You ran without hesitation and reached the boat in a few moments. Nick was behind you and followed you.

“Y/N! Y/N wait!”

The boy joined you, you were already climbing onto the ship with one of the ropes dangling from the sides of the boat. Nick clung to your ankles and pulled you down with all the strength he had. You dropped into the water and gasped. When you recovered, you fixed Nick’s gaze. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Follow me, okay?”, Nick said. So you nodded and you both swam to the side where the captain’s cabin was and from there you began to climb. Glenn had cut through the ropes that kept the doors locked and the smell of living prey needed to be enough to free them all. Nick imagined that they had gathered in the middle of the bridge, where there was the juiciest meal. The plan was great, if Daryl hadn’t been on board, you would just have to wait for the Walkers to feast and then conquer the boat again. But how could you foresee that they would take Daryl with them? Surely they had to figure out how to maneuver the boat, or maybe it was a negotiation game. Nick went up first and unhooked a knife from his belt as he approached the center of the ship. The swarming mass of Walkers stood there and none of them had noticed you as the newcomers. The boy craned his neck to look at the driver’s door. It wasn’t far, the living dead were only a meter away, but it shouldn’t be a problem. He turned to look for you and saw that you had just climbed onto the boat. “Let’s take a Walker and disappear in the cabin.”

With the knife in your hand, you jumped forward and killed the next Walker, who had noticed your presence and began to growl in your direction. The body collapsed on you and you almost fell to the ground under his weight. You dragged him to the door, while Nick faced the other living dead, who now turned to you and tried to bite. He killed a few of them, but meanwhile the herd had turned and everyone’s attention turned to the new loot. As soon as you dragged the corpse into the cabin, the boy backed away and closed the door immediately. You already opened the Walker with your knife and smeared your face, your clothes and the rest of your body.

“Do you think that our wet clothes make us more noticeable?”

“They shouldn’t, but it is abundant.”

Nick put his hands in the guts of the corpse and smeared the foul-smelling porridge of rotten organs on your back. The same thing you did for him. You didn’t even have the time to turn your nostrils or stop your breath because of the smell, so you worked fast and your minds were elsewhere.

“Do you think he’s still alive?”, you asked suddenly.

“I don’t know.” In those moments, Nick couldn’t lie, he really didn’t know, the times when he got into trouble, where he had done too much, he was honest with his parents’ recklessness, with Alicia and then with Travis. That was kinda a similar situation, Daryl would have been able to die, you both knew it, and he knew that you didn’t want to hear any lies. “It could be…”

You took a deep breath. “Let’s search for him.”With these words, you quietly opened the door and looked at the Walkers, which piled up in front of the cabin. A few of them entered the room, looking confused yet hopeful. You didn’t resist when they hit you and you let them slide in one by one, while you’re reaching the exit. Behind you, you heard Nick doing the same. You turned and exchanged a look with the boy. He made a slow gesture to make it clear that you would stay on this side of the boat; He would go around checking to see if Daryl was still alive on the other side. Nick nodded briefly and moved slowly around the deck, his arms dangling and his feet shuffling across the floor. For a moment, the boy imagined what he would do when he would see Daryl already dead. Or worse, he had found him alive but infected. What would he have said to you? The boy hobbled on, hoping with all his might that Daryl was alive and well. The gang of bandits had protected him until then. They had given Daryl a chance before he had freed himself from the ropes that held his wrists, and then gained time. The blood gushing from the bitten ones seemed to attract the Walkers even more. A bit pathetic: Constantly divided between the desire to jump on the corpse, already half dead and yet fresh, or on a new prey that is still alive. If he hadn’t been in the midst of this dilemma, Daryl might even have laughed. At his side, at the end of his life, one of the men fell to his knees and looked up at him. The big, watery eyes, the bloody hands, the wound… A bite, even more than one. His guts unrolled his arms and hung down on him.

