The Darkest Storm

Darcy stood along side the road as look-out while the others scrambled to the cars around them, trying to gather supplies and fuel for the start of their journey towards Fort Benning. She glanced back and forth between them and the road while tapping anxiously with arrow on the side of her leg and shifting her weight from one foot to the other.

It was a hotter day than usual, most likely because she had adapted to the air conditioning back at the CDC with such ease. Her hair was pulled up into a messy bun, letting the shorter waves fall and frame her porcelain face. The sweat that dripped from the back of her neck continued to stain her white shirt which was growing bigger, and dirtier, on her as the days passed.

What the hell was I thinking. Darcy thought, shaking her head and sighing heavily, annoyed with no one but herself. I swear to God if this ever happens again I’m going to remember to pack.

Darcy looked towards the group again, catching sight of Daryl as he pulled the motorcycle from the back of his truck and rolled it down to the soft grass. Daryl removed the tarp and folded it before shoving it in his bag beside him strapped to the bike. It would come in handy one day. Darcy watched his movements blissfully before he stopped and her eyes snapped to his. He stared at her, buckling the strap tight and standing up wiping his hands on his pants.

Darcy blinked, turning her gaze away and taking a few steps out towards the road to shake off his sense. It had been two mornings since they raided that abandoned house and it wasn’t on accident that Darcy was keeping her distance from Daryl, expecting him to ask her about what exactly happened with the little girl. Darcy could tell that he knew, he didn’t press or approach her, he kept his distance like it was normal.

“Girl, let’s go!” Shane bobbed his head in her direction and motioned to her that they were about ready to leave the site with a wave of his arm.

Darcy jogged over, hearing the crunching of the dried leaves and rocks beneath her boots. Daryl watched her as he climbed over onto his bike and she grabbed Glenn’s hand when she reached the RV’s stairs and was pulled inside.

The group was down to three vehicles now; the RV, the station wagon, and Daryl’s bike. With fuel being scarce, it was decided to ditch the gas guzzlers and try and cramp everyone into what they thought was necessary to keep. It had turned out for the better, as Darcy didn’t know what she would do if it was just her and Daryl in the truck by themselves.

Darcy pulled herself into the seat by the kitchen table and next to Andrea who sulked against the window, still on edge about the CDC. Shane sat opposite of them, immediately taking out his pistol and taking it apart to clean its pieces.

Glenn dropped himself in the passenger seat while Dale turned the keys at the wheel, and pulled out the large road map which would eventually lead them to a hopeful Fort Benning. He started marking the path with a black pen so he wouldn’t lose his place and find a simple way there.

“125 miles.” He sighed. “It’s gonna be a long trip.”

“We’ll have to make stops along the way, those cars did nothing for fuel.” Dale said, jolting the RV forward. “And this thing is practically dead in the water. It’ll most likely need fixing at some point.”

Darcy heard the roar of Daryl’s motorcycle as it revved up and past the RV, showing the group the way out of the outskirts of Atlanta in no time. Clearing the city, she stood up and headed to the back and stood across from T-Dog who slouched on the bed with his head knelt up against the window.

“You okay?” She asked, referring to Jacqui.

T-Dog sighed heavily and sat up to look at her. “Just sucks being alone now.”

Darcy scrunched up her face, not understanding. “You aren’t alone.”

“Oh, come on Darcy. I’ve got no ties to this group – got no family, any friends before this shit happened…I’ve got a redneck with a target on my back..” T-Dog laughed.

Darcy rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “And me? I’ve got no ties here either.”

T-Dog scoffed, “Did you hear me mention the redneck?”

She took a seat and smirked, “What you think we just held hands and skipped around in a field of flowers first thing?” T-Dog breathed out a laugh.

“But now?” T-Dog tilted his head. “Now, you’re all buddy-buddy.”

“We get along. Just like with you, or anybody else.” Darcy shrugged, her voice was soft.

T-Dog pointed. “You and him have some weird thing going on and you jus’ got here.” He sulked. “I mean, I don’t care - do you. But I’m the black guy who’s just an outcast. Do you know what happens to the black guy in scary movies? They die.”

