Just Gone

[10] The School

"Hey."

My head still leaning on the window, I slowly turned to the driver's seat. At first I couldn't make out what I was seeing, or hearing.

"Hey," the voice said, "hey."

Remembering where I was and who I was with, I began to recognise the voice. But it sounded strange, distant. It sounded like Daryl, but at the same time it didn't. I stared at him, his hands were on the wheel, not looking at me. I couldn't see him clearly, something was very wrong but I couldn't tell what it was, my mind couldn't wrap itself around the issue my brain was having.

Daryl turned to me and that's when I was able to see it.

The front of his shirt was drenched in blood, bite marks made holes in his shirt and marked up his arms and neck. I began shaking, panicking while wondering why I hadn't noticed the change. The eyes were what got to me, that was always the worst. Those cold dead eyes, the dead eyes which glowed, and moved and blinked, proving they weren't really dead. I wanted to scream, run, anything, but all I could do was stare.

Daryl's corpse lunged at me, grabbing my arm, shaking me harshly. A scream ripped through my throat. I thrashed my arms out, clawing at his, kicking my legs and trying to get in a position where I could get my legs on the seat to hold him back. One of my hands was able to grab a hold of his wrist and-

"-Jesus christ, will ya knock it off?!"

I froze, staring at Daryl. His eyes were his normal blue, his shirt had some splattered, dried blood, but not as much as I had seen a moment ago. He was leaning toward me and I had his wrist in my hand.

I looked around, noticing the truck had stopped and the RV was parked in front of us, it was a lot brighter outside than it had been a moment ago.

Daryl yanked his wrist from my hand, eyes squinted, "the hells the matter with ya?"

I opened and closed my mouth, still shaking and panting for breath, "N-nothin'."

"Whole lotta nothin'. Ya fell asleep, was jus' tryin' ta wake ya up."

Sleep. I squeezed my eyes closed, trying to gain my composure. That made sense, it was a nightmare, why didn't I figure that out myself? Brain isn't working right.

When I opened my eyes, I saw Daryl staring silently at me, his expression unreadable. He glanced ahead to the RV, then opened his door.

"Gonna see what the fucks the hol' up," he muttered.

I watched through the windows as Daryl walked off around the RV. I could hear some distant chatter but stayed in place. A few minutes later Daryl came back into sight, motioning for me to get out. I did just that and went toward him.

"Somethin' in the RV broke, might be here a while."

I followed Daryl until the rest of the group came into sight, they were all gathered together. The only ones I didn't see were Jim and Andrea, I figured Jim was in the RV, but I didn't know where Andrea was.

I stopped in my tracks when I saw them, suddenly feeling sick and tears burned my eyes, remembering the events of the day. I turned my back to them clenching my fists in anger. I glanced at the truck, thinking of waiting in it, but I didn't want to be alone. Actually I did, but not that much, not with what had happened, what still could happen.

I hoped we wouldn't be stuck for too long, I didn't want to be around anyone.

"H-Hey,"

Oh no, I thought as I heard Carl's voice. I could practically feel him standing behind me. I didn't move, or make any sign to show I had heard him.