The Darkest Storm

This game was getting old.

Darcy puffs out her cheeks and rolls her eyes, throwing her hands down on her legs in defeat. “I don’t know…seven?”

Carol shakes her head and lowers the incorrect amount of guessed fingers, “Nope. Three.”

“How do I know you’re not cheating?” Darcy raises a curt brow.

“It’s so dark in here, I’m not even sure I know how many fingers I’m holding up.” She chuckles and asks hopefully. “Do we have an idea of what time it is?”

Darcy shrugs, “I’ll check.” She turns and grips the broken handle of the door and creaks it open just by a slither. There was a small barred window just above the right side of the wall a few feet from them – they were counting their hours and days by the light.

Darcy purses her lips, “Early morning. It’s gotta be.”

A forceful bang on the door knocks her on her back and the door is closed. Carol lifts one of Darcy’s shoulders to help her up as they listen to the nails scratch to get at them from the other side and teeth scrape the frame.

“Do they ever get bored?” Carol growls in aggravation.

“They’ll have to move on eventually, right?” Darcy asks, getting to her feet and wiping her hands on her jeans.

“If they know we’re in here…it’s hard to say.” Carol sits back on the bench again. “The group will find us soon – I’m sure of it.”

Darcy closes her eyes and leans back against the wall, “Hope so.”

-

Daryl stirs around his plastic spoon in the bowl of mush for his breakfast. He can’t bring himself to eat it – even if it was a prime mush, he isn’t too sure if he could keep it down.

There were four graves buried yesterday: Lori’s, T-Dog’s, Carol’s, and Darcy’s. After finding no trace of Carol, and just a small token of Darcy – not to mention finding one of the three in pieces, they had assumed the worst. And they were declared dead because of it.

Rick was on a warpath, disappearing into the boiler block looking for Lori – who had died tragically after giving birth to a beautiful baby girl. With most of their loved ones suddenly gone and their leader in an uproar, it was up to Daryl to hold down the fort until everything eventually went back to normal.

Well, as normal as it could get.

Daryl had visited her grave. He clasped his hands around the slightly-crooked cross that marked the empty grave. He knelt down, bowing his head as he remembered their days and adventures together – their more than meaningful nods and their slight smirks that no one else could see.

She was gone. Her charisma, bravery, wit, smile, and grandeur…everything she was or ever was going to be had ended. His body shook at the realization, trembled with desperateness, and wept at the unbearable feeling of emptiness that felt hollow in his heart.

His empty and callous mind had stumbled back to her cellblock when all others were asleep, staring into the cold vacant nook that still held her essence and trace.

He stepped in with a trembling breath, eyes red and features pale, taking in the surroundings that used to belong to her. He marked his fingers over her bow, still feeling the warmth of her hands where they wrapped around its grip. He saw her backpack slightly toppled onto the desk with some contents spilling out. He opened it, shakily picking up the crumpled up pieces of paper he had remembered her taking from the car a few months ago. Daryl read through them trying to see what she was holding on to, what it had meant to her.

The tightness in his throat and the ache in his chest were rearing their ugly faces again. He backed up into the desk, facing the bed. He sees the disheveled sheets and two pillows that were placed in disarray. Daryl put his palms up to his eyes to stop the free-flow of tears from running down his dirt-covered face. He remembers everything, from how that made him feel loved for the first time in his whole life, how she smiled up at him as he kissed her lips, how her skin felt on his…

Daryl laid down in her bed and slowly fell asleep, clutching to her pillow and trying to pick up any hint of scent that was hers, to maybe wake up from this nightmare and see her lying next to him. But, he woke up from the bad dream with a fluttering heart, feeling sick from fear and frustration straight into reality that showed the same bad result. She was really gone, and she wasn’t coming back.

Now, he sits on the steps of the cafeteria, the scenes replaying over and over in his mind as the others eat in silence around him until the far door opened in creaking slowness, showing their cleaned-up leader on the other side.

“Everybody okay?” His voice was calm, casual. As if nothing was wrong or as if nothing had even happened.

All faces looked up at him, shocked to see him in such a state after everything. He walks in and puts a hand on Carl’s shoulder.

“Yeah, we are.” Maggie says quietly.

“What about you?” Hershel asks.

“I cleared out the boiler block.”

“How many were there?” Daryl says in a low tone.

Rick shrugged, not caring. “I don’t know. A dozen, two dozen.” He sighs. “I have to get back. Just wanted to check on Carl.”

Glenn stood up, “Rick, we can handle taking out the bodies. Okay? You don’t have to –“

“No, I do.” Rick nods condescendingly and walks over to Daryl. “Everyone have a gun and a knife?”

“Yeah.” Daryl says, as if it was an ignorant question. “We’re running low on ammo, though.”

