[Finished] Living Among the Dead

18. Forget

Daryl, Rick, Carol and I are stood outside the gates, when we hear one of the dead from near by.
"I don't see it," Daryl says. "but it's close. There's just one of 'em."
"We won't be here long. So, what do you think?" Rick asks Carol.
"We can go in when it's empty," she says, and I nod.
"How is that? It's locked up at night."
"The window. There's just a latch. I can leave it open."
"A latch?" Rick scoffs.
"Yeah."
"What if one of those pricks shuts it?" Daryl asks.
"Wait a couple of days, leave it open again."
"It's getting closer," Daryl warns us about the dead.
"We need to do it sooner than later," Rick tells us, "Right now, they're not watching us. Not worrying about meetings like this. We may need the guns, we may not."
"We will whatever way it goes," Carol says.
"They're the luckiest damn people I ever met. And they just keep getting luckier."
"How's that?" Daryl asks.
"We're here now."
"They've got a couple of footlockers just full of 9 millimeter autos, Rugers, Kel-Tecs. Just tossed in there. They don't use them. They're never gonna know they're gone," Carol informs us.
"Someone's got one now, right?" Daryl asks.
"Listen, the others, we want them to try." Rick tells us.
"You two, too." Carol says looking pointedly at Daryl and I.
"So we keep it quiet," Rick continues. "Just us."
"Here it comes," Daryl says, as the dead steps out into the clearing.
"I got it," I say, readying myself to plunge my knife into the suckers skull.
"Hey, wait." Carol says, and I step back, letting her shoot the thing. "We said we were taking me out shooting. I couldn't go back with a full mag."
"Lucky he came by," Daryl observes.
"We should get back," Rick says and we gather our stuff to do just that.
As we start walking, Rick goes over our plan, "You'll pull the latch, we'll pick our moment. Us, we don't need to be lucky."
As we walk past the dead, Daryl points, "What the hell's that? Is that a W?"
"Yeah." Rick says.
"Weird," I mutter, shaking my head.

Daryl and I head back outside the walls once more later in the day, both of us just needing to breathe.
"What do you think?" I ask him as we get away from the sufficating walls of Alexandria.
"I think we're bein' asked to play house."
I nod, before sighing. "I used to be good at that... looking like a normal person with a normal life. I learned so I could blend into Tyler's lifestyle. It was easy... now. I'd rather you shoot me with one of your arrows."
He scoffs, "Won't be long."
"I hope we're wrong."
He stops and looks at me, "What?"
"I hope this works out and we're wrong. I have Mason to think about... I want him to grow up there, safe."
"M'too." Daryl's eyes meet mine before dropping to my lips.
I step forward and meet his lips with my own, kissing him hungrily. He pulls my hair back, and as the kiss breaks I let out a soft moan from the prickling in my scalp.
"You haven't been too friendly, Girl." Daryl growls in my ear, before nipping it.
I whimper softly, without meaning to. His tone catching me off guard in the best way possible.
"You like that? When I tell you you've been bad?" His words wrap around my head and sends me into a fog. He doesn't talk much, but apparently this situation is an exception. "I asked you a question."
I quickly nod, "Yes. Yes, I like it a lot."
"Good," He says hotly before his lips latch onto my neck sensually. He marks me as his own, and I'm a mess of hormones.
He starts moving so I'm pressed against a tree and then he grinds into me, "Feel that? That's what you do to me." His mouth is against mine as I feel him say the words, his voice deeper and more gravely than usual.
That's when we both hear it, a branch snapping behind us? Daryl immediately steps back from me, turning around and picking up his crossbow and aiming it all in one fluid motion.
"Come out!" He demands in the direction of the ruffling leaves. "Now!"
Aaron steps out, his hands up as he asks, "You can tell the difference between walkers and humans by sound?" Daryl and I just glare at him. "Can you tell the difference between a good guy and a bad guy? Rick doesn't seem to be an expert at that."
"There ain't much of a difference no more," Daryl says, gruffly, still glaring.
"That how you feel about your people?"
"Why you spying on us?"
"I didn't know I was. I came out to hunt rabbits."
"We were just about to do some hunting as well," I pipe up, earning a glare from Daryl.
"Mind if I join?" Aaron asks.
"Actu-"
Daryl cuts off my refusal, "Keep up. And keep quiet." He leads the way into the brush and I sigh, my goal to give Aaron the widest of births thrown out the window in one foul swoop.