Haunt You Every Day

My stomach lurched, my heart jumping to my throat. It took me seconds too long to realize what was happening. Denise's body dropped in slow motion, Daryl catching her and cradling her to the ground. By the time I had my gun cocked and in my line of sight, Daryl mimicking my actions as soon as Denise was out of his grasp, a group of men had already swarmed in a half-circle in front of us. Daryl and I stood side-by-side between the two tracks, my heart pounding against my rib cage as I stared down fifteen Saviours.

"You drop 'em now!" a man shouted from the middle of the pack. He held Daryl's crossbow in his right hand while he pushed Eugene to the ground in front of him with his left. His long greasy, blond hair stuck to his face as his eyes remained on Daryl. My gut twisted when looking at the melted skin from a burn that covered the left side of his face. He was skeletal, his eye sockets drooping in dark circles and his beard grown out in patches. He licked his lips, taunting Daryl. My eyes veered to my left, waiting for Daryl's next move. I knew we didn't have a choice, not with Eugene held hostage. I sighed, the breath coming out as a shudder as I dropped my gun when Daryl did. "Well, hell," the man exhaled. I could feel Daryl's anger radiating from next to me, his body swaying like he was trying to restrain himself from launching at the man. The blond took notice, yelling, "You got something to say to me? You gonna clear the air? Step up on that high horse?" Daryl was silent as I glanced over at him, his eyes not breaking from the man's. "No," he laughed, "You don't talk much."

The man nodded to the Saviour and two of them pressed toward us. Their guns remain on us as they patted us down. Even though I knew Daryl would keep his eyes locked on the man he met in the burnt forest, my eyes darted at the man that patted down my sides. My eyes narrowed into slits, my body jerking in protest as he ran his hands down either one of my legs. I was a predator sizing up her prey, no matter how outnumbered we may have been.

"Still getting the hang of her," the blond said to Daryl, motioning to his crossbow, "Kicks like a bitch, but--"

"I should have done it," Daryl finally said, his voice eerily low.

"Oh, what's that?" he asked. "Seriously, I didn't catch what you said?" he echoed, mocking Daryl.

"I should've killed you," Daryl said, not a quiver in his voice. He was making the statement as if there weren't fourteen guns pointed directly at our heads.

"Yeah, you probably should have," the man responded. The tone in his voice wasn't one of a threat, but more of a warning. A warning like we had no idea what was about to come for us. "So, here we are. Kind of begs the question, right? Who brought this on who? I mean, I get that you'll just have to take my word for this, but… she wasn't even the one I was aiming for," the man smiled. My blood boiled from that statement alone. "Like I said, kicks like a bitch."

I looked down at Eugene, his bottom lip quivering as he knelt in front of the man. "It's nothing personal," he said as he gripped onto the back of Eugene's collar causing Eugene to pant heavily, his head whipping around for any sort of escape route. "Look, this isn't how we like to start new business arrangements, but, well, you pricks kind of set the tone, didn't you?" he said, referring to our attack on their satellite base.

"What do you want?" I spat, my anger getting the best of me before I even realized I was snapping at him.

For the first time in this entire conversation the man looked over at me, a broad grin sliding up his face, "I'm sorry darlin', I didn't catch your name. I'm D or Dwight. You can call me either," he smiled as I stared him down, breathing in deep to try and stop myself from snapping any further. "So? What's your name?"

"Scar. What do you want?" I pressed, my tone was unforgiving.

"Well, Scar…" he sighed, "It's not what I want. It's what you and Daryl are going to do." I could feel my pulse rising, my skin feeling too tight for my body. How badly I wanted to rip my gun from the ground and send a rain storm of bullets their way. How badly I wanted to rip Daryl's crossbow out of Dwight's tatted fingers as we tell him how wrong he is for even thinking we were the kind of people they wanted to mess with. I feared the dead. Feared one day turning into one of them, but more than that I hated the living. "You're gonna let us into your little complex," he continued, "it looks like it's just beautiful in there. And then you're gonna let us take whatever and whoever we want… or we blow Eugene's brains out." Dwight gripped on tighter to the back of his collar, shoving him to the side. "And then yours. And then his," he explained, his eyes darting to Daryl and then back toward me. "I hope it doesn't come to that, really. Nobody else has to die. We just try and start with one. You know… maximum impact to get our point across. So what's it gonna be? You tell me."

