Overturned

Chapter 2

It was a cold hard night, just like every other night.
Except, instead of tucking in to a soft warm bed under a blanket with a cushiony pillow for their heads, the humans tucked in to the hard ground in their sleeping bags with a hammer of fear pounding on their heads, slowly hammering till they drift in to oblivion.

Each night one person would take watch on top of the roof of the trailer and look out for any roaming walkers that were to stumble on to the survivors' territory.

During the night watch, they would switch shifts whenever they couldn't stand staying awake any longer, as there weren't any timers or stopwatches to keep track of who did how many hours. Those precious batteries were best saved for more important uses like radios, torchlights, and communication devices.
Their night watching routine wasn't a great plan, but it would have to do for now though.
Having a person constantly slipping in and out of dreamland keeping watch wouldn't do much good anyway.

"Hey, Daryl." The softest whisper accompanied with the gentlest nudge jolted Daryl out from his deep slumber.

"… Yeah?" Daryl rolled slightly back and lifted up a heavy eyelid to look at whomever that had disrupted him from his sleep.
His voice was raw and deep, and the bright light that was shone at his face made him squint and frown in annoyance.
It'd better not be walkers.

Lowering his torchlight to face the ground, Glenn took a cautious step backwards, beginning to regret his decision. He absolutely did not expect Daryl to get woken up so easily.

It was creepy that Daryl was so alert when awake and even when asleep. Did that guy have any loophole at all?
Knowing the Dixons' temper the timid boy had already mentally prepared to leave and wake someone else up if Daryl had not responded on his third try.
Usually it took Glenn roughly five to seven tries to wake someone else up. He didn't like disturbing people, especially from their sleep, something that everyone was severely lacking of.

"Can you take over? I don't think I can hold out any longer."
Glenn wondered if he had chosen the wrong person to pass his night-watch shift to. He could have passed the it to some other person but it seemed like apart from Daryl, everyone had done his or her fair share of getting less sleep, and Glenn started to understand why that was so.

Nobody would want to wake up someone like that.

Daryl was like a beast, his muscular form crawling tiredly but gracefully out from the sleeping bag he was in. The grunts he made while stretching out the kinks and aches too, sounded like a beast, and Glenn gulped.

It was amazing how Daryl could look so dangerous.
The scars on his body were his telltale signs that you do not try to fuck with this man. He looked as if he was ready to pounce and stab you in the neck any time if you dare upset him, and he probably was.

Seeing the man got up, Glenn slowly backed out of the tent, thankful that he hasn't gotten punched yet. He felt safer outside. If Daryl tried to hurt him he would have a better chance of survival by running out in the open.

Daryl ducked out of his tent, his tired and baggy eyes still half-lidded, yawning and ruffling his messy just-out-of-bed hazel-brown hair.
The man rubbed and twisted his shoulder, displaying his defined muscles under his slightly sun burnt skin. He tilted his head sideways and his face cringed up in pain.
Probably slept too long on his side. Glenn muses, still extremely cautious over the man.

Glenn realized he must have been unconsciously showing his emotions externally when Daryl gave him an irritated funny look that made him wash off whatever face that he had on away immediately.

"What?" Daryl challenged in a provocative manner, not expecting an answer.
The boy was just lookin' at him. The fuck?

Annoyed that the boy was being such a goddamn snail, he reached his hand out to gesture for Glenn to pass him the torchlight.

Daryl wondered what the hell was up with these people.
He'd been called up to do the night watch only thrice and in all those three times, Shane, Andrea, and Jacqui had the same bloody type of expression on their face, now Glenn too.
What was that look? Did he look ridiculously ugly when he just got out of bed? Fuckin' bastards. They don't look too good themselves either...
Or maybe he was just ridiculously handsome... Daryl snorted at the thought.

Right out of the corner his eye, Daryl caught a glimpse of a silhouette that was crouched down at the side of the trailer and like a hawk that caught sight of it's prey, swiftly turned his head to have clearer look.

Oh? It was Rick. What was he doing there at such a time? If Daryl were to guess, give it two to four more hours and the sky would start to light up.

