Living Like You're Dead

Daryl turned his shoulder after pulling the arrow from the walkers skull. Merle was smiling at his brother, as always, Daryl had the best kills. Even growing up Daryl brought home the biggest hunt, the cleanest kill – he had a natural talent.

Daryl found the praise he was looking for from Merle, but none was seen from Addie. In fact, she wasn’t seen at all. Daryl did a full three-sixty, and no Addie. He expected her to come around the corner any minute, but he looked around it himself, and he found no one. Merle noticed the obvious absence of Addie as well, by now she would have said something – anything. But she hadn’t for quite some time.

“Where the fuck’d she go?” Daryl asked him.

“Keep your voice down! Lets go back and look.” Merle said. The three of them had begun a trek through a large office building. It had over thirty floors, and according to Addie – possible generators that they may need. It was only their first day in this city, and they had yet to see any sign of the old group.

Now for some reason, only two of them were roaming the office building. They expected her to at least be on the same floor, Daryl felt like he was always going after her for some reason or another – but he felt strangely calmer about her being on her own. As long as she wasn’t eat, it was likely she would still be alive. But she was still missing, and it still irritated Daryl.

They were now back to the beginning, the looming stairs that they had climbed up looking for the maintenance floor. They had found a business wing, complete with computers and cubicles. It was large for a simple newspaper company for a town this small. But Addie insisted that they rummage around for anything useful – obviously she must’ve found something of interest since she had vacated herself from the group.

Daryl quietly stood, halting Merle who stood behind him. And if he listened really closely… he could hear rummaging, papers, wrappers… something. But at least it didn’t sound like trouble.

Daryl motioned in the direction of the sound – Merle nodded in compliance. He could hear it too.

Daryl and Merle quickly made their way down the abandoned hallway. At some point it would’ve been filled with people carrying files, papers, coffee, phones. Daryl remembered how everyone always had their phone in their hands, text notification, calls, alarms – how quiet things were now. Quiet enough to hear the soft rustling in another room.

Daryl turned himself to face into the room, his crossbow wasn’t ready, because he assumed it to be Addie, but it was a man… Daryl took no extra time.

He entered the room; the man had not been aware of his presence, he had not been listening. Daryl swiftly kicked him and let his crossbow collide with his skull. Leaving him out cold on the ground, unfortunately still breathing.

He had been shuffling across the floor, around and around Addie who seemed conscious now, she was gripping her hear like she had an incredibly intense migraine, her eyes were still shut – but the noise that Daryl had just made her open them slightly. Enough to see Daryl – she didn’t seem scared or worried.

Daryl overturned the body – he found the familiar face calming, and at the same time he felt anger. The stupid chinaman that always found himself in trouble had found himself in trouble with Daryl Dixon. He dropped to Addie’s side and lifted her head a little bit. She let him help her up, and spoke like normal:

“It was an accident. I went down hard, but came to almost instantly.”

“Well guess you can’t stay the same for him.” Merle added from the doorway.

“What the hells he doing here?!” Daryl asked her.

“Same as us, generators.” She answered back.

“Alright… think he’ll be mad when he gets up?” Merle asked Daryl.

“Not my fault, even if it was an accident, and you heal like a super hero – he gets between me and my girl, he risks his own life.” Daryl said.

Addie smacked his chest as he held her and helped her walk over to an upright chair in the break room.

“Look food.” She smiled holding open her back. They had gotten used to the junk food diet since their little road trip – they were hoping to find a warm meal once they got here. However Daryl had the sneaking suspicion that no one had been able to find food since he’d left.
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They were on the ninth floor, the spare generators were kept next to the elevators main controls – in case the elevators died they had temporary back ups. They had no idea how the four of them were going to get the generators down nine flights of stairs and into the truck. Glenn had been complaining about the lump on his head – and Daryl gave him a piece of his mind about how he should be damn careful when he’s waving around blunt objects. Glenn argued that everyone looked like a walker these days.

Addie had an idea in the back of her mind, but she waited to see if anyone came up with something any less crazy. But even Glenn didn’t have any ideas. She was on her own.

“Alright.” She said. “I’ve got a theory.”

“Great, why don’t you share?”

“Well it had to potential to bring… a lot of unwanted attention.”

“Like walkers?”

“Like lots of walkers.” She said back. “If we can get these generators into the… elevators we can-“

“Oh shit. No that will get us killed.” Glenn said.

“No we load them up, flip the main power switch and ride the lift down – if we’re quick and quiet – maybe they won’t notice, or maybe very few will notice.” She said.

“Well that’s all we can do Daryl said.”

“But you saw the sixth floor! It was crawling with them.”

“As long as we go straight to the bottom, we’ll be fine.” She said. “Get pushing.”

***

Addie had quite enjoyed watching Daryl lift the heavy generators into the elevator with the help from Glenn and Merle’s one hand. She was able to weasel herself into the fist elevator with Daryl, while Glenn and Merle stood in the other – she managed to reach around and pull the large power switch to the on position.

The doors shut almost immediately, Addie’s arm nearly made it back inside the metal tomb – they hoped there would be enough stationary power to carry them down all nine floors. She hit the button labeled ‘G’ and each of them felt the box begin to shift downwards, carrying them towards their destination. It seemed like the hum of the elevator was so loud, and even though it was a quick ride, the sound made each second seem longer and longer.

Finally they hit the ground floor, and the elevator made a large ‘ding’ sound to announce their safe arrival – when it was actually the dinner bell. Daryl took the first steps outwards and shot at two walkers who had been transfixed by the hum of the elevator. Several more were on their way. Addie helped Daryl drag the generator out of the metal box, and towards the employee exit – they had parked out back and broken in. But Daryl was still waiting for the second elevator to arrive. Addie only glanced upwards and saw the number ‘6’ where it seemed the elevator had stopped. She stared at the number for too long, Daryl noticed where her attention was and saw it he ushered her foreword the broke through the steel doors and he set the generator down on the concrete floor – Daryl was going back – pressing the button to call the elevator down to him. It seemed that the elevator was moving now, Addie watched in fear while Daryl stood so close to nearby walkers, he was shooting them, getting them out of the way while waiting for the elevator to arrive.

Merle and Glenn finally fell out of the elevator, obviously looking like they’d been through hell.

Daryl grabbed that generator and wasted no time in pulling it, and them out of the box. Addie turned to smash the skull of a walker that had taken interest in her. She moved out of the way giving them just enough room to enter the hallway and shut the door. Leaving the rest of the walkers behind.

“What the fuck happened?” Daryl asked them.

“When the power kicked on, six was already pressed, like someone had hit the button.”

“A walker?”

“No – obviously. Maybe it was already set, I don’t know – but we were doomed from the start. After that ‘ding’ we’d had been served on a silver platter.”

“Alright.” Daryl said – obviously irritated with how the plan had panned out. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

“Agreed.” Merle said. Everyone grabbed the end of the generator they were closest to, Daryl and Glenn headed off looking for the exit door, and Addie reached down and saw the obvious blood around Merle’s shoulder. She couldn’t tell for sure what his shirt covered, but she was willing to bet that it was a bite.