All Hope Is Gone

Anastasia’s boots pounded the grass underfoot. Breath caught in her lungs and a terrible writhing sick sensation barrelled through her guts. But no matter how hard she forced her legs to run she only felt as if she were going in slow motion. All around her she could see the other’s rushing past. Shane and Rick were in front. Glenn and T-Dog were behind her but catching up.
A sudden gushing static encapsulated her hearing and bore deep into her skull penetrating the soft grey mush of brain encased in the bone.
What had Andrea done?!
Coming to a staggering stop she met Shane and Rick. For a second as Anastasia followed their gaze, a momentary pinch of silence followed as they looked down upon Daryl. Had he been bit? Or scratched? He looked pale under the gunk, muck and blood washing over his flesh. Fresh oozing blood trickled from a graze on the side of his head.
A graze!
It was just a graze. Thankful Anastasia sent a silent thank you to whatever had been watching over Daryl in that moment and bent over to help the groaning man to his feet. Shane and Rick took an arm each and took Daryl’s weight.
“Come on Dixon, wake up.” She tapped the side of his face. “You gotta walk with us.”

“I foun’...I foun’…” Daryl’s head bobbed to the side and a hiss of pain escaped his lips before he decided that talking was too much of an effort if he had to walk.

“Talk later.” Shane remarked as he and Rick began to haul Daryl’s banged up body back towards the house.

“I’ll go on ahead and let Hershel know.” Glenn offered before jogging back.

Walking close behind, Anastasia glanced over with daggers as they passed Andrea whose mouth was wide and gaping like a wish out of water.

“I…I though he was a walker. I didn’t mean to…” Her voice trailed off as they passed.

Daryl groaned again as he was hauled over the steps and dragged inside the house. Hershel ushered them into a back room he’d quickly set up and. “Get him on the bed.”

He hit the bed with a wheeze and as Hershel sat by his side the room full of people moved back a few paces to examine the damage.

“Has he been bit?” Rick asked as Hershel began to cut away at Daryl’s already torn shirt.

“Doesn’t look like, no. But there is a nasty wound here.” He looked at Daryl whose eyes were glassy and focused on the ceiling. “What happened out there?”

Daryl didn’t answer.

“Alright ya’ll, let’s leave Hershel to it. Go on get out.” Lori waved her arms at the group and slowly had them filing out one by one. “You too, Anastasia.”

Anastasia looked over one more time at Daryl who only grunted as Hershel began packing the wound with antibacterial wash. She sighed. “At least you came back.” Her words were soft but still reached Daryl.
But she noticed that her words only made him shift back from her direction.

“Come on.” Lori slid an arm around her shoulders and lead Anastasia out.

* * *

“He’ll be alright. Daryl’s strong.” Carol and Anastasia had gone and sat in the back bed of the RV after Lori had retreated back inside to check on Carl.

“I know…but just to see him like that. It scares me.” Anastasia replied as her eyes stared through to the driver’s seat. “Because he is just…so…Daryl. I mean Daryl is just that and to see him come back like that? It makes me think that there is less out there than I had thought.”

Carol wrapped an arm around the younger woman. “The world out there is definitely something else now. I don’t really expect Sophia to be still out there alive.”

“Carol, don’t say that. Please don’t.” Anastasia turned with her brows furrowed and a frown pulling at her lips. “If you lose hope…” Her words ended as the sting of tears began to edge at her eyes. She took a deep breath in. “Just keep praying for Sophia.”

Just as Carol began to move her lips in a question the RV door creaked open and the sound of boots scuffed over the floor. Andrea looked up but quickly averted her eyes as she was met by a furious gaze.

“What do you think you were doing up there? Huh? Think you were protecting the camp from something? Trying to play the part of a hero?!” Snapping up from the bed Anastasia stood at the edge of the sleeping quarters as Andrea looked away.

“Look I thought it was a Walker. So yeah I was trying to protect us.” Her reply was hard and fast.

