Chapter 29

It was a while before Daryl and Emma had the time alone they needed. Rick had done a survey of their food supplies and became alarmed on how low they really were. The daily scavenging trips were not bringing in much at all. He decided he wanted three teams to go out for anywhere from three to five days to search for supplies. This was not the long trips that Heath did with a partner or two, but shorter overnight trips so they could go farther out, but still not be gone too long.

Rick wanted Daryl included in one of these teams. Normally Daryl would not have a problem going, but he didn't want to leave Emma. It was a selfish reason, but in the end Daryl put the greater good of the community first. Glenn didn't feel comfortable leaving Maggie yet and Daryl knew that this was more important than him just wanting to not leave Emma alone. She would be fine.

"How long are you going to be gone?" Emma asked him.

"A couple days, could be more. Rick wants me on a team, especially since Glenn isn't going. He doesn't want to leave Maggie just yet and I don't blame him. I don't want to leave you, but that's for a completely different reason," Daryl told her.

"And what's that?" she purred leaning into him.

"Me wanting to get to know you and your two friends again, that's why," he growled into her ear.

Emma giggled and rubbed her chest against his. Daryl was about to smash his mouth down on hers when Carl and Enid walked in the front door. Instead Daryl shifted so that from the waist down he was hidden by the kitchen counter. His body's response to her purposefully pressing up against him was immediate and hard. There was no way he wanted Carl or especially Enid to see the stiff dick that was clearly visible in his pants. Emma slipped out of his arms and went back to work on the meals she was preparing. She couldn't hold back the big smile she had on her face.

"What so funny, Emma?" Carl asked.

"Just Daryl. He's having a hard time with something that I thought was funny."

"Anything I can help you with?" Carl innocently asked.

Daryl gave Carl a look that clearly said his help wasn't needed. "Okay, no problem," Carl replied and he and Enid headed towards the stairs. "Geez, all I did was offer to help," they heard him say to Enid.

Emma burst out laughing after they went up the stairs. She had to wipe away the tears because she was laughing so hard.

"So you think this is funny, don't you?" Daryl said his voice low and deadly.

Emma knew he was all for show. "Got a problem, Mr. Dixon?" she asked turning towards him.

He moved right up to her so that they were practically touching. "Yep I sure do and it's all your fault. Now I'm going to go upstairs and take a cold shower so I can get rid of this…" he looked down at his pants where his erection was still clearly visible. "…big problem. Then I'm packing my bag and getting the hell out of here before you tempt me anymore." Daryl turned to head up to his room. He took a couple steps away from her before turning back and standing directly behind her.

Daryl whispered in Emma's ear, "When I get back, we've got business to take care of." He kissed her neck and was gone, leaving Emma wanting so much more. She would be lonely without him as she was still felt like a newcomer to the group, but it would give her a reason get to know everyone better. She and Daryl tended to isolate themselves too much at times. They were falling back into old habits.


The supply run had been successful, but it very nearly wasn't. Daryl, Rosita and Aaron hadn't had any luck at all finding the amount of supplies they needed to bring back and it pissed Daryl off. He was usually good at finding this stuff and it just wasn't happening. After three days the trunk of the car barely was a third full and even that stuff wasn't anything special.

Since they were having no luck in the suburbs, Daryl drove out to the country. He drove and drove and when Rosita or Aaron asked him where they were going, he ignored them and kept on driving. They were going through farm country now, so the houses or outbuildings they came across were few and far between.

Daryl came to a dirt road that looked like it didn't have an end in sight and turned up it. Rosita and Aaron just looked at each other, but didn't say a word. Aaron had learned to trust Daryl's instinct, but Rosita wasn't as sure.

They came to an old white farmhouse that sat on a small hill overlooking barren fields. Weeds were overgrown everywhere and the air had an eerie quietness to it. Daryl stopped the car, but no one moved for a moment.

"Why here?" Rosita asked.

