A month later.
Rebecca stared at herself in the cracked mirror, her skin was tinged grey, her dark blue eyes sunken in, long red hair matted so much she couldn't run her hand through it any more.
"You're loosing it Rebecca." She muttered to her reflection, pulling at her taut skin. "You're slacking with the beauty regimen. What would your mother say?" She laughed to herself, shaking her head. "You've been alone too long."
She walked over to the window and pulled the curtain back, squinting in to the bright morning sun she noticed a skinny, grey dog led by the street light.
"Still here huh? Are you trying to be my friend? Or are you just waiting for me to die." She questioned.
Letting the curtain fall back in to place, she walked over to her mattress and landed heavily on to it. She grabbed her combat boots and pulled them on to her feet, lacing them up she tied them as tight as possible. She tugged her hair up in to a pony tail roughly. Glancing at the crumpled, ripped shirt by her pillow.
"Today's the day I leave you behind." She whispered as she stroked the collar tenderly.
She grabbed her rucksack and stood, slinging it over her shoulder she grabbed a pack of jerky and left the room letting the door slam behind her. She was half way down the stairs before she paused.
"Pathetic." She muttered before running back to the room and grabbing the shirt and shoving it in her bag.
Rebecca eyed the dog warily, it seemed just as nervous of her, she crouched and threw a piece of jerky towards the dog, it gobbled in up immediately.
"Good boy." She whispered soothingly
The dog's tail wagged slowly as it approached her, interested in the jerky She held her hand on, palm up for the dog, he sniffed it cautiously before leaning his head in to her hand. She stroked him gently, feeding him more jerky.
"You're such a good boy, let's see if you have a name." She looked at his collar and found a tag.
"Dixon." She chuckled "Isn't that just too cruel."
The dog barked and jumped about happily.
"Well Dixon" Rebecca sighed as she stood up "Let's go."
Rebecca started to walk down the street with Dixon following close behind. She never stayed in one place too long, moving on after a day or two of being any where. She'd tried so many times to leave the damn shirt behind but something kept stopping her, probably the same thing that was slowly leading her back to the farm. She knew she shouldn't go back there, they'd not be happy to see her, but a part of her really just wanted to see how he was doing. If he was okay without her.
"How long have you been alone?" She asked, looking at Dixon, "I bet it's been a while right? Me too. Well, I think maybe a month?"
Dixon tilted his head, ears perked up, Rebecca chuckled at him.
"Cute" Rebecca sighed "You remind me of a guy I knew... I really want to see him. I did something stupid, I wasn't honest with him and it caught up with me. He found out about it and couldn't forgive me."
Dixon barked
"Ha, sorry, I guess it's a boring story." Rebecca shook her head.
She knew she had to go see him, even from a distance, just so she could confirm he was still alive.
Rebecca finally begun to figure out where she was going, she could see a clearing in the dense forest and her stomach did flips in anticipation of seeing Daryl again. Her pace quickened, Dixon close behind, she crouched at the tree line pulling her bag off her back and rummaging around before pulling out her binoculars.
She glanced up at the farm while untangling the string on the binoculars and noticed the barn wasn't there anymore.
"Have I got the wrong place?" She mumbled bringing the binoculars to her eyes and seeing in the place of the barn was lots of charred wood and bodies.
Rebecca immediately felt sick, she stood keeping on staring through the binoculars, desperately searching for someone alive.
"Oh god." she whispered seeing the RV dirtied with blood.
She threw her bag back over her shoulder and started cautiously walking towards the farm house, clearly a herd had passed through here but it had been long enough since then that the walkers had moved on.
All her excitement from before dissipated, she wouldn't be seeing Daryl today, she wouldn't see him ever again. There was no way of knowing if he was alive. She jogged up to the door of the farm house and shoved it open. The floor boards creaked as she made her way through the house, pulling open cupboards she realised they must have left in a hurry not taking any of their supplies with them. She ran up the stairs after feeding Dixon a bunch of jerky and beans. She slipped in to the bed room Daryl had stayed in when he was injured.
"I should have known." she muttered
She sat on the bed and noticed something on the night stand, she reached over and picked up a knife that had been left behind. She inspected the handle and noticed someone had carved D.D. in to the handle.
"Daryl..."
she ran her fingers over the etched letters before grasping the handle tightly and walking to the bath room. She pulled her hair out of the bobble and began using the knife to cut her hair off. After a while her hair was jaw length, jagged and rough, but Rebecca smiled at her reflection. She found a hair brush and yanked it through her matted hair, yelping in pain every time she reached a large knot.
"Much better."
She hung the knife off her belt and stripped down to her underwear, she pulled Daryl's shirt out of her bag and put it on before climbing in to the big bed. Dixon jumped up on to the bed and curled up next to her. She stroked his fur and let herself cry. Night time was the hardest for Rebecca, she couldn't distract herself with surviving all day, all she had to do was lie there and sleep. But she never did just sleep, she replayed the last time she saw Daryl over and over, each time feeling the horrible sting of abandonment as he walked away. She'd suffer through over thinking the whole thing before dropping off in to a fitful sleep.
"If I don't find somewhere to stay soon, I'm going to die." She whispered to Dixon who was trotting beside her.
She'd wandered in to a field, merely avoiding the walkers, she'd rather not have to fight. Rebecca was too weak to fight anything off, she'd be over powered immediately.
"I need somewhere permanent, that has food."
She felt dizzy and sick.
"I need to sit down." she muttered holding her head.
Her vision blurred and the world spun around her.
"I'm sorry Dixon, I don't think I'm going to get through this."
She led down and Dixon led down next to her whining.
Rebecca's eyes slid closed as she rested her hand on Dixon's head.
"I'm really glad you found me boy, I wouldn't have wanted to die alone."
Dixon's head shot up, letting Rebecca's hand fall off it, he started barking at something, standing over Rebecca defensively.
"Hey now" a male voice said getting closer "I'm not hear to hurt your friend, I want to help."
Dixon sniffed the man's outstretched palm before allowing him close to Rebecca. The man lifted her up in to his arms and started walking back to a large truck with Dixon following closely.
Rebecca managed to open her eyes to see the man's dark brown hair and kind face.
"Who are you?" She breathed
"I come from a town, where you would be safe. The people there call me the Governor." he explained
Rebecca smiled, as she let her eyes slide close once more.
"You're saving my life." she whispered before passing out.
The man gently led her in the back of the truck and held the door open to let Dixon jump in next to her.
He climbed in the front next to the driver and said "Let's go back to Woodbury."
So, this is the end. I hope you like how it turned out, please let me know by reviewing. :) I will be starting a sequel, probably tomorrow and I hope you all want to read that one too. :) I've really enjoyed writing this story so I hope you enjoyed reading it all the way through. :)