I woke up early, just as it was starting to get light. There was still stars in the sky, bit they was fading at if they was grains of salt getting washed away into a dark ocean. I felt refreshed and wide awake. My body was relaxed -relaxed as it could be after sleeping on the floor. Daryl hadn't woken me to switch shifts throughout the night. I sat straight up and stared around scared he had fallen asleep. But he didn't.
He jumped at my sudden movement. "Fucking hell Greene!" He swore. He leaned forward, causing his hair to fall in front of his face.
I looked at him sheepishly and led back down, trying to calm my racing heart. "You didn't wake me?" I asked.
He shrugged. "Looked like you needed the sleep." He was right, i felt a lot better after a few hours good sleep. But Daryl looked exhausted, i wasn't the only one that needed sleep.
"I'm awake now, you catch a few hours." I said and sat up, reaching over to grab his crossbow and place it next to me.
He nodded, not bothering to argue and led down. His body was tense at first, but gradually molded into the shape of the floor as he relaxed. He fell asleep instantly.
He was a calm sleeper. His face relaxed and i saw him for what he really was. He was soft under all that attitude, he always have been. It was very rare moment when you saw his true self. And when he was sleeping was the majority of those time.
I reached over and brushed back a piece of hair that had fallen onto his face, so i could examine him closer. It really was like i was looking at a younger Daryl, someone nearer my age. All the age and stress just fell from his face. It was rather beautiful to see. I noticed that on the left side of his face, under his ear was a scar, barely visible. I wonder what it was from.
I leaned back and watched him for a few minutes longer before standing up. I didn't want to remember the events of last night, so stayed clear of where Antonia's body lay as i paced around. I wondered around the camp gathering some berries from a near by bush.
A Walker appeared, and i ducked down, hiding away in the bush. He walked past, his body making weird movements as if he had trouble standing. Walkers where odd things. How could something that was once human not seem human at all? Sure, they looked like us, stood like us. But there was nothing there that made them human anymore. If you got close enough - which hopefully you didn't - and looked straight in their eyes, you could see that there was no life, no soul. The person that they once was were truly gone, forever. It's quite sad, that they are basically a walking shell. With an acquired taste for the living.
A few hours later, after i picked the bush dry and the sun and rose a little in the sky, i walk over and shake Daryl awake. He stares at me for a while. his face still relaxed from sleep. "Time to wake up." I say. He smiles at me slightly, and i smile back. Slowly the tenseness of his face reappears and the soft Daryl is gone yet again. As if realising what he's doing, he stands up. He grabs his crossbow and bag and starts walking.
"Let's move." He says and doesn't wait for me.
I grab my stuff and rush to keep up.
"So." I start after a few hours of walking. I wondered what we was really following. "How did you get that scar?"
"What scar? I have a lot." He says, uninterested as he studies the ground for clues.
"The one under your ear." I say and kneel down, to look at what he's looking at. It was prints, probably a walker.
He looks at me. "How did you see that?"
"I noticed it while you was sleeping." I say and glance at him. I notice him raising his hand to touch the scar, sigh then quickly stand up.
"Nothing to talk about, just another walker scar." He carries on walking again.
A few days went on like this, we walked, ate and slept and didn't really do nothing else. We barely even talked. But the cold started to set in as we sat down to settle for the night. It was freezing, and my thin jumper and sleeping bag done nothing to help.
I was shaking so much my teeth started to chatter. Daryl looked at me. "Cold huh?"
I nodded.
"Come ere." He says. I shuffle over to him and he wraps his sleeping bag around us as we snuggle close. We both stare at the fire, willing it to hurry up and cook the snake Daryl had caught earlier on today. Even the fire did nothing to warm me up. "Damn Greene, you're freezing." He surprised me by taking my hands in his and rubbing them to get the warmth back in them. I had lost most of the feeling in them a long time ago. My heart jumped at the contact, he very rarely touched me these days since the ambush. I never understood why, and i was too scared of the answer to ask it.
I stared at him as he rubbed my hands, he was concentrating so hard on my hands that he didn't notice. I found myself staring at him a lot more these days, something about him just fascinated me. The way his arms flexed as he held the crossbow in his hands when he aimed for his prey. The way he would kneel down to the ground and move some leaves to get a closer look at some prints and his back would stretch the leather jacket, making the angle wings appear larger. The way he held my hands in his right now.
He brought my hands up to his lips and began breathing on them, like you would breath on a window to fog it up. His breath tickled my skin, but it helped to warm my hands up. I turned to face him so it was easier to do. I watched his face as he concentrated on my hands. There was a hard frown set between his eyes and i wanted so much to move my hands over and touch the frown, remove it from there to make him look peaceful like he did when he was asleep.
He caught my staring. "What ya looking at?" He gave me a little smile.
"Nothin' special." I teased.
