Before I Fade Away~ Daryl Dixon Fanfiction

Chapter 39~ Screwing With the Wrong People

{Daryl's P.O.V}

       I angrily slam my fist against the metal train cart. I can't believe I let her get away, again. I just got her back, why does life hate me so much? I ain't a bad man, I've done shit in the past but I've changed.

"Daryl we'll get her back, we ain't gonna leave until we've got her." Rick tries to assure me. I just shake my head and turn around, facing him.

"We shouldn't have even come here in the first place! Shoulda' known there's no good people left, we could be long gone by now, and we wouldn't be stuck in a damn train cart!" I snap.

"Are you talking about Sylvie? Where is she?" I hear her mother say as she pushes past Glenn and Maggie. She looks at me, her once bright eyes now darkened and sunken in. Her face is caked with dirt and she's got scrapes and dried up blood all over her arms.

"Gareth grabbed her, I tried to save her. I'm sorry..." I say, my voice fading out and I look at the ground. I feel a cold set of hands grab both sides of my face and lift it. Penelope looks at me with a sad smile, tears welling up in her eyes.

"You saved my granddaughter, and you kept my girl alive all this time... I haven't thanked you for that." She whispers, and then kisses my cheek. She sulks back into the darkness and her husband Matt pulls her into his arms. He looks worn down as well, and I can see how hard he's trying to hold it together. They already lost one daughter, I can't let em' lose another.

     We start to prepare for when these people come back for us. We'll be ready to attack, and when we do they won't see it coming. When they knock on the cart and demand we line up on the back of the cart, we ignore and wait at the front door. To our surprise, the top of the cart opens and they drop some sort of bomb looking thing inside. It's a smoke grenade, which catches us off guard. Abraham yells at us to move out of the way. It goes off and smoke starts filling the room.

     A group of men make their way inside and grab Rick, Glenn, Bob, Matt and I and throw us to the ground outside the cart. They tie our hands behind our backs and put gags on our mouths. We are then brought into a big room where a man is using a saw to cut up a dead man. This place is screwed up, who the hell eats people?

     The men line us up in front of a trough, there's a few other guys at the other end who must've been taken out of a different cart. They swing a bat to the back of the first guy's head and then slit his throat. His body drapes over the trough as blood seeps from his neck. They repeat the same process with the next guy. The first time I watched, but the sight of it made me sick. I look away and just listen to the sound of skulls cracking and blood gushing.

    Gareth walks in the room looking at a book as he jots something down. He looks up and asks his men something that seems unneccessary. They are about to resume their little mission when the sound of gun shots interrupt them. Gareth talks to someone over the radio, with no response. Some more time passes and then a blast echoes throughout the room. Gareth starts panicking and orders his men to stay with us. Gareth promptly exits the room. His two men stop what they're doing to discuss what's going on. Rick uses the moment of distraction to take out his sharpened stick and take them down. He cuts us loose and we try to find a way out.

   Gareth's brother Alex is the man laying on the table being butchered like a deer, and he hasn't endured any head trauma so he'll turn. Bob goes to put him down, but Rick stops him.

"Let him turn." He says.

      We hurry through the maze of rooms, trying to find a way out. This place is even sicker than we could've ever imagined. They butcher people and hang them to dry, as though they were an animal. No one deserves to die that way, and to be eaten? It makes me sick. My goal right now is to get the hell out of here, and find Sylvie.

    We finally discover a door that will lead us outside, but there's walkers outside. They're preoccupied by the screaming people in the train cart.

"We gotta save them. That's who we are, we have to be." Glenn reasons. Rick nods.

     We kill the walkers and then open the cart. A man rushes out and starts muttering something and laughing at Rick. Rick pushes him off and the guy walks backwards until a walker latches onto him. We keep moving, at least we let the guy out. It feels like we're backed into a corner, not knowing where to go and walkers are littering the yard. A few of the terminus residents start shooting the walkers, which we let them do to make it easier for us. Rick then runs up behind one of them and kills him and steals his gun.

    Rick shoots at them, he kills some but only injuries the others. With that, we keep moving. We reach the train cart, and release the others. We now have the advantage of our whole group rather than only a few of us. Between all of us, we're able to make out way to the fence and hop over it. We hurry back to where we burried the guns, and after they're dug up Rick proposes we go back and kill the rest.

"We just barely got out... I ain't dealing with that shit." Abraham says, which the rest of us agree with.

"We gotta go back... Sylvie's still in there." I say, looking over at Athena and her grandparents.

"I'm right here." I hear a soft voice say. I turn around, and there stands Sylvie and Carol.

     My heart starts beating rapidly, and my shoulders relax at the sight of her, safe. I run up to her and throw my arms around her. I pull her tight against my chest and rest my head on her shoulders.

"I'm okay... I'm okay." She says, as if trying to assure herself more than me.

"Mom? Matt?" She says, her voice cracking. Penelope starts sobbing and I watch Sylvie run up to her family and envelope them in a hug. Matt places a kiss at the top of her head and closes his eyes as he holds his family.

"We gotta keep moving, this place is gonna be surrounded soon." Rick says. We nod and keep walking through the woods.

     We reach a cabin, Tyreese comes out holding Judith. Rick walks up to him and takes the little girl from his hands and holds her.

"Thank you." Rick thanks Tyreese.

      I look over at Sylvie, she's leaned up against a tree, looking white as a ghost. I walk over to her and she looks at me, her eyes red with tears.

"I killed him... I killed Corey." She says, barely above a whisper.

"Hey, c'mere." I mutter, holding my hand out and letting her grab it. She snuggles up against my chest so I wrap my arms around her.

"He told me I had to pay for what happened to his brother... He just stood there, staring at me. He told me he was gonna finish what my brother started in woodbury. I couldn't let him... I just couldn't. So I found the sharpest object I could and I stabbed him..." She explains, I can feel her body trembling against me.

"If ye' didn't I woulda killed him myself. Ye' did the right thing." I tell her in an attempt to soothe her. She backs away from me and shrugs, biting her lip.

"Did I?" She croaks, tears falling from her ocean blue eyes. She sits on the ground against the tree, and just stares at her feet. 

"What's wrong with mommy?" Athena asks quietly, coming up behind me and looking at her mother.

"Yer' mom just needs time..." I sigh, still looking at the love of my life. I can see the light disappear from her eyes, she'll never be the same after this.

A/N- So you guys can probably expect more updates where I upload a couple chapters once a week or so. So how did you like the chapter? Comment if ya want!