REVIVAL 𛲕 DARYL DIXON

seventeen ➳ crumbling walls

After the horrors of the CDC, suffice to say, all I wanted to do was sleep. I was completely exhausted. It was like all my energy had just been sucked out of me.

I swapped places from the car to the RV, and Daryl returned to his motorcycle. I was left with Dale, Glenn, Andrea and Shane. The journey was long, as we had decided to head for Fort Benning after the lack of success we encountered at the CDC. I was glad the group hadn't decided to give up after being let down, but all I really wanted right now was to find somewhere safe and stay there awhile. I was sick of travelling and moving places all the time.

I was awkwardly sitting in the back of the RV with Andrea and Shane, whilst Glenn and Dale sat up front. Shane was cleaning his gun, whilst Andrea was admiring him. The desperation was evident on Andrea's face – it must've been a while since she got any action. Since the only action I got was from Matt and his friends, I couldn't really say I missed it too much. So whilst Andrea blatantly flirted with Shane, I leant my head against the window and tried to fall asleep.

Despite the tiredness that was overcoming my body, I couldn't will myself to fall asleep. Every time I got comfortable we'd hit a bump, and my heart would go crazy and startle me awake. I'd been really on edge for a while now, and it was starting to interfere with my health. It had been so long since I slept that I was having trouble thinking clearly, and my whole body was weak. Those two things combined were the opposite of how you wanted to feel amid an apocalypse and a fight for survival.

It wasn't my fault I was constantly scared. It was the way I was programmed. Everyone I'd ever trusted had left me, and Matt hadn't done much to restore my faith in humanity. And now the world was in ruins, and I couldn't even protect myself. I felt naked and exposed, and I hated relying on other people to defend me. But I had no other choice.

Just as my eyes were about to flutter closed, I was snapped back to attentiveness by a cry from Dale. "Oh, geez."

Irritated, I rubbed my eyes hard to escape the blurriness that was obscuring my vision due to fatigue, and forced myself to concentrate. "What is it?" I asked, pushing myself out of my seat and leaning over Glenn's shoulder to look out the front window.

Annoyance creeped up my body in prickles as my eyes took in the sight of multiple upturned cars, that had obviously crashed amidst the panic. I ran a had through my hair in frustration as Dale carefully manoeuvred the car in between the crashed vehicles.

Daryl sped up to the window on his motorcycle, and Dale turned to him. "See a way through?" Daryl's annoyed silence was answer enough, and Glenn turned back to the map he was holding.

"Um, maybe we should just go back," he suggested. "There's an interstate bypass–"

"We can't spare the fuel," Dale rebuked the idea. T-Dog joined us from the back of the RV, rubbing his hand over his face and conveying the frustration we all felt.

As we continued carefully driving through the mess, Glenn muttered, "Jeez." The extent of the casualties was alarming, and for the first time I began to wonder if there was anyone else even still alive. There had to be. But where were they?

Suddenly, a clanking noise caused me to jump slightly, and clutch Glenn's bicep tightly. He looked up at me in confusion, probably wondering why I had such a terrified reaction to something as simple as the RV breaking down. Everybody sighed in accordance to the problem, even more defeated than we were when we saw the cars littering the road. Dale pulled to a halt, and we all got out of our vehicles.

"I said it. Didn't I say it? A thousand times. Dead in the water." Dale said, his tone full of resentment as he observed the damage done to his RV.

"Problem, Dale?" Shane asked warningly, surveying the perimeter with his big gun splayed casually over his shoulder. I envied how he held the gun like another limb, whereas I got scared so much as looking at a gun. I didn't like the things; I ever had.