Chapter 22

(Crawling- Slow Joy)

Even though Daryl had come back to the room, seeming like he forgave me, he still didn't seem completely over it. I didn't expect him to. He was still on edge and angry, pacing around everywhere we went, fidgeting oddly, he was like Shiva when she was caged up. Before leaving our room, Daryl had mentioned he had seen a few trucks drive out of the Kingdom. So we spent most of the morning waiting for them to come back so Daryl could get some info out of one of them.

When they did finally return, Daryl hurried over to where they parked, he spotted Morgan and waited for the others to disperse before confronting him.

"Hey." Daryl yelled over to Morgan. "Where'd ya go in them trucks?" Daryl asked approaching them. Morgan quietly said something to the boy he was standing with. Daryl went down the steps, I followed staying back a few feet, as Daryl and Morgan started talking. "You went to see them, right?" Daryl asked.

"Yeah." Morgan answered truthfully.

"Part of your deal?" Daryl stared Morgan down. "What the hell's wrong with you?" Daryl growled. Immediately becoming calm when he spotted Morgan's injury. "You're bleedin'." Daryl mentioned. Morgan touched his ear, checking his hand then tried wiping the blood away with his fingers. "They did that to you. You know what they are."

"I do." Morgan stood firm.

"You know, if Carol were here, she saw all that, if she knew about Abraham and Glenn... she'd be leading us right to 'em." Daryl said darkly. "Ready to kill 'em all."

"She would." Morgan agreed. "And that's why she left man." Daryl and Morgan stared at each other, until Daryl scoffed at him and turned away, walking off.

"I'm sorry, about Daryl, he's just in a bad mood." I apologized, my voice giving out near the end, so I cleared my throat. "He's just ready to get out of here already."

"I don't take it personal." Morgan said simply as he turned to leave.

"Wait, mind if I tag along?" I asked sheepishly.

"No, go ahead." Morgan waved me after him.

The kid that was with Morgan earlier came running up to us with bandages.

"For your cut." The boy handed it to Morgan, then he looked at me.

"Oh, uh, Hazel this is Benjamin, Benjamin this is Hazel." Morgan introduced us.

"Hi." Benjamin breathed. He reached out his hand, I shook it giving him a light smile.

"Hazel." I heard the kingly voice from across the courtyard. I turned around as King Ezekiel approached. "May I talk to you for a moment?" He asked politely, and I nodded in response. He led me toward an area that had a large concrete wall around it, where a bigger woman in overalls with a hijab on her head was working. "Nabila." The King got her attention.

"Oh, hello your majesty." She said kindly as she made her way over to us.

"I would like to introduce you to Hazel. Hazel this is Nabila, she works in the royal gardens." King Ezekiel explained.

"Nice to meet you." Nabila reached her hand out to me and I took it. "Doesn't talk much does she?" She said jokingly.

"Oh, I did a lot of talking-" my voice cracked again-"last few nights, weak voice." I cleared my throat trying to hide the pain.

"Well I think you'll be doing more listening than talking. We are unsure how long our friend Hazel will be here, but she would like to help. Nabila how would you feel about training Hazel?" The King asked.

"Oh you know I'd love to." She smiled. "I love having extra hands." She seemed excited.

"You two get acquainted, and Hazel once again welcome to the Kingdom." The King said proudly as he left going inside the nearby building.

"Alright, where to begin, well I guess first off this is the Royal garden. The king's favorite garden. Obviously it's right here in front of his place." She started. "So we'll start over here, there's a little bit of everything here, apples, oranges, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, cantolopes, melons, you know, you'll see." We went over to the far corner closest to the building. "So, we're just checking for bugs, weeds, and dead crop, then after that we water it and move on to the next crop." I nodded.

We started checking every inch of the greenery, making sure nothing was dead, or being eaten by bugs, I yanked out several weeds throughout. Then Nabila, grabbed the hose, instructing me how to use the pump while she sprayed the water over the plants, this was just half of the garden. We started checking the other side, immediately Nabila was unhappy as she continued to check, noticing small bugs all over the crop, 'weevils' she called them.

"I'll go inform Ezekiel, you start gathering the healthy crops." Nabila ordered as she took off. I grabbed a wheel-borrow, and started to pull the crops from the ground. I put them into the wheel-borrow, stopping when I heard a tiger roar above me. I looked up, seeing King Ezekiel with Shiva, man I could not get over this tiger, it was so amazing. "Alright let's gather what we can, I plan on burning this by tomorrow." Nabila informed.

We worked endlessly and hard, until dark, Nabila handing me a bandana to wipe my sore hands on. "Good work." She patted me on the back. "Bright and early tomorrow." She smiled as she left. We didn't finish gathering, we still had quite a bit to do, but I was looking forward to helping.

