All Hope Is Gone

"Help me!! Heeelp!!"

"Where is that coming from?!" Anastasia exclaimed at the sound of someone begging for help.

Rick looked around as Hershel made for the car parked just a stones throw away from the bar they'd re-met one another at. "I don't.." His head whipped around again towards the sound of more screaming. "There!" He pulled Anastasia forward as he rushed towards the figure he could see trough the light of the moon.

"Jesus Christ." Anastasia looked over the person who had been begging with cries for help. A young boy, probably only sixteen was laying sweating and in a pool of blood with his leg impaled on a fence rod. "Hush up kid we're going to help you."

"Please...don't leave me here." He shot out a hand towards her and gripped her arm tight.

Sliding a reassuring hand into his she nodded. "We won't, just keep quiet or you'll draw more walkers this way. They can already smell you bleeding out all over the place." Anastasia glanced up at Rick who was out of ideas on what to do with the kid. The fencing that had torn through the kids leg had an arrow pointed top and with no way to cut the iron bar, things were looking bleak already.

"Give me that machete." Holding his hand out Rick could only think of one way to help this kid out.

"No Rick, you can't. He will bleed out and die anyway!"

"I don't wanna die!" The kid cried in hysterics.

"Shush you ain't gonna die...just..." Looking at the arrow tip she huffed and took her jacket off. "Bite down as hard as you can on this and hold on. Don't scream. Ain't gonna lie to you kid, this is going to hurt like a mother fucker. Rick help me." Making her way from the kid they could all feel the walkers stumbling closer and closer to them.

"You better have a good idea."

"I don't but it is the best we got. Can't just leave him here like this." Grabbing Rick's hands she placed them on the kids ankle and with her own over his knee she let out a long breath. "When I say shove, you shove his leg upward as hard as you can and I'll do the same."

Rick nodded with eyes still wide but ready to do as told.

"Shove!"

Both of them shoved as hard and as fast as they could with the kids legs towards the night sky with a deafening crackle. Blood splattered over them and the kid clamped down on Anastasia's jacket just as she'd instructed him to. Crimson red laced with deep blue tones sloshed from the torn wound. Thread of muscle and gunk spilling over the rip in his pants and slivers of shattered bone peeked out.

Quickly taking the jacket from the kids sickly pale hands she wrapped it around the gorish wound as tight as she could. "Get him in the back and get us the fuck out of here!"

* * *

The drive back felt like an eternity and with the bleeding kid passed out with head on her lap Anastasia let out a deep sigh. "So where do you think this one came from?"

Hershel glanced back in the reversing mirror of the little car and noticed the thick knotted scar on the woman's arm. "Probably from those riff raff in the bar."

"I heard gunfire..."

"Was taking care of a potential problem." Rick's voice was harsher and his response not belonging to the Rick Anastasia had left but she nodded any way. "How did you survive out there Anastasia?"

Weary and adrenaline drained she let her head drop back onto the back seats head rest. "I was lucky."

"You sure were little lady." Replied Hershel.

The car turned a corner and as her eyes took in the surroundings relief flowed through her and warmed the night cold skin in her fingers and toes. The dusty road. The tall honey golden grass. The RV. All of it was ahead of her and quickly behind her as Rick slowed the car to a humming halt. "I'll get Shane to grab the kid..."

Rick left the car and soon after him Hershel slipped out heading back towards the house. Soon faces and bodies began to emerge from the house including one face Anastasia thought she would never see again. From the back seat of the car she let herself look over each person and her body bucked. Beside her the door opened and in stuck Shane's broad face.

"Well hello there stranger." His thick arms reached across her lap and grabbed hold of the kid and dragged him out. "Aye Daryl, gimme some help over 'ere man."

With a nod Daryl slowly descended the stairs and with boots crunching the ground under foot slowly headed on over to the car.

"Grab what's in there and bring it to the kitchen."

"Sure." His gruff voice seemed somewhat hollower since the last time Anastasia had heard it, but hearing it was enough. Daryl dipped his head into the car to check out what Shane had asked him to grab and as his baby blue's landed on the something in the back of the car his body tensed and froze.

Anastasia looked up at him not knowing what to say or what to do. She had thought about this moment over and over again but now it was happening none of the things she had thought of seemed appropriate. "So...am I okay to get out of the car?" Was what she had finally decided on.

Without a work Daryl grabbed her by the wrist and yanked her out of the car and forced her to stand in front of him.

"Oh...Anastasia!" Carol's voice was caught between shock and delight as the others fell silent and watched waiting for it to be a trick of the eye.

"Don't ya ever go off on yer own again." Daryl said with relief backing his warning.

"Shut up Dixon." And like she had wanted to so many times before, Anastasia flung her arms around Daryl's neck and pulled him close. "Least you could do is act like you missed me." With a choked whisper she buried her head into his shoulder. "'Cause I sure as hell missed you."

Shocked at the quick movement all Daryl could think to do was close his arms around the woman and hold her just as tightly as she did him. "I mean it."

* * *

"Well it won't be the same again but this Millie did a good enough job. Got some stomach though to do what you did with it." Hershel ran a hand over Anastasia's scarred arm that now stuck out at a slight angle.