“This isn’t a movie.” Darcy retorted. “This is a show based off a comic book and I’m just a made up character in Jane’s mind because she wants Daryl to have a lover.”

“What?” T-Dog asked, completely bewildered.

“I don’t know.” Darcy waved a hand and shook her head. “Just came to me. But the point is you are a part of this group. We all need you just like we need Rick, Daryl, Shane, anybody. Okay?” She stood up, holding out her hand.

T-Dog slowly nodded his head, “Okay.” He took her hand, pulling himself up and standing with her to go and join the others. Before reaching the table, they were again jolted forward as the RV suddenly slowed.

“Oh jeez.” Dale sighed, looking around their surroundings and seeing the mass pile-up of cars both on the interstate, and on the grass beside it. “Aw, no.”

Shane stood up, and Darcy walked up behind Glenn and crouched to see out the front window. There were cars tipped over everywhere, including a semi that lay across the road blocking their path. Glenn sighed, frustrated like the others and scanned the map as Daryl turned around and approached the driver side of the RV.

“See a way through?” Dale called over to him. Daryl looked back at the mess of cars, nodding and turning around again to try and find a way around it.

“Uh, maybe we should just go back.” Glenn looked at Dale, “There’s an interstate bypass-“

“We can’t spare the fuel.” Dale cut him off, turning the wheel tightly to zigzag in and out of the cars. For a few minutes they were able to wedge their way through while scanning the vehicles that held the deceased bodies of the car owners, some of which were hanging out of the windows and limbs waving limply in the Georgia breeze.

“Can we get through here?” Glenn asked as they faced the lines of cars with no way to edge the RV through given it’s width.

Then, the inevitable happened once more with an all too familiar shot of the RV’s front engine. It sputtered and screeched at them, causing Daryl to jump and look back at the RV and receive an agitated expression from Dale who began to pull the vehicle over.

Dale got up, pushing past everyone with his eyebrows together in irritation, throwing the door open and walking over to the front of his trailer.

“I said it. Didn’t I say it? A thousand times. Dead in the water.” Dale wined.

The group followed the old man to the front of the RV while Shane just smirked at Darcy as she pointed sarcastically to all the cars which clearly held the answer to their problem.

“Problem, Dale?” Shane said, carrying his shotgun nodding towards the vehicles in front of them.

“Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of-“ Dale turned around, “Oh. Well, that was dumb.”

Darcy held on to the railing outside the door of the RV as she half hung her body out of it to see what was going on. She immediately knew this was her opportunity to gather some supplies of her own and most likely get new clothes.

Darcy jumped out, landing on her feet with ease as she walked past Shane to a small black car and began to rummage through it patiently. They had all the time in the world because she knew Dale would take his time finding the right hose to scavenge.

A hand reached in next to her, and she wasn’t at all surprised to find Daryl rooting along side of her. She suddenly missed his company, and she felt completely at ease with him next to her.

“If you can’t find a radiator hose here...” Shane said.

“There’s a whole bunch of stuff we can find.” The raspy voice sent chills down Darcy’s spine, and it was by sheer happenstance that they both turned their heads to look at each other at the same time. He nodded, and she slowly returned it before moving along to another car.

“I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start.” T-Dog said, and Darcy shot him a small smile as he nodded his head towards her.

“Maybe some water.” Carol said. “Food.”

“This is a graveyard.” Lori said. Darcy tossed a picture frame down and turned to look at her with a heavy sigh. “I don’t know how I feel about this.”

Darcy put her hands on her hips and patiently told her, “We need the supplies. Anything we can scrounge.” Darcy said, turning back around, “And I need new clothes.” Lori glanced at her, seeing that she was right. Darcy was absolutely covered in stains from dirt to blood head to toe.

“You do smell.” Shane joked. “Like rotten fruit or somethin’.” Darcy whipped around with her lips in a wide smile before throwing a heavy book she found in the car towards him.

He dodged it and smirked. “Come on, ya’ll. Just look around.” Shane called out. “Gather what you can.”

While everyone spread out every which way, Daryl found his way to Darcy’s side again. “Looks like you ‘n Shane are getting’ along.” A certain tone was added to his voice.

