The woods were quiet as usual except for the sound of the water rushing over the rocks in the now swollen creek. June bit her lip and looked towards the barn with wariness. She allowed herself to go out on a very shaky limb and followed where her feet took her. Her arms itched with anticipation the closer she got to the barn and she could feel the little beads of sweat rolling down her spine. Once she got to the door, she peered through the slats of wood. She could make out his figure bent over the ancient gas generator at the back of the barn. The thing hadn't run in probably 30 years. She would be impressed if he could get the thing working again. After mustering up her last little bit of courage, she opened the door and stepped inside. He looked over his shoulder at her for a second before turning back to the generator. She stood behind him and put her hand, gently on his shoulder. He dropped the wrench he was holding and turned around to face her.
"I need your help with something. Can you give me a boost?" She asked. He didn't answer her, just nodded and followed her to one of the horse stalls. She stood in the far corner and waited for him to crouch down and help her up. She stepped into his cupped hands and reached up into the rafters. When she stepped back down she held and old coffee can in her hands.
"So whats in there?" He asked her.
"I quit smoking after the outbreak. Seemed stupid to die of lung cancer while other people were gettin' eaten. But, being who I am, I stashed these here in case of emergencies."
June pulled out a pack of Marlboro Lights and lit one with the zippo also in the coffee can.
"Want one?" She asked and held the pack out to him. He hesitantly took one from the pack and stuck it in his mouth. She held the zippo out to him and waited for him to step closer to take it. When he did, he snatched it from her hand and turned to light his cigarette.
"So what's the emergency?" He asked.
"You." She answered back slowly and with downcast eyes.
They stared at each other for a second before he looked away uncomfortably. She broke the awkward silence.
"I see you found the treasure at the bottom of the potato bin." She said.
"The what?" He asked confused.
"That's what my grandpa used to call it when he would hide his shine in the bottom of the potato bin. He would tell me, 'Junebug, go over there and find your Papaw the treasure at the bottom of the potato bin.' So, I would go over and root around for his mason jar full of moonshine and he would always give me a piece of candy when I brought it to him. He had to hide it from Grandma cuz she didn't like him drinkin' around us kids. " She recollected on the past with a smile before it faded into a far away look that Daryl couldn't place.
"So do I get a piece of candy now or what?" He asked her with a hint of a smile.
"Maybe." She answered.
"My great-granddad was a bootlegger. He ran shine from here to Memphis during the thirties. My granddad told me that he ran into Babyface Nelson outside of Mobile once and he paid him off with 20 jars of homemade shine and a box of chewing tobacco."
"Wow, impressive. Mama was a travelin' nurse and one time she had a family come down off the mountain to see her and they had no money for anything so they gave her homemade blackberry moonshine. Burned like hell." She laughed a little before meeting Daryl's gaze again.
"Im sorry about what I said earlier. About you makin' walkerbait outta whoever owned this place. That wasn't right of me."
"This place belonged to my grandparents. They came out here every summer til my granddad had a stroke back in '98 and they couldn't travel anymore. After that my Dad came out every once in a while to hunt and check on the place. After he died in '04 my Uncle Ron came and boarded the place up. "
"So you grew up here?"
"Yeah, I guess you could say that. Spent every summer here til I was 10. My granddad left it to me before he…" She trailed off and got that far off look in her eyes again. That awkward silence was back again and she wouldn't look at him.
He cleared his throat and jilted her out of whatever dark place she had gone to.
"Ya got any brothers or sisters?" He asked.
"Yeah, an older brother. Ted is a piece of shit and I sure as hell don't miss him. What about you Dixon?"
"I got an older brother. Merle, hes all I got left and I don't even know if he's alive or dead out there."
Daryl stubbed out his cigarette on his boot heel and flicked the butt into the corner of the stall before waving her over to follow him to the generator. She followed him over to the behemoth piece of antiquated machinery.
"I think I got it workin'. You wanna do the honors?" He asked. She reached her hand out to pull the choke cord and pulled with all her strength until the hulking piece of metal spluttered to life. She looked up at him with a beaming smile and he returned it to her in his own way. He reached over to shut it off and took the bottle of Jack Daniels out of his back pocket and took a swig. He handed her the bottle without asking and she took a long drink of her own.
