree stump, causing her to tumble down. The green  eyed girl tried pushing the walker off of her, seeing as it was trying to bite her neck. It's eyes lifeless, trying to make her the same as him. She pushed against him, but his grip on her was ironlike. The woman almost got out from under him when he just stopped and fell on top of her. She breathed, knowing he was dead.

The woman looked up to find a curly haired man standing before her, offering his hand. She quickly grabbed it and they continued killing off walkers until the group was nothing more than a pile of corpses.

Panting, she turned to meet the man again.

His eyes danced across her face as he introduced himself, "Rick Grimes".

She panted and wiped her forehead, "Tina Alkerman"

"You alright there?" Rick questioned, gesturing to her ankle.

"Shit," she swore and grabbed it. It was swollen and appeared to be twisted.

"You should get that looked at, I have a camp," he told her cautiously.

"You do?" Tina's eyes brightened.

"Yes, and I'll take you there, but you must answer three questions,"

"Anything," she replied hopefully.

"One. How many walkers have you killed?" Rick began.

"I've lost count," she replied honestly.

"Two. How many people have you killed?"

"One." she whispered.

"Three. Why?"

"It was my sister. We traveled alone together for a while. She wasn't built to survive in a world like this. She could barely take it before this all happened.  One day she begged me to take her out of her misery, I obviously refused, so she ran off. I went out and tried to look for her, but when I found her I was too late, she had been bitten," her voice got caught in her throat, "She was in so much pain, and she just kept begging me over and over again," she wiped a tear from her eye, "So I just did it. One moment, my beautiful sister whom I had cared about more than anyone on this planet was here, but the next..."

His face was hard, but his eyes gave away everything.

"Can you walk?" he questioned.

Tina hopped around a bit.

"Somewhat,"

Rick sighed and had her put one arm around his shoulder and did the same to her, so that Tina could put some weight on him. They began walking back to his camp, well, him walking and her hopping.

"I," she panted, "need a break."

"Just a bit farther, Tina."

Her name rolled so effortlessly off his tongue. They arrived at the camp a couple minutes later.
"A prison?" the girl questioned curiously.

"Yep, it has the necessary protection. Funny how this thing was meant to keep people from getting out and now it's meant to keep people and the dead from getting in."

She remained quiet at his comment.

The gate opened and they hobbled inside. He sat her down on a chair inside the jail. She panted, exhausted from jumping around on one foot.

"Rick, I was just about to go looking for ya, I was gunna ask you if-" the tall man with blue eyes stopped, "Who the hell is this?" he questioned.

"Daryl, this is Tina. Tina, this is Daryl." Rick introduced.

"Rick we can't afford another mouth to feed! What'd I tell ya about helping others?" the redneck replied furiously.

"Listen, this is not your call to make. I found her in the woods, she was fighting off a large group of walkers. I've seen what she can do, she's strong. Give her a chance." Rick stated rather than argued.

"What are you guys- Oh. Hello there, I'm Carol." a woman with a short white pixie cut greeted.

"Tina," the woman smiled brightly knowing she wasn't the only female there.

"Do me a favor and get Hershel, Tina here has a sprained ankle." Rick said.

"Great, not only is she gonna be eatin our food but now she's gonna be using our medical attention as well?" Daryl stormed off.

"Well, he seems like a barrel of sunshine," Tina laughed.

"He's rough around the edges, but once you get to know him he ain't so bad." Rick explained.

"I heard my help is needed," an old man appeared walked in on cruches appearing to be missing half a leg.

"Just a sprained ankle, Hershel," Rick stated.

The old man rolled up the woman's pant leg and grunted.

"You twisted this sucker up pretty bad, huh?" The man said and laughed, "I'll go get some material to wrap it up with. If you stay off of it  and  massage it every now and again, you'll be up and running again in a week tops."

She smiled and thanked him as he ran off.

"Well, we can't have ya going back out there with a sprained ankle. Stay a while?" the curly haired sheriff questioned.

"It'd be my pleasure," Tina laughed and her fairy like laugh bounced off the cold walls.