Daughter of the Fallen

Thank You

Startled, I looked around, searching for the source of the horn.

"Mom?" I asked nervously. "What's going on?"

"Daryl!" she called, in the same boat as me.

"Already on it!" Daryl called back. He picked up his walkie talkie. "Rick!"

As I strained to hear, I heard Rick reply, "I'm here."

"What's going on back there?"

"Half of them broke off, they're heading towards Alexandria."

My heart rate speeding up, I picked up my walkie talkie. "Towards you?" I asked, my voice panicked.

"We ran ahead," he explained. "There's a horn or something. Loud, coming from the east. It's not stopping."

"I'm gonna gas it up," Daryl informed. "We'll turn back."

"We have it," Rick assured. "You keep going."

"They're gonna need our help!" I protested.

"You gotta keep the herd moving," he ordered.

"Not if it's going down, we don't!"

"The rest of that herd turns around, the bad back there gets worse."

I didn't respond for a second as Daryl and I exchanged a nervous glance.

"Bree?" Rick called.

I sighed. "Yeah, I heard you."

I cursed under my breath as the line was cut off.

As I looked at Daryl again, I knew that he and I wanted the same thing.

To get back home.

•••

About half an hour later, Daryl turned to my dad.

"Hey," he called. "We gone five miles out yet?"

"Give or take some yardage," my dad replied. "Got a reason for asking?"

He nodded. "Next intersection, we're gonna spin around and go back."

I stayed silent as my mom interjected. "The plan is to go fifteen more."

"Yeah, I'm gonna change that. Five's gonna have to work."

"The magic number is twenty," my dad reminded. "That's the mission. That's making sure they're off munching on some infirm raccoons the rest of their undead lives instead of any of us."

"If you wanna go, we can't stop you," my mom added. "But without you, they could stop us."

He took a moment before looking over at me.

I gave him a look that hopefully conveyed "I agree with you, but please stay with us."

He must not have gotten the message because he answered, "Nah, I got faith in you."

As he drove off, the three of us called after him.

"Daryl!" my mom cried.

"Don't do it, man!" my dad added.

"Please come back!" I called.

The three of us exchanged glances and I knew we were thinking the same thing. We were screwed.

•••

It was about two hours later when my walkie talkie crackled to life.

It was Rick.

"Daryl?" he said.

After a moment, Daryl's response came through.

"I'm here."

"Won't be long now," Rick informed. "They're almost here. I'll get them going your way again."

I knew that Rick had no idea that Daryl had branched off from us.

"How about that Daryl?" I asked into the walkie talkie, not bothering to hide the accusation in my voice. "He's gonna be coming our way."

Daryl didn't say anything else but we got a response from Rick a moment later.

"There's gunfire coming from back home," he told us. "We gotta sit with it and hope they can handle it. I think they can. They have to. We keep going forward for them. We can't turn back because we're afraid."

I found my thoughts drifting to how Carl was doing as my dad took the walkie talkie.

"We ain't afraid," he told Rick.

"This is for them," Rick replied. "Going back now before it's done, that'd be for us." He took a moment before continuing. "The herd is almost here." He took another pause before opening the line again. Before he could say anything, hundreds of gunshots were heard before the line cut out.

Both Daryl and I tried calling for him but we didn't get a response.

As I lowered the walkie talkie, thoughts of Rick and the rest of the group filled my head as I hoped and prayed that they were okay.