~*~*~ Now for my portrayal of Daryl Dixon. I hope you enjoy it :D ~*~*~

Later when we had collected firewood and shared out our food for some of the women to cook, two of the women were called Carol and Lori (I think) and they volunteered to cook, which was a good thing because I'm the kind of person who could find a way to burn water if I was left to attend it. It was getting late so Dean was busy helping Chloe put up his two-man tent, which Chloe and I were going to sleep in, and the guy who had kind of taken on a leadership role, a cop from some backwater town in Georgia called Shane, had kindly given Dean his tiny little one man tent. Chloe was going to take it, but I could tell by her face that she was scared of being by herself, so I told Dean to take the one-man tent. I felt a bit useless, which is a feeling I don't enjoy at all when Shane approached me.

"Hey, doc, you got a minute?"

"Yeah sure, what's up?" I smiled politely.

"I was just wondering, later, or in the morning, when everyone's not so rattled, do you think you could like, give some physicals."

"Like physical exams?"

"Yeah." I could tell he didn't want me to do it just to check on everyone's general wellbeing.

"You want me to check for bites, scratches?"

"Please." He looked relieved that I'd understood so quickly and that he didn't have to explain it too far. "I just don't want anyone getting sick and getting loose with everyone else. We all need to survive this, it's the most important thing."

"That's no problem. Anything I can do until later?"

"One of the rednecks, he's setting up some kind of alarm system on the perimeter of the camp. You wanna go make sure he's not effing it up?" He handed me a small flashlight.

"Cool." I walked in the direction that Shane pointed and soon came across the younger redneck.

"What you want?" He asked roughly as he looked up from his task.

"I came to help."

"I don't need your help."

"And what is that supposed to mean? My help isn't good enough? For you?"

"See there ya go, stuck up bitch."

"I'm not stuck up."

"You some arrogant little bitch cause you a doctor, thinkin' you better than everyone else."

"Maybe not everyone else just you." I scowled at him and he turned his back, which annoyed me. I don't like people turning their backs on me, especially not redneck assholes. I waited a few seconds, and when he didn't turn back to me I stood with my arms folded, and in hindsight I probably looked like a spoiled little brat, but I didn't care at the time.

"You gonna stand like that all night or help?"

"Tell me what you're doing then."

"I'm puttin' holes in these tin cans and puttin' string through the holes and then I'm tyin' them round branches I put round the camp. Makin' some noisy tripwire." He held me some string and pointed to a few tin cans on the ground.

"Okay." I picked up a tin can and the piece of string and looked at them in confusion for a few seconds. "Uh… what's your name?"

"Daryl." He was still continuing on with what he was doing.

"Daryl, can you show me… what the hell I'm doing?"

"Can't you do nothin'? All that schoolin' and no common sense." I scowled at him as he took a tin can from my hand. "What's your name anyway? Or is it just doc?"

"Raelen."

"Weird name."

"Funny, I don't recall asking for your opinion on it." He ignored me again and pierced a hole in the tin with his knife and then yanked the string out of my hand to feed through the hole.

"Got it?" He held it up in front of my face. I ripped it back out of his hand. He was making me feel stupid. HE was making ME feel stupid, it's laughable. He was so annoying! Then suddenly he grabbed the collar of my scrubs and pulled me down onto the ground.

"Ouch!"

"Shut up." He whispered. I looked up to see him kneeling with his knife in his hand, looking ultra-alert. I tried to get up from the ground but his hand was on my upper back keeping me there. Shit, he was strong. I heard what was the source of his alarm. A light shuffling noise followed by a slight tapping of tin. The tripwire! The noise was getting closer, and louder. I tensed every muscle in my body waiting to see some walking dead corpse come at us when we saw a figure. Daryl raised his knife and made to slash at the body, which dodged him. Wait, zombies don't move that fast.

"You slash that knife at me again I'll jam it up yer ass boy." I recognised the tones of the other redneck man.

"Jesus Merle, ye damn near gave me a heart attack!" Daryl scolded when Merle came into full view.

"Good to see you got the doc down. Going to get you some of that high-class pussy?" This guy was disgusting.

"Shut the fuck up Merle." Daryl shook his head and grabbed my arm really roughly to pull me back onto my feet.

"Hey! Enough of the manhandling." I told Daryl off and then turned to Merle. "And you, don't make me wash your vile mouth out."

"I know what I'd like to wash your mouth out with sweetness." He sleazed and I rolled my eyes. "I jus' came out to do a piss, goodbye sugartits." He loped off into the darkness.

"Are all rednecks foul and angry or is it just you two?"

"Well, he is my brother. Maybe it's just us." He teased, but not in a fun way, in a totally dickish way.

"And in future, if you think a walker is coming, give me more notice than shoving me down in the dirt."

"Hey, if you're that mad about it maybe I won' try to save you again."

"I can take care of myself."

"Yeah sure you can. You're like what? 110 pounds?"

"Uh, none of your business."

"Whatever, you're walker bait."

"You'll take that back when I save your life, asshole."

"Don' bother, I can actually take care of myself. You're just a weak, defenceless little girl." Okay, he pushed my rage button. I shoved his chest with all of my might and he stumbled back against the tree. "What the fuck?"

"Just shut up Daryl. I think I've got enough going on without you being an asshole too."

"We all got shit going on, just deal with it. Or die, tha's the choice." He walked past me. "And if you push me again I migh' forget you're a girl." Then he stalked off.

"Great, the world goes to shit and I get stuck with a dumbass redneck asshole." I said aloud through gritted teeth.

"I heard that." I heard his voice from about ten feet away and then footsteps carrying him further away.

"Asshole." I muttered.

~*~*~ He seems like a dick because that's my intention, I just love the bad boy thing, and maybe my character will too ;) ~*~*~