In the Shallows

It didn't take long for Rick to convince the group that this prison was the safest bet on where we should go. I for one wasn't all to thrilled, come on it was a prison. This place was filled with not only walkers but men and woman who had done a clusterfuck of things to get in this place. I didn't know what Rick planned on doing once we got past those geek filled cell blocks but all I did know was that I was dreading it.

We had found the road leading up to the jail in no time, pulling a pair of wire cutters from the truck, I walked them over towards Rick where he snipped a little spot where we could easily slip into. I went in first to help open the entrance for the others, my body jolting as a walker try to claw it's way from the field. My heart raced, there were so many and apart of me felt like wasting our ammo to rid this section was absolutely insane. I watched as they piled in through the secured walkway between the fields of the prison and just outside. Glenn and Daryl wired the opening shut so none of the other geeks could get through.

It took a little less than five minutes to get to one of the chained gates, rubbing my forehead free of sweat, I cupped my hand over my eyes from the Georgia sun, looking at the stray wanderers that lurked throughout. I swallowed hard, all the wrong possible moves started to choke my mind. My hand started to tremble and I felt Daryl's eyes on me, taking a deep breath, I tried to keep it down. The last thing we needed was for me to miss shots because I was scared for the first time since the winter.

I had gotten hard, almost forgetting what these creatures of mass destruction could really do. All I had locked in my brain was to kill and to see so many brought back the human feelings I needed. I winced as Rick had said, "It's perfect. If we can shut that gate, prevent more from filling the yard, we can pick off these walkers." He started to walk in circles, examining the situation.

I looked around at the geeks' attention we had caught, most of them lined up, it was an easy take out from the looks of it. All we needed were sharp objects and a good thrust and these demons would be good as dead. But that was much easier said than done, there were a lot of them.

Hershel asked the most obvious question that lurked in our minds, "So how do we shut the gate?"

Glenn spoke up, "I'll do it, you guys cover me."

It didn't take Maggie much longer to shoot it down, "No, it's a suicide run."

Rick agreed with her, "You, Maggie, and Beth draw as many as you can over there. Pop 'em through the fence, Daryl, go back to the other tower. Carol, you've become a pretty good shot. Take your time, we don't have a lot of ammo to waste. Hershel, you and Carl take this tower." I bit my lip when I didn't hear my name, he turned towards me, "Alex, you're with me."

I let out an inhuman noise, "Why me?"

He leaned in close, his voice low, "Because you're the only one I trust to have my back." His blue eyes intensified with every word, "Something happens to me, you just run and try to close that gate."

I interjected, "Nothing will happen to you."

Rick smiled lightly, "Exactly, now you in?"

I groaned, turning slightly away from him, my hands washing over my face, "Yeah-yes." I shook out my anxiety, shaking my hands and taking deep breaths. I could feel Daryl's blue eyes boring a hole in my skull but at the moment I couldn't care. I had to have Rick's back, if he said he trusted me than I had to prove that he wasn't putting his trust into a scared senseless woman. Which I was by the way. Once Rick had shooed everyone to their positions, we waited till everyone was situated.

Lori opened the gate, her eyes staring us down, words didn't have to be said there. They were plain as day on her face, be safe, but I didn't see exactly how that was going to work. We were walking straight into a walker infested waters with chained fences. There was really no where to run and hide.

I should have divided up my focus on Rick and myself but I was really only focused on making sure Rick got to those gates, so when I heard an arrow whiz by my ear and seeing a walker fall right near my feet, I knew that I wasn't exactly going to be Daryl's favorite person for the night. I looked up, his eyes hard and that look confirmed it all.

I made a slight noise in my throat when Carol shot a little too close to Rick, I heard her faint apologetic words. Sprinting and shooting the geeks that were coming up hot, Rick had reached the gate in no time. I spun around once he chained it up, keeping my aim steady and nailing each one of those son of bitches in the head. I felt a hand pull me into the guard tower, spinning around roughly, I followed him up the stairs. Once we hit the top, our ears were filled with the echos of gunfire, lining up my shots with my handgun and Rick using his rifle, we watched them all fall one by one.

"See I told ya I could count on you." Rick grinned. I shook my head in response but kept my smile. It took about fifteen or so minutes before each and every single one of them were down. The fenced in field was filled with dead bodies, making me dread the whole clean up process that we always did.

Night had fallen pretty quickly and we all had tasks that kept us busy till then, it was kind of nice because although I was dreading the dead body pick up, I was dreading the confrontation of Daryl. It was petty and stupid but I could see it in his facial expression, he still didn't like me going off and doing something reckless. Regardless if he knew he would cover my back in a second. When we all finally could take a seat and breath, it was pitch black aside from the burning fire we had made and the faint glimmer of the moon.

