For the purpose of this story I have changed Daryl's age to mid twenties - early thirties. I do not own nor take any credit for the characters I have not created. I do, however, take full credit for my own character and any adjustments I have made to the original storyline. I am also writing the events based on the story line according to my memory so please excuse any mistakes I may have made.
Weaving my way through the trees and dodging logs I made my way through the forest. Every few minutes I would check that my hunting knife was tucked safely in the belt loop of my jeans even though I knew that the dead never ventured this far out. I was getting sick of nature. I had no one to talk to and hadn't seen a normal person for at least a couple weeks. Deciding to take a break I set my hiking bag down in a patch of sun light and sat on a nearby log. All the stress, weariness and misery from the past fortnight was catching up on me.
Arming myself with my knife I slowly stood and walked over to the bush. Suddenly a walker stumbled out and threw itself at me so I sunk my blade into its head, killing it for the last time. Suddenly another one came out from the side and I put my hand around the back of it, sliding the bloody blade into the back if its head, killing it and kicking it away from me. Then another came over, and another, and another. I killed them fairly quickly but one managed to make its way right in front of me so I punched its head in with the hilt of my knife. Just as I took a breath of satisfaction and looked at all the rotting bodies around me I felt a hand grab my shoulder.
Gasping I turned to face whatever it was that had its hand on me. A walker with its mouth ripped open and an arrow in its neck was staring at me. My first thought was to stab it in the head but I had dropped my knife in fright. My next thought was to rip the arrow from its neck and use it to pierce his head but his mouth was so close to me, his teeth inches from my flesh. Just as I raised my hand to punch its head in something came whizzing through the air and straight through the walkers eyes almost grazing my head. Pushing it backwards I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. Looking down I saw an arrow through its head that matched the one in its neck. Pulling them out I searched for whoever had fired them. A man, maybe in his mid-thirties, maybe older, wandered out. He was in this shirt that looked like it had seen better days many years ago and he had a cross bow slung over his shoulder.
"Guess these must be yours then." I held out the arrows which he took and placed them with the rest of the arrows. He then went to all of the walkers I just killed and kicked their heads in just to be sure they were dead.
"Well, aren't you a charmer?" I asked sarcastically. He just rolled his eyes and picked up my bag from where I'd left it.
"You got a group?" I shook my head taking my things from him and putting the bag back on. I then picked up my knife and wiped it on the closest walkers' clothes before putting it back in my jeans.
"Actually you're the first person I've seen in weeks." He looked at all the bodies around us. "Well, the first alive person." He pulled out and arrow and arranged it in his bow before walking back to where he had come. Not thinking twice about it I turned to head the other way, thinking he didn't want anything to do with me.
"You coming or not?" Grinning I went back over to him.
"You're offering?" He gave me a look but I wasn't quite sure what it meant yet. He quickly nodded and started walking again so I followed. Over the next hour he said about three words to me and I was sick of it.
"Why won't you talk to me? I would really like to talk because you're the first person I've seen in ages. Please." He just kept going forwards, not even making a move to stop.
"Look, ya wanna talk? Wait till we make it back. They'll be plenty of people to talk then." The whole rest of the day all we did was wonder in silence and murder a few squirrels. It started getting hotter and hotter as the sun's merciless rays burnt down on us.
"Are we going to stop? To, you know, rest?" He looked around and stared me right in the eye like I was some lunatic telling him to jump of a cliff.
"Wow…you really aren't a people person. And you know what? I don't care anymore. I give up. I've been alone and frightened and hungry for days on end so I think I can handle a couple more." He didn't say a thing. I had been following him, helping him hunt and even attempting to talk to him. And attempting to talk to someone is a big step for me because since the first time I saw a walker I have shut everything out. Every single person I have ever cared about I had to shoot in the head. I didn't want to have to be hurt again and so decided to stop caring.
"Sweetheart, just stop being stubborn cause ya'll meet the others later. They like all that personal crap."
"It's just that when I got away I had no one. No living soul near me, or so I thought. So I'm sorry if I can't communicate very well. Haven't done it in a while." And that's when I first realised that people probably got Daryl's feelings mixed up with his personality. People did that to me a lot and, quite frankly, it annoyed the hell out of me which only made me do it more. I kept quiet the rest of the time. I'm not even joking, I hardly said a word. We only really communicated verbally when he was telling me to shut up or not to walk on the tracks he was following.
"Here." I heard Daryl mutter as he hung me a bunch of dead squirrels on a string on my shoulder as I looked on in disgust. "Come on, darlin'. It ain't too bad." Using both hands to hold his crossbow steady the redneck slowly moved forward, carefully placing his feet in the leaves as to try and not make too much noise.
"Daryl," I hissed through my teeth tugging the dead creatures off my shoulder I held them in my hand as I quietly made my way over to him, "why are we being quiet?" I was confused. We weren't tracking anything at the moment that I knew ofand I couldn't figure out why he was almost seeming to stalk something.
"I thought I saw a walker." My breath hitched in my throat at the last word that came tumbling out of his mouth, those six letters sending cold chills to my toes. Licking my lips I heard a twig snap from behind me and jumped out of my skin. Daryl twisted his body upon instinct causing his crossbow to ram into my shoulder. Tumbling sideways I desperately attempted to clutch at the air around me before my head fell to the ground. Groaning I opened my eyes in time to see a small brown rabbit scurry into the surrounding bushes.
