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Salvation	By : madnad Category: S through Z > The Walking Dead Views: 8392 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: The Walking Dead universe & Daryl Dixon belongs wholly to Kirkman/AMC. Original character Lilith belongs to me. I make no money from writing of this story and it is strictly for entertainment purposes only. Do Not Repost elsewhere without permission

Chapter List
- 7
- 8
- 9
Lilith came up from behind him, and her face blanched at the sight of the dead deer. Clasping a hand over her mouth, she suppressed an anguished cry. Her eyes filled with tears, and when she blinked they spilled to run down her cheeks.
Daryl had a hard time relating to the grief. He grew up in the country and had hunted for his own food since he could walk, but he knew Lilith was a city girl. She had never had to kill an animal before. He found it strange that she seemed more affected by the killing of this dumb animal than she had the walker she killed in town.
He didn't walk away from her this time, but he didn't move to comfort her either. This was her reality now. She had to learn that. He stood nearby in awkward silence while she recovered. When her hushed tears subsided, she looked at him, and nodded that she was OK. He pulled the two shafts from the deer and handed the arrow to Lilith. He clipped his bolt back in its holder then slung the crossbow on his back. He grabbed the antlers and started to haul the carcass towards the truck.
It must have weighed about 180lb, and his arms bulged under the strain. Lilith stowed her bow on her back and grabbed one of the antlers. Shoulda brought Tyreese's damn rope, he thought. It was easier between them, but it was about 150 feet to the vehicle and by the time they got there they were both exhausted. They sat for a few minutes against the tyres to catch their breath.
"I'll get in the back and pull, if you push," Lilith suggested as she got up.
Daryl nodded his agreement. He got in position with a good grip on the creature's haunches waiting for Lilith's signal. She took her bow off and placed it on the passenger seat, wiped her brow on her arm, then grabbed the horns and looked up at him.
"Get down!" she yelled.
Instinctively, he dropped to a crouch, turning his body to see what had caught her attention. A walker was stumbling towards them several feet away. Before he had time to react, a knife whistled past his ear and stuck in the walker's head. The creature immediately stopped and tipped backwards, unmoving.
Daryl sat for a second, wiping the sweat from his eyes while his heart raced. He walked over to the corpse and pulled the knife from the dead man's head. "Motherfucker!" he uttered, as he drove his foot viciously into its rib cage.
It was a young man, in a fairly fresh state of decomposition. He was dressed in a stained red shirt, with a black and white G on it.
"UGA," Lilith said quietly at his side.
Daryl wiped the blade clean on the man's shirt, and handed the knife back to her, handle first.
"Thanks." He said gratefully. She didn't reply, and he watched as she stared at the dead boy. He wondered if she was going to cry again, but there were no more tears. He started to walk back to the Land Rover, and realised she wasn't following him. He reached out, and touched her arm gently.
She flinched, which surprised his so much he pulled his arm back quickly. She looked a little in shock, but he needed her to snap out of it. Where there was one walker, there was likely more.
"Come on. I ain't got all day to stand around site seeing," he barked at her.
She seemed to come out of her trance then, and moved quickly back into the vehicle. She grabbed the antlers again, getting ready to pull, looking to him to give the go ahead. Daryl gave a quick look over his shoulder this time before grunting, "Pull!"
***
When they arrived back at the prison, and were safely behind the gates, Daryl waved at Glenn who came jogging over, closely followed by Rick. He threw open the back door, and revealed the deer.
"I brought dinner."
"Aww, how the hell am I supposed to get that to the kitchen?" Glenn moaned.
"Not my problem, Short Round."
"Good hunting, Daryl," said Rick, clapping him on the shoulder. "Well done. That will keep us in meat for several days."
"Wasn't me," he explained, a hint of pride in his voice. "It was Robin Hood," he added, nodding towards Lilith. Rick walked over to the woman who was leaning against the side of the vehicle and shook her hand.
"Did you get any trouble out there?" asked Glenn.
"Just the one walker. Nearly got the jump on me too, but Lilith got him with her knife."
"So let me get this straight," asked the young Asian. "Lilith shot the deer, and she saved your ass by killing a walker?"
