A/N Now we go back to the very beginning, where Daryl first comes across Stacie. Sorry it took me awhile to get this out it's been crazy at work.
Daryl stopped to get his bearings. He glanced up at the sky, the late August sun burned down on him, even in the thick forest the rays that got through burned hot on his bare arms. Sweat ran down his face and chest , molding his torn cotton shirt to his torso. It was hot, stifling, oppressive. Even drawing a breath was a chore. He moved a little to his right to seek refuge from the sun under the branches of a huge oak tree.
"You picked a fine time to run off Sophia," he muttered out loud to himself. " Couldn't be any hotter."
He pulled a ragged handkerchief out of his back pocket of his worn work pants and mopped sweaty face, taking some of the grime off it as he did, but leaving his permanant scowl. He didn't care. No use trying to stay clean these days. No one to try to impress, not that he would even try if there was, it wasn't his way. Right now he had enought of his own problems he had to deal with and didn't need anymore.
He stuffed the dirty towel back into the back pocket of his work pants and continued moving quietly through the woods.
Hell, this wasn't Sophia's fault that she'd run off, correction, was chased off. If it was anyone's fault it was either Dale's for failing to see the approaching herd while on lookout , or Rick's, for finding Sophia once and having her hide, leaving her on her own again.
Daryl grunted to himself.
"Dale ain't nutin' but an' old man, if its anyone's fault it's that damn Rick's. What kinda idiot leaves a little girl alone in woods full of walkers?"
He didn't care what Rick's excuse was..something about drawing the walkers away from Sophia, yeah right. Some big badass cop he is.
"Wern't nothin' but 2 of them, he should have stood his ground and killed them then in there, but no, he had to run off leaving Sophia alone, hidin' under a fallen tree at the river bank. When he went back for her, she was gone. 'course she was gone, whadde expect?"
Daryl mumbled to himself and spat out in disgust. RIck was a cop, as was Shane, and Daryl had no use for cops. Too many times a cruiser would pull up in front of the rundown trailer where he lived with his daddy and older brother . Most of the time the were looking for Merle and on several occasions, himself. The cops were always loud and obnoxious, rattling off demeaning insults, and sometimes resorting to brute force if Merle got out of line. Daryl was sure they would do the same with him, so he stayed as polite as his upbringing allowed.
Truth be known Daryl had no use for any authority figure.
Started with his daddy and his belt that he took to his back, sometimes his legs or chest and on more than one occasion, his face. Then it moved on to teachers who would rap his small hands with a ruler and send him to the principals office where he met with the paddle. Sometimes he hurt so bad that even days afterwards he would have to bite his bottom lip from crying out when he tried to sit down. He wasn't a bad kid, he just usually wound up in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He would have rather had to deal with the paddle every day then his daddy's belt.
Pushing the bad memories from his mind and mumbling a few obsenties for getting distracted from the task at hand, he pushed on through the woods.
He continued on moving south. He lost Sophia's tracks hours ago but pressed on. He needed to find her, thinking of how scared she must be to be out in the woods all alone. More so he did not want to go back and face Carol and tell her he had no luck.
He knew Carol was starting to depend on him more and more. He didn't like it. Not that he didn't like her, she was ok, but that is as far as it went for him. The last thing he needed was some broad hanging on to his coat didn't want anyone to depend on him for anything, nor him depend on anyone else. But it was those damn eyes. Like a doe's, soft and pleading. He couldn't say no to them.
"She needs ta get any other ideas she may be gettin' out of her foolish head now!" he thought angrily to himself. "I have enough friggin'problems as it is without some useless woman makin' everything worse"
A sound pulled Daryl from his thoughts. Not sure exactly what he heard he turned towards the direction it came from,paused and listened to see if he could hear it again.
Laughter, a woman's voice.
Quietly and quickly he made his way in the direction the laughter came from, careful not to make a sound, not sure what he would find.
He could hear it again, it was coming somewhere below him now.
He made his way down a sloped embankment towards a thick tree line.
A little louder now, he strained to try to catch what was being said, the light breeze carried it to him. Definitly female.
At the tree line now, he quietly picked his way through the underbrush until he could make out where the voice was coming from.
Below him.
Creeping a little closer, silently, almost holding his breath as to not make a sound, he could see just beyond the tree line where the ground sloped down to a small creek. Full from the torrential rain that occured a few days ago, he hoped the rushing water would cover any sound he made.
It took him a few seconds to actually process what he was seeing.
A large black vehicle , a make that Daryl wasn't sure of, was backed down to the creek, the back of it opened.
"Must be some kinda SUV or somethin' the army would have" he thought to himself.
There were supplies scattered around on the ground at the back of the vehicles..boxes of some sort, he couldnt make out the printing on them. Assorted camping gear, a cooler.
Someone had set up camp, out in the open as if they didn't have a care in the world.
"Gotta be a real idiot,leavin' himself wide open like that," he thought to himself,disgusted at the stupidity.
It was then he saw her, his pulse quickened,breath caught in his throat.
A/N Sorry it's a short chapter but I wanted to get the story going again since the first part I published last week. Will try to get the next one out sooner. Thanks for reading!
