Undying Love

"What's wrong?" Daryl asked randomly, making me jump ever-so-slightly. We had been walking for about fifteen minutes in silence, but that's what I was expecting. With him busy tracking I didn't want to disturb him by talking, but clearly he was expecting me too. "I'm just thinking about Carol," I stated quietly as I followed along behind him, heading deeper into the woods. I was so glad that Daryl was here with me because I trusted him with my life and knew that if anyone could get us back to the highway, it was him. "What'a 'bout her?" he asked distantly, trying to focus on the tracks as well as our conversation.

I took a deep breath before releasing it in a long sigh. "Sophia is all she's got left," I began, not entirely sure how to say what I was thinking. "And if we don't find her...or we do and she's-" I trailed off uncomfortably. The thought of finding her dead or as a walker literally made my stomach turn. No-one should have to die like that, especially not an innocent little girl. "I can imagine how Carol will feel if it comes to the worst...and it's horrible" I finally said, summing up what I was trying to get at before. I know me losing Daryl and her losing Sophia wouldn't be the exact same but Daryl was all I had left and losing him doesn't even bare thinking about.

I was waiting for Daryl to say something, but a lone walker in the distance had caught his attention. He abruptly put his arm out, stopping me from moving past him and when satisfied I had stopped, he began flinging his hand around making hand signals. "In English?!" I hissed, slightly panicked that he was going to rush into it and I wouldn't understand. "Go over there an' distract it. I'll kill it from behind" he stated slowly and almost patronisingly, obviously making fun of me because I couldn't work that out from his hand signals.

I was going to tease him about putting me in danger by making me the bait, but his lips caught mine in a sudden kiss which took me totally by surprise and rendered me momentarily speechless. Not that I could say anything after that because he was already moving away from me and into a position where he could kill the walker when it's attention was on me. I wasn't sure on what I was supposed to do to actually get it's attention, but my smell alone seemed to work because as soon as I ran past it and stopped in its line of sight, he let out a teeth-baring growl.

If I was with anyone else I probably would have had my gun drawn, but with Daryl, I knew I didn't need it. Right on cue and arrow came piercing through the walkers skulls, just a little off the eye, which is where he normally aims to hit. When the walker was down we both made our way towards it, me reaching it first and pulling the arrow out to give back to Daryl. He took it with a small smile and our eyes briefly locked, before both of us looked away. Daryl was surveying the area however I was more interested in the walker; remembering the blood around its mouth looked unnervingly fresh. I crouched down beside it, preparing to turn it onto its back. "Sophia!" Daryl yelled, making me violently jump. I immediately turned and slapped his shin which was the closest part of his body as he stood next to me. "You trying to give me a heart attack?!" I asked whilst looking up at him, my tone of voice coming out less pissed off then I was hoping it would. "Sorry," he said with a small titter of laughter, before leaning down and joining his lips with my own. It was a longer kiss then before but shorter then the one back on the highway. "Didn't mean'a scare ya" he said once the kiss broke and he was stood upright again. God I loved him so much.

"Its okay," I said with a contented smile. "Can I borrow your gloves?" I asked whilst holding out my hand because I knew he wasn't going to say no. He looked at me skeptically but slowly began retrieving them from his back pocket as he spoke, "What'd ya need them for?" As soon as he placed them in my hand, I quickly pull them on and gingerly flipped the walker over. "It's feed recently...I just wanna see if I can work out what it ate" I explained, carefully opening the walkers mouth so I could get a better look inside. The smell alone wanted to make me throw my guts up, but it wasn't until I saw something caught in its teeth that I had to stand up and move away to vomit behind the privacy of the closest tree. "Lace?" Daryl immediately questioned, the concern in his voice making it impossible not to smile even whilst being bent over by a tree, looking down at my tiny amount of sick. That was the only good part about having hardly any food in your stomach; there wasn't much to bring back up.

I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and composed myself by taking a few deep breaths before standing up straight and meeting Daryl's gaze. "There's flesh caught in it's teeth" I quietly informed him. I didn't want to believe it was Sophia's but I couldn't help but let the thought fill my mind. It unfortunately made a lot of sense; her tracks lead us here, directly into the path of this walker, the only walker we've seen since searching for her and it happens to have fresh blood coating its mouth and flesh stuck in-between its teeth. "We don't know for sure" Daryl said, as if reading my thoughts. He then held out his hand like I had done early to him and nodded to my hands to indicate that he wanted his gloves. I didn't question him on why he wanted them, I simply took them off and handed them back to him, watching him as he put them on and pulled out his knife. He put one leg over the other side of the walker so that he was now towering over it with his knife held up in both hands, ready to plunge it into the walkers stomach. However he froze in that position, only moving his head to look up at me. "Ya might wanna look away" he said solely and I was quick to take his advice.

Turning my back may have helped avoiding the sight, but the sound was just as repulsive.