39. fifty miles

QUINN

     THE GREEN FOREST FLASHED PASSED THE WINDOWS of the car in a blur as she leaned her head against the glass. She was almost being pressed against the door as they barely fitted with Bob, Tyreese and herself in the backseat but they needed every hand they could get for this job, so she wasn't going to complain.

Her thoughts kept drifting back to her brother and his reaction when she told him something she'd known all her life. He had laughed, told her she was funny before wishing her goodluck and walking away but she hadn't been joking. She honestly believed he was a voice of reason to listen to when things got hard. People listened to him even if he didn't think so.

With everything happening back at the prison she was happy for an opportunity to get out and go on a run. She could never do what her brother did. She wasn't one to stick around and help out when things got hard, which was why she'd surprised herself so much when they'd fought the Governor all those weeks ago. For once in her life she stood up and helped out and she still couldn't figure out why. Whatever the reason had been, it was over now. She'd much rather go on a run outside the fences than stay inside the dusty old prison.

'Hey,' Daryl's voice cut through her thoughts. She turned look forwards, realising he was talking to Michonne, who was sitting next to him in the passengers seat. 'I know you weren't runnin' off.'

When the brown woman didn't respond he continued. 'The thing is, that trail went cold. You know that right? If it was any different, I'd be right out there with ya.'

Upon saying those words his eyes went up to the back mirror, looking straight at Quinn. She gave him a small nod, letting him know she was with him. He hadn't just been talking to Michonne but to her as well. Merle's death was something, although in different ways, they were both scarred by. And no matter what they did or said the man left his traces in both of their lives, leaving a connection between them. No matter how small, it was there and they both knew it. They both knew it when they searched for the Governor for weeks. And if they both knew that if they would ever find him again, they would take revenge, for Merle. But that didn't mean they had to throw away their lives for a wild chase to take revenge.

They drove on in silence, until Daryl shifted to try and turn on the radio. 'Would you hand me one of 'em CD's right there?' He asked Michonne.

She reached down to grab them when suddenly a voice broke through the static on the radio. Quinn felt her heart leaping in her chest as Bob voiced what they'd all been thinking. 'Was that a voice?'

'Sssh,' Daryl told him, turning at the radio as he tried to get a better signal.

The words were muffled and she could only catch parts of it. She believed to hear the words determined to survive but wasn't sure if she got that right. But then the voice got clearer, the words keep alive sounding through the car.

Daryl looked up to share a stunned glare with Michonne but that one second of distraction was enough for a walker to stumble in front of the car.

'Daryl!' Quinn screamed his name as a warning and he looked up, immediately turning the wheel. The tires screeched over the asphalt as he tried to avoid the many walkers that had suddenly appeared on the road before them. As they turned the corner however he hit the brakes, the car coming to a stop and Quinn didn't have to question why.

The entire road before them was filled with walkers and before any of them could come up with a plan they had already surrounded the car, banging against the windows and pressing their misformed faces against the glass. Their moans and growls were horribly loud, making her unable to think straight as she reached for her daggers.

'Grab something!' Daryl yelled before driving in reverse down the street.

The car shook everytime they hit a walker and she closed her eyes not to see the blood that splattered on the windows. A loud bang sounded and the car came to a halt and no matter how hard Daryl tried, he couldn't get it to move.

'Go to the left!' Michonne yelled.

'We're jammed up!' Daryl yelled back. 'Have to make a run for the gaps right there. You make a run for the woods, you don't stop for nothing, you hear me?'

Quinn nodded quickly, taking her daggers in both of her hands as she braced herself to jump out of the car, her heart beating wildly in her chest.

'Now!' Daryl screamed and with that one world the world was lost to her in flashes of decayed bodies and the sounds of snarls and biting teeth.

Bob jumped out first, she was right behind him, not daring to look around and lose her focus. She couldn't worry about the others right now, she had to make it to the woods first.

Pushing the walkers that got too close away, she reached for her dagger, pushing it through the eye of walker way too close. Pulling it out with a grunt she sprinted forwards, ducking to avoid a walker taking a hold of her hair.

Daryl came into her view, killing walkers left and right. She could hear Michonne's katana slicing through their flesh and the loud gunshots of Bob echoed over the street. The sounds gave her renewed energy and made a scream leave her lips as she charged at an approaching walker, pushing her dagger through its skull, quickly ripping it back out before running forwards again.

'Ty!'

Sharply she turned around, her eyes widening when she noticed Tyreese was still in the car, not moving an inch. Bob was desperately screaming his name while trying to fight off the walkers at the same time.

Someone pushed against her back, making her raise her dagger and turn around, only for her arm to be blocked by Daryl. She had almost sliced his face open.

'Sorry,' she breathed.

He just nodded before giving her another push towards the treeline and she didn't protest. Throwing a quick glare over her shoulder she could just see Tyreese getting out of the car and being surrounded by walkers as he bashed their heads in with his hammer. It was the last thing she saw before the trees got in her view. Turning back forwards she ran through woods, the snarls of the walkers still all around her.

'Go!' Daryl yelled, while shooting down a walker, retrieving the arrow and running after them.

They sprinted through the forest, branches snapping under her feet as she tried to keep breathing steadily.

'Hold up,' Daryl said, making her turn around.

She immediately noticed what he was looking at. A figure was stumbling through the woods behind them, pushing aside branches to get to them. Daryl raised his crossbow and Quinn tightened the grip on her dagger when the figure came bursting through the bushes. The walker growled at them but before any of them could move, the corpse its head was bashed in from behind.

