Taking off at a jog, I withdrew my tomahawk and stopped at the edge of the fire, looking around. There were no infected, but there was a new man I had yet to meet. Patricia sobbed at my feet.
Placing my weapon back in jean loop, I felt Daryl come to a stop next to me, too quiet to hear approaching. Beth fell to the ground next to Patricia and wrapped her arms protectively around the elder girl. Maggie glanced at me, tears welling in her eyes reflective from the fire.
Otis was dead.
TWD
Shane. The man who was with Otis in his last moments. He doesn't say much since he's returned, and has given no details about his death, other than Otis was over ran and he was the only reason they gathered the medical supplies. They call him a hero, but I think there is more.
Regardless, we had to wait for sunrise to create a memorial, for Hershel had to go and save the little boy, which took all night. He's now stable.
The memorial is a pile of rocks, and Patricia sits out there, sobbing with Beth silently at her side. I turned away from them, unsure of the emotions that laid under the surface. Was I saddened by the loss of Otis? Or perhaps I was burdened with the fact that if I was at the house, I would have been the one to voyage out.
"...with him?" It was not until she had virtually finished talking did I realize Maggie was asking me a question. I looked her over, and saw that she fidgeted slightly, waiting for my answer. I kept my face straight, but tilted my head eve so slightly to the right to express my confusion. It wasn't uncommon that I would be lost in my own thoughts, so it was not new for her to repeat herself.
"Daryl is in the stable, getting ready to take one of the horses out. Dad wants you to go out with him."
I let a huff of breath out through my nose. "No. I should get hunting." From what I had gathered through their stay here was that Daryl is the only one who is really able to hunt, and is the one without fear of going out on his own. Much like me. Which was why we seemed to get stuck together on so many occasions.
"Dad said that he'll let you go on runs if you do it." I didn't move, though inside my heart sped up ever so slightly. Running is my life, and Hershel refused to let me do it. No one on the farm is fit enough to keep up with me, and he felt I would be attacked if I ventured out alone.
"Fine, whatever." I grumbled and pulled an apple slice from the board an popped it into my mouth, jaw involuntarily clenching at the sour taste.
Moving to the stable, I watched as Daryl tossed the saddle onto the dark brown horse, then gently ran hand through its mane to calm it down. "The hell are you doing?"
He glanced over his shoulder at me, like there would be anyone else coming to check in on his ass. "Go 'way." He grumbled, pulling the horse out of the restraints.
"Can't. Hershel says if you go, I go."
"Why?"
I pushed air out of my nose, the closest thing to a laugh I had come to in a while. "Don't trust you with the horse." I pulled the black horse out of the stable and slipped a saddle onto its back. "Plus, I get something out of the deal."
"Wat?" He gripped the saddle and forced his leg over and struggled to regain his balance. I followed suit but became balanced with much more practiced ease than him.
"You wouldn't get it." I laced my finger through the horses mane and patted its neck. "Where the hell are you going anyway?"
He gripped the reins tightly in his hands, running through his options. I'd end up following him, and I'd be helpful if I knew what I was looking for. "Lil girl. Nine. Blonde."
I tapped my heels into the horses flank and clicked my tongue softly, slowly taking the lead out of the building. I began to process what I knew about the group. There was one that was constantly quiet, refusing to even leave her tent for the majority of the time. "Sad woman's daughter?" I struggled to recall her name. "Carol?"
He grunted which I could only take as me being correct. With that, we fell into silence, my horse always three trots ahead of his since I knew these woods as if they were my first home.
After an hour or so we had not seen any sign of the girl, and we had not said a word. I personally am content with such; just embracing nature and listening to all of it around us.
He gently cooed to the horse behind me and I tugged on the reins of mine, pulling to a stop. My head instantly swiveled, looking to make sure the area was clear. Te infected are slow and I can outrun them, and there was no doubt a horse could. But to stop and wait, they could easily be upon us in seconds. Once I was satisfied there were no infected, I scanned the area once more, looking for a tuff of blonde, or maybe an article of fabric. Something that ha made Daryl stop and could give hope this child was alive. I've seen my share of young infected, and for anyone to die is tragic, but a child was something else.
I saw nothing.
"What you stopping for?" I asked, tugging the reins slightly to my left so the horse turned and I was able to link eyes with the man.
