All Hope Is Gone

“What were you doing in that cabinet?” T-Dog parked himself down next to Anastasia who was sitting with her legs crossed watching the ashen wood from the night beforehands fire drop to cinders.

“Hiding from walkers, I heard them passing through.”

“So all of your crew turned?”

She nodded, “One by one they were bitten and one by one they turned into those things,” flashes of her knife slicing through a mass of dark hair flew through her mind.

T-Dog sighed and shook his head, “You must be lucky.”

Anastasia titled her head to the side and scoffed, “Yeah, lucky.”

“If yer ask me, ya lyin' about somethin',” Daryl's voice came from above her and she looked up.

“What makes you think that?” her hand went to her locket again.

He shrugged, “I know one when I sees one.”

Her eyes rolled and she stood, “You obviously have some kind of problem with me, care to spit it out? Or am I just going to have to listen to you drabble on about crap?”

Daryl's skin reddened and his eyes narrowed. “Woman ya think that we would really believe that ya the only one ta survive from yer group?” His raised voice caught the attention of the rest of the camp, she watched as they turned actually seeing her as a whole for the first time. "We saw what Atlanta was like!"

Anastasia stood and took a step back. She looked around the group as they stared back at her. “If you have had to do some of the things I have, you wouldn't be staring so hard and looking for a reason to throw me out before I've had a chance here.”

Rick's boots crushed the gravel as he approached her. “No one is throwing you out of here, Anastasia.”

“Not yet anyway,” another man spoke up.

She looked over at him squaring his broad shoulders. “Don't worry,” her back straightened and face hardened. “I'm going. Sorry to have helped you out with looking for your brother,” her eyes turned to Daryl, “And sorry for helping kill some walkers last night, too.” Turning on her heel Anastasia walked from the group as they watched. Like she'd thought, groups were just too much trouble.

“Wait!” quick steps caught up to her and a soft hand fell on her shoulder.

Anastasia turned to face one of the women belonging to the camp, she had short peppery hair and a face that showed kindness. “You saved my little girl last night,” the woman turned towards the camp. “She saved Sophia last night, helped Daryl yesterday and took part in getting Glenn and the guns back. Why are we tossing her out?”

Daryl took a step forward. “Somethin' bout' her don't sit well. Ya'll can see that. Don't reckon we can really trust her.”

“Can't believe I am saying this but Daryl is right. What aren't you telling us?” T-Dog stepped up with the same suspicions Daryl had.

Was is that obviously written all over her face? Or were people just starting to become so ravenous in their survival that any outsider looked like a threat inside the camp? “If I told you, you would kick me out anyhow.”

“I think she should stay,” the woman by her side said with a shaking voice that told Anastasia this woman wasn't used to speaking her mind all too often.

Anastasia bit her lip and sighed. There was no way these strangers were going to get down to her deep and nasty. So she lied. “I survived by killing them before they killed me. Once bitten they were already dead so I made sure they were down before getting the chance to sink their teeth into me. I killed every member of my group. People I trusted. Ate with and fought beside.”

A hush went over the group, a hush broken by Daryl, “So you're telling us that's it?”

She nodded, “Yup.”

A slight laugh left his throat, “Hell. If that's your dirty, you ain't got a thing to worry bout, butterfly.”



“I really thought it were somethin' else.” Daryl mentioned as they sat skinning squirrels and rabbits in the quiet of the day as the camp were getting ready to move out.

Anastasia looked up. “That an apology?”

Daryl only grunted in response. “How'd ya learn to skin and gut so clean?” His gore soaked knife pointed to her clean rabbit.

“My husband taught me.”

“Husband?”

She nodded. “He was army and one of the first waves in to protect the city,” her heart began to ache as she thought about him.

Daryl stopped for a moment. "That where you learned to kill walkers like that? I saw yer moves and gotta say was impressed."

"Yeah, but not so much for walkers. He believed that every woman should know how to fight off an attacker. But he reckoned he made the mistake of teaching me to fight like the army taught him. Put your fear away and go straight for the kill.

Daryl chuckled. “Sounds like a good plan ta me. He dead?”

Anastasia mimicked Daryl and dropped her knife. “He was bitten and his army brothers put a bullet in his head before he turned. So yeah, he's dead.”

“Sorry.”

“Don't be,” she wiped her hands over the front of her top. “I did my crying over his death long ago, now I just mostly get angry at the thought. You know they threw those men in there without so much as a proper brief? All they got was kill on sight.”

“That's the Gov fer ya,” he sat up and examined their bounty, “I think that's enough.”

Anastasia pulled the locket from her pocket and clipped it around her neck. “I'll get a pot boiling.”

Daryl nodded. “What's with that locket? I seen you with it when we first found ya and ya been thumbing it ever since. What's in it?”