Darcy shot a glare at him but decided to ignore his comment. There wasn’t anything going on between her and Shane and Daryl knew that out of all people. It was a shock that he reacted that way though when joking around with another person of the group. Daryl must have been bitter about her keeping her distance the past day or so and finally started to show it.

Darcy walked slowly through the cars before turning and fighting back, “Because a guy who sleeps with his best friend’s wife is something I look for in a man.”

Daryl watched her walk away behind the RV and out of sight. He threw one of the photos he had in his hands back in the car, instantly regretting saying something he knew wasn’t true. Daryl didn’t even want to know why he said it, he was still trying to fight these feelings towards Darcy and refused to let that be the reason why he seemed jealous of her giving attention to someone who wasn’t him.

-

Darcy was looking in the windows of each car to see if there was anything of interest she could scavenge. She made her way over to the other side of the RV, where no one seemed to be looking at the moment, a bit bitter towards Daryl for his unnecessary remark.

Darcy grabbed hold of the door of a white SUV, hearing the click of the handle but having to forcefully pull the door open to hop in on the passenger’s side. She opened the glove-box and found a handheld flashlight. She clicked it on and off again, shining the light on the dashboard to make sure it worked before setting it aside for later.

Finding nothing else inside the glove-box, Darcy slammed it shut and reached over to search the pockets of the dead driver beside her. At his feet, she saw a worn-out canvas satchel and snatched it, bringing it to her lap and rummaging through it. Finding nothing of interest, she dumped it’s contents to the side and threw the flashlight she had found earlier inside. At least she was off to a good start. Peering into the back seat she didn’t find much, but a bundle of rope that may come in handy one day so she grabbed it and put it in her bag.

Darcy hopped out, slamming the door shut and moving on to another car beside it. In the front seat were two middle-aged women, dead, with several bags in the back seat. Darcy sighed in relief, knowing this would be her chance to get some clothes. She quickly flung the door open and zipped open the suitcases. It was an entire closet ready for the taking, with other lady supplies that were extremely necessary.

Darcy packed what she could, and was so desperate to get into clean clothes that she started to undo her laces on her brown boots. Tossing aside her socks, she put the new ones on and immediately felt the hot asphalt of the interstate against the soles of her feet. She glanced around quickly, making sure no one was by, and pulled off her jeans and her panties before frantically putting on a new pair of each.

She slipped on her boots again to tuck her jeans into them and her socks, knowing they would get torn up if she didn’t. She re-holstered her 9mm and took her bow off her back. Darcy then reached in and pulled out the rope, keeping it in it’s bundle, and strapped it to her left thigh just in case her bag was lost. Darcy then pulled out a black razor-back tank top, it was loose and longer than a regular one so it was more comfortable and wouldn’t stick to her as she’d sweat.

Before she put it on, Darcy walked over to the side of the RV to get some kind of cover just in case someone came by. She slid off her torn and destroyed white t-shirt and threw it on the ground next to her. She quickly changed her bra as she found one that surprisingly could fit her after just searching through one car.

As Darcy fumbled with the ends of the tank top, she heard a flustered cough. “Oh-s-sorry.”

She looked up, seeing Daryl lowering his eyes and diverting them away from her in all different directions, but couldn’t help but look at her between them.

“You can turn around.” Darcy said quietly.

“S-sorry.” He mumbled again, whipping himself around and facing the other direction. As Darcy watched him carefully, she let the soft fabric fall over her shoulders and cover her body, relieved she had on new clean clothes.

Darcy bent over to grab the bag but stopped when Daryl spoke, “You’re mad at me.” It wasn’t a question and he said it in a quiet tone. Darcy sighed as she stood back up to reply.

“No.”

Daryl heard her feet move and slowly turned around to see if she was done changing. He shifted on his feet as he talked to her, picking at his fingers.

“Seem to be.” Daryl let his eyes wash over her, admiring her beauty. Her hair was still propped up in a messy bun, her eyes glinting in the sun, clothes clean and complimenting her features perfectly. His breath got caught inside his throat for just a moment as he wondered how on earth someone could be so captivating at the end of the world.

She shrugged, “Just didn’t want to talk about it. ‘Bout what happened.”

“I didn’t ask.” Daryl smiled slightly taking a step forward, and Darcy did too while she nodded and let her gaze fall to the ground. “I’m sorry ‘bout what I said back there. Don’ know why I said it.”

