Stray // Daryl Dixon

I Saw Him Standing There

Bullets were flying in every direction, my ears rang as Rick's gun fired beside my head. We were no longer prisoners they needed information from, we were escapees and their only plan for us was to ensure we did not make it out of these walls alive. The town's streets were empty of civilians now, only the Governor's army of men remained.

"Come on!" Rick shouted, grabbing the side of my shirt and yanking me back to my feet. We were crouched behind a steel bench, using the surrounding bushes as cover. I ran in the direction he pushed me, following Lincoln as Rick covered us.

It was difficult to see anything, there was so much smoke floating through the air that you could barely see a few feet ahead of you. We had utilized our smoke grenades, throwing one into the street and disappearing into the fog, inching ourselves closer to an exit.

"Get to cover! In here!" Lincoln yelled to the rest of our group, drawing them towards a cubby at the front door of one of the buildings. They all made it, no one had been hit. Daryl was the last one to take cover, firing off more rounds before disappearing behind the wall with us.

"How many?" Rick asked. We needed to know what we were dealing with, and what our likelihood of getting out of here was.

"I didn't see," Oscar responded, trying to catch his breath.

"He's going to have at least twenty," Mr. Boston, Lincoln's friend, shouted back over the gunfire, "seventy-three residents here, at least twenty men are capable with a weapon."

"Don't matter, there's gonna be more of them we need to move," Daryl said as he reloaded his gun.

I had my back up against the brick wall, trying to slow down my intake of breaths. I was beginning to panic, this moment taking me back to the night at the bar with Herschel. With more of these instances piling up, it was becoming clear to me that the dead are not what needs to be feared at all, it was those still living among the dead.

"Any grenades left?" Rick asked as Daryl searched through his bag. Daryl let out a grunt for a yes. "Alright, we gotta gun it to the wall," Rick explained the plan. It wasn't much of a plan though, we could see the wall straight ahead of us, blocked off by a school bus. It was simple really, run to the bus without dying, climb the bus without dying, jump over the wall without dying. That was the strategy for it.

I could hear the gunshots getting louder now, meaning the men were beginning to push in closer to us. I watched as Maggie quickly stuck her head out around the wall, firing a couple of bullets in their direction to hold them where they were.

Daryl handed out the remaining guns and bullets he had left in his bag, "You guys go ahead, I'm gonna lay down some cover fire," he said, handing me a machine gun.

"No!" I instantly objected, "We have to stay together."

"It's too hairy. Scar, I'll be right behind ya," he said, looking up at me. I stared down at him for as long as I could before he broke eye contact. I wanted to be selfish and tell him not to do that, but I couldn't, this could possibly be our only way out. Daryl then picked up the last smoke grenade, yelling at us to get ready before he stepped out onto the sidewalk and tossed the grenade into the middle of the street.

"There they are! Over there!" The Governor's men yelled.

As the cloud of smoke began to puff out the side of the canister and the air became thick, the eight of us were on the move. Daryl and Rick stood in the thick of the smoke, masking themselves as they covered our sprint to the bus on the other side of the road.

The gunfire intensified as the men began to spot where we were. Although they could see parts of our bodies running along the street, the smoke made it hard to pinpoint exactly where they should aim. That left bullets flying in every direction possible, you just prayed you weren't unlucky enough to have one hit you.

"This way!" Oscar shouted to those of us who remained in the smoke, he was the first to reach the bus, and Maggie and Glenn followed close behind.

Oscar was a big dude, as I finally exited the smoke I watched as Oscar hoisted Glenn up onto the hood of the bus with one swift pull. As Oscar got Glenn and Maggie up on the bus, I turned around to help cover Lincoln and Boston, firing at any men I could faintly see down the street.

I was so caught up in covering my brother as they ran towards the bus that when I heard the scream escape Oscar's mouth, my heart dropped. I looked to my left to where the shot came from, a man in a dirty wife-beater held tight onto his shotgun from the kickback when hitting Oscar. The man then dropped to his knees, a bullet wound entering his left cheek and exiting through the back of his head.

"Keep moving!" Rick shouted, pushing me along towards the bus.

"Rick! Rick!"

"Maggie!"

Everyone was screaming for each other, all we wanted to be was over that wall, to disappear into the woods. I looked down at Oscar, he was already dead, the bullet hitting his right lung. I jumped when Rick fired a bullet into his skull, making sure he wouldn't come back. Rick continued to cover us as Lincoln hoisted me up onto the bus' hood, followed by his friend climbing his way up. The two of us then helped Linc up, then Rick.

"Daryl!" I screamed for him. I saw him standing there, his line of sight focused on the men that continued to try and push forward on us. He crouched behind a solar panel in the grass, covering us the whole time. I refused to leave here without him. Not entirely processing my actions, I was about to get down from the bus, my butt scooching off the edge of the hood before Lincoln's friend wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me back. "Stop! Let go of me! Daryl!"

"Go!" I could hear him faintly. He looked over at me, locking eyes before another cloud of smoke caused him to disappear from my sight. Boston yanked me up to my feet, averting my attention back to the rest of the group. Rick leaned over the roof of the bus, his arm dangling over the edge for me to hold onto. With Rick's help, I pulled myself up onto the roof, sliding down the other side and over the wall.

We had made it out, but at the cost of Oscar's life and now possibly Daryl's.

-----

We ducked ourselves in behind the trees, making sure we could not be seen. The guards stood on top of their walls, pointing their heavy-duty spotlights into the woods trying to catch a glimpse of us. It seemed like they refused to send anyone out of the walls after us though. Not wanting to risk more men in the dead of the night.

The sound of crunching leaves coming from our right then caused us all to jump up, our guns pointing in the direction it came from. Michonne, the woman from earlier on in the night then popped up from underneath a garbage dumpster they had placed out here for disposal.

"Where the hell have you been?" Rick snarled, questioning her with his gun aimed at her forehead. She stood up slowly, you could very clearly see she had been in a fight of some sort. There was a deep cut across her forehead and an open wound on the bridge of her nose from being punched. "Put your hands up! Turn around, slowly!" Rick ordered, trying to keep his voice low but still maintaining a firm tone. You could tell that he was angry. She turned so he could take her sword out of its holster. Her weapon looked to be some type of Samurai sword. The metal made a satisfying screeching sound as the blade slid against the holster from how sharp it was.

"You get what you came for?" Rick questioned her, unsure of what her motives actually were when leading them in here.

"Where are the rest of your people?" she asked, holding her head low. There was something about her though, you could tell she wasn't scared or weak, she just knew when it was and wasn't the right time to show her strengths.

"They got Oscar," Glenn spat, his gun raised at her.

"Daryl is missing," I added in, choking on my words.

"If anything happens to him--"

"I brought you here to save them," she cut Rick off.

"Thanks for the help."

"You'll need help to get them back to the prison. Or to go back in there for Daryl. Either way, you need me," she pleaded with Rick.

"You think they have Daryl?" I asked, breaking up their staring match.

Michonne then looked over to me, "You hear anymore gunfire? No?" she asked, not letting me actually answer her question. Rather she was just drawing my attention to the silence coming from the town. "No reason to shoot at something that's already taken down."