Ok...next chapter...hope you all like it :-)
"We need to put a bolt in her and be done with it." Daryl growled at the group standing around him. He couldn't understand why they were just letting Andrea lay there with Amy's dead body. They needed to get her moved, get her buried. They didn't have all of this time to grieve, they were not safe anymore.
"And how do you suggest we do that?" Shane questioned him
"Take the shot! I could hit a squirrel in the eye from this distance" Daryl responded, disgusted with the entire mess.
"That's not what we do, who we are" Lori said, sadly looking over at the two. Daryl growled under his breath and started to walk over to the pile of walkers when he saw a streak of blond hair come out of the RV. She had been helping move their dead all morning and had gone inside to get clean for a moment. He watched her with narrowed eyes as she slowly walked over to Andrea. He clenched just a little and grabbed the strap of his crossbow as he watched her. He had seen Andrea pull a gun on Rick earlier and there was no way he was going to let her do the same thing to Beth. But as Beth slowly approached, she saw Andrea turn slowly toward her and motion for her to sit beside her. She sat down beside of her and Daryl watched as Beth slowly ran her small hand over Amy's cheek, while she placed the other one on Andrea's shoulder. He couldn't figure out where this girl got all of the goodness inside of her. How somebody as pure as her could even exist in the old world, let alone out here when the dead were walking the earth. "To damn pure for your redneck, good for nothing ass!" his father's voice rang in his head as he turned from the scene and stomped over to the pile of walkers to start loading them up to burn.
The gunshot rang out about a half hour later, signaling that Amy had come back and Andrea had taken care of it. He felt a bit of sadness for the woman, taking a second to think of his brother, but that second was all he would allow himself to feel for him. It was his dumbass fault how things went down. He was probably still high and strung out when he cut his own hand off with a dull saw. But he knew, without a shadow of a doubt that Merle was alive out there somewhere. His brother was the toughest sumbitch he knew.
The sound of Jacqui calling out that Jim had been bit brought him out of his thoughts of his brother as he turned to see Jacqui standing beside of Beth, her eyes wide and blue as they both looked at Jim with worry and fear. Daryl took off toward them, grabbing Jim's shirt as he tried to turn away from the ladies. As he did, he saw a circle bite mark on Jim's stomach.
"Oh god!" Beth gasped as she covered her mouth with her hand as Jim kept mumbling to himself that he was fine.
"We need to end this! No discussion, he has been bit. He needs to be taken care of" Daryl growled out at the small circle of people that were standing around. All of them would throw small glances toward Jim, who was sitting up against the back of the RV.
"I never thought I would say this, but I agree with Daryl on this" Dale stated. 'Yeah, thanks old man…I think' Daryl thought to himself as he thought about how he didn't want Jim around them with the risk of becoming a walker. He didn't want him anywhere near Beth. Just the thought of her being near Jim if he turned caused his skin to crawl and he couldn't figure out why he cared so damn much.
"Is that what you would want?" Rick asked Daryl, bringing him out of his thoughts of the blond. His eyebrow was raised with the question.
"Yeah, and I would thank ya while ya did it" he growled back at him.
"We don't kill our own" Glenn stated angrily, causing Daryl's blood to boil. All of these damn feelings, all of these emotions. You get soft, you get killed. He couldn't risk that. He needed to get his head back in the game.
"Fuck this!" He growled as he took the ax off of the ground and spun around, charging toward Jim. He stopped when Rick raised his gun and pointed it at his head.
"We don't kill the living" Rick growled.
"That's kinda funny when you got a gun pointed at his head" Beth angrily spit out from her standing spot beside of Glenn.
"Why don't you ask Jim what he wants?" Beth continued as she looked between Daryl and Rick, both men slowly lowering their weapons.
"Why don't we try the CDC? I heard they were close to discovering what this was before everything went offline" Rick stated, looking at the group. "Maybe they can help Jim"
"I think we should try Fort Benning. More fire power, higher walls" Shane stated. Daryl turned to look at Beth just as she turned to look at her. Her eyes told him everything he wanted to know, that she still wanted to go to the farm, no matter what the group decided. He nodded in reply to her silent question and the small smile that spread across her lips made him realize that he would do anything to make sure it stayed there.
"All these fuckin' feelings" he mumbled to himself as he turned back around and continued loading their dead onto the truck to be buried.
After the small funeral that they insisted to have, Daryl was sitting inside of his small tent sharpening his knife when he heard a slight knocking at the side of the tent. He could make out a narrow silhouette and knew exactly who it was.
"Yeah?" He mumbled out, suddenly feeling a little self-conscious to know why she was coming to his tent. It was one thing for her to stick up for him, as he has realized she has been doing more and more lately. But now to make it known she was coming to talk to him, it would not look good for her to be associating with him.
"Can I come in for a minute?" She asked softly as she leaned into the opening of the tent. When she did, any thought of him telling her no went out the window. The way she stood there, the firelight gently making her hair glow and her eyes twinkling in the light of his flashlight made her look every bit the angel Merle had called her.
"Sure, you're the one slumming. Not gunna do wonders for your reputation" he grumbled out as he moved over a little bit, giving her room to sit down. He saw her shake her head and let out a small sigh as she moved inside and sat down.
"I have never been one to worry about my reputation Daryl, and anyway, I don't think I'm slumming with you." She replied with a smile as she picked up one of his bolts off of the floor. He watched her run the bolt through her fingers, gently caressing it. Something about watching her stroke it, the gentle way she was holding it, like she cherished it, sent a jolt through his body. He snatched it from her, not being able to handle watching her anymore and sat it behind her.
"Why ya here Beth?" He asked lowly, just above a whisper. He watched as she raised her eyes to meet his, and instantly he was swept away in the current that was her eyes, being dragged away into the depths.
"I wanted to make sure you were alright. Ya know with everything that happened to Merle" she softly spoke, looking back down at the floor and fumbling with a string that was sticking out from her cut off shorts. Just the mere mention of Merle got his blood boiling again. The stupid dumbass should be there with him.
"I'm fine!" He growled. "Don't worry; I will still take ya home. Just because Merle is gone does not mean that is gunna change" he spit out at her with narrowed eyes. He saw her flinch just a little and instantly felt bad that he had yelled at her. He wasn't good with even having somebody to talk too, never really had a friend growing up.
"I wasn't asking because of me, Daryl. I was asking because of you. He was your brother and you loved him no matter what" she said softly, her voice timid.
"Why do you care?" He asked her, his eyebrow rose in curiosity. He still could not believe that somebody as good as her would even want to talk to somebody like him. He was a no good, piece of shit redneck asshole, who had an even bigger asshole for a brother. And this sweet girl, this beautiful girl, acting like she cared thru him for a loop.
"I don't know. Maybe I just have a soft spot for all guys named Dixon?" She replied with a small smile and a chuckle.
"Don't waste your time. Not worth it" he replied with a grumble as he turned his eyes back down to the knife that he was sharpening. He felt her start to stand up, his breathing hitched when he saw her hand move over top of his, stilling his movements.
"I will decide who I think is or isn't worth my time! And Daryl Dixon, you are very much worth my time. I will see you in the morning. "She said softly as she leaned over and kissed his cheek. Before he even had time to think, she had whisked herself out of his tent, leaving him there with the feel of her lips burnt into his cheek and the thought of her saying that he was worth it going through his head.