Just Hold On - Daryl Dixon (TWD)

7.

*Lucia's POV*

It's been a couple of months since the Governor's attack on the prison and his own people. We've all been living in harmony with each other. We found some wild pigs as well as a horse. Rick has been working on the garden every day and has decided to step down from being the single leader. We now have a council that makes decisions; Daryl, Sasha, Carol, Hershel, Glenn, Lillian and I. Sasha was one of the new people that came from Woodbury, along with her brother, Tyreese.

The only downside over the last few weeks has been the build up of walkers outside of the fences. We've gone thirty days so far without any accidents, but more of us here means we attract more of the walkers. We've been trying to stay on top of it, but they just keep coming.

I hadn't been sleeping well since the Merle thing. It's normal now for me to only get about two to three hours of sleep. Every morning when I wake up, I walk along the perimeter of the fence, taking out walkers when I can. Sometimes I'd be out there for hours, just getting lost in the mindless activity.

Daryl and I have grown slightly closer. He doesn't sleep much either so he is usually up when I am. He'd leave to go hunting while I went on my walks. When one of us has guard duty, the other would bring up food and we'd talk for a while.

When I woke up this morning, it was slightly later than usual. Everyone else seemed to be asleep still. I quietly got up and got dressed, trying not to wake up Lillian who was snoring lightly from the top bunk. I grabbed my gun and put it in the holster.

I made my way outside as quietly as possible. The sun was shining and birds were chirping in the sky. The world seemed more at peace today than it had been for weeks.

I started my walk along the fence, stabbing as many of the walkers as I could. As I got closer to the garden, I saw someone bent down looking at the dirt. I put my hand over my gun and walked as silently as possible, trying to see them before they saw me. But when the person stood up, I allowed my tense body to relax.

"Rick," I said from behind the man.

He turned to me, a dirty M1911 in his hand.

My eyebrows furrowed in question at his disheveled look.

"Lucia. Hi," he responded.

"What 'ya got there?"

He looked at the gun in his hand then back to me.

"It's fully loaded. I'm not sure how or why it's here."

I nodded my head and looked at the walkers around us. One in particular caught my eyes. There were no visible bite marks. Dried blood caked his decaying face. They still looked pretty fresh; this man had only been dead for a few days at most. The blood had come from his eyes, ears, mouth and nose. Whatever killed this man, it was not another walker.

Rick and I both looked at each other with a tilted head, as if we were both wondering the same thing. I gave him another look before I turned and headed back up to the courtyard. People had started coming out of the cell blocks to enjoy breakfast and get started on their daily jobs.

I saw Daryl walking briskly towards the grill where Carol was cooking up the deer he had gotten yesterday. I picked up my pace to catch up with him. When I made it to his side, he slowed down a little bit to match my steps and looked down at me.

"You got up late today. Catch up on any sleep?" He asked.

I shook my head before responding. "No, I couldn't sleep last night. Was up later."

We kept walking, hearing the occasional morning greetings thrown our way. Both of us awkwardly nodded at people, not used to this much attention.

"Good morning, you two," Doctor Subramanian said as we walked past him.