Pain

(A/N : Extra larger chapter for you guys. See you Monday with another chapter or maybe a double release .I will see.)

<Daryl Dixon POV>

"Do you know where we may find him?"

"I know where I met them, but I don't know if they are still there. We can try. Maybe they didn't leave that place. Do you have a map? We may find a clue why would they be there."

"There was one in the guard post. I'll go pick it up."

"No, let's all go there."

When we got our hands on the map, we found our base on the map first, and then we begin looking around it for some information.

While we looked around our surroundings, we didn't find even one building in a fifty kilometers area around our base which can mean that our map is outdated or the place where their objective maybe isn't mapped on this map.

"Something's off, they wouldn't come here without an objective."

"Brother, think about it. The prison doesn't have any storage for medical emergencies only basic first aid, right? And how would the people inside the prison get treatment in case someone got injured quite badly? An ambulance will take too much time to reach this place. From my experience, I can confirm that prisons or juvenile prisons don't have storage for these things inside the prison. They usually have a building pretty close to the actual prison in case something does happen. (A/N: This is just some bullshit of mine. I don't know if all prisons are like this or if they are at all like that.)

"We should go then. Daryl will take us where he was saved and then we can look around for them."

After one hour of driving, we arrived at the road where Eric saved me. As we couldn't let the prison undefended, Rick decided that I, my brother Merle, him, and Glenn should be enough for this search.

Unfortunately for us, Glenn couldn't keep his mouth shut and the Green sisters found about it. Maggie being the older one knew that finding Eric will surely help her sister which led to her taking care of Beth while Beth keeps struggling to go with us.

Getting out of the car, we begin to look around for any tracks that their vans may have left on the road.

While the road wasn't in its prime condition, tracks could still be seen here and there and after twenty minutes of slowly checking every crook and notch of the road, we managed to find a path that led deeper into the forest.

The road was bumpy and we keep jumping from our seats, which made the trip quite bad. If not for the sudden gunfire shots that we heard after passing another deep puddle, this trip could be taken as a trip made by some friends going in the forest to relax. The first time we heard the noises we didn't know what to think about it, but when the noises keep getting noisier by the second, we knew that someone was fighting and from the noises that we heard it could be a horde.

When we found the source of the noises, we remained shocked by the sight in front of us. What we saw will mark our minds for the rest of our lives and our view of him will never be the same.

In front of us stood Eric and two men of his while the rest of his men were proving covering fire for them. Eric and his men that stood face to face with a horde of zombies didn't even flinch when the zombies saw them. On the contrary to what a normal human being should have done in that situation, Eric decided to confront the horde face to face with an axe and two men who had the same gear as him plus a shield. The only thing that didn't make any sense was the shocked expression on his face.

Just as we got out of our car to help them, we heard Eric shout something: "GRENADES!"

We barely managed to react when the ground shook and dozens of zombies were killed or dismembered beyond any danger they could have posed before.

The next thing we saw was Eric jumping through the gap that the grenades made followed by his two men.

<Eric Jarl POV>

[Am I reckless? Of course, I am, but I need to do this, I have a gut feeling that keeps telling me that by doing this crazy stunt, I will gain something that will help me in this world]

When I heard the grenades detonate, I didn't even flinch when I jumped through the opening that the blast made, while my two shield bearers, heh they really love making fun of me, followed me in hell.

Shots were fired and zombies were falling to the ground, but the sheer amount of zombies in a horde has barely diminished.

I stepped back, balancing my weight on my left foot, and threw my metal fist out in a curved punch at the zombie's head. Blood splattered all around me. Without even getting my fist out of the zombie skull, I swing my axe at another zombie that tried to eat me. The axe blade cut right through his rotten head and its blood hit my face.

