Theme Song: "Stay Alive" - Trapt

"Well, for starters..Daniel is the leader. They called their place Juno because the street name leading down to house is called Juno. It's somewhere off route 44. It's close to the convenient store you picked me up from."

Rick nodded and Michonne murmured, "They're not close to here then. We went on a far run when we ran into you." They all looked relieved.

"Go on, Vicki. What happened?" Rick egged me on to continue.

"They are bad people, Rick. I got caught up with them for the past week or so. I was about out of food, ammo was running low and they came out of nowhere when I got myself surrounded up in a tree."

Daryl snorted at the part about me getting stuck in a tree. I narrowed my green eyes towards him testily.

"Shit happens."

He furrowed his own brows at me challengingly and wrinkled his nose.

Rude.

I continued on though as Rick gave Daryl a look and Daryl became tight lipped with a shrug of his shoulder.

"Daniel took a strange fascination to me..like a girl would to a doll. He never-you know-touched me, but he was obsessed with me. And that didn't sit well for me. I knew if I stayed he would try some weird shit with me or I was going to die. I refused to let either happen to me."

I looked back up to the three of them. Daryl's eyes had narrowed at the mention of Daniel being obsessed with me and even Rick had bristled.

"I got such a bad feeling the first day, but I was weak and needed food. I planned on leaving, but Daniel wouldn't allow me to. He kept me locked in one of the rooms when he realized I had tried to make a break for it after the third day."

I paused for a moment, trying to still my heart beat that was erraticalIy pounding.

"When I finally did escape, I realized they were even bigger monsters than I had originally thought."

I stopped shortly thinking of my escape and blinked a few times before coming back to the present.

"There was a large industrial shop next to the house. It was always locked and I saw people at night going in there from time to time. Always coming out a half hour later or so. I never knew what was in there until I escaped. I saw the lock was left open on my way out and I had to look. Curiosity, I guess."

Pushing my hair out of the way of my face, I looked down to my hands. This was the part I hated the most.

"They had four women chained in there. One was severely beaten, she might have been dead for all I knew."

I felt ill and I couldn't meet their gazes. Those women had been there all week being tortured and I hadn't even known.

"I-I tried to find the keys. I couldn't leave them. They were all shackled and then Charlie caught me in there. Charlie is Daniel's brother. We fought and he gave me this pretty little stab wound." She looked down at her now sewn up wound and then continued.

"But, one of the women kicked over a tire iron and I got a few good hits in until he was knocked out cold."

I knew the tire iron had been used on the women. Their bruises were consistent with the weapon.

"I knew I couldn't stay, but I was reluctant to leave them. They encouraged me to run and I told them I would come back..that I'd try and get them out. And then I ran and...I saw you all.."

My voice broke off at the end and I  looked back up at them. My hands were shaking and my chest was so tight, almost as if I couldn't breathe. Michonne placed a hand ontop of mine and squeezed reassuringly.

They were all silent for a few beats.

Taking in my story, no doubt. Rick spoke to me softly, "You did what you had to do to survive. No one here will judge you for that."

Michonne nodded and added, "You're lucky you made it out alive. If you had stayed behind you wouldn't be here. You have nothing to feel sorry about, got that?"

I nodded to the stern motherly tone Michonne used. Rick relaxed slightly and said, "Get some rest now. You're in good hands with our people. We'll fill the group in and someone will come get you up in the mornin' to walk around a little bit. You can meet everyone then."

I nodded, my bottom lip slightly trembling from the story I had to rehash. Michonne squeezed my hand once more and got up and walked out after Rick.

I heard their low voices carry as they walked away. No doubt talking about the fact that Daniel and his men were still out there. Still alive.

Daryl came in hesitantly with my bag and plopped it down by .y side on the bed.

"Thanks for grabbing it." I  murmured. I was already opening the bag, grabbing the sickles and setting them on the bed next to me.

I briefly looked up and saw his expression. Daryl almost looked offended that I would react that way after their hospitality.

"Ain't no one here gonna' hurt ya'."

I noticed he had very pretty eyes and his voice was rough with a deep hill country accent.

"I'm not afraid of ya'll. I-just-" I broke off for a moment, collecting my thoughts and sighed.

"Look, I barely slept while I was there. I never knew when Daniel would walk into that room or what he would do. I just..don't want to feel like that ever again."

I was just being honest. I sighed heavily, feeling exhaustion creeping back up.

He looked to me with an unreadable gaze until he nodded as if in understanding.

"Fair 'nough." He muttered while about to turn on his heel and leave.

I furrowed her brows and said with distaste, "He was such a freakazoid. People like that are the worst to be alive after something like this happens to the world."

"Freakazoid?" Daryl stopped and turned back around to look at me with a confused look.

Clearly, he hadn't heard that term before. I looked to him with a small smile.

"Take your pick. Freak, piece of shit, scum, psycho, mouth breather.."

I ticked these off and before I could say anything else he huffed lightly with a frown. Clearly, he wasn't a fan of Daniel either.

"Walker bait is more like it." He bit out.

I felt the smallest smile tug at the corner of my lips.

"I like that one too." I responded, nodding my head.

"How'd ya manage to get outta' that house if you were on lock down?"

His question took me off guard and I looked up to him hesitantly. Daryl didn't seem as much suspicious of me as he was curious. A house full of men and I had escaped. It was a plausible question.

"I feigned going to the bathroom and I..broke the mirror to use the shards. There were two guarding me. When the second one rounded the door he didn't even see it coming."

As I spoke my hands trembled and Daryl seemed to have taken note of this as he looked from them and back up to me.

"Ya' did what any one of us would've done." He offered.

I nodded lightly, "Yeah, just wanted to stay alive."

I shifted in the bed and winced slightly as I got settled back against the pillow. He had already been near the cell door when he turned back once more.

"Guess someone will be 'round to check up on ya' at some point."

Before I could thank him though, he had already walked out. Guess he wasn't a man of many words.

I breathed in deeply, readying myself  to relax. I was in good hands. I was alive.

I felt a few stray tears fall from her face and into the pillow. All the emotions hit me at once and I allowed the tears to fall. I couldn't keep it pent up anymore and I was spent.

I was a survivor, I was a badass, but sometimes badasses needed to cry too. Before I fell asleep, I suddenly realized the Texas woodsy scent I had smelled upon waking up earlier had been coming from Daryl.

How ironic. The rugged man had reminded me of home.