Rick and Alicia went first. He tried to make as little noise as possible and they all crossed the street behind the big truck that had toppled over. The vehicle lay sideways, allowing them to implement the plan they had planned that night. Hopefully it’ll be fine, Rick thought as he saw the scrap heap on the road. Everything seemed to be against you all since that night. The first of them to see were Daryl and Nick from the porch of the house where they had sought shelter. The house was set on an almost imperceptible hill, but it was enough for the two men to see the flock of biter marching toward them, no matter where they were looking or where they were going. There were so many that you all had to flee as quickly as possible, taking your belongings and saying goodbye to the other things you had hoped to find there for so long. The Walkers had managed not to lose it, safely led by the smell, and the group had spent the whole night running away from the herd. It certainly wasn’t good that Judith had been so startled by the sudden escape because her screams were very lost. Michonne had sprained his ankle while escaping, Travis had almost risked being eaten. And last but not least, you had forgotten a rucksack of guns in the house you had just left. Fortunately, the flock had shrunk a little as you passed a handful of rather broad trees and left the other side to arrive near a freeway. You had killed some Walker that were too close to you and had hidden in several cars. It had been some time before they realized you had lost Nick and Daryl. After a few moments of panic, Rick had gone out to look for them, and he had just seen two blurry figures battling several Walkers. They locked themselves in a tiny tool shed near a house not far from the highway. The former sheriff hadn’t been able to see much of the two survivors, but had assumed they were. He trusted Daryl, he could get away even in the worst situations. And from what he had seen, Nick was not a freshman. Rick had come back and had worked with the others to come up with a plan to free them. Along with him, as a volunteer, there were Carol, Alicia, Travis and you, who had insisted on helping him.

“All right, we need to be careful.”, Rick began as you were all sheltered in a remote spot on the road, far enough away from the herd that was still raging at the shed. Judging by how it wobbled, the construction wouldn’t last much longer. You had to hurry. Tiredness was felt by everyone, it was now twenty-four hours since you hadn’t slept, and at least eight of them had fled.

“Alicia, you’ll enter the yard across the street, walk through the front yard and leave a gap in the fence. Here, use those scissors for it.”, the man said and handed her the knifes. “Please be careful. If you open the gate, you have to be silent, we do not want the herd to attack you immediately.”

The girl nodded seriously and took the tool Rick handed her. “Alright.”

“Carol, you and Y/N, you two are hiding in the overturned van over there, stay there, and watch out that the biter does not notice you, Alicia, when you’re done with the gate open, I want you here Travis and I will lure the herd into the backyard and we will emerge from the opening you made for us on the back, we will make sure these bastards are busy, if all is well The Walkers will be trapped there when we close the gate, Carol and Y/N, as soon as the herd is gone, you go to the shed.”

“Roger.” As you spoke, you straightened and made your way to the truck, but Rick abruptly stopped you and placed a hand on your shoulder. You turned around.

“We’re not sure if that’s Daryl and Nick, I know you’re all very worried, but I want us to make sure the right people are in there before we save them, we’re not taking any risks.” Rick gave you such a penetrating look that you just nodded. “Okay, let’s get started.”

The walls of the shed were shaking visibly. It had been some time since they were there, but Nick had already banished the disgusting sound of the biter in the background. If there was a particularity he was proud of, it was the way he could alienate himself in unpleasant situations. On command to remove the loud noises from his head and life was immediately much more relaxed. If he could do it to people, he would have had an added advantage. At least that’s when he does not want to keep his eyes on Daryl, who nervously walks from one side to the other in the tiny room. He had that indecipherable expression on his face that made his irritation in his chest bloom. The thing that made him even more annoyed was that the man probably did not even understand what he’d done to him. He had taken something important from him, something he had never had before and that was even more precious to find at that moment. How many chances have there been to meet another person like Kate since the end of the world? No, Y/N couldn’t be replaced. With her, he felt less alone, he felt protected and loved. He could tell her everything, he knew she would not judge him, she would just listen and understand the reason for his words. Y/N was the best person he had ever met, and because of her wondrous nature, whose real reason she never mentioned, he had decided to be her friend. And Daryl took it from him. Her relationship had already changed. He saw the hesitation in the girl’s eyes every time he talked to her, as if she were afraid to see him angry. It was the way she looked at him. A look he hated and whom he had never seen before. No, he wouldn’t lose Y/N, he would not have allowed it. He would have stuck to it as long as he could, and if that meant killing the obstacle called Daryl Dixon, he would. After all, he could not offer her more than Nick. To be honest, Nick did not even understand how Y/N could fall in love with this man, after all, this Redneck was so quiet and rude. And she was actually someone who liked to talk and be happy, even though everyone around her was in a bad mood. Maybe they just went to bed together…

