You Are Not Safe

26. Badass.

I was too out of it to notice Carl opening the gate. I was too out of it to see who came in. I was too out of it to recognise the man that stood not that far away from me. The man that I call daddy.

Carl had opened the gate when I was sat on the floor, lining up rocks in size order. I wasn't aware that he had just let in Ricky, Uncle Merle and Daddy. I was in my own world when he called out my name. I lifted my head up slowly and my eyes met his.

"Daddy?" I questioned. He nodded and I stood up on to my two feet. I broke eye contact and then looked at Uncle Merle who had a blank look on his face, then to Ricky. I looked back at daddy while walking forward, but not to him.

I extended my arms to be picked up and Ricky complied. Daddy looked upset, I didn't mean to make him sad.

"Why are you here?" I whispered quietly into Ricky's neck.

"What?" He said, it sounded broken.

"You lied daddy, that's a bad, Dean didn't like it when I lied." Daddy just stared at me and then is when I noticed that everybody else had gone inside. It was just the four of us. I started to sniffle and I fisted Ricky's shirt in my hands. "Why did you lie daddy? Why did you go? Why did you leaves me? You promised daddy! You promised"

"I know, I know and I'm sorry Nemo, I made a-a mistake.... come here" he said with tears in his eyes.

Reluctantly, I was placed back onto the floor by Ricky and I ran over and clashed into daddy's arms.

He held me tight, so tight.

I missed him.

"I missed you daddy!" I wailed

"I know sshhhhh I'm sorry, I'm sorry" he repeated over and over again.

I wasn't mad at daddy. I was more sad than mad, but also happy that he came back to us.

Back to me.

I squoze daddy as tight as I could while crying into his neck. He eventually picked me up and held me close. I think he was crying too, but daddy can't cry. He told me so, cause he's a badass.

I'm just glad I got my daddy back.

..

"We're not leavin" Ricky's voice pulled me outta my thoughts. I was glued to daddy at the hip and I refused to let go of him, not that he minded anyways. I didn't wanna loose him again.

We were stood on the top level along with Bethy and Carol while looking down at Ricky and the rest.

"We can't stay here" Hershey said.

"What if there's another sniper?" Maggie panicked. "A wood pellet won't stop one of those rounds"

I decided to tune out the conversation and I lay my head back into daddy's neck. He smelt like dirt and woods and a little bit smelly, but it was daddy's smell nonetheless.

I slowly reached up my hand and began to play with his hair and brushed it away from his eyes. It had gotten longer. He smiled at me and then kissed me on the cheek before looking back down.

"Better to love like rats" that was uncle merle. I liked him, he helped me in the town, daddy said it was called Woodbury and they weren't nice people. He said he was gonna kill them for hurting me.

"You got a better idea?" Ricky questioned Merle.

"Yeah, we should have slid out here last night and lived to fight another day. But we lost that window didn't we?" He asked rhetorically. "And I'm sure he's got scouts on every road out of this place by now."