Author's Note: As mentioned in the summary, this is a sequel to my first story, As the World Falls Down, if you haven't read it, it might be best to go back and do so. Also, a fair bit of warning that I feel the need to mention in all my author's notes: this story could be abandoned at any point since I have the unfortunate habit of not finishing the stories I start. And with that, I hope you enjoy!

Prologue

They were running. Running past trees, jumping over creeks, their footsteps echoing around them as they hurried away from the unseen threat and somehow, he felt more alive than he had in a long time. The sun was high in the sky, his crossbow hit his back with each foot fall, and he was feeling like himself again. It had been quite sometime since this last happened, to the point where he'd began to doubt it ever be again. But there he was, running, sweating his ass off and loving every second of it. And maybe, it had something to do with the company.

Glancing over his shoulder, he found Michelle smiling back at him behind the protection of her gas mask. To have her there, just a few steps away was definitely playing a large part in his lifted spirit. Looking ahead again, he quickly dodged a large tree, resting his back against it as he waited for her to join him. He was just catching his breath when he noticed it was taking her too long, she should be there already. With a quick peak around the tree, his heart dropped, she was gone.

The noise came from behind and he spun around, a bolt leaving his crossbow without him even having to think about it and the walker collapsed to ground. Except it wasn't a walker. It was her.

Daryl woke up with a start, drenched in cold sweats and with dank hair clinging to his face. Trying to catch his breath, he sat up on the couch where he'd been sleeping since they gotten to Alexandria; technically, he had a room upstairs in the house he'd been sharing with Carol, but sleeping up there just didn't feel right. Not much about this whole Safe Zone situation did, really... Passing his hands through his hair, he pushed himself up, knowing very well he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. Not after one of those increasingly regular nightmares. He never used to have problems sleeping, but recently, loads of things had changed and he just wasn't sure if he'd been ready for all that.

It had been nearly a month now, nearly a month of mourning Beth and Bob and then Tyreese. Nearly a month since they'd piled up into vans and began looking for something else out there. Nearly a month since they'd left the Georgia/South Carolina state line behind and with it, his last hope of seeing Michelle again.

They'd made their way up to Virginia, to take Noah home and that had been a dead-end in the worst sense of the word. They'd lost all vehicles and found themselves with no water, no food and no hope on the side of some road. They'd all began dealing with their losses, all of them in their own ways. He had tried to ignore his for the longest time, to be numb to them until Carol had come in and forced him to look them in the eyes. He had bawled his eyes out for Beth, for not having been able to save her when he had the chance and he had raged at the universe for taking two of the most important people in his life away in less than a day. It was then that he realized that the universe had not taken Michelle away, that she'd chosen to do that on her own and for a few days there, he was able to hate her and that had made everything much easier. Except for the fact it did last.

Her leaving like that, right after Beth's death, had made him feel as if, to her, he hadn't been worth sticking around for and, despite how some of his insecurities would have agreed with that idea, he had replayed their last conversation in his mind enough time to come to the conclusion that it wasn't true. That fateful morning, she'd been about to ask him something when her eyes had left his face and landed on the church behind him, where the rest of the group, the rest of his family, had been sleeping. Maybe it was wishful thinking but he had the feeling she had meant to ask him to go with her, something she knew he wouldn't do because he'd never leave the rest of the group. Hell, they were the only reason why he was still around now, when he would feel much more at home in the woods outside the large walls.

From the moment he had come to that realization though, she'd been on his mind again and he couldn't help but still worry for her. Had she made it to New York City? Was she home, putting flowers on her sister's tomb? If she was still alive that was... No, she had to be. She was a survivor and it wasn't worth thinking about the other alternative.

Stepping out the front door, he took a seat on the steps, as the sun began to rise above the east wall. He looked up and down the street, all those houses, and those people inside who had no idea what was really happening out there. All those people who looked at him like some sort of freak, something he hadn't felt since before the world went crazy. He hated this place and how it was changing everything, and everyone around him, but as he'd told that Deanna woman when she'd first interviewed him, Carl and Judith deserved a safe place. As long as his family chose to remain here, so would he.

He light up a cigarette and as he took a first drag, letting the smoke fill his lungs, he watched the large gate, itching to get to the other side of it. He tried to ignore the little voice at the back of his head, the one that sounded very much like Joe, the leader of the Claimers, telling him about outdoor cats trying to become indoor ones. One more day and he'd be on the other side again on his second time out with Aaron. Hopefully, something better than a dead horse would come out of this one...