Everything in the office was clean and perfect, from the paperweight to the pen holder, from the PC screen perfectly parallel to the keyboard, to the design vase. There was no trace of restlessness, as if the Apocalypse had never occurred there. The posters on the walls showed smiling people, frozen in a past that no longer existed. They applied the police, loans, young people’s giro accounts, the family, the home, the work… You jumped as a screeching noise filled the air. “What are you doing there?” Daryl moved chairs into a corner. “I’ll make room if we need to sleep, I’d like to lie down.” You gave one last look to the poster and then went to him. “You can plan something like that, you know?”, you replied sarcastically. He didn’t answer. “None of us thought of escaping to a bank when it all happened, and then saying it should be a safe place.” There was no sign of Daryl hearing what you said. “You don’t talk that much, do you?” The man sat down in a cubicle and took his place between the desk and the low plasterboard wall, occupying all the space available. You pursed your lips and cursed the moment when the Walkers caught you and Daryl between those two buildings. You had succeeded in joining the bank, but you would rather have had a more talkative person by your side. When the group escaped, you both were left behind, mainly because of you, who were already panting after a few minutes of running. Daryl had stopped to wait for you, killing a few Walkers with his crossbow and making no mistake. He had heaved you onto his shoulders and had broken the glass in the bench window. In this way, you had escaped and tried to find a way out before you realized that the whole building was surrounded. You had decided to wait until the next morning, hoping the Walkers had thinned out in the meantime. You arranged the backpack under your head like a pillow, with bad, rather uncomfortable results. “Anyway, I always thought I’d break into a bank sooner or later.” Daryl’s deep voice filled the silence. “But I didn’t imagine it would be that way.” You took a moment to understand those words, then chuckled. Maybe more because of the surprise of hearing him speak than for the sentence itself. “What did you do before?”, you asked. Daryl shrugged in the dark. “Nothing. I was probably just waiting to get into trouble.”

“So it was not a big change for you.” From the cabin in front of Daryl, which was separated only by the narrow corridor, you looked at each other for a moment. “I was kidding.” Daryl looked back at the ceiling. A wry smile was painted on his face, but he tried to suppress it. “What are we going to do tomorrow?”, you asked. “We’ll see, if there are only a few Walkers left, it may be enough to kill some and go.”

“And if there are too many?” He was quiet for a while, long enough for you to wait for an answer. “We’ll see.”, he finally said. “What do you miss in the old world?” Without receiving an answer, you continued, “For me, the music. In the beginning, music players still worked, if you could find some.”

“Sensible food.” Daryl turned to you, swinging a foot and holding his arms behind his head. “For real?” He nodded. “Oh hell, you made me hungry, thank you.”

“And that reminds me of something… Alicia, for example-…” You fell silent. Daryl could almost hear your thoughts contract. Whoever Alicia and the others were, they were not with you and that was enough. “Let’s sleep.”, said the man, turning his back to you and adjusting his jacket under his head. “Yes.”

“Get up! Get awake! Run!”, Rick’s voice came from a not too distant distance. Daryl jumped up, saw the van and leaned forward to reach you, with too many Walkers behind. He grabbed your hand and dragged you to him. Slowly you dragged yourselves onto the seats, while Daryl tried to brush his long hair off his face. “What a fucking great sense of survival!”

“Keep your damn mouth shut!” You inhaled slowly, staring with an annoyed grimace at the delivery van’s ceiling. “A little sports in the morning hasn’t hurt anyone yet, but you didn’t have to protect me.”From the driver’s seat, Rick glanced at you from the rearview mirror. “And you have to show us safe places, not places full of Walkers.”

“Touché.”

Carl’s face appeared in front of your gaze as you drove. “Are you hungry?” Carl explained to you that they were looking for a place where they could spend a quiet time without having to worry about biter and plunderers. His sister Judith started walking and it became increasingly difficult to keep an eye on her. “So, let me understand, there are little kids in your group?”

“Yes, my sister Judith.” Michonne chuckled. “Yes, in such a time it should be a lawful reaction.” You raised your eyebrows. “You’ll admit it’s not common, I think I haven’t seen a baby in years.”

