my angel ➶ ➶ daryl dixon

t w e n t y f i v e

Aspen's POV:
After I had officially become Thomas' girlfriend, we sat in the field for a while. It was quite peaceful, but my mind was anything but. Why had I said yes? I kept going back and forth between I actually liked Thomas or I just did this because I was rejected by Daryl. And was I really rejected? Well, of course I was rejected, he obviously wants Carol.

As I sat there wondering, I suddenly heard a truck take off down the lane away from the farm. I figured some of the group were going on a run. Maybe Hershel is making them find another place for us to stay. I didn't care. I could just beg Hershel to stay on the farm, after all, nobody in the group cared wether I stayed or not.

I finally got tired of sitting, and it soon became dark. I stood up and Thomas walked with me back to the house. Just as I entered the house, I heard the truck come back. I walked up to my room and collapsed on my bed. All I wanted to do was sleep, but as I tried to close my eyes, all I could see were the faces of Daryl and Thomas.

I sighed and sat up, waiting for a while until I figured everyone was asleep. Then I slowly crept down the stairs. I had almost made it to the door when I saw a figure in the kitchen. "Aspen!" Maggie whispered. "Wait up!" She quietly joined me and we walked out of the house and down the yard until we reached the field.

"What happened today? I saw the barn incident, but why did people in my group leave in a truck? Are we being kicked out?" I asked.

"Well, not yet. I'm trying my best to convince my dad, but he seems stuck on y'all leaving. Especially after the barn." Maggie answered. "As for the truck, my dad went to the bar in town and your men had to go get him. They got in some trouble there and they brought back a prisoner."

"What are they going to do with him?" I wondered aloud.

"Well, most of your group seems to want to kill him, but Dale and a couple others are defending him."

We each stared into the night until Maggie yawned. "It's late, you should at least try to sleep."

I knew that wouldn't be possible, but I didn't want to keep her up. "You're right. Good night Maggie."

"Night Aspen."

—————

The next day, it seemed like everyone was arguing about the prisoner. Daryl went out once and tried to get information out of him, which I knew meant he was torturing him. I just tried to stay as far away from everyone and spent most of the day with the horses. I took one for a ride for a while before it got dark.

I went into the house afterword, and while I was sitting in my room, Dale was killed in the field by a walker I soon found him out. It killed me to not be there for him. He was a great person, and really helped me a lot the first couple of days while we were in Atlanta.

Once the sun set, I headed downstairs to eat dinner. Carol was in the kitchen and I avoided her. I went out the back and saw Daryl out there sitting on the lawn. It seemed like I was running into everyone I didn't want to see. I quickly turned around and practically sprinted out of the house. Smack. As I flew out of the screen door, I ran straight into Thomas.

"Sorry." I mumbled. I tried to get around him, but he grabbed my arm and spun me around. A little harder than I would consider comfortable.

"What's wrong? You have barely said a full sentence to me since we got together. Is there something I need to know?" He looked at me with such an intensity, it took my breath away. And not in a good way. It scared me, it was almost like how Shane looked before one of my beatings.

I tried to get him to let go of me, but he wouldn't let go. "Thomas! You're hurting me!"

"Answer me!" He practically screamed at me. Just as I was about to call for help, I saw someone come out of the door and grab Thomas by the back of his shirt and spin him around towards them.

"Don't ya dare touch her!" Daryl said sternly. He looked like he was about to punch Thomas when Shane frantically ran out of the woods all beat up.

He began to yell, saying the prisoner jumped him and took his gun. Daryl gave one more glare towards Thomas and took off toward Rick.

Thomas turned toward me, but I ignored him and followed Daryl, standing by Maggie.

"Daryl, you go with Glenn to the right while I try the left. Don't be afraid to kill him on sight. We can't have him free in the woods. Everyone else, get inside the house." He took off, with an urgency I hadn't seen before.

I followed Maggie into the house. We waited for what seemed like hours when we heard one gun shot. The woman began to freak out, especially when Lori couldn't find Carl. "He's gone!" She tried to go out of the house but Carol stopped her.

"I bet he's with Rick. He's fine." Carol said.

Soon, Daryl and Glenn came back. This sent Lori into almost hysteria when she didn't see Rick or Carl. Carol tried to console her while Daryl and Glenn went back out to look for them.

I walked out to the porch and looked out into the darkness. I sat there for a while when I saw things moving in the darkness. I realized with dread that it was a herd of walkers. I felt the blood drain from my face as I sprinted inside.

"There's a herd of walkers headed for the farm and a herd that size will tear this house apart!" Frenzied, everyone grabbed their stuff and started to move towards the door. Just at that moment, Rick scrambled up the steps.

"Lets go! We need to leave! Now!" Rick lead everyone outside and we each began to take down as many walkers as we could. I just focused on taking each one out that came in front of me. This reminded me when our camp was overrun in Atlanta. We all worked as one to take out the walkers.

Soon, we reached the vehicles. I began to get into the RV when a set of hands pulled me back. I was soon looking into the face of a dead walker. There was flesh, from its most recent victim, hanging from its teeth and I felt blood dripping onto my face as it growled on top of me.

I screamed and realized I dropped my knife by the RV. The doors were shut, and they couldn't see me from the angle from where I'd fallen. I could feel my arms giving out when a bolt flew straight through the back of the walkers head. I sighed in relief as I let the walker drop on top of me and pushed it to the side.

I jumped up and saw Daryl on his motorcycle. He motioned for me to jump on and I quickly scampered onto the back of his bike. I squeezed my arms around his waist as I looked back at the burning farm. The place I had called home for weeks was now gone. 

What would the future hold for us next?