For some reason his words were cutting and I suddenly felt hurt by their implication even if he had meant nothing by them but it was the look he gave that did it the most. For some reason I really cared what this man thought of me and it turned out that what he thought wasn't exactly flattering.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" I barked, halting my movements and standing rigidly. He turned and looked at me with his mouth hanging open completely baffled.

"So I guess I'm just a sheltered Daddy's girl who couldn't possibly know anything about the world outside her doorstep! Don't confuse me with the rest of those airheads in this town Dixon, don't you fucking dare!" I snorted and feeling that my anger was about to surge out of control and possibly turn into hysteria and tears I began to stamp past him until I felt his strong fingers swiftly grasp the top of my arm and anchor me to the spot.

"Whoa!" He finally managed to say after standing quite staggered as I exploded in his face. "Hey, calm down I didn't mean anything by it alright? I just can't believe you haven't seen what's going on. Don't cha watch the news?"

I gaped at him for a while, still not quite getting his point and he sighed and shook his head again. I yanked my arm from his grip.

"What do you mean?"

"The virus?" He growled.

"Yeah? What of it? I thought it was under control? They're going to find a cure. What's your point?"

At this he lost his temper and threw down his gear. He kept his voice low and moved in close to my face but I could tell he was using all the restraint he could possibly muster to keep calm.

"The news aint telling you everything they should. That virus sends people crazy, did you know that? It aint under control neither. I was driving past the hospital two days ago and it was overrun with infected folks, they'd all lost their minds. Then I saw one in the woods yesterday..." He cut off suddenly and moved away from me, he walked over towards the edge of the woods which wasn't far off and stopped in front of a wooden gate which led to a large moonlit field. He leaned over it and rubbed his forehead vigorously as if shaking off an unpleasant thought.

"What is it?" I asked softly. He was silent for a while and I merely walked up and stood next to him, looking out over the field which was beautiful and silvery in the light.

"Damn thing tried to gnaw on my neck," he said finally, looking off into the distance. I felt a cold shiver run through me at his words. I looked up at him questioningly and he rolled his eyes to the side to meet mine. "I'm not playing." He clarified and I could see a haunted look in his eye as he spoke.

"You don't seem the type," I replied without taking my eyes off his. I quickly glanced behind us suddenly feeling a deep seated uneasiness take hold of me. "What did you do?"

"I could see it was one of the folks from the hospital, still dressed in those robes they wear. She was kinda dragging herself over to me real slow. Jus' a young woman. She looked vile, her jaw was all broken and I think maybe one of her legs. When she got close enough I asked her if she needed help but it didn't hit home, there was nothing behind those grey eyes, it was like talking to a corpse...Then she lunged herself at me, teeth bared and I managed to grab hold her arms and fling her off me before she took another flying leap towards my leg."

I suddenly realised how the story ended and turned around to look at the crossbow lying on the earth in the woods behind. When I looked back he was watching me, his eyes were shining and an understanding seemed to pass between us.

"We need to get you home," he said breaking the silence and moving back to pick up his weapon and his pack. I followed his lead and we walked up into the woods again side by side in comfortable silence.

"Thanks for doing this...taking me home I mean, " I said after a while.

"How come your boyfriend aint here taking you home? He know you're out here?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, Johnny. He's not my boyfriend."

"Looks like to me."

"Well he's not. He doesn't know it yet but he will do tomorrow. He's an asshole, it was only a matter of time before I realised that. I don't know what I've been thinking all these years." Daryl looked across at me quizzically.

"Yeah, they're a real special bunch you're friends," he smirked and gave me a crooked grin which was the first time I had ever seen him smile.

"Yeah well they're all scared shitless of you, especially Johnny."

"Can't think why," he said pursing his lips with amusement and glancing at me sidelong.

A burst of laughter escaped from my throat and I felt a feeling of warm contentment wash over me which was no mean feat considering I was out in the cold woods in the dead of night with possible deranged, infected people lurking in the shadows. I still didn't know how to process the information he gave me earlier. What was I to make of it? If what he said was true then why was the media lying about it and assuring us all it was fine? Having said that I wasn't an avid news follower, it was always too depressing to entertain and I found that my day to day life was much happier not knowing the current misery we had plunged ourselves into. Maybe by now it was reporting something else, something more truthful.

