The continuation of Fade to Black, a Daryl Dixon fan fiction.
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"I never thought I'd see you again. I thought i lost you."
"And here I thought, you've found someone else and moved on."
"I'd never move on from you, Natalia."
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A/N: okay so because I didn't involve Noah in this universe, the group did not pass by Noah's community and Tyreese is all okay and alive :) ALSO WE ARE ONE STEP CLOSER TO ALEXANDRIA YAY!
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Natalia jolted awake from her nightmare, taking several deep breaths before managing to calm herself. Her eyes darted around and remembered where she really was— the family took shelter in an abandoned house away from herds that seemed to multiply in number.
Tyreese and Johnny were the ones to keep watch that night, but Daryl was sleepless; he joined Tyreese and Johnny for their watch.
Before Natalia woke up from her nightmare, Daryl's eyes were on a sleeping Natalia as he spoke to Johnny.
"Y'know what happened to her in there?" Even to Daryl, Natalia was different after coming out of Althea's community.
Johnny shook his head as his hands fiddled with his bootstraps. "I think you should ask Rick that. He's the one who went back for her."
Daryl's eyes darted to Tyreese, asking him the same question but Tyreese only shook his head.
"I only heard the guards gossiping." Tyreese said to Daryl. "It seemed that Agatha was picking on Natalia everyday...they said Agatha was torturing her."
As Daryl's eyes darted back to Natalia in shock, Natalia had already woken up from her nightmare. Daryl excused himself and made his way to Natalia, sitting beside her on the floor.
Daryl stared at Natalia and the woman knew that there was a burning question Daryl wanted to ask.
"Just ask me what's on your mind, Daryl." Natalia said, almost in a whisper, as she brushed her hair away from her face.
"What did they do to you in there?"
It took a while for Natalia to answer Daryl as the man watched her curiously.
"Things that they shouldn't have."
———
The next few days the family were walking again and they have been for a very long time. Three weeks that passed felt like years and everyone began to dread their chance of survival, even when Rick tried his best to keep morals high.
Natalia's feet began to ache and blisters were forming on her toes and the back of her ankles, where the boots began to rub vigorously. Her severe thirst like everyone else began to slow her down— her throat was dry and it was painful to even swallow her own saliva.
As everyone grew more tired, they had to make more stops to rest and search for food and water. Unfortunately, due to the scorching heat, every source of water has dried up.
Currently, Natalia had her back against the tree as she plopped herself on the dirt, watching as Daryl dug into the dirt, looking for worms.
Daryl made his way to Natalia and sat beside her as she massaged her aching head, and opened his palm to reveal a couple of wriggling worms.
"No." Natalia shook her head as their wriggling disgusted her.
Betraying her, Natalia's stomach churned loudly, allowing Daryl to give her a look.
"We've drank toilet water and ate frogs, you ain't gonna eat a worm? It ain't that deep, Nat." Daryl tried to encourage but Natalia shook her head once again.
"Please, do it for me." Daryl lifted one of the worms in front of Natalia; Daryl was afraid that if anything were to happen, Natalia didn't have any power left in her to fight back, Daryl thought that perhaps these couple of worms could do a little difference if it comes to it.
When Natalia still eyed the worm with scrunched brows, Daryl popped a worm in his mouth to show Natalia it wasn't a big deal. As his plan worked, Natalia grunted before closing her eyes and chucking the worm in her mouth too, quickly chewing it and swallowing it.
After a while Daryl and Natalia, out of exhaustion, sat beside each other, trying to catch their breath as sweat trickled down every part of their body from the heat.
Daryl's eyes traveled to Natalia's flashy bracelet that he had not seen before and Natalia instantly read his mind. Before she spoke, she rest her head on Daryl's shoulder and took a deep breath in.
"It was...it belonged to Althea." Natalia could feel his burning eyes on her as she answered another question that was on his mind.
"I don't know why I took it...I guess it was to remind me of what had happened."
It was unclear to Daryl what had happened between Althea and Natalia and what Althea's ending was, and simply thought the bracelet was a reminder of escaping Althea's community and not her cold and brutal death.
"You don't need it to remind you, Nat."
"Oh, I do." Natalia lifted her head to face Daryl. "After what happened, I need to see it everyday to remind me of what I've done."
As Daryl's nose scrunched in confusion, Johnny had interrupted and disallowed Daryl to ask Natalia what truly happened.
"Yo." Johnny lifted a couple of frogs that was in his hand as Daryl and Natalia turned to him. "You guys think it's okay to eat a couple of old dead frogs? Sasha and I found a couple of dead ones."
Daryl helped Natalia on her feet as the three struggled to walk; from a distance, the group all looked like a herd of walkers.
"I don't think it's a good idea, Johnny." Natalia said before Johnny agreed and chucked the frogs on the dirt.
"I wonder how much time we have." Johnny said as he walked between Daryl and Natalia.
"What?" Daryl raised a brow at Johnny who was walking with a limp after he hurt his ankle.
Natalia's eyes landed at her family who sat around the van that they managed to bring back to life with a little tweaking and a little bit of gas.
"I mean, I wonder how much time we have left before our time finally runs out."
