Terrwyn watched as everyone went on with their usual business. The old man and his daughters were busy tending to a garden of some sort. The women, with whom Terrwyn couldn't find any common ground, were walking around, chatting away. Terrwyn had overheard one of them complaining that the men were making them do the cleaning and the cooking, yet they still walked around, doing the womanly chores without protesting further. Terrwyn sighed, allowing her body to rest on the wall of the prison.
Despite the abundance of irritating people, Terrwyn could see herself staying with this group for a while. There were a few people she had taken a liking to. The self-proclaimed leader, Rick, seemed like a nice enough guy and his son had been one of the few who didn't shoot a distrustful glance in Terrwyn's direction. Of course, she preferred Daryl over all of them. He had persuaded her to come to this haven. She had been able to get her first night of proper sleep in one of those prison cells, despite being locked up at night, thanks to him.
"It's better than camping out there, isn't it?"
Terrwyn hadn't noticed the small person who had turned up at her side until he spoke up. She smiled slightly, happy that she had been approached by someone who was pleasant. "It is. No more sleeping in cars and fighting off Walkers wherever I go," she answered, recalling in her mind quite a few incidents where she had been rudely awakened by a Walker attempting to get at her from the outside of a car. Incidents like those made it difficult for her to sleep a whole night's sleep, even if her slumber is without incident.
"Where'd you come from?" he inquired.
"New York."
"That's far away. Why'd you come all the way down to Georgia?" Carl asked, obviously confused as to why someone would go such a long way.
"My brother was in Atlanta when everything begun. After my parents-" she paused momentarily, wondering whether it was appropriate to tell him what had happened. Then she remembered that he lived in the same world as she did, therefore it was likely that he had seen pretty much the same things she had seen. "After they turned, I decided that I had to try to find my brother. So I hurried on down here."
"I'm sure you can find him. Dad found us, even though we had gone to Atlanta," Carl said, in an attempt to offer Terrwyn reassurance.
They stood in silence momentarily, each of them lost in their thoughts. Her were filled with question whether it was possible that her brother had managed to get out of Atlanta alive. She reminded herself that she had managed to get out of New York City alive and her brother, who she saw as ten times stronger and smarter as herself, was bound to have found a way out of Atlanta. There was even the possibility that he had set out to New York to find her and their parents. Her thoughts were interrupted by someone calling out her name.
"Terry!"
She looked up to see Daryl, who beckoned her to approach him. She looked at Carl and waved before heading towards Daryl. "We're going hunting," he said, almost immediately heading towards the gate of the prison, not giving Terrwyn any time to protest or even ask Rick for her shotgun. His wife, Lori, had insisted that it would be safer for all of them if Terrwyn didn't have her weapons or any of her things. Terrwyn had been offended at the idea that she would try to kill them all when they were allowing her to stay at their sanctuary but she tried to understand that people reacted differently to disaster and some people's reactions were to turn to paranoia.
"I don't have anything to hunt with," she said when she was finally walking besides Daryl. He looked at her and held up his left hand, in which he held her shotgun. She smiled and took it from him without so much as a thank-you. She felt that it was her right to bear her weapons and that it had been ridiculous for them to take it away from her to begin with. They silently sauntered in the shades of the trees, neither bothering to say anything to the other.
She wasn't going to admit it to her companion, but Terrwyn had never gone hunting before. Heck, even while she was on her own she had relied on abandoned cars and supermarkets for food. She had tried to hunt a couple of times but she was useless with a gun. She had played countless video games but she knew that that wouldn't prepare her for using an actual gun. She was able to tell guns apart and she had some idea what kind of ammo belonged to the guns she was familiar with. But shooting one was useless, her aim was so bad that she was sure that a child could be a better shot than she was.
Her eyes traveled over to Daryl and she watch as he looked around the area carefully, scanning for something to shoot. Suddenly he stopped and motioned her to do so too. Terrwyn stopped dead in her tracks and concentrated on listening for sounds. It took her a while, but eventually she could hear the leaves gently rustling from her left. She turned her head and peered her eyes in an attempt to see what was making the noise. Soon enough, she noticed a shape moving. "Rabbit?" she mouthed, looking at Daryl who nodded. He reached for his crossbow. Terrwyn watched intently as he aimed and shot, getting the rabbit square in the head.
