Till Kingdom Come

Noelle laid on one of the prison cots in a cell as Hershel bandaged up her extremely swollen ankle. She held herself up on her elbows and watched intently, occasionally wincing when he pressed against her foot with too much force. A young blonde girl, Beth, sat beside her on the cot, trying to keep up a conversation with her as Hershel did his job.

“So where are you from Noelle?”
“Born in Georgia, living in Cali.”
“What brought you back here?”
“Just visiting family.”
“Have you been surviving by yourself?”
“Yea.”
“Where had you been staying?”
“No where.”

The conversation ended there. Beth had a natural curiosity for someone her age, and her enthusiasm was extremely comforting for Noelle. Since the outbreak, Noelle hadn’t been surrounded by so many people, and after everything she had gone through, she felt extremely out of place and worried. She didn’t know if she could trust a new set of strangers and her worry grew every time she over heard the others talking.
Rick, Glenn, Maggie and Daryl stood off to a corner of cell block C and began discussing Noelle’s fate. Rick, Glenn and Maggie were pretty skeptical about letting her stay, and stood nervously with arms crossed, wondering if the right decision was to let Noelle try her luck out on the streets. Daryl on the other hand, completely disagreed.
“Fuck guys! She aint gon’ do nothin’! Damn girl could barely stand on her own two feet when I found her! She aint even have a weapon.” he lied. “Damn chick was practically dead, and look how skinny she is. Toss her out and she aint even gon’ last 5 hours.”
Daryl knew the second he spoke up that the others would agree to let her stay. He had become a valuable asset and his voice mattered, so although he rarely spoke, times when he did were worth listening to. He knew the second she fell in his arms that she needed all the help and company she could get, and although he felt it was better to keep these things to himself, he knew right off the bat that Noelle had been raped and mistreated halfway to death. That is, if she didn’t already feel dead on the inside.
Rick understandingly nodded his head at Daryl and looked up at the rest.
“She stays.” he said lowly, and those words were enough to convince both Glenn and Maggie that she would become a part of the group.
Walking away from every one else, Daryl walked over to the cell where Noelle was and leaned up against the “door frame” just as Hershel was finishing up. With a swift motion of his head, her asked Hershel and Beth to step out , but remained leaving against the wall.
“How’s your ankle doin’?” Daryl asked, motioning to her foot.
“Better I guess, still hurts.” She said, refusing to make eye contact and then Daryl cleared his throat.
“Talked to the rest of the group, said you can stay. Sleep here for now, supposed to be my cell but I prefer the perch. Keep your moth shut and you might eventually get your gun back.” With that he turned around and closed the prison gates behind him with a loud bang and locked her in. Noelle lay her back down and stared up at the ceiling until she drifted into a light sleep.

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Noelle abruptly woke up from her nightmare and sat up straight on the cot, palms and forehead sweaty. She looked around before remembering where she was and walking over to the thick metal bars. Through the bars she could see Daryl up on his perch, his crossbow on his lap faintly glistening with the bit of moonlight that entered the cell block through on of the upper windows.
“Psst!” she called out to Daryl, several times before he snapped his head at her and harshly hissed “WHAT?!”.
She mentioned with her hand for him to come over to her and he eventually did, obviously annoyed that she was awake.
“Whatdya want? Cant ya be sleepin’ like every one else?” he asked.
“Cant sleep.” she simply replied. Daryl rolled his eyes.
"And what the hell am I supposed to do, sing ya a lullaby? Not my style sweetheart."
"No thanks." she replied curtly. "Just…can you open the door? Kinda feelin’ trapped and could get out for a bit.
Daryl rolled his eyes once more before grabbing the set of keys from his belt loop and opening the cell door as quietly as he could. No point in arguing now.
Noelle stepped out cautiously and followed a malcontent Daryl up to his perch, plopping herself down right beside him. The small disgruntled noises he was making made it obvious that he felt annoyed by her company, but Noelle didn’t mind.
"You could kinda see the moon through that window up there, looks nice." she whispered, pointing up at the top of the cell block.
"Whatever." Daryl mumbled.
They both remained quiet after that as Noelle studied her surroundings and Daryl simply played with the string on his cross bow.

After minutes of silence, Daryl was surprisingly the first to speak.
"What happened to you out there?" he asked quietly, not looking up from his crossbow.
Noelle sighed, knowing that question would come up eventually. Getting nervous and fidgeting with her hands, she took in a shallow breath before speaking up in a low and sullen voice.

"I had been living on the outskirts of Georgia with my little sister, in one of our neighbors houses and we had everything boarded up. We knew we couldn't stay there forever but it was safe until things quieted down. I decided to go to town and stock up on supplies early one morning and just took off. I didn’t even say goodbye, just left my sister sleeping, didn’t even bother to take our truck. Town seemed barren as always, and I just started stocking up on food and medicine from one of the nearby shops. Before I knew it though, a walker had made his way in through the back and grabbed my side, knocking me down on the floor. I tried to reach my knife and I thought that was the end for me until some man bust in through the front and shot that walker right in the head. I had never been so grateful, or so I thought, and that man offered go drive me back home. Helping me to his car though, he hit me over the head with the stock of his shotgun and I blacked out. Next thing I know, I'm waking up in some dark basement, with my hands tied over my head in nothing but my underwear. I don't know how long I spent there, or how loud I yelled. After some days I lost my voice and just gave up. I still have nightmares of that man, he was crazy. I barely ate anything, I just remembered the horrible way his hands traced over my body; the way he grabbed at my throat and just climbed over me. Everyday I wished to die but I wanted to find my sister again. One day he…I heard him step out and just started pulling on the rope till I loosened it up enough to slip out. I grabbed the pistol I knew he kept in some bottom drawer and ran out of that house as fast as I could. I just thought if I ran fast enough I'd be ok. Eventually I ended up in the woods and found you. Still don’t know where my sister is…what happened to her or if she’s even alive by now."

By now, tears were welling up in Noelle's eyes and she looked up slowly to see Daryl staring back at her softly. She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt and Daryl reached out to her, giving her other a hand a light squeeze.
"You should get some rest" he said. "aint nobody gonna hurt ya here."
Daryl helped her up and walked her over to her cell, closing the door quietly. Sitting back on her cot, she looked up at Daryl through the metal bars.
"Thanks for helping me."
"I'm glad I did." he replied with a nod, before walking back up to his perch.
He positioned himself on the floor while staring at her cell, then averting his eyes to the cell blocks window.

"Hm, moon does look nice." And with that thought, he drifted off to sleep.