T-Dog

"Ah come on man it ain't that hard." T-Dog looked at Daryl and scowled. To his right, Maggie, Glenn and Miao were stood, watching his first lesson with a bow and arrow. Daryl had been trying to teach him how to shoot for a half hour. It was not going well. So far, T-Dog had not only failed to hit the mark Daryl had carved into the tree ten paces away, he had failed to hit the tree full stop. Daryl had shown surprising patience for the first few misses, but his frustration was as evident as T-Dogs. He impatiently gathered up the five arrows that were scattered around the target and brought them back.

"You'll get it this time T-Dog," Miao called out encouragingly. "Just do your best." T-Dog smiled back at the slim Asian woman, and then frowned as Daryl approached him. He and Daryl had been getting along much better since they had left the complex-he almost saw him as something like a friend. Jokingly, he had suggested Daryl should teach him to shoot a crossbow, in case they should happen upon an armoury store that stocked them, seeing how effective he and Georgie were at shooting with them. He had promptly forgotten all about it, but apparently Daryl hadn't. And now he had blisters on his fingers from loading the bow-although it was fired mechanically, the string needed a lot of force to be loaded-and was close to killing Daryl-either on purpose or accidentally was left to be seen.

"An stop shuttin ya eyes." Daryl muttered as he tossed the pile of arrows at T-Dogs feet. "How do you expect to hit what you can't see?" T-Dog feel embarrassed-he had been shutting his eyes as he fired, almost as if he was afraid that the arrow would fly backwards. He shifted his feet and loaded the bow. Standing firm, he loaded the bow, and pulled it into his shoulder like Daryl had shown him. He focused on the mark on the tree and took a deep breath.

"Both eyes open!" Glenn's voice rang out, followed by shh's from the others. T-Dog obediently opened his left eye. Slowly he released his breath, at the same time pulling the trigger on the bow, all the while keeping his eyes as open as possible.

THUNK!

T-Dog let out a small cheer. The arrow was firmly lodged in the tree trunk, a foot or so below Daryl's mark. Glenn and Maggie let out over enthusiastic cheers and Miao clapped her hands. Even Daryl cracked out a small smile.

"About time ya hit the tree. I mean, it's right there." He passed another arrow. "Shoot another one." T-Dog went to reload the bow, but a voice suddenly interrupted their practise.

"Daryl? You around here?" Daryl groaned, and T-Dog grinned.

"Your girlfriends looking for you better go see what she wants." He handed back the bow. "I'm happy to end on a high note."

"She ain't my girlfriend." Daryl collected his arrows, but made no move to go towards the voice. "I swear, I fuckin' slept with her one time an now she won't leave me alone." Glenn laughed.

"Be careful, if she fought in the same team as Georgie and Adele, she'll be able to take you on no problem."

"I think taking him on was what caused the problem in the first place," T-Dog spluttered. Both he and Glenn broke into laughter, whilst Maggie and Miao looked vaguely scandalised. Rustling noises from behind them, made them momentarily tense, and then relax as Carol, Georgie and Sophie wondered through from the lake.

"What's all the laughing about?" Carol looked inquisitive.

"Daryl! Come on, stop fooling around, where are you?"

A look of understanding flashed over Carols face. "Hiding from Katie again?"

"She won't leave me alone. An she keeps tryin ta make me talk about things." The frustrated look on Daryl's face made T-Dog burst out laughing all over again.

"She wants you to talk to her? Heaven forbid," Carol said drily. "Well, if you will-" here she looked at Sophie and lowered her voice-"drop your trousers at the first chance; this is what you'll get."

"She started it." Daryl's voice took on a sulky quality. "She threw herself at me."

"And you caught her!" Maggie's look of righteous indignation switched to a mischievous grin that made her face look almost impish. T-Dog caught Glenn sneaking a look at her from the corner of his eye.

Daryl looked ready to retort with something biting, when Katie's voice called out again, even closer. He cursed something under his breath, and moved forward, pulling Georgie with him.

"We're goin' hunting." Georgie pulled her arm away

"Oh no! Don't make me part of your little soap opera! Don't you think fighting walkers is enough for me without Katie accusing me of stealing her man?" Her tone was light and humorous, but T-Dog saw that her eyes were still expressionless, as they had been since they had escaped the complex. He chewed the inside of his mouth. He knew that there was something going on with Georgie, and he wanted to talk to her. But before he could speak, Daryl had grabbed Georgie's arm again and half dragged her protesting back into the bush where they had come from, leaving Carol and Glenn chuckling quietly. Less than a minute later, Katie emerged into the clearing.

"Hey, have any of you guys seen Daryl." She pushed her coppery red hair from her face, and scrutinised the group from deep grass green eyes. T-Dog couldn't help but admire her. Having not been on the receiving end of systematic violence at the complex, and being kept fairly well fed, Katie was easily the prettiest women in the group, and she seemed to know it. She had quickly singled out Daryl as someone she was 'interested' in, and engaged in pretty unsubtle flirting with him. Unsurprisingly the two of them had 'disappeared' very quickly for half a day-irritating when you were trying to keep a camp together to move on faster. However, she and Daryl seemed to have very different ideas about the status of their relationship. Meaning, she had decided they were in one, Daryl hadn't. Now, as she stood waiting for their response, T-Dog recollected Adele's comments about Katie:

"She's ok. More interested in having a man, even during this crap. Kind of determined as well if you know what I mean." T-Dog suddenly wondered how well she and Georgie actually got on, and if mentioning who Daryl was with was a good idea. Before he could lie, Glenn opened his mouth.

"He said something about hunting. We need to stock up on meat-he took Georgie with him." Katie's eyes narrowed at the mention of Georgie's name.

"Can't anyone else hunt with him? He's always hunting with her." Her stare was almost poisonous, and Glenn seemed to wilt.

"Well, you know, he can't...Georgie's a good shot and...well..."

"She won't distract him like you would." Miao chipped in quickly. "He needs to focus, and you'd distract him. Georgie just gets on with it. I mean, Georgie's Georgie, but you..." T-Dog shot Miao a glance that said Well done and she smiled back. He glanced at Katie to see if she had brought the lie. He face had softened slightly, but her eyes were still narrowed.

"Well...just tell him I'm looking for him will you?" She turned on her heel, and strode back towards the camp. T-Dog let out a breath and looked at the rest of the group. Carol gave him a knowing look.

"We have to keep an eye on that situation. Last thing we need is a soap opera unfolding in the camp, causing tension." She paused and looked at the sky, which was grey and overcast. "Winters coming, with bad weather-snow, storms-and we're camping in it." She looked at T-Dog. "We've got enough to worry about just surviving nature and walkers."

T-Dog nodded. As the rest of the group turned back to camp, he looked back to where Georgie and Daryl had gone. He groaned and rubbed his forehead.

"Dammit Daryl, you've really done it this time."