Partly relieved that it wasn't a threat, Daryl turned back and shot Glenn a questioning look.
The kid finally snapped out of his blur state and took a step closer to pass Daryl the torchlight.
"Oh yeah, he's been there the whole night…"
Glenn peered over Daryl's shoulder to confirm the same form that was there with him for the previous couple of hours.
Yup, still there… Poor Rick…

The sheriff was always so strong willed, optimistic and compassionate.
That was what made the people see him as their "leader" in the first place.
Don't get them wrong, Shane did a good job leading and keeping them alive, but there was something about Rick… Something about the man that made life on this god-forsaken world a teeny bit little less painful.
Having to see him in that state was really odd and heart breaking.

During his shift Glenn had contemplated many times about approaching Rick but honestly, he had not a single clue of what to say to him. It's not as simple as a "it's not your fault" or "suck it up dude" or "it'll get better".
It was a lot more than that.
Even Glenn Rhee, the "half-cup full" guy, didn't know what to say.

Glenn's head started to hurt when he stressed about Rick. He was too tired to even think about anything else.
The boy gave Daryl a firm tap on the shoulder and left for his own tent. One more second standing there and he might just fall and start snoozing on the ground.

Daryl just stood there observing Rick. What was he doing crouching down there anyway?
He slowly approached the oblivious man, hoping hard that the sheriff wasn't crying or any shit like that. God, he hated it when people cry.

Daryl remembered witnessing his buddy crying once over a fuckin' girl when they were just teens and that was the last time he'd try to comfort someone out of crying.
It was just pure awkwardness.
What was he supposed to do? He can't hug them like how girls would usually do. That's gay.
He doesn't like the idea of talking a whole load of bull to try and delude them in to thinking how "everything's going to be fine" either.
They need to just man the fuck up and stop freakin' crying.

Thankfully, Rick wasn't crying. He was just… squatting there like a statue, eyes firmly fixated on the ground.
Daryl sighed and approached Rick more boldly this time.
How's Rick going to search for Sophia and function properly later on if he doesn't sleep?

"Ain't sleepin?" Rick flinched and looked up at Daryl, his blue eyes flashing with shock at the sudden words directed at him. Since when was Daryl awake, and how long had he been standing there beside him?

Quickly regaining his stoned composure and avoiding Daryl's gaze, Rick shook his head and replied a soft "No."

"Dude. We'll find her later on so quit worryin'." Daryl assumed.

Rick languidly lifted up his head, drawing his tired gaze up to meet Daryl's eyes, causing Daryl to shift a little in discomfort.
It was the first time he saw this face of Rick's, aside from the tired look that everyone else also had, the deputy had a look on that he never showed in the day. Daryl could only describe it as heavy.

"I…" Rick wanted to say something but retracted his sentence as quick as it came out. He swallowed and looked back down again.

Getting impatient, the Dixon rolled his eyes and turned away to head towards the ladder that led up to the roof of the trailer. He wasn't going to waste anymore time waiting for slow people to respond slowly anymore.
Why the heck was everybody being such a drag recently anyway?
Well, Rick was excusable but all these bull piles up and Daryl doesn't like dealing with them.

Something put a stop in the Dixons' track right before he took his first step and had him spinning backwards.

"Daryl." It sounded more like a plea; it was breathy and weak, as if pleading the impatient man to not leave just yet.

After making sure the younger man had stayed put, Rick plucked up his courage to finally speak.
"She asked me not to leave her… But I did." Rick took his time to wrangle out those words, and had begun breathing heavier. Since when did the weight of air increase?
His words felt so heavy he needed to push them out of his clamped up throat.

Daryl was stunt. He had never heard Rick in this kind of tone before. It sounded so…

"She wanted me to shoot them, even reached for my gun. Why didn't I-"? He couldn't bring himself to complete his sentence.

"Hey, hey, look. You did right for not gettin' the rest o' us killed alright?"

"I told Carol I had no other choice. I had so many other choices! I could've shot those walkers. Could've kept on runnin' instead of throwin' her there. She told me not to leave, Daryl. Could've killed 'em both around that area instead of runnin' so goddamn far away! Why did I even tell her to run back to the road alone? I should've asked her to wait there for me! What if it was Carl? I would've done differently, Daryl. I would never have let that happen if it was Carl!" Rick's voice shook unsteadily throughout. The man panted as if oxygen was running out.

The sudden string of self-condemnation left Daryl dumbfounded for a minute, trying to digest all the information that Rick had just spewed out at him.
Upon realization, Daryl just continued staring at Rick for a couple of seconds more before his blank expression morphed in to a frown.