Nick smacked his lips angrily. For him and Y/N, sex was just fun, a way to spend time in an adorable way when they wanted it. At the same time, they also had something deeper and more precious. Even if Daryl got her to bed, it meant nothing. Nick would not allow her relationship to be frayed by the man’s presence, he would keep Kate to herself and bring her back to her.

“If you move on and make noises, they’ll never go.”, the boy said and followed Daryl with his eyes. The man stopped in the middle of the raun. “They know we’re here, they will not go if we move or not!” He seemed to want to start an endless walk, but maybe he was just tired and wanted to stay awake. Daryl sighed and dropped to the floor in front of Nick, his back against the wall. As soon as he sat down, the shed got a big kick and Daryl was thrown forward. Hastily he left the wall and stood with his legs crossed, his hands on his knees.

“Rick will help us and get us out of here.”

Despite his disgust, Nick felt the need to calm him down somehow. That was a situation, Daryl’s brother Merle ‘The shit of all shit!’ would call. He was locked in a room with the woman’s lover whom he also loved and the walls threatened to collapse. It was really an extremely shitty situation… The boy, however, didn’t seem so upset. His calm was almost disturbing given the situation they were in. Daryl soon realized that the more dangerous a situation was, the more relaxed Nick was.

“They not only smell us, they also hear sounds and you make noise.” Nick stretched, his hands resting on his lower back. “They don’t have much concentration, and if we’re lucky some animals will come by and they may follow them, they’ll all disappear one by one.”

Daryl shot him an angry look. “Are you an Apocalypse theorist or what?”

“No, but I spent a lot of time in their midst.”

The man didn’t understand that sentence and did not even have time to think about what he meant by that. Before he could even think about it, Nick said: “If Y/N was here I’d ask her for a massage, she can do that very well, maybe you already know…” The boy had stretched out his legs and was watching Daryl with a crooked and arrogant smile. Daryl stiffened at the words. Despite this dangerous and deadly situation, his head was full of pictures of the girl he loved, who massaged Nick, in places of his body where he would never have imagined they actually existed. He suppressed these thoughts that only made him grow madder in silent jealousy. A jealousy and a rage he had never experienced before, let alone felt. He didn’t answer and just gave Nick a murderous look.

“…Or maybe not.” Nick hovered these words in the middle of the room and remained silent for a while. “You look kind of nervous, Daryl…”, Nick added after a while in a confident tone.

“You don’t know shit about me! Now shut the hell up, before I stick your fucking head out of the window!”

Nick gave a faint grin, which immediately faded again. “You know, Y/N likes to be massaged too…”

Daryl gasped, lunging for him, grabbing him, lifting him up by one arm on his collar and throwing him back to the ground with full force. Instinctively, Nick put his hands on his neck, but realized that the man wasn’t trying to strangle him.

“Shut the fuck up!”

“It’s the truth…” Even lying on the floor, with Daryl over him, now tensing all his muscles and pushing Nick further into the floorboards of the shed that he could barely breathe, Nick had an air of authority around him floating around him, paired with something treacherous, provoked Daryl on. “Don’t lie to yourself Dixon, you can not give her what she wants, none of us can!”

“What do you even know, you fucking asshole!”

“I know her better than you know her, and you know it!” At these words, Daryl’s pressure on the boy’s chest and larynx diminished.

“She wants what everyone wanted, even before all this!”, Nick said nastily.

Daryl could hear the young man’s words, but he didn’t fully understand them. He had stopped listening to the first movement.

“I know Y/N doesn’t want a bastard like you!”

