I woke the next day feeling groggy and tired after a feverish sleep. I was terrified in the house on my own and actually barricaded my door and slept with the lamp on next to my bed which was something I hadn't done since I was a child. I got out of bed in the morning and heaved the heavy chest of drawers out of the way and made my way downstairs. I peered out of the window into the street and all was quiet. I don't know what it was I expected to see out there, whether it was hordes of the infected or whether I expected to see Daryl sat on the porch guarding the house. Either way the uneventful stillness outside was not enough to satisfy me, I needed to go out and follow up on the events from last night. It all suddenly seemed quite unreal in the light of day. How could a creature like the one we saw in the woods come shuffling down the street outside our house? Everything was so glaringly normal in the day and that terrifying thing just didn't belong in it.
I hastily got ready upstairs and went down into the garage to get into my brothers old pick-up which he had left for my uses when he had moved out of state four years ago. I backed down the drive and made my way towards the woods along the route Daryl and I had taken. I eventually reached the trailer park and there were a few kids playing outside who turned to gape at me as I slowed to a halt next to the path that rang alongside it down into the woods.
'Don't their parents realise what the hell they've got lurking just outside their doorsteps?' I wondered before rolling down the window and peering down the path without seeing any sign of the infected. I was compelled to get a better look, I had to make sense of what had happened and so I killed the engine and got out of the van. I made my way down the path with nervous trepidation and I knew that what I was doing was incredibly dangerous and somewhat stupid being as I didn't even have a weapon. However, when I got to the area where it had all taken place there was no sign that anything had ever been there and why would there be? Daryl had probably shot the thing and dragged it into the woods. I suddenly felt a shiver run through me and felt compelled to get as far away from the spot as possible so I turned and ran back to the pick-up, locking the doors and hastily turning the key in the ignition before skidding back the way I came.
I didn't see Daryl for days after that, most probably because I barely left the house. I wanted to drive down the road he had indicated he lived on and see if I could find his place but I felt nervous at the thought. Perhaps he wouldn't appreciate me turning up like that and besides, the intimacy we had shared that night made me almost blush as I barely knew him yet he had held me in his arms. There was something so raw and real about him it was hard to explain how he made me feel. He was unlike any other guy I had known and it both attracted me and scared me simultaneously.
The phone in the house began to ring frantically the afternoon after the night I had left Johnny at the bar and I knew it would be him trying to call and get an explanation out of me as to what happened. I screened all the calls and listened to various angry and pleading messages from him demanding to know where I went and with whom. I ignored them all and eventually decided to leave the house and make my way down to the gas station to get some food supplies. I partially believed I might see Daryl there as well because I knew from past experience that he used to hang out there a lot, or maybe it just seemed that way to me because that was the only place I ever saw him. As I approached the lot in the pick-up I felt nervous anticipation build in my stomach and eventually burst inside me as I saw him there as expected kneeling down next to a motorcycle and grappling with it's parts. I was almost too nervous to get out of the van but after I'd parked up he'd raised his head and lifted it with a look of recognition in my direction.
Once out of the van I made as if to go straight into the store but checked myself for cowardice as I could feel his eyes following my every move. Instead I took a deep steadying breath and moved in his direction, fixing my eyes on his and forcing the best confident smile I could muster. He didn't smile back, such is his way, but I could see his eyes crinkle slightly in amusement as I walked towards him.
"Hey girl, where you bin?"
"Hey, I uh-I've just been in the house is all. Thanks, you know, for everything the other night." I stuttered, shifting uncomfortably under his gaze.
"I know where you bin. I said I'd keep an eye on ya din' I?"
So he did watch my house after all and I was convinced he just told me that to keep me quiet and would actually just turn tail and make his way home. After all, why should he give a damn about me? I felt a warmth lurch through me at his words and I felt happier than I had done in a while.
"So you were looking out for me huh? Thank you. It's like I've got my own personal bodyguard," I grinned. Had I known that he was close by outside the house the whole time I would have felt a whole lot safer and secure the last few days. "You should have called at the house and I woulda let you in and cooked you something nice as a thanks".
"I don't take kindly to being indoors," he replied with all trace of playfulness gone and began to pick up some tools that were strewn on the ground around the bike. I felt that suddenly a barrier had come up between us and the conversation had abruptly come to an end. I backed away from him slightly and headed slowly towards the store.
"Well, you know, the offer is always there should you wish to take it," I stammered before turning abruptly and making a speedy exit. As I pushed the door to the gas station store open I glanced behind and I could see him watching me once again. Once in the store I began to pick up various things absentmindedly with my head still buzzing with questions about Daryl Dixon. As I did so the roar of a motorbike started up outside and I ran to the window in time to see him pull out of the lot and drive down the road towards the woods.
Later on that evening I was sat in front of the TV which I found comforting in the absence of actual people in the house. I was beginning to get worried that I hadn't heard from my folks and had left a message for my father on his cell after he failed to pick up all my calls.