"Oi! Listen good." Pissed off, Daryl went and stood in front of the huddled man real close and crouched down to eyeball the cop face to face.
"No point kickin' yourself in the nuts right now kay? ... We need your help to find her later on so do us a favor and rest."

After so many years of living, Daryl thought that everyone would have already understood the fact that SHIT HAPPENS.
But some people just don't, and he graciously accepts that. (Or at least he thinks he does.)
What they've got to do was to either make do, or change it, and Daryl learnt that the hard way.
His family wasn't the typical loving family that most people would normally get. They cooked him real good, because Daryl grew to be a hard-boiled man.

"I lied. I lied to a grieving mother." There was so much sorrow swimming in Rick's eyes it made Daryl feel something weird swirl in his chest; something apart from his impatience that he could not identify, something that compelled him to do something to lessen Rick's burden. That foreign feeling irritated Daryl.

Daryl brushed aside that feeling quick enough to not let it get to his head.
No time for silly emotions.

He took a deep breath and whispered articulately, making sure not to break eye contact with the sheriff.
"I don't care what you think, but I am going to find that girl."

Daryl stared in to Rick's eyes giving him a couple of seconds to let his words sink in.
He spoke with such strong emphasis on the latter part, so full of confidence and determination that even though it wasn't exactly delivered in a nice way, Rick felt a strange sense of relief flush like warm water over his mind and body.

Somehow, seeing the way Daryl reacted renewed his hope for finding Sophia.
Although he did not show and acknowledge it, deep down inside he knew that the chances of finding the little girl was seeping away as the minutes go by.
Have you ever been lost in the woods? It's crazy, the amount of things that could go wrong in there, not to mention being young and alone in the middle of the night, in a zombie-infested world.
However, just in an instance, Daryl rekindled that smothering flame of hope in him.

Rick was so thankful; Daryl always had a way to calm him down no matter what, without all the bullcrapistry that people liked feeding each other. Always knew what to do, always had his shit together.
Yeah, it didn't matter if he'd lied to Carol about not having any other choice or anything. For now, what mattered most was to retrieve her daughter.
The finger pointing could go afterwards.

"Thank you." His eyes shone rich with gratitude as Rick tried to crack the slightest smile in appreciation but failed miserably ending up looking like his lip had a twitch.

Daryl was just glad that Rick had allowed his words to process. He gave Rick a small but warm smile and nodded, with Rick returning the nod.

It had been their thing for quite some time now, the nodding.
Although Daryl doesn't admit it, he does not deny the fact either, that it felt nice to know that someone had actually gave a shit about him.

Ever since the apocalypse had started, no one had shown him any appreciation or compassion.
The group were cold towards each other, only sticking together for the one and only reason; staying alive.
It's every man for himself.

It had always been thought that everyone who did their part was SUPPOSED to do their part, be it cleaning, hunting, scavenging or cooking. There was no "Please", "Thank you" or "Welcome".
Well, that all changed when Glenn and his gang came back with a new guy called Rick Grimes.
Maybe that was why Carol looked a little shocked when Rick had thanked her for washing his clothes.

Daryl wasn't a fan of formalities, acting all polite and shit, and Rick was smart enough to pick up on that at the first day. (Yup, Rick's a fast learner alright.)
The two settled for just small exchanges of glances and little nods and Daryl liked it better that way.

Dawn was breaking and members of the group were one by one slowly woken up by the imposing sunlight.
Sometimes they wondered why the Sun was still up every morning in this fictitious world. Did the Sun forget that it too, did not needed to make sense anymore?

Usually Daryl would be the first one to wake up, followed shortly after by Dale.
As soon as Dale had woken up the hunter would take off in to the woods searching for another days' worth of food, and if lucky, two or three days worth.
Today was different. Today, they will continue searching for Sophia, and Daryl was eager to get things going. He secretly thanked Carol in his heart for spending the effort to save up and preserve their left over foods. It would last them probably a day or two.

Bright light crept up on the still tired man's sleeping face and behind his eyelids, and Rick cursed mentally as his brain took over his subconscious mind.
Dang. Morning already?
Oh right, the girl.

The sheriff shot up at the thought and groaned softly when the blood rushed from his head down, ending him up with his head huddled between his knees, rubbing at his temple.

What a day it was going to be.