Before I Fade Away~ Daryl Dixon Fanfiction

Chapter 40~ Church

{Sylvie's P.O.V}

      We're finally back on the road after terminus. It's back to searching for a place to live and fighting for survival out in the open. Being on the road isn't exactly the safest route but what choice do we have?

     Making our way through the woods, Rick leading the way, we keep a tight formation in case there's any mishaps. Bob and Sasha are openly displaying affection, which honestly I never saw that coming. I guess surviving together can make you realize what the other truly means to you. For example, Daryl. Before the turn, he was just a neighbor and I never would've seen him in that way. Afterall, he was a quiet redneck with an asshole brother. And before all this, I was attracted to assholes. i.e Shane Walsh. But since the turn, and being forced to survive with each other, I saw Daryl in a completely different way. He was strong, he cared, and he protected us at all costs. I guess I just found myself attracted to him, and he isn't too bad on the eyes. He was like a puzzle I had to solve, I never knew how sweet he could be or what made him mad.

     Daryl and I haven't exactly displayed much affection lately, with being on the run and all the trauma we've all endured it's a little difficult to be romantic. At the prison it wasn't so bad, we were safe and not looking over our shoulders so we could focus on our own happiness for once. And I admit, since the prison with Justin I haven't felt myself.

     Matt has Athena on his shoulders as he walks next to my mom, so I'm lingering behind the others next to Tara. She was there when the prison was attacked, she saw Corey and stood beside them as they chopped Hershel's head off. But I don't hold that against her, she didn't know what he was capable of.

"None of us blame you for what the Governor did." I say suddenly, turning to her. She looks at me sadly and shrugs.

"I stood by them as they destroyed your home... If I had known-"

"But you didn't. And you're here with us now." I say kindly. She smiles sadly and then puts her fist out to me. I fist bump her and laugh a little, something I haven't done in a long time.

     I spot Daryl walking up ahead, slightly behind Carol by himself. I sigh and pick up my pace so that I'm walking beside him. I grab his arm and rest my head against his shoulder as we walk. He looks down at me and smiles when I look up at him.

"I love you." I say out of the blue, I guess Sasha and Bob are making me appreciate Daryl and how lucky I am to have him in my life.

"I love ye' too." He mumbles.

     As we continue to walk, we hear several loud cries for help.

"Dad, come on! come on!" Carl insists. Rick looks at us all and hesitates but finally listens to his son and we start running towards the root of the noise.

      A middle-aged man sits upon a boulder as walkers claw at him and grab onto his feet. Rick jumps into action and grabs one by the shoulders and slams its head against the rock, smashing it. Michonne uses the butt of her gun to crush another one's skull. The man on the rock appears very disturbed by us killing the walkers.
    
     After the walkers are all taken down, the man climbs down from the rock and just stares at us in complete and utter horror.

"You okay?" Rick asks him. He puts a finger up and bends over and hurls the contents of his stomach into the dirt.

      Daryl looks at me and rolls his eyes, to which I shrug and walk up to the man.

"Don't worry, that smell is enough to make anyone want to puke." I say to him. He looks scared as he looks at all of us.

"Thank you..." He finally says. Rick just looks at him as though he's some kind of joke. I get that Rick is on edge after all the torment we've been through, but this guy is seemingly harmless.

      Rick starts to interrogate the guy, and we find out this guy hasn't killed a single walker or human this entire time. Who hasn't killed a walker? Honestly, this guy is out here scavenging with no weapons and doesn't even touch these creatures. Rick finally gets him to admit he has a camp, actually a church that isn't far from where we are. The man agrees to take us there, but to play it safe we stay behind him as he leads the way.

    Daryl stays by my side as we follow the man we now know as Gabriel. He was obviously a priest before all this, and even after all the hell we've been through he still keeps his faith. He's a lucky son of a bitch I'll give him that. We make our way through the trees and pop out onto a dirt road with a church sign pitched in the dirt. Gabriel cracks some sort of bad joke, which has Rick looking like he wants to pounce.

"I've been told my sense of humor is not so great." He sighs.

"Yeah, no kiddin'." Daryl scoffs. I smack his arm so he just grumbles and rolls his eyes.

        When we get there, Rick orders Father Gabriel to stay outside as we go in and check it out. I hold my gun up and slowly follow the others as they check the rooms. The place is clear of any other humans or walkers. We all file in and put our stuff down. We can finally relax for the night and maybe get some sleep with a roof over our heads.

       Gabriel tells us about a town where there's a place with lots of canned food from a food drive. It's the only place he hadn't picked clean but the only catch is it's overrun with walkers. We decide to hit the town today, we're all starving and need to food. Especially the children, they're not getting nearly the right nutrition for what their bodies need.

"I'm coming with you." I tell Daryl, and for once he doesn't argue. I don't want to just sit back and let the others do all the work, I want to contribute too. I've gotten stronger since the start. No I wasn't the toughest, or even able to shoot a gun with precision, but now I've had experience with guns and other weapons.

"Mom, I'm going with the others to scavenge... I know we just found each other, but I need to do this. And I'm gonna do my best to make it back, I'm not gonna promise anything but I gotta do this for my little girl. She's hungry, and she's getting tired and weak from the lack of food." I tell my mom. She nods with a serious expression on her face.

"You'll do what you gotta do without my permission... Just please don't be stupid out there. I love you." She says, placing a kiss on my forehead.

"Matt, keep them safe for me." I tell my step-dad. He nods, with Athena in his arms. She looks at me with sad little doe eyes, they pull on my heart strings but I can't stand watching her suffer and be hungry.

"Come here sweetie, give mommy a hug." I say, holding out my arms.

     Matt passes her over and she wraps her arms tightly around my neck, I can feel how skinny her little body is. You could probably almost see her ribs at this point. But what are we supposed to do? Every extra portion we've had has to be split between 3 children. Judith not so much, since she's formula at this point. But between Carl and Athena they both need it.

"Do you have to go? You just came back..." She begs.

"Mommy has to get you food honey, don't you want to have a nice and full belly? You're becoming such a big girl sweetheart, this is apart of life now. I'm not always going to be around, and these people are your family too... I want you to stay in grammy and grandpa's sight at all times okay? Be the big 6 year old I know you can be." I say with as much forced enthusiasm as I can.

"Okay mommy... But you better bring me back some cookies!" She giggles.

"Tell you what, If I don't find some cookies I'll read you a nice long bed time story. Okay?" She nods with a smile. I kiss her cheek and set her down.

"Ready to go?" Rick asks. I wave bye to my family and then follow the others out.

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

A/N- Hopefully I'll be able to update for you guys later tonight or tomorrow. I know the dialogue isn't exactly the same as the show, but I hope you still enjoy! Ps. I know on the show, time passes by pretty slowly, so I'm trying to stick to that. So that's why Athena is still 6 rather than like 10 at this point.