CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

"Shit, shit, shit." Andie skids in the dirt, her shoes digging in when she runs across three walkers heading straight at her.

Daryl stumbles into the brunette, his free arm wrapping around her waist to keep from pushing her into the dead. She raises her gun and is able to shoot two of them before she runs out of bullets, then she uses her knife to kill the third as Daryl kills the closest one coming at them from behind.

The younger girl reaches back, grabbing a fist-full of his leather vest before she starts running again, and he's right behind her. They clear the trees, but only end up in a field of bushes so overgrown they're almost as tall as Andie. But she can hear the walkers all around them, and it's clear ahead of them, so she leads the way.

She slows down as she looks back, giving Daryl a chance to breathe. They've made it a good distance from the small herd behind them, but stopping now would be a mistake. Reluctantly, the pair push forward until Daryl can't anymore. They collapse in a patch of grass, both rolling onto their backs to look up at the blue sky above them.

Andie stares above her head, looking at the patchy clouds littering the sky. They're white and fluffy, so there's no need to worry about a storm at the moment, though she wouldn't mind the rain washing away some of the blood that she's still covered in.

There are black birds circling before they fly off, and the brunette realizes that she can't remember the last time she paid a bird any attention. Life has changed so much, and she just doesn't see things the way she used to. Things she liked before — like watching animals in nature — they just don't matter to her anymore. And the thought makes her sad.

Daryl lets his arms rest at his sides, and his hand brushes hers as they rest in the grass. He turns his head to look at the brunette, still breathing heavy, and he can see the pain and sadness in her as she keeps her gaze focused up above. But even in the face of everything they've lost, he can't help but be glad that he's with her. At least he knows that she's alive, she's safe. For now.

He wants to know what happened to the others. Like Rick and the kids... Merle. But he lost his brother once and he did alright. He can tell himself the same thing he did last time. He honestly doesn't know if he could so easily convince himself that Andie was okay if they had gotten separated. He's too accustomed to seeing her everyday, too used to looking over his shoulder to make sure that she's still there.

It's well after dark when the two finally stop and rest for the night. Daryl manages to get a small fire going as Andie looks through their limited weapons supply. They have enough bullets to fill the clip of her gun, her hatchet and all of her knives, the brass-knuckles her grandfather gifted to her when she was a kid, and his arrows.

No food.

"We should go looking, try to find some of the others." Andie says once they're both sitting by the fire, but he only stares down at the flames. "We should try to find Rick or Theo... Melissa. I have to find Zoe... Hell, I'd be happy to find Merle at this point."

Daryl finally looks up, but doesn't say anything.

"Aren't you supposed to be an amazing tracker?" She questions. "Now's a good time to start, show me what you can do... Is this how it's gonna be from now on? You can glare at me, but you can't talk? I can't even get a damn answer out of you anymore?"

He just sits there, knees bent with his elbows resting on top, his fingers curled around his wrist to keep his position.

"Okay." The brunette nods as she gets to her feet. "Well, fuck you too then."

Daryl watches as she adjusts her bag over her shoulder before leaning down to pick up her hatchet and knife. She has her gun tucked into the waistband of her jeans, only meant for emergencies. She disappears into the trees, and he finally stands up before kicking dirt over the flames to smother them. Then he grabs his crossbow and follows after her.

They walk back through the woods, headed toward the prison, but not exactly the way that they came. It's not too long before the sun rises, and Andie's using her hatchet to clear the way in front of her. She walked into a spiderweb half an hour ago, now she's paranoid.

Out of the corner of her eye, she catches Daryl kneeling down and starting to move some leaves. She walks over and sees him looking at boot prints in the hardening mud.

"Can you tell how long it's been since they were here?"

"Four or five hours." He tells her, and she takes a deep breath as she looks around.

The chemosignals are faint, and they're not exactly telling. They were panicked and scared. But there's no way to tell who they were.

She walks over near a log and kneels down, looking around. Someone was sitting somewhere near here, and the chemosignals are...off. Andie suddenly gasps as she drops her weapons and throws her hands over her eyes.

"What?" Daryl questions as he walks over to her, and she stands up straight as she turns to face him. "What the..."

"For food is one thing...but this is just sick." She mutters as he looks at the bodies of the small bunnies.

He gets a closer look as he leans down to pick up her hatchet. They were clearly killed with a knife, but the purpose wasn't even for food before they got spooked and ran off. He hands her the hatchet before moving to her other side for the knife.

