CHAPTER ELEVEN | t r a c e
27/10/17

Adira wrapped her arms around Daryl's waist even tighter and held on for dear life as they sped past the seemingly endless amount of walkers that had been attracted to the sound of his rather rambunctious motorcycle. She soon opted to shut her eyes as she saw their decaying hands reaching aimlessly towards the moving pair, it reminding her of memories she didn't want to relive. It was so difficult to see them, those walkers, simply walking and groaning for anything living, knowing they were once people. She didn't want to end up that way.

Soon enough, however, they reached the road, and the herd thinned out as they pressed on in the direction it had originally come from. Her head leaned onto Daryl's leather-clad back as she slowly fell into an uneasy sleep, waking up every so often only to see more and more trees passing by. She couldn't believe that she had made it out of there alive. That they had made it out.

Only maybe three or four hours later did Daryl decrease the speed of his bike, eventually coming to a stop on the side of the highway. There seemed to be a build up of cars, but that wasn't why he stopped; there was a clear path through, created by his group only mere months in the past. It was the only place he could think of that the group might try to find him and Adira.

He was about to get off of his motorcycle when he came out of his mindless driving state and felt the weight of something on his back and something wrapped around his waist. He peeked behind him and saw Adira, asleep, clinging to him. He couldn't help but notice how tranquil she looked while she slept, away from all of the worries and dangers that haunted them each day they still breathed.

He reminded himself of what he had decided the other day, however, and stood up abruptly, shaking the poor girl awake. She looked up in surprise but only cast her gaze back down to the ground when she saw his glare. He couldn't let her get close, and he couldn't let himself get attached. He had to keep her at a distance; it was the only way.

"Why are we stopped?" asked Adira, her voice exhausted and low and her eyes full of confusion. There didn't seem to be much of anything where'd they stopped, and they weren't stuck.

He tilted his head in the direction of a rundown Ford Mustang, with some sort of message written in paint on the windshield that Adira couldn't quite read from where she stood. She cautiously took a step forward and continued a bit quicker when she realized that Daryl was following her towards the car.

SOPHIA STAY HERE
WE WILL COME EVERY
DAY

She didn't recognize the name or its significance, and no one with the group had ever mentioned someone named Sophia to her, so she was confused as to why Daryl was so interested in it. "Who's Sophia?" she asked, not realize how much the question would affect Daryl.

He took a sharp inhale of breath and turned away, his breathing loud, ragged, and almost angry with the irregular pattern it was taking. Sophia had obviously meant something to him.

"Daryl?"

Adira's small, gentle voice filled the silence only rarely broken by a breeze drifting its way through the leaves. Daryl didn't turn around, but his breathing did gain some sort of control and he shut his eyes to calm down for a second. However, as soon as he closed his eyes, all he could see was that little girl coming out of the barn, deceased and ravenous.

He was brought back to reality when he felt the tender touch of the young girl's hand meet his shoulder. She didn't dare hug him, as she would normally in such a situation, as he seemed to be in a very dark place and she wasn't quite sure how he would react. They stood there for a moment, his breathing gradually stabilizing and her hand gripping his shoulder as reassuringly as she could.

When Daryl finally looked back at her, all she could see was anguish filling his eyes. Clearly, they both had memories that haunted them. Maybe she wanted to know what caused him so much agony, but then again, would she really want to tell someone she barely knew the tale of her parents? No, she wouldn't. She never wanted to think about that again, much less confess the entire thing to Daryl.

So instead of prompting him to divulge any more, she merely whispered, "I'm sorry."

He cleared his throat and readjusted his crossbow on his shoulder and pushed right past her, determined to not let her see that she had gotten through to him, even in such a tiny way. But she did; she saw his painful expression fade ever so slightly when she spoke those two words. Though he was supposedly unwanting of her attention and care, she could tell that he secretly craved it. And he knew it as well, however much he denied it; she made him feel human.

She hurried after him, knowing that he must have been looking for something. She watched him search around inside the nearby cars for a bit before he finally waved around a small piece of paper.

"C'mon, I found it," he grunted.

Adira rushed over and tried to see what he had found, but was too short to read it over his shoulder. "Found what?"

He simply handed it to her, having finished read it.

Daryl, Adira

Head east.

That was all it said. She supposed it was enough; after all, it was pretty straightforward. She looked around the area for a minute with Daryl, to see if there was anything else. Seeing nothing, they walked towards Daryl's bike. The two survivors mounted the motorcycle in silence and continued on their way, heading east as the note had instructed them to. Not once did they say a word to each other, simply enjoying the comfort of knowing someone else was there and the placid silence only broken by the roar of the bike beneath them.

Soon enough came dusk and with it came weariness. Daryl and Adira continued on for perhaps ten minutes before pulling over to a small clearing with good sightlines and a surrounding of bushes. They laid out the large winter coat Daryl kept in his bag; not really his, but the one Carol insisted he had should he feel cold in the harsh winter; and the girl sat down as the hunter set up strings with cans on them to alert them if any walkers were to disturb their night. When Daryl was finished, Adira quickly got up and quietly made her way over to him, where he sat on a large rock, staring into the night.

"I'll take watch."

Her sudden appearance startled Daryl and he jumped slightly before he processed what she said. "Nah, I'm good. Get some sleep," he said, not moving his eyes even an inch.

Adira shook her head. "No, I slept earlier, while you were driving," she tried to convince him. But he still didn't move.

"Daryl, you need to sleep," she tried again, and she finally got a response.

Something about her calling his name and her concern pulled him out of his trance he'd been put into earlier from memories of Sophia, and he turned his head to look at the twenty-seven-year-old who apparently wanted him to sleep so much. He could see that she really didn't seem to be tired, meanwhile his eyelids were constantly drooping, and he had to fight to keep them from doing so. He sighed and got up, and with a gesture of his hand he grunted, as if to say "fine, here."

Adira settled down on the rock and watched the man as he pulled himself up to sleep against a tree, wrapped in the winter coat. However, she felt creepy watching him and averted her eyes to what Daryl had been looking at earlier - the darkness. She couldn't see anything out there which both frightened and calmed her. She didn't like not being able to see what was coming, but she also enjoyed it. She didn't want to think about what was going on in the world. She simply wanted to stay as long as she could there, sitting on that rock without so much as a groan disturbing the air.

This all changed, however, when she heard the unmistakable crunch of something stepping on leaves or a twig. Her breath caught in her throat as she strained to hear anything else, but the only thing that met her ears was silence.

Her heart rate went down and she began to breathe again as she convinced herself it was just the wind. It was a rather breezy night. She had just started to relax again, with the early dawn light peeking through the treetops, when she heard it once more.

Crunch.

Adira immediately jumped up, now knowing that something was wrong. Taking a quick glance towards a sleeping Daryl, she slowly crept off into the woods. She didn't want to wake him for something that was most likely her imagination.

So there she went, taking the tiniest steps forwards she could to make the least possible amount of sound with her footsteps. She could only somewhat see, the sunrise still about thirty minutes away.

That crisp winter morning, Daryl Dixon woke up to a scream.