𝓗𝓮𝔂 𝓐𝓷𝓰𝓮𝓵 | 𝓓𝓪𝓻𝔂𝓵 𝓓𝓲𝔁𝓸𝓷

Chapter 6: On the road

The sun had set and the darkness was growing as we ran and ran back.
We were nearly back to the camp when screams erupted followed by the loud bang of a shotgun.

"Oh, shit!"

We ran back to the camp as fast as we could.
My legs were burning and my breaths were ragged as I got back to the camp and saw the panicked people and the bloody thirsty walkers. As soon as I was close enough I drew my kimber and started shooting left and right. The others started shooting as well and all fell silent as all the walkers were dealt with. Adrenaline was still working through as I looked at all the devastation. Many had been lost tonight. Carl was crying in his father's arms, Andrea was looking down over her sister who was lifeless and covered in blood. 

I managed to force myself to move and go check on the others who were thankfully all alright. I don't know how any of us would be able to sleep tonight. I felt drained and exhausted but I had nothing to complain about the others had just lost friends and family.

Carol was trying to get Sophia to try and rest a little but she kept refusing with tear-filled eyes. I slowly made my way over to them and Carol offered me a small smile when she noticed my arrival.

"Hey Sophia, " I said softly.

She didn't respond but looked up at me.

"You know your Mum's right. You should try and get a little sleep before the sun comes up."

"I don't want to. What if they come back?" She sniffled.

"Then your Mum and I will be right here to protect you. You see this-" I pulled out my badge from my pocket for some reason I felt compelled to try and hold onto one thing from my past life-" This badge means that my job was to protect people. So that's what I'm going to do okay?"

She nodded and shuffled closer to Carol so I could sit down on the other side of her.

"Thank you, " Carol whispered.

"No problem, " I returned.

                               ***

The sun rose up beautifully but the day was already beyond sour. Carol had also drifted off to sleep as well in the early hours. She was leant on me clutching her daughter tightly. She slowly stirred as the light reached her eyes.

"Oh sorry, " she mumbled sitting up.

"No problem at all. You deserved the rest after what you've been through, " I replied as I carefully stood up and went to go deal with the dead bodies lying around. I stabbed the nearest body in the head just to be certain then began to drag it away from the others.

"Lilith what're you doing?" Lori asked.

"I know they're your people but we need to make sure they don't come back and we need to burn them, " I answered trying to drag the body towards the many holes in the ground that had already been dug.

Daryl got up and grabbed a pickaxe following my lead. Then Glenn, Morales and T-Dog joined in as well. Almost all of them were dealt with quite quickly save for Andreas sister.

                                ***
The decision was made. We were headed for the CDC hoping that it was still operational and maybe just maybe there might even be a cure. Everyone had packed up all their things including the tents and was getting into the cars. Daryl, as usual, was by himself and so was Shane but he was different now.

Something with him seemed off but I couldn't put my finger on it. So hoping he wouldn't bite my head off,given the mood he was in this morning, I walked over to Daryl who was strapping a nice looking motorcycle to the bed of a truck.

"Hey Dixon, " I called.

"What?" He replied not even looking up.

"Do you mind if I ride with you?" I asked bluntly.

"Ain't you got someone else you can ride with. Like Shane?" He asked. I didn't really answer but apparently, the look of discomfort at the mention of Shane was enough for Daryl to change his mind.

"Get in, " he grumbled.

I ran around the car and slung my bag in the back after jumping into the passenger seat.
The ride was silent for the most part. Only a little way into the journey I had slung my feet up on the dash and was playing boredly with my locket.

I resigned myself to the boring silence and stared out of the window watching the world sweep by.

I started thinking about Noah and I kept wondering what he would think of all this. Of all that's happened. If anything I'm glad he didn't get to see the world like this. He was the always kindest person in the world to me. The only light I had.

I wondered what he would think of Daryl or Rick or Glenn. He and Glenn probably would've gotten on like a house on fire probably with Rick too but Daryl. Daryl was the kind of guy at the first glance Noah would've dragged me away from. I knew there was more to him than first appearance or at least I hoped so.

The convoy of cars was coming to a stop. Turns out the RV was on it's last legs and we needed more supplies so Shane and T-dog were scouting ahead whilst we stayed put. By the time we got going again, Jim was no longer with us.

"Your brother give you that?" Daryl asked.

"Oh, so you want to talk to me now?" I questioned half teasingly.

"If you don't wanna that's fine."

"No, I do. I've been on my own for so long I'll talk about anything at this point," I laughed half-heartedly.

"The whole time?" He asked glancing at me briefly before returning his eyes to the road.
"Yep, in the very beginning, I was with a few people trying to protect them but as I failed I felt I was doing more harm than good. So I decided to try it out on my own and then I just stopped seeing people."

"I'm sorry," He said.

"Not your fault you don't need to apologise," I returned.

"Hope you plan on sticking around though."

I glanced at Daryl curiously but didn't push as to why he'd said that.

"Don't worry. I'm quite fed up with simply having myself for company."

Night was falling as we reached the large building with a wide window covering half of its face. The ground was completely littered with corpses some civilian some military. Some were lying over the large sandbag barricades others simply lay decaying on the tarmac.

The smell was foul and had just about all of us coughing as we reached the front of the building. Flies buzzed around and I was continually swatting them out of the way.

All descended into chaos as the doors remained closed. Shane and Rick were arguing. Others were panicking. The children were crying. Walkers were descending us only a few but more would come and we weren't moving. Rick insisted there was hope in here and Shane was adamant that he had been right they should've gone to Fort Bennet and now we were hopeless.