The Fear (The Walking Dead / Daryl Dixon)

Chapter 60 - Escape

I was leant up in a corner of the train cart with Luke and Molly asleep on either side of me. Daryl hadn't strayed to far always standing close or sitting nearby. Martinez had told the others what had happened before he was taken, no doubt needing to explain before Glenn attacked him. Which he would have done maybe in a different location or if he hadn't have shown up with the kids. Glenn told me about the dead walkers they'd found up on the train tracks and how he knew it was me which made me smile. Maggie told me how she had gotten off the bus to find Beth but ran into Sasha and Bob instead. She was the one that had killed the walkers on the bus, looking for Glenn. Glenn explained about how Tara helped him out on the road before they ran into Abe, Eugene and Rosita. On their journey to Terminus they had finally caught up to Maggie, Sasha and Bob and they all arrived together.

We all told our stories. Daryl explained about Beth and I told what happened up on the tracks and the walkers Glenn found. Rick told about the group in the house and how he and Carl had stumbled on Michonne and eventually me and then Daryl. He said the group Daryl was with attacked, that we were forced to kill them, but the more brutal details he left out.

"Where?" Maggie had asked when I told her I had gone home and buried dad.

"Near Otis." I whispered back and then smiled. "I found Nelly. Out in a paddock, grazing."

"She's alive?" Maggie smiled.

"I brought her back." I said with a slight scoff over my stupidity. "Said it was because the car would run out of fuel and she'd come in handy to carry bags. It was true, but... that wasn't why."

"Beth would have done it." She said with a small smile.

I smiled and started to laugh lightly. "Beth would have brought the chickens." Then Maggie laughed.

It was after, when everyone was done that Glenn slowly began to explain another story. One that left everyone speechless and staring at the awkward man with a mullet sitting in the corner.

"Impossible." I said.

"People would have said the same thing about the dead walking a few years ago." Eugene defended.

"The dead are dead." I spat back. "You can't fix that. Cure... what medicine? Stop people from turning from here on out? The walkers will still be around and you can't just get a bottle of pills to everyone left alive."

"You're quite the pessimist, darlin'" Abe stated.

"Realist." I spat back. "How?" I asked, turning back to Eugene.

"It's classified."

"Classified." I smiled. "What the hell do you think is going to happen if you tell us? We'll run off and rat you out to the enemy? Whisper it to the corpses?" I mocked.

"Kat." Glenn said in a soft voice and I looked over to see him slowly shake his head at me in a silent way that said 'not now.'

"I couldn't begin to explain it to you." Eugene continued, apparently not liking having been questioned. "Even if I had a notebook here to write it all down, I could not expect you to understand."

"Hey," Daryl began to get defensive, but I snapped back for myself before he could.

"I'm a Doctor, smart-ass, try me." Okay so I was an animal Dr, but his attitude kind of pissed me off.

"You leave him be." Abe called, not threateningly, but it was clear he had his friends back.

"Enough." Rick stopped it. "We have bigger problems at the moment."

Everything went back to silence after that. And that left only one more question to be asked. It was Tara that asked it.

"Why do you think we're in here? Why are they keeping us alive?"