Chapter Nine
The smell hit them almost immediately. Michonne grimaced and let out a low whistle through her teeth.
"Jesus" Daryl coughed, he moved his torch around to find the source of the stench, it did not take long to see it. Slumped in a chair behind a desk was the body of a man wearing a suit, the stump where his head used to be was now home to a swarm of flies, while what remained of his head decorated the wall and ceiling.
"Got bit, fever hit" Daryl said under his breath, moving around to get a closer look at the man, "world's gone to shit, might as well quit". He laughed ironically and thought of the hanging walker in the woods, at least his one had the sense to blow his brains out.
"What did you say?" Michonne asked, opening the drawer of one of the filing cabinets which lined the walls of the room.
"Oh, nothin'", Daryl said, wiping the sweat from his brow, "guess this guy couldn't take it no more."
"All the more for us, then" Michonne remarked, flicking through some paperwork she had pulled out of the drawer.
Placing his crossbow on the desk, Daryl noticed that in his left hand, the body held a small, silver pistol. They could do with all the ammo they could get, he thought as he took a deep breath and began to prize the swollen hand open to release the gun.
"Think he was the only one here?" Daryl asked, wiping the gun on his trousers to clean off the blood.
"No, I think we've got some more to find. Alive or dead, I couldn't say though." Michonne replied as she walked around to the desk to check the drawers.
Daryl slipped the gun into his waistband and ran a hand through his hair, he felt bad for hoping that anyone else they found was dead. Not because he didn't want survivors, but because he wanted to get back to the prison. He wondered what Carol was doing now, and hoped that she wasn't worrying about him, he had promised her that he'd be back, and he didn't break his promises.
The click of a gun behind him snapped him out of his thoughts and made the hairs on the back of his neck stand to attention.
"Who are you?" a rough, male voice asked from behind him. Michonne, who had been ducked down rifling through the desk drawers, stood up slowly with her hands raised in the air.
"We're just passing through, trying to see if we can find a group to stay with", she lied.
Daryl turned around to face the man. He was old and wrinkled, a dirty baseball cap perched on top of his head with wisps of white hair poking out by his ears.
"There ain't no groups here", the old man replied, keeping his gun raised and pointed at Daryl's chest. "Only me. That's the way I like it, that's how it's gonna stay."
Daryl cleared his throat. "We never meant no harm, sir. Just tryin' to survive like everyone else."
The man's eyes flitted frantically from Daryl to Michonne,who had moved in front of the desk.
"You here on your own?" she asked, trying to keep her voice soft.
The man nodded, a bead of sweat dripping off the end of his crooked nose. "Came here with a group 'bout two months ago. They all left, lookin' for some safe haven. Figured I didn't trust the road much and stayed here on my own."
"What about this guy?" Daryl gestured to the body in the chair, flies still buzzing around it.
The man twitched his neck and his eyes fell to the ground. "Well I uh..."
Daryl and Michonne shared a sideways glance, something wasn't right about him.
"You what?" Michonne asked slowly.
The man smiled sadistically. "Couldn't have him hoarding all this." He waved the gun around, gesturing to the room around him. "This place is pretty safe you know. Old freezer out back I been usin' as a bedroom. Kind of headquarters you know?" he took a small step towards Daryl and Michonne.
Daryl studied the man further, he wore black leather boots, which were falling apart, accompanied by faded jeans with holes in the knees. He did not look as if he had had much luck before he found this place.
"So it's safe here?" Michonne asked, interrogating him to buy some time.
The man adjusted his grip on the gun and shuffled his feet. "Safe enough" his eyes widened madly, "for me that is".
