A Survivor's Diary of the Apocalypse (TWD/Daryl Dixon)

S2Pt2 - Lost and Injured

I ran into the woods and saw the walkers chasing Sophia. She just ran out of my site once I saw her and the walkers didn't notice me, yet.
"You can't use your gun. Not with the herd still close." I told myself.
I managed to sneak around the walkers and found Sophia running through the trees and by a small pond. I ran in front of her and covered her mouth so she wouldn't scream.
"Shhh." I hushed her, and pulled her behind a huge tree. "Are you okay?"
She nodded her head quickly but I could tell she was scared.
"Okay. Listen to me carefully." I said, and noticed the walkers were getting closer. "You stay right here and be quiet. I will distract them and get them away from here. If you need to run for any reason, the highway is that way." I said, pointing in the right direction.
"Okay." She said. "You'll come back right?" She said.
"Yes, Sophia." I said and grabbed her hand. "I'll be back."
The walkers were starting to notice we were near them and were getting closer to us. I quickly ran out from behind the tree and got their attention. They groaned at me and started chasing me through the forest. I was still able to see the tree Sophia was behind so I didn't stop to kill them yet. I didn't want to risk losing one and it going after her.
I got a good distance away from Sophia and finally pulled out my knife. One lunged for me and I stabbed it in the head, and it fell to the ground. I walked further backwards and saw that I was approaching a steep drop from on top of a hill. I looked behind me for one second to see how steep it was, and once I looked back the walker tackled me, making me stumble. I grabbed it by the neck and stabbed its head, but the dead weight fell on top of me and pushed me. The walker's body flew off to the side and I rolled fiercely down the hill. I felt my leg twist, my body flipped, and the last thing I saw was a rock.
Then everything went dark.
I woke up to a severe pain in my leg and my headed was pounding. I looked down at the rock and saw there was blood on it. I touched my head and winced in pain, then saw blood on my fingers. I looked at my ankle and saw it was noticeably swollen and my calf hurt when I moved it.
"Sophia." I whispered. "I have to find her." I thought.
I tried to stand up but as soon as I put weight on my leg, I screamed in pain and fell back down to the ground. I instantly grabbed my leg and cried.
"Oh fuck." I cried and tried to breathe.
I heard the leaves rustling in the distance, and put my hand over my mouth to keep quiet. I pulled out my gun and aimed it at the noise, which I heard coming from above me on top of the hill.
Out of nowhere, I saw Daryl and Bud looking down at me. They ran down the side of the hill and to my side.
"Kelley, are you okay? What happened?" Daryl asked concerned.
"Sophia..." I said and pointed up the hill.
"The rest of them are looking for her right now. I'm worried about you." He said and held my face.
"Where is she?" I muttered.
"Kelley." He said and made me look at him, and I finally focused on his face. "Tell me what happened."
My head was hurting so bad that I began squeezing my eyes shut. "I was leading the walkers away from Sophia. One of them tackled me and I fell down the hill. I hit my head.. really bad." I said and touched my forehead.
He lifted up my chin and saw the blood running down my face. "Can you walk?" He asked.
"I don't think so. I'm pretty sure I sprained my ankle. Maybe pulled a muscle." I explained and grabbed my leg. "I can try though." I said.
"No." He said before I could even try to get up.
He picked me up and I wrapped my arm around the back of his neck. My vision started to blur and my head was pounding. I was groaning in pain and Daryl held me tighter.
"I gotcha Kell. I got you."

~~~~~~~~~~

We got back onto the highway and I saw we were approaching the RV. It was almost dark and everyone was gathered around the RV waiting for us to return.
"Oh my god, what happened?" Lori asked when she saw my condition.
Daryl didn't answer and walked into the RV and sat me down on the couch. Carol ran in with Rick and Shane and she was crying.
"Oh god. Did you find her? Where is she?" She yelled at me.
I held my head and closed my eyes. "I lead the walkers away from her. I told her where to go if she needed to run. I got attacked. I blacked out." I said and looked up at Carol. "I tried. I'm so sorry."
Carol kept crying and ran outside of the RV. Daryl grabbed a first aid kit and put it next to me.
"How are you feeling?" Rick asked.
"Everything hurts." I said and half-laughed.
"You're tough. I'll give you that." Shane said and left the RV.
"I tried Rick." I said softly.
He put his hand on my shoulder and then nodded. "I know." He said and left Daryl to take care of me.
Daryl rolled up my pant leg and saw bruising on my calf and my ankle was swollen. He pulled out an ACE bandage and wrapped my entire leg up to my knee. He then grabbed gauze and peroxide and looked at me.
"This is going to sting." He said.
I nodded and he began to clean my head wound. I winced in pain, but could soon deal with it. I noticed that I was watching Daryl's every move. I put my hand on his cheek and he looked at me.
"You should go. Go help look for Sophia. I can take care of myself." I said, trying to convince him to leave.
"Kell, you can't walk and probably have a concussion. I'm not leaving you alone." He said.
I moved my hand that was on his cheek and wrapped my arm around his neck. I slowly leaned forward, our faces only an inch apart. He then leaned forward and closed the space between us. We kissed, it felt like everything froze. I didn't even fully comprehend what happened, I just knew that in that moment he made me feel better. I broke the kiss and let it linger. We looked into each other's eyes and then I backed away.
"Sorry." I said, and tilted my head in embarrassment, and my cheeks turned pink.
He lifted my chin up and said, "Don't be."