Full Time Job

I woke up in Daryl’s granddad’s shed. I looked around me and realized I was laying in the bed of Daryl’s pickup truck, blankets were bundled around me. Vinny was sleeping soundly, snuggling into my side. I could hear Hershel, Rick, and Carol were talking anxiously to the side of me.

“We have to move. All of our food, most of our supplies…everything… we lost everything in the fire…” Rick was saying quietly. His voice rang with solemnity.

“We can’t rebuild? This property is safe. I’ve never even seen a walker anywhere here…” Carol suggested, her quiet voice was still hopeful.

“It ain’t safe here!” I heard Daryl snarl angrily from the far side of the shed. Loud bangs started to erupt throughout the cavernous room, and I knew Daryl was punching the metal wall in the large shed. The clanging of the metal rang painfully through my head and I groaned. The pounding stopped and I saw Carol’s head peeking over at me from the side of the truck bed.

“Hey sweetie,” she said softly. I tried to smile at her, but the simple movement of the muscles in my face caused terrible pain. I winced. Daryl’s face appeared next to hers. He carried the angry scowl on his face that was familiar to me.

“You sure are a sight for sore eyes,” I said, my voice was weak and hoarse. The anger on his face melted to a small smile. Carol chuckled. I felt Daryl gingerly grasp my hand and stroke my wrist softly. His touch felt nice. I saw Hershel’s face appear next to Carol’s. He reached down and checked my pulse.

“Not too bad,” he muttered to himself and stepped closer to me. His cold fingers examined my face gently. “It’s too hard to tell with the swelling, but I’d bet that she’s got a hair line fracture on her orbital bone…” He said. It sure felt like my face was broken. I watched as his eyes shifted focus to my mouth. “…sutures are holding well, Beth… nice work,” Hershel commended. Hershel presented a small white pill to me and an open water bottle. My jaw ached terribly as I opened it just wide enough to drink and swallow the pill. Carol and Hershel walked back to the group of people that were sitting in the shed when Daryl slung his leg over the side of the truck and climbed into the bed with me and Vinny. He sat behind me and gently lifted my head onto his lap. My head started to swim already from the pain killer. I looked drowsily up at him as he stared back down at me. His rough fingertips were smoothing my hair back. My whole body ached horribly. We listened as the group continued to talk next to us.

“Gia needs one more day before she can really travel, and by travel, I mean, riding in a car... Where are we going to go, Rick?” Hershel asked. It was quiet for a few minutes.

“We have to find food, supplies, and a new place to hole up in, start from scratch again…” Rick trailed off and I closed my eyes. My thoughts grew cloudy and I dozed off into a heavy sleep.

When I woke again, we were driving…just Daryl and me, in his pickup truck. I lifted my head slightly, trying to ignore the pain in my neck. I gazed out the window and the bare, gray, leafless trees flashed by us as we sped down the highway. I looked into the side mirror, and the sight of my own reflection made my stomach turn. The whole right side of my face was swollen red and purple. My lip was stitched together at the site where Troy’s fist had split it. I looked away from the mirror quickly, the fast motion made me slightly dizzy.

“Ya alright?” Daryl asked and I looked over to him as he held one hand on the steering wheel, the other he extended towards me. I took his hand and he rested it on the seat between us.

“Where’s Vinny?” I asked, worry building up in my chest. His hand gently squeezed mine.

“He’s fine, love, he’s with Rick, Lori and Carol…” Daryl explained. “I figgered you could use the quiet,” he said, glancing over to me and back at the road.

“My face looks awful…” I whined weakly and he kissed my hand.

“It’ll heal,” he said, his southern drawl made my mood lighter. I craved his presence when we were apart.

“What happened, Daryl? With Troy?” I asked, staring at his face. He avoided my gaze.

“I put a bullet in his head… and let him burn…” he said. An angry hatred covered his face. I sat with him in silence for a few minutes.

“ ‘s it true?” Daryl spat out nervously. I looked at him in confusion.

“Is what true?” I asked and he glared out the windshield uncomfortably.

“Hershel couldn’t tell for sure or not, because you and I, ya know, slept together, but that dirtbag said he…” Daryl started, and I finished the sentence that he couldn’t. “…raped me?” He fidgeted uncomfortably. I was just as uneasy as he was.

“Yes it’s true. I don’t want to talk about it,” I said sadly and Daryl began beating hard on the steering wheel, screaming profanities in between each hit. I started to cry, no matter how hard I tried to hold back, the tears started streaming down my cheeks. When he heard me sniffling back tears, he relaxed and grabbed my hand again.

“I’m not mad at you, Gianna… I should have been there. It was my job, and I failed…” Daryl said, I watched as he wiped a tear from his eye.

“I love you…” I said. “You can’t be everywhere… I don’t blame you, Daryl.” He nodded and lightly placed another kiss on the back of my hand. We rode quietly for while.

“Daryl?” I asked sweetly, breaking the silence…”Would you do something for me?”

He looked over at me and smirked. “I’d do anything for you…” he answered, and looked back out the windshield.

“When we get to wherever it is that we’re going… You have to let me cut your hair!” I whined and he laughed openly. We saw Rick and Glenn, who were driving in the two cars ahead of us, pull to a stop on the shoulder. I watched as our group exited their vehicles and were congregating in a small circle in front of the SUV Glenn was driving. My heart started to beat excitedly when I saw Vinny skipping next to Carol, holding her hand.

“Stay here…” Daryl ordered as he jumped down from the driver’s seat of the pickup and onto the gray pavement of the highway. I rolled my eyes and pushed the door open. I lightly slid from my spot, wincing in pain as my boots hit the pavement. My feet were so cut up and bruised from running in the forest, Hershel had to suture some of the deep gashes closed. I limped slowly next to Daryl, who sighed, shook his head, and wrapped an arm around my waist, and helped me walk towards the group.

