Hell | #MarchMadness2020

HELL

Everything feels wrong when I wake up. Like something shifted in the night. I roll out of bed and go to the window. Alexandria looks A-OK. A couple of walkers moaning against the temporary fence that spans the gap left by the last Whisperer attack, but otherwise it's blue skies and the usual early morning milking and sowing. The guards on the watchtower look almost relaxed. Nothing different. Nothing out of place. Maybe I'm coming down with something.

I shake myself and get on with it. It's gonna be a busy day. Medical supplies have been getting low. One of the last walk-ins had a backpack full of meds he said he'd scrounged in some podunk town a hundred klicks away. Council decided it was worth checking out, even though it could be a trap. It could always be a trap. That's why I'm heading the crew. Traps don't scare me. The only thing that scares me these days is me.

That's if I don't count Carol. Her voice still gets to me. Sounds like the sweetest woman you ever met, right up 'til she gives you your walking orders - and then takes 'em back. Total badassery. If I ever go up against her she won't see me coming.

"Daryl, you ready?"

Speak of the devil. "Yep."

"Come on, we're waiting."

I strap a knife to my shin and lift the crossbow from its hook. Soon as it's my hands I feel normal again. Balanced. When Merle first took me bow hunting I felt awkward as a newborn calf. I'd never have believed it'd become part of my body, as needful to me as my eyes or hands. I wouldn't go anywhere without it now.

I open the door. Carol stands there, looking like what she is - a killer. There were times you couldn't tell but she's been giving herself away ever since the Whisperers turned up. And Alpha. Now there's a piece of work. I wanted to take her out myself but Carol would never forgive me. Not after Henry. Carol's icy eyes meet mine and I fight down a shiver. Alpha has no idea what she's brought on herself. She thinks she's scary with her whispers and her skin lamps but Carol's like that cyborg thing from that old Schwarzenegger movie. No pity, no remorse, and she will not stop, ever, 'til Alpha's dead.

"Bout time. We're getting old waiting," she quips.

I eye her through my hair and step out into the hall. "Better'n not getting old."

The corners of her mouth turn up. "Marginally."

We walk down the front steps and out into the sunlight. The crew are waiting, like she said. Have I overslept? I squint at the sun. Nope. It's about where I'd expect. Light seems softer somehow.

My eye drops to the fence and gets snagged on a walker. Pretty fresh, by the looks, wearing some kind of wizard getup. I'm thinking about unloading an arrow into it when one of the scouts hurries toward us.

"You got something, Jim?" Michonne asks, stepping down from the porch across the road. She's not wearing her sword but looks lethal anyway.

"Yeah. Something strange has happened."

My guts turn over. I knew something wasn't right. My gaze snaps back to that walker. It's vanished. My heart thumps my chest and I face Jim, ears straining for every detail.

"Report," Michonne orders.

"The Whisperer's markers - they're gone."

"What?"

That's Carol. I can almost see the ice in her eyes leaching into her bloodstream.

"They're gone. It's like they were never there." Jim sounds like he's struggling to hold it together.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"There's nothing. Not even a hole in the ground where...." He looks at Carol and his voice trails off.

Carol's not listening. She's already heading out. "Carol!" I call, but she's gone rogue. No stopping her now. The crew follows. The gatekeeper slides the main gate open and she leads the crew through it. I know it's a mistake.

Michonne looks at me. I already know what she's going to say. "On it."

I jog to catch up with Carol. She won't even look at me 'til I grab her by the shoulder.

"God-dammit, Daryl, Alpha can't be gone. I won't let her be gone." Carol spits. She wrenches free and almost runs for Whisperer territory. I don't like it but it don't make any difference. We pass the borders unchallenged and slog hard for their camp. That feeling that something's out of place is getting stronger and stronger.

And suddenly it's not the right forest. This forest is older and darker. Moodier. I hear things in the trees I've never heard before. There's no sign of the whisperers.

Carol voices my thoughts. "No way. There's just no way."

We stand under the trees, staring, with a ton of questions and no answers. Jerry starts humming the theme to the Twilight Zone.

'Shut up, Jerry,' Carol hisses.

I agree. Just 'cause there ain't no whisperers don't make it safe.

I move quietly to Carol's side. "We gotta get outta here," I tell her.

"They can't be gone." Tears stand in her eyes. Revenge is slipping through her fingers.

I shiver. It's too cold, like we've skipped straight to Autumn. Maybe we have. A different forest. A different world. One without Whisperers. 'Bout time we caught a break.

Ten years. You'd think I'd know better than to think something green as that.

The moment the screaming starts I'm kicking myself. I knew this was gonna be bad.

We run toward the screams. Magna's on the ground with some... thing... floating above her. I stop dead. Jerry stops too. He's pointing up the hillside. I follow his finger and gawk like a yokel. There's a castle up there. A full-on European castle.

"H-h-hogwarts," Jerry stutters. He looks back at Magna. There's some kind of light between her and that thing. It looks like it's sucking light out of her. She's alive but her screams are weakening. "Dementors," he squeaks.

I ain't got time for fairytales. Those things are all around us, floating through the trees like hungry wraiths.

"Ambush!" Carol yells. "Retreat to Alexandria."

My crossbow's locked and loaded before Carol's finished yelling. I'm not retreating without taking some of these floaty bastards down. I aim for the one on Magna. My first bolt buries itself in the thing's hood - only it flickers straight through. The thing doesn't even look up, just keeps hoovering. Another joins it.

Jerry keeps talking. "They feed on happiness. Good memories."

"Good luck getting anything out of me," I snarl.

Jerry can't shut up. "You gotta think of something good."

I burst into laughter. The things floating toward me change direction, swooping after the scattering crew.

The walker from the fence materialises next to Magna. I draw back a bolt and send it straight between the wizard-walker's eyes. It flings up an arm and my bolt spins away.

Carol's eyes are huge. For the first time in forever I see fear in them. Pure, unadulterated fear. I've almost forgotten what that feels like, but I'm remembering. Remembering the beginning, when walkers were actually dangerous. Remembering hell. There weren't no slurpees then and I'm betting there ain't none now neither.

"It's real," Carol's voice is shaking. "How can this be real?"

I don't know. I only know one thing. Things have changed alright. For the worse.