Stray // Daryl Dixon

A Moment of Truth

At this moment if I wanted to stay alive I couldn't sit here and cry about being left behind, there was no time. I had to get up and fight. As tired as I was, as little ammo I had left, I needed to get myself the hell out of here. I mustered up all of my strength and rolled the large walker off of me. I had only seconds to run behind the house and into the woods before I was spotted again.

I picked up my backpack and sprinted to my left. Of course, there was no easy pathway to get there, I still had to fight my way through the odd walker, but what I was most afraid of was the herd that mauled Dale and Patricia, spotting me. I was running full speed ahead to the back of the house but when I turned the corner I was met with another herd. I was trapped. Locking their dead eyes with mine, their gurgling amplified as they spotted their next meal. I began to fire off shots, trying to take at least a few of the close ones down, but that only attracted the herds from behind me.

I was overwhelmed, how the hell am I supposed to get myself out of here alive? I was just about to turn and attempt to dart for the forest when a car came speeding past me, crushing most of the walkers up against the back of the house.

"Get in!" Maggie screamed out of the rolled-down window. Without hesitation I ran for the backseat, throwing myself into the car, into safety. My heart was racing, I couldn't catch my breath, I wanted to cry.

Glenn turned around in the driver's seat, looking out the back window so he could reverse, "What did you say again, how you didn't want me to be a hero?" Glenn asked, trying to crack a joke at a time like this.

I huffed, "I love you, you know that right?" I laughed, beyond thankful for him.

"I know," he said, before speeding off down the dirt road and out of this graveyard.

The sun was rising as we drove, it had been a long and terrifying night, I truly began to feel my tiredness begin to overcome me. We decided our best bet was to head back to the highway where we first stopped before we were taken to the farm, hoping that the rest of the group had the same idea. The only thing that kept me awake was the anxious feeling in my gut, not knowing who made it out alive or if we would even find anyone there.

Blood drenched my body and the scent wafting in the car was horrendous as the smell of rotting flesh stuck to our clothes. I felt nauseous, I could probably puke if I had anything left in my stomach to throw up.

I could feel Glenn start to weave the car which meant we had reached the graveyard on the highway. I immediately sat up so I could sit with my head between the two front seats. It was difficult to see through the large splotches of blood on the windshield and I couldn't make out another human being up ahead. We were silent as Glenn drove, all of us on the edge of our seat, wanting to come across at least one person.

We were just coming up to the car where we had written "Sophia stay here, we will be back every day" on the windshield when I finally saw someone. It was Rick, then more people appeared in my line of sight, Carl, T-Dog, Carol. I let go of a sigh of relief, she had gotten away, and someone had found her after she ran.

Glenn slammed on the breaks, all of us wanting to get out of the car to be reunited with our people. My mind immediately went to Daryl, I hadn't seen him since the beginning of the night, I hoped with all my being that he was alive. The three of us rounded one of the cars and made our presence known to the rest of the group, we looked like the last car to arrive. They all turned, smiles on their faces as they spotted us, most of them were shocked to even see me alive. Maggie immediately ran into her father's arms.

My eyes prickled with tears, a feeling of glee filling my heart as a good amount of them stood before me. My eyes then landed on Daryl, he was already staring at me. He got up from his bike and walked over to me, I was unsure of what he was about to do before he wrapped me up in a hug. Squeezing me tight around my waist I hugged him back, crying.