America in catastrophe

Chapter 4

*****************Daryl's POV****************

We pull to a stop beside the supply car on the dark highway.

I idle behind them for a long moment, heavy stone in my stomach. The archer may have been a pain in the ass but she didn't deserve to burn alive. Or worse escape only to have been left to the herd.

I jerk the ignition off to keep from turning back to the farm.

Hershel and his daughters huddle together against their car. Beth sniffles into the end of her sleeve. Eyes glassy.

The archers hound whines from the back of the pickup truck, head resting heavily on the side.

Rick rubs the dogs ear, face darkened with soot, hand shaking as he wraps his free hand around Carl's shoulders. Lori seems forgotten in unspoken silence beside him.

"How many did we loose?" Hershel dares ask the heavy silence.

I tighten my grip on the handle bar of the bike. Grimacing at the thought of the answer. To damn many.

"Patricia, T-dog, and andrea." Carol whispers. Her gaze set on her empty hands like she can still feel Andreas hands being ripped from hers.

I dismount the bike resting a hand on her shoulder for the smallest comfort.

"Jimmy, and shade." Rick manages to find his voice.

Carl hurries his face into ricks sides as he adds, "And Shane."

Lori turns to rick with a look of pure horror. "What happened to Shane?"

Beth breaks away from her fathers side climbing into the back of the pick up to sit with the whining hound.

I turn back to the bike to grab my crossbow. Frustration and guilt bore through my skull. Tucked into my side bag is the arrows the archer shot both in the house and at my feet. I will never get the chance to give them back.

"Taz!" Beth cries out as the hound bowls her over to leap from the truck. Barking loudly.

"Shut up!" I order gruffly. The mutt doesn't hear me.

Beth leaps to her feet in the truck bed. "Hush! Did anyone hear that?" She demands, shaking hands outstretched to gesture to silence everyone.

A whistle echos off the trees, like a haunting sirens call.

The hound squeezes under the guard rail bounding towards the trees as a dark figure shuffles from them.

"Shade!" The youngest Greene wails falling over the side of the truck bed to cross the highway to her sister. Maggie in tow.

The group stands shell shocked.

The sisters collide with the soot coated Greene at the edge of the guard rail. The archer makes a soft squeak against their tight embrace but squeezes them back all the same.

"We thought you were dead?!" Maggie pulls her sister over the rail to draw her closer.

The archers skin is black and red. Streaked from the coals like war paint and blotchy from the heat. She's missing half a pant leg and the skin showing through is blistered and in some spots charred with burns. Small holes blot against her stained shirt. Despite having been in the inferno she shivers without a jacket.

I turn away leaving more space for Hershel to check her over and Rick to proclaim his thanks.

"Only thing Thats gonna kill me, is me." She winces sitting against the guard rail.