All Hope Is Gone

It was early morning in the prison and all but Anastasia still slept, the sun hadn't risen and nor had a soul. Her watch was about to end but she wasn't ready to leave the solitude.
Weeks had passed and people had been lost, it had just become the way. How it was and nothing was going to change that. She took a deep breath in and closed her eyes tight, the smell of baby was on the air. Her head dropped.
Poor Lori...

"Anna..." Jesse's voice quietly came as he shuffled to her side from his cell, he had experienced loss as well. Both of them damaged so severely that they were but strangers to who they used to be.

Their legs hung through the slot under the bars on the top level of cell block C.

"Hey." her voice was soft as she greeted him with a tight smile. "It's okay, you can go back to sleep."

"You're shift is up, you go get some rest." His palest of pale eyes were dull and tainted. The loss of his twin brother had almost killed him in the weeks he had spent in the jail. "Go on."

Hesitantly she dragged her heavy limbs away from her post and with the boots she wore on her feet headed in the direction of her cell. Softly she could hear some stir, a shifting here and a yawn there. The sun would be up soon.

The bunk bed felt good under her weary bones as her body slumped into the covers she'd piled on for comfort. A yawn left her lips and her body stretched.

"Can I come in?" Daryl's gravely voice asked from behind the sheet Anastasia had hung up in the cell doorway.

"Sure."

Daryl's fingers curled around the edge of the sheet and pulled it to the side as he entered the dark little room of cement walls and bars. "Thought yer would be sleepin' by now..."

She shook her head. "I don't sleep all that much any more." Bending to unlace her boots she found her hands being moved to the side.

Without a word Daryl had knelt to her side and began tugging at the boot laces. "No good to any one if yer worn out." He looked up at her for a moment before looking down to her locket. "Ain't said much since Lori."

A husky breath left Anastasia's throat and she felt Daryl's rough, calloused hands brush over her bare feet before he tucked her boots under the bunk. "What is there to say? We are all going to die, just a matter of when."

He nodded resting a hand on her knee as she looked down at him. There was nothing left in this world. Only survival. Old rules didn't apply here.

Gently she rested a hand over his shoulder and stroked his cheek with her thumb before leaning down and touching her lips against his own. Her breath was hot against his lips. Nudging her back with his own lips Daryl put all his earlier protests aside and pushed his lips harder against hers again.
His breath shuddered as with caution he moved his body against Anastasia's, there was a shudder that ran down both their spines. Hands groping skin and a burning passion that had been building for so long had finally bean to erupt in a flurry of flesh on flesh and soft moans.

The taste of her against him was deliciously wild and she quickly slid her hands up the back of his shirt meaning to do away with the dirty material, but as she did her fingers felt something odd over his flesh. Immediately Daryl jolted back and pushed her hands back away from him.

"Hey..."

"This is a mistake." Daryl gruffed before abruptly leaving the cell with Anastasia staring after him.

***

Anastasia watched as Carol nursed Lori's little baby in the warmth of the late morning sun atop the small hill near the prison courtyard. She was so small and delicate, such a shame to have been born into this shitty world. Beth was chatting to Carol about something Anastasia was just out of earshot to hear.
But that wasn't what she was focusing on, it was the baby. A smile tugged at the edges of her lips, perhaps this little miracle was the breath of hope they all needed. Though her smile began to fade as she thought back to that mornings events with Daryl and she sighed. Had she pushed too far? Beneath that bad arse exterior Anastasia knew there was something else hidden away there, something more vulnerable and gentle.

"She's a cutie pie." Jesse said dropping an arm over Anastasia's shoulders and looking up to the baby. "Coming down to kill a few of these walkers with me?"

She glanced back at the second fence line and nodded, clearing her head of all the thoughts and questions beginning to form. "Sure."

Turning on her heel she took the machete from her side and as she did it was the cue for a scream to erupt from Beth. Instantly the pair spun around to see walkers snarling and reaching out for the trio and without wasting a second Jessie and Anastasia ran with a new sense of desperation back to the top of the hill.

"Carol!" Anastasia shouted pulling the woman and baby behind her before driving her machete into the skull of the stinking walker. "You and Beth get inside, take care of the baby!!"

Jesse took town two of the walkers with his thick hunting knife and turned to the third. "Where's Rick and Daryl?" He shouted over the growls of the flesh hungry undead.

"I don't know!" She called back taking several steps away from the advancing walkers. Four surrounded her and lunged with open, snapping jaws and gnarled rotting hands.

"Geddown!"

Obeying the order Anastasia quickly forced her body to crouch just as two walkers dropped dead beside her, an arrow sticking out of their heads. Quickly she pulled herself up and finished the two still standing with bloody blows to their skulls.

Looking around she saw Rick and Jesse fight off the last of them landing a sudden silence around them. Sweat beaded upon Anastasia's forehead and a feeling of weakened sick began to slosh around in her gut.

"Don' look down..." Daryl's face was pale as he looked back at Anastasia. Dammit, if he had just gotten there earlier!

"What?" Anastasia furrowed her brow not knowing what the red neck was saying. Why wasn't she suppose...

The answer came in the form of a slick wet patch drenching the side of her shirt. Her breath caught in a painful know in her throat. "No...no...I didn't feel anything." Stumbling back her hand clamped over the deep bite wound in her side, fresh deep red warm blood pumped from the torn skin.

"I got ya, it'll be okay." Knowing that was a straight out damn lie, Daryl wasn't about to tell his babybird any different. His arm wrapped around her, feeling the sweat slick over Anastasia's skin and sunk to the ground with her. Daryl's head was spinning and a feeling of panic set in but he bated it back. "Rick!" He called out to the man.

Spinning around at the urgency in Daryl's voice he felt a brick hit his chest and a sinking feeling enter. There he saw the red neck holding the childless mother in his arms, it was another one of them fallen. Taken by this fucked up world.

Thick blood was staining the dirt under them. Her skin was pale. Numbness had taken her fingers as they sluggishly rested over Daryl's hand that had taken it's place over her gaping wound. His other hand rested over Anastasia's forehead and it prickled with the fever that was burning the dying woman up.

"I...I...I," blood gargled in her throat, "Don't let me become one of them." Her teeth gritted as she struggled to get the words out.

He was stuck for words. Anastasia was going to die and there wasn't a damn thing he could do to stop it. He had wanted to protect her, to not let anything like this happen to her. She was his and that was all he knew. Anastasia was his patience and his concious. She'd become something more than a family member or a wanted lover. A lump formed in his throat. "I won't darlin'. I won't."

Jessie stood frozen as Rick made he way towards the couple hovered around creeping death. There wasn't anything he could do or say. He knew what had to be done and what had to be done needed doing. His hand reached for the gun at his side when Daryl looked up.

"I'll kill ya if you do."

For a moment Rick considered the words Daryl had hissed and eventually moved his hand away and let it drop to his side and nodded.

A bubble of blood burst in Anastasia's throat causing her to violently cough and jerk in Daryl's arms. Tears began to slide down her blood stained cheeks and her breath became slow and soft. Feeling Daryl's hand tighten around her she couldn't make out the words is lips were saying. All she could see was his face looking down at her with his own tears wetting his cheeks. Desperately she wanted to tell him not to cry but she couldn't. The numbness that had claimed her fingers had crept into her lips and was moving it's way to her eyelids.

Slowly she closed them to a blackness that her own daughter must have felt...