“Please…”, he murmured with drops of blood dripping from his chin to the ground. Amid all this chaos of screaming and growling, Daryl stopped for a moment to look at him. Without hesitation, he killed him by slamming the knife through his eyes. Before he fell to the ground, Daryl grabbed the man who was now dead and pulled him up. He looked around, lifting his body up and laying it on his back, as if he were a friend too drunk to go home. The most ropes from the net were cut through and there were now wide openings from which one could escape. Too bad that the escape route was prevented by the living dead. Daryl squatted on the floor, the dead man’s arms dangling over his shoulders, he felt hot blood flood over his back and noticed the metallic smell. Daryl began to crawl slowly without attracting attention. But none of the surviving bandits took care of him, they were too busy saving their own lives. A growl made him jump with the risk of getting stuck. A Walker had jumped over him on the dead, eating one arm. Daryl reached for the knife and killed it when he had the Walker’s head close enough. Within moments, he had to do the same thing with two other Walkers. He wondered how long the human blanket would last until it was completely consumed. The idea was not bad at first. It wasn’t really risky to be bitten because the corpse attracted the attention of the Walkers and they didn’t recognize the difference between Daryl and the body. They didn’t understand that there was still a juicy meal under their food and they didn’t care that the food moved a bit and slowly crawled across the bridge. The only mistake was that it attracted an endless amount of Walkers. For a moment, Daryl thought he was going to die. The weight of the living dead had become too heavy to sustain. The body of the man he had killed had almost completely disappeared between their pines and they weighed like stones on his back. His shoulders ached and his knees seemed pierced by long, thick needles. Farther away from the middle of the bridge, the Walkers moved away. Daryl felt the weight on his back loosen and when he realized that the living dead were getting less and less over him, he forced himself and got up. But some of them were still with him… His sudden movement had made them turn back. As soon as they appeared, they let go of the stiff corpse and, growling, approached his face, its mouth stained with fresh blood. Daryl thought that they wanted to treat it as a kind of unexpected reward, as if a piece of fresh leg suddenly rose in the middle of the corpses and began to float on the surface. He backed away and his back slammed against the formwork of the boat. The living dead approached him. He counted several times to calculate their distance and added a few more Walkers. The man cursed and pressed his right hand on the knife. He felt the grip that was slippery with blood under his fingers. Without thinking too much, he lunged at the Walkers. He immediately killed one with a precise punch in the head. He killed the other one in quick succession. Daryl needed a plan, he had to reach the stairs that led below deck and had to break through, but quickly. And he felt that his forces left him. The living dead surrounded him. Everywhere he looked, he saw only lazy, rotting faces staring at him. They almost seemed to want to tell him that it was over, that he should surrender.

’Why fight again? Drop your weapons Daryl Dixon, stop fighting. It is too hard…’

The next Walker fell at his feet and he found his thoughts back. He was increasingly trapped.

’You have done enough, don’t you think? Wouldn’t you want to rest? Come to us.’

Daryl’s breathing became heavy, his movements slower. He didn’t seem to go anywhere.

’You are so tired, Daryl Dixon. Come and rest with us. Here we rest, we are not alone here…’

His thoughts were disjointed and confused. Daryl raised his arm again and felt increasingly weaker. He shook his head and slapped himself. He had to stay awake! He had to fight the Walkers and kill them once and for all. Instinctively he moved against the Walker in front of him, but when he was about to drop the blade he stopped.

“Nick…”, he murmured in an incomprehensible gasp. The boy looked up and Daryl saw his eyes. A stab in the heart made him jump, but he was relieved. He met Nick’s eyes and read a silent statement. The boy gently raised his hands and Daryl could see that they were full of guts. He approached Daryl, paralyzed with horror, with that clear step that resembled that of all the other living dead. For a moment, the man wondered if Nick wasn’t a hallucination. Should he kill him? Was it Nick? Was he really alive, or was he just imagining it? Before he could think of anything else, the boy joined him, his arms full of offal and smeared him with it. Daryl realized what he was doing when he saw that the Walkers around him were slowing down, as if they were confused. He took some guts and began to spread the stinking blood on his arms and face, then on his legs. Nick saved him…

“Let’s go.”, the boy whispered, knowing that Daryl was covered enough to move among the living dead. He turned and hobbled to the balustrade. The man in tow moved cautiously, not yet sure he had just escaped. As they left, Daryl stared at the boy’s back. In spite of himself, he felt a deep sense of gratitude towards him. The sound of a door averted the man from his reflections. Nick was now on the shore, only a few feet away, but he stopped near the boat. You reappeared carrying a small anomalous wave and you enthusiastically swam towards Daryl and reached him in a few steps.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” Your hair lay flat on your head, your eyes dark with tiredness and your expression worried. You clung to his face as if you could understand that he was okay now. Daryl pushed your hands away, but held one in his. “I’m fine. Gotta be.”