"Finding something soon doesn't happen often. Damn Walkers usually get to the fresh meat first," Daryl commented as they approached the dead rabbit. "I guess you're a lucky rabbit's foot." Terrwyn wanted to laugh at that statement but she decided that it was best to avoid doing so. Never had she been referred to as a lucky token of some sort, especially not a rabbit's foot. Her brother's friends had even commented that it was bad for business that she hung around him at all times.
He picked up the rabbit by its ears and looked at Terrwyn with a blank expression, although she could swear that she saw some hint of triumph.
"So what's your story?" Terrwyn suddenly found herself asking.
"You want to hear my story?" Daryl asked, slightly amused.
"If you want to share," she said, with a shrug.
"Ain't much to tell. Grew up here in Georgia. When the Walkers started popping up, my brother and I headed towards Atlanta, which was declared a safe zone. We ran into Shane and the rest of the group outside Atlanta after we found out that Atlanta was forsaken. Been with them ever since," he explained. "They left my brother on top of a building in Atlanta. We went to get him, but he was gone. That should get you up to date," Daryl added, not wanting to talk further about his brother. He still resented the rest of the group for leaving Merle out there to fend for himself, even though he knew that his brother could survive.
"I would have shot anyone on the spot if they had left my brother to fend for himself," Terrwyn commented.
"I was close, believe me," Daryl said, looking vexed. "What about you?" he asked, taking a few steps so that he was fairly close to Terrwyn. That was the way things had worked. People asked questions to have others ask the question back, at least that seemed to be the way most people operated. She shrugged, as if she were trying to convince herself that it wasn't one worth telling.
"I grew up in New York City. My family had a butcher shop where I worked pretty much since I was old enough to hold a knife. I spent a lot of time with my older brother when I wasn't in the butcher shop. We stayed in when all this started but eventually my mam got bit and da went out soon after. Last I heard of my brother he had been in Atlanta, so I decided that staying in New York was a dumb idea, so I headed out here, hoping to find him," she chuckled slightly at the idea that she had thought that she would be able to find her brother in Atlanta, even if it hadn't been forsaken. "It was a dumb idea, but it gave me something to work for."
Daryl looked at the woman that stood in front of him. First when he saw he had thought that she had just recently split from a group or that she had some sort of safe house in the area. He hadn't thought for a second that this short blonde would be able to fend for herself for long. Going through New York must have been a pain and being dedicated enough to travel all the way down to Georgia told him that she was either really stubborn or really desperate.
"What are you going to do now then?" The words slipped past his lips even before the thought about them.
"I don't know. I guess I could start off with working on surviving," she said with an infectious grin which left Daryl unable to crack a slight smile of his own.
"That's as good place as any to start out."
They resumed trekking through the woods, occasionally stopping in hopes of wandering into some prey. Most of the time it wasn't anything worthwhile, just a squirrel or something of similar size. They had come across two Walkers, which according to Daryl, was far less than he had been expecting to see that day.
Finally the pattern was broken when Terrwyn was the one who stopped first, catching Daryl's attention immediately. She looked around, trying to pinpoint the exact sound that had caught her attention. Then she heard it again, some sort of crunch. She slowly turned herself to the left and then she saw what had caught her attention. She looked at Daryl with an expression that made it obvious that she was immensely proud of having found something. He imitated the motion of shooting a gun and pointed at Terrwyn.
Instantly her heart began to beat faster and her hands began to tremble slightly. Daryl was the last person she wanted to find out about how inept she was with the shotgun. However she held up the gun and pointed it at the doe, desperately trying to find a reason for her not to shoot. As her finger touched the trigger she found a solid excuse in her mind. She put down the gun and looked at Daryl. "Wouldn't a shot attract the Walkers?" she said, trying to suppress the smile that was threatening to spill on to her lips.
Daryl didn't reply, instead he took a few steps closer so that he was only inches away from her and he handed her his crossbow. Terrwyn's heart sunk as the realization that she wouldn't be able to get out of shooting the deer and revealing that she was clumsy. She was beginning to regret pointing out the doe to him. Her spotting, her kill. That was the way it seemed to work in his mind. She looked down at the crossbow and sighed. She wanted to tough it out and just shoot the damn thing already. But in order to shoot it, she had to be able to actually get a hit.
"I'm not good with shooting. I… Don't want to miss," she admitted with a timorous expression on her face.
