❝last man standing doesn't matter when it's a pile of bodies you're standing on. so you fight but you be good.❞
[twd seasons 1-?]
Ⓒ 2019║asgxrdians i own nothing except lindsey and her plot
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
chapter twenty one: because you mean it 5815 words
Lin wasn't sure how much time passed as she stood in his embrace. It could have been minutes or it could have been hours for all she cared. She could feel Daryl's heartbeat through his dirty shirt.
"What happened?" Daryl asked, pulling back, his arms slipping from around her. She missed them as soon as they were gone but she knew not to push Daryl, to let him decide what contact was okay. While his arms no longer held her, he had a hand on her shoulder. He just wanted to keep touching her, keep making sure she was really there and he wasn't just hallucinating her like he had at that river bank.
"I went after Rick and Carl after they set the barn on fire. Jimmy drove the rv over but it was overrun in seconds. I couldn't let them get in caught in that. I told Hershel where I was going and I just went. I made it to the rv but I couldn't find them. They'd gone out into the woods trying to get back to the house. I thought I was following them for a while but I was tracking two walkers. I didn't know until it was too late. Everyone was gone and I was out in the woods." She shrugged, the fear of thinking that she was completely alone returning. That's why Daryl kept his hand on her shoulder. He wasn't great at comfort but he was willing to try his best for her. She'd been out there alone and scared out of her mind. He could spare a tiny bit of humility for her.
He looked past her to the room she'd been hiding in. "Ya got anything with ya?" She didn't. Everything was back on the farm. She shook her head.
"I only have what you see." That meant her rifle, her bow and arrows and her knife, the watch on her wrist. The spare jeans in her tent, all her shirts, all Dale's clothes. He nodded, hating the broken look on her face. She then reached behind her to the back waistband of her jeans. He watched her pull a gun from there, a handgun. "I have this too." She turned it over and he saw that it was Shane's piece. "I edged around the farm and stubbed my toe on it. Shane must have hid it coming back."
"Everyone's at the highway," he jerked his head in the general direction he'd come from. "Lori's worried sick."
Lin's eyes widened visibly. "Oh god, Lori. Is everyone okay?" Daryl nodded again though he knew that not everyone had made it out of the carnage the night before. Patricia, Jimmy they knew were dead. Shane was accounted for too. Andrea wasn't and even though T Dog had seen her go down, that wasn't a guarantee she was dead. "We should get back."
Daryl just nodded again. He turned to the stairs but then stopped, the sudden motion making Lin think something was wrong. She set her hand on her knife, ready for a fight that wasn't going to happen. Daryl looked back at Lin, his expression tight and unreadable. Lin was about to ask him what was wrong when he wordlessly held his hand out to her. Lin took it with both of hers, the contact grounding her as they moved out of the house, through the woods and to the highway.
Daryl was silent the entire time but every so often, maybe every dozen steps or so, his hand would tighten around hers and he'd glance back over his shoulder at her. Maybe he was just checking to make sure she was real. It made her smile a little just as much as it made her chest ache. There had to be a moment that he thought she was dead. There was one where she thought he was and she'd hated it.