“Maggie and me were planning on making a run this afternoon.” Glenn awkwardly taps his hand on his thigh as he glances at Daryl and lowering his voice. “It was Darcy’s idea – she brought it up yesterday. She found a phone book with some places we can hit and look for bullets. Her and Daryl were going to –“

“Can look through it and find out where to get formula too.” Daryl interrupts him harshly, standing up and putting his bowl on the counter. “We cleared out the generator room. Axel’s there trying to fix it ‘n case of emergency. We’re gonna sweep the lower levels as well.”

“Good. Good.” Rick nods, quickly walking back to the door and closing it behind him. Hershel tries calling after him, but the slamming of the door gave him his response.

Daryl watches Rick leave and knows now all eyes are on him after his forceful input – causing Glenn to stop talking about Darcy.

Glenn speaks up, “Daryl, I’m sorry.”

“Ain’t nothin’ to be sorry about.” Daryl looks over to him and taps his fingers on the counter. In a moment of grief, he angrily up-sides his bowl and knocks it to the floor, walking hastily out of the room and towards anywhere that is vacant.

-

Darcy shakes her nearly empty water bottle to gain a slight measurement of how much is exactly in there. She wriggles it out into the blackness until a resistant tug is on the end of it; giving her the clarification Carol had it in her grasp.

“Only take a few sips.” She tells her. “We have to be careful – it’s all I’ve got.”

“Here.” Carol handed it back to her. “I’ve had more than enough.”

Darcy can feel the selflessness of the woman across from her – she knows she probably took the smallest sip to save her the rest.

“Isn’t it weird?” Carol asks suddenly.

“Is what weird?”

“That it’s always you and me in the end of some -,” She waves her arm around, “- Some unexpected attack.”

“Name one time.”

“The farm.” Carol tells her. “Why did you do it? Why did you give up your seat? It would have saved everyone a lot of trouble.”

Darcy narrowed her eyes, “What do you mean?”

She shrugs, “I’m a burden. And you? You do so much for us.”

“You’re not a burden, Carol. Quit being so hard on yourself.” Darcy sighs annoyingly. “You’re not the broken woman you see yourself as. If you could really see yourself, what you’ve done, and how far you’ve come, you’d be proud.”

Darcy hears a sniffle, “Thank you.”

It’s been almost two days.

As the hours start to slowly pass at a painstakingly slow speed, Darcy becomes clearly aware of the fact that no one is coming for them any time soon – probably not at all.

Her throat scratches against her breathing and her body is weak. Her mind becomes frazzled at the amount of humid heat is building up in the small cell, causing them to become more and more dehydrated as the minutes pass.

“They aren’t coming.” Darcy whispers. “They think we’re dead.”

There was no answer.

“Carol?” Darcy’s throat squeaks and she coughs to clear it. “Carol?”

Still no answer.

Darcy crawls over to the bench and shakes the woman. She’s passed out, probably from the same lack of hydration Darcy suffers from. She reaches up and feels the pulse on Carol’s wrist; it’s faint, but it’s there.

Dehydration can do so much to not only a person’s body, but to the mind as well.

“Dammit.” Darcy sits back and feels the rush of heat rise to her face. Her mind is frazzled, weak. She becomes dizzy and disoriented. She knows if she passes out, she may not be able to wake up. Trying to listen carefully to any noises on the other side of the door, she registers her hearing is faint. Her body was starting to fail her.

Darcy moves over to the door and peers out into the empty hallway. Empty. She sighs in relief, closing her eyes and resting her forehead against the heavy door. Darcy is smiling in the lightless space, breathing heavily and trying to get her body to move. The only thing on her mind though; sleep.

She shakes her focus back to the door, shifting her weight to sit down but still pry open the door. As she starts to push, the weight becomes unmovable. Darcy looks back out into the hallway again, thinking maybe something is blocking it and is making it harder for her to push open.

Seeing in fact that there were two bodies sprawled on the ground directly in front of the door made her slam her fist against the wall. Those two damn bodies were put there by yours truly so that the same bastards couldn’t get inside. She cursed quietly, turning around and refusing to give up. She pressed her back into the door and clenched her teeth, grunting slightly at the amount of force her body managed to rustle up and use.

Darcy let out a loud, frustrated yelp. She sat back down, breathing heavily and praying to God there was just a drop left inside the plastic bottle by Carol’s feet. When she picks it up, she starts to whimper at its complete emptiness.

Darcy slides to the ground and lays there, tapping the door with just one foot open and closed while she effortlessly lets herself slip into unconsciousness.

-

“Check it out, man.” Oscar holds the flashlight to a solid metal door, barely open and closing repeatedly as if there wasn’t a care in the world whether it opened or not. “Must have missed it last night.”

