Daryl's Angel: Saviour (Book Two)

Chapter 23: Run, Run, Run

Over the next two days, things feel painfully normal. I wake up in the morning, eat breakfast, and do whatever my heart desires. A few people come by the clinic looking for medicine to help their ailments or to pick up supplies, and one by one, I learn people's names and faces.

There's a gaggle of women who do a lot of cooking for everyone: Erin, Maya, and Shelly Neudermyer of the infamous pasta maker desperation, to name a few. Tobin, a tall middle-aged man with kind eyes, runs the construction crew along with others like Carter, Bruce, and Francine. There are a few teenagers too, kids Carl's age: Jessie's older son Ron, Mikey, and a girl named Enid who seems rather withdrawn and never makes eye contact.

There are a lot of people to meet and memorize, but what else do I have to do with my day?

On the other side of things, Daryl and I choose to share our baby news with the others in time. It's still early. Until I hit my second trimester, there's still a high chance of miscarriage, and so until then, we don't want to shout it to the rooftops. For now, we share the news with Rick and Carol, as they already knew of my suspicions.

Rick hugs me really tight, for just a few seconds longer than I expected, and when he pulls away, his gaze seems distant. I wonder if he's thinking of Lori, and as the thought crosses my mind, I look to Daryl and I pray that our story will end differently.

Things feel okay. Daryl's still quiet, but my anxieties are weaker, and I feel like I can be around him again without worrying that I'm bothering him with my existence. In the evenings, when I'm done work, I join him in Aaron's garage, watching him fix the bike.

"You sure you weren't a motorcycle mechanic before all this?" I ask as I eye the spread of parts that I couldn't dream of putting names to.

Daryl pauses for a second, glancing back at me with a sort of melancholy gaze. Then, he snorts. "Yeah. Pretty sure," he answers. "Mind passing me that wrench?"

There's a part of me that keeps waiting for the moment when I'll wake up, back out on the road, realizing that this whole experience has been a dream. I haven't felt this safe somewhere since the prison, but I find I still look for danger. I keep waiting for something to go wrong. I keep my knife on my person even though I shouldn't need it.

Maybe some of my lingering fear comes from how the group has spread out. After spending so much time in close quarters, it's weird to be like this, even if it's just between two houses. Daryl and I are still in the first house with Rick, Michonne, Carol, Carl, and Judith, while Maggie, Glenn, Abraham, Rosita, Eugene, Tara, Sasha, and Noah have moved into the second. Gabriel stays at his church—he's by far the most distant from all of us.

I want to believe that Alexandria can endure, that we can be safe here, but I've learned that walls can fall when you least expect it.

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We've been in Alexandria for a week when Daryl and Aaron decide to go on a run, and they aren't the only ones heading out. There have been periodic power outages, and some people are acting like it's the end of the world all over again. God forbid, they have to live without water and electricity for a few days. Still, because of the panic, there are two runs happening today: Daryl and Aaron on one, Glenn, Noah, Tara, Aiden, Nicholas, and Eugene on the other, with the latter going to get supplies to fix the power grid.

Eric and I head to the front gates, where our husbands are finishing packing up their supplies. Daryl straddles his new motorbike as he pulls on a pair of leather gloves, flexing his fingers against the material, and Aaron slams the trunk of a rusty red Buick.

Aaron notices us first, although he frowns at Eric and his walking boot. "You know, the point of having long, heartfelt goodbyes at the house is so you don't have to haul yourself all the way over here," he says. There's a lightness to his tone that betrays his amusement.