"Are you joking?" I said to no one in particular. A chuckle sounded in my ear as a rough set of fingers dug into my upper arm pulling me to my feet.
"May as well go back. Any chance of finding anything is done for. You can thank your big mouth for that." I gasped and threw the stupid squirrels I had squashed in the dirt at the man in front of me.
"Excuse me?" He easily caught the string of meat in one hand, holding his crossbow in the other. His face barley controlled surprise at my sudden out burst. Sadly though, it didn't stop him making a quick comeback.
"You and your bloody yelling are gonna get me murdered out 'ere."
"You are the one who said I can come with you." I muttered not wanting to yell. I was sick of yelling and being yelled at. I'd had enough of this before people started eating people and I wasn't going to wait around for anymore of it.
"I couldn't leave you out there, okay?" His voice hushed to the point where I thought it would crack. He picked up the squirrels and my bag which had slipped off when I fell. "I wouldn't leave you out there. We're almost back now just hurry up." Had this man who wasn't showing me any hint of emotion just opened up, however slight, to me? After hardly a minute of walking I couldn't stand the silence.
"Many other people in your group?" Daryl picked up his pace and I realised I had hit a sensitive area.
"Me and my brother. You as well now, I guess." My eyes widened.
"No one else?" He turned long enough to roll his eyes at me then kept trudging forwards, ever forwards.
"You mean besides the massive highway full of people and cars, yeah." There are people. There are people on a highway trying to get out of the city.
"I can't go there. I don't want to go there. I'll take my chances out here thanks." I lunged forward to take my bag but he held firm to it. "Daryl, give me my bag." Hard eyes met my own. I could tell that they were waiting for an explanation. "Look, those things, whatever they are, they're not going to stop. Being around lots of people will ensure my death and I'm not ready to die."
"Stop being dramatic and get your ass moving." I blinked, my mouth agape. Shaking my head to clear my head I did what he said. Just as the afternoon sun was making it's way under the horizon I could hear yelling and car horns. We made it.
"It'll be fine. Nothing will happen to ya." Daryl called over his shoulder, seeming at read my thoughts and we made our way to the road banked up with too many cars to count. Looking left I saw and endless trail of vehicles and the same to my right.
"Holy shit." I breathed as Daryl led me to an old pickup truck parked next to one of the nicest motorcycles I'd ever seen. Upon instinct I wondered over to the bike and ran my hand across the handle bar but a grubby hand stopped me.
"What the hell you think your doing?" The hand threw my own away from the bike and I followed the arm up to its owner. A man probably in his forties stared right back at me with the same hard gaze as Daryl.
"Your Daryl's brother?" I questioned, pointing finger at him.
"I thought I said no strays, Baby Bro. Thought I gotta say you picked a cute one." The man gave me a sickly grin giving me the once over. I swear I threw up a little in my mouth. I looked over at Daryl to see him putting the game he just caught in the back of the car.
"Hey, I'm not done with you." A new voice made itself known. A tall dark haired guy came up to Merle and swung him around so they were facing each other.
"Get your hands off of him!" Daryl burst forward to help his brother and a few choice words were swapped before anything useful was spoken.
"We can hunt. We can help ya'll out. Safely in numbers." Deciding to take part in the conversation I stepped towards them.
"No way. Not with him. Don't waste your time trying to talk me into it." The dark haired guy started to turn away.
"Hey, I'm talking to you!" Daryl yelled out. This grabbed the guys attention. Merle was suddenly a breath away from me.
"Here we go. So, what'd you do to my baby bro for him to help you?" I rolled my eyes as he gave me the same grin as before. He was a sick bastard, only thing on his mind was sex. But that did cover most men...
Ignoring him I made my way over to where dark hair and Daryl were chest to chest staring each other down.
"Whoa whoa whoa. I'm sure we can work something out." I intervened pulled both men a good arms length away from each other. Daryl flexed his shoulders in what must have been an attempt to seem tough which the other guy just ran a hand over his head before looking to me.
"Don't tell me your with these douche bags." Moving closer to Daryl I stood my ground.
"He saved my life. Don't talk to him or his brother like that." New guy raised his eye brows. Daryl took the free moment to have his say.
"Have it your way. If something happens to this girl it's on you." Did he just call me a girl? I was in my mid twenties. I couldn't look that young, could I? The redneck turned to walk away but dark hair's voice called him back.
"If you help us, we'll help you." Daryl knew he'd won ever before he had turned away. "We're leaving at dawn. Your brother knows which cars ours." A curt nod on each side ended the conversation.
"Good going, lil' brother." Merle clasped his brother on the back. "Come on lady. You can stay in the back." Assuming he was talking to me I trailed behind them.
"Sleeping with the dead animals. What a pity I didn't stick with the bunnies." I laughed back insinuating back to the rabbit which had scared the shit out of me and my saviour. Earning a slight chuckle from Daryl left Merle confused.
"Thanks again, Daryl for pushing my ass up that hill." I smiled a fake sweet smile before climbing into the back of their ute. Even on the metal floor it was the safest I had felt since I'd left my home and within seconds my eyes had slid shut. The last thing I remember hearing was, "We'll get the girl in on the plan in the morning. That group won't even know what hit 'em."