"Yup," answered Daryl. Lilith was blushing now, clearly uncomfortable with the praise and attention.
"Kinda wonder why we need to keep your miserable ass around then," Glenn joked, tapping him in the stomach, and winking at Lilith as he walked by to find help moving the deer.
***
That evening, Lilith brought coffee as usual.
She was grateful that they had found a huge can of dried coffee on one of their last trips into the town. It wasn't nearly as good as freshly brewed, but it was all they had. Dinner had been a disappointing bowl of noodles made with a weak stock and some dried mushrooms. Apparently the deer would need to be hung a day or two until rigour had faded before it could be butchered, but even then, with almost fifty people to feed, it would only last a few days. Until then, everyone had to make do with some of the tinned goods they had salvaged. Even with almost daily runs into the nearby towns and suburbs, it was difficult to keep up with feeding the group.
He raised his mug, "Cheers."
"Sláinte," she replied with a smile, and chinked her mug against his.
"Tough day," he commented. Lilith wasn’t sure if he had meant it as a question or a statement, but she nodded her agreement.
"That was a pretty good shot for your first deer kill," he complimented. Her face fell at the memory of the beautiful animal lying in the forest.
"You did good, girl." He reassured her.
She smiled at his kind comments. "Thank you," she responded thoughtfully. "And I am sorry about… earlier," she added as she waved a hand unconsciously in the vague direction of where they had hunted. "About being a total girl."
He stared thoughtfully at her for a few moments, and she felt a little awkward under his scrutiny. "The world's changed. I need to change with it," she finally added.
"I was sure grateful for your knife skills out there today," he told her. "Where did you learn to do that? In Nottingham?"
"No," she laughed drily. "I learned it here, in Georgia."
Daryl's brow furrowed in confusion. Lilith looked down at the seam on her pants that she fiddled nervously with, some internal debate going on behind her dark eyes. With a brief sigh, she started to talk.
"I moved to Atlanta about 18 months ago from London where I had been working at University College London. I was working as a database administrator in the biology department. We had a visiting professor come over from UGA."
She shrugged, then continued her story. "We went on a few dates, he swept me off my feet with his southern charm," she laughed. "Before I knew it I was married and moved to Atlanta." She looked over at Daryl, who sat without comment so she carried on.
"Soon after my residency issues were sorted, he started to change. I realised too late that I was little more than a possession of his. Rather than being suave and charming, I found he was petty, arrogant, selfish and a womaniser. We had a big house in one of the wealthy quarters of the city, and he started buying lots of high-tech security, putting in a panic room, stock piling provisions like water and food."
She stopped to drain the last of her coffee.
"He already did several kinds of martial arts when I met him. I just thought he was a fitness nut, but I think he was some kind of paranoid prepper. I started doing the knife throwing soon after I moved here. I thought it would bring us closer together if we had something in common, you know?"
Daryl sat in silence. His face was passive, but she could almost see the hundreds of thoughts passing behind his perceptive eyes, digesting what she had told him.
"Where is he now?" he asked finally.
"When everything went to hell, he put up the defences and we were in lockdown. Since I had just told him I wanted a divorce, you can imagine how cosy that was. He lorded it over me, pointing out how clever he was for being prepared, how stupid I was for doubting him. What he didn't account for was shoddy workmanship from the cheap labour he hired. About three months into the lockdown, he stood on a nail sticking out of a wooden floor which went right through his foot. I think he got tetanus, because after about two weeks later the lock jaw started, followed by the muscle spasms. He couldn’t eat or drink properly, but I think his lungs shut down long before he had a chance to starve to death."
Lilith paused, staring into space for a second.
"Less than two weeks after he fell ill, he died. I didn't know exactly what was happening outside, but I knew I didn't want to stay there. I packed a few things in a bag, some clothes, a little food and water. My husband had the keys to the house on him, so I went to get them. It was while I had my hand in his pocket that he sat up… and tried to bite me. I fled, managed to avoid the walkers long enough to make it to the outskirts of the city. I scavenged in the suburbs for a while, then made it out into the country."
"Is that when you ended up in Woodbury?" he asked.
"More or less," she answered cryptically.
- 7
- 8
- 9
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Salvation