Nick had said it so confidently… He blinked and ran his tongue over his lips.

“What do you mean?”, Daryl asked for explanation.

“You can not give her that, you have nothing to offer her, you’re a nothing, a nobody.”

“And you can do it, or what?”

Daryl grabbed his shirt, squeezed it down a bit, and pulled back until he was a safe distance away.

“No.”

The boy sat up and rubbed his chest.

“No one could do it earlier, and now less than ever before, there is no one to live with forever, people are selfish, it’s impossible to go hand in hand sooner or later, because we get tired of each other, but what Y/N and I have, that’s something very special… And you bastard should keep yourself out at any cost!”

Daryl didn’t want to admit it, but Nick’s words had hit him hard. More than anything else, they had hurt him very much. It was true he did not know Y/N as long as the boy knew her. And it was also true that these two had a special relationship. And yet, the thought of losing her disturbed him and caused him a physical nausea.

“You don’t have to decide, I think.”

Daryl crossed his arms over his chest, almost pouting like a child.

“It’s up to Y/N to decide what to do with her life.”

Nick didn’t stop that sharp, sly, focused, grim look at the same time. A look that often went unnoticed, it had something Machiavellian, subtle to associate with its diabolical behavior.

“Fuck you.”



The herd of Walkers trotted with the usual tired step. They surrounded the truck and took it as an obstacle of little importance. None of the creatures even hesitated for a moment near the vehicle and you were grateful. Your plan worked, the Walkers moved away from the shed and she was sure that Travis and Rick were doing a good job, as they heard no noise from the fight. As soon as you saw that the herd was getting smaller, you could come out. Of course there were some disadvantages… Carol pokes her nose in the sleeve of her blouse and coughs. The corpse of the driver, still tied to his driving position and decidedly dead, judging at least from the scattered mass of brains on the windshield, made a nauseating smell that you couldn’t get used to.

“It shouldn’t be enough. But we will be able to get them out soon. As long as they don’t get the idea to go out on their own.”, you said, curled up in the small room behind the seats. Wedged between the passenger seat and the dashboard, Carol didn’t answer immediately. “Remember what Rick said, he didn’t see them well, we have to be careful, it may not even be Daryl and Nick.”

“Of course they are!”, you snapped. You could not imagine what you would do if you didn’t find them alive. You believed that you couldn’t survive the loss of Nick, not after you finally found him again. And Daryl… well, you still didn’t have a fitting description for your relationship with him in your mind, he wasn’t your boyfriend and he wasn’t just any member of the group. But you knew that if something happened to him, you would suffer enormously… Carol settled in her uncomfortable corner. When she started to speak, she was partially grateful that there was enough room between her and you to keep her eyes off the meeting. She was no longer a coward for a long time but was somehow ashamed to sustain this conversation. But someone had to do it. You were locked in the trunk of a car and who knows how many more hours until the herd passes by. Carol couldn’t suppress her laugh. “Daryl and Beth must have smelled bad at the time because they had never been discovered by Walker.”

You felt a little regret in these words. There was so much you did not know about Daryl. “Beth?”

“Maybe you’ve heard about it, she was Maggie’s younger sister, she stayed with us for a long time, she died in such a stupid way… It was an accident.” Carol’s voice was monotonous, but there was a hint of bitterness in it. “Daryl liked her very much.”

For a second you were curious to know what this girl was like. A person who loved a man like Daryl was someone who was definitely worth noticing. Carol seemed to read your thoughts, because she added a little later: “She was a very pretty girl, very young and incredibly sweet.” She paused. “I think Daryl felt he had to protect her like an older brother, he didn’t feel for her what he feels for you, if you want to know that.”

You moved unseen. “I don’t want to know.”, you said coldly.

“Maybe you might be interested, I’m very interested in Daryl, he’s my best friend, I think you understood that, I wish he was happy, he’s lost so much, and he deserves something or someone to make him happy.”, she sighed. “He… He is not very good at talking to people.”

A Walker crawled over the roof of the truck, but didn’t look at you both. With one corner of your eye, you saw his eyes point to a point in front of you. For a careless moment, you wondered what would happen if you suddenly opened the car door with all the Walkers around. You felt a bit like a kid, and Carol was the teacher who cursed you for a shameful act, and you knew what it was.

