Merle and Daryl had packed what they needed. Sleeping bags, food, water and weapons, loads of weapons. Daryl was tracking and Merle was scouting. The two of them working together like well oiled gears. Neither of them interfering with the other.
"Yo Merle! You think we could take a quick detour? I found some fresh dear tracks, it's big!" Daryl shouted as he walked quietly through the underbrush of the forest. He spotted the animal ahead of him, it was cautiously grazing at tree roots when it realized it was being watched. The animal turned its head and stared at where Daryl was hiding, its ears darted back and forth as it sniffed the air.
Slowly he raised his bow and took a deep breath, tightened his grip, and fired. The arrow zoomed silently through the air and struck the deer just above the space between its tear ducts. With a soft thump it fell to the ground and Daryl heard his brother clapping. "Ain't that an impressive shot." He said as he emerged from behind a tree.
Daryl only shrugged and started cutting open the deer, taking a step back as the blood and guts spilled out.
They hung the now headless dear high enough up in a tree to make sure no passing walker would be able to reach it. "We'll come back for it when we find the group, we'll want 'em to think that they need us. They won't expect us to take over their camp if they trust us. So their guard won't be up."
"The only reason you joined the group was because you wanted to take it for yourselves?" Lori asked accusingly. "Like you expected anything less from two rednecks with a butt load of weapons." Daryl bit back. "Anyways, a week later Merle went with Glen and the others to the city for a supply run, and we all know how that turned out for him." He stared at Rick.
"Ya'll remember when I went lookin' for Sofia and found that farmhouse? I said that whoever stayed in the supply closet couldn't have been very big? I thought it was Sofia who stayed there, hell, I had to believe it was her." Daryl started telling the story.
"Hershel's stupid horse threw me off a cliff, and to make things even worse, one of my own fucking arrows ended up in my side. So there I was, soaking wet in a mix of water and my own blood, barely able to grasp at what had just happened. I heard some rustling in the bushes, but no moaning. Which was strange 'cause usually those bastards don't shut up. I knew I had to get my bow and scram. A while later when I fell again after trying to climb out I hallucinated a bit... Merle was there, kept telling me to get my shit together and save my own sorry behind, cause no one was gonna do it for me. And he did a damn good job in giving me a pep talk. I'd killed two walkers and dragged myself up the cliff, in that time I had lost most of my decent mind. He was right, you people made me soft. The steep climb didn't bother me, neither did the pain in my head and my side... It was that walk back to the farm that got to me."
Daryl moved around in his seat on one of the stainless steel stools that was bolted to the ground. He had sat on bricks that were more comfortable than those shiny demons under his ass. "So anyway, I stumbled a mile or so into the wrong direction and sat beneath a tree, talking to myself about some random bull shit that I'd thought was important at the time. I thought I was gonna die right there form blood loss or somethin', then I heard her voice in my ears; 'get up you lazy prick.'" Daryl smiled for a moment, those five words had given him more willpower than both his brother's entire speeches put together had managed.
"I couldn't decide which hallucination was more vivid, the read head's or my brothers. She half carried me as I spoke to her about the pretty flowers and the trees and little Sofia, I told her that I should've looked harder for her. That I shouldn't have ever given up. And that I wasn't going to give up with Sofia." He remembered they had stopped just before the line of trees ended, she told him she couldn't go further. He had taken her face into his hands and kissed her as if he would never get to have her near him again. He hadn't cared for the blood around his mouth from the squirrel he had eaten only for the vivid illusion that was in fron of him. "Your little beard suits you, you should keep it." She had said as she disappeared into the forest. Without any other words.
"Then I got back and Andrea almost killed me. Only a few days later when I washed my clothes I found strands of Gabriel's red hair on my shirt, that's how I knew that she was real and still alive."
"Did you ever see her after that?" Beth asked as shyly.
Daryl nodded. "Yeh, when we reclaimed the prison, I was up in the guard tower with Carol. I saw her in the distance, she waved and then ran. Just that one time..."