"Didn't... Didn't you say that Sasha found dead rats by the prison gates?" Andie asks as she looks up at him. "You said it looked like someone had been feeding the walkers."

He nods. "That wasn't the only thing either. Right before the..." He clears his throat. "We were in the tombs. Tyreese found a rat that was cut open, looked like someone did some kind of autopsy or...like science class when they cut open the frogs."

Her eyebrows furrow. "Someone dissected a rat in the tombs?"

"Yeah." Daryl looks back at the bunnies. "You sure you wanna follow this path?"

"We don't know who did this...or who they're with." She reasons. "One of our people could be with a psycho. I mean, what if they have one of the kids with them?"

"Alright." He nods. "Let's go."

The pair walk down what looks like some kind of path, a break in the bushes, and Andie stays ahead of him. She stops when she sees some crushed grapes in a dustup of twigs and leaves.

"Looks like they picked up the pace right here." Daryl says, looking for more. "Got out in a hurry — things went bad."

"Would it kill you to pretend that you believe someone's alive?" Andie questions.

"You wanna know what I believe?" He asks as he turns to face her. "I believe our people — if they're alive — are scattered. They might as well be dead."

"Well, I choose to believe that we stand a chance at finding them. Even if it's slim to none, it's still something." She argues. "Because it's not just us. It can't be."

"Luck ain't been on our side before now. Why should that change?"

"You wanna talk about luck?" She asks. "I wasn't exactly lucky when the world fell while I was all the way across the country from my friends and my home. Wasn't lucky when I got separated from my mother and ended up completely alone. Maybe things turned around when my kidnappers decided not to execute me, or maybe I just finally caught a break when your buddy went off the deep-end and distracted everyone before the farm got overrun. But after everything that's happened, after everything that we've been through, I did not lose everything. Not this time. Not ag-again." She turns her head, looking away from him as tears fill her eyes.

Daryl takes a few steps to get to where she's standing, and she looks down at the knife in her hand. Despite her refusing to meet his gaze, he can see the redness building in her eyes again as she fights back tears. She still has blood on her face and hands.

"I ain't gotta believe anything if you do." He says, and she finally lifts her gaze. "You wanna look for 'em, I'll track any trail we can find... Should we get back to it then?" He asks, and she nods.

They keep going in the direction the tracks lead, and Daryl finds human blood on some leaves near two dead walkers. Andie steps over them, looking in the direction they went.

"Got walker tracks all up and down here. At least a dozen of 'em." He tells her, and she turns her head toward him.

A twig snaps to her left, and the brunette turns. She sees the walker slowly wandering until it realizes that someone's close. It then starts in her direction, and she waits until it's closer to raise her knife and then chuck it. It sails through the air before embedding itself in the walker's skull, causing Daryl to turn when he hears the thud of it hitting the ground.

"Behold, the infestation." Andie walks over and pulls her weapon out of the corpse. "Trail leads this way."

"I thought I was the tracker." He says as he follows after her.

"I know how to track, but it was never a skill I had to utilize often. And now you're taking too long."

"You can track fairly well, been shootin' guns since you were a little kid, can take down an opponent three times your size without throwing a punch, don't ever seem to have much issue with your knives or your hatchet..."

"Are you reaching a point here, or just trying to make me give up the search in case we're tracking Theo's annoying ass?" Andie asks as they continue through the woods. They duck under low hanging branches and step over large roots.

"I'm just thinkin' that Merle was onto something."

"Well, even a broken clock is right twice a day." She hums. "But what about exactly?"

"You are one strange mystery." Daryl says, and she scoffs. "You disagree?"

"I disagree with how interesting your brother thinks it is." She tells him.

"Thinks?" He echoes. "Not past tense? So, what? You're going for hope here?"

"Are you actually trying to be annoying?" She questions, confused by his sudden line of questioning. "Because I gotta be honest, I don't like how much you're sounding like—"

Andie stops when they make it out of the woods, and Daryl's right behind her when they reach a set of train tracks and see a small group of walkers knelt down to feed on some corpses. There are three of the dead eating from the people laying in the dirt beside the tracks.

The pair jump from the higher ground and head toward the gruesome scene, and Daryl shoots two arrows before they get too close. Andie chucks her knife again, and they both move forward to collect their weapons and see if they recognize any of the dead bodies.

"I didn't even have us tracking our own people." The brunette says as she looks at the unfamiliar corpses.

"You had to know." Daryl says as he turns to look at her.

"Yeah, well, now I know." She nods. "I gave hope a shot. I'll stop dragging you around the woods now. Let's just focus on survival from here on out, huh?"