Before long we had left the woods behind and reached a track which ran alongside a trailer park where I was pretty sure Daryl lived, or had lived as a boy.

"You live here?" I asked gently.

"Naw, used to when I was growing up, live in a house further on down the road, way out of town."

The curiosity in me had not subsided and I suddenly wanted to see this house, to see where he lived and slept and ate, just to see him in his own habitat, or maybe I already had? Maybe he was most at home out here in the woods.

"Hey! I meant to ask earlier, what were you doing chopping wood in the middle of the night? Seems kinda odd, or maybe that's all in a day for Daryl Dixon?" I teased with a false look of bafflement on my face. He endured it and merely gave me an amused but exasperated look.

"I was preparing. Wanted a couple bits of dry firewood for my pack."

"For what?"

"To leave..."

My stomach lurched ever so slightly at his words.

"What do you mean? Where?"

"What's it to you? Why'd you care?" He frowned as he once more jumped back on the defensive.

I swallowed a hard lump in my throat and couldn't really reply honestly to him because I didn't know why I cared but I did.

"I don't it's just-"

"Jesus! Look out!" All I could see was his eyes flash in warning as he reached forwards and yanked me towards him by the shoulder. I turned around quickly enough to see a figure emerge from the shadows, merely a step away from where I was standing. It lurched out of a tall bush and scraped it's feet across the ground as it moved towards us. I couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman but it took great rasping breaths, each like a death rattle. The sound made my skin crawl with fear and after the moment of confusion had passed I knew it was one of the infected. Daryl moved forward, raised his foot and knocked the figure flat onto the ground by stamping it in the chest. When it fell it triggered a security light from one of the trailers and it's hideous features suddenly became illuminated for us to see clearly. It was everything Daryl had described, the skin was a deathly grey pallor and the eyes were milky and dormant.

"See that," he said in hushed tones and all I could do was nod dumbly as we watching it struggle up from the floor and begin to move towards us again, mashing it's teeth together and stretching out it's grasping hands.

"That thing aint alive, it aint a person," he growled. He held his arm across me and shunted me back out of the path of the creature, whatever it was.

"Don't kill it," I whispered . Suddenly I felt a great sorrow wash over me at the sight of this god forsaken being and tears began to fall down my cheeks. Daryl looked down at me and pushed me back further out of harms reach.

"Come on, we need to get out of here, enough stallin'."

This time he took hold of my hand and led me away from it, I looked back at the creature once more and then followed him further up the path until we reached the main road and he let go of his grip. I suddenly felt fatigue wash over me as all the effects of the night combined to sap my energy. My knees buckled a little as we walked.

"Y'alright?" He asked, with a look of angry concern on his face. I learnt in the short space of our time together that all his emotions were expressed with always a touch of anger still present.

"I'm so tired," I replied and my knees buckled a little again and before I knew what was happening he had reached down swiftly and lifted me up into his arms.

"Wait," I protested.

"It's faster, I won't have to wait for your slow ass to keep up, we'd be walking until daybreak," he rebuked me.

I was too tired to put up a fight and so surrendered by placing my arms around his neck and leaning my head onto his shoulders. I felt him stiffen suddenly at the contact which made me lift my head off him slightly in response but eventually he relaxed and I tentatively lowered it down once again. I felt safe there in the crook of his arms and the thrill of the physical contact surged through my body like a dull ache. I was so close to his skin I could smell him.

We reached my house within seconds it seemed because I'd fallen asleep on the journey. I woke up as he lowered me down onto the porch.

"Your parents not home?" He frowned looking at the empty driveway.

"No, I'd forgot they're not home yet, they've been away...shit, I'm kinda nervous now on my own." The thought of being alone at that moment was not something I relished.

"Go inside, lock all the doors, you'll be fine, I'll be watchin' your house alright? Don't you worry none," Daryl said reassuringly. "Aint no infected going to get this close to the town anyhow."

His eyes were reassuring and sincere and I couldn't help but feel protected with him on my side, stood there with his crossbow slung across his back and a look on his face which defied anyone to fuck with him. He was certainly formidable.

"See y'around," he said and gave me one last look before turning and walking back the way we had just came. I watched him walk all the way to the end of the street before turning off and out of sight and something told me that he had merely spared me the spectacle earlier and that being out in the woods was going to breathe it's last death rattle before long.