I wiped my tender hands, wiping blood from small cuts, I returned to the building where my room was, heading up to my room. Once in the bathroom, I ran my hands under the cold water, hissing as my hands touched the water. Every cut was on fire, luckily they gave me a small first aid kit. I dabbed my hands dry, going out to the bedroom, Daryl still wasn't here, or in the other empty room. I sat on the bed, kicked off my shoes, and started to bandage my hands, every cut was so thin, like paper cuts, but they hurt like hell.

Once I was bandaged, I washed up in the shower, it was cold water but I didn't care, it was still refreshing. I washed my face, body and hair, with soap provided. When I finished up, I patted dry, and changed into clean clothes, provided by the Kingdom. I pulled my hair back into a braid, not wanting to worry about my hair in the morning. I looked through the small selection of books that was here in the room. Having read the one from last night already, I picked another, sitting down ready to read.

It was pitch black outside when Daryl returned. He had a cut by his eye, he was dirty, smelling a little sweatier then usual.

"Where've you been?" I set down my book, looking him over.

"Went out, with that Richard guy." He said simply. "I found Carol." His words caught my full attention, sending chills down my spine.

"How?" I asked.

"Richard was planning to frame her I guess, he told me where she was. I knocked some sense in him before I left, so she's safe." Daryl explained.

"What'd you tell her?" I asked.

"That everybody was okay." His voice cracked, pain in his eyes.

"Why didn't you tell her?" I asked softly.

"You didn't see her, I knew she couldn't handle hearing it." Daryl chewed on his bottom lip, then headed for the bathroom. I followed after him, forcing him to sit on the lid of the toilet, pushing his hair back to look at his cut. He was quiet, spaced out while I cleaned up the cut, once I bandaged it, Daryl finally looked at me. "I'm leaving, in the morning." He said quietly. "I'm going back to the Hilltop."

"Why?" I asked.

"I want to fight, and Maggie's gonna need help, so I wanna help." He said simply.

"I don't want you to get caught." I begged.

"I won't." He shook his head. "You talk like you ain't gonna be there."

"'Cause I'm staying here." I stated.

"Why?" He stood up, looking down on me.

"Because it's safe here, and I'm going to do what Rick asked, to convince King Ezekiel to fight." I explained. Daryl went to the bedroom, pacing back and forth for a second before picking up his backpack, and reaching for his crossbow that I quickly snatched. "Stay with me." I begged. "I don't want you to leave."

"You know why I don't want to stay here, I'd rather be with our people." He growled. "And I'm not leaving, you are, you're turning your back on us." He pointed at me angrily.

"No I'm not, I told you I am doing what Rick asked. You heard him, we need people, the only way we're going to win this, is if we have the Kingdom." I barked back.

"That's not why you're staying." Daryl shook his head as he glared at me.

"Fine, I don't want to face Maggie or Sasha after what I just did. I feel like I betrayed them, I feel like I just spit on Glenn and Abraham's graves. I can't go back there, not right now." I shook my head, blinking away tears.

"Stay here." Daryl grumbled as he ripped his crossbow from my arms, slamming the door shut behind him.

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Morning came, I didn't sleep. I just laid there on the floor, looking at the door, in hopes that Daryl would come back, of course he didn't. I got up from the floor, and changed into my work clothes, ready to go help Nabila. I stepped outside, spotting Daryl adjusting his supplies in his pack, I should say something before he leaves. I headed over to him, he spotted me a few feet away. He picked up his pack slinging it on his back as he looked at me.

"I'm sorry, for everything." I blinked away tears again, this was getting annoying.

"I can't convince you to come?" He asked.

"No." I shook my head. "I can't convince you to stay?" I asked in return.

"No." He answered back, as he bit the inside of his cheek.

I quickly slammed against him, hugging him tightly, hoping that with every fiber of my being this wouldn't be our last hug. I felt him hug me back, pressing his chin to the top of my head. We pulled apart, Daryl grabbing my hand, as he headed for the gate. When the gate started to open, he stopped, and turned to face me. I was about to say something but he quickly pressed his lips to mine, giving me the most passionate kiss I had ever had. He cupped my face between his hands, I held onto his forearms to keep from falling. I felt his tongue glide across my lip, then he pulled away, brushing his thumb over my cheek, leaving me with one more kiss, before walking away, with his thumb between his teeth.

I watched him walk away, not looking back at all, or even slowing his pace as the gates shut. I bit my lip trying to fight a smile. I took a deep breath, before turning around to carry on with my day. That kiss would definitely get me through until I saw him again.

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Hey guys, I just wanted to thank you for attention this story is getting, it makes me so happy and ready to write more. I just wanted to let you guys know, that updates might be a little slow from here on out, since I don't quite have the ending of this story figured out yet, I got a few different ways I'm thinking of ending it, but we'll see. So thank you guys so much for hanging on through the sporadic updates, and thank you, thank you for reading!