"It ain't that hard," Daryl said in a low voice as he used his right hand to grab hers, which had the crossbow in it. He gently pulled it up so that it was at the same level as her face. Then he grabbed her left hand and directed it so that it was also on the crossbow. Because of the height difference, he had no problem leaning his head forward so that he could easily give her instructions that barely qualified as whispers.
"First thing, you have to calm down."
Daryl voice in Terrwyn's ear first made her heart pound harder against her chest but as the seconds passed, it slowly calmed down and her hands began to steady with the help of Daryl's hands. Thankfully the doe was preoccupied with something, giving Daryl enough time to properly position the crossbow. "Now, you just have to aim carefully. Don't just shot without thought. One arrow should be enough to take it down."
His finger pressed against hers, letting her know that it was about time. Terrwyn closed her left eye in an attempt to make sure that the aim was at least close to the doe. Following Daryl's lead she pulled the trigger, releasing the arrow. As quickly as she had pulled the trigger, the doe fell down. They had gotten it square in the head. Although, Terrwyn reminded herself that it was more Daryl than her. He was the expert and she was the greenhorn who needed his guidance.
"Now that wasn't so hard, now was it?"
In the heat of the moment Terrwyn had somehow become unaware that Daryl was still holding her in the shooting position. His words, which had slithered into her ear, caused goosebumps to crawl down her arms. Daryl kept his position for only a moment longer and then he quickly let go. Terrwyn scurried over to the doe as she felt her cheeks warm up. She felt like an imbecile for allowing something as trivial as someone speaking close to her ear fluster her. "Doesn't look like much food," she commented, bending down to examine the doe better. Just looking at it made her mouth water and she certainly didn't want to share it with the other people in the group but she knew how things went. They hunt, everyone feeds.
"Don't matter. It's not like we're short on food," Daryl said, sauntering towards her. Terrwyn turned her head and looked at him questioningly. If they weren't short on food, why would they be out hunting? Almost as if he read her mind, Daryl answered: "Variety is appreciated by them. Nobody wants to eat canned food all the time." Of course, how did she not think of that? Even though she had grown to appreciate canned food, there was no reason that the same had to apply to others. Especially not children, such as Carl.
He was leaving out the part where he couldn't stand being around the group 24/7. They were good people but he often found himself frustrated with them after having been with them too long. Going hunting was a way for him to clear his head and recharge. Today had been more for her than him though. He had noticed how she didn't exactly get along with Lori and Carol. The way she had spent most of the morning standing and staring told him that she wasn't comfortable at all and he figured that maybe she needed time to recharge.
"If I had my knives with me we could have taken care of skinning and taking the good parts off," Terrwyn said with a dejected sigh. Even though Daryl had gone through the trouble of bringing her the shotgun, her duffle bag still remained hidden somewhere in the prison. Within it were things she had considered essential for a good life: extra pair of socks, whiskey, her knife set, a few books she had brought with herself and an oversized army type jacket which had saved her from freezing to death countless times.
A single chuckle emitted from Daryl's mouth, causing the corners of Terrwyn's mouth to turn slightly downwards. "What?" she asked in a manner that implied that she was protesting that she had done anything worthy of a chuckle. "You don't know how to shoot but you know how to skin an animal," he commented. "I told you, my family owned a butcher shop. Da's friends would bring in fresh meat, including deer," she remarked defensively as she stood back up.
"I just thought it was interesting," he said with a shrug. "I didn't think butchers did the skinning themselves."
"Most don't. But da insisted on cutting most of the middle men. He hired people to hunt and get the carcasses over to us. He tries to give the best that the customers could find," she said with a bright smile, obviously proud of her family's business. As she allowed her mind to roll on in the memories, her smile disappeared and was replaced with a somber expression.
"Could you smile again?" Daryl asked, suddenly looking at Terrwyn as if she were the most interesting person in the world. Terrwyn furrowed her brows, wondering what the hell he meant with that. It wasn't as if her smiling would make her mood any better. But then she realized what he might be looking for by asking her to smile. She squeezed forth a rather spurious smile, knowing well that if he was looking for what she suspected.
Daryl instinctively reached out and touched her left cheek. His thumb caressed the dent that had formed when she presented the smile to him. He had seen dimples before; they weren't really a rare sight. But he had never seen anyone who had only a dimple on one side of their face. He moved his thumb so that he could glimpse at it once more. It wasn't particularly deep or anything. But it was fascinating to see someone with only one dimple.
