It had been two weeks since Daryl last talked to Rick. After Morgan came into their group he had been the centre of attention, simply because everyone loved him. Carol was even starting to warm up to him, and he knew how hard it was for her to warm up to new male figures.
Morgan was an able bodied man, and much more sociable than Daryl. These days Morgan was all the council Rick needed, but to some extent Daryl was glad to hand over the job. It had been hard handling Rick as of late, and it looked like Morgan was doing a pretty good job at restraining him. The whole two weeks he had been in Alexandria, Rick had stayed peaceful, and no other troubles had occurred.
In many ways, this new guest of theirs took a lot of pressure off of Daryl. He had been laying low, working on his now finished bike at Aaron and Eric's, and staying out of the way. He never fit in to that place anyways.
The feeling of freedom he had every time he and Aaron went for their runs was what he was living for, and later that day they were going out again.
Aaron was already waiting for him when he came over that evening, looking just as eager to get out of there as Daryl was. He looked tired and his face was slightly flustered. Daryl knew something was bothering the man, but he wasn't going to ask him about it. It had to be about his relationship with Eric, and their private stuff was none of his business. He would rather walk in silence.
That was when Eric entered the porch, fully dressed for a run. "It's alright that I come along with you, right Daryl?" Eric made it clear he didn't want Aaron's opinion, and Daryl knew it would be a long day. He nodded, then walked over to his bike.
After driving the bike for at least half an hour, Aaron signaled from the car for him to stop. He parked the bike on the side of the road and walked over to the car.
"There's smoke coming from inside the forest" Aaron pointed towards a gray cloud emerging from between some trees a few miles away. "There might be someone there," he said, "or maybe a whole group even."
Both Aaron and Eric seemed excited, but Daryl had a bad feeling. Maybe he just needed to get used to the recruiting thing. Learn to trust people more. Daryl stood quiet for a minute, then nodded his head once, "Let's check it out". He walked back to his motorcycle and they drove a little closer before parking and walking into the forest.
He moved swiftly over the forest ground, slipping between the trees without making a sound. He could barely hear Aaron walking behind him, and to some extent it comforted him, but Eric on the other hand was making way too much noise. Every footstep he made put their mission at risk, and Daryl longed for the times it was only him and Aaron.
A few moments later Daryl signaled with two fingers for the other men to come over to him. Then he looked over at what had to be the source of the smoke.
"What on Earth is that?" Eric exclaimed in a whisper, making Daryl frown, sharing a disgruntled look with Aaron. What they were looking at was a gigantic pile of what seemed like burning bodies. The most frightening part was that they were way too clean-looking to be walkers. Those were actual people burning.
His next step was to assess the situation, and that was when he noticed a bush moving a few feet away. Then a sound came from another bush, and he could feel someone watching him from above in the trees.
"We have to move" Daryl said without explanation, taking the lead back the way they came.
"Wait," Aaron flinched, "can you hear that?" And right he was, Daryl could hear it, ever how slight. It was a weak groaning sound, and it came from the fire. Maybe someone was still alive in there, and if that was the case, Daryl knew Aaron would do something stupid.
Daryl moved close to Aaron and grabbed his shoulder, then he looked up discreetly showing Aaron what he saw in the trees. The blue eyed man didn't show his reaction, just silently moved with Daryl back towards the road. Eric on the other hand, was walking oblivious towards the fire.
"Eric!" Aaron shouted, seconds before a man jumped down from a tree next to Eric. Daryl pulled out his crossbow and shot the man in the head, leaving him dead on the ground. But before Eric got a chance to move, another man, then another, jumped out from the bushes. Aaron and Daryl ran over to join the fight.
Despite managing to kill the two men, all the ruckus had summoned walkers: a lot of walkers. Daryl stabbed a few in the head, then turned to shoot one who was attacking Eric, before walking to the back of the fire. The smell of burning flesh was almost overwhelming, but he managed to push a few out of the way in search of whoever was making the groaning sound.
Then he saw him. It was a man, his face was burnt, but he was moving. When Daryl dragged the last burning body off of him, the man managed to crawl out of the pile. He wasn't burning, but he had been before, because both his face and his left arm was severely damaged.
"Can you walk?" Daryl shouted, then turned around to stab a walker in the brain. The man staggered to his feet, but Daryl saw he would be having to support him.
At the same moment, Aaron came running over, and he started fighting off the walkers that were trying to get to Daryl as he dragged the slow man with him. The three of them were almost back at the car when Aaron noticed Eric had fallen behind. He was too busy protecting Daryl, and hadn't noticed what happened to his lover.
Aaron ran as fast as he could back into the forest, and Daryl hurriedly put the man in the car and locked the door. Then he ran after Aaron faster than ever before. He wouldn't let his …friend…die out on a run with him.
When he catched up with Aaron he was standing a few feet away from Eric, who was killing the last walker. Next thing Daryl knew, a man jumped down from a tree with a gun pointed at Eric, then at Aaron, then back to Eric. Daryl pulled the crossbow from his back and in the same second he let the arrow fly, he heard a loud bang, followed by two loud thumps and a scream. It went by so fast Daryl almost didn't catch what had happened. The only thing he knew was that as he was standing there, two bodies laid dead on the ground.