“We had no idea… I mean, if we’d known they’d brought you here, we would never have done that.”

“It was a good plan and you didn’t know that.”

“Where are the others from our group?”

“We have to get them, they left them in a difficult situation, so they can’t be released…”

He let go of your hand and started to swim to the shore. There Nick tried to dry himself as best as possible, while Glenn was gone and looking for Maggie and Judith.

“Wait, Daryl.” You approached him and clung to his back in a happy state and smiled.

“I’m so damn glad you’re back.”

You stood in front of him, stretched your neck and put a light kiss on his lips. Daryl closed his eyes and it was a moment before he opened them again. When he opened it, you smiled. The man couldn’t help but glimpse to Nick on the shore and you seemed to understand his thoughts.

“I’m sorry if I let you wait, I must have been an idiot.”, you mumbled.

“And I almost died, because I chose…” Daryl stroked your hand, as if unwilling to admit that he was capable of such a loving gesture. You fell into the water and, still smiling, started to swim again…

Michonne was worried that the boat would be damaged by all the ill-treatment they had to endure, especially the wood of the bridge, which had been flooded with blood for the second time… Travis reassured her by telling her that there is no danger that the wood would withstand water and moisture. Considering that you were getting closer to the Gulf of Mexico and the weather was changing, Travis would have been amazed that the boats plying these waters weren’t protected from moisture by any means available. Apart from being on a river, you were in the middle of a lush area with a tropical climate. Nick was glad you were elsewhere than the Mexican desert. He only aroused bad memories and bad ideas for survival. When you met with Glenn and Maggie, you searched for the others in the group, led by Daryl, who found the road without any problems. You found the others in trouble, but not on the brink of death. It was handled by Rick ‘cause he didn’t gave up. They had managed to free themselves and they slowly killed off all Walkers that were hot on their heels. As you all reunited you helped them finish the job… It was almost a slap in the face for Carl when he saw what the ship looked like. The Walkers roamed everywhere less than a hundred yards away. “We have to clean another time!”, he shouted in the voice of a forced laborer. Carol bent her lips into a smile and patted his shoulder. “Life is tough, isn’t it?” The boy, along with Alicia and Travis, complained all the time. When Madison noticed that they were moving away from each other, she parted ways. She left Carl standing on the bridge, sending Nick under the deck and Travis into the cab. That’s how they worked better. Everyone wanted to leave quickly. You had stayed too long and too many dangerous things had happened, this was no place to live. Nick looked up from the dirty wall he was rubbing when he heard a noise behind him. He averted his eyes and scratched the back of his head without saying a word. Daryl, just below, looked at the wall the boy was working on. A long strip of blood covered most of the wall. It made him think of one of those expensive paintings that was once sold as art to the rich. Color scales that were arbitrarily thrown on the canvas. Daryl had never liked these things and the stain of dried blood on the wall was no exception. He took a sponge out of the bucket in the middle of the corridor, sat next to Nick and worked silently for a while. Daryl felt he had to say something. He hadn’t had really a chance to talk to you yet, but it was necessary instead of not understanding what you wanted to tell him. Now that he was calmer, he could see you from Nick’s point of view, and he felt uncomfortable, as if he had to apologize. In a sense, he had betrayed you while he fought in the vegetation for survival. From this perspective, he felt sorry for Nick and understood why he was mad at you. He just thought that it had to be okay, as he had occurred in the end. He blamed himself for treating him.

“Hey.”

Daryl turned around. He still wasn’t a speaker. He would never have expressed those thoughts in words. Somehow he trusted Nick enough to understand him. Luckily, the boy had been waiting for him and caught his attention.

“You thought I left you there, right?”

The man remained silent. He watched the boy and he waited for his answer as if it was important. Half leaning against the wall, the mushy sponge dripped onto his jeans and he didn’t even notice. But now he moved his knee to the right and left and looked at him with his chin up, as if he weighed it.

“I would never let anyone die intentionally, I’m not like that.”, Nick said, returning to his work. Daryl still didn’t answer and instead went to wash the towel. He dipped it in and squeezed all the blood out of the fabric. “I know, but I didn’t think about it, I thought you were a Walker.”