You all were now still standing there trying to prepare an improvised dinner. Rick had chosen the van as your temporary base. “That’s how we can move more easily.”, he had said. You had moved away from the others and walked slowly through the bush of Mexico. Your ears strained to detect suspicious sounds and traces on the ground. “What are you searching for?” You didn’t even look up. You had heard someone coming and from the direction of the sound and the way it moved, free and not creeping, you had already thought that it was someone outside the group. “Dry wood, maybe.”

“To do what?” You looked up at Daryl and smiled crookedly. The man was fascinated for a moment by how you couldn’t laugh at anything special. However, there were not many who smiled. It was almost a relief to look at you and make him believe there was still someone smiling in the world. “I want to light a fire, build a barbecue and maybe even some salt or a few other spices to give our food a little taste.”

“Right now, everything that is meat is fine with me, with or without salt.”, Daryl said and began to look around to help you. You formed a small tower of wood, found some broken glass, enough to create a small fire that would burn for a few hours. A voice reached you shortly afterwards. Carl appeared in the bush. “What are you doing?”

“Fire for a few foods.” You walked away, determined to look elsewhere. “You don’t believe that we’re in the middle of midsummer and can grill, right?”, Carl said sarcastically to cheer up and release the jammed mood. “How do you want to know that?”, you asked before disappearing among the thicket. Carl laughed. “You’re right.”

“Because of the heat, it might be true.”, Daryl said, as he passed the sweat on his sticky forehead with a forearm. A knock in the thicket distracted him from his thoughts. “Y/N!”, Daryl said in a curious tone as if he was scolding. As if he were a child punished by his parents. He passed the clump of trees where you had disappeared with Carl in tow. In the clearing, he didn’t find exactly what he expected. There was a man on the ground, a big wound on his temple that was bleeding heavily. Not far from him, a large stone stained with blood. Another man held you against a tree, his hand at your throat and a gun aimed at your face. When he saw Daryl, the stranger aimed the weapon at him and pulled you up to hold you in front of him, his arm tight around your neck.

“What do you want?”

At the same moment, Daryl had pulled his crossbow and aimed it at the man’s head. But the man was too close to your side to shoot him without hurting you. “Let them go, everyone goes his way and nobody will die.”

“Let this girl go?” The man took your chin and forced you to turn to him, then a grin escaped his lips. “Why? Such a beautiful woman… Why should I let her go?”, the stranger snapped in Daryl’s direction and aimed his weapon at your temple. “Let’s make a deal instead, I’ll take her, and you and the kid go where you want, doesn’t that sound like a good fix?” Daryl was about to shoot when a rustle of leaves made him turn around. A third man jumped out of the bush. Before he could do anything, the stranger threw you to the ground, stood behind Daryl and hit him on the back of his head with his pistol several times. The last thing he heard was Carl’s screams, then he lost consciousness… Daryl was awakened by the pain in his head, a rhythmic, throbbing blow at the base of his neck that branched up. When he opened his eyes, his vision was blurry and it took him a moment to remember what had happened. He was in a dark room with a high ceiling, the only window was at least two meters high, if not more. From the light that came in he could see that it was already dark. He was not tied, and that was a good sign, but the door in front of him had to be armored.

“Daryl?”

The man suddenly turned around and this caused even more pain in his head. “I thought they accidentally killed you, you slept all day…” You were not far from him. Your face remained in the shadows, but that voice was undoubtedly yours.“Where are we, where is Carl and the others?”

“It’s just us both, Carl escaped, I think he managed to reach the others… I hope so.”, you sighed. “We are in a cold store of a slaughterhouse.” Daryl looked around. “Did you see how many there are?”

“Not more than five, I think.”

“Did they take our things? The weapons?”

