When the dead roam - (Daryl Dixon)

Chapter 13 - All life is precious

She gripped the handle of the door frame and yanked it towards her, each tug pulling at her already shattered collar bone. With each slam of the door was an accompaniment of shattering bones as a walker's skull interjected the motion, resulting in black blood painting her arms and ripped clothes. The brains of the deceased danced across her skin and the exterior of the car, distracting the others for a mere moment allowing her one final pull. Once the door sealed itself above the chassis Lou fell back into the leather interior, the forehead of the walker dropping beside her feet as she sealed herself inside the vehicle. Daryl sat beside her, his crossbow digging into his knees as he watched multiple hands slam against the glass windows.

"Yer alrigh'?" he asked, gripping at her bare arms and checking through the blood for bites "Yer bit?"

"No I'm fine – I'm fine" she said, batting him away and kicking the dashboard in front of her " I did not come this far just to die in a fuckin' car!"

"Yer not gonna die" he mumbled, his head turning frantically as he searched his surroundings "Someone 'el come, draw 'em away – gotta be somert to block out these windows"

Lou ran her fingers through the now-crimson colored mess on her head before ramming her hands into every small crevice of the interior, looking for anything that could possibly distract the dismembered bodies outside. "What the hell?" she breathed as the tips of her dirty fingers gripped the edge of a scrunched up piece of yellow paper. They both stared at the sheet in front of her, the letters were clearly written using the insides of whoever had previously locked themselves away from the disaster outside.

TRAP. BAD PEOPLE COMING. DON'T STAY.

"Just wonderful" she said through gritted teeth before slamming her feet into what remained of the skull in the foot well beneath her, each word earning another crunch. "Bloody brilliant"

Daryl studded the girl. He couldn't understand how so much anger could be trapped inside such a petite frame and yet she still, constantly, surprised him. For a female of her age, and for someone who had suffered through each and every ordeal she had, he sure as hell didn't know how she was still fighting.

For five minutes they sat there in silence, listening to nothing but the groans of the dead that swarmed them. Secretly they had hoped by some miracle they would get out alive, but both of them knew that was like asking for rain in a drought.

"It's funny yano" Daryl sighed, plucking at the string of his weapon "Came out here, so I didn't feel all closed in back there. Even now, this still feels more like me than back in them houses"

She stared at him, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she contemplated her reply to the muscled man next to her. "I don't – I don't think anyone, belongs anywhere like that anymore" She raised her eyes so they met his, their knees slightly touching as they spoke.

"Never belonged in a place like tha' anyway" he mumbled.

"Holly would have loved it" Lou smirked, playing with the stains on her hands as she spoke "Would have adored that kid you have with you – Now I talk to an empty grave, fifty miles from here. From me"

"What you mean empty?"

She struggled with the words to say next, her heart sinking at the though of her daughter's last moments "You can't bury a body, if there's nothin' left"

"Shit" he grunted tugging a pack of damp cigarettes out of his pocket and offering her one.

"Thanks" she sighed, pulling one out of the packet and slipping it between her lips.

"I'll go" Daryl stated nodding towards the door next to him "I'll lead them out. You make a break for the fence"

"What? No. No this was my fault"

"It wasn't a question. And this ain't your decision" he stated, placing a free hand on her thigh and taking a drag of his lit nicotine stick. "It ain't nobody's fault. Just let me finish my smoke first"

"No. I'm not gonna let you do that "

"You gotta get back. There's people dependin' on ya'"

"Tough shit. I said no!" she snapped, pressing her back firmly against the leather seat "If we're going to do this, we fight. Together"

Daryl stared at her, his eyes dropping to the knife in her hands as she gripped the handle tightly, ready to slice her way out of trouble – as usual.

"Alrigh'"he said reluctantly "We go on three"

Lou, once again, gripped the handle of the car door, readied herself for the death outside and took a deep breath. She glanced at Daryl quickly giving him an encouraging nod before a decapitated body pressed itself against her window. As confusion swarmed her face she kicked the door open, burying the blade of her knife in the eye socket of a walker as she kicked it in the torso, retrieving her knife neatly. Quickly she kicked her right leg in front of her, sending the soul of her boot through the rib cage of another before slamming her left foot through its mouth, splitting its head in two.

She took a dive for the fence, punching her fist through another decaying face as she did so before gripping the metal wires she had touched 30 minutes before and dragging it across in front of her, once again sealing the dead bodies inside. Before it shut completely Daryl dived through the small gap, retrieving his arrows with each step he took.

"Daryl, you good?" Lou said, attempting to catch her breath. He nodded at her calmly before turning to the dark skinned man behind her "That was – fuck"

"Why?" he asked, unsure as to why the man would save two people he didn't even know.

"Why? Because all life is precious Daryl" he said in return, smirking at the two survivers. He held a long wooden stick in one hand, that once would have been a branch to a tree and a folded piece of paper in the other.

"Whoever set that trap, they're coming" Lou said, pointing towards the vans that had released hell upon her and Daryl "We have a camp. It's safe. You can join - "

"No" he stated, cutting her off "Thankyou. But I'm on my way somewhere. Fact is I'm lost, so if you could just tell me where we are"

The man passed her a map where a small passage was written in the bottom right corner.

Sorry, I was an asshole. Gone to washington. The new world's gonna need RICK GRIMES.