"Don't know," was all Daryl told her. He opened the car door first and the others followed. Everyone got out with weapons in hand and eyes searching everywhere.

"You sure about this?" she asked him again.

Daryl just looked at her and walked to the house without answering. How does he tell them, that it just felt right, without looking stupid? There were numerous building to check, but he would start with the house first. The barn and additional structures would come next.

Before entering the house, they each looked through the windows and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Just outdated furniture and dust...lots and lots of dust. Daryl tried the door knob and the door slowly creaked open. He banged against the door several times seeing if the sound attracted any walkers.

None showed up.

They cleared the downstairs, before heading upstairs to do the same. They found no one. The search of cabinets and closets amounted to almost nothing, just a lot of empty space and dust. Standing in the obsolete kitchen, Daryl remembered a small door he saw off to the side that they hadn't checked. He walked over to it and opened the door slowly. He was greeted by complete darkness and a staircase that lead down.

"Aaron, come here, "Daryl called out.

"What you need?"

"Backup. Follow me," he told him.

Daryl had a flashlight in his left hand and a gun in his right. The air was dank and musty, with a slight chill. It felt like no one had been down there in a very long time. He had the flashlight moving across the room looking for walkers or people. The room was empty …of people that is, but it was filled with shelves upon shelves of supplies.

"Whoa," Aaron said surprised. "Is this stuff still good?"

Daryl walked over shelf lined with cans and checked the expiration date. "Barely, but that's good enough for me."

They walked between the two rows of shelves looking at the items left by the previous owners. There was literally everything you could think of there. The woman must have been either a hoarder or she really believed in stocking up. There was also one whole shelving unit of home canned foods too.

"Are you guys down here?" Rosita called out.

"Yep. Check this shit out," Daryl told her.

Rosita joined the guys in the basement and walked around staring at everything with wide eyes. "How are we going to get this all back? There's no way we can leave it."

"Leave that up to me. You guys pack this up and get it upstairs anyway you can. I'm gonna go work on an idea." Daryl jogged up the stairs leaving them to come up with a plan to get everything upstairs. There wasn't just food there, but shampoo, toothpaste and a bunch of other essentials. It was a great find. A mini grocery store.

Now they just had to get everything back to Alexandria. Daryl wandered over to the run down barn. The door had fallen off the hinges and it was open to the elements. There was a lean-to type overhang on one side of it and that's where he was headed. He saw what he thought was a horse trailer when they pulled in and he wanted to check that out. Sure enough when he looked there was an old trailer that would fit two horses and that would be perfect to transport everything back to Alexandria in.

Daryl took a hold of the hitch at the end and tugged on it, but the trailer didn't move. He tried it again, with no luck. Daryl stood back and looked at the trailer and wondered why he couldn't pull it out. He was a strong guy. Then he noticed the blocks in front of the wheels and laughed at himself.

"Dumbass," he said himself. "That was fuckin' stupid."

He removed the wheel blocks and grabbed the end of the hitch again and pulled. He felt it start to give, so he dug his boots in and pulled harder. Slowly the trailer emerged from the lean-to. The tires were low, but still functional. Best thing was the car had a trailer ball hitch on it so all they had to do was attach the two. It was perfect.

That was how their scavenging trip went from zero to hero within minutes. The last time he had found an unexpected stash like this was with Rick and that ended up in a lake. There was no way in hell he was going to allow that to happen again.

It took the three of them most of the day to load everything up, but by then evening was approaching, so they decided to spend the night at the farm house and head out the next morning. Daryl was more than ready to get back to Emma.

Before they settled in, the barn was searched as was two additional sheds. They took some gardening tools, but there wasn't much around. In the last shed they found what Daryl was looking for. It was a potting shed and he found packets and packets of seeds that Emma wanted. He personally made sure these made it into the car. Everyone had a decent dinner that night and Daryl went to sleep looking forward to getting back home tomorrow.