“For whatever you decide to do, Y/N, I would like if you choose Daryl, don’t let him suffer any more, he has suffered so many times.”

“He’s going to suffer anyway, if not because of another person, whatever I decide, somebody will always suffer.”

“I know, but if we love someone, we want to spare them that pain, or wouldn’t you want to spare him?” Carol fell silent, then poked her head over the window.

“Let’s go before anything else happens.”

With the knife in her hand, the woman opened the car door and immediately a biter stuck his head inside. She rammed the blade into his skull and set off.

It took you a bit longer to get out. You killed two Walkers, who wanted to slip into the cab, and then managed to get the corpses out of the way. When you were outside, you took a moment to inhale the morning air. Clean and fragrant compared to what you had smelled until then. With your eyes you looked to Carol and saw that she was already near the shed. The Walkers were almost all trapped within the yard and went back further. The gate was still open and there were no traces of Alicia. She would have to close it as soon as the herd was inside. You tried not to think about it. One thing at a time, you told herself, looking back at Carol. The woman’s speech had irritated you and you were happy to get out of that truck so you would no longer be forced to talk to her. You followed her, repeating her words in your head. What did she know about what you felt for Daryl? Or for Nick? What could she know about the feelings that connected you, what they had been through, and more generally about the connection between you? Of course, you couldn’t deny yourself that you wanted to see Daryl happy, but Nick liked you too. You couldn’t quantify the love you felt for both, you liked both very much… You stepped forward as you approached the shed. Obviously, it’s the kind of love that feeds a person, you told yourself, calculating the distance between you and a Walker. At this thought, your mind flew into a phantom world. You imagined a future with Nick and you couldn’t help but see darkness. Not because he was inferior to Daryl, but because you could not imagine the future with him as a real couple. Nick was the person you most understood, the person who could confide in you, and you felt that all this would be lost if you were a couple. Besides, you had never been so sweet together in the romantic sense…

But it was also true that the connection of the word 'romantic’ with Daryl was like mixing sugar with salt. You realized, however, that Daryl, though you barely understood him and his motivations, mingled with you despite your differences. You were fine when he was around and you realized that Daryl had made you realize he wanted you. This thought made your heart swell with excitement.

“Carol!”

Daryl’s voice brought you back from your thoughts to reality. You looked up and saw the two hugging each other, the woman quietly asking him something and looking behind her. You smiled as you saw him, but in Daryl’s eyes you saw only horror. Before you understood what was going on, one hand was dropped on your shoulder. Daryl’s scream didn’t even touch your ear. You turned abruptly and pushed the Walker ​​away, but fell backwards and to the ground. The monster stumbled before falling on you. It growled, slobbered and stretched its neck as far as possible and bit into the air. You stretched out your arms to keep him at bay. The resistance of your muscles to the Walker’s attacks, coming desperately closer, was the only thing between you and death.

“Fuck!” Daryl couldn’t prevent an oath at the sight of this scene. Finally, he did an arrow in the crossbow, but the tragedy continued before he could activate the mechanism. The man looked startled at the pieces of the broken arrow falling to the ground. However, he had no time to put another arrow in the barrel. Nick had the slightest tension Daryl had ever seen and almost fell on the Walker that threatened you. He tore the monster around and began beating the dead man’s skull to the ground with more and more violent blows without any weapons. Daryl first heard the Walker’s skull break with a loud crack. Then he saw the rotted brain bleed into pieces by the force with which the boy hit his head on the floor. As soon as he was sure the Walker was dead, Nick left him, panting and reaching you on all fours. “Are you alright?” He looked over you, his fingertips brushing your body, looking for signs of bites or scratches.

You sat up, your heart still pounding and you croaked. “Yes…”

Nick hugged you, clutching your back, stroking your neck with one hand. His expression was really scared. As soon as his breathing normalized and he realized that you were out of harm’s way, Nick looked up to see Daryl and Carol still standing at the door of the shed.

He just looked at Daryl with a sullen challenge and held you even tighter in his arms…