Undying Love

The CDC was a waste of time. The only survivor was a man named Dr. Jenner, the husband of the head of the CDC, who became infected and devoted her dying body to research in an attempt to find a cure. But a cure was never found. Jenner was possibly the last scientist left in this world and he chose to "opt out", Jacqui going with him. The CDC was now destroyed, nothing remained. Me and what remained of our small group barely made it out in time, but now that we had, I wish I'd stayed behind...

"Ya alright?" Daryl asked from beside me, snapping me out of my depressing train of thought. We was currently on the interstate rummaging through abandoned vehicles, looking for anything useful. The trunk of the car I was rummaging through now was filled with clothing, so I had to wonder why Daryl was here instead of stifling fuel like he usually would. "I'm fine," I reassured him for the untold time, hoping this time he'd actually believe me. "Just tired, that's all" I said, glancing to the side of me at him and flashing him a small smile. He nodded in response but as I went back to shifting through the pile of clothes, I knew he still wasn't convinced. He snaked his arm around my back and pulled me into his side more, so he could place a small, sweet kiss on my temple. "Okay" he simply stated, before moving away from me and the car, instead going back to helping T-Dog with gathering fuel.

Once I had grabbed a few items of clothing and stuffed them into my backpack, I decided to go and see how Glenn was getting on. Dale had put Glenn in charge of finding a hose to put inside the RV and even though I knew nothing about engines, I felt more comfortable trying to help with that then looking through the belongings of dead people. Besides, apart from Daryl, I was closer with Glenn then I was with the others. "Hey," I said as I reached the vehicle he was currently working on. Shane was there as well so I directed my greeting at both of them, even though I only really wanted to speak to Glenn. "Hey!" Glenn exclaimed happily, his eyes fixed on the engine as he concentrated on the task at hand. Shane merely nodded before turning his back to us, not that it bothered me in the slightest. "Where's lover-boy?" Glenn joked quietly, receiving a playful slap to the back of his head from me. He chuckled to himself whilst readjusting his hat and even I couldn't stop myself from laughing along with him. "Don't let him hear you calling him that, Glenn. Or anyone else for that matter! You know what he's like" I explained once my laughter subsided. Glenn was the only one who officially knew that there was something going on between me and Daryl because he had caught us "doing it" on the first night at the CDC. However that wasn't the first time we had slept together, far from it in fact.

I knew Daryl before the outbreak started. I moved to Georgia from Ohio about a year before and within three months of me living there, me and Daryl had started a 'friends with benefits' kind of relationship. But as time progressed, it became about more then just the sex for both of us. We actually started to like one another. Since then we've become more like an unofficial couple; we've never used labels like boyfriend and girlfriend and in the (12+) months we've been "together", we've never once said we love each other. For all I know Daryl may not even love me, he could just like me. But I most certainly loved him.

"Yeah, I do know what he's like" Glenn replied, still laughing quietly to himself. "But I just don't get why he wants to hide it from everyone. You've been together for over a year now, so why the big secrecy?" he asked, finally looking around from the engine and meeting my gaze. He did look genuinely confused but sounded somewhat amused. I think he was expecting some dirty story to come from it, but there was no real reason. "It's always been like that," I stated with a small shrug. "He doesn't feel comfortable with showing affection around others. Never has and probably never will."

Glenn still seemed puzzled by the whole situation but I never asked him to understand. It worked for me and Daryl and that's all that matters. Glenn smirked at me slightly before turning his attention back onto the engine. "What?" I asked with a somewhat awkward laugh. Glenn often found things amusing but kept what they were to himself, but I'd always get it out of him sooner or later. He shook his head distantly and I knew I was going to have to hound him to find out what he found funny this time, but Shane's voice cut me off. "Lacey, Glenn," he began, catching our attention before continuing. "Were we short on water?" he asked ever-so smugly. But when I saw what he had found, he had ever right to be. Shane had found a whole truck filled with large bottles of water; fresh, clean, drinkable water.

Maybe things were starting to look up for us.