Everyone sat around the fire while they prepared food, Rick walking around the perimeter while Daryl stood on a turned over bus looking out from the way we came. It was pretty secured but it did settle the nerves to have lookouts. I thought this would be a good time to get the confrontation over with, walking towards the bus, I chewed my lip. In a way, he couldn't be mad at me. Rick had trusted me with his life and I couldn't let him down, Daryl wouldn't have, so I did the right thing.

Reaching the bus, I whistled to get his signal. He bent down, reaching for my arm, he pulled me up. Crawling on my knees, I rocked back on my butt and hugged my legs, "Hey."

He grunted, "Hey."

I pursed my lips, looking out into the darkness, my ears picking up on the geeks trudging along just outside these walls, "How's it going?"

Daryl flashed me an annoyed look, "Don't ya think we're past all this?"

"Past all what?"

"Small talk, jus' spit it out."

I chewed the inside of my cheek, leaning back on my hands, I stared at him. I always admired how tall he was, he was the perfect height against my five two frame. This world did him justice, Daryl had always been fit beforehand but constantly on the go and surviving, made his shoulders broader, his arms bigger and more toned. It could make any woman drool. It was odd how the dirt and grim made him more attractive, most woman would agree that a clean cut and groomed man was better but looking at Daryl, I would be more than happy to disagree. "Are you mad?"

It took him a few seconds to answer, "Yes." He then sighed, his eyes still set straight out, "But, I ain't tryin' to be. Rick needed ya, woulda' done it if he needed me." Daryl inhaled deeply through his nose as he stared down at me, "You're jus' reckless." See.

I frowned, "I hardly think I was being reckless, Daryl. I was focusing on having his back-"

"-you need to have your own back too." He snapped, "That walker was four inches away from sinking it's teeth into ya shoulder."

I rolled my eyes, "I knew it was there-"

"-obviously didn't care 'nough to stop it from doin' so."

"Are you really going to be mad about that?" I asked, my lip twitching. Everyone had come into a close encounter with walkers, I'm sure he has before, it was inevitable, that's why we had the group cover us, to get those that we can't. "It's a stupid reason to be."

Daryl scoffed, "Ya a damn pain in my ass." I was about to respond but Carol had walked up to the bus, placing a bowl on the surface of the bus and using Daryl to help her up. Once he got her up, he picked up the bowl, his body facing away from me completely as if I wasn't there.

"It's not much, but if I don't bring you something, you won't eat at all." Carol crossed her arms, pain shadowing her face.

"I guess little Shane over there has got quite the appetite."

Carol gave a little giggle, her eyes scanning over his face and exposed shoulders. Like I said, it was enough to make any woman drool. My eyes squinted towards her, "Don't be mean," she said. "Rick's gotten us a lot farther than I ever thought he would, I'll give him that. Shane could never have done that." She kept raising her shoulder and wincing every so often while she spoke.

Daryl popped whatever was in the bowl into his mouth as he rose an eyebrow, "What's wrong?"

She gave him a soft look, a look that every woman should know like the back of their hand. It was evident that Carol had a thing for Daryl, whether or not she would admit it. "It's that rifle, the kickback." She grabbed her shoulder, giving him another look. "I'm just not used to it. "

"Hold on." He set the bowl down near me, his eyes locking onto mine for a split moment. It wasn't a look I was entirely used to from him, but it made my skin boil. He broke away and turned back around towards Carol, bringing her in front of him. Slowly he started to rub her shoulders, I only assumed that he was trying to work out the kinks. It made me angry, I knew what he was doing, he was trying to make me mad and it worked. Except, trying to make a woman jealous could make you wish you hadn't. He had worked on her for a few minutes, it wasn't until she gave him a look that he stopped, "Better get back."

Her next few words made me want to slap her, "It's pretty romantic, wanna screw around?"

I stood up abruptly, my hair falling into my face a little, tucking them behind my ears, I coldly gave Daryl and Carol a look, "Well, I should probably leave you two alone." I started down the bus but not before I heard Daryl try to stop me, jumping down, I narrowed my eyes, "No, I'm just going to go." Turning around, I overheard Daryl saying he was going to go down first which Carol replied was even better, I just wanted to punch both of them in the face.

Clearly it was obvious that Daryl and I had something going on between us, granted it always appeared that way but since a little before the winter, it was quite evident that there definitely something there. We never put a title on it, we didn't want to, but if Daryl thought that I was going to let that one go, he was out of his mind. He straight up tried to make me mad all because I thought him being mad at me was stupid. Well, he didn't make me mad, he made me furious.