Not Alone ✔

Ch. 24 - Cleaning Up

Anna
I sat beside Andrea, crying just like she was. In the little over a week I had been there with the group, when I wasn’t around Daryl or Merle, I was with Amy and Andrea. “Here,” I whispered as I pulled her gun out of the back of my pants and handed it over to her, “I’m so sorry Andrea.” She looked over at me with sad eyes as she took her gun back and sat it on the ground beside Amy’s body. I hugged her again and as I felt her crying into my shoulder, I looked around to see Daryl was looking over at me with a worried look on his face. I know he probably wasn’t liking me being this close to someone who was bit by a walker but I couldn’t leave Andrea yet, just a few more minutes then I’d walk over to him and stay by his side till I knew everything was safe.
After a few minutes more, I finally get up and Andrea goes back to leaning over her dead sister as she cries. When I got to him, he wrapped one of his arms over my shoulders and pulled me into a hug and I rested my head against his shoulder and started to cry again. I looked around at the group in time to see Lori was making her way over to me. I removed myself from Daryl as she approached me and wrapped me into a hug. “I’m sorry Anna,” she whispered as I hugged her back. When she pulled away, she had tears in her eyes as she turned and walked back over to Rick and Carl. “Why don’t ya go to my tent and get some rest,” Daryl said after a few minutes when he placed his arm back around my shoulders, “ya look tired.”
“I am,” I said as I looked up at him, “but I wouldn’t be able to sleep right now. I’ll stay up with all y’all. I’ll sleep when this is over with.” “Okay,” he said nodding as he pulled me closer to him with his arm still wrapped around my shoulders. I looked around at the sight before me, and even though it was still dark out, I could see everything. There were bodies everywhere, of our own and that of walkers we killed to protect ourselves. “Now you see it was a good thing I tagged along today,” I whispered to Daryl, I wasn’t trying to pick a fight, he knew that, “if I had stayed behind like you wanted I could be like Amy over there, dead.” “I know,” he whispered as he pulled his arm tighter around me, “it’s times like this that I’m glad you’re stubborn.” “Got that from you,” I said smiling up at him.
“C’mon,” he said as he started walking, “we can start picking these walkers, so we know they’re really dead now.” “Okay,” I said nodding as I pulled out of his grasp but stayed by his side as he led the way to the RV where everyone was still standing. Daryl handed me his crossbow as he went and grabbed the pick axe from around the side of the RV. He nodded to me to follow then walked on past me, with me right on his heels as he began picking any walker, or dead camper he got to. I stayed close by, with his crossbow armed and ready for anything that might jump out at us while he was doing his work with the pick.
Before long it was dawn and already starting to get hot. “Daryl,” I whispered to him, “why don’t ya stop a minute. Get a drink of water and then continue on.” He looked over at me like he was gonna protest but I think I had a worried enough look in my eye for him to second guess his argument and just simply nod as he walked over to me and took the canteen of water out of my hand to take a sip from. “Why don’t ya sit down and rest,” he said after clearing his mouth of water, “it’s day light, everyone can see if any of these damn geeks get to their feet. You should rest.” “You’ll be ok,” I asked and he nodded. I nodded and took the canteen back before turning and walking over to a place to sit that was out of the rising sun and just sat there watching him.
I sat down, watching everyone else around camp burn the dead bodies of the walkers as Rick walked over to Andrea. I don’t know what he said to her, I was too far away to hear it, but I found myself smirking as she pointed her gun to his head. I lifted the canteen up to my mouth to try and hide my smirk but I think Daryl caught it as he was walking down towards me because he smiled at me like he just knew was I was smirking about. I was still a little sore with Rick for handcuffing Merle to that roof, not that Merle didn’t have it coming, but still it was uncalled for. I smiled as Daryl took the canteen and drank from it before handing it back to me, but he didn’t walk off quite yet. Just then Rick walked over and all attention was on him.
He was talking about leaving Andrea and Amy alone until Andrea was okay. “Y’all can’t be serious,” Daryl said from beside where I sat, “let that girl hamstring us? The dead girl’s a time bomb.” “Well what do you suggest,” Rick asked as Daryl looked over at him. Normally I’d agree with the other’s and let the Andrea alone, but Amy was bitten and I have to look out for myself, so my agreement was with Daryl on this one, and I hated that, especially when I had been so close to Andrea and Amy. “Take the shot,” Daryl said walking closer to Rick, “clean, in the brain from here. Hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance.” “No,” Lori said speaking up causing everyone to look to her, “for God’s sakes, let her be.” Everyone went quiet, Shane and Rick shared a glance but it was obvious that no one else was gonna speak on the matter so Daryl just scoffed and walked away. Kinda felt bad for not speaking up, but Daryl knew why I didn’t. They’d say something to me about how I should be defending Andrea, not helping Daryl.