Chapter 4

I woke up sweating, which had become a regular thing now and I hated it. I lay in my sleeping bag staring up at the roof of my tent. The morning sun hadn't started shining through it yet so it put the time at like seven thirty, maybe, I didn't really give a shit anymore. The dream I'd had that night about Krista didn't even feel like a dream. It felt like I had lived the whole damn thing over and I couldn't change it. What made it worse was that I could remember every little detail about her.

How her hair flowed over her face when she was reading a good book. Or how her nose wrinkled when she laughed; how bright her eyes got when she cried. The way that she could take defend herself or out drink any guy. I smiled, remembering the first night me and Merle took her to the bar on the outside of town. She down four shots of Tequila in two minutes and remembered what happened the next day. Which was more than what I could say for Merle.

I felt my stomach do I flip and my heart jump a little; then my face get hot with anger and regret. I could remember the last thing that I said to her; the day we had that huge fight over nothing. I remember the look on her face when I said that we shouldn't have ever let her into our house that first night we saw her daddy hit her. I could still feel the knot in my gut from saying it. It was my fault that she wasn't with us now. It was my fault that she was more than likely dead or a biter.

Fuck. I couldn't keep doing this to myself. Like she always used to say "Don't stress yourself out, it'll give you pimples." I can't keep living in the past and trying to change what I couldn't. I left my tent and met up with whoever was awake and started the day; with regretting thoughts in my head.

I spent most of the day down at the pond with some of the women. They washed clothes while I tried to catch fish… no such luck. I never was good with a fishing pole; that was always my daddy's gig. I looked down from the big rock I sat on across the way where I could see the girls gigglin' and carryin' on. I smiled slightly; at least there was a little bit of happiness left in some of us. I saw one of em stand up and start walkin' towards me. I couldn't tell who it was until they got up closer. It was Andrea. Her curled blonde hair was pulled up off her neck into a muddled bun and her skin glistened in the sun.

"You been drinkin' water?" she asked looking up at me. He hand was up against her face, blocking out the sun. I nodded. "Alright, don't wantcha ta over heat and die." I laughed a bit.

"Thanks." I replied, and she sauntered away back to the others. I picked up the plastic bottle that sat next to me and took a long guzzle of it. It was warm from bein' the sun, but it was better than nothing.

A few more hours passed and the sun started goin' down some. It was still light out but it wasn't as hot and everybody was a lot more comfortable. Maybe not with each other but still. I tried to stay away from people as much as I could back before everything happened; I didn't see why I should become social now. Where there were people there was drama, and I wasn't havin' no more drama. That part of my life ended the day me and my brother put our daddy in the ground.

I started cleanin' up my fishing gear and puttin' things back where I guessed they were supposed to go. I hated fishing then, and I hated it now. I think I hated it so much because my father loved it so much. Merle didn't mind it as much but it wasn't our favorite past time, needless to say. I could hear some commotion goin' on up at camp but I only assumed it was Lori bitchin' about somethin'. That wouldn't have struck me and strange; it what she did on the daily. It we were lucky, every other day. No this was something else. I'd began climbing down from my rock when I heard dirt crunching, in bursts close together, like someone was running. I turned around to see Carl running towards me down the trail.

"Daryl, my dad said to come get you. He didn't tell me why, just that you should hurry." He said out of breath. He rested his hands on his knees and his head faced the ground. He musta really been movin' ta be that outta breath.

"Alright, I'm comin'." I ushered him back up the trail and I followed behind him, carrying my stuff on my back. "I'll be there in a second, just throwin' this in my tent." I said to him but he was already gone. I unzipped the tent opening just enough I could toss my gear in and zipped it back up. As I stood back up I saw Shane walking towards me holding a knife in his hand. That made me uneasy. I rested my left hand on the butt of my gun in case he tried anything twisted. All he did was hold it out in front of him; handing it to me. I took it from him, confused.

"Does that look familiar at all to you Daryl?" he asked. I looked at it carefully. It did look familiar; I remembered the finished wood of the handle and the arch in the blade. I kept trying to think where I knew this stiletto from. I turned it over to the other side and saw the initials M.D carved into the chocolate brown hickory wood.

"Where the hell did you find this? Merle had this the day…" I remembered Merle getting into the car behind Andrea, and the glare from this knife bouncing off from the sun and into my eyes. "Was it stuck in a walker?" I asked.

"Not, exactly." He trailed off and kept eye contact with me. It was a little creepy how he wouldn't look away from me, or even blink.

"Then, what?" I asked; I had no idea what he was getting at.

"Walk with me." He said gesturing for me to follow him as he started to walk away. I tossed the knife into my tent with my things and trotted off, catching up to Shane. "So I was out all day in the woods makin' sure there weren't any walkers getting' to close right? And I came across what I thought was a walker but wasn't. She was still alive." She? "She was pretty out of it and not making any sense, but I noticed the knife that she had as Merle's and brought her back here. She all but punched me in the face when I asked for it."

"Why?"

"Because she said that it was hers. That the person it belonged to was gone and that it meant a whole lot to her." I was beyond lost. "When I asked her to identify who it belonged to," he stopped walking and looked at me, "she said it was your brothers; by name. She said that it belonged to her good friend Merle Dixon, and that if I didn't believe her to look at the engravings. She said that she was the one who bought it for him." I knew who he was talking about, and I all but fell over. "You okay Daryl?" apparently I looked like I was going to fall over too.

"Where? Where is she?" I spluttered.

"By the RV, with Glenn, Rick, and Lori. Do you know her?" he asked, I wanted to punch myself it the head because everything was running together at once.

"Thought she was dead." I said, running off in the direction of the camper.

Hey guys! So I hope you like the semi introduction to Krista :) I was having conflicting thought about whether or not to have her in this chapter or the next and i didn't want this one to be super long so next chapter it is! ALSO!I'm thinking about making a twitter or facebook page letting you guys know about how things are going with the story, and get opinons from you guys. let me know if this something you want me to do. i just might make both if someone doesn't have one or the other.