“That’s why you had that look on your face when I found you, you’ve thought I wasted all my beauty with death!”, the boy said with a thin grin on his lips. He preferred conversations with lighter tones.

“I couldn’t be killed by an idiot. Not even an idiot who’s already a fucking Walker.”, Daryl said and came to his side and began to wipe the wall again, completely ignoring the amused look, followed by a crooked smile Nick gave him, but he noticed it. Daryl understood that they obviously wouldn’t understand each other because of you, it’s difficult to bury the hatchet, especially if it was levied on a woman against another person, but respect and friendship are two very different things and Daryl knew that Nick was a person he could show respect for, he was one of them, he had been through a lot and he was one of the few who survived, probably even easier since the whole apocalypse began. It isn’t easy to face certain things and become a righteous person. It was easier to become a bad, cruel creature, to become a monster. In some ways he reminded him of himself and he was a bit pleased to find that similarity. Daryl and Nick were proof that if each of them met each other, it would be still possible to get along. He understood how he felt. There had been the damn end of the world to make it useful to the rest of society to find their place in the apocalypse. He humbled himself on one side, but he was happy to be there with those people right now. He was sure that Nick felt the same. Mutual respect has arisen between them on this day. Another affection, more complex and confused and probably even difficult for them to understand. But deeply rooted.

The sea presented itself as a surprise. The first person to see it was Rick. He was the only one who was awake and in a few hours his shift would be over. He would have woken Glenn at dawn, but for the moment he was alone in the commander’s cabin, at the wheel. As the river dissolved in the sea, Rick stopped the boat and waited a few moments. The boat’s engine stopped roaring and everything stopped. At first he was annoyed by the silence that filled his ears, then he recognized the sounds that surrounded him. He listened to the lapping of the waves on the beach, the chirping grasshoppers and the nocturnal animals crawling in the undergrowth, as well as the light breeze. He was sure he would hear another noise, like a slow sigh in the distance, a sound that seemed to come from the deepest part of the earth, and at that moment, he was sure he was listening to the ocean. Rick was sure. They had arrived. He had arrived. Something melted in his chest at that moment. It wasn’t like when they reached the Greene’s farm, seized the prison, or arrived in Alexandria. He knew what these places had given him but it had nothing to do with what he felt now. Each time they reached a safe place, or at least a place as such, it was like waiting for something from these places. He saw it as a lifeline, imagined the future there with his family. They had fought so hard to find each of these places, they had sacrificed a lot and now it just had to pay off. But what could you expect from the sea? An unexpected relief came over him. There were no safe places. He wouldn’t have looked for them. Was there no future? He had lived in the present… Didn’t they have food, water, shelter and security? If they were alive to miss this, it meant that they were still alive to get it. That didn’t mean he’d given up that he wouldn’t fight to keep his family together. He understood that what he had won on this journey to the sea wasn’t resignation, but acceptance. He finally accepted life, this life. The life of this destiny had forced him to his knees. He accepted it instead of fighting it, instead protecting his family from regretting the past, he loved them because it was her life. Together. Rick took a deep breath and was satisfied. He went downstairs and entered his son’s room. “Carl, Carl wake up.” The boy focused on his figure and immediately put his hand behind the pillow and pulled out a pistol. “What’s wrong?”, he mumbled sleepily and sat up.

“Nothing, everything is fine.” The former sheriff lowered the weapon and took it from Carl’s hands. “Come on, you have to look at something.”The ship moved slowly, dragged by the currents of the river, which mingled with those of the sea. They reached a relatively quiet spot and sailed south. Rick let the small ship continue alone and sat down next to Carl. Everyone else in the group was asleep, nature itself seemed slower. They watched the sunrise in silence. Intense orange colored the sea and the reflection on the waves in continuous motion appeared like a melancholy dance. When it was all over, the spell slowly dissolved, almost unnoticed. Carl turned and looked at his father.

“Go to sleep Dad, I’ll take the rest of your shift.”

“I’ll get Glenn…”

The boy shook his head. “You don’t have to wake him up.”

“Okay then…” Rick got up and clapped Carl on the shoulder, then stepped out of the cab and headed to his own cabin…