Through the Trees

There were thee people, a father and his two daughters. One was twenty-seven, the other only a mere sixteen years old. They had been ambushed by a large group of men, with guns. The girls screamed as they were attacked and taken by force; while their father was beaten and forced to watch.

The men took everything from the family, leaving them in the wilderness alone with no way to protect themselves. They even took what spare clothes they had. The father began to slowly distance himself, blaming himself and feeling guilty that he hadn't been able to protect his family. Not long after the attack, the youngest daughter killed herself, the father eventually following and doing the same.

Leaving the eldest daughter alone.

Gasping for air, my body shot up in the bed I was in. Pain went shooting up my leg starting from my ankle. Looking down, I could only see a blood-stained bandage wrapped around the appendage.

"Be easy, it's going to hurt for a while." Hershel's voice startled me. I hadn't seen him sitting to my left when I first looked around the room. Then again, I had been paying more attention to the pain I was experiencing. "What's going on?" I groaned, my throat was extremely dry; and my body screamed bloody murder as I tried sitting up.

"Don't strain yourself, your body's going to be pretty sore." He informed me with a sigh. "What happened?" I honestly couldn't remember. My eyes stay glued to him as he moved to pour me a glass of water before walking it over to me. I smiled up at him in thanks as I took the glass.

"You ran off yesterday afternoon, into the woods. Daryl found you caught in a snare trap someone had set up, my guess it was his. Judging by your injuries, you hit your head whenever you fell." He explained. Suddenly, I seemed to remember exactly what had happened to me yesterday. Why I had run off in the first place. I didn't know how to feel when Rick and Shane came back to the farm with Randall yesterday so I ran. I remember running past Daryl, and hearing him call after me as I ran towards the woods.

"You ran because of the boy, didn't you?" Hershel asked, ending the silence. "Yes." I nodded. "He was there that night, wasn't he?" It was the first time Hershel's ever asked any details about what happened. "Yes." I whispered.

The boy, Randall, that they had brought back from town had been with the group of men that attacked my family and I.

He had been there when those men did horrible things to my sister and I. He was part of the reason behind why body my father and my sister killed themselves. Why they had left me completely alone in the world. That is, until I stumbled upon Hershel's farm. Hershel and his family took me in, and allowed me to stay in the house until I got better. I was very grateful, though I felt more comfortable outside underneath the stars.

So they provided me with a tent.

"You know, nothing like that is ever going to happen again. I can promise you that." Hershel tried reassuring me.

Meanwhile, Daryl was out in the shed, trying to get some information out of Randall.

"I told you!" The boy cried out. "You ain't told me shit!" Daryl screamed at him. Angry, he harshly slammed the boy against the wall behind him. "I barely knew those guys, I-I met them on the road!" Randall spoke again.

"How many in your group?" Daryl was standing back away from the boy now; and he was beginning to get agitated with the boy when he didn't answer. So he resulted to violence and pulled his knife out of the sheath. "How many!" Daryl repeated, this time louder. "Uh, 30. 30 guys." This time Randall was very quick with his answer.

"Where?" Daryl moved on to his next question now that the boy was cooperating. Yet, once more the boy didn't seem to want to answer. So, Daryl moved his knife closer to the boy's injured leg. "I don't know. I swear to you I don't know! We were never any place longer than a night!" Randall screamed, hoping to avoid Daryl's sharp blade. "Scouting? Planning on staying local?" Daryl growled, placing the blade against the boys wound.

"I don't know, they left me behind!" You could tell he was scared by the tone of his voice. "You eve pick off a scab? You start real slow at first; but sooner or later you just have to rip it off." Daryl was well past agitated and going on full blown pissed off now.

"Okay, okay. They have weapons, heavy stuff like automatics; but I didn't do anything!" Randall cried out, finally releasing some useful information. "Your boys shot at my boys, tried to take this farm. You went along for the ride? You're trying to tell me you're innocent?" Daryl refused to believe that in the slightest.

"Yes!" Randall took a deep breath before continuing, "These- these people took me in. Not just guys, a whole group of 'em. Men and women. Kids too, just like you people. Thought I'd have a better chance with them, you know? We'd go out, scavenge- just the men. One night we- we found this little campsite. A man and his two daughter, pretty things you know? Real young, real cute. Their daddy had to watch while these guys- they...and they didn't even kill him afterwards! They just made him watch as his daughters- and they just left them there. I didn't touch those girls, though, I swear."

Daryl had officially hear enough, and he was quick to step forward before kicking the younger male in the gut.

Daryl had so many thoughts running through his head as he left the shed, being sure to lock it behind himself. Though, the most prominent of thoughts was that story. A father and his two daughters in the woods- where had he heard something like that before?

"I should probably go back to me tent." I mumbled, moving over to the edge of the bed. "No, don't strain yourself. You need to stay off it for at least today, so I'll have Daryl carry you out there. If we had some crutches around here I'd let you use them but unfortunately we don't." Hershel explained to me.

He left the room before I was able to say anything else to him, so I simply nodded my head. Once I was alone sitting on the bed, my mind ran back to that Randall kid.