She stopped mid step and turned back and her heart began to pound at his question. “Just a photo.”

He stood and walked over oddly curious. “Of who?”

Raising a brow her hand went to the locket. “Why the need to know so much?”

“Call it a need ta know thing,” his hand reached out towards the locket when Anastasia smacked it back.

“What you need to know is some damn manners, Daryl.”

Again he grunted. “Just curious is all.”

A huff is what he was met with as she decided to opened the locket. After all they were just photos, what harm could they do if a squirrel skinning Redneck wanted a look? “It's a photo of my daughter and my husband.”

Daryl looked closely at the photo and noted the little girl had the same colour hair as her mama but the same light eyes as her father. “What were their names?” He asked.

Fresh tears prickled in her eyes, but she sucked them right back. “Lincoln and my little girl was Dana."

“Ya look too young ta have had a kid,” Daryl mentioned as he watched her eyes stare down at the photos. He could see a shadow of some memory begin to surface behind her eyes.

“Lincoln and I married young. I was just eighteen and he was twenty one. We had Dana when I was twenty, she was seven when-” her voice caught in her throat. She knew she was getting too close to the thing she didn't want any of them to know.

Daryl's voice dropped. “Sorry fer askin' 'bout them.”

“No, it's just that...never mind, let's just get this food on so we have something for the road.” Snapping from her thought that was teetering on the tip of her tongue Anastasia broke out a smile.

“What?”

Her hands pushed her hair back and she shook her head coming too close to her little secret. “Nothing. I gotta get that pot on the boil.”

Daryl raised his brow as Anastasia made a quick side step and walked off, he was right there was something else.



The afternoon crept in and Anastasia knew the names of everyone left and took the time to get to know the ones of those passed. It had been somewhat of a short trip from the site she'd come across last night, but any distance from that place felt like a relief to everyone.

Around them were more trees, thicker than what they had been close to the night before and air around them smelt sweet. Food sat well in everyone's bellies as they stayed seated after the meal was over and began to chat, taking their minds off everything that had hit them so hard.
Daryl stared hard at Anastasia who occasionally glanced over at him, averting her eyes when she found he hadn't taken his from her.

“Don't worry about Daryl,” Lori leaned in towards Anastasia, “He is just a jerk most of the time.”

Anastasia glanced back over at Daryl. “Hm? Oh I dunno about that."

"Heh, well you come and tell me about it when you get to know Daryl Dixon, he is just like is brutish mother Merle." Lori replied with a half smirk on her lips.

"Well, I'm just gonna head in the RV for a bit, if that's okay?" She wasn't sure how to reply and suddenly felt the suffocation of too many people around her begin to creep in.

"Sure, you okay hon?"

Anastasia nodded. "Just need a little space is all."

Daryl furrowed his brow as he watched Anastasia stand and walk off to the RV and soon he was following her inside.

With her face buried deep in her hands Anastasia sat inside the RV at the table when the sounds of boots thudded along the flooring. “What were ya gonna say today?”

Her hands dropped and Anastasia’s eyes were met with Daryl leaning down over the table looking down at her. “Nothing.”

“Yer a bad liar,” he scooted down next to her and leaned back in the chair.

“It's just something I don't want to talk about.”

“Gonna haveta' one day.”

“I'm sorry we didn't find your brother,” she folded her arms over the edge of the table as her skin prickled into goosebumps.

“It's ok,” he shook his head, “Merle can take care a' himself out there, he is one tough sonofabitch.” Daryl knew she was just changing the subject.

“Maybe we will come across him later?” she offered as she watched Daryl's facial expressions change from the bad ass he made everyone think he was to something a little softer and a little less of the hard bastard Merle that she had heard about and already had heard people compare Daryl to.

He found it strange that someone would be apologising to him, offering him some sympathy, everyone else just saw him as their personal hunter good for small game and the occasional Buck when they felt like being fancy. “Yeah, maybe.”

They sat in silence listening to the camp back and clear the site. “Wonder where you'll all be moving to next.”

Daryl looked over, finding an odd feeling begin to squirm in his stomach. “You'll know when we get there.”



“The CDC?” Shane said in aspiration, “That's back in with the walkers!”

“There is safety there,” Rick fired back.

Daryl stood watching the argument with his arms crossed, Anastasia stood beside him watching as the rest of the camp did, slowly putting their input over Shane's want to avoid the CDC.

“Sounds like the CDC idea is winning out.” Anastasia kicked her foot over the ground turning to Daryl in the process.

“Yer, looks like.”

“Can I get a ride with you?” She looked up at Daryl as he glanced back at her.

“If yer tell me what ya was going ta before?”

She huffed, “Ain't going to let that go, huh?”

He shook his head, “Not a chance, so ya ridin' with me?”

Anastasia rolled her tongue over her bottom lip, “Yeah.”