While Daryl was mesmerized by her dimple, Terrwyn took the opportunity and studied his facial features up close. His face was rough looking which made Terrwyn automatically assume that he had been living this kind of life, hunting and surviving out in the wild, since he was born. His eyes were a beautiful shade of blue, although she would never tell him in that in fear that he would be offended by the adjective "beautiful."
Daryl's eyes moved away from the dent in Terrwyn's cheek and they met hers, which had been staring intensely at him for quite a while. As if they were being operated by some invisible force, their faces slowly inched closer until their lips were so close that they could both feel the heat that escaped the other's lips. As if some switched turned within him, Daryl pulled away from her and took a step back. What the hell was he doing? He had brought her out there to blow off some steam. Not to resort to physical activities that would yield steam.
He walked around her and picked up the doe without so much as another word. Terrwyn had been surprised about how their lips nearly met. She took a few deep breaths, intentionally allowing Daryl to walk ahead of her. She reminded herself that now was not the time to get involved with anyone, in any way. She loaded the arrow back into the crossbow and stopped momentarily to pick up the shotgun she had left on the ground in order to use the crossbow. As she was straightening herself out she heard a very familiar noise.
"Daryl-" she began, only to receive an exasperated reply.
"We ain't gonna talk about it!"
"No, that's not it, Daryl there-"
"You best not think we're gonna-"
Daryl had turned around to look at Terrwyn but he stopped mid-sentence when he realized that she wasn't trying to initiate a conversation about what almost happened. There were a dozen Walkers who were heading their way, moaning loudly. He looked at the crossbow which was in Terrwyn's hand and briefly considered trying to take them out. But then it came to him that she was absolutely useless with the shotgun which would leave it up to him to take down all the Walkers, which was not only time consuming but risky.
Daryl put the doe down on the ground, knowing well that he wouldn't be able to travel very fast trying to carry it. Even though it was small for a doe, it still weighed enough to slow him down considerably. As soon as he straightened out, Terrwyn thrust the crossbow at him and he accepted it without a word. He caught her looking at the doe with a wistful gaze.
Terrwyn had only glanced at the doe for a moment but suddenly she found herself trying to catch up with Daryl, who was already making his way back to the prison. She had wanted to fight for the meat but she knew better. It was far too heavy for Daryl to be able to carry and keep up a reasonable speed. If they were lucky, it would distract at least some of the Walkers. She tried to cover more distance by jumping with every other step, her short feet not able to cover the same distance as Daryl's.
It took them almost one fourth of the time they had been out to reach the prison gates. We really took our time going out. Terrwyn noted as Daryl called out for someone to open the gates. It didn't take long for the black guy, whose name Terrwyn hadn't yet memorized, to open up the gates and let them in through the double fence.
"Walkers?" Rick questioned, only receiving a nod from Daryl.
"There were a dozen of them in sight when we left," Terrwyn elaborated. Immediately the group members armed themselves and seemed to prepare to shoo the Walkers when they approached.
"Why didn't you take care of them? With those weapons you should have been able to," Lori said, her tone almost accusatory. Terrwyn opened her mouth to answer but instead Daryl took the word.
"She can't do shit with a gun," he shouted. "Ya'all take away her weapons and make her fucking useless!"
"Calm down Daryl-"
"No! I ain't gonna calm down. Because of your paranoia we could have gotten killed. If ya'll hadn't taken her things away, we might at least have had some decent meat to feast on!"
With those words Daryl thrust the rabbit, which had been tied for convenience to a belt of some sorts, at Glenn. He stormed off soon after. Terrwyn received some questioning glances from the group and she sighed. "We got a deer earlier but because of the Walkers we had to leave it behind," she said with a frown. She didn't like to be called useless and up until that moment, she had thought that Daryl was going to avoid saying anything about how worthless she was with a gun. Everyone seemed to be slightly disheartened by the news that they had pretty much ruined their chances of a nice supper by not allowing her to have her items.
When they began to shoot at the Walkers who had finally reached the prison, Terrwyn had disappeared into the prison, making a beeline into her cell.
A/n: thank you to those who reviewed! I'm not sure what the etiquette with how often one should update is, but I believe I'll update whenever I have a new chapter available. Sometimes a day later and I'm sure there will be times where I won't update for a while. Bear with me. Anyways, I fixed some things in this chapter before posting, trying to put at least some of the Daryl we know from the TV shows in the fic. :) It would like to hear what you guys think of the fic so far!