"My Uncle Ron spent 4 months trying to get this thing started and it only took you a few hours. I must say Dixon, you're a man of many talents. Walker killer, hunter, wooden deer carver, generator fixer. Is there anything you cant do?"
"Yeah, sing."He said with a hint of a laugh.
"I bet you could even do that if you tried hard enough. Or got drunk enough."She laughed.
June looked back at the generator and returned to the dark place that Daryl could not enter.
"What ya thinkin' 'bout June?" He asked her almost forcefully.
"Nothing." She turned around and headed for the door.
"If its nothing then why do you get that look on your face whenever I bring up your family?"
"What look? I don't know what the fuck your talkin' about."
She continued to walk out of the barn and into the yard with him following after her.
"That look that says I did something bad and I don't want to think about it ever again so Im gonna try to run from it for the rest of my life."
June stopped short in the middle of the yard and turned around to face him.
"You really wanna know what happened Dixon?"
"Yeah, I do."
"Ok fine. When the outbreak hit Bristol, my brother, his wife and me holed up with my grandparents until things got real bad. My granddad told me he wanted to go to the cabin cuz he thought it would be safer. Me and Ted were so little last time we were here, we didn't know how to get here but my granddad would only tell me. He didn't trust Ted and Karen. When Ted found out that I knew how to get here he made what he called, 'an executive decision' at 2 A.M. one night. He came and got me out of bed and told me that we were leaving cuz grandma and grandpa wanted to keep us safe and that we should go to the cabin in Georgia. Ted wouldn't let me tell them goodbye. He said that it would just be too hard for them and that they loved us. And like the fuckin' idiot I am, I believed him. When we hit Nashville I knew something was wrong and started leadin' them on a wild goose chase. When we got to the state line, Ted and Karen had enough and pushed me out of the truck and drove off. I spent 3 weeks on foot tryin' to get here til I boosted the Jeep and raided a few stores for the guns, ammo and supplies. There, now you know Daryl. That's my deep dark secret. I left the only people that still loved me to die on their own in a farmhouse in Bristol, Tennessee."
After her speech, June was breathing heavily but not because of how hard it was to tell Daryl the truth. She was breathing heavy because of the weight taken off of her shoulders by recounting her story to someone besides the trees. Daryl just stood and stared at her with his heavy lidded gaze. All of a sudden, he grabbed the back of her neck and kissed her hard. She didn't fight off the kiss but wouldn't buckle under his forceful lips. She broke free from him and gave him a punch in the gut that sent him falling backwards into the mud. June stomped off into the woods and down to the creek. Sitting on a rock next to the water she took off her shoes and socks and dipped her toes into the icy cold water. She was angry. She was angry at Daryl for kissing her, she was angry at Ted and Karen for lying to her, leaving her grandparents for dead, leaving her for dead on the side of the road. But, most of all she was angry at herself. The rage that had been boiling in her gut for the last 6 months was about to overflow. And it was going to scald and burn whoever set her off.
June raised a tentative finger to her lips when she heard the snap of twigs and the crunch of leaves under boot heels. He definitely had balls, she would give him that. Her right hand slowly reached for the knife on her hip. He was probably 30 feet away to her left. Keeping as still as possible, she fingered the cool bone handle and laid it on her thigh until she thought that he was close enough. When she heard another twig snap, this time closer to her she took her chance and threw the knife as hard as she could near the sound. The knife hit the old oak tree and stuck in the trunk with a thud.
"Girl, your aim sucks. I was 15 feet to your right." Daryl's Georgia drawl came creeping out of the dark along with the body it inhabited. He pulled the knife out of the tree and set it down next to her on the rock.
"Well aint ya gonna say anything?" He asked.
He was met only with silence from June. She continued to stare down at the water intently like a prospector looking for gold.
"June?"He asked again, this time with more concern.
June twisted around to look up at him before grabbing her boots and knife and winding her way around him back to the trail that led to the cabin.