Darcy nodded at him, picking up the strap of the bag and laying it across her body before doing the same with her arrows. She shrugged her shoulders, “It’s fine.”

Daryl took another step forward and nodded to her bag. “D’ya find anythin’ good?”

Darcy went to move past him to grab her bow when a sudden movement behind Daryl caught her eye. She stopped, staring at the menacing figure making it’s way towards them with five more appearing out of nowhere behind it. Darcy stood there paralyzed, wanting to run but at the same time wanting to know for sure what she was seeing was true.

Darcy’s eyes were beginning to adjust to the growing numbers of rotten flesh eaters heading her way when Daryl followed her blank stare. He didn’t hesitate, pulling her with him and pushing her down to the ground to edge her to take cover underneath a car.

Darcy lay on her stomach, breathing heavily as Daryl scooted in beside her, crossbow laying on the ground next to him. He laid on his back, reaching an arm over to her to make sure she was okay. Darcy had her forehead resting on the ground and her eyes closed, unmoving in the slightest.

It wasn’t until the soft movements of footsteps surrounded them that she raised her head slowly, looking in front of her and seeing the gray staggering legs walking past them, unbeknownst that the two were even there.

Darcy could hear the groaning above them, and turned to the left to see if there were any that happened to learn how to crawl.

“Shit.” She whispered harshly turning to face Daryl. He compressed his eyebrows together and tried to see past her, noticing that T-Dog held his arm and was bleeding out profusely, desperate to find somewhere to hide.

“Stay here.” Daryl rolled out underneath the car when there was a small gap of the herd, and Darcy watched as he went to T-Dog’s rescue.

When Daryl killed a walker about to attack T-Dog, he pulled the body onto him and turned to catch Darcy’s stare. He put up a finger and motioned for her to stay quiet as he pulled a lifeless body out of the car next to him, lying down on the ground and placing it on top of him to cover his scent.

Darcy hid her face in the gravel once more, tightly squeezing her eyes and trying to block out all the sounds around her. She was waiting for one to fall, to stumble, to look over and see her lying there helpless and then attack.

Darcy could probably out run them, no she definitely could out run them. The living dead were slow and easy to out run or even out walk if she really tried. She had infinite options, there was plenty of road and she could even go into the woods.

The woods, Darcy missed being hidden in them. Back when it seemed so much simpler. Although she remembered her first day by herself: weak, sitting in a corner, crying, nursing her cuts and scrapes. How she managed to come out so strong was beyond her knowledge or ability to comprehend.

A hand wrapped around Darcy’s wrist suddenly, and without hesitation she pulled out her gun and cocked it aiming at whoever it was that was threatening her. Darcy hadn’t even lifted her head yet and was ready to pull the trigger.

When the hand pulled away however, she did turn her head slightly only to see Daryl kneeling over and looking at her with his hands raised in defense. Darcy sighed, re-holstering her gun and graciously taking the hand that was offered to her and was pulled out from under the car.

“Stay quiet.” Daryl whispered in her ear, wrapping his arm around Darcy’s shoulder and guiding her in the way the group was gathered, but she broke away from him first to snatch her bow.

The group stood by the guardrail, and Lori was holding Carol as the woman wept. Below them, Rick stumbled out of the woods and out of breath, half his white shirt was smeared with blood. “Did Sophia make it back okay?” He asked, panting.

Carol let out a cry, “She’s still out there? My baby is still out there!?”

“Two walkers went after Sophia, and Rick followed them into the woods.” Glenn whispered to Darcy and Daryl.

“Don’t worry, I’m going back in after her.” Rick held up a hand to Carol, trying to tell her that it was going to be okay. “Daryl, Darcy, I need you to help me find her.”

Shane spoke up, “I’ll come too.”

“Me too.” Glenn stepped forward.

“Alright let’s go.” Rick said, turning back into the woods.

The four of them hopped down over the rail and down the hill, keeping at a quiet jog to meet up with Rick. About a half mile out, he eventually lead them to a creek with a tree’s roots sticking out and making a little cave.

Rick pointed to it while he stood in the water, “I left her right here.”