"River." He pointed towards the direction I had just turned from and I looked over my shoulder. I saw a large drop and then a river, slowly trickling along. It wasn't the same river behind Hershel's place, but this was one that branched off from it.
"What about it?" I was quickly tiring d the whole one word thing from him. I wasn't find of having to be the one to weed information out of people.
"Rick told 'er to folla the river." I nodded slightly to myself, understanding. The main hope was that she followed the river and was down there somewhere. Only problem was figuring out how to actually make it down there. It was a steep drop that the horses couldn't make, and one I'd rather not take myself. We could keep going the path we were on until there was a slope down to the river, but I had no idea how long that would take.
"Well-" I turned back to him and then I heard it; the gentle shuffle of leaves. He heard it to, for he turned on the saddle. This caused his horse to turn with him, and then there was the hiss.
My horse bucked under me and I gripped the saddle in my right hand, wrapping my left around its neck. I managed t stay on, but Daryl must never have been in this situation. He was flung over the edge of the slope and I heard him hit several times on the way down, his horse retreating in fright.
Without a second thought, I hopped off the horse and looked around. Daryl laid unmoving, partially in the water, partially not. To no fault of his own he made a tremendous amount if noise, and I knew infected would be upon him within moments.
"Fucking hell, I don't want to do this." I tugged my hair up and wrapped the elastic around it three times, making sure it was completely restrained from my face so it was one less distraction. I bounced on my toes slightly, knowing full well that I may fall down the slope.
Pulling my tomahawk out of my belt loop, I gripped the handle and lined it up with a tree three or so yards from Daryl's body. Throwing it, I watched as it cut through the air and sunk into the trunk. If I left it on me, I feared I would cut up my body, which would lead to death, or lose it down the slope.
Biting my bottom lip softly, I grasped the root by my feet and crouched, slipping my feet over the edge and used my left hand to catch the root it connected with first. This worked for about two times, my pace fast but controlled, until my left arm became slightly entangled in the underbrush. My shoulder popped and I coiled to my left in pain, throwing me off course. My hand freed itself, but I was forced to roll the rest if the way down to the bottom. I managed to curl my right arm around my head, protecting me from any concussion that may be inflicted upon me.
My body rolled to a stop at the base of the stop, losing most of my momentum before I landed on the rocks. Gently, I rolled myself onto my back and swallowed, feeling the pain radiate through my body. I knew this was a stupid idea, but I had to do it. But I didn't get out of it unscathed as I had hoped.
Forcing myself to my feet, I felt as if my arm had been ripped from its socket, but wasn't able to fix it from down here. I just let it hang and hurried over to Daryl, the rest of my body only riddled with future bruises and current cuts, and thankfully able to walk with ease.
I crouched next to him and sighed, seeing blood soaking through his flannel shirt and an arrow protruding from his side. His eyes were closed and his face was at ease; he was passed out from the fall.
Standing, I went and yanked my weapon from the trunk with my good arm, tightening my grip and turning.
Somehow, two infected managed to make it towards Daryl without me noticing. With ease I threw my tomahawk, taking the one closest to Daryl down, just as he began to awake. He made a panicked sound I never thought I would hear from him, struggling to pull himself away from the other creature who was still approaching him at full force.
Without my tomahawk, I had to improvise a weapon. Bending down, I grabbed a rock in my right hand and changed the creature. Bashing its head in, it crumbled and I delivered two more blows before dropping the rock and rocking back onto my butt, wiping the blood from my hand onto my pants.
Daryl groaned and I was force back onto my feet, pulling tomahawk from the dead creature as I passed. It was back upon my hip by the time I crouched at Daryl's side. "Alright dumb ass, other than your side, what the hell hurts?" There wasn't that much blood, the bolt keeping the wound plugged. I wasn't a doc, and didn't know whether to leave it in or yank it out.
"Yer the stupid one who folla'd me down 'ere." He grumbled angrily, as if this was all my fault. If I would have left him alone, he'd be the infected bait at this moment.
"What. Hurts." I glanced around and made sure there were no other infected lurking beyond my initial sweep. My left arm was beyond searing pain and it was dulling my senses and clouding my mind. I needed to get out of here as much as he did.
