Chasing Amy (Daryl Dixon/The Walking Dead)

Chapter 57 - Breakdown

Amidst everything Hershel had been saying to Carol, the only words that stuck in Daryl's mind were, "She's gonna be just fine."

The tired man stood in the corner of the cell, his arms crossed, his eyes scanning her dazed expression.

She had barely said a word since he found her.

"Small sips of water... With dehydration we can't give her the whole bottle at once... She'll only throw it back up." Hershel murmured slowly, his voice softening as he took in Carol's worried expression.

"Don't we have anything to give her?" She asked slowly, her bright eyes avoiding Hershel's watch. "Medication? Surely there's something from that bag..."

Daryl ignored the two of them, his back pressed to the wall as he silently waited for them to leave Amy's cell.

He could see it in her eyes, the unblinking trance that seemed to hollow at his gut. They never left him, not once.

"The best thing we can do now is let her sleep, she's exhausted."

Carol leant forward and squeezed Amy's hand, and as the younger woman's eyes flickered down at her slowly, Carol laid a soft kiss against her knuckle.

"I can't say thank you enough..." She murmured, before lowering Amy's hand back to the mattress. The younger woman glanced up at her, head moving on the pillow in a silent blush.

"It's a good thing we got the generator up..." Hershel said, glancing over at Carol, "It may just be the one positive to take away from this."

Carol nodded once, lips pursed.

"We can get the water working in the bathrooms soon," He added, "An infinite water supply right here in this prison..."

Whilst Carol and Hershel discussed this, Daryl couldn't help but wish they'd take it someplace else.

"Wouldn't it need fuel?" Carol asked, "I wouldn't call that an infinite supply."

All this time Daryl had assumed... Well, he wasn't sure what he thought.

But all that time he'd had Amy's life on his mind, wondering if she was strong enough to make it, to get out of there alive, had just become wasted.

It wasn't like him, to dwell on something like that for so long.

He hated it.

Daryl wouldn't look away from her grey eyes as she continued to stare across at him vacantly, like she were in a daze, in a dream...

Her eyes scanning over his face, his neck, shoulders. Her lips were less pale after receiving only a tiny portion of water, her complexion nowhere near as sickly.

Daryl shuffled on his feet, glancing down at his crossed arms.

"How exactly did Rick find her?" Hershel turned his head as he addressed Daryl for the first time since he arrived with Amy.

Daryl cleared his throat, avoiding Amy's watchful gaze with guilty eyes.

"She left a trail of knives..." He murmured, "Put one down every time she turned a corner, an' one at the place where I found you, Carol."

Carol looked up at Daryl with reddened cheeks, her bright blue eyes glistening.

"Kinda smart of her." He crossed his arms tighter, before looking back at the young woman, whose eyelids were beginning to droop.

"She was so brave in there... You wouldn't believe." Carol smiled, running her thumb over Amy's hand again.

"Yeah, 'cept she must'a missed a corner... I lost her track." Daryl lifted his left hand to scratch his neck. "Guess Rick found her while he was wanderin' around like Casper the Friendly Ghost."