"Cheeky." He said and smiled. I was wrong, Daryl was definitely special, to me he was everything. He held my life in his hands, i wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him. I wondered if he knew how grateful i was. After my hands had warned a little i moved my hands away and covered his warming them up with my breath like he did mine. He stared at me, and i stared at him. I have never noticed that his eyes were blue before. I so desperately wanted to know what he was thinking in that moment.
"It was my father." He said suddenly. I stopped what i was doing and stared at him quizzically. "Where i got this scar, the one under my ear. It was my father."
I nodded, not sure what to say. "How did it happen?"
He moved his hands away and leaned back. "The usual way it happened. After one to many he would decide that i wasn't being on my best behavior. And he punished me for it. This was one of the worst, he got a hot pan and held the edge of it to my neck. And there you have it, a scar." He looked at me, his face held no expression.
I thought about it for a moment. I younger Daryl, scared as his father yelled and hit him. I bit my lip at the thought. "What was the worst? That he did to you." I finally asked.
I leaned into me. "Oh that's easy." He rolled back his sleeves and lifted his arm. On his under upper arm was loads of tiny circular scars. "The fags burns. See, he would hold them there for ages. And then a few hours later hold another fag on the same scar. This would repeat through-out the day." He paused and lowered his arm. "He was always sorry the next day of course." He turned his head and spat.
"That's awful Daryl, I'm sorry that you had to go through that."
He turned on me. "I don't want your pity girl." He yelled. "People like you always pity people like me, and i don't want that shit." He stood up.
"Daryl i'm sorry, i was just trying-."
He cut me off. "No! Don't go there with me Greene. Don't go getting all soft. You wanted to know the story, well there. You have it." He paused. "People like you have a life to miss, a home a family to miss. Me, i never really had anything to miss, this life isn't much worse than my old one." He groaned and walked away into the dark. Not even bothering to take his Crossbow.
The thought of going through that as a child horrified me. I couldn't imagine my mother or father laying a hand on me, someone that was supposed to love you the most and they was the one that brought you pain.
This life isn't much worse than my old one.
An hour passed, and i still hadn't seen Daryl. I began pacing worried. I couldn't track him, it was too dark to see.
Another 5 minutes passed and i heard a noise behind me. I held up the crossbow, and sure enough out walked a Walker. I was so annoyed at the walker, so angry that he wasn't Daryl. I walked up to him, dropping the crossbow and knifed him the eye. The Walker went down without a further sound.
Daryl stood behind him, staring at me curiosity in his eyes. "Well, you're getting pretty go at that Greene" He said. I dropped the knife and ran over to him, throwing my arms around his neck and squeezing him, scared he would disappear.
"Don't you dare walk off like that again. Ya hear me." I say into his ear. I swallowed hard and squeezed him even tighter.
I feel him nod. "I won't." He held me back tentatively at first, but eventually squeezed me tight, pulling me into him as if we could become one person. I hugged him, gave him back the thousand hugs that his parents never gave him growing up.
I fell asleep next to him that night after eating the snake, my hand resting on his knee until finally sleep pulled me under.
The next day we was tracking and came across some foot prints. "Human." I say as i look up at Daryl. It didn't hold that swaying movement that Walkers had.
"In a hurry too." He say pointing to some broken branches that scattered the floor.
"Should we follow?" I ask and stand up to look at him. His face was full of thought.
He pauses for a while before grunting a response and I follow them for a few hours. We soon find where they lead. There was a house. A huge house in fact that was painted white with blue shutters, the paint was starting to fade but it was still beautifully breathtaking. It looked practically untouched from our world. It was double the size of my farm house, but hidden in the middle of no where. You could just about make out an old dirt road that led away from the house. It was probably a rich family retreat in the summer or winter.
I looked at him and he looks at me. "Should we see if anyone' home?" He asks, a little spark in his eyes.
I nod and we walk towards the house.
We scan the grounds first, checking the house over for any signs of entry or living activity. We stayed in the tree line just in case of unfriendly humans. But there was nothing that stood out as dangerous. The was some crops in a a little field out the back, which would defiantly come in handy if no one was here. We edged to the front of climbed the steps to the porch. There was a swinging chair huddled in the corner, still fully intact. I thought that if we stay here, i'd defiantly have to come back out here and sit on it.
We tried the door and found it unlocked. The first thing i saw was a staircase leading upstairs. Down the side i saw what i thought was a kitchen. There was another door on the left that led to another room i couldn't see. I went to walk in but Daryl held me back. I had to stop doing that. He banged on the door, and we waited to see if anyone emerged.
After 5 minutes when nothing came about we deemed it safe and walked inside. I could defiantly stay here for a few days. It was already warmer than outside, even with no heating. I smiled, resting up here didn't seem like a bad idea.
Thanks everyone for reading my story! I hope you enjoy it. Something came over me while ive been watching season 5 and i just had to re-write their story the way i feel most of us wanted it to go haha.
-Shunice xox
Happy reading! (A Review and Favourite would be nice:D)