"E'rything." He winced. "But I'm fine. Can walk, but gotta get da damn bolt out." I nodded and pursed my lips to the side.
"If ya wanna yank the shit out, fine. But your gonna bleed a hell of a lot." With my good hand I grabbed the hem of my shirt and eased it over my head, cursing anything that came to my mind as the pain hit me. I still had a camisole on, but the way Daryl looked at me made me uncomfortable.
"The hell is this?" His hand reached up and fiddled with the ring on chain that dangled from my neck. I jerked back and spun the ring until it bounced on my back, then leaned towards him again.
"We don't have much time. Pull the damn bolt out so we can get back." I gripped m shirt in my hand, then realized it would be no use to me in this state. Biting just above the hem, I tore to create a long, continuous strip to the best of my ability with only teeth and one hand.
He took a few deep breaths, his cheeks puffing out with each one to show his fear if the coming pain. Before I could do anything to aid him, he gripped it just above his flesh and yanked straight up, and I watched as the orange and yellow fetching pulled through, and he let out a primitive cry, tossing the bolt to the side.
I forced him to sit and began bandaging his side. He used his hand to hold the fabric to his wound as I wrapped it around his torso. He tied the two ends in a knot and then we both stood. Bending with effort, he placed bolt into the holder built into the crossbow and slung it over his shoulder so it rested in his back.
"Now, smart ass." He gave me a sideways glance, both of our heads tilted upwards at the black horse that faithfully waited for us to return. "How the hell we gonna get up th're?"
"With my fucked up shoulder and your side, it ain't gonna be fun." I rubbed the back of my neck and assessed all of our options. We could attempt straight up, but that was an unlikely action that would work. Couldn't get the horse down. "Let's walk upstream. There's gotta be an easier way up."
We started off, and I noticed he had a limo. "Ya gotta stop." I was sure I had a limp myself, now that the adrenalin of getting to Daryl was wearing off, my body began to force me to realize the severity of my injuries.
"I'm fine." He spat, an I was sure this was something built into him. Show no weakness, give no leverage to a person who wanted to hurt him. I've seen that before. Hell, I do that. I turned away from him as kept limping, less severe than his, hoping we'd make it to the top of the slope and to the damn horse. Finally, he found his voice once more. "What's with the ring on your neck?"
I continued walking, deciding what to tell him. There had been dozens of things he could have asked me in this moment, but he chose the ring. Should that earn him an answer? Might as well, he's told me enough of his life, and I've told him nothing. And he's seen it, and I doubted he'd let it go.
"My ma's." with my right arm I reached around to bring the ring to the front of my chest once more, gently toying with it.
He opened his mouth to say something that I surely didn't want to hear, so I jerked my head towards the right and dropped the ring. "We're going to have to make it up here." I heard shuffling from behind us and knew we were being followed by the infected. If we waited too long with our injuries, we'd have to begin to fight them off.
"Can ya climb?" He questioned as we pressed ourselves against the slope, my right hand grasping an imbedded root. The slope wasn't as steep as the other one, but we would still need to climb it.
"Let's see if you can keep up." I was scared that I would fall, but two infected broke out from the tree line and I started off up the slope. Daryl pulled ahead but blew air out of his mouth to express the strain of it all. Shoving my right foot into the soft soul above a root, I pressed my body on the terrain an released the root in my hand, grabbing the one above it. I managed to pull myself farther up and away from the angry infected at the bottom.
At the top, Daryl grabbed me under the armpits and pulled me up, falling backwards so I was on top of him. I hastily rolled off of him and landed with a thud in the soul. "Damn it!" I hissed, another jolt of pain through my shoulder.
He sat up before I did, but I forced myself up and groaned. "Come on, the horse isn't that far away."
We stood and made our way back and I saw that his limp was more severe than mine.
At the place where the horse once waited for us, I saw what I hadn't even assumed would happen. Two infected feasted on the downed animal, blood and intestine polling on the ground.
I pulled my tomahawk out and threw it, taking down the one that used to be a man. A bolt cut through the air and took down the remaining one. "Damn, filthy bastards." He dropped his arm so the crossbow dragged in the dirt.
"Guess we're walking."
So I try to make it that if you have any questions I'll work the answer into the next chapter. If you have any questions or requests, leave me a review and I'll see what I can do. Love you all.