Tyreese appeared, completely covered in blood and chunks of flesh, his eyes wild and his breathing heavy. He fell on his knees, his hammer falling on the ground as he tried to catch his breath.

Daryl and Bob rushed forwards, helping him up and handing him his weapon before gesturing for them to start running again as more walkers came stumbling closer.

Quinn ran after them, her daggers in her hands.

'This is Turner Greek so Barnesville must be a few miles downstream,' Michonne said.

'Sounds like our best chance at finding a new ride,' Bob replied.

Quinn nodded, her gaze focused on the waterstream that ran under the bridge they were standing on. She didn't have much knowledge about the area they were in but trusted the others.

'Yo, Ty,' Daryl called out to the man, who was washing his shirt in the water. 'Come on, let's go. Vámonos.'

She turned her gaze away from the water and followed the others down the path through the woods towards Barnesville. Her thoughts kept drifting back to the prison, to her brother. They had lost a whole night because they had to leave the car behind. A lot of people could have died by the time they'd get back. Maybe her brother had become sick as well. Maybe he was coughing blood while lying on his bed, waiting for her to return with the medicines.

Taking a deep breath she forced those thoughts out of her head. She couldn't possibly know what was going on and she couldn't afford to be distracted.

Suddenly Daryl stopped, making her almost walk into him. Frowning she watched as he knelt down and picked up a stone from the ground, staring at it like he'd found a golden treasure.

'Is that jasper?' Michonne said, 'it's a good color, brings out your eyes.'

Quinn couldn't stop herself from smiling at that as she walked up to them, watching Daryl try and clean the stone the best he could, waiting for him to explain.

'When Miss Richards went into A block, we were leaving. Asked me to keep a look out. I'm gonna use it for her old man's marker,' he finally explained, looking at her.

She nodded, remembering Miss Richards talking about it one day.

'You know all of 'em back there?' Michonne asked.

'You stay in one place more than a couple hours, you'd be surprised what you pick up,' he replied, throwing the stone into the air before catching it and walking away.

Michonne took a deep breath before following him. Quinn gave a small shake of her head. He was clearly still mad at Michonne for running off to try and find the Governor, even though he said he understood. She honestly had a hard time understanding his reasonings sometimes.

After walking for another hour they reached the forest's edge. A car garage was standing on the left side of the road, a big tree had fallen down against one side of it.

'You see something?' Bob questioned, making Quinn turn around. Her gaze landed on Daryl who was walking to what appeared to be just some branches.

'I don't know, maybe,' the man with the crossbow responded, reaching for it and starting to pull away the branches.

She raised her eyebrows in surprise when a car turned out to be hidden beneath the many leaves and wood. Bob and Tyreese walked forwards and started helping to pull away the plants. When the door was cleared, Daryl climbed inside to try and start the car.

Quinn and Michonne walked up to the car, helping to pull away the last of the branches. She threw them on the ground and kicked them aside just as Daryl climbed outside the car again.

'We gotta find us a new battery,' he spoke, closing the door. 'Let's clear a path,' he said, pointing at the branches of the tree that happened to have fallen down before the entrance of the car garage.

Walking towards it they started pulling at the wood. Quinn threw them aside on the ground but stopped in her movements when she caught sight of Tyreese. He was violently hacking away at the wood, loud grunts of effort escaping his lips as he seemed to throw out all the frustration about what happened to Karen.

'Hey, man, go easy,' Daryl warned him. 'Don't know what we're dealing with.'

But his words didn't seem to reach Tyreese as he started pulling on something behind the branches and leaves. A shout left his lips when he wasn't able to pull it free right away. She could see him pulling with all his might and suddenly he stumbled backwards, seeming to have broken something off.

Quinn frowned at the wire that was wrapped around his hammer but was startled out of her thoughts when suddenly a rotting hand reached out through the leaves, taking a hold of Daryl.

Michonne was quick to pull out her katana and slice the arm clean off, the limb falling to the ground.

A scream came from her left, making her turn to see another walker stumbling out of the garage, trying to get at Bob. Quickly she took out her dagger and drove it through the walker its skull. The sudden lifeless body made Bob stumble backwards.

'Ty!' Daryl screamed roughly.

Turning to look at the man she saw him violently pulling at a walker, trying to break it free from behind the branches.

'Ty, let him go,' Michonne said worriedly, standing ready with her katana.

Tyreese, however, kept pulling at the walker until he finally got him free but the sudden strength of the corpse made him stumble backwards and fall on the ground with the walker on top of him.

Reaching out, Daryl pulled the walker away from Tyreese and Bob stepped forwards to put a bullet through the thing its brain.

'Why the hell didn't you let go?' Michonne questioned as Daryl helped Tyreese stand.

The man didn't reply and instead kept on staring ahead, trying to catch his breath. Quinn shook her head watching him, his grief had made him reckless and being reckless these days got you killed. And right now, Tyreese seemed to be hard on his way to get himself killed.

A U T H O R 'S  N O T E

A new chapter and some more interaction between Daryl and Quinn. What more can we ask for, really? I am so excited for the things these two will go through together and to hear what you guys think about it. Patience all ;)

Also, I wanted to take this opportunity and thank -voidskyler- for the cute ship video you can see at the beginning of this chapter. Thank you so much for putting your time and effort into this, I totally love it!

So, that was it for today guys. I hope you all loved this chapter. Be sure to leave a vote and please please comment, I really miss hearing from you guys. Votes are amazing but comments really make my heart warm, if that makes any sense...And I will see you all monday!

xXx

UYM