Flip Side {Daryl Dixon}

{Guidance Systems}

Daryl was awake well before the sun broke the horizon, between the alarms screaming in his head and the snarls of walkers in the trees he didn't find much comfort in the dark. He wanted to keep moving, to find Juno and be done with this damned place. He wasn't the only one pulling an all-nighter either. Lilith sat on the opposite side of the embers with a curved uklak in hand as her wary gaze slithered along the blackened trunks around them.

His guess was that she didn't sleep much on the ground anymore since he's always seeing her climb a tree while the others are bedding down.

"Why'd ya agree to come out here with us?" The Dixon blurted before he could stop himself. He's been doing that more than usual lately- especially around her. Maybe crazy matches crazy in some way like wild animals recognizing predators from prey. Either way, the coppery eyes of the woman tore away from the trees for a few seconds before returning to their previous robotic scanning.

"Isn't that what this group does? Throw their lives on the line for one of their own?" She caught the look he shot her way and chuckled quietly. Daryl knew better than to immediately believe that she was acclimated to these people. The men around this dying fire were the only ones of their people she stuck with. And he didn't blame her, the others were too curious for their own good and in the perspective of safety they pushed away a valuable weapon and ally.

Lilith Youngblood may be batshit, but she's batshit with a guidance system and that makes her dangerous to have on the wrong side of the line.

"Twist my arm, pretty boy. I came because one of us is sane and the other is out of their mind with worry for their kid. And Juno ain't mine." This made Daryl finally crack a smile and roll his eyes at her jab. Lilith never saw him smile before, but somehow it fitted him better than the veil of mourning and scowls. She liked a happier Daryl more than a distant Daryl.

"You're the sane one now? I must be worse than I thought. And Juno ain't mine neither."

"I dunno about that, you got that parent panic going on. She may not be related by blood, but she's got you wrapped around her finger." She twirled her index as she lightly sang the last few words. "Family doesn't end in blood. But it doesn't start there either. Family cares about you, not what you can do for them. They're there through the good, bad, all of it."

The sun broke the skyline and the group was on the move in moments. The tracks lead them to a cave nearly hidden in the curve of the hillside. Merle and Jax stepped up to the mouth and paused at the snarls of walkers inside. They both held up a hand for their other side to pause a little bit away.

"We got us some walkers inside. They ain't been dead for very long neither. A day if I was to guess." Lilith could see the weight on Daryl's shoulders growing heavier with every second he wasn't in there looking at those dead faces. Sliding her blades from her back, she twirled them in her hands as she clambered up the incline.

"I'll get them." She slipped by the men before they could stop her and skidded down the other side of the steep hill into the darkness below. The sounds of knives burying into skulls preceded the dull thud of bodies falling to the dirt.

"Guys, you're going to want to see this." The three slid into the cave without hesitation before balking at the sight they were met with. A massive cage cut the main cave in half as a small tunnel fed deeper into the hillside, but inside that cage was what caught their eyes. Mountains of old toys were piled up against the walls and the metal bars. Bile rose in Daryl's throat as he put the pieces together about the happenings of this hole in the ground.

"Did ya see 'er?" He tore his eyes from the cage to look over at the stony Lilith. She shook her head no, her unnatural eyes sliding around the room looking for any indication that Juno ever left this place- or was even here at all. Brows furrowed as she spotted a large bone jutting out of a walker's chest.