Daryl Dixon x Reader romance

Chapter 10

⚠️May contain spoilers and triggering events ⚠️

The night went by. Andrea refused the leave Amy until she turned. In the morning we all sat outside in silence, mostly still in shock.
"We... found something of Merles." Daryl said to me.
"Meth?" I joked.
Daryl smiled but I could tell he didn't find something good. "His hand." Daryl whispered.
"Looks like walkers were coming and he cut off his hand to get out."
I didn't answer right away. Mostly because Merle always used to joke about how cool it would be to not have a hand, and replace is with a knife.
"Did you follow the blood?" I asked.
"We did, but eventually it stopped. He's still out there."
Glenn and T dog carried the walker bodies into a fire. "We gotta kill Amy. She'll turn any second." Daryl whispered.
I knew he was right. We couldn't risk Andrea getting bit. "Let her be." Lori said.
Daryl looked at me to see what my reaction was, but I didn't have one.
It was so boring and quiet. I looked over and Jim and Jaqui talking. It seemed intense.
"A walker got em!" Jaqui yelled as she backed away from Jim. Everyone shot up in surprise.
"I'm not bit!" Jim protested. Shane grabbed him from behind and Daryl ran up and lifted up his shirt, revealing a huge, nasty walker bite.
"I'm okay." Jim continued to say.
"I'll help." I mumbled getting up. Me and Daryl lifted Jim inside the RV and put him on a bed. "He already got a fever." Daryl said as we were leaving.
"We should kill em." I said as we walked up to the rest of the group.
"I heard the CDC was working on a cure. We could help him." Rick said. Daryl chuckled. I didn't think Rick was dumb enough to believe there was still something.
They decided to check out the CDC.
"This is bullshit, I'm ending this now." Daryl said as he ran to Jim's body, about to put a shovel in his head.
I wanted to stop Daryl, so I reached out my arm to grab him but he was already too far. Rick pulled out his gun and aimed it at Daryl.
"Don't!" I yelled and stared at Rick. Daryl put the shovel down.
"Daryl- we'll go to the CDC. No need to kill him now, he'll die anyways." I said trying to calm Daryl down.
" You don't know that." Rick said to me.
"If you think there's still a CDC and think they're still working on a cure, you're stupid. We will go, but they aren't still there." I stated my opinion. Daryl smirked and walked calmly back to our group.
"Then it's decided." Shane said.
Daryl and I walked away from the group.
"They don't get this shit. They had it easy, even before." Daryl ranted.
" It's okay." I looked at him. "It's- it's not okay." Daryl responded. I could tell we weren't talking about Jim anymore. "Left my brother on a roof." Daryls voice broke and his eyes filled with tears.
I couldn't watch him cry.
My eyes filled up with tears too and I pulled him into a hug. Tears rolled down my cheek as I thought about Merle, and about how upset Daryl was.
I would feel Daryls breathe was uneven and I could hear him crying. "It's okay. Merles strong." I said through my tears. Now Daryl could tell I was crying too.
"He'll make it , right?" Daryl asked as he hugged me tighter. "It's Merle. Of course he will." I layed my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes.
It hurt that Merle was gone but it also hurt seeing Daryl like this.
"Let's go back up." Daryl said , releasing from our hug and heading back.
We started to hit the walkers brains again to make sure they weren't coming back.
Then we saw Ed. "I'll do it." Carol said as she stared at her husbands body, chewed apart by walkers.
"You sure?" Daryl said. "He's my husband." Daryl handed Carol the pickaxe. I stood beside Daryl and waited for Carol to swing down. It took her a second but she swung into his head.
She didn't stop. Eventually she started crying.
I could tell she was upset but also angry at him for hurting her and Sophia. Daryl and I just stared at eachother while Carol kept hitting him and cried.
I reached out to Carol and hugged her as she cried in my arms. I got blood everywhere but didn't mind.
I was used to it, even before the apocalypse.
Of course, it was animal blood from hunting with Daryl, not human.
Everyone went silent, even Carol and I didn't know why at first. Then I looked over at Andrea who was talking to walker Amy. "She's gonna get bit." Daryl said, about to run over and kill it.
I reached my hand out and stopped him.
"She'll do it." I said.
Carol stayed in my arms, but looked up to see Andrea shoot Amy.
"I guess the graves Jim made came in handy." Daryl said.

After awhile we started burying the body's. Daryl and I thought we should've burnt em, but I guess it's not up to us. Rick checked in on Jim and asked if he was up to going to the CDC and he was.
"Packed everything?" Daryl asked.
"Everything I got, so not much." I admitted.
"Let's go." Daryl kissed my forehead as we went to leave.
"Are we taking all three vehicles?" Glenn asked.
"Yes. We need to room." Rick answered as he hoped into one of the vehicles.
"Were not coming." Morales said.
"What?" Everyone was confused.
"We want to be with our people." Morales wife said as she held her kids.
Everyone said their goodbyes to that family. I didn't really know em that well.
Daryl and I sat in the back of one of the vehicles together. His hand was on my thigh, and his head was on my shoulder for most of the ride. His presence felt good.
All of a sudden we pulled over and Daryl sat up.
"What happened?" I asked.
"I don't know. The other vehicles pulled over."
We all got out to see what was happening.
Jim said he couldn't go any further.
"I wanna be left out here." He said.
"I can't leave a man out here to die." Shane said.
"He doesn't want to be killed. Don't kill him. Leave him." Dale argued. Rick and Shane leaned him up against a tree and we all said our goodbyes.
I knew he wasn't going to make it.
You don't make it with a bite. We got in the vehicles again and drove off. Everyone stared out their windows to see Jim one last time.