“Yes…”

“Alright…” The man got up and started to examine the room. His mind was already searching for an escape plan. There was nothing you could use as a weapon, but there were thick iron bars with hooks hanging over you on the ceiling. Surely that was the place where the cadavers were crammed, the hooks made of iron, thick and pointed. They were too high to handle alone. Daryl turned to you. “We have to take a few of them as soon as they open the door, let’s hurry up and leave, I’ll lift you up, you should be able to reach them.”, he said. But you didn’t answer, then you went to him with clumsy, slow movements and looked up at the ceiling. Just as your face was struck by the faint light coming in through the window, Daryl understood why you did not want to be seen. You had clear tears on your face, a torn bodice, injuries to your collarbones, a bruise on your cheekbones and a bloody lower lip, as well as a split, bloody eyebrow. Daryl’s mouth went dry and he barely lowered his eyes. “I’m sorry…”, he mumbled and approached you hesitantly and checked the wounds. He looked desperate, uncomfortable, and could not speak without his hands shaking with rage. “Did they-…?”

“No, I kicked them so hard in the crotch that they bent in pain.” For a second, your lips twisted into a faint smile that soon turned into a grimace. You were shaken by sobs, but you did not cry. Daryl looked at you for a moment before reaching the point where there was no turning back. He gently grabbed you by the shoulders and hugged you, maybe a little jammed, but you did not notice. Your breathing was still erratic, Daryl could feel it on his shoulder where he had placed your face. He began to place his hand on your back, slow circular movements, long and rhythmic. The trembling of your body diminished and your gasp became less and less. “Is it better?”, he asked hoarsely ‘cause he didn’t know how to behave. Consoling, calming and laughing was never his strong point and it was even worse right now. You swallowed and moved away from him. “Yes, thank you.” Worried that you might get upset again, Daryl looked into your face and when he realized that you were not looking at him, he forced you to look up and lifted your chin.

“I need you to stay focused so we can make it out of here together, can you give it a try?”

You nodded. Daryl loosened his grip and pointed at the hooks hanging from the ceiling. “We will use them as weapons.” He bent down, grabbed you carefully, and began to pick you up. At first it did not seem to bother you, but when you felt Daryl’s hands at your sides, you began to fight back. “Wait, please wait… Stop…” He took a few steps away.

“What’s the problem?”

You hesitated for a moment, avoiding the man’s eyes. “I’m sorry, I’m still confused and trembling, now I’m calming down…” Daryl ran a hand over his face and you didn’t understand if it was a casual gesture or just despair. “Alright.”, he said suddenly, approaching you. “Look, we haven’t known each other so long, but… it’s me, you know, I’m not going to hurt you.” Your eyes moved from his face to his hands, which the man held to you, but you still looked terrified. “Alright… My name is Daryl Dixon, I’m from Atlanta, I’m not good at these things, if my brother Merle had been there, he would have known what to do, more or less.” At each word, the man had moved closer to you and slowly, keeping you still in mind, gently lifted, and as high as he could. You extended your arm as far as possible and grabbed two hooks. “I got them.” Daryl let you slide into his arms until your feet touched the ground and you both stood face to face. He wanted to leave immediately. “Wait.”,you said, holding him back, closer than normal, between two acquaintances. You hugged him gently, resting your head on his shoulder and closing your eyes. You tried to remember that not all humans were evil and damned like the men you had just met. Daryl was not one of them. You were safe with Daryl. “Thank you for your patience.”, you finally said, handing him an iron hook and going into a corner. Daryl remained in the middle of the room, his hook in his hands and walked away and onto the opposite side. He didn’t want to disturb you, he didn’t even want to be near you. For a moment, just for a second, he had felt different than usual. You hadn’t been indifferent to this embrace. If he thought of something like that at the time, it felt like a funny thing. But you had trusted him, sought his help, and at that moment he couldn’t help but notice that your breasts were pressed against his chest, the soft shape of your hips under his hands, your arms around his back. Daryl snorted and twisted the iron hook in his hands, studying it as if he could hide a secret. He glanced sideways at you, who had your eyes fixed on something, staring at something that only you saw. Your Y/H/C hair fell on your shoulders. Has you always been so beautiful? Was that what Daryl tried to understand? You were no more and no less beautiful than other girls, and yet he loved it. Maybe it was just a bizarre question of chemistry. Daryl hated that he hadn’t been more careful over the years. He had spent a lifetime ignoring all those who tried to approach him and now he couldn’t even understand what he felt and what he was thinking. He gave you one last look and grabbed the hook in his hands. Daryl didn’t know if this moment was so beautiful because of you, or just so pretty to die together…