Daryl stands back at the ready, but shrugs his shoulders and brings a finger up to push it close. “It’s probably just one or two of ‘em.” He steps around the two bodies in front of the doorway. “Don’t look like they got much fight.”

“They ain’t going nowhere.” Daryl nods and keeps moving forward, seeing Carl in a daze in front of him. “We’ll take care ‘o it on the way back.”

Daryl whistles to get Carl’s attention. “Come on.” The boy’s face is visibly blanched, not really having a care in the world at the moment as they scout out the lower tombs.

“You know, my mom, she liked her wine.” Daryl began. Darcy had heard this story before, hell; she was the only one he’d told. He pushes those thoughts of her out of his head and focuses forward to Carl again.

“She liked to smoke in bed. Virginia Slims.” Daryl checks a cell door and moves back. “I was playin’ out with the kids in the neighborhood. I could do that with Merle gone.”

“They had bikes, I didn’t.”

“Every kid should have a bike.” Daryl hears her voice inside his head, remembering it was her response after all. He shakes it.

“We heard sirens getting louder. They jumped on their bikes, ran after it, you know, hopin’ to see something worth seein’.”

Daryl turns to make sure Oscar isn’t too far behind. “I ran after them, but I couldn’t keep up. I ran around a corner and saw my friends lookin’ at me. Hell, I saw everybody lookin’ at me.”

He checks another cell and sees nothing of interest. “Fire trucks everywhere. People from the neighborhood.” He looks to Carol. “It was my house they were there for. That was my mom in bed, burnt down to nothing. That was the hard part.”

He felt the warmth of the memory of Darcy’s heartbroken look as he told her the story. The slight touch of her fingertips touching his. He had intertwined them together, giving her a thankful small smile. Things like this would often happen when they were alone and the air between them was comfortable – they didn’t know how, but it just happened.

Daryl bit the inside of his cheek to keep him from loosing his patience with his own mind. He didn’t want to go back to that, to think about her.

“You know, she was just gone. Erased. Nothing left of her.” Daryl looks back to Carl, half-expecting his mind to play more tricks on him and envision Darcy following him in the shadows. She wasn’t there.

“People said it was better that way. I don’t know. Just made it seem like it wasn’t real, you know?”

Carl sighs, “I shot my mom. She was out.” Daryl drops the flashlight to his side and stares at the small kid in front of him. “Hadn’t turned yet. I ended it. It was real.”

Carl kicks his feet against the ground. “I’m sorry about your mom.”

“I’m sorry ‘bout yours.”

“I don’t want to feel like it wasn’t – like it wasn’t real. It’s not better that way.” Carl shakes his head. “Because then you start to believe she wasn’t there the whole time, looking after you, loving you. I don’t want to think that about anyone…my mom, Sophia, Darcy.”

“Darcy?” Daryl asks.

Carl nods. “She could’ve been my big sister. I wanted her to be so bad. She always looked out for me. Back on the farm she never told on me or got me into trouble when I’d sneak out of the house and follow her. She was really cool.”

Daryl nods and chuckles quietly. “She was really cool.”

“Do you miss her?” Carl asks, looking expectantly to the lone hunter.

Daryl shifts his eyes to the ground before nodding his head heavily, “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”

“Oh, that’s what I’m talking about!” Oscar’s voice lifted the boys’ thoughts towards what he was excited about. They look behind them, seeing him disappear into a cell before they followed close behind.

“Mm-hmm!” Oscar was kneeling, picking up an old pair of slippers and putting them over his hands and clapping the soles together happily. “Yeah, buddy.”

“What the hell you need slippers for?” Daryl raised his brow.

Oscar looked completely taken aback. “You know, end of the day. Relaxing.”

The sound of a slight gurgle trying to form a growl raised the hairs on the back of their necks. The three spun around inside the cell to the entryway, seeing a lone walker reaching out towards them.

They all fired at once, but an arrow pierced its skull. Daryl leans over to reclaim what was his when he saw something familiar; Carol’s knife.

-

The sound of metal being slammed into concrete woke Darcy with a jolt. She laid back with her hands outstretched around her, feeling where she was since she couldn’t quite remember. Her eyes drifted towards the crack in the door that shone a bit of thankful light.

Darcy’s heart sunk when she did come to, lifting herself to her knees and up to the bench to sit next to Carol. Darcy was quiet when she shook the woman, just barely getting a groan and a tap on her knee in response to tell her she was okay. Darcy leans back tiredly against the wall next to her, rubbing the bridge of her nose and debating whether it was worth the energy to check the halls again.