“And look how well that turned out. You would have had plenty of time to take it down if it was a Geek. You should have looked twice. Protecting us? With you up there in charge of a gun is madness. You’ll kill us all before the Walkers do.” Nasty were her words as she spoke. The feeling of anger built in her shoulders and trailed down into her balled up fists.

“Get off my back about it! I doubt you would have been any better up there.” Squaring her shoulders, Andrea felt a punch about to fly.

Anastasia scoffed. “Trust me when I say I would not have been the one shooting down one of our men.”

“Can you two please just stop it already?” Carol stood from her spot and placed herself between the feuding women. “You sound like children, for god sakes.”

Without another word and a glare Andrea sharply turned on her heel and left the RV, slamming the door behind her.

“Sorry…” Anastasia mumbled averting her eyes towards the floor.

“Listen, I know today scared you but just try and…” Carol stopped for a moment with a soft sigh. “I’m going to drop some food to Daryl, why don’t you do it with me?”

Looking up she nodded and tucked her hands into the back of her pockets. “Okay.”

* * *

Daryl looked up at the ceiling ignoring the various pangs of pain shooting through his body. All his thoughts were focused on what he had found. It had lit a beacon of hope in him. Daryl had tucked the little girls doll into his pocket. Slowly he moved his hand towards the pocket and felt the soft lump of doll still stuck in there.
Sophia had to still be out there and the sooner Daryl could get out of this bed the sooner he could find her…not that anybody there gave a crap. The sour thought of being the one to pull his sore and sorry arse out of there stuck in his mind.
If it had been Rick or Shane gone for too long out there like he had been someone would have gone searching.

“Hey, you shouldn’t be trying to get out of bed.” Carol’s soft voice wafted through the door as did the smell of food.

“Don’ tell me what ta do woman.” He grunted shifting to sit up against the wall.

Ignoring the grunt Carol set down a plate next to the bed and bent to sit on the bed. “I wanna thank you for looking for my Sophia. You seem like one of the few people who actually still care about her being out there. Thank you.” Softly she placed a kiss on the side of his face and smiled.

“I already ate.” His reply was a mumble as Carol got up.

“Well in case you get hungry later.” She left the room with a sad smile over her face, nudging Anastasia in on her way out.

“Can’t I just get some damn peace ‘round here?” His brow lowered as Anastasia stood beside the bed with her arms folded.

“I was just checking in to see how you were doing.” She looked down catching a slight glace before Daryl pulled the sheet further over his bare chest.

“Well how do I look?”

“Like shit run over by a truck.” Her words held a light note of joking.

Again he grunted. “Don’t you have somethin’ else to do other than annoy me?”

Anastasia took a step back. The sudden harshness Daryl had come back with reminded her of the cruelness she’d seen in Merle. “You don’t have to be such a dick. I was worried when you were gone too long.”

“Worried?” He raised a brow. “You weren’ worried ‘bout me.”

She huffed and ran a hand through her hair before letting it drop over her shoulder. “I’ll come back when you’re being less of a prick.”
Confused she turned her back and left the bedroom making sure to shut the door behind her. What had happened out there to make Daryl come back with such a foul attitude towards people who just cared? A frown began to tug at the edges of her lips.

“How’s the Redneck?” T-Dog walked past her.

“Cranky as all hell.” She replied.

T-Dog stopped and chuckled. “Trouble in paradise.”

“Excuse me?” Anastasia turned to face him.

His smile dropped instantly as he met the storm building behind her eyes. “Oh…I just meant that you and Dixon were getting on pretty well. I just assumed…um Glenn and I are going out on a supply run…you should come with us.”

Anastasia nodded. “I just might. You headed out there now?”

“Yeah. Grab up your gear and we will meet you by Shane’s car.”

Daryl had heard T-Dog talking to Anastasia and started to think to himself that maybe he’d been too harsh on her. After all Anastasia had just come in to check on him. He could remember hearing her voice at his side when he’d been dragged to his feet in the field.
There were times, during the few alone moments he could catch, where he would find himself thinking about her. Thinking about the way she treated him and at times the way he’d catch her looking at him. Though he couldn’t deny he hadn’t looked at her in those smitten ways. The sideward glances and small smiles as they would pass by one another during the day.

