My steps against the leaves and Dog's gasps as he trotted beside me broke the silence of the forest.
The birds didn't seem to want to make an appearance today.
It seems almost impossible to find a moment of peace nowadays, it's as if we always fight and win only to fight again and again, like an unbreakable chain.
I think of everything we've been through, everything we've done, and everything we've lost.
From the Atlanta camp to Hershel's farm, then to that prison and now to here.
I think of those who are gone: Sophia, Merle, Andrea, Glenn, Beth, Carl ...
Too many to name them all.
I can still see their faces when I close my eyes, and when I stop to listen, I can hear their voices in the wind.
All these people are part of all of us, they made us who we are now.
A squirrel takes me out of my thoughts, I'm here for something, to bring food to my family. Maggie returned with her son and a small group, but brought trouble with her.
A new threat is slowly looming over us.
Who the hell are they and what do they want? Why do they do the things they do? No one seems to know, we only know that they have military experience and that they are led by someone named Pope. "Pope has marked you" - that's what that fucking soldier said before he blew himself up.
I put my eyes on the little rodent.
Dog stands still, his muscles tense as he watches the animal climb the tree.
I pull the trigger of the crossbow and an arrow shoots out to hit right in the torso of my prey and I add it to the rest of the pieces.
-It seems that we have gotten a good loot eh friend.- I tell my four-legged companion while I sit on a log to skin the animals hunted during the day.
I put my hand in my pants pocket looking for the object that I always carried with me since ... I feel a pang in my heart when I remember her. That pocket knife that the only woman I ever loved gave me, indomitable, loyal, brave, unique ... We both equally devastated and isolated from everything and everyone after so much pain, facing our losses, she her son's and I my brother's, Rick, whom I could never find.
Ifailed at everything, I could never find him, or Connie, or ... SHE. I couldn't, I could not think of her name, that word affected me more than I would ever dare to admit.
Dog seemed to read my mind and approached to me whimpering and putting his paw on my lap. -Ya' miss her huh? Me too, every day.-I say to the animal while I pat it on the head.
-I promised that we'd get her back, I promised I'd find her, but I couldn't, as if the earth had swallowed her up.
I looked up at the sky, closing my eyes while taking a deep breath, everything seemed so far away but so close at the same time.
I allow myself to dive into my mind once more.
I remember the day I met her, how she pointed her shotgun at me when I broke into her cabin ready to help after I found Dog barking in the woods.
I think about how we got closer and closer after confessing our pain that stormy night, how we fished with a spear the next morning, that day contemplating the eclipse and finally how we made next to the fire, our bodies totally united, and intertwined, moving in sync with the flames that danced in the fireplace.
There was so much passion and so much feeling in that act...We both burned our demons that night.
10 months of happiness, relief and hope made me regain my faith again but at the same time I couldn't stop searching for Rick's body, I needed to know the truth to completely free my soul.
It all ended that day, when she, tired of my constant comings and goings in search of answers, made me choose between continuing to search for my brother, going back to my family, or staying with her.
Back then I didn't know where I belonged.
That feeling made me leave to keep looking.
I realized too late where I belonged and by the time I got back to the cabin, she was gone.
The things that proved me she hadn't left by her own will were the signs of struggle in her house and Dog, who was there, she wouldn't have left him behind.
I left her a note saying that my place was at her side but she never read it.
Sadness invades me so I decide to return to the present and continue with my work.
I keep looking but I remember that I no longer have the pocket knife with me,I had given it to Carol as a sign of truce between us.
I don't regret everything I said to her that day, but it hurts me that after everything we'd been through together, now our friendship was hanging by a thread.
I just couldn't forget, she didn't know when to stop, she was obsessed with killing Alpha after what happened with Henry.
In a rage she led us to that cave where Kelly lost her sister and where I lost a good friend, Connie. I tried to find her many times but sometimes people just disappear.
-We should go back to Alexandria buddy, it's getting d- I couldn't finish the sentence, Dog suddenly ran like mad, barking regardless of attracting all the dead that were in the area.
I run after the dog, calling him in vain as he keeps running 'til suddenly he stops.
He had led us to that cabin, the same one where I spent months with HER and where I argued weeks before today with Carol.
Dog stands in front of the door, barking and scratching it, trying to open it.
I notice that there are traces of blood leading to the entrance,fresh and human.
I lift my crossbow, ready to face whatever may be inside the house and I kick open the door. Upon entering I freeze, time stops, my eyes cannot believe what they see. Right there, huddled in a corner was SHE. "Leah" -Her beautiful name comes out of my lips in the form of a whisper.
She lifts her head to look at me, equally petrified. Where before there were beautiful blue eyes like two gems, now there are 2 lifeless spheres, flooded with tears.
The white skin that I kissed and caressed so many times was now turning gray, covered with beads of sweat.
Dog's barking brings me back to the present and I run towards the woman, crouching beside her and horrifying, realizing the liquid that gushed from her thigh, the blood was hers,It was a gunshot wound.
-"Daryl, it's you." His voice as sweet as honey comes out broken and barely audible from his lips, those I loved to kiss so much.
-"Shhh, calm down, you'll be fine, I promise you".- I affirm, fighting against the tears that threaten to come out of my eyes while I make a tourniquet with the red cloth that I always had on top.
-Daryl,it's really y- she can't finish formulating the sentence before blacking out.
-"Come on baby, stay with me please, don't you leave me like I did with you." -I beg as I lift her up easily.
-"Dog go home and look for help, run!".- I order the canine.
The animal shoots like a rocket out of the cabin, cutting the trees with its fur, I go behind him with Leah in my arms.
-I aint failing again, not this time.