Vinny’s face lit up when he saw me, and ran over to me, crashing into my thighs as he hugged me. I stumbled backwards into Daryl, who steadied me wearily. I pulled Vinny in my arms, ignoring the stabbing pain in my head in neck. I hugged him tightly, elation running through my veins.

“Hi baby!” I whispered into his ear. He smiled up at me and gently touched the sutures on my lip.

“Is that from the bad guys?” Vinny asked, frowning. I didn’t know what to say.

“She’s going to be just fine little man,” Daryl said, ruffling his brown curly hair. I kissed his cheek and the three of us slowly made our way to the group that was standing ahead of us. Vinny’s tight grasp around my neck was causing my neck to ache terribly. Daryl was watching me with concern as we all listened to Rick speak.

“Since we’re almost out of fuel, and it will be dark in a few hours, I say we make camp here for the night. Tomorrow, we run for fuel…” Rick stated decisively. I swayed a little, the weight of Vinny’s body clinging to mine was exhausting me.

“Let me take him,” Daryl whispered to me, and I shook my head.

“I got him,” I answered and he rolled his eyes.

“Hey, lil’ man! Why don’t you help me set up our tent and give your Zia a rest?” Daryl said gently, pulling him from my arms. I looked at him angrily as they both walked to the back of the pickup, holding hands. I sighed, frustrated, and leaned against the side of Glenn’s SUV. I saw Rick throw a stack of folding and camp chairs in the center of the area where everyone was busy setting tents up. Lori and I began slowly unpacking and opening the chairs.

After all the chairs were out, we both sat next to each other in two vacant seats, tired. She was still very pregnant and my head was spinning dizzily. Lori gasped and I looked over to her, but she was grinning wildly.

“What?” I asked quickly, and she pulled my arm that rested on my lap and placed it palm down on the side of her baby bump. She pressed on my hand firmly and I felt a weird wiggling inside her stomach. I smiled up at her, through my black eye and busted lip, and we both started giggling happily together. The members of our group all stopped what they were doing and looked up towards us and smiled.

Carl ran up to us and I watched as Lori placed his hand on the same area mine had just vacated. He looked hesitant at first and then smiled widely, like the Lori and I just had.

“I feel it!” he exclaimed, and we started to chat happily about the baby that could be coming any day now. Vinny and Daryl approached us after they had set up our tent. Daryl took a small bite from a granola bar and handed the rest for Vinny and I to share while he taught Carl how to build a fire.
Vinny climbed on my lap and did not move from his spot there for the rest of the night. The group chatted until night fell, and Rick and Hershel approached Daryl and I as members of the group began to trickle away from the fire, to bed. Vinny fell asleep on my lap as we sat by the fire.

“Hey Gia, How are you feeling?” Rick asked.

“…a little sore, but I’m okay,” I answered, and Hershel handed me two white pills.

“One’s for the pain, the other’s an antibiotic…you know the drill,” he said, handing me a water bottle. I downed the medicine and handed him back his bottle.

“Daryl, do you want to run the perimeter with me one last time?” Rick asked, looking at Daryl. Daryl looked at me and then back to Rick.

“Can you take T-Dogg this time? I’m goin’ to sit this one out… make sure these two get into bed alright,” he said, motioning towards me and Vinny. Rick nodded. My tummy filled with nervous butterflies… Daryl had never turned down a watch duty, or a run, or anything dangerous for that matter. I looked over at him and smiled sweetly. Rick and Hershel wished us a good night, and I yawned tiredly.

Daryl gently pulled Vinny into his arms and helped me to my feet. I limped next to him while we walked to our tent. Daryl hastily unzipped the door flap and I climbed inside. I climbed onto the pallet that Daryl had spread out for us earlier. He gently laid Vinny down and turned to zip the door shut behind him. I clicked the lantern on, covered Vinny with a heavy blanket, and started to pull my shoes off. Daryl was undressing, kneeling on the hard ground right inside the tent door.

“You never turn Rick down...” I said, my eyes traveled down his hard chest and hip line.

“I got more important things to take care of,” he said, sniggering, as he turned and faced me. He crawled on his knees towards me and kissed me light on the lips. I cradled his face and pulled him closer to me, deepening the kiss, moaning softly against his lips. The inside of the tent started to grow foggy as the pain killer kicked in, and Daryl gently nudged my shoulders and I laid on my back as he hovered over me.

He started to lightly kiss my neck and I felt his rough palm slide up my shirt, rubbing up and down my side. My mind started to flash back to the inside of the tent, when I was being raped by Troy and I froze. Daryl continued sucking on my neck as terrible memories blazed through my memory. Daryl stopped kissing, and squeezed gently on my hip that he was grasping under my shirt.

“You alright, babe?” he asked, breathy, and I shook my head, trying to fight tears that evaded my eyes and started to roll down my cheeks.

“What’s wrong?” he asked frantically and laid down next to me, pulling me gently into his chest, wrapping an arm around me.

“I’m sorry, I just can’t do this right now,” I answered, my voice heavy from the tears.

“You don’t have to be sorry, Gianna… ever… Let’s just take it slow, okay?” he said calmly, and I nodded and buried my face into his naked chest. I didn’t deserve someone like him. I felt tainted, and I was truly grateful that he still wanted to be with me.

“I love you,” I whispered, tracing small circles with my fingertips on his abdomen below my face that rested on his chest. He kissed my head.

“I love you too,” he answered, and pulled our blanket up and around us. We both drifted off to sleep, snuggled tightly against each other.