"Still works and I am thankful for that." It was almost reaching the middle of the day and Anastasia hadn't long woken up to Carol and Lori sitting be her side but now almost everyone sat around the dining table listening to Anastasia recount her story. Daryl hovered over in the corner with a stern look watching over her. He hadn't been able to find her like he said to himself he would and that ate away at him. What good was he if he couldn't do something as simple a track down a woman? He couldn't save Sophia and it looked like Anastasia didn't need him to save her.

"Daryl." She looked over the heads at the table and into his eyes "Come here."

He saw the smile on her face so freely towards him. "I'm right back here."

The smile faded a fraction. "Alrighty, suit yourself."

"I can't believe that happened to you." Lori said resting a hand over Anastasia's. "We are just glad you're okay and here."

Carol slid her arms around Anastasia's shoulder and squeezed her in a hug. "We were all mighty worried about you."

Daryl grunted from his spot. "Yea so worried ya'll gave up on 'er." His mutter was barely audible as he turned and stomped out of the house leaving the screen door to slam shut behind him.

Knitting her brows in concern Anastasia moved from her chair. "I'll be back."

"He is just angry..." But the end of Carol's sentence was lost on her as Anastasia didn't stop but went after the softer red neck.

"Hey...hey come back here." Her voice called over the breeze beginning to pick up around her. "Daryl don't walk away from me."

Those words stopped him dead. "Walk away from ya'? I didn't go walkin' away!"

Closing the gap between them Anastasia folder her arms best she could over her stomach. "What's got you in such a fuss?"

"Ain't in a fuss 'bout nothin'." But that was just shy of a lie and Anastasia knew what was eating at the man fidgeting to get away.

"I am not angry you didn't find me. Carol and Lori told me you went out every day to look for me and that is enough. No one could have found me where I ended up." Her gaze was just as soft as her voice. "Don't be angry at yourself."

Taking a step back away from her, Anastasia quickly laced her fingers around the side of Daryl's jacket and pulled him back. "If you don't want me to go out on my own again you can't go stepping away from me like this. Got it?"

He looked down at her with a slight squint in his eyes sizing the little lady up and again he could feel that warmth unknown to him flutter in his belly and chest. Clamping a hand over hers on his jacket Daryl nodded. "Ain't gonna let you get lost again. Was my doin' that ya went off that day."

The revelation stunned her. "No Daryl it wasn't your fault. None of what happened was your fault. You been thinking that the whole time?"

His silence was all the answer she needed. "Well you're dumber than I thought you were."

He grunted. "I deserved that."

"Yes you did. Now stop thinking dumb and get back in the house. Freezing my ass off out here." Without letting go of his jacket Anastasia turned boot and with the red neck in tow marched back towards the house.

* * *

A new day rose over the farm and its inhabitants, a day warmer than the previous signalling the end of a harsh winter and the house was slowly waking from a deep slumber. Even Daryl had abandoned his tent for the night in favour of a spot closer to Anastasia after she insisted on sleeping close to everyone else. He glanced down at her as she slowly stirred on the lounge floor, Daryl was already dressed and waiting for everyone else.

"This is the second time I am waking up to you close by, I hope this time I am not naked." She muttered with eyes still closed but a hand dropping down over his knee.

"Nah ya ain't naked."

Sliding up and resting her back against the couch, Anastasia ran a hand through her tangle of hair before looking over at Daryl. Her face still marked with sleep and exhaustion. Silence surrounded them, but not the kind of silence that had fear lurking around it's corner. It was the kind of silence that ebbed on the side of calm. Slowly she stretched her legs out in front of her from under the covers and with a gentle caution let her head rest on his shoulder.

Daryl didn't flinch, he didn't pull back. "Shane asked me ta put some fear inta that kid ya'll brought back."

That wasn't what she'd been expecting. "And what are you going to do?"

"Reckons we ain't gonna let 'im go, will go back ta his people and bring 'em all back 'ere." For a moment Daryl thought what he really was going to do. "But I don't got an inch of trust in Shane. Thought 'bout asking the kid first."

Nodding she agreed. For a moment longer Anastasia let her head rest on Daryl's shoulder and began to think about how different things were. Not just with this new cruel world that was just a given, but them in it. Nothing was permanent and nothing was sure. Anyone could go, be hurt or killed and everyone other minute was a risk to survive. An uncomfortable weight settled upon her shoulders and she shifted to face Daryl pulling her hand back from his knee and to the silver chain around her neck.
Already she'd lived so many lives. A wife. A mother. A killer. A survivor. A friend. A sister. A family member. And someone who had seemingly slipped through the cracks of Daryl's harsh exterior. But nothing was permanent.

"This isn't long term, is it?"

"What?"

"All of this around us. The farm. These people. You...all of it could just to hell at any moment and we would be non the wiser to see it coming." Anastasia's sudden turn in conversation prickled Daryl.

He took a moment to think about what she'd said before choosing the best reply he could think of. "Nothing ain't ever been forever, darlin'."

It wasn't comforting and it wasn't nice, but it was the truth and they both knew it so.