My Damaged Protector

Chapter Ten ~ 18 Miles Out

I woke to find myself alone and the sun high in the sky. Sitting up to stretch, I winched in pain as my shoulder moved too far for my wounds liking. It had been healing really nicely since that day in Atlanta. As I stepped out of the tent, the Georgia heat was already radiating down, making me pull my hair up into a tight ponytail in the top of my head, a few smaller pieces of hair framing my face.

"Good mornin'." A voice greeted me kindly. I jumped at the sudden noise and turned around to see Daryl coming out of the woods with a line of squirrels hanging over his shoulder.

"My god. You scared me half to death." I dramatically placed a hand over my heart, Daryl scoffing a bit at my antics. "I'm gonna go check on Beth. Be careful out here." He waved me off and I walked over to the house and up the stairs. Maggie was in the kitchen, cutting up vegetables and placing them in a large pot on the stove. "Good morning." I smiled to the woman, getting a wave back.

Lori then walked in with a plate of barely eaten food, staring down at the tray it sat on. "What's wrong?" I asked her.

"There's no knife." Her eyes were wide with panic and she went to go back up the stairs.

"I got her." I told Lori and gave Maggie a minute to gather her thoughts. My feet clomped up the stairs and I easily found Beth's room. "You give it to me. You don't want to do this." I stopped beside her bed and held my hand out for the knife.

She sat up slowly and looked me dead in the eye. "Why not?" Her voice was thick from the tears she's shed.

"You'll regret it. Trust me."

"How do you know?" Her voice was getting louder and louder. "You don't know what it's like to have something you love ripped away from you! You don't get it!" Beth was screaming at me now and I tried to stay calm, but her words stabbed at my heart.

I rolled up my sleeve to my elbow, revealing a line of thin scars going up my arm that I hadn't ever shown to anyone. "Yeah. I do. I went through a low time and I regret it every day. I don't go a day without thinking of how I almost left my sister to fend for her life when she was two. Two! She could have died! My dad would smack me around, and if I left, she would become his target. And to answer your question, yes, I have had someone ripped away from me. The same things that ripped that woman away from you took my baby sister. My little brother is somewhere out there with a man he doesn't know. I don't have my family like you do." Her eyes held new tears as I turned and walked out of her room, not wanting the pity that I could see flood her eyes.

My feet stomped down the stairs and I walked right out the front door, calls of my name from Lori and Maggie in the kitchen. My feet carried me across the field and into the woods, going farther and farther away from the house, from people. I didn't stop until I was tripped by a root, crashing to the ground with a thud. Sobs racked my body as images of my past flashed behind my eyes.

I spent the rest of the day like that, resting on the woods floor, tears sticking to my cheeks and watching the world around me silently. Only when the last of the sun dropped behind the trees did I stand up. My eyes flickered in each direction, trying to remember what way I had come from.

A twig snapped loudly behind me, my hand instantly pulling my knife up in preparation for a walker as I turned to scan the woods. As I watched, I didn't hear any other movement, so I put my knife away and leaned back against the nearest tree, trying to shake off the feeling of eyes on my back. When two arms wrapped around me, one over my mouth and the other on my shoulders, I jumped away harshly and yanked my knife, falling to the ground and holding it up to protect myself.

"Skye. It's me." The voice drifted from behind the tree and Daryl stepped out, holding his hands up to show he wouldn't hurt me.

"God. Are you going to make a habit of scaring me to death?" I asked, taking a deep breath and picking myself up off the ground, only to sit in my original spot, with him now beside me.