Loud, repetitive thumps shot Darcy upright. She reaches to her holster and brings out her gun, an embarrassing three bullets left in the chamber. Her breathing is rapid and heavy as she starts to hear very clear sounds of pacing right outside the door.

The bodies where being dragged away, both of them. Her heart started racing at the sudden movement in front of the door. She could only see the brief shadows of whoever or whatever was out there trying to reach them.

Shakily, she stands up in the center of the cell and points her gun at the opening as she waits for them to show themselves. It could be their ticket out of there – the trespasser seemed to be alone with no other movement but its own so they could make an escape.

The door opens with a slam.

Daryl stands there with a knife raised in his right hand and his left ready to defend himself. They stand in silence, staring at each other with wide eyes and shaky breaths, still with weapons at the ready as they weren’t quite sure if they were just imagining this happening.

It was complete silence as they stood a few feet away from each other in the shadows, still trying to put all the pieces together; still trying to clear their minds to makes sure they weren’t dreaming yet again, just like back in the woods where Darcy had miraculously found her way to them after the farm burned down.

Daryl lowers his knife, and Darcy lets out an unstable breath. She falls into him and he steadies her in his grasp, bringing them both to sit on the floor and let his arms embrace the woman he thought was gone forever.

“Ya gotta stop scarin’ me half to death, woman. Thought I’d never see you again.” Daryl tells her barely above a whisper, resting his forehead against hers and holding the back of her head for support. His fingers entangled themselves in her hair and he closed his eyes drawing in her familiar scent.

“T-Dog.” Daryl nods, telling her he knows. She clutches at his back and presses herself into him as much as she can, not wanting him to let her go in the slightest. Darcy looks up and over towards Carol. “We have to get her back. She’s not going to last much longer.” She throws in a sarcastic chuckle, “I’m not going to last much longer.

“Can you walk by yourself?” He helps her stand up.

She nods, “I’ll be right behind you.”

-

Daryl lead Darcy through the halls, carrying Carol as they went along. She walked slow and steady, holding her right hand up against the wall for support since she didn’t trust her body just yet. Severe dehydration was her main enemy in that moment as her tongue ran dry across her cracked bottom lip.

She realizes the pathway where they were; just a few yards down and she and Carol would have been safe and sound in the back entrance of their cellblock. The realization of how close they were to death and at the same time to safety ached her soul.

Daryl lays Carol down to let her sleep and then faces Darcy leaning up against the cell frame waiting for him. He gently takes her arms and directs her towards the cell next to Carol’s, not wanting to tire her out more by climbing the stairs.

“I’ll go ‘n get Rick and the others.” He turns to face her as he starts to leave. “They’ll all be glad to see you.”

Darcy smiles a quick smile and holds her hand out to him so he wouldn’t go anywhere. In a quiet and raspy voice she asks, “Do you have any water?”

He chuckles at her and leans over to grab one from outside the cell. He hands her a warm water bottle and she sips it thankfully. “Thank you.”

“Be right back.”

In an instant, maybe because she fell asleep for a few seconds, she heard the hitting of keys against Rick’s thigh as Daryl led him to her cell. She sees his face, it’s confused and staring at Daryl. He probably hadn’t told him she was alive.

Rick turns the sharp cell corner and his mouth drops and eyes narrow, blinking a few confusing times before walking over to her and pulling her into a hug. His face grows red and Darcy feels the tears against her skin that fall from both her and Rick’s faces. Daryl smiles as he watches.

“Thank God.” He whispers, hugging her tightly and holding the back of her head securely to him. She buries her face in his shoulder, more than overwhelmed to see her friend once again and alive as well.

“How?” The sound of a smiling Hershel peels Darcy out of Rick’s grasp and over to him. He wobbles a little at her force, incredulously happy to see the old man again.

“Solitary.” Darcy chuckles, wiping her face with the hem of her shirt.

“Poor thing fought her way into a cell with Carol. “ Daryl still smiles. “She’s in the next cell, must’ve passed out. They’re both dehydrated. ”

Rick rubs his eyes, “Thank God.” He says again.

Hershel lets go of Darcy and the sight of a small baby in Beth’s arms makes her smile, but shift her gaze to the entire group as she sees the mother is missing. She turns to Rick, expecting the answer she knew she was going to get, already letting the tears flow down her face.

Rick nods, more tears flowing and she covers her mouth before reaching up and holding his face in her hands. “I’m so sorry.”

“Carl?” Darcy looks around and he steps forward, portraying a callous expression but he also has droplets forming around the edges of his eyes. She kneels down and embraces him, and he cries into her shoulder.

They both pull apart, and something catches Darcy’s eye that forces her back into survival mode. A woman, dark skinned and covered in blood is locked on the other side of the cell door down the hall, peering inside at them.

“Who is that?”