Why did they bring him back? What are they going to do with him now? Why the hell didn't they let him go? I couldn't seem to control my emotions as I sat on the bed thinking about everything; and I was just barely able to stop myself from full blown crying. Instead, a few stray tears found their way down my cheeks.

Though, when someone knocked on the door, I was quick to wipe those stray tears away from my face. I didn't want anyone to see me like that. "Come in!" I croaked, trying and failing to hide my emotional voice.

The door swung open to reveal Dale. I was shocked to see him standing there to say the least- no way he was the one who was going to carry me out to my tent. "Can I help you with something, Dale?" I sighed, looking up at the older man. Stepping into the room, he closed the door behind him before moving to sit on the edge of bed. I think out of the whole group, Dale was the one that I talked to least.

"You can actually, I wanted to talk to you about the boy. Randall." He nodded. I felt my body go rigid as soon as the words came out from between his lips. My hands began to shake.

"There's nothing to talk about." I shook my head. Dale's expression faltered at the sound of my words- he obviously hadn't been expecting me to say that. "Wha- you don't even want to give the boy a chance?" Dale gasped out. He obviously thought that I was going to agree with him. Once more I shook my head, "No, Dale. I believe that Rick will do the right thing in order to keep us all safe." I crossed my arms over my chest as I spoke.

Dale looked shocked.

His expression changed, and I could tell that he was thinking over his next words very carefully. "Can't you at least think about this? It's a man's life we're talking about here!" He tried once more to convince me. He wasn't going to take no simply, was he? "No, Dale! I'm not going to change my mind on this!" I snapped at him.

Dale was obviously getting annoyed with my attitude, but before he could say anything a new voice as the door opened. "I think you need to leave her alone, Dale. She needs rest." I was shocked to see Daryl and Hershel standing there glaring at Dale. With a huff, Dale stood up and stormed his way out of the room. Hershel followed along behind him while Daryl took a step into the room. I, however, sank down into the bed and took a deep breath.

It took all I had not to break down in front of Daryl.

"Everyone's gonna come in for a meeting about what to do with the kid. If you want, I can carry downstairs, or I can take you straight to your tent if you want. It's up to you." He spoke with a dull voice.

My eyes ran over him as he took a few steps over to the bed before crouching down awkwardly next to me. As he picked me up, I was quick to notice the blood splatters on his knuckles. "I guess we can go to the meeting." I spoke softly, as I wrapped my arms around his shoulders. Instead of saying anything, Daryl simply nodded his head before he started walking.

Downstairs, in the living room everyone was gathered around in the small room. The 'meeting' had already started, so Daryl and I stay quiet as we entered. Dale was begging everyone to see his side of things, begging them to let Randall live.

I definitely didn't want to get dragged into all this. You could hear all the emotions in Dale's voice as he spoke; and it was painfully obvious how badly this was upsetting him.

By time the meeting was over, Dale had stormed out of the house with only one other person having changed their mind. That person would be Andrea. Something Dale had said clicked in her mind and she changed her opinion of what should be done. Meanwhile, everyone else had stayed the same.

After the 'meeting' was over, Daryl took me back to my tent. That's probably why Hershel picked Daryl to carry me out here, because his tent is right next to my own. We were settled a great deal away from everybody else. He set me down on the cot inside my tent, before stepping out and leaving the flap unzipped. Then, he moved to the small spot between our tents and began to build a fire.

I could see him perfectly, and even laughed ever slightly when I heard him start muttering under his breath when he started struggling to make a fire. I could see the muscles in his back and arms as he worked.

Everything seemed so peaceful and serene tonight...that is until we heard someone screaming.

Daryl had just gotten the fire started, and jumped up. I was struggling to roll off the cot. He turned towards me only long enough to toss me my knife...wait why did he have my knife? "Stay here." He rasped out, before leaving.

Yeah, like I'm going to stay put in a situation like this. I may be injured but I'm not completely fucking useless. I struggled to climb off of my cot, and it was only when my foot touched the ground that my body screamed out in pain. Now I understand why Hershel had told me to stay off of it.

A small whimper left my lips a I struggled to keep myself standing up right. I maneuvered my way out of the tent, and started limping towards the field where I could see the light from everyone's flashlights. Though, I had only just made it to the tree nearest to my tent when I heard a gun being fired. The pain that went through me made it feel like I was the one who had been shot as my body fell back against the tree before sinking down to the ground completely.

That's where Daryl found me.

"What the hell are you doing out here? I thought I told you to stay in your tent?" Daryl dropped his crossbow upon sighting me sitting under the tree. Once more his arms slipped under my body and lifted me up.

"What happened? I heard a gunshot- and don't you dare avoid telling me." I asked, feeling out of breath as he carried me. My fingers had gripped onto his vest so that he wouldn't drop me- at least not without me dragging him down as well. I could tell by the look on his face that whatever happened, wasn't good.

"There was a biter. It wondered onto the farm and it go Dale. Ripped him open to the point Hershel couldn't do anything." Daryl said with a sigh as he put me back on my cot.

A pain went shooting through my chest upon hearing his words. "My God." I gasped out, covering my mouth with both of my hands. I had been so cruel to him before, and now he was gone. How the hell could something so horrible happen to such a good man like he had been?