Outside it had begun to rain and was getting heavier by the minute. I wondered if Daryl was out there right now standing watch and I became concerned that he was going to get soaked through. I pulled on a raincoat and went outside in search of him, part of me believed that he was probably home by now because why on earth would he be out here keeping his word for someone he barely knew? I wasn't about to flatter myself into thinking I was that important. He may have chosen to be outside anyway, he could even be in the woods and I didn't particularly relish the thought of venturing back there. I decided to do a quick circuit around the surrounding streets and having found no sign of him I decided to take a shortcut to the woods through the fields behind our house. It was a bit of an impulsive move but I was determined to find him and was already outside so I found my desire was to move in his direction rather than back to the dry, warm house. I opened a gate that backed onto the field and no sooner had I taken two steps forward did I hear a familiar voice come from the tree beside it.
"Lookin' for more trouble?"
I turned and there he was leaning against the trunk and holding onto his crossbow. He was already ringing wet and much like the night when I had seen him chopping wood his skin was glistening once again. His hair was dripping raindrops down his face and he kept running his fingers through it in an attempt to stem the flow. His vest top was also soaked and was clinging delectably to his torso. For the first time I felt the flush of desire spread tantalisingly through me and I knew in that instant that I liked him a great deal more than I realised before or cared to admit.
"You're wet," was all I could manage.
"Yeah," he replied raising his eyebrows and appearing completely unperturbed by the fact.
"Come inside," I gestured towards the house.
"I told ya' how I feel about the indoors," he growled.
"About the indoors or about me?" I suddenly countered, feeling as angry as I felt the night we had first spoken and he had unintentionally implied I was a sheltered, weak Daddy's girl. "You don't wanna stoop to indulging a silly little girl who invites you into her silly little house is that it? Then screw you Dixon!"
He gaped in the same way he had the first time I had my outburst towards him and then watched me as I moved towards his spot under the tree and plonked myself onto the west grass.
"What the hell you doin' now?" He cried.
"If you won't come into the house then I'm gonna sit here outside with you instead", I replied, my lips tightening with obstinacy.
"Get your ass up, you're going to make yourself sick sat out here!"
"Nah, fuck you Dixon."
I turned to look at him and could see his eyes crinkle with humour as he watched me sat on the ground with arms crossed and raindrops bouncing off the hood of my coat.
"If I go inside your damn house will you get your ass up?"
"Yes."
There was a pause and I watched him shift uncomfortably as he grappled with a decision. Eventually he sighed and slung his crossbow over his shoulder.
"Fine, let's go inside."
In my excitement I lifted myself onto my hands but nervously hovered there waiting for him to move.
"Get!" He shouted as he jabbed his thumb in the direction of the house. I jumped up and grinned at him, laughing triumphantly as I passed him. He gave me a thunderous look which I ignored as I breezed towards the back door.
Once inside I shook off my coat and hung it up and with it I seemed to shake off all my angry confidence as well and suddenly felt coy with him stood there in the kitchen. He closed the door behind him and locked it, standing awkwardly and glancing around him as he did so before placing his crossbow down gently against a chair. I took in the sight of him as he examined the room and remembered that he probably needed to get dry. He was certainly an arresting sight at that moment and it took me a moment to realise I was staring and he was looking at me quizzically.
"You need to get dry?"
He shrugged, "I wouldn't want to get things wet".
"Go upstairs and take the first right for my room, I'll bring you some towels and a change of clothes. I'm sure my brother has left some stuff here."
I could tell by the pained look on his face that it made him uncomfortable to accept hospitality and dress in a strange man's clothes and the whole situation in general was not something he was used to at all but he didn't utter a word in protest and merely glanced at me threateningly as if to say 'don't push it too far' before making his way up the staircase. I retrieved the clothes from a closet in my brother's old room and grabbed some fresh towels. I knocked on the door to my room and slowly opened it to crane my neck around. I caught sight of Daryl peeling off the vest top from his body, revealing his naked torso before dropping the dripping garment to the floor. I gulped at the sight of his navel and panicked suddenly, drawing my head back before he found me there watching him.
"You decent?" I called and suddenly he flung the door open and stood there as I had just seen him a second ago. I held steady eye contact with him, trying to avoid looking at his chest and flung the towels and garments in his direction.
"See you downstairs," I said in hushed tones, barely managing to speak at all through the choked sensation in my throat.
"Alright," he replied and held my gaze so steadfastly I felt I was going to spontaneously combust under it's intensity.
I quickly tripped down the stairs and glanced back up at the bedroom door as he closed it. I moved to the window and looked outside. The rain carried on pounding the ground relentlessly and I wondered how many infected were out there tonight, were there more now? Were we going to see scenes here like Daryl had at the hospital? The thought chilled me to the bone but remembering that he was here with me in my house made me feel safer than I had done in days.