"You wanna kill someone, you start with our companion hiding over there behind the oil barrels," Eugene pleaded, nodding his head over to the right. "He's a first-class a-hole and deserves it so much more than us three." All of their heads snapped toward the drums, including my own. I studied the barrels, not seeing anything out of the ordinary. I couldn't tell if Eugene was trying to buy us time or if someone had actually followed them here. If I had to guess, Eugene wouldn't be out here on his own without Abraham following somewhere close behind, even if he wasn't a world-class scientist as he originally claimed.

Dwight yanked his gun from his hostler. I could see his nerves beginning to rise as he yelled, "Go check it out!" to the men covering his right.

I watched as the three men stalked up toward the barrels, taking their time in fear that one of our own would lunge out and attack. My eyes then went back to Eugene upon hearing his heavy pants, the nerve of just speaking up to them causing his anxiety to take over. When my eyes landed on him he had already been staring at us, a wild look on his face. My brows furrowed at his expression, studying him. He then threw his body to the right, turning on his knees and biting down on Dwight's dick. A low agonizing scream wailed from Dwight's lungs before a gun began to go off behind the tree line, taking out a few of their men. The Saviours were cornered now.

Occupied by the shock of the ambush, I elbowed the man to my right in the nose causing him to stumble. He tripped on the lip of the track, falling flat on his back as I ran for my gun they had tossed to the side. I spun before he had the time to collect himself, cocking my gun and killing him.

"Daryl!" I shouted, drawing him back toward the abandoned cars for cover while the Saviours remained focused on shooting down Abraham in the woods. The bullets didn't cease as I watched Daryl dive behind the other car, their attention back on us as they shot out the windows. I peered over the hood of the car, looking for that fiery red hair in the sea of green leaves. Abraham stood tall against a tree, my gun aimed directly at the Saviour trying to sneak up on his left. The man hit the ground as soon as the bullet made contact. It was an all-out shoot-out, the gunfire drawing in any walker within the area.

The missed Saviours found refuge in flanking to the left and right of the forest line, steering clear of Abraham who stood nearly directly across from me. I could only vaguely see their heads over the incline of the tracks. Dwight finally got free of Eugene's grip, diving down behind the lip of the train track both in pain and to cover himself from Daryl's gunfire. I closed my left eye, only the slight adjustment of my arms aiming my gun back and forth between the two Saviours that shot at me. Although, between Daryl and I on one side, Abraham on the other, and walkers stumbling up on them at every angle they were losing this fight.

"Fall back! Fall back!" I could hear Dwight faintly yell. I gritted my teeth not wanting to allow them the chance to get away from us. My finger squeezed the trigger, hailing bullets at them as they lay down cover fire to back off.

I looked to my left checking on Daryl to see his gun give out on him needing to reload. I then watched as the Saviours began to filter off into the woods, Dwight throwing up his right arm to send his last few bullets right for Daryl.

"Daryl get down!" I screamed. I locked my last magazine into place, hitting the trigger without bothering to aim. I just needed to get their attention away from him. Daryl threw his body back down behind the car, one of my bullets hitting a fleeing Saviour in the back. I sucked in my bottom lip watching Dwight get away again. Daryl jumped over the hood of the car, running up the side of the tracks and grabbing ahold of his stranded crossbow. I chased after him, grabbing onto his arm before he did anything stupid. His eyes tore away from the bush looking back down at me. They were vacant, angry.

My head snapped around when I heard a sharp gasp of breath. Eugene still lay on the ground, blood seeping through his shirt from the side of his abdomen. "Eugene, can you hear me?" I asked, throwing myself to my knees and pressing my hands to the wound. The only response I got was another sharp intake of breath from the pressure I was applying. "You're going to be okay. Just hold on, alright."

"We gotta get him back now. Where is your transportation?" Abraham shouted, finally appearing from the woods and by Eugene's side.

"We have a truck parked about ten minutes down the track," I panted, throwing my gun strap over my shoulders and preparing to carry him.

"Daryl, grab his other arm. Scar, you get his legs," Abraham instructed. "Eugene, I got you this far, you aren't dying on me today."

We lifted on three, following Abraham's lead as he and Daryl carried the brunt of Eugene's weight. I gritted my teeth, stumbling over the tracks but keeping myself focused on pressing forward. My focus broke when I was unable to keep my eyes from looking at Denise. Her body lay spread out on the tracks, her head turned away from us. We'd have to leave her here. She was alone. She brought us because she trusted us; this is where we got her. She chose to not live in fear today and yet she still died. And all I could keep thinking was that the arrow that killed her was not intended for her at all. It was for Daryl.