Before I Fade Away~ Daryl Dixon Fanfiction

Chapter 41~ Gabriel's Sin

{Sylvie's P.O.V}

      Daryl decided to go with Carol to find water and hunt for fresh meat instead of coming with us to scavenge the town Gabriel told us about. I can't say I was thrilled to be separating from Daryl again but I understand. He's the best hunter we got and at least he'll have Carol with him so he isn't alone out there. Gabriel always seems to look guilty, or scared, or both. I wonder what he's done, he can't be as innocent as he claims right? No one is.

      I've been pushing the vision of Corey Moldigan out of my head, I haven't slept good at all since I killed him. I know it's only been a day, but my dream last night felt like some vivid nightmare and it was like reliving it all over again. I mean he deserved it, he was gonna kill me, I had to. And that's what I keep telling myself to feel better but the thoughts sometimes haunt me when it's quiet.

"Alright, we're here. Everybody good?" Rick aks us after Gabriel informs him that this is the town. Gabriel continues to lead us to a building with a food drive sign outside on the walls. Gabriel steps back so we can go in and clear it in case there are any walkers.

     Once inside, we walk over to a hole in the floor. The basement is filled with water that leaked from the roof, and water-logged walkers wade through the dirty filth. The stench is enough to make your eyes water, but at this point we're pretty much used to it. Rick gathers us around so we can formulate a plan to kill the walkers and get the food in the easiest way possible. It's looking like our best option is to use the shelves as leverage to block the walkers.

      The water is slightly warm from the sun shining down, cooking a big walker stew down here. The water stains the bottom half of my white shirt, which isn't as white as it used to be. My one fear is that there's going to be a walker snoozing under the water and it'll grab onto my leg before I can do anything.

      We pull the shelves in front of us and let the walkers stumble over to it. They stack against it so we start thrusting our knives into their heads through the spaces between the shelves. I watch as Gabriel makes eye contact with one of the dead ones, she snarls her rotted teeth at him. He starts to shake and breathe faster as he stumbles through the water and lean against one of the walls.

"Gabriel, what are you doing?" I asks in confusion. He just closes his eyes as she wades closer to him. I look over at Rick and the others, they have their hands full so I move as fast as I can to get over to him. At one point I trip over something underneath the water and submerge under the water. Dirty rain water gets in my mouth as I go under, but I push my feet off the floor and come back to the surface. I spit water out dramatically and continue to get to Gabriel.

"Gabriel move!" I yell at him as she gets barely a foot away from him. I grab her by the hair and thrust my knife up into her head. I catch my breath first before offering my hand to Gabriel.

"You knew her before, didn't you." Rick says, annoyance written all over his face. Gabriel remains quiet, and continues to look sad. With a reaction like that, he had to have known her.

       We load all the food up onto a cart and start pushing it back to the church. This was truly a gold mine, the canned goods should last us a while. I can't wait to show all this to my baby, she'll be so excited. I even was able to get a box of cookies, it had been stored on the one of the top shelves that was tucked away from the hole in the roof. It was a box of Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies, she'll be so happy she might even forget I left her in the first place.

"Bob are you sure you're okay?" I hear Sasha ask Bob when we finally get to the church. Bob had a little scare back at the food drive, and Sasha being her protective self hasn't stopped asking him since it happened. Which, I completely understand cause I'd do the same if it were Daryl.