Blood stung my eyes like tiny vipers, dripping down from a gore sprayed face. All around was nothing but a whirlwind of disorder and violence, a blur of color and vicious motion. Death was all around me. Gunfire was heard every second while heavy bodies hit the ground. The two men that followed me were killing zombies at their best, but the sheer amount will soon overwhelm us, and death will claim our lives. Deafening, the blood pounded in the ears, drumming to a ferocious beat inside my head. The sound was barely enough to obscure the screams of men and zombies altogether, the sounds of hot bullets piercing the bodies all around us or the sound of axes cutting rotten flesh.

The feeling of dread is exciting to me. It seems that I become a battle maniac as I keep getting myself in battles that could end my life.

As we keep killing zombies left and right, the piles of dead bodies keep building around us. I don't know when, but more of my men joined the fight using the knives or axes that we bought with us.

I was shocked when I saw Rick joining the fight with his group. I didn't even know that they found us.

The fight continued for another hour when the final zombie hit the ground, dead.

While we won the fight, I wasn't glad or happy. I lost two good soldiers in this fight and we had to put them to sleep for good using our own hands to do the dirty job. The pain of losing a soldier and a friend is what will kill me not a bag of rotten flesh and bones.

When I sat down, supporting my tired body with the wall of the clinic, Rick follows my example and sat down beside me.

"You have grown Eric."

"I had to grow, Rick. Or I would have lost even more good men and women for a dream that we may make true or not.

"You remember when I had to get you back to school because you keep running from it?"

"Heh, I remember these good times. It was fun till it lasts, but you know? These things made me learn new things. From getting to know some bikers to learn how to fight and how to use a weapon. These things saved my ass in this apocalypse. At first, I was scared, I just lost my first official girlfriend, dead people rose from their graves to eat us. I was in a coma. I woke up in a new world, Rick. I saw friends and people that believe in me dying in front of me. They sacrificed their lives for our community, thinking that I will lead them to a better future. DO YOU KNOW HOW I FELT?"

Seeing that I broke my calm face and that I have finally shown my pain to them, all of the people present saw the pain of a teenager that was forced by this world to become a man that will save lives.

(A/N: Even if it's cringe I will still write like this because I want to show that Eric is still a teenager and a human. He has emotions and he suffers from all of the things that happened.)

Rick knew that he had to do something to calm the boy in front of him and the only thing he could do is hugging the now crying boy.

Ten minutes later, I managed to calm down. I raised my head and look around me. My men were looking at me, but I didn't saw any pity from their eyes. The only thing that I saw was respect. They stood with their weapons ready to fight in case something ambushes us. I'm sure that they heard me, but contrary to what I thought will happen, they proved me wrong.

"Thank you, Rick. I really needed that. Can you welcome us for the night to your place? It will be a blessing for us to get a roof that we know won't kill us."

"Of course, you guys just need to follow us."

"Once again thank you. Maxson contacts the base and tells them that we found some old friends. Paul should know what it means."

"I already did that, sir. Jean (the girl that managed to communications) said that Andrew and Paul said to take our time."

"That's good. Maxson get me a shovel. I want to give our dead a proper dead. That's the least they deserve."

"You don't need to dig the graves for them, sir. We can do that. It's okay to seek help from others, sir. We are a family after all."

"I won't argue with you then."

Turning my head towards Rick, I decided to ask him something that has been on my heart for a while now.

"Rick, can you tell me what happened at the Greene farm?"

"We somehow stumble upon them when I was fighting with my ex-partner and ex-wife. She decided to live with him while abandoning her child now that I rose from the dead. I didn't say anything, but the betrayal hurt me. One night I decided to confront Shawn about what happens, but he decided to kill me to get rid of any annoyance I could do for their happy life. As I was quite a week after getting out of my coma, he almost managed to kill me if not for Merle and Daryl.

When my ex-wife found that he was dead, she took her life leaving my boy and me to each other. That's when Andrea and her sister appeared in our lives. After that, we keep going from place to place until we found Hershel's farm. Unfortunately, a horde walked right through his farm. We had to escape in a hurry. We lost some good people there."

"I see. You didn't have it better than me it seems."

"Nobody has it better. We all lost something that made us a normal human."

"That's true. Let's prepare Rick. We have to return to your base after all."