He heard the front door swing open and shut and knew Anastasia would be headed down to grab her knife. He just hoped that her run out there was going to be a smooth one and she got back he would…he wasn’t sure what he was going to do.
An irritated grunt vibrated in the base of his throat. “Damn that woman.”

* * *

Glenn waved his hand towards T-Dog signalling for him to come over into the long abandoned chemist. Anastasia was still at the car watching for any signs of Walkers, ready to take one down if there was.
But as she readied herself, the thought of Daryl was still stuck in her head.
She hadn’t imagined that joining this new camp would have given her someone like him. Daryl had turned into a man she found herself caring about so much.
Anastasia was beginning to feel for him what she remembered feeling for her…she stopped right there. Any more thoughts like that and she was sure going to get herself killed.
“Damn you, Daryl.” She muttered.

Anastasia looked to the side and watched as T-Dog and Glenn travelled into the Chemist before sweeping over the road once more before jogging inside herself.

“Just grab what you can to fill the bags and let’s get out of here.” Glenn whispered as he began clearing a shelf.

Anastasia made her way over to the ‘Feminine Hygiene’ section with the thought of replacing the shampoos and razors the women had been using. Quickly she scooped several packets and bottles into her bag and not forgetting the packets of tampons she spotted before moving over to the back shelf of pills.
T-Dog was on the other side working on the lower rows while Glenn had his back faced to them. Anastasia began to throw packets of tablets and bottles of liquids into her bag when she thought of grabbing another load of first aid supplies. Hershel was getting pretty fed up of them using up his stash.
She nodded to T-Dog and moved over to a rack that still had a big red cross painted above it. Again Anastasia began to pack her bag full but a sudden thudding made her fingers freeze on a packet of bandages. The others had heard it as well.

“We need to go.” She said snapping the bandages into her bag and making sure Glenn and T-Dog were following as she headed for the door.

The sound sent a nerve of chills down their spines as it grew louder the closer they got to the door. “It’s at the door.” T-Dog murmured.

Anastasia pressed a finger to her lips and hushed the two men. She was careful to not make a sound as she dropped her bag and reached for her knife. “I’ll kill it and make sure there are no others. T-Dog grab my bag and when I say you both get to that car.”

“And what about you?” Glenn asked.

“If there is just the one, I’ll be okay. But if there are more…you two just make sure you get back with the supplies and I will get on there later. Better you two get back with supplies than no one and leave everyone back at the farm high and dry.”

Both the men were about to protest when a second thudding joined the first. “Shit.” Anastasia closed her eyes and took a deep breath in. Her fingers gripped her knife as tightly as they could and with a darting motion she bust through the door.

Three Walkers were caught by surprise and one was easily dropped as she sliced through its mushy skull. “Come on you dead arse fuckers. Come and get me!” Her voice was a growl catching the remaining two.
As she backed away the grunting and growling Geeks shuffled towards her. Their arms were stretched out and what was left of their hands and fingers were wiggling at her. She looked over at the car and judged the distance from the Chemist door to the car.
“Just a few more steps…come on!”

They shuffled forward as if by her command and as they did she shouted. “Go! Now!”

Without hesitation T-Dog and Glenn did just as Anastasia had instructed and bolted from the chemist with her bag slung over T-Dog’s shoulders and bundled themselves into the car.

“We can’t leave her here.” Glenn began to protest but as they looked out the window their hearts began to sink. There were more and more Geeks coming out from shops and crevices and all of them were heading towards Anastasia.

She looked towards the car and knew there was no way she could make it past the growing number of the walking dead.
Sweat slicked her skin and Anastasia knew she’d made her choice.
All for the good of the camp.
With a heavy heart she took one last look at Glenn and T-Dog before turning her back and at full pelt she ran as fast as she could in the opposite direction.