It was early when I woke up the next morning. I still had a slight pain in the middle of my chest, but it was going away, so that made me feel more at ease.

I pulled on an old shirt of Daryl's that was crumpled up on the floor in hopes he wouldn't mind and I trudged out of the tent, following the voices I could hear coming from the truck where everyone was meant to be lining up to talk about new search patterns.

"Maybe you'll see your Chupacabra up there too." T-Dog laughed at Daryl as I ran up, taking a stance next to Daryl.

"What are you talking about?" I laughed as I leant against the hood looking out onto the map, names written around colour coded sections, my name written all on it's own next to a green stamp. I clutched onto the side of the car in hopes that someone else would be going with me; hell I'd take Andrea if it meant I wasn't on my own.

"First night in camp Daryl tells us this story about how this whole thing reminds him of one time he went squirrel hunting and he saw a Chupacabra." Dale informs, pulling several guns out of a bag Shane had put them in. I bit my lip and hid my face in my hair as I stifled a laugh, something one of Herschel's men couldn't do.

"What you laughin' at jackass?" Daryl spat in his direction. I decided to make sure Daryl didn't catch me laughing (although I knew he wouldn't do anything) and grabbed a gun from the hood of the car, fastening it in the back of my jeans after checking it was loaded. I knew they were going to be sending me out there. I had no choice of that. I may as well be prepared whilst I do it.

"So you believe in a blood suckin' dog?" He questioned, one of his eyebrows raising at Daryl.

"You believe in the dead walkin' around?" Daryl shot back instantly, myself failing to hide the smile on my face. Jimmy, the boy who Daryl had put back into his place leant forward on the car to grab a rifle but Rick stopped him, almost swatting his hand away.

"Woah, you ever fired one before?" Rick questioned as Jimmy pulled his hand back.

"If I'm goin' out I want one." Jimmy protested as Rick shook his head. Daryl scoffed from next to me and slung his cross bow further onto his back.

"And people in hell want Slurpies" Daryl shot back once again and walked off.

"What?" I asked as everyone turned their attention to me.

"Something up with him?" Jimmy asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

"Yeah, you're being dumb as shi-"

"Annora," Rick interrupted before I could finish. I didn't realise where that had come from but I shook my head and ignored Jimmy turning to Rick. "These are your markers, stick to this grid pattern," He pointed to the green marked out space on the map. "Once you cleared and area, nail it to a tree and keep goin'." I nodded at his request as he handed me over green flags and waited for the others to leave before I walked off on my own in the woods.

"Annora!" I turned around and saw Carol walking towards me.

"Carol." I smiled and stopped, playing with my gun a little, not enough to make it do anything, but enough for me to register it was there.

"Can I come with you? I want to look for Sophia." I didn't think it was a great idea to have two useless people walking through the woods but at least with Carol I wasn't going to be on my own.

"Sure." I nodded and handed her my gun, knowing she'd probably have more of a chance with it than I did.

I was standing with Rick, Shane and Glenn as I'd come back from the little trek out with Carol. We didn't find anything unfortunately.

I was constantly worried about Daryl, knowing something was wrong but I had to continuously push those feelings down, knowing I was probably just panicking over nothing; something I frequently did.

"We'll try these new spots tomorrow." Rick pointed back down at the map we were looking at, planning our new look out points for the next day; that's when I heard Andrea crying out from the top of the RV.

"Walker! Walker!" I looked over to where Andrea was pointing and saw it; I knew we didn't need the guns so I took off running after Shane who was hobbling along on the ground, I stayed behind the others though as they ran, trying to keep my breathing normal as I approached with them.

I stopped dead in my tracks and wanted to run forwards but I was stopping myself. I recognised the crossbow he was dragging behind him and the hair that hung a little over his eyes.

"Daryl?" I nearly choked the words out but his blue dull eyes skimmed to me. They weren't glazed over, probably the best sight I'd seen all day. He was grabbing hold of his side where the sleeves of his shirt was tied around him, blood staining the shirt and walker ears hung around his neck like a necklace. Rick ran up to us and pointed the gun at Daryl, every fibre in my wanting to scream at him to put the damn gun down but he wouldn't have listened.

"That's the third time you've pointed that thing at me," A collective sigh rolled around the group, the biggest one coming from me as I heard the Southern drawl that I don't think I'd ever take for granted again. "You gonna pull the trigger or what?" Daryl confronted, knowing Rick wasn't going to pull it knowing that he was normal, well, as normal as Daryl could be. I laughed a little and took a couple of steps forward, jumping as a gun shot rang through the air and Daryl dropped down to the floor.

"No!" I cried as I ran over to him, thanking God that he hadn't been killed and was still alive. Rick was yelling back to the farm screaming no before running over and checking Daryl over.

"I was kidding." Daryl spoke quickly before he fell unconscious. I held back tears that were brimming and slung one of his arms over my shoulder as Rick did the same on the other side, hauling him back to Herschels'.

I wasn't allowed to go and see him until after we'd eaten, something about him needing to rest, but after we'd finished eating, I'd ran up the stairs taking them two at a time and walked into the room, silently closing the door and smiling as I saw the bowl of food on the nightstand Carol had bought up earlier, completely untouched.

"Daryl," I spoke quietly, making him look towards me, covering up his back with the blanket, not that I couldn't already see the scars. I wasn't going to mention anything to him. We all had scars. "What happened out there?" I walked around the other side of the bed and sat cross legged, facing him.

"Damn horse ran off." He chuckled but left it at that. I smiled and moved my hand forwards, moving a few loose bits of hair out of his face that were poking out the top of his bandage.

He didn't speak again for a little bit, he just kind of sat there looking at me with a small contempt smile on his face.

"What?" I asked, smiling and dropping my hand.

"Nothin'." I sighed and laid down next to him, looking him over until he would carry on talking to me.

"You're not going anywhere right?" I asked, turning on my side.

"Wouldn't wanna leave you." He smiled and pulled me closer to him with his free arm, kissing my forehead.